As the Imperial War Museum prepared their First World War galleries for 2014, they scoured their archives for the best materials of every kind - and that included the curious, the confusing and the amazing. From bizarre propaganda posters to cunning fake cities, from pigeon parachutes to the ventriloquist's dummy that saved his master's life, from tickle sticks to fly swats, this is proof that, as ever, the truth is stranger than fiction.