US CABLE TELEVISION network HBO is reportedly developing a new series about a group of magicians who helped the Allied forces defeat Hitler in World War II.

The strangest part is that it’s at least partly based on a true story.

During the Second World War, the British army set up a special counter-intelligence branch aimed at diverting their enemy’s attention.

This group used unorthodox methods and stage tricks to distract the Axis forces from their targets. According to Analitica.com, the group used cardboard buildings, mirrors, fake tanks and cloth soldiers to confuse German bombers from North African ports.

Although war secrets relating to the magician’s tactics are not due to be revealed for another 30 years, a recent book by Ben McIntyre focusing on British army intelligence plans outlined some of the bizarre counter-intelligence measures suggested by the Allied forces.

One which was actually deployed, Operation Mincemeat, involved using fake documents planted on a dead body off the Spanish coast to distract German military planners from focusing on the Allies actual plans to invade Sicily in 1943.

HBO was also invovled in the WWII series Band of Brothers and the Pacific, and Entertainment Weekly reports that writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are behind HBO’s latest WWII project.