The Secret War

World War II #29

by Francis Russell

Book 29 of the Time-Life World War II series.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, World War II, Military History, War

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Francis Russell was an American author specializing in American history and historical figures.

Reviews

[Valerie Sherman]

We all love a good spy story. Super interesting stuff - one of the most page-turning volumes of the Time-Life series.

[Jerome Otte]

This book is a very good overview of WWII spies. Included are great propaganda posters in color, photos of spies, activities, and equipment, and great narratives of Axis and Allies spies and operations.

[Michel Albert]

It may be Book 29 of Time-Life's World War II series, but The Secret War was the volume they advertised when I was a kid and that made me point at the television with enough interest that my mom got me a subscription. It came first, followed by others in random order until my LACK of interest made her cancel it. I was really in it for pictures of spy gear, and have probably just read it cover to cover now, some 40 years later. It's a fun volume, though you could also say it's a bit of a hodgepodge as well. There are stories of spies, disinformation campaigns, elements of the arms race, and code-breaking (shockingly, but because if was published in '81, absolutely no mention of Alan Turing in relation to the latter). Some of the stories expand (or repeat) stories that were also important to other books in the series (mostly The Resistance and The Second Front, possibly others, I don't have them all). But despite the repetition, this is one of the better and least technical reads in the series, on a topic that should interest fans of spycraft, not just of military history.

[Samantha]

Spies. The unsung and perhaps the most dangerous profession in every military. Every day is a test and even if you get crucial information, one mistake and you're dead. Pick this up it's good.

[Jared]

Great volume about real-life spies and espionage in World War II. Incredible tales of deception, sacrifice, and intrigue.

[Dan]

Very grateful Time Life did the entire series of books on World War II back in the 70s and 80s. I encourage any WWII buff to read them all them all!

[William Razavi]

This is kind of a smorgasbord of clandestine activities in WWII that includes a lot about espionage, counter-espionage, technology, terrorism, clandestine activities, a short history of the SOE and the OSS. It's a later volume in the Time Life series and includes all kinds of things that people weren't declassified until the 1970s (though in those terms it could do with another revision as this copy from 1998 didn't really reflect even the new stuff that had come to light by the end of the Cold War).
Still, it's very useful for the category of check out all the nasty things that we "used" to do. (Tee hee.)
Of course the rules of this are pretty simple. Everything in this book is wrong. And you do it with the understanding that if your people are caught they will be liable for execution just the same as the people you catch from the other side doing it. This is admittedly a bit of surface hypocrisy that sane people have a hard time keeping in their heads since the same process involves a lot of contemporary denials and propaganda which is then followed many years later by books like this that reveal that "yeah, that civilian was totally doing what they accused him of but we couldn't tell you that at the time."
Still, since we're talking about doing terrible things to Nazis here for the most part, it's pretty tolerable to read about.
Let's just say the chapters that cover Asia are maybe whitewashing a lot of awful things.

[Robert Snow]

Bought this Life Time series in the early 1980's on WWII, a volume came to the house every 2 or 3 months so I could take my reading. It was very informative and enjoyable read, I still use it for reference.

[ZackGHS2020]

I like this book because it told me some things i didn't know about the second world war. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the second world war. The book talks about the propaganda of the war and how it affected the how people communicate with others. It also talks about the major events in the war.