Spies, Lies and Deception

In June 1943, Special Operations Executive (SOE) operative Noor Inayat Khan became the first female wireless operator sent into Occupied France. By the time she arrived, many of the agents she was sent to join up with had already been arrested. German Intelligence had taken radios from captured agents and used them to trick SOE HQ into helping them track down more agents. Although Khan successfully transmitted messages to London for four months, she was eventually arrested and executed at Dachau concentration camp.  

Back in London, SOE HQ was responsible for preparing agents for missions and keeping in touch with their families when they were away, often lying about what their loved ones were really doing.

This exhibition invites you to consider the human cost of deception plots. What happens when we are deceived - and who pays the price?

Explore some of the most ingenious, surprising and daring plots from the two World Wars, through the height of Cold War espionage to the present day.

Dive into the now famous story of Operation Mincemeat, the audacious Second World War plot. By planting a dead body with fake military documents off the Spanish coast, the operation successfully fooled German High Command about the location of the next major Allied assault. Objects from the operation will illustrate this story of trickery, including mastermind Ewen Montagu’s private papers and his keepsake of a dinghy’s oar from the submarine which deposited the body.