A London auction house is offering part of a collection of war-time spy
memorabilia owned by the late Doreen Mulot, who was a member of Britain's Special Operations during World War
II. One of the most unusual pieces in the collection? A pair of aged prunes. The now hardened fruits were
originally intended to carry messages to prisoners of war. After being softened in water, the pit of the prune would be
removed and a message - usually maps or escape plans - sealed in waxed paper would be inserted inside. The prunes would
be re-dried and shipped out.
Mulot's great nephew is the one offering the prunes and assorted other memorabilia for sale. He described the plans as being "quite ingenious, [and] not the sort of thing you usually associate with fighting a war." This particular pair of prunes was not used during the war, but were simply kept as a souvenir of Mulot's service.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-14-2006 @ 10:42AM
Razib Ahmed said...
Before reading it, I did not know about this ingenious style of sending message. If I had money, I would have surely participated in the bid and had taken one but that's another story as I do not have the money. I think that it should be about by a museum or a university and this way the common people can know about this fascinating aspect of world war two.
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