Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

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Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 1,360 ratings · 311 reviews

In his celebrated bestsellersAgent Zigzag andOperation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory. InDouble Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved i...more In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory. In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.

   On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring that Hitler kept an entire army awaiting a fake invasion, saving thousands of lives, and securing an Allied victory at the most critical juncture in the war.

   The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it, and the generals who led it. But this epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspectives of the key individuals in the Double Cross System. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and a volatile Frenchwoman, whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. The D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled, and their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymaster, both German and British. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time.

   With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.(less)

ebook, 432 pages

Published July 31st 2012 by Broadway (first published March 27th 2012)

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Sep 13, 2012 Ruth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, mystery-thriller-spies-suspense, non-fiction-history

This is an astonishingly good, absolutely riveting account of a disparate group of individuals whose exploits during WW2 went largely unsung. It was provided to me by netgalley and is well written with humor, empathy and clarity. It brings in accounts of other operations and the bigger picture to provide context, but never moves away from the double agents themselves.

I honestly had no idea that such an infuriating, temperamental, intelligent and diverse a group of people played such an important...more

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May 30, 2012 J.C. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldnt-finish

I ran out of gas around page 65. I don't know why I keep picking up spy non fiction books when I know that there is nothing exciting about the life of a real spy. Only James Bond, that Bourne guy and Sterling Archer have exciting lives in espionage and they are fictitious characters; and that Bourne guy wasn't even a spy technically, he was just a crazy assassin who lost his marbles.

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Oct 09, 2012 Hannah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads, non-fiction, spies-espionage

The least entertaining and successful of Macintyre's WWII spy books IMO, probably because the cast of characters was too numerous and nothing interesting really happened until the final 100 pages.

Nonetheless, fans of non-fiction espionage should find some wheat amongst the chaff in this revelation of the part spies and deception played in the successful allied invasion of Normandy (otherwise known as D-Day).

Macintyre knows his material, and gives the reader a full complement of material availabl...more

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May 20, 2013 Colin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting book about real life spies, showing the complications and complexities of this trade. There was a lot, perhaps too much, of build up to the main gist of the story with lots of detail that it was sometimes quite hard to keep track of. This said, the author managed to convey the scale of the task which was to make the make the enemy believe that they had agents in Britain that were passing true and vital information back about the location of the invasion of Europe. No spoilers here...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Barbara Elsborg rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Factual book so beware any followers of mine!
This book tells the amazing story of undercover operations during WW2 -how every German spy was turned to the British side (so they think), how a very motley collection of people acted as double agents, about their bravery, their treachery. How things might have turned out very differently if one agent who was captured - Jonny Jebson - had opened his mouth, how Baby -the little dog belonging to one female spy was kept out of Britain through Quarantin...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Ware rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Any book which features such unlikely heroes as a transvestite British colonel and counterfeit homing pigeons is going to keep my interest, and this witty history of MI-5's wartime counterespionage program does just that. Run out of "Section Twenty" which was the only section of the service to use Roman numerals (XX equals Double Cross), the British fed the Germans a stream of fake intelligence to achieve strategic and tactical results.

The real heroes are the spies themselves. In fact long befor...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Fran V rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have always loved real life survival stories, especially when dealing with WWII. This is a story about the Double Cross spies, upon whom the survival of many in WWII was depended. Their misinformation was known to have made it way to top Nazi eyes and ears, and the resulting sucess of the Normandy Invasion is evidence that the ruses employed was successful.

I read this book just after reading "In the Garden of Beasts.", second in my trilogy of WWII stories recently read. In this book, you know...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished "Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies". Like many non-fiction books, this account is loaded with all kinds of details about the players, their handlers, and their recruiters. The book provides details on the life and times of the small group of double agents who were originally recruited to be spies for Germany, but later turned (or in a few cases always planned to turn) and become intelligence operatives (spies) working for the allied cause.

Some of these spies were li...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book finishes a trilogy by Ben Macintyre begun by Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, both of which I enjoyed immensely. Double Cross tells the story of the intelligence agents utilized by the British government to fool the Nazi regime into thinking that the opening of the Second Front in 1944 was going to occur in such diverse areas as Norway, the south of France, and the area around Calais in northern France. The Double Cross program was run by Tar Robertson and he and his staff special...more This book finishes a trilogy by Ben Macintyre begun by Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, both of which I enjoyed immensely. Double Cross tells the story of the intelligence agents utilized by the British government to fool the Nazi regime into thinking that the opening of the Second Front in 1944 was going to occur in such diverse areas as Norway, the south of France, and the area around Calais in northern France. The Double Cross program was run by Tar Robertson and he and his staff specialized in ferreting out German spies and turning them into double agents operating for the Allies.
In 1943, Robertson realized that every significant German agent in England was either in prison, had been executed, or was part of the Double Cross program. That allowed British intelligence to begin to feed the Germans not just false information, but to begin to create the outlines of grand, war-changing lies. Five spies formed the core of Double Cross--Bronx, Treasure, Brutus, Tricycle, and Garbo and a more diverse group couldn't be imagined. They included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a Polish fighter pilot, a feisty French woman who was fixated on her pet dog, a troubled Serbian, and a failed Spanish chicken farmer.
The first test of the Double Cross misinformation program was Operation Torch--the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942. Transmitting information to their handlers that suggested that the counter-attack against the Germans would begin in northern France and Norway, while at the same time the island of Malta would be relieved, the Germans were caught by surprise when Allied troops landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran in November. The same strategy, with the addition of a corpse drifting in from the ocean, was used in 1943 to divert German attention while Italy was invaded through Sicily.
In the built-up to D-Day, attention had to be drawn away from southwestern England. To keep German forces in Norway and to encourage those forces to be reinforced, Allied intelligence created a fictional British Fourth Army training in Scotland and Iceland preparing for the "invasion" of Norway. 350 people represented an "army" of 100,000 men preparing for an amphibious landing and mountain warfare by having wireless trucks drive around Scotland senting countless messages into the ether about training schedules and troop movements. The Double Cross agents fed a steady stream of "intelligence" about this impending invasion to their handlers by wireless and by post.
The southeast coast of England was also used as a diversion. Props, scenery and backdrops gave the impression that an army of 150,000 men was preparing for battle and wireless operators drove all over Kent simulating the wireless traffic that would be generated by an entire corps training for an invasion of Calais.
But the central body of the lies came from the Double Cross agents because they were Hitler's most trusted source of information on military build-ups and troop movements in England. The deception delivered by the Double Cross agents was constructed over weeks and months and consisted of tiny scraps of information for German intelligence agents to piece together. And those fragments of information were buried in an avalanche of other intelligence.
The success of Double Cross was evident on D-Day. While thousands of Allied soldiers were killed or wounded, the beaches were taken in Normandy with a greater ease than expected once the invasion began.
After the war, the Double Cross agents simply disappeared back into their private lives and their stories did not become a celebrated part of the story of the Allied victory in World War II. Macintyre tells their story very effectively and readers realize the debt that is owed to this small group of people. This book would be enjoyed by anyone who has an interest in World War II--especially in the intelligence and psychological side of the conflict. Highly recommended(less)

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Dec 02, 2012 Quinby6696 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just one more proof that truth is stranger than fiction. Double Cross is the story of a motley crew of spies recruited by MI5's spymaster, John Masterman during WW II to trick the Germans into believing that the Allied Invasion would take place in the Pas de Calais rather than the Normandy beaches. The first part of the book is taken up with identifying these odd characters and how they came into the Double Cross system. They include a Peruvian party girl, a Polish aviator who had set up a spy-n...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sandy by: New York Times

Macintyre does a masterful job of telling the complex story of the Double Cross of the century, if not of all history! British Intelligence was able to identify, recruit and turn ALL of the German spies in the UK, France and Portugal. It was, in part, able to do so because to the great cryptographers at Bletchley Park; there all of the secret messages between and among the German spies, their handlers, the SS, the German military, the High Command and other targets of interest.
The credulity of M...more Macintyre does a masterful job of telling the complex story of the Double Cross of the century, if not of all history! British Intelligence was able to identify, recruit and turn ALL of the German spies in the UK, France and Portugal. It was, in part, able to do so because to the great cryptographers at Bletchley Park; there all of the secret messages between and among the German spies, their handlers, the SS, the German military, the High Command and other targets of interest.
The credulity of Macintyre’s tale is stretched by the ridiculously bizarre cast of characters—a Polish patriot (a diminutive former fighter pilot), a Peruvian bisexual gambling girl, a French dog lover, a Serbian playboy (whose sexual needs exceeded the capacity of J. Edgar Hoover to accept such behavior during a US sojourn) and a Spanish chicken farmer. These players received high marks from their German spy handlers; they received several medals from the Fuehrer were paid handsomely for their work—all of which was pure fiction. Even more impressive was the writing skills of many of these agents who created multiple networks of sub agents all from the authors’ imagination. The fictional subordinates had attributes designed to enhance the credibility of their reports back in Berlin and were strategically located to capture intelligence sought by the Germans and/or to feed false tales which the British spymasters devised to deceive the Nazis.
The master plan of British intelligence was to create armies located in the North and the South of England that would compel their enemies to place defensive resources to blunt the phony attacks and thus to minimize the German mass aligned at the Normandy Beaches. The book includes references that make it clear that the Nazi High Command, including Hitler, bought into this multi volume deception. The game worked because of
• petty corruption within the German intelligence,
• due to the organization biases within the highest echelons of Hitler’s intelligence, who bought into the non-existent US invasion force poised (in the double agents’ imagination only) to land at Calais,
• to human quirks among the German spy masters equal to the oddities of their turned Double agents,
• to the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler,
• a variety of incompetent people in high places within the various German military and intelligence units, and
• most importantly the decoding at Bletchley Park which confirmed that the spies lies were being accepted by the German even after several rents in the fabric of this massive deception.
This is a fascinating, incredibly readable history of one of the most important and exceptionally creative intelligence operations that literally saved thousands of Allied soldiers’ lives during the D Day invasion.
(less)

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Oct 07, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

DOUBLE CROSS. (2012). Ben Macintyr. ****.
Mr. Macintyr introduces us to a group of individuals who played a silent and secret role for the Allied during World War II. They managed to convince the Germans that the attack from England onto the Continent that occurred on June 6, 1944, would be launched against the region around Calais, not Normandy. This forced the Nazi high command to maintain a strong presence of troops in that area away from the actual target, thereby ultimately saving thousands...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Bernie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

World War 2 espionage fascinates Ben Macintyre. A British writer who has discovered oddball characters and double-agents that are not so much out of Hitchcock but Mel Brooks.
In his newest work, Macintyre details the not-entirely believable story of a motley group of spies who deceived the Germans into believing that the D-Day invasion in 1944 would take place in Pas de Calais and not Normandy. The spies included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, an eccentric Spaniard with a degree in chicken farm...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Churchill is said to have remarked to Stalin, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies" Guided by this philosophy, Churchill took personal interest in espionage programs and during WWII the British sercret service agencies (MI5, MI6, SOE, etc) truly emerged as the world's elite body of spies. This is the story of how the double cross system in Great Brittain became so effective, specifically how the agencies transitioned from ad-hoc spying to a...more Churchill is said to have remarked to Stalin, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies" Guided by this philosophy, Churchill took personal interest in espionage programs and during WWII the British sercret service agencies (MI5, MI6, SOE, etc) truly emerged as the world's elite body of spies. This is the story of how the double cross system in Great Brittain became so effective, specifically how the agencies transitioned from ad-hoc spying to a comprehensive system with a strategy that culminated in Operation Fortitude, an attempt to "convince the Germans that the attack on Normandy (eventually scheduled for June was merely diversionary, a ploy to draw off German forces before the main thrust of the invasion in the Pas de Calais in the middle of July; at the same time it sought to lure the Germans into preparing for an attack on Norway, along with another landing in the area of Bordeaux. Curcially, the threat to Pas de Calais would be maintained for as long as possible after the Normandy landings, to ensure that the Germans did not send a large body of troops south to repel the real invasion."

In true Macintyre fashion, he shows how it was all accomplished by an unusual set of characters, "For the D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled. They included a Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman, a Serbian seducer, and a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming." And, it almost all fell apart over a dog.

In addition to the core story of the double cross system there is interesting insight into America's foray into counterespionage, particularly the difficulty of establishing the American system due to Hoover's aversion to the type of person needed for the task, the German's hunger for information on Peral Harbor, the use of pigeons in espionage, the moral dillemmas facing the spies ("helping a friend and ruining a much bigger cause, or making a friend take a chance and try to save the cause."), the stress one took on to live double and sometimes triple lives, and how someone in everyday life can seem morally bankrupt but show true courage when placed in a situation like WWII (another recurring theme of Macintyre).

If you are familiar with Macintyre's work this a work he doesn't disappoint. If you have not read his other WWII works I recommend reading this one prior to Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, as it provides good context of the overall system before delving into an indiviual (Agent Zigzag) or a specific operation.

My one caution: when you read the jacket of this book you are left with the impression that the book is about Operation Fortitude. It is not. Operation Fortitude doesn't even come into play until 2/3 into the book. This is really about the overall espionage system of the British in WWII.(less)

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Sep 09, 2012 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yay! I really like these books about WWII espionage. There's some sort of nutty mix of technology, record-keeping and a passionate urge to keep personal diaries that means any WWII story has a lot of in-the-moment context in the form of supporting documentation. It's hard to imagine that almost ALL of the double (sometimes triple) agents in the Double Cross scheme kept personal diaries, but they did. And today we're warned not to write down our computer passwords, in case someone breaks into our...more Yay! I really like these books about WWII espionage. There's some sort of nutty mix of technology, record-keeping and a passionate urge to keep personal diaries that means any WWII story has a lot of in-the-moment context in the form of supporting documentation. It's hard to imagine that almost ALL of the double (sometimes triple) agents in the Double Cross scheme kept personal diaries, but they did. And today we're warned not to write down our computer passwords, in case someone breaks into our home, decrypts the list, and goes to town on Amazon. A gentler time or more naive? I honestly don't know.

This in many ways reads like a sequel to "Operation: Mincemeat", which is still the gold standard when it comes to spy stories. But while that book deals with a fake invasion, this one traces the counterintelligence push on D-Day. A motley crew of foreign nationals are either recruited by or turned by MI5 to spy on behalf of Britain. But their role was strange: rather than skulking about Germany and reporting back, these spies mostly lived in London while creating elaborate fantasies for their German handlers. Impossible today with cellphones and satellites, but back then it was totally possible to report massive troop movements in northern Scotland and Germany could only rely on the transmissions from their spies. And the agents themselves were pretty atypical: Argentine party girls, Spanish fantasists, Czech businessmen. And as D-Day approaches, success very much hinges on these characters sending exactly the right orchestrated messages to the Nazi high command.

"Double Cross" isn't quite as good as "Operation: Mincemeat", which is utterly confusing given Macintyre wrote them both. Something changed between the two books, and I just didn't feel as in-the-moment with Double Cross. He also developed a nasty habit of saying stuff like "A single glove fell to the ground. Little did anyone know, that glove would come back to haunt them." Meh. There was too much foreshadowing, and it irritated me. To be perfectly honest, I thought this was written by a different author while reading it, and was completely surprised to learn it was the same person. I suppose the core story here was maybe less coherent in the first place, so Macintyre had a harder time making it feel dynamic? I don't know. Or maybe Mincemeat is just one of those lightening strikes.

Anyhow - very good. Don't buy the Kindle version unless you've got a VERY fancy Kindle, because there are glossy pictures. And try not to look at the pictures until you're either done with the book or well past the photo insert - some of the captions kind of give away what's happening. (less)

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Sep 06, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ben Macintyre's ability to write history books that are so entertaining and readable that it's hard to believe they aren't fiction is stunning.

When you consider the hours that he must have spent trawling through rather dry records to find the thread of the book, let alone cross checking details from other sources, and then pulling together a story that is not only thrilling, but also was a crucial part of D Day succeeding, I'm in awe.

His ability to humanise people is extraordinary, with the va...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A New Spin on Why the Normandy Invasion Succeeded

Americans' views of the Second World War have been dominated by films, books, and television specials about the role that U.S. troops played in the fighting. Even today, more than half a century after the war ended, we tend to believe that it was our ingenuity and industrial might and the sheer guts and persistence of American soldiers and sailors that defeated Nazi Germany -- and, to borrow a phrase from the preceding Great War, "made the world s...more A New Spin on Why the Normandy Invasion Succeeded

Americans' views of the Second World War have been dominated by films, books, and television specials about the role that U.S. troops played in the fighting. Even today, more than half a century after the war ended, we tend to believe that it was our ingenuity and industrial might and the sheer guts and persistence of American soldiers and sailors that defeated Nazi Germany -- and, to borrow a phrase from the preceding Great War, "made the world safe for democracy." This is just one of a great many signs of our insularity and the widespread belief in the so-called exceptionalism of our nation.

However, serious historical studies have long since established the truth that Stalin's Soviet Union carried a much larger burden than ours. It was the German defeat at the monumental Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 - February 1943) that was the true turning point in the European war. That victory alone cost the Red Army more than 1.1 million casualties; in the war as a whole, 26.6 million Soviets died. (U.S. deaths totaled 418,500.) And research in more recent years, as hitherto secret archives have been opened to the public, has revealed the seminal role of the British Secret Intelligence Services, both MI5 (counterespionage) and MI6 (foreign intelligence) that made possible the success of the U.S.-led Normandy Invasion on D-Day (June 6, 1944).

If you have even a cursory knowledge of World War II, you're probably familiar with the names George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Dwight Eisenhower. It's highly unlikely, however, that you've ever come across any mention of Elvira Concepcion Josefina de la Fuentes Chaudoir, Roman Czerniawski, Lily Sergeyev, Dusko Popov, Juan Pujol Garcia, and Johnny Jebsen. In their own way, these six European double agents who were "turned" or recruited by the British played roles as large as those of any American general in the success of the invasion that opened up the Western Front.

Because British intelligence, working through these six extraordinary individuals in the Double Cross System, managed to mislead the Germans about the date and place of the invasion, McIntyre writes, it "was a military sucker punch. Senior German commanders were not only unprepared but positively relaxed." Everyone in a key position on the Nazi side, including Hitler himself, had bought the elaborate deception that kept powerful German forces locked up elsewhere, expecting Anglo-American invaders in Norway, the French Atlantic coast, and, most of all, in the Pas de Calais peninsula in Northern France, convinced that the Normandy action was simply a diversion. As we all know, of course, the real Normandy invasion was a desperate and bloody battle nonetheless, anything but a certain victory for the Allies. Eisenhower and Montgomery, who led the invasion force, later acknowledged that if the Germans hadn't been fooled, if they had reinforced their troops on the line in Normandy, the invasion might well have ended in a massacre of Allied troops.

As Ben McIntyre writes in Double Cross, "the D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled. They included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl [who was heir to a guano fortune], a tiny [and fanatically patriotic] Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman [who loved her little dog Babs more than any person], a Serbian seducer, . . . a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming," and a Danish-German Anglophile whose sideline business of currency and commodity manipulation would have put Catch 22`s Milo Minderbender to shame. What is most astonishing about the highly unlikely stories McIntyre tells in this detail-filled account is that they're all true.

Double Cross is McIntyre's third book about British intelligence during World War II. His previous books -- Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag -- relate equally improbable exploits, which are nonetheless also completely true. The earlier books, both bestsellers, were fascinating to read, filled with all the tension of superior thrillers. In Double Cross, McIntyre attempts to tell a vastly more complex tale, encompassing a veritable army of characters, both British and German, and a bewildering sequence of interconnected events. He comes up short. There's simply too much going on for any but the most retentive reader to follow all six threads. I was nearly two-thirds of the way through the book before I could even keep all the spies straight, let alone the ever-changing cast of their handlers on both sides.

Although Double Cross is a little difficult to follow at times, it's still a thoroughly enjoyable and often surprising read. You can be the life of any party for months, retelling the story of the British carrier pigeons who played a special role in Operation Double Cross, or the one about the Spanish chicken farmer working for MI5 who fabricated the identities of an army of sub-agents, fed the Abwehr with thousands of pages of entirely fictitious reports -- and received a German Iron Cross for his courageous and resourceful efforts to defend the Fatherland.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Alla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Double Cross” by Ben Macintyre tells the stories of double agents who worked for the British intelligence services MI5 during WWII while pretending to spy for Germany. Their acts of bravery in feeding Germany fake information about the actions of the Allies played an important role in the successful invasion of Normandy during D-Day and the ultimate victory in the war. And while focusing on the duels between the German and British spy services, Macintyre closes in on the double agents themselve...more “Double Cross” by Ben Macintyre tells the stories of double agents who worked for the British intelligence services MI5 during WWII while pretending to spy for Germany. Their acts of bravery in feeding Germany fake information about the actions of the Allies played an important role in the successful invasion of Normandy during D-Day and the ultimate victory in the war. And while focusing on the duels between the German and British spy services, Macintyre closes in on the double agents themselves: Dusko Popov, a Serbian player whose tastes for women and luxury often left him with no money and expensive bills for the Mi5, Lily Sergeyev, a Frenchwoman of Russian descent whose unconditional love for her dog presented a great risk in derailing the entire Allied deception, Juan Pujol the Spaniard whose marital problems climaxed when his wife threatened to blow his cover to the Germans, Roman Czerniawski, a Pole with a big presence in the French resistance efforts who was captured by the Germans before turning on them, Elvira De La Fuente Chaudoir, a Peruvian good-time gal who stumbled upon the spying profession after craving to find some employment and make use of her languages, and numerous other characters one of whom gets caught by the Germans after they find out about his betrayal.

Even though this is a historical book, it makes for a surprisingly juicy read. You can’t help but feel impressed with the MI5 spying deceptions. Not only were they able to successfully utilize the double agents, despite some tricky situations, they were also able to make some profit off of it, and had no trouble intercepting the secret German communications after cracking it some years earlier. In the end, the war seemed to amount to who wanted to win the most. And with the multitude of deceptions described in this book, anything from staged preparations for an attack to manipulating British pigeons to look like German ones, it was clear the MI5 was playing not to lose. But ultimately the double agents, who are the main characters in this book, were at the center of it all.

Aside from the stories themselves, I was also pleased by the inclusions of photographs of the spies, as well as the afterwards chapter which follows their fates after the war. If you’re a history buff, or like real-life thrillers, than this is an enjoyable story to pick up. (less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Crown Publishing Group added it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory. In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casua...more In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory. In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring that Hitler kept an entire army awaiting a fake invasion, saving thousands of lives, and securing an Allied victory at the most critical juncture in the war.

The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it, and the generals who led it. But this epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspectives of the key individuals in the Double Cross System. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and a volatile Frenchwoman, whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. The D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled, and their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymaster, both German and British. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time.

With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.(less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a strong interest in WWII and have read a number of fiction and non-fiction books on the subject so I was aware that Fortitude had played an important part in the success of Overlord, the code name for the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June, 1944. Fortitude was the plan the Allies devised to convince Hitler that the expected attack on the coast of France would be at Calais rather than the intended beaches of Normandy. I knew about the ghost army led by Patton and the cardboard and rubber...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Burt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good-page-turner, will-look-for-more-by-this-author, would-like-to-read-it-again, investigative-storytelling

Tales of loves and lives from a by gone era where different morality held sway, when war was honourable, duty driven, waged by heroes against villains and hating them was justifiable.
Well written spy story with such a build up of suspense that I was amazed each time I reminded myself this was not fiction. A loveable lot of characters? Not quite. But honourable? Each in their own way, drawing their own line in the sand in a different place for different reasons. As the big moment approaches, as t...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Moira rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, war, ww2-holocaust

A book about the spymasters and double agents assisting the Allies’ real and fake plans to invade Nazi-held France in WW2. Overall I give this book 3 stars, but it’s mixed. The beginning is 5 stars, the middle is 1 star and the last 75 pages are 4 stars. I started out enjoying this book immensely. Halfway through I was puzzled that I wasn’t enjoying it more: it's a true WW2 spy story, for goodness sake! The midsection just drags on and on — I got tired of the details and started skimming. The la...more A book about the spymasters and double agents assisting the Allies’ real and fake plans to invade Nazi-held France in WW2. Overall I give this book 3 stars, but it’s mixed. The beginning is 5 stars, the middle is 1 star and the last 75 pages are 4 stars. I started out enjoying this book immensely. Halfway through I was puzzled that I wasn’t enjoying it more: it's a true WW2 spy story, for goodness sake! The midsection just drags on and on — I got tired of the details and started skimming. The last 75 pages are much more interesting. (Perhaps I should have read it straight through so I didn’t have to re-orient to all the different characters each time I picked it up. And I can see that I've fallen into the bad habit of expecting stories that are neatly packaged by Hollywood to be short, punchy and non-stop thrills - for those with limited attention spans. Real life is usually more complicated and requires some actual brain work.)

Sometimes the author tries to make the characters come to life a bit too much for my taste. Sometimes his explanations are almost incomprehensible, but when one is describing how they created quadruple crosses with multiple agents in wartime, well…it just *is* confusing.

Most of the book is taken up with how each agent came into the fold and was developed, their idiosyncracies and quirks, and how the British spymaster team moved from simply supplying wrong information (or correct information too late), to distributing information that was methodically misleading and potentially destructive, culminating in Operation Fortitude: the fictitious invasion of Calais, which tied up the mighty German 15th army division and kept them away from the real invasion at Normandy on D-Day. “What had begun with the ad hoc interception and turning of enemy agents was developing into a genuine system in which the misdleading information from one double agent could be bolstered by all the others, an intricate self-reinforcing structure that could ‘fill the German files with what we want.’ From the summer of 1942, [they] began trying to influence overall German strategy, to burrow into Hitler’s thoughts in a way that could cause the Germans massive, and perhaps critical, damage.”

The first part of the book just trips along and is fascinating. I was impressed by the sheer fantastical nerve of the schemes dreamed up by the British spymasters and some of the spies themselves. One British double agent creates a fictional network of 27 subagents across Britain, and, year after year, writes messages for each of them — in character — to send back to his German spymaster. And never gets found out.

The insight into the character of British and Germans is fascinating. Working for the British, the German-born Gisela Ashley “urged the team to…never underestimate the literalness of the German mind. ‘What may appeal to an Englishman, even an Englishman engaged in double-crossing, as absurd, unlikely or naïve, may be the very thing that a typical Nazi would swallow and do’.”

I think I’ll read it again, now that I know all the characters and can focus more on the intricacies of the story. But first I’ll read the first 2 books in the series: Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat.
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Nov 29, 2012 Alex Nagler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, war

During World War Tw, Germany attempted to infect London with an army of spies to report back on everything from public sentiment, troop movements, and the goings on of the House of Commons. For the entire war, they did just that. They reported on everything they saw, established vast networks of agents serving under them and reporting on movements on all coasts, finally tipping their German holders off to the precise location of the forthcoming Allied invasion in France in Pas de Calais on June...more During World War Tw, Germany attempted to infect London with an army of spies to report back on everything from public sentiment, troop movements, and the goings on of the House of Commons. For the entire war, they did just that. They reported on everything they saw, established vast networks of agents serving under them and reporting on movements on all coasts, finally tipping their German holders off to the precise location of the forthcoming Allied invasion in France in Pas de Calais on June 13th, 1944.

Amazingly, every German spy to land in the UK during World War Two was caught by the British. More amazingly, several of them were turned in one of the most ambitious counter-espionage plans ever. This was the Twenty Committee, or the XX Committee, or better yet, the Double Cross. Through MI5, the British turned these former German agents into UK superspies. Their mission: feed the Germans what they affectionately called Chicken Feed - small amounts of true, but useless, information that's surrounded by complete and utter bullshit.

Macintyre, like he did in Zigzag and Mincemeat, focuses on the individuals in the program. People like Juan Pujol García, otherwise known as Garbo, who created a network of 27 fake agents and managed to get fake messages up as far as Hitler insisting that the attack on Pas de Calais, an invasion that was to be larger in scale than the Normandy landings, was coming still coming three days after troops started coming ashore. He covers six main individuals, weaving a thread between them despite the fact that none of them ever met. There were also, amazingly, British carrier pigeons that pretended to be German.

One criticism of this book is that it would be highly advisable to read Zigzag and Mincemeat beforehand. Key figures are referenced merely in passing in Double Cross that have chapters, if not major sections, of previous books dedicated to them. Regardless of that fact, it is still a solid read and a must for anyone who wants to know how a group of individuals (and a substantial intelligence network standing both metaphorically and literally behind them) can help change the course of a war.

Had the Double Cross not succeeded, it is possible to imagine that D-Day would have been met with even fiercer opposition. Multiple infantry and Panzer divisions were held up in northern France and and weren't moved for over a week. By that time, the Allies had firmly established their beach head and Axis forces were nowhere near as effective as they would have been had they been on the beaches from the start. And for that, they may have a group of turned spies to thank. Them and the pigeons.(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Anthony Pacifico rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a story from World War II that I had never heard about before and it was fascinating. The Germans had employed spies in Great Britain, who once they got there, immediately became Double Agents and began working for the Allies. The British Intelligence Services devised a plan where these double agents would send misinformation to the Germans about the military, political and social situation in England. These Double Agents had so much credibility with the Germans that eventually the Brit...more

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May 12, 2013 Joan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: British and WWII history interests

Shelves: 2013-favorites, adult-books, english-history, european-or-asian-history, history, nonfiction

This book was absolutely hilarious. It is proof of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. I don't think any fiction authors could invent the wacky people in this book because they wouldn't have been believed.I quote a few sentences from the book to prove my point (p.5-6):

"For the D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled. They included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman a Serbian seducer, and a...more This book was absolutely hilarious. It is proof of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. I don't think any fiction authors could invent the wacky people in this book because they wouldn't have been believed.I quote a few sentences from the book to prove my point (p.5-6):

"For the D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled. They included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman a Serbian seducer, and a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming....the Double Cross spies were, variously, courageous, treacherous, capricious, greedy and inspired....One was so obsessed with her pet dog that she came close to derailing the entire invasion. All were, to some extent fantasists, for that is the very essence of espionage. Two were of dubious moral character.One was a triple, and possibly a quadruple, agent."

The author is quite aware of how funny his material can be in places but in typical British understated style, simply presents the information knowing that readers would find this funnier for it not being labeled as such. However, before anyone gets the idea that the writer is simply having a great time with this material, the last few pages are a tribute to one spy in particular who likely died in a concentration camp although no one really knows his fate. He also makes it clear throughout the book how essential this effort was. The misinformation fed to the Germans meant that they refused to move additional troops to Normandy when D-Day happened. This kept the casualties much lower than they would have otherwise and possibly kept the end of the war from being a few years later. In many ways, James Bond would have been unable to keep up with these people, at least intellectually. Physically, of course, 007 would have outstripped them easily. These people were warriors with words, not your typical warriors. Many of the actual warriors survived the war thanks to the outrageous lies these people fed their German handlers. However, the success of the entire unit belonged to the supervisors of these people. They had to baby, cajole, humor, lie, carouse, and threaten these people, never being completely sure that a few of them weren't actually working for the other side and deceiving the Brits.

The author notes that this story wouldn't have been able to be written at all if the British secret services hadn't fairly recently decided to open up the files for this time period. The spies themselves pretty much expected that their stories would never be known.

To sum up, this book is serious history written with a keen eye for the absurd. Highly recommended. I plan on rereading it again some day when my to read pile isn't so ridiculous. (less)

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Apr 13, 2012 Bettie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: published-2012, radio-4, nonfiction, fradio, wwii, spring-2012, spies, history

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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blurbs - A team of agents (codenames Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo) is recruited to work as part of the 'Double Cross System' run by the secret Twenty Committee.

D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force. The deception involved e...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Guillaume Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ce livre raconte l'histoire vraie des tentatives de désinformations allemandes faites par les services secrets anglais, principalement pour assurer le succès du Débarquement en faisant croire qu'il aurait lieu autre part.
Ce qu'on nous montre la est principalement l'usage d'espions, allemands plutôt d'agents doubles : on suit particulièrement une demi-douzaine d'individus, de la croqueuse d'homme au riche autrichien anti nazi.
On voit surtout que derrière toutes "Meta-Entité" (l'Allemagne Nazie, l...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: european-history-great-britain, european-history-germany

Double Cross by Ben Macintyre is an excellent look at the system of counter intelligence that the British employed to fool the German high command throughout World War II. Using the work of the Bletchley Park to decode German codes and find agents throughout the British Isles, MI5 was able to round up German spies and turn them into double agents feeding their handlers false information. Five main agents made up the Double Cross system with a host of others recruited towards the cause. An eccent...more Double Cross by Ben Macintyre is an excellent look at the system of counter intelligence that the British employed to fool the German high command throughout World War II. Using the work of the Bletchley Park to decode German codes and find agents throughout the British Isles, MI5 was able to round up German spies and turn them into double agents feeding their handlers false information. Five main agents made up the Double Cross system with a host of others recruited towards the cause. An eccentric Pole who worked for the reconstitution of his country and an underground network that worked against the Nazis. Treasure was a dog obsessed woman who nearly wiped out the entire system with her demands but fooled the Nazi’s at critical moments. Another gambling socialite fed falsehoods about the upper crust of society that corroborated the evidence of the others in the network. The two most critical members of this group were Tricycle and Garbo. Tricycle worked direct intelligence and turned his German handler Johnny Jebsen for the British. Garbo was one of the more interesting members of this cast creating a fictitious army of spies that fed the Nazi’s information that at critical moments kept entire armies away from the Normandy shore.
Overall it is a well written book that requires careful attention as the same person can have multiple code names on both sides of the War. Due to the complicated nature and some of the agents being triple turns the pace of the book moves quickly and it is easy to get lost if you are just trying to skim the book. It is by far one of the more comprehensive books available on the double cross system and packs a lot of information into a small amount of space. This is an integral part of the World War II intelligence historiography and told very well with all the players as part of the grand symphony of misinformation that was used to protect the Normandy landing against an even greater defensive force. After this one I am eager to read the other books by this author on World War Ii intelligence.
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Sep 02, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Macintyre's latest WWII book details Operation Fortitude -- how the British bamboozled the Germans into believing that the D-Day invasion would take place not in Normandy but in the Pas de Calais, far away to the northeast, where a fictitious “First United States Army Group,” led by a boozy actor impersonating General Montgomery, would land. The main quintet of double agents comprised “a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman, a Serbian seducer and a dee...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, own, vine

This book is exactly what it claims to be: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. These brave individuals who defied the very dangerous Nazi regime to work for the Allies were a motley group from various nations and with diverse motives. As these agents became more embroiled in feeding the Nazi’s false information, so grew the idea to use them to distract the Germans from the main Normandy invasion. It is because of these brave, though sometimes peculiar people that the Germans were unprepared and m...more

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About Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre is an author, historian and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.

In July 2006, Macintyre wrote an article in The Times entitled "How wiki-wiki can get sticky", criticising the limitations of Wikipedia. He cited the self-regulation system as inadequate when literally "anyone" could add supposed "facts" to Wikipe...more

More about Ben Macintyre...

Books by Ben Macintyre

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan

The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I

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