Germany Tried to Assassinate Churchill with a Killer Candy-Gram

Winston Churchill loved to eat. A lot. His meals were lavish one-way tickets to heartburn, and he favored snacks that were decadent and boozy. So in 1943, when the Nazis concocted a plan to kill the prime minister, it was no surprise that they aimed straight for his stomach.

The plot centered on an exploding chocolate bar. Hitler's henchmen drizzled a slim steel explosive with a thin layer of dark chocolate and packaged it into a fancy black-and-gold wrapper labeled PETER'S. Breaking (or biting into) the chocolate would trigger a timer, and seven seconds later the snack would detonate.

The plan was to send German secret agents into the dining room used by Churchill's war cabinet and plant the treat on a tray alongside the British Bulldog's other luxury goodies. Fortunately, British spies uncovered the plot, and intelligence chief Lord Victor Rothschild created a series of posters warning the public about a possible chocolate attack.

It wasn't the first time a plan like this has been foiled. The Germans had flubbed a similar plot three years earlier when they sent a trio of saboteurs into Ireland carrying four cans of exploding peas intended for Buckingham Palace. Evidently, King George VI had a healthier diet.