Wormwood Scrubs and Rocket STrikes

[Evan M. Corcoran]

I saw a programme on the BBC the other day about MI5 during the 2nd World
War.  It said that MI5 was based in Wormwood Scrubs during the war, which
gives a double meaning to the three mentions of Wormwood Scrubs in
Gravity's Rainbow.

The programme also discussed MI5's double agent network.  It said that MI5
instructed its German double agents in England to only report V1 strikes
that overshot London, so that the Germans would believe they were
overshooting all the time and would retarget the flying bombs too short.
The programme didn't mention V2s but I wouldn't be surprised if this bit
of MI5 trickery had some influence on V2 targetting, causing more to fall
in the East End than would otherwise have been the case.

 -EMC