British army dabbled with supernatural trials to help win the war against Adolf Hitler's Nazis, it has been revealed.
During the Battle of Britain and Blitz they began tests to see if unexploded bombs and mines could be detected with water divining rods, the Daily Express reported.
The idea of using the para-normal even reached war leader Winston Churchill's ears and, when victory in Europe was secured, it continued to obsess military boffins for decades.
They persevered with their efforts to use troops armed with divining rods to strike fear in enemy hearts for another 30 years before finally ditching it as unworkable.
The notion was inspired in 1940 when officials heard of a policeman using a divining rod to search for victims of a Nazi bombing in Warwick. Word of it reached Herbert Morrison's civil defence department, which reported to Churchill.