MISSING ACTION IN ACTION

...the weirdest Second World War plans that never saw the light of day. Ricin darts, assassination squads, ice ships and a secret operation to invade Ireland

THE SecondWorldWar was a heroic epic of military combat and a devastating tragedy for the millions of soldiers and civilians who suffered and lost their lives. But behind the scenes a rather different struggle was taking place as civil servants, intelligence agents and officials frantically pulled strings to set imaginative schemes in motion as they sought to stage-manage the action.

The opening up of key archives has enabled us to look backstage and see how planners on both sides tried to shape events. Intelligence reports, directives, memos, minutes of cabinets and committees: a vast array of sources has become available, affording vivid insights. It is the story of the SecondWorldWar that might have been...

OPERATION TANNENBAUM "THE Battle of France is over,"Winston Churchill told Britain's House of Commons on 18 June 1940. "I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin." Britain aside, within a week of Churchill's speech, Hitler had given the order for a plan to be drawn up for the invasion of Switzerland: Operation Tannenbaum. Rather than envisaging a heroic stand at his country's frontier, Swiss commander General Henri Guisan, pictured below, made plans for fighters to slip away and hole up in a Réduit - a remote and formidably fortified retreat high up in the Alps - for a long and determined guerrilla war. But although the Wehrmacht feigned moves against Switzerland, it never attempted to invade.

PLAN W IN THE early years of the war, many in Britain believed the Irish Free State was giving Germany its discreet support.

Through the summer of 1940, increasing amounts of intelligence chatter suggested the Germans were themselves considering an attack on Ireland, which was codenamed Operation Green. The codename PlanW was agreed for the British invasion, which was to take place if - and only if - the Irish called for help, following an attack by Germany.

In that event, Britain's representative in Dublin, John Maffey, was to send the one-word message "Pumpkins".

It would be the signal for General Hubert Huddleston to head southward with British troops from Belfast.

In the event, Operation Green withered...