Just Finished Reading: Winston Churchill’s Toyshop – The Inside Story of Military Intelligence (Research) By Stuart Macrae (FP: 1971)

It all started with a seemingly innocent question about magnets. On the eve of a war that everyone knew was coming the author, then editor of a popular science magazine, received a phone call from a military officer who was more than a little reticent about exactly why he needed to know about the power of magnets – particularly small ones. Intrigued to know more and wanting to do something for the building war effort the two founding members met to discuss how science, technology and off the wall design could be used against the greatest threat England had ever faced. Bending every rule, using influence, bluff and on occasion downright falsehoods a world beating oddball weapons design establishment was created out of thin air. Producing what the armed forces needed in double quick time and impressive quantities MI(R) led the way in creating limpet mines, an impressive line of booby traps and fuses, the sticky grenade, the PIAT anti-tank projector, the AVRE spigot tank mortar and much else besides. Hated by other more official labs they seemed to have to fight every battle imaginable with the old bureaucracy to get anything done – despite their obvious skill and resourcefulness (in wartime!) and relied on the good graces of Prime Minister Winston Churchill to protect them from other agencies within the War Department. Finally disbanded (and dismantled) at the end of 1945 MI(R) had by that time produced millions of items that had been used across the globe in the fight against the Axis Powers.

The author certainly had an axe to grind about Other Government Departments (OGD) and he swung this axe throughout this short but generally interesting book. It did get a little irritating at time but you could also see his point. I did find myself skimming over some of the technical descriptions of fuses and booby traps but the technical solutions to the problems placed before the MI(R) were an obvious source of pride for the author and rightly so. It was interesting to see how chaotic it all was as war broke out, invasion starred us in the face and then we began to get the upper hand. It was interesting to see things from the backroom rather than the front line or the cabinet office – that was an interesting perspective. It was also interesting to see the British ‘muddling through’ and using our native whit and ‘can do’ attitude as we would ‘have a go’ at something that had never been done before and we had been told simply couldn’t be done. Definitely a recommended read for weapons enthusiasts and for those interested in a fresh look at Britain’s Second World War experience. Reasonable.