An important part of any armed conflict is the "secret war," where secret agents from each site try to outwit each other. The intelligence community of any war is a large part of the fighting force and, in some cases, have been instrumental in saving hundreds and thousands of lives without ever handling a weapon.
WWII was not exception, with both sides fighting a furious battle of information gathering and deception. One such effective battle was won by the British secret service during the latter part of 1944.
The Germans had developed a destructive new weapon called the V1 Flying Bomb. It was basically the predecessor of the modern day cruise missile, and could be fired from the ground at targets hundreds of miles away. The first major target for the Germans was London, which they peppered with V1's from June to October, until the launch sites were overrun by allied troops.
A total of 9,521 V1 rockets were launched against London, but while the destruction was significant, it could have been much worse were it not for a intricate deception run by the British secret agents. The British, through a series of double agents, would report the location of rocket landings to be off by a few miles each time. The incorrect locations were not significant enough to show up on the low resolution aerial surveillance photos, but were enough to have the Germans re-aim their rockets.
As time passed the rockets fell further and further short of London thereby saving thousands of lives.
