London:
British spies plotted to lace German dictator Adolf Hitler's food with female sex hormones during World War II in a bid to curb his aggressive impulses, a new book has claimed.
The Allies hoped their plan to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food would make the Nazi dictator less aggressive and more feminine -- perhaps like his sister Paula Wolf, according to the book,
Secret Weapons: Technology, Science And The Race To Win World War II.In his book, the author, Professor Brian Ford of Cardiff University, has explained that oestrogen was chosen because it was tasteless and would have a slow and subtle effect, meaning it would pass Hitler's food testers unnoticed.
In fact, the Allied plot to turn "Herr Hitler" into "Her Hitler" was just one of a number of wacky ideas cooked up to break the stalemate, says the author.
"Research had showed the importance of sex hormones -- they were beginning to be used in sex therapy in London. The Allies hoped to smuggle oestrogen into Hitler's food and change his sex so he would become more feminine and less aggressive," the Daily Mail newspaper quoted Prof. Ford as saying.
The author has claimed that Britain gave serious consideration to the plan and that it was perfectly plausible. And, British spies were already in place and poised to carry out the plot.
"Hitler had testers who used to taste his meals so there was no mileage in putting poison in his food because they would immediately fall victim to it. Sex hormones were a different matter.
"They affected you only if you took them for months on end, so no one would have realized the hormones were in the food," Prof. Ford said.