THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
LAND, AIR & SEA
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Intelligence Operations & Units During WW2
Phrodrick wrote: "Patrick Fermor "Brilliant writer. I have read a lot of his work.
Colin wrote: "When Kreipe was kidnapped, the Gremans turned that island upside down. I interviewed some vets of Operation Mercury, including max Schmeling (former heavyweight world boxing champ), and Baron Fried..."Out of all the people you have interviewed I suspect Max Schmeling is the one that I would have liked to have had a chat to the most.
Max was a real gentleman. Most people do not know this, but after the war he became the largest distributor of Coca Cola products in Europe, becoming very wealthy. When his former opponent Joe Louis fell on hard times (bankruptcy, IRS problems, home confiscation, racial prejudice), Max paid off all his debts, and set him up for a rather comfortable life until he died. They were really the best of friends at the end, and Max said that "When I heard that Joe had died, I knew that I had lost a brother."Another fact, Max actually rescued two Jewish children after he learned what had happened in a round up, hid them for a while, then found them safe refuge. They survived the war, and sort of became his adopted kids. I met the one still living in 1999, the next to the last time I saw Max. Incredible story of a very humane man.
Colin wrote: "Max was a real gentleman. Most people do not know this, but after the war he became the largest distributor of Coca Cola products in Europe, becoming very wealthy. When his former opponent Joe Loui..."What an insight into the world of a world level athlete away from the ring. Can you recommend a good biography?
Max Schmeling: An Autobiography by George von der Lippe
A January 2019 release:
by Larry LoftisDescription:
The year is 1942, and World War II is in full swing. Odette Sansom decides to follow in her war hero father’s footsteps by becoming an SOE agent to aid Britain and her beloved homeland, France. Five failed attempts and one plane crash later, she finally lands in occupied France to begin her mission. It is here that she meets her commanding officer Captain Peter Churchill.
As they successfully complete mission after mission, Peter and Odette fall in love. All the while, they are being hunted by the cunning German secret police sergeant, Hugo Bleicher, who finally succeeds in capturing them. They are sent to Paris’s Fresnes prison, and from there to concentration camps in Germany where they are starved, beaten, and tortured. But in the face of despair, they never give up hope, their love for each other, or the whereabouts of their colleagues.
In Code Name: Lise, Larry Loftis paints a portrait of true courage, patriotism, and love—of two incredibly heroic people who endured unimaginable horrors and degradations. He seamlessly weaves together the touching romance between Odette and Peter and the thrilling cat and mouse game between them and Sergeant Bleicher. With this amazing testament to the human spirit, Loftis proves once again that he is adept at writing “nonfiction that reads like a page-turning novel” (Parade).
Peter Churchill was a well-respected agent, and OSS Col. Aaron Bank knew him, thought highly of him.
I liked this story from the book; "Defending the Rock" in regards to the British Army's Intelligence Corp:"The Intelligence Corps was re-founded because military intelligence in the Second World War could no longer remain informal and ad hoc as it had been from 1914 to 1929; it was now granted its own administration and depot, its own badges and insignia: a double Tudor rose framed by green leaves, soon mockingly described as 'a pansy resting on its laurels',"
Defending the Rock: Gibraltar at War 1935-1945 by Nicholas Rankin
An April 2019 release:
by Sonia PurnellDescription:
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."
This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization deemed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France.
Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters.
Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic flare, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.
Another:
by Sarah RoseDescription:
In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was fighting. Churchill believed Britain was locked in an existential battle and created a secret agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharp-shooting. Their job, he declared, was "to set Europe ablaze!" But with most men on the frontlines, the SOE did something unprecedented: it recruited women. Thirty-nine women answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. Half were caught, and a third did not make it home alive.
In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the story of three of these women. There's Odette Sansom, a young mother who feels suffocated by domestic life and sees the war as her ticket out; Lise de Baissac, an unflappable aristocrat with the mind of a natural leader; and Andrée Borrel, the streetwise organizer of the Paris Resistance. Together, they derailed trains, blew up weapons caches, destroyed power and phone lines, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Stylishly written and rigorously researched, this is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance, in which women continue to play a vital role.
A March 2019 release:
by Panagiotis DimitrakisDescription:
Though officially neutral until March 1945, Argentina played a key role during World War II as a base for the South American intelligence operations of the major powers. The most famous spymaster of them all was Johannes Siegfried Becker (codename: Sargo), the man responsible for organizing most of the Nazi intelligence gathering in Latin America and the leader of `Operation Bolivar', which sought to bring South America into the war on the side of the Axis powers. Much to the dismay of the talented MI6 station chief Reginald `Rex' Miller, the Argentinian government appeared to be in thrall to the Abwehr's slick operations.
But when the USA entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, everything changed. The US state department pressured every South American country to join it in declaring war on Germany, and J Edgar Hoover authorized huge investments in South American intelligence operations. Argentina refused to join the conflict, triggering a US embargo that squeezed the county economically to breaking point. Despite its stance, Argentina did supply cattle to Great Britain along the Atlantic shipping lanes that were so vital in 1944. But Buenos Aires continued to be a hub for espionage, as high-ranking Nazi exiles sought refuge there.
The Hidden War in Argentina reveals the stories of the spymasters, British, Americans and Germans who plotted against each other throughout the Second World War in Argentina. This book is based on newly declassified files and details of the operations of MI6, the Abwehr, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the FBI, as well as the OSS and the SOE. Most significantly the Secrets of Buenos Aires reveals for the first time the coups of Britain's MI6 during the hidden war in Argentina.
I have just finished reading Patrick Beesly's Very Special Admiral, the life of John Godfrey (Director of Naval Intelligence 1939-42) and posted a review. The book is out of print and something of a hagiography, but still definitely worth looking out.
A May release:
by Ian HerringtonDescription:
Between 1940 and 1945, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) carried out sabotage and organised resistance across occupied Europe. Over 5 years, SOE sent over 500 agents into Norway to carry out a range of operations from sabotage and assassination to attempts to organise an underground guerrilla army.
This book is the first multi-archival, international academic analysis of SOE's policy and operations in Norway and the influences that shaped them, challenging previous interpretations of the relationship between this organisation and both the Norwegian authorities and the Milorg resistance movement.
I spent 4 years researching the SOE records at Richmond-PRO, Kew Surrey. The declassified material was extensive, especially the Balkans operations, which were declassified first due to the Cold War. Amazing part of the SOE local recruitment files and after action reports, are that they are typed in English, and some in the various languages of the local recruited units, later to be translated.
A September release:
by Matthew Avery SuttonDescription:
What makes a good missionary makes a good spy. Or so thought "Wild" Bill Donovan when he launched a secret new program under the Office of Strategic Services. His recruits, in turn, believed an American victory would help them protect their foreign ministries and expand the kingdom of God.
In Double Crossed, historian Matthew Avery Sutton tells the extraordinary story of the entwined roles of spycraft and faith in World War II. Sutton shows how missionaries, though acutely aware of the conflict between their faith and their role as secret agents, nonetheless played an outsize part in the war, carrying out bombings and assassinations. After securing victory, those who survived helped establish the CIA, ensuring that religion continued to influence American foreign policy.
Gripping and authoritative, Double Crossed is a remarkable account of the spiritual stakes of World War II.
A July release:
by Rebecca KenneisenDescription:
During World War II, agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) infiltrated Japanese-occupied Malaya. There they worked with Malayan guerrilla groups, including the communist-sponsored Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), regarded as the precursor of the communist insurgent army of the Malayan Emergency.
This book traces the development of SOE's Malayan operations, and analyses the interactions between SOE and the various guerrilla groups. It explores the reasons for and the extent of Malay disillusionment with Japanese rule, and demonstrates how guerrilla service acted as a training ground for some later Malay leaders of the independent nation. However, the reports written about the MPAJA by SOE operatives just after the war failed to draw out the likely future threat posed by the communists to the returning colonial administration.
Rebecca Kenneison shows that the British possessed a wealth of local information, but failed to convert it into active intelligence in the period prior to the Malayan Emergency. In doing so she provides new insights into the impact of SOE on Malayan politics, the nature of Malayan communism's challenge to colonial rule, and British post-war intelligence in Malaya.
This is such a widely ignored part of WW II history, glad to see it. I always liked the film "Farewell to the King" with Nick Nolte and Nigel Havers.
An October release:
by Henry HemmingDescription:
The question of whether America should get into World War II led to one of the largest and most consequential political feuds in our history. The British government, already pulled into the war, was seeking to recruit a powerful ally, but first they needed the help of the American public. The MI5 agent William Stephenson was chosen to change their minds, by any means necessary.
In this fast-paced and surprising book, Henry Hemming shows how Stephenson came to New York and flooded the American market with propaganda in an effort to re-elect Franklin Roosevelt and show the devastation wrought by the Nazis. His chief opponent was Charles Lindbergh, an insurgent populist who campaigned under the slogan "America First," and had no interest in the war. This set up a shadow duel between Lindbergh and Stephenson, each trying to turn public opinion his way, with the lives of millions potentially on the line.
A September release:
by Helen FryDescription:
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners’ cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites—and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis.
In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation. On arrival at stately-homes-turned-prisons like Trent Park, high ranking German generals and commanders were given a "phony" interrogation, then treated as "guests," wined and dined at exclusive clubs, and encouraged to talk. And so it was that the Allies got access to some of Hitler’s most closely guarded secrets—and from those most entrusted to protect them.
Jerome wrote: "A September release: by Helen FryDescription:
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 s..."
Adding to the TBR list. Thanks, Jerome!
This was how the British learned of the Holocaust from German lips, Generals von Thoma and Cruewell were roomed together. They openly discussed the murders in the USSR, displaying their disgust at the practice, and also talkign about what they both knew about the various plots to kill Hitler from within.
I have just finished Secret Naval Investigator: The Battle Against Hitler's Secret Underwater Weapons by Ashe Lincoln, and posted a short review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Originally written in 1961 it is a pity he couldn't say anything about, for example, his time with Assault Unit 30. Also there were evidently things about CSDIC's contribution that he either kept quiet about or didn't know. Still interesting though.
A November release:
by Tony InsallDescription:
In this extraordinary book, historian Tony Insall reveals how some of the most striking achievements of the Norwegian resistance were the detailed reports produced by intelligence agents living in the dangerous conditions of the country's desolate wilderness.
A definitive appraisal of Anglo-Norwegian WWII cooperation, Secret Alliances provides remarkable insights into the uniquely close political relationship that afforded powerful assistance for a successful resistance movement. Using previously unpublished archival material from London, Oslo and Moscow, Insall explores how SIS and SOE developed productive links with their Norwegian counterparts and examines the crucial intelligence from the Security Service and Bletchley Park codebreakers who supported their sabotage operations.
Offering dramatic details on operations such as gunnerside which targeted the heavy water plant in Vemork in order to foil the Nazis plans to build an atomic bomb and the sinking of the Tirpitz in November 1944, Secret Alliances is an authoritative new perspective on some of the most remarkable exploits of the Second World War.
One of my old army platoon commanders has lent me one of his favourite WW2 books to read. Its titled "One Day in August" and its on the background to the failed assault on Dieppe in 1942. Here are a few interesting facts about the German Enigma machine from the book:
"As one account later claimed, it could encipher 'every book on earth … differently without the machine settings having to be repeated'."
And:
"According to one pre-war estimate, one Enigma machine could produce 10.5 quadrillion possible keys for each message, meaning it would take a thousand enemy cryptographers working with for captured or copies keys close to 1.8 billion years to test them all."
One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada's Tragedy at Dieppe by David O'Keefe
A January 2022 release:
by Dan SharpDescription:
The cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park cracked the German Enigma code but how did the information they deciphered win the war? Breaking the Luftwaffe shows how the deciphered messages, known as ULTRA intelligence, informed almost every move of the USAAF's Eighth Air Force bomber fleet from 1943 to the end of the war.
Timely transmission intercepts told the Americans where and when Luftwaffe reinforcements would arrive so their airfields could be bombed, it revealed the exact location of hidden factories building the Me 262 jet fighter, it showed what targets the Germans would defend to the death and what they would allow to be destroyed.
The fury and desperation of the Germans as the daylight bombing raids steadily throttled the Luftwaffe is graphically revealed in their own words via ULTRA intelligence. Historian Dan Sharp assesses the impact of the American bombing campaign as it followed the guiding light of ULTRA to the Luftwaffe's ultimate destruction.
Ironically, I would have to disagree with the stretegic boming as being a great factor in the defeat of the Luftwaffe. From over 100 interviews with major personalities from both sides of the air war, it is clear that tactical fighter bombers did more to thwart the Luftwaffe on the ground. Albert Speer reconfigured the aircraft industry, and as a result 1944 produced more fighters than in any year of the war. This includes the Me-262. See my book "The Me-262 Stormbird" which is full of interviews.
What killed the Luftwaffe was 1-Pilot attrition, 2-tactical attacks upon rail and road networks that limited transportation of materiel, 3-Hitting the petroleum facilities and ball bearing plants, 4-targeting of ammunition supply points and manufacturing centers.
An May 2021 release:
by Elizabeth Kate VigursDescription:
Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. But while some are widely known—Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan—others have had their stories largely overlooked.
Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all thirty-nine female agents. Tracing their journeys from early recruitment to work undertaken in the field, to evasion from, or capture by, the Gestapo, Vigurs shows just how greatly missions varied. Some agents were more adept at parachuting. Some agents’ missions lasted for years, others’ less than a few hours. Some survived, others were murdered. By placing the women in the context of their work with the SOE and the wider war, this history reveals the true extent of the differences in their abilities and attitudes while underlining how they nonetheless shared a common mission and, ultimately, deserve recognition both collectively and individually.
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945Written by head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and code maker. Marks strikes me as an odd genius, and I would not be surprised if he overstates some of his role.
That said he trained /participated in training SOE agents and tried to get the word out that SOE was compromised in places like Denmark. Clearly he took as personal the loss of agents and his guilt may have carried over into his later careers not all successful but also in some strange films.
The Secret History of MI6
Not finished with this yet but there was apparently little love lost between SOE and SIS. too much competition for agents and major differences in goals. SOE was given to both major and minor stikes no matter what SIS felt was the cost paid for in German efforts to hunt down agents.
Phrodrick wrote: "Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945Written by head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and code maker. Marks strikes me as an odd genius, a..."
Some interesting books there Phrodrick!
I have just finished David Abrutat's Vanguard: The True Stories of the Reconnaissance and Intelligence Missions behind D-Day and posted a review. Overall it's flawed but valuable - nothing a thorough edit wouldn't fix.
Nice review Derek, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the book with the rest of the group, much appreciated.
Vanguard: The True Stories of the Reconnaissance and Intelligence Missions behind D-Day by David Abrutat
A January 2021 release:
by Gershom GorenbergDescription:
When the Nazis broke the Black Code, used by American diplomatic missions around the world, they were able to get detailed portrayals of British positions and weaknesses in North Africa, sometimes just a few hours after they were written. Using this information, under Rommel's command, they marched swiftly and terrifyingly toward Alexandria, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Middle East.
But Allied forces had broken the Nazis' code, Enigma, as well. They soon discovered they were leaking information, and set off on a fevered and high-stakes search for the source.
War of Shadows is the cinematic story of the race for information in North African theater of World War II, and the battle of cryptographers on both sides of it. Years in the making, this book is a feat of historical research and storytelling, and a rethinking of the popular narrative of the war. It portrays the war not as an inevitable clash of heroes and villains but a spiraling series of failures and accidents-one that spread into Africa and nearly beyond.
Jerome wrote: "A January 2021 release: by Gershom GorenbergDescription:
..."
An odd book description: "An award-winning journalist and historian tells the story of the Nazis' brutal march into Egypt, which seemed bound for Israel..."
There was no Israel then.
Ambitious !I've noticed a lot of book descriptions are written 'headline style'.
A February 2021 release:
by Larry LoftisDescription:
When Aline Griffith was born in a quiet suburban New York hamlet, no one had any idea that she would go on to live “a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorious” (Time). As the US enters the Second World War, the young college graduate is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes.
Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services—forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and titled Europeans, any of whom could be an enemy agent. Against this glamorous backdrop of galas and dinner parties, she recruits sub-agents and engages in deep-cover espionage to counter Nazi tactics in Madrid.
Even after marrying the Count of Romanones, one of the wealthiest men in Spain, Aline secretly continues her covert activities, being given special assignments when abroad that would benefit from her impeccable pedigree and social connections.
Filled with twists, romance, and plenty of white-knuckled adventures fit for a James Bond film, The Princess Spy brings to vivid life the dazzling adventures of a remarkable American woman who risked everything to serve her country.
Jerome wrote: "A February 2021 release: by Larry LoftisDescription:
When Aline Gr..."
I've read several of Aline, Countess of Romanones's books, including The Spy Wore Red. It would be interesting to get someone's take on her work.
A December release:
by Nicholas ReedDescription:
Major Ronnie Reed was case officer for the infamous Agent Zigzag and the face behind Operation Mincemeat. But how did this young BBC radio operator, with no money and qualifications to speak of, reach such an important position in his twenties? Why did Agent Zigzag (Eddie Chapman) give Ronnie his Iron Cross, awarded to Zigzag by Hitler himself? And how, within 10 years following World War II, did Ronnie find himself heading the anti-Russian department of MI5, dealing with notorious spies such as Philby, Burgess and Maclean? In an interview filmed in 1994, shortly before Ronnie's death, he revealed his remarkable story to his son, Nicholas. Here, Nicolas Reed reproduces that interview and fills in the background.
Jerome wrote: "A February 2021 release: by Larry LoftisDescription:
When Aline Gr..."
Thanks, Jerome, that looks good.
Manray9 wrote: "Jerome wrote: "A January 2021 release: by [author:Gershom Gorenberg|15409..."He probably couldn't bring himself to actually refer to it as Palestine...
Liam wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "Jerome wrote: "A January 2021 release: by [author:Gershom..."Yeah, Liam, that's kind of what I suspect. Odd given the other books he's written.
By the way, regarding "Intelligence Operations & Units During WW2"- War Report - Office of Strategic Services: Vol. 1 Washington Organization & War Report - Office of Strategic Services: Vol. 2 Operations In The Field, which were put together by Kermit Roosevelt Jr. after the war, have been de-classified at this point. I have placed links to the texts in the "URL" box, so if you follow the links above, you will be able to either read them online or download PDFs to read later. These are the original, un-expurgated official U.S. Government documents, not the commercial versions published under Mr. Roosevelt's name in 1976...
An August 2021 release:
by Rebecca DonnerDescription:
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a PhD program in Berlin and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings in her apartment---a small band of political activists that grew into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. She helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and wrote leaflets denouncing Hitler's regime, slipping them into mailboxes, public restrooms, phone booths. When the first shots of the Second World War were fired, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court, a panel of five judges sentenced her to six years at a concentration camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded.
Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German Resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now.
Fusing elements of biography, political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner brilliantly interweaves family archives, original research, exclusive interviews with survivors, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, enthralling story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history.
Jerome wrote: "A May 2021 release: by Rebecca Donner All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to HitlerB..."
Thanks for the point out Jerome. Pretty sure I will get this one.
A June 2021 release:
by Brian Masaru HayashiDescription:
Spies deep behind enemy lines; double agents; a Chinese American James Bond; black propaganda radio broadcasters; guerrilla fighters; pirates; smugglers; prostitutes and dancers as spies; and Asian Americans collaborating with Axis Powers.
All these colorful individuals form the story of Asian Americans in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of today's CIA. Brian Masaru Hayashi brings to light for the first time the role played by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans in America's first centralized intelligence agency in its fight against the Imperial Japanese forces in east Asia during World War II. They served deep behind enemy lines gathering intelligence for American and Chinese troops locked in a desperate struggle against Imperial Japanese forces on the Asian continent. Other Asian Americans produced and disseminated statements by bogus peace groups inside the Japanese empire to weaken the fighting resolve of the Japanese. Still others served with guerrilla forces attacking enemy supply and communication lines behind enemy lines. Engaged in this deadly conflict, these Asian Americans agents encountered pirates, smugglers, prostitutes, and dancers serving as the enemy's spies, all the while being subverted from within the OSS by a double agent and without by co-ethnic collaborators in wartime Shanghai.
Drawing on recently declassified documents, Asian American Spies challenges the romanticized and stereotyped image of these Chinese, Japanese, and Korean American agents--the Model Minority-while offering a fresh perspective on the Allied victory in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
A July 2021 release:
by Evert KleynhansDescription:
In 1939, when the Union of South Africa entered the war on Britain's side, the German government secretly reached out to the anti-war political opposition, and to the leadership of the pro-fascist Ossewabrandwag. The Nazis' aim was to spread sedition in South Africa and to undermine the Allied war effort. To this end, they even offered to supply weapons to the Ossewabrandwag. But the critical strategic importance of the sea route round the Cape of Good Hope meant that the Germans were also after naval intelligence. Soon U-boat packs were sent to operate in South African waters, to deadly effect. With the help of the Ossewabrandwag, a network of German spies was established to gather important political and military intelligence and relay it back to the Reich. Agents would use a variety of channels to send coded messages to Axis diplomats in nearby Mozambique. Meanwhile, police detectives and MI5 agents hunted in vain for illegal wireless transmitters.
Drawing on numerous primary and archival sources, Hitler's South African Spies presents an unrivalled account of the German intelligence networks that operated in wartime South Africa and investigates the true threat level presented by Nazi Germany. It includes a fascinating account of the Royal Navy's signals intelligence network in southern Africa and also details the hunt in post-war Europe for witnesses to help the South African government bring charges of high treason against key Ossewabrandwag members.
An April 2021 release:
by Peter KornickiDescription:
When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who interrogated them? When Japanese maps and plans were captured on the battlefield, who deciphered them for Britain?
When Great Britain found itself at war with Japan in December 1941, there was a linguistic battle to be fought--but Britain was hopelessly unprepared. Eavesdropping on the Emperor traces the men and women with a talent for languages who were put on crash courses in Japanese, and unfolds the history of their war. Some were sent with their new skills to India; others to Mauritius, where there was a secret radio intercept station; or to Australia, where they worked with Australian and American codebreakers. Translating the despatches of the Japanese ambassador in Berlin after his conversations with Hitler; retrieving filthy but valuable documents from the battlefield in Burma; monitoring Japanese airwaves to warn of air-raids--Britain depended on these forgotten 'war heroes'. The accuracy of their translations was a matter of life or death, and they rose to the challenge. Based on declassified archives and interviews with the few survivors, this fascinating, globe-trotting book tells their stories.
A June release:
by David A. PriceDescription:
Decoding the communication of the Nazi high command was imperative for the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Nazi missives were encrypted by the Tunny cipher, a code that was orders of magnitude more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma code. But Tommy Flowers, a maverick English working-class engineer, devised the ingenious, daring, and controversial plan to build a machine that could think at breathtaking speed and break the code in nearly real time. Together with the pioneering mathematician Max Newman and Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing, Flowers and his team produced--against the odds, the clock, and a resistant leadership--Colossus, the world's first digital electronic computer, the machine that would help bring the war to an end.
With fascinating detail and illuminating insight, David A. Price's Geniuses at War tells, for the first time, the mesmerizing story of the great minds behind Colossus, and chronicles their remarkable feats of engineering genius that ushered in the dawn of the digital age.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
Code of Silence: How Australian Women Helped Win the War (other topics)Code of Silence: How Australian Women Helped Win the War (other topics)
The Other Codebreakers: Breaking the Non-Military Codes at Bletchley Park and Beyond (other topics)
G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI’s Search for American Traitors, Collaborators, and Spies in World War II Europe (other topics)
G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI’s Search for American Traitors, Collaborators, and Spies in World War II Europe (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Diana Thorp (other topics)Diana Thorp (other topics)
Harold Liberty (other topics)
Stephen Harding (other topics)
Richard Duckett (other topics)
More...
I think we understand that when the Germans "Turned the Island upside down" it was not just a matter of upsetting tables. Moss and Fermor put some thought into making it clear that this was an SOE action not the local resistance. How much that mattered to the Gremans is something I DNK.
There was some thinking at the British High Command level that the taking of a German General was perhaps not that big of a victory. Again I DNK.