OSS/SOE CLANDESTINE PENCIL DAGGER.

OSS/SOE CLANDESTINE PENCIL DAGGER.
[England: Makers mark J. Chambers, Manufactured for MI9, c.1940-45.]
SOE/OSS agents' clandestine pencil dagger, length of pencil 180 mm, steel spike 150mm. The blade with string bound grip at one end. Lacking the bung at the upper end.

A rare and lethal agent's weapon, manufactured by MI9 and distributed initially to SOE agents in the field and later to American OSS agents. A somewhat unassuming object, easily carried on the person, but which revealed a surprising lethal spike, and fatal at close quarters. MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was established in 1939 by Major Norman Crockett, initially using Room 424 at the Metropole Hotel in London. They were tasked to support European Resistance Movements and to assist Allied airmen shot down over Europe to find their way back to Britain. The MI9 dropped agents into Europe to link up with resistance cells and organize escape and evasion efforts of downed airmen. They were understaffed and under-funded, but produced ingenious objects which could be hidden on the person, to assist the escape efforts of both POWs and allied airmen.