A Mystery Game in the City of Mons, Belgium

Some time ago I received an email from one Steven 718IVII14II144III12. No more than half a year after he lost his mother, his father died in a fatal accident, in the summer of 1990. Steven moved into the house of his parents, that was once built by his grandfather – an Englishman who in 1919 married a Flemish girl he had met in the aftermath of the Great War.

Steven knew little more about this Richard II22I1419 than that he was found dead on a park bench in August 1974 in Mons, Belgium. In his hands he held a Polaroid, which showed a pretty hippie girl.

"My grandfather, well into his eighties, died of a cardiac arrest," Steven wrote to me in. "It is hardly surprising that this story caused a lot of hilarity within our family, I guess. Now, recently I conceived the plan to turn the attic of my house into a cosy guest room. In the attic my grandfather had stored his collection of statues of angels and saints. I was not particularly interested in those things and up until that moment I had not found the time to remove them."

Now, however, the clearance of the attic revealed that one of the angel statues was hollow.In the secret compartment of the statue, Steven found a cookie jar, containing newspaper clippings, documents and a series of photographs showing each time the girl of the Polaroid, and dated August 1914, 1924, 1934, 1954 and 1964.

Steven translated some of the documents, reports and articles and he copied other ones. "Of course you will find in this file also the pictures of the famous "Angel of Mons", which I've found in the cookie jar," he said. "When I inquired within the family, it appeared that during World War One my mysterious grandfather worked for the British Propaganda Bureau, and during the Second World War for the Directorate of Military Intelligence. He was responsible for some strong examples of "psychological warfare", and one informant even claimed that his work provided the inspiration for secret "black propaganda" projects during the two Gulf Wars."

New diabolical inventions of "mad scientists" during the first decade of the 20th century led to constant rumors and stories that we would call now "urban legends":

* In 1940 the War Office, the Military Intelligence and MI6 were particularly interested in the "1911VI-1618IV10II320IV18”, invented by the Welshman Harry TIRMWVOO. They wanted to use the device to mislead the enemy and as a part of a Black Propaganda Project. This HPB-KILQVXGLI was capable of projecting images on the clouds ...

* In 1941, during the campaign in North Africa, General Wavel created a unit focused on counter-espionage, deception and disinformation, which included a magician. This guy and his “A-Team Force” produced at some point the most stunning light effects with a revolving cone of mirrors...

* A successful "deception" of the enemy, which is the result of "black propaganda", can never be openly acknowledged.

* In the First World War, even foreign many newspapers were used to spread false rumors.

* The British Propaganda Bureau started a campaign to convince Americans to declare war to the Germans. Between 1914 and 1917, the campaign was led by the novelist John Buchan.

During the Great War, the already "surreal" Belgium was a kind of laboratory for what is now known in the United States as "PSYOPS" or "psychological operations". Modern war reporting, mass media manipulation and disinformation, techniques of psychological warfare and propaganda... What is happening now, was often introduced first on a large scale and in a quasi-scientific manner during the Great War.

On February 28, 2008, The Washington Post published an article entitled “When Seeing and Hearing Is not Believing”, stating that the U.S. gave a military physicist the task of looking into the hologram idea and the feasibility of projecting three-dimensional objects in the air. In 1994 a top secret program was established to pursure the technology for PSYOPS applications, maybe projecting a holographic image of Allah floating over the city of Bagdad and urging the people and the Iraqi army to rise up against Sadam.

You may call me Special Agent BP 666. Would you like to become an expert in "black propaganda" or techniques of deception and misinformation, just as me? Then you might attempt to unlock the mysteries of Mons, to separate facts from fiction, and to find a handful of truths in a world of lies, distortions and deceit. Consider this file as your test case, say… a sort of exam?

Let us start our investigation in the city of Mons, where this famous Angel was spotted several times. To begin, you may tell me why the photo above from the famous collection of Richard II22I1419, made in August 1964, could not possibly have been made in August 1964…

Tell it in the comments!