Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Death by Chocolate: Winston Churchill

My worlds of chocolate and mystery collide again... well, some time ago..

From the Telegraph:

A Nazi plot to kill Sir Winston Churchill with a bar of exploding chocolate during the Second World War has been revealed in historic papers. 
Giving a new meaning to the dessert name “death by chocolate”, Adolf Hitler’s bomb makers coated explosive devices with a thin layer of rich dark chocolate, then packaged it in expensive-looking black and gold paper.
The Germans apparently planned to use secret agents working in Britain to discreetly place the bars - branded as Peters Chocolate - among other luxury items taken into the dining room used by the War Cabinet during the conflict.
The lethal slabs of confection were packed with enough explosives to kill anyone within several metres.

The plot was foiled by British spies who discovered the chocolate was being made and tipped off one of MI5’s most senior intelligence chiefs, Lord Victor Rothschild, before the wartime prime minister’s life could be endangered. 

Hat Tip: Kirsten Crippen (kmcripn)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Haha! Janet, if I'd only known this before I wrote De Rigueur Mortis. Priceless!

Niki Chanel said...

Yikes! Death by chocolate just got real!

Niki

Patti Phillips said...

A truly dastardly use of my fave confection. How dare they !?!?

John McEvoy said...

Perhaps this inspired the CIA to create the exploding cigars for Fidel.

Judith Starkston said...

Wow. This is one of those plot lines that if you actually tried to use it in a book someone would say you were being too ridiculous. How odd is real life, especially in war time...