The Covert World: 25 Fascinating Facts About Government and Military Operations

During Operation Cottage over 300 allied casualties were reported during the invasion of an undefended island named Kiska. Some of these were due to friendly fire, as Canadian and U.S. troops mistook each other from the absent Japanese garrison.

As part of Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo was the single deadliest air raid of World War 2, which was greater than Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki as single events. The bombing resulted in over 100,000 deaths.

After the fall of France in 1940 Churchill launched Operation Catapult, in which he ordered the Royal Navy to seize or destroy the French Navy to prevent Hitler from using it. In one British attack, 1,297 French sailors were killed. This proved to the United States that Britain would resist Nazi Germany whatever the cost.

During Operation Claymore in World War 2, a British soldier sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler, which read “Herr Hitler. Reference your last speech, I thought you said that whenever British troops land on the continent of Europe, German soldiers will face them. Well, where are they?”

Operation Paul Bunyan included 60 US troops, 64 South Korean Special Forces troops, 7 attack helicopters, an array of attack jets, nuclear ready B-52 bombers, and 12,00 troops on standby to finish cutting down a tree after North Korean soldiers killed 2 US soldiers who were cutting a tree.

During Cold War, CIA launched Operation Kitty in which cats were surgically implanted with bugging devices to eavesdrop on Soviet conversations after all who would suspect a cat of wearing a wire. The 1st mission failed after the cat was run over and the $15 million operation was dropped.

The CIA in Vietnam, in a program called "Operation Phoenix," secretly, without trial, executed at least 20,000 civilians in South Vietnam who were suspected of being members of the Communist underground.

As part of Operation Flex, which took place in California, an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh pretended to be a radical Muslim. The members of the mosque quickly got a restraining order on him and reported him to the FBI.

Operation Flagship was a sting operation that sent out free Redskins tickets to wanted fugitives. The operation was success, which resulted in more than 100 arrests with Marshalls wearing Redskins and Chicken costumes.

The Nazis during World War 2 formed a plan called 'Operation Bernhard' in which they planned to crash England’s economy by counterfeiting 132 million Great Britain Pound and dropping it over England by planes. This would equivalent to £8.3 billion today.