Intelligence Was My Line: Inside Eisenhower's Other Command

by Ralph W. Hauenstein, Donald E. Markle

When Ralph Hauenstein became a reserve officer, he thought the skills he'd gained as newspaperman might be useful. Indeed, he spent World War 2 gathering information from sources as diverse as soldiers who were encouraged to report on one another and code books pulled from downed German planes. The story of Major Hauenstein's war is also the story of the European Theatre of US Operations, the American command of General Dwight D Eisenhower, who spun between ETOUSA and his international position at Allied headquarters, SHAEF, with dizzying speed. SHAEF dominates histories of the time; ETOUSA is comparatively little studied and understood, but as Hauenstein explains, we couldn't have won the war without it. Donald Markle shapes Ralph Hauenstein's remembrances into an informative, entertaining book that will spark debate among history buffs.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, World War II, War

182 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2005

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hauenstein was an intelligence officer in World War II. Intelligence Was My Line is his story of that period of time in his life. Though he repeated himself quite a bit, there was a lot of interesting stuff in there. Included are pictures. I recommend this book to anyone interested in World War II or intelligence gathering.

[Joel Ungar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting memoir of a key member of the American intelligence community during WWII. Little attention has been given to the role of intelligence in winning the war, and Hauenstein was there and an active participant.

The chapter on the different command structure was rather tedious, and the author tends to get repetitive at times.

Well worth reading.