Editing Office of Strategic Services (section)

== Weapons and gadgets ==
[[File:Beano grenade.jpg|thumb|left|OSS [[T13 Beano Grenade]] and compass hidden in a button, [[CIA Museum]]]]

The OSS espionage and sabotage operations produced a steady demand for highly specialized equipment.<ref name="Smith, R. Harris 1972"/> General Donovan invited experts, organized workshops, and funded labs that later formed the core of the Research & Development Branch.<ref>OSS SPECIAL WEAPONS & EQUIPMENT by H. Keith Melton (Author) 1 April 1991, ISBN 0806982381</ref> Boston chemist Stanley P. Lovell became its first head, and Donovan humorously called him his "[[Professor Moriarty]]".<ref name="Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS">Waller, Douglas C. ''Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage''. New York: Free Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|101}} Throughout the war years, the OSS Research & Development successfully adapted Allied weapons and espionage equipment, and produced its own line of novel spy tools and gadgets, including silenced pistols, lightweight sub-machine guns, "[[BEANO T-13 grenade|Beano]]" grenades that exploded upon impact, [[Coal torpedo|explosives disguised as lumps of coal]] ("Black Joe") or bags of Chinese flour ("Aunt Jemima"), acetone time delay fuses for [[limpet mine]]s, compasses hidden in uniform buttons, playing cards that concealed maps, a 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox, tasteless poison tablets ("K" and "L" pills), and cigarettes laced with [[THC-O-acetate|tetrahydrocannabinol acetate]] (an extract of Indian hemp) to induce uncontrollable chattiness.<ref name="Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS" /><ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art08.htm CIA Library: Weapons & Spy Gear] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221171005/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art08.htm |date=February 21, 2014 }}, ''Historical Document'', March 15, 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=OSS Weapons|last=Brunner|first=John|publisher=Phillips Publications|year=1994|isbn=0-932572-21-9}}</ref>

The OSS also developed innovative communication equipment such as wiretap gadgets, electronic beacons for locating agents, and the [[Joan-Eleanor system|"Joan-Eleanor" portable radio system]] that made it possible for operatives on the ground to establish secure contact with a plane that was preparing to land or drop cargo. The OSS Research & Development also printed fake German and Japanese-issued identification cards, and various passes, ration cards, and counterfeit money.<ref>''The Office of Strategic Services America's First Intelligence Agency''. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency, 2000, p. 33.</ref>

On August 28, 1943, Stanley Lovell was asked to make a presentation in front of a hostile [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], who were skeptical of OSS plans beyond collecting military intelligence and were ready to split the OSS between the Army and the Navy.<ref>Hogan, David W. ''U.S. Army Special Operations in World War II''. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1992.</ref>{{rp|5–7}} While explaining the purpose and mission of his department and introducing various gadgets and tools, he reportedly casually dropped into a waste basket a Hedy, a panic-inducing explosive device in the shape of a firecracker, which shortly produced a loud shrieking sound followed by a deafening boom. The presentation was interrupted and did not resume since everyone in the room fled. In reality, the Hedy, jokingly named after Hollywood movie star [[Hedy Lamarr]] for her ability to distract men, later saved the lives of some trapped OSS operatives.<ref>Breuer, William B. ''Deceptions of World War II''. New York: Wiley, 2002.</ref>{{rp|184–185}}

Not all projects worked. Some ideas were odd, such as a failed attempt to use insects to spread anthrax in Spain.<ref name="Six-Legged Soldiers">Lockwood, Jeffrey Alan. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pMctyFo34E8C&q=Stanley+P.+Lovell&pg=PA149 Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects As Weapons of War]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.</ref>{{rp|150–151}}  Stanley Lovell was later quoted saying, "It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid the war, however unorthodox or untried".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lovell|first=Stanley P.|year=1963|title=Of Spies and Stratagems|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|location=[[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey|Englewood Cliffs]], [[New Jersey]]|asin=B000LBAQYS|page=79}}</ref>

In 1939, a young physician named [[Christian J. Lambertsen]] developed an oxygen [[Diving rebreather|rebreather]] set (the [[Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit]]) and demonstrated it to the OSS—after already being rejected by the U.S. Navy—in a pool at the [[Shoreham Hotel]] in Washington D.C., in 1942.<ref name=vann2004>{{cite journal |author=Vann RD |title=Lambertsen and O2: beginnings of operational physiology |journal=Undersea Hyperb Med |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=21–31 |year=2004 |pmid=15233157 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613163446/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3987 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |access-date=2013-04-20}}</ref><ref name=cjl>Shapiro, T. Rees. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021802873.html "Christian J. Lambertsen, OSS officer who created early scuba device, dies at 93"]. ''[[Washington Post]]'' (February 18, 2011)</ref> The OSS not only bought into the concept, they hired Lambertsen to lead the program and build up the dive element for the organization.<ref name=cjl /> His responsibilities included training and developing methods of combining self-contained diving and swimmer delivery including the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit for the OSS "Operational Swimmer Group".<ref name=vann2004/><ref name=butler2004>{{cite journal |author=Butler FK |title=Closed-circuit oxygen diving in the U.S. Navy |journal=Undersea Hyperb Med |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |year=2004 |pmid=15233156 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613163441/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3986 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |access-date=2013-04-20 }}</ref> Growing involvement of the OSS with coastal infiltration and water-based sabotage eventually led to creation of the [[OSS Maritime Unit]].