of Europe from the Nazis. More generally, he was fond of practical jokes and describes in his book Most Secret War how he used that skill to deceive the Germans during World War II. His extensive use of deception to deceive the Germans is consistent with the term disinformation, which is defined as deliberate planting of false information and physical evidence to lead an opponent astray.

In September 1939, the British decided to assign a scientist to the Intelligence section of the Air Ministry.