The Second World War was a battle of titanic proportions, but the Allies sometimes fought with the imagination of a mischievous schoolkid. Below you’ll find the ten most hilariously childish schemes that were actually deployed against the Nazis, each one a blend of ingenuity, prank‑ster spirit, and a dash of pure annoyance.

Hilariously Childish Strategies That Fooled the Nazis

10 Irremovable Graffiti

Graffiti was the resistance’s low‑risk way of shouting “no” to the occupiers, but German troops proved surprisingly diligent at erasing every scribble. The British responded by developing an ammonium‑based paint that etched into glass and metal, making removal virtually impossible. Disguised as toothpaste tubes, the paint was smuggled into occupied Europe and became a favourite for inscribing insults on the windshields of German officers’ cars. A humorous mishap occurred when a batch was mistakenly shipped to North Africa, where baffled agents mistook it for real toothpaste, resulting in a “devastating effect on both teeth and morale.”

9 Itching Powder

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) took inspiration from schoolyard pranks and mass‑produced a powerful itching powder, hidden inside tins marked “foot powder”. The powder was covertly sprinkled onto German uniforms in laundries and clothing factories. In October 1943 the SOE reported that 25,000 U‑boat crew uniforms had been contaminated, prompting at least one submarine to turn back to port under the belief that its crew was suffering severe dermatitis.

SOE agents in Stockholm got even more creative, stuffing German envelopes with the powder and sending them back through the postal system. The most audacious twist came from Norway, where resistance members placed the powder inside condoms destined for German troops, leading to a wave of complaints from soldiers in Trondheim hospitals about “painful irritation.”

8 Stink Bombs

The British poured money into the “S‑capsule”, a stink bomb that could be broken inside the pocket of a German coat, releasing an odor that clung even after multiple washes. With winter clothing already scarce, the foul smell forced soldiers to either freeze or walk around reeking like a trawler fire.

The American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) tried to top it with the “Who Me?” program, a spray that produced a strong fecal smell on a German officer. Unfortunately the spray was so tenacious it stuck to everyone nearby, including the operatives, leading many resistance members to refuse its use.

7 Fake Party Invitations

In 1944 SOE agents in Sweden discovered that the German embassy was sponsoring a gala performance by famed comedian Georg Alexander. The Allies fabricated over 3,000 fake invitations, each demanding black‑tie attire, and mailed them to known Nazi sympathisers. On the night of the gala, thousands of swarthy supporters arrived in their finest dress, only to be told the tickets were counterfeit. The resulting angry mob delayed the performance for hours, turning the event into a national embarrassment and a laughingstock across Sweden.

6 Laxatives

When the Nazi‑controlled Norwegian government requisitioned the entire sardine catch, the resistance learned that the fish would be canned for U‑boat crews. They asked British intelligence for a potent laxative that could be hidden in vegetable oil. The British supplied croton oil, an extremely powerful purgative, which the Norwegians slipped into the oil used to can the sardines. The result? Submarines full of crews suffering simultaneous diarrhea—a nightmare on a tiny vessel.

Encouraged by the success, British intelligence launched a follow‑up campaign using Carbachol, a substance claimed to cause “diarrhea of epic proportions among 200 people” per gram. Plans were drawn to drop bottles with notes encouraging soldiers to fake dysentery and get a hospital stay, but the war ended before the operation could be executed.

5 Spreading Rumors

Early in the conflict, the British recruited journalist Sefton Delmer to run black‑propaganda broadcasts under the guise of Gustav Siegfried Eins. The station aired the filthiest, most obscene content imaginable, mimicking tabloid sensationalism to denounce Nazi vice. One infamous broadcast described a German admiral, his mistress, five drunken sailors, and a lump of butter, prompting a British politician to complain, “If this is the sort of thing that is needed to win the war, I’d rather lose it.”

Delmer eventually staged a dramatic finale: a recording in which the announcer was ambushed by the Gestapo and shot. A mishap caused the recording to be played twice, making it sound as though the announcer was killed two times in a row.

4 Implying Hitler Had A Tiny Penis

Delmer didn’t stop at radio. He commissioned artists to doctor photographs of Hitler, drawing genitals onto the Führer’s portrait to suggest public exposure or masturbation. The drawings emphasized a circumcised penis to fuel rumors of hidden Jewish ancestry. When the SS issued pamphlets denouncing the images as forgeries, Delmer produced a mock SS pamphlet featuring a grinning Hitler with an absurdly large penis, captioned as a fake because “everyone knows the Fuhrer does not possess anything of the kind.”

3 Putting Hitler’s Face On Toilet Paper

The OSS, ever eager to try any scheme, noticed a shortage of wiping material in Germany. They began producing anti‑Nazi toilet paper, dropping rolls into Germany or slipping them onto trains from neutral Switzerland. Some rolls bore anti‑Nazi slogans and terrible toilet humour; others simply displayed Hitler’s face with the caption “This side up!” The absurdity turned a mundane bathroom item into a propaganda weapon.

2 Bombarding Hitler With Pornography

The OSS’s “Choirboys” concluded that Hitler’s prudishness could be weaponised. They amassed a mountain of German pornography, believing that exposure to hardcore material would drive the Führer to a nervous breakdown. Their plan was to drop the magazines on Hitler’s bunker during an air raid, hoping the sight of lingerie catalogs would send him into Lovecraftian madness.

When the scheme was presented to an Air Force colonel, he shouted that the entire agency were maniacs and refused to risk any pilot’s life on such a frivolous operation. The colonel’s protest effectively killed the plan before it ever left the drawing board.

1 Parody Newspapers

When the Nazis seized Belgium’s largest newspaper, Le Soir, the resistance crafted a perfect replica called Le Faux Sour. The fake paper looked identical at first glance, but every story mocked the occupiers—film listings advertised absurd titles like “Olympiad Part 1: The Marathon From El Alamein To Sidi Barani” starring Rommel, and the obituary section was filled with names of collaborators.

Printed at breakneck speed and distributed to kiosks before the real edition could arrive, the parody sold 50,000 copies and turned the Nazis into a laughing stock. Tragically, two of its planners, Ferdinand Wellens and Theo Mullier, were captured, tortured, and executed by the Gestapo, cementing their legacy as heroes of the Belgian resistance.