Motivating the Saboteur

Strategic Services Field Manual No. 3, Simple Sabotage Field Manual (provisional), Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C., 17 January 1944

a.     To incite the citizen to the active practice of simple sabotage and to keep him practicing that sabotage over sustained periods is a special problem.

b.     Simple sabotage is often an act which the citizen performs according to his own initiative and inclination. Acts of destruction do not bring him any personal gain and may be completely foreign to his habitually conservationist attitude toward materials and tools. Purposeful stupidity is contrary to human nature. He frequently needs pressure, stimulation or assurance, and information and suggestions regarding feasible methods of simple sabotage.

(1) Personal Motives

(a)     The ordinary citizen very probably has no immediate personal motive for committing simple sabotage. Instead, he must be made to anticipate indirect personal gain, such as might come with enemy evacuation or destruction of the ruling government group. Gains should be stated as specifically as possible for the area addressed: simple sabotage will hasten the day when Commissioner X and his deputies Y and Z will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abolished, when food will arrive, and so on. Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, wi1l not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible.

(b)     Since the effect of his own acts is limited, the saboteur may become discouraged unless he feels that he is a member of a large, though unseen, group of saboteurs operating against the enemy or the government of his own country and elsewhere. This can be conveyed indirectly: suggestions which he reads and hears can include observations that a particular technique has been successful in this or that district. Even if the technique is not applicable to his surroundings, another's success will encourage him to attempt similar acts. It also can be conveyed directly: statements' praising the effectiveness of simple sabotage can be contrived which will be published by white radio, freedom stations, and the subversive press. Estimates of the proportion of the population engaged in sabotage can be disseminated. Instances of successful sabotage already are being broadcast by white radio and freedom stations, and this should be continued and expanded where compatible with security.

(c)     More important than (a) or (b) would be to create a situation in which the citizen-saboteur acquires a sense of responsibility and begins to educate others in simple sabotage.

(2)     Encouraging Destructiveness

It should be pointed out to the saboteur where the circumstances are suitable, that he is acting in self-defense against the enemy, or retaliating against the enemy for other acts of destruction. A reasonable amount of humor In the presentation of suggestions for simple sabotage will relax tensions of fear.

(a)     The saboteur may have to reverse his thinking, and he should be told this in so many words. Where he formerly thought of keeping his tools sharp, he should now let them grow dull; surfaces that formerly were lubricated now should be sanded; normally diligent, he should now be lazy and careless; and so on, Once he is encouraged to think backwards about himself and the objects of his everyday life, the saboteur will see many opportunities in his immediate environment which cannot possibly be seen from a distance. A state of mind should be encouraged that anything can be sabotaged.

(b)     Among the potential citizen-saboteurs who are to engage in physical destruction, two extreme types may be distinguished, On the one hand, there is the man who is not technically trained and employed. This man needs specific suggestions as to what he can and should destroy as well as details regarding the tools by means or which destruction is accomplished.

(c)     At the other extreme is the man who is a technician, such as a lathe operator or an automobile mechanic. Presumably this man would be able to devise methods of simple sabotage which would be appropriate to his own facilities. However, this man needs to be stimulated to re-orient his thinking in the direction of destruction. Specific examples. Which need not be from his own field, should accomplish this.

(d)     Various media may be used to disseminate suggestions and information regarding simple sabotage. Among the media which may be used, as the immediate situation dictates, are: freedom station or radio, false or official leaflets. Broadcasts or leaflets may be directed toward specific geographic or occupational areas, or they may be general in scope. Finally, agents may be trained in the art of simple sabotage, In anticipation of a time when they may be able to communicate this information directly.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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Specific Suggestions for Simple Sabotage

Strategic Services Field Manual No. 3, Simple Sabotage Field Manual (provisional), Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C., 17 January 1944

General Interference with Organizations and Production

Organizations and Conferences

(1)     Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.

(2)     Make "speeches," Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.

(3)     When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large possible—never less than five.

(4)     Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

(5)     Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

(6)     Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.

(7)     Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

(8)     Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

Managers and Supervisors

(1)     Demand written orders.

(2)     "Misunderstand" orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.

(3)     Do everything possible to delay the delivery of orders. Even though parts of an order may be ready beforehand, don't deliver it until it is completely ready.

(4)     Don't order new working materials until your current stocks have been virtually exhausted, so that the slightest delay in filling your order will mean a shutdown.

(5)     Order high-quality materials which are hard to get. If you don't get them argue about it. Warn that inferior materials will mean inferior work.

(6)     In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.

(7)     Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. Approve other defective parts whose flaws are not visible to the naked eye.

(8)     Make mistakes in routing so that parts and materials will be sent to the wrong place in the plant.

(9)     When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions.

(10)     To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.

(11)     Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.

(12)     Multiply paper work in plausible ways. Start duplicate files.

(13)     Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.

(14)     Apply all regulations to the last letter.

Office Workers

(1)     Make mistakes in quantities of material when you' are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.

(2)     Prolong correspondence with government bureaus.

(3)     Misfile essential documents.

(4)     In making carbon copies, make one too few, so that an extra copying job will have to be done.

(5)     Tell important callers the boss is busy or talking on another telephone.

(6)     Hold up mail until the next collection.

(7)     Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope.

Employees

(1)     Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job: use a light hammer instead of a heavy one, try to make a small wrench do when a big one is necessary, use little force where considerable force is needed, and so on.

(2)     Contrive as many interruptions to your work as you can: when changing the material on which you are working, as you would on a lathe or punch, take needless time to do it. If you are cutting, shaping or doing other measured work, measure dimensions twice as often as you need to. When you go to the lavatory, spend a longer time there than is necessary. Forget tools so that you will have to go back after them.

(3)     Even it you understand the language, pretend not to understand instructions in a foreign tongue.

(4)     Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.

(5)     Do your work poorly and blame it on bad tools, machinery, or equipment. Complain that these things are preventing you from doing your job right.

(6)     Never pass on your skill and experience to a new or less skillful worker.

(7)     Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so, that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.

(8)     If possible, join or help organize a group for presenting employee problems to the management. See that the procedures adopted are as inconvenient as possible for the management, involving the presence of a large number of employees at each presentation, entailing more than one meeting for each grievance, bringing up problems which are largely imaginary, and so on.

(9)     Misroute materials.

(10)     Mix good parts with unusable scrap and rejected parts.

General Devices for Lowering Morale and Creating Confusion

(a)     Give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned.

(b)     Report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or Police.

(c)     Act stupid.

(d)     Be as irritable and, quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble.

(e)     Misunderstand all sorts of regulations concerning such matters as rationing, transportation, traffic regulations.

(f)     Complain against ersatz materials.

(g)     In public treat axis nationals or quislings coldly.

(h)     Stop all conversation when axis nationals or quislings enter a cafe.

(i)     Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks.

(j)     Boycott all movies, entertainments, concerts, newspapers which are in any way connected with the quisling authorities.

(k)     Do not cooperate in salvage schemes.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

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