Sabotage

Incredibly rare exploding 'rat bomb' given to British spy to destroy German factories during the Second World War goes up for auction for £1,500

A rare exploding 'rat bomb' that was used by Allied spies in a bizarre bid to destroy German factories in the war has been unearthed.

British scientists stuffed dozens of dead rats with explosives, detonators and fuses to act as a disguised bomb.

The idea was to get French Resistance fighters and Special Operations Executive agents to infiltrate German armament factories and leave the dead rodents in the boiler rooms.

The Germans would naturally throw the vermin straight into the furnace, triggering a huge explosion and wreaking havoc in Nazi-occupied France.

In the event, the first batch of 100 'Rat Bombs' were intercepted by the Germans in 1942 and the plan was never put into practice.

It did, however, cause a great deal of confusion amongst the Germans as they assumed there were thousands of other 'Rat Bombs' that had been laid and went on an epic hunt for them,