THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
LAND, AIR & SEA
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Intelligence Operations & Units During WW2
Very interesting article, thanks for posting the link Liz V.
A September release:
by Beverley Driver EddyDescription:
In June 1942, the U.S. Army began recruiting immigrants, the children of immigrants, refugees, and others with language skills and knowledge of enemy lands and cultures for a special military intelligence group being trained in the mountains of northern Maryland and sent into Europe and the Pacific. Ultimately, 15,000 men and some women received this specialized training and went on to make vital contributions to victory in World War II. This is their story, which Beverley Driver Eddy tells thoroughly and colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie Boys.
The army recruited not just those fluent in German, French, Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, and other languages—as well as some 200 Native Americans and 200 WACs. They were trained in photo interpretation, terrain analysis, POW interrogation, counterintelligence, espionage, signal intelligence (including pigeons), mapmaking, intelligence gathering, and close combat.
Many landed in France on D-Day. Many more fanned out across Europe and around the world completing their missions, often in cooperation with the OSS and Counterintelligence Corps, sometimes on the front lines, often behind the lines. The Ritchie Boys’ intelligence proved vital during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. They helped craft the print and radio propaganda that wore down German homefront morale. If caught, they could have been executed as spies. After the war they translated and interrogated at the Nuremberg trials. One participated in using war criminal Klaus Barbie as an anti-communist agent.
This is a different kind of World War II story, and Eddy tells it with conviction, supported by years of research and interviews.
Bruce Henderson's Sons and Soldiers is next on my list to read. I look forward to getting my hands on to that September release! Thanks for sharing!
Jerome wrote: "A September release: by Beverley Driver EddyDescription:
In June 1942, th..."
Wow, Jerome, that looks good. We in the UK have seen a great deal about SOE, OSS and the Resistance movements but nothing about Ritchie Boys (and girls). Thanks for sharing.
Liz V. wrote: "https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-5621..."Another interesting story, thanks for posting the link.
A June release:
by James ParrisDescription:
In the darkest days of the Second World War, with Europe falling under German occupation and Britain facing invasion, a 36-year-old refugee from the Nazis, Louis de Wohl, made a curious offer to British Intelligence. Based on the widely-held belief that Hitler’s every action was guided by his horoscope, de Wohl claimed he could reveal precisely what advice the Fuhrer’s astrologers were giving him. Rather than being dismissed out of hand as a crank, Churchill could see de Wohl's worth for himself. He was subsequently made an army captain and quartered in the Grosvenor House Hotel, from where he passed detailed astrological readings to the War Office and Naval Intelligence, before being transferred to work for the SOE in the United States.
Was it possible that senior military and naval intelligence officers could take the ancient and arcane practice of astrology seriously? And was de Wohl genuine or merely a charlatan? In The Astrologer, author James Parris examines the evidence, including recently released files, and reaches remarkable conclusions about this bizarre aspect of the war.
Jerome wrote: "A June release: by James ParrisDescription:
In the darkest days of the Second World W..."
That looks fascinating, Jerome, thanks for sharing. I have been fascinated with WWII since I was a kid, and for me it was always about the generalship, the fighting, the weapons and men. It was years before all this other really interesting and, to me at the time, surprising facts began to emerge: the drugs given to the men to either keep them going or fire them up into a fighting frenzy (probably responsible for some of the incomprehensible cruelty), and the astrological aspects. I'll be interested to hear what you think of the book.
A December release:
by Robert K. SuttonDescription:
Now a green open space enjoyed by residents, Fort Hunt, Virginia, about 15 miles south of Washington, DC. was the site of one of the highest-level, clandestine operations during World War II.
Shortly after the United States entered World War II, the US military realized that it had to work on exploiting any advantages it might gain on the Axis Powers. One part of these endeavors was to establish a secret facility not too close, but also not too far from the Pentagon which would interrogate and eavesdrop on the highest-level Nazi prisoners and also translate and analyze captured German war documents.
That complex was established at Fort Hunt, known by the code name: PO Box 1142. The American servicemen who interrogated German prisoners or translated captured German documents were young, bright, hardworking, and absolutely dedicated to their work. Many of them were Jews, who had escaped Nazi Germany as children—some had come to America with their parents, others had escaped alone, but their experiences and those they had been forced to leave behind meant they all had personal motivation to do whatever they could to defeat Nazi Germany. They were perfect for the difficult and complex job at hand. They never used corporal punishment in interrogations of German soldiers but developed and deployed dozens of tricks to gain information.
The Allies won the war against Hitler for a host of reasons, discussed in hundreds of volumes. This is the first book to describe the intelligence operations at PO Box 1142 and their part in that success. It will never be known how many American lives were spared, or whether the war ended sooner with the programs at Fort Hunt, but they doubtless did make a difference. Moreover these programs gave the young Jewish men stationed there the chance to combat the evil that had befallen them and their families.
Jerome wrote: "A June release: by James ParrisDescription:
In the darkest days of the Second World W..."
Sounds like a fascinating book Jerome. I haven't seen it before (one more for the TBR!) but I did come across this intriguing entry in the History of NID (ADM 223/464, P.272 at the UK National Archives).
"During the summer of 1940, D.N.I. came into contact with Mr. Louis de Wohl, an Austro-Hungarian living in England, who had been studying astrology for twelve years. It had been known for some time that Hitler attached importance to astrological advice; the names of his advisers were known and that he had recently acquired the services of a Swiss, Brunhuebuer. Because it is claimed that astrology is an exact science and leads reputable astrologers to the same conclusions, it seemed possible to ascertain what advice was, in fact, being offered to Hitler. On Sept. 9th 1940, D.N.I. sent a docket on this subject to the First Lord, the First Sea Lord and the V.C.N.S. In it he pointed out that the significance of Hitler's astrological researches was not whether they were productive of the truth but that Hitler believed in them, and he concluded that this approach “might well be turned to practical use”.
To D.N.I.’s docket was attached a report by Mr. de Wohl on “The Astrological Tendencies of Herr Hitler's Horoscope, Sept. 1940 - April 1941”. In his foreward [sic], dated Sept. 14th 1940, Mr. de Wohl said; “Hitler regards the good and bad aspects of his horoscope as the factors of good and bad luck.. When he is up against odds, he will wait until the aspects are good. That is why he waited from Oct. 1939 to April 1940 before invading Norway and Denmark.” The practical purpose of his report, said Mr. de Wohl, was to find out when Hitler was likely to undertake major action, and, secondly, what periods, regarded by him as unlucky, were suitable for attacks upon him.
Mr. de Wohl proceeded to an elaborate astrological analysis, month by month, expressed in astrological terms and in plain language. His general conclusions were that Hitler would be unlucky Sept. 16th 1940 to October 19th, 1940; March 8th, 1941 – April 10th, 1941; April 16th, 1941 – May 5th, 1941; and that his period of luck was from the end of October 1940 until the end of the first week of March.
The D.N.I. attached enough importance to this to suggest that “the formation of a group of sincere astrologers prepared to work on these subjects is by no means a fantastic idea”, and the V.C.N.S. commented; “We might have a new department of N.I.D.”. The 1st Sea Lord, perhaps not having clearly distinguished in his mind between what is true and what Hitler believed to be true, said; “Interesting, but I should like to work on something more solid than horoscopes”, and Mr Alexander briefly agreed. It is worth remarking that Mr. de Wohl emphasised Sept. 15th 1940 as the day on which, for a period, luck would turn against Hitler. “From Sept 15th on, major enterprises are decidedly unlucky. Action taken against Hitler from Sept 15th. on would have discouraging effect”. On that day, 185 German aeroplanes were brought down. It was the turning point in the Battle of Britain."
Jerome wrote: "A December release: by Robert K. SuttonDescription:
Now a green open..."
Another one for the TBR! Does it cover Camp Tracy as well?
My own Castaways of the Kriegsmarine - How shipwrecked German seamen helped the Allies win the Second World War and Castaways in Question: A story of British naval interrogators from WW1 to denazification, and Helen Fry's The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II look at the co-operation between Op-16-Z and UK CSDIC both before and after the US entry to the war. Godfrey, Trench and Izzard were the key Brits, Riheldaffer and Albrecht the naval movers on the US side. Interestingly, Trench and Riheldaffer may have known each other from WW1. The latter served in USS Fanning out of Queenstown (Cobh), where Trench finished the war as port intelligence officer.
Theresa wrote: "Bruce Henderson's Sons and Soldiers is next on my list to read. I look forward to getting my hands on to that September release! Thanks for sharing!"You will see my endorsement on the back jacket, Bruce asked me to endorse, and after reading, I was glad to.
Sarah L. Johnson's blog post on Bletchley and The Rose Code by Kate Quinn :https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Picked up a copy of this new Australian release on Z Special Unit operations during WW2:
Secret and Special: The untold story of Z Special Unit in the Second World War by Will Davies
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Picked up a copy of this new Australian release on Z Special Unit operations during WW2:[book:Se..."Ooh, that looks good, Rick.
It received a very good review in the local paper yesterday (Canberra Times).
Jerome wrote: "An August 2021 release:
by Rebecca DonnerDescriptio..."
Thanks so much for the shout-out, Jerome. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days is a work of nonfiction that's a fusion of biography, espionage thriller, and scholarly detective story. I conducted extensive archival research in Germany, England, Russia, and the U.S., and consulted primary-source documents in my family archives as well. My great-great-aunt is Mildred Harnack, the only American woman in what came to be known as the Red Orchestra (she called it "the Circle").
Jerome wrote: "An August 2021 release: by Rebecca DonnerDescriptio..."
New pub date: August 3, 2021 !
Started this read tonight A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell 
A September release:
by Nicholas E. ReynoldsDescription:
The entire vast modern American intelligence system—the amalgam of three-letter spy services of many stripes—can be traced back to the dire straits that Britain faced at the end of June 1940. Before World War II, the US had no organization to recruit spies and steal secrets or launch secret campaigns against enemies overseas. It was only through Winston Churchill’s determination to mobilize the US to help in their fight against Hitler that the first American spy service was born, one that was built by scratch in the background of WWII.
In Need to Know, former CIA analyst and trained historian Nicholas Reynolds explores the birth, infancy, and adolescence of modern American intelligence. In this first definitive account, Reynolds combines little-known history and gripping spy stories to analyze the American codebreakers’ and spies’ origins and contributions to Allied victory, revealing how they laid the foundation for the Cold War—and all other conflicts to come.
A December release:
by Norman Ridley Description:
On 9 November 1939, two unsuspecting British agents of the Special Intelligence Services walked into a trap set by German Spymaster Reinhard Heydrich. Believing that they were meeting a dissident German general for talks about helping German military opposition to bring down Hitler and end the war, they were instead taken captive in the Dutch village of Venlo and whisked away to Germany for interrogation by the Gestapo. The incident was a huge embarrassment for the Dutch government and provided the Germans with significant intelligence about SIS operations throughout Europe.
The incident itself was an intelligence catastrophe but it also acts as a prism through which a number of other important narrative strands pass. Fundamental to the subterfuge perpetrated at Venlo were unsubstantiated but insistent rumours of high-ranking German generals plotting to overthrow the Nazi regime from within. After the humiliation suffered when Hitler tore up the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was anxious to see just how much truth there was in these stories; keen to rehabilitate his reputation through one last effort to find a peaceful rapprochement with Germany.
When Franz Fischer, a small-time petty crook and agent provocateur, persuaded British SIS operatives in the Netherlands that he could act as a go-between for the British government with disaffected German generals, the German Security chief Reinhard Heydrich stepped in and quietly took control of the operation. Heydrich’s boss, head of the Gestapo Heinrich Himmler, was anxious to explore the possibility of peace negotiations with Britain and saw an opportunity to exploit the situation for his personal benefit.
On the day before a crucial meeting of conspirators and British agents on the Dutch-German border, a bomb exploded in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich in the exact spot where Hitler had stood to deliver a speech only minutes earlier. The perpetrator was quickly arrested, and Hitler demanded that Himmler find evidence to show that the two events were intimately connected—the British agents were snatched hours later.
While the world was coming to terms with the fearsome power of German military might the British intelligence capability in northern Europe was consigned to the dustbin in the sleepy Dutch town of Venlo. This first full account of the Venlo incident explores the wider context of this German intelligence coup, and its consequences.
Well, althought Heydrich was in charge of the SD under Himmler, he was not a spy chief. Those duties fell to Heinrich Mueller who actually ran the Gestapo as of Sept. 5, 1939, appointed by Himmler personally while at a luncheon in Berlin. The Venlo operation was dictated by Heydrich, delegated to Mueller, so he was not personally instrumental in that, according to Karl Wolff, The Abwehr under Canaris was the initial group involved once they learned of the mission, but Himmler and Heydrich wanted complete control over ALL intelligence matters, which caused a great deal of friction b/w the SS, Navy, Luftwaffe and the Army. Wolff said that Gehlen had stated (referencing all the branches of the military) , that "it seems Hitler placed four large rats in a bag and shook it up, waiting to see which would still be alive when they were dumped out."
A May 2023 release:
by Frode LindgjerdetDescription:
To prevent German occupying forces in Norway from reinforcing their defenses during the final months of World War II, the Office of Strategic Services launched Operation Rype, with the mission of sabotaging the Nordland Railway in Mid-Norway. Rype was led by Major William E. Colby, later director of the CIA.
After several delays, the Norwegian Special Operations Group (NORSO) dropped over the Snåsa mountains on the night of March 24. Out of eight B-24s, only three dropped on target. One dropped in Sweden, the remaining four returned to Britain. Two of the B-24s crashed, killing all but one of their crews. Reinforcement and resupply of the unit failed due to extreme Arctic conditions.
Relying heavily on help from the Norwegian resistance, NORSO managed to sever the railway at two points. On both occasions, they withdrew with Germans hot on their tail. On May 2, a German patrol blundered into their camp, resulting in the killing of all of the Germans and one wounded Norwegian resistance fighter. Whether the Germans were killed in the ensuing firefight, or were executed later, has been hotly debated ever since.
After the war ended, NORSO was allowed down from the mountains, but were sent on bogus missions by the British commanders in Trondheim. They eventually managed to get recognition for their contribution to victory.
This new history of the operation is based on German, Norwegian, American and Swedish sources. It examines how the outcome of the operation was affected by the limitations of equipment in sub-Arctic conditions, and British-American rivalry and cooperation throughout the operation.
Sounds like an interesting book, thanks for posting those details Jerome.
Its a 2008 book and a 400 comment thread so apologies if the is a re listing:
Under orders From Winston Churchill a number of good looking British Officers were sent into pre-Pearl Harbor Washington to conduct a secret charm offensive.
One of the players was Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter of Norwegian descent. As In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , and a host of many, mostly children's stories.
A November release:
by Nigel WestDescription:
Modern historians have consistently condemned the Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence service, and its SS equivalent, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), as incompetent and even corrupt organizations. However, newly declassified MI5, CIA and US Counterintelligence Corps files shed a very different light on the structure, control and capabilities of the German intelligence machine in Europe, South America, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
It is usually stated that, under Admiral Canaris, the Abwehr neglected its main functions, its attention being focused more on trying to bring down Hitler. Yet Canaris greatly expanded the Abwehr from 150 personnel into a vast world-wide organization which achieved many notable successes against the Allies. Equally, the SD’s tentacles spread across the Occupied territories as the German forces invaded country after country across Europe.
In this in-depth study of the Abwehr’s rise to power, 1935 to 1943, its activities in Russia, the Baltic States, Ukraine, Japan, China, Manchuko and Mongolia are examined, as well as those in Thailand, French Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the Arab nations. In this period, the Abwehr built a complex network of individual agents with transmitters operating from commercial, diplomatic and consular premises. Before, and in the early stages of the war, it later became apparent, the Abwehr was controlling a number of agents in Britain. Indeed, it was only after the war that the scale of the Abwehr’s activities became known, the organization having of around 20,000 members.
For the first time, the Abwehr’s development and the true extent of its operations have been laid bare, through official files and even of restored documents previously redacted. The long list of operations and activities of the Abwehr around the world includes the efforts of an agent in the USA who was arrested after a bizarre attempt to obtain a quantity of blank American passports by impersonating a senior State Department official, Edward Weston, an Under-Secretary of State. Also, former U.S. Marine, Kurt Jahnke, who was recruited to collect information about the American munitions production and send it on to Germany. These are just two of the numerous and absorbing accounts in this all-embracing study.
Having explored (but not exhausted) Allied prisoner of war interrogation in Europe and the Middle East it's time to cast the net wider. I've been reading up on the US work at Fort Hunt and Camp Tracy and just started looking at Indooroopilly near Brisbane - bought 'Japanese Prisoners of War' by Philip Towie and Peter Dunn's 'Allied Translator and Interpreter Section' (eBook). Still need to dig out more on Featherston (NZ), Red Fort (Delhi), Colombo/Kandy and Kilindini. This is fun!
A March 2023 release:
by John LisleDescription:
The untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch, AKA “The Dirty Tricks Department,” and their role in WWII.
During World War II, a secret group of scientists developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Led by a cunning New England chemist nicknamed “Professor Moriarty,” their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects. The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA.
A July 2023 release:
by Urs BrennerDescription:
There is no book in English about the wartime Berlin ‘salon’ run by Kitty Schmidt under the secret control of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution.
"Salon Kitty" was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic - the city of "Cabaret." But after the Nazis took power, it became something more dangerous: a spying centre with every room wired for sound, staffed by female agents specially selected by the SS to coax secrets from their VIP clients. Masterminded by Reinhard Heydrich, the spymaster whom Hitler himself called "the man with the iron heart," the exclusive establishment turned listening post was patronised by the Nazi leaders themselves, not knowing that hidden ears were listening.
The Madam and the Spymaster reveals the sensational true story of this forgotten part of espionage history. The deep research undertaken by Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Dr Julia Schrammel sheds new light on Nazi methods of control and coercion, and the way sex was abused for their own perverse purposes.
A November release:
by Wieław RogalskiDescription:
The primary aim of Special Operations Executive: Polish Section is to ascertain the ultimate effectiveness of SOE assistance provided to the Second Polish Republic during the Second World War.
The first chapter examines early contacts made between British and Polish military authorities following the signing of the pact of mutual assistance between the two countries in 1939. The second chapter analyses certain issues pertaining to the Polish forces prior to the opening of conflict, namely the shortages of modern equipment, military know-how and a defensive plan. Chapter three looks at the Polish defensive war, its failure and the consequences of defeat. The narrative then follows the retreat of the Polish Government together with remnants of the Polish forces to France and then to Britain. This is followed by an examination of the nascent underground resistance movement. The subsequent chapter looks SOE origins and the establishment of SOE Polish Section, focusing on the unique relationship that developed between the Poles and the Polish Section. It considers the training of Polish Special Forces in Britain by SOE and their subsequent parachuting deep behind enemy lines in Poland. The difficulties surrounding the establishment of an effective air bridge between the West and occupied Poland and how ensuing problems were overcome is also considered.
Events drastically change when the Soviet Union joins the western allies after Operation Barbarossa. This precipitated a significant adjustment in the relationship between the Polish Section, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Poles. The difficulty being Moscow’s policy to dismantle the Second Republic in favor of a communist People’s Republic of Poland after the war. The conundrum for London was how to continue championing the Second Republic authorities exiled in London, whilst at the same time supporting the Soviet campaign on the Eastern Front. Thus, as the war progressed, Britain could not bring itself to alienate Moscow.
From Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski.Rémy, one of the leading Free French controllers in occupied France, reported that one of his agents was carrying a radio when he encountered a German check-point at a railway station. He noticed a small boy dragging a heavy suitcase and asked him to swap suitcases just through the check-point. After both has passed through successfully the agent remarked to the boy that it was good the Germans hadn’t opened his suitcase because of the radio inside. The little boy replied that it was also good that they hadn’t opened his because it was full of revolvers and hand grenades.
Manray9 wrote: "The little boy replied that it was also good that they hadn’t opened his because it was full of revolvers and hand grenades...."I got a good laugh out of that one!
That's a great story.
A December release:
by Chris McNabDescription:
On December 7, 1941, an imperial Japanese carrier strike force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, taking advantage of what was one of the most profound intelligence failures in US history. Galvanized into action, the branches of the U.S. military subsequently developed one of the greatest, albeit imperfect, intelligence-gathering and analysis networks of the combatant nations, opening an invaluable window onto the intentions of their enemies.
The picture of U.S. military intelligence during World War II is a complex one. It was divided between the fields of signal intelligence (SIGINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT), combat intelligence and War Department intelligence, and between numerous different organizations, including the Military Intelligence Division (MID), Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the many intelligence units organic to Army, Navy, Army Air Forces, and Marine Corps. The documents collected in this book reveal the theoretical and practical principles behind wartime intelligence gathering and analysis, from the frontline intelligence officer to the Washington-based code-breaker. They explain fundamentals such as how to observe and record enemy activity and intercept enemy radio traffic, through to specialist activities such as cryptanalysis, photoreconnaissance, prisoner interrogation, and undercover agent operations.
The painstaking work of an intelligence operator required a sharp, attentive mind, whether working behind a desk or under fire on the frontlines. The outputs from these men and women could ultimately make the difference between victory and defeat in battle.
A November release:
by David KenyonDescription:
Between 1941 and 1945, over eight hundred shiploads of supplies were delivered to the Soviet Union, protected by allied naval forces. Each journey was a battle against the elements, with turbulent seas, extreme cold, and the constant dread of torpedoes. These Arctic convoys have been mythologised as defenceless vessels at the mercy of deadly U-boats—but was this really the case?
David Kenyon explores the story of the war in the Arctic, revealing that the contest was more evenly balanced that previously thought. Battles included major ship engagements, aircraft carriers, and combat between surface ships. Amid this wide range of forces, Bletchley Park’s Naval Section played a decisive role in Arctic operations, with both sides relying heavily on Signals Intelligence to intercept and break each other’s codes. Kenyon presents a vivid picture of the Arctic theatre of war, unearthing the full-scale campaign for naval supremacy in northern waters.
An October release:
by Jason BellDescription:
In public life, Dr. Winthrop Bell of Halifax was a Harvard philosophy professor and wealthy businessman. As MI6 secret agent A12, he evaded gunfire and shook off pursuers to break open the emerging Nazi conspiracy in 1919 Berlin. His reports, the first warning of the Nazi plot for WWII, went directly to the man known as C, the mysterious founder of MI6, and to prime ministers. But a powerful fascist politician quietly worked to suppress his alerts. Nevertheless, his intelligence sabotaged the Nazis in ways only now revealed. Bell became a spy once again in the face of WWII. In 1939, he was the first to crack Hitler’s deadliest secret code: the Holocaust. At that time, the führer was a popular politician who said he wanted peace. Could anyone believe Bell’s shocking warning? Fighting an epic intelligence war from Ukraine, Russia and Poland to France, Germany, Canada and Washington, DC, A12 was the real-life 007, waging a single-handed fight against madmen bent on destroying the world. Without Bell’s astounding courage, the Nazis might just have won the war.
Informed by recently declassified documents, Cracking the Nazi Code is the first book to illuminate the astounding exploits of Winthrop Bell, Agent A12.
Thanks, Jerome!I often thank Mike for posting the E-Books that are free and on sale, but I neglect to thank you for finding the new releases, so I wanted to make sure I told you I appreciate that effort!
A November release:
by Mark HarmonDescription:
Hawaii, 1941. War clouds with Japan are gathering and the islands of Hawaii have become battlegrounds of spies, intelligence agents, and military officials - with the island's residents caught between them. Toiling in the shadows are Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U.S. fleet.
Douglas Wada's experiences in his native Honolulu include posing undercover as a newspaper reporter, translating wiretaps on the Japanese Consulate, and interrogating America's first captured POW of World War II, a submarine officer found on the beach. Takeo Yoshikawa is a Japanese spy operating as a junior diplomat with the consulate who is collecting vital information that goes straight to Admiral Yamamoto. Their dueling stories anchor Ghosts of Honolulu's gripping depiction of the world-changing cat and mouse games played between Japanese and US military intelligence agents (and a mercenary Nazi) in Hawaii before the outbreak of the second world war.
Also caught in the upheaval are Honolulu's innocent residents - including Douglas Wada's father - who endure the war's anti-Japanese fervor and a cadre of intelligence professionals who must prevent Hawaii from adopting the same destructive mass internments as California.
Scrutinizing long-buried historical documents, NCIS star Mark Harmon and co-author Leon Carroll, a former NCIS Special Agent, have brought forth a true-life NCIS story of deception, discovery, and danger. Ghosts of Honolulu depicts the incredible high stakes game of naval intelligence and the need to define what is real and what only appears to be real.
Thanks for posting those details, Jerome. I am sure a number of group members will be interested in the book once its released.
A January 2024 release:
by Tommaso PifferDescroption:
While the Big Three and their continental Allies fought against Nazi Germany, another war was under way on the continent: the war to shape the political landscape of post-war Europe. In the Balkans, the war overlapped with political and ethnic conflicts, engulfing the region in bloody civil wars. In Central and Eastern Europe, partisan movements engaged the Germans without losing sight of the danger posed by the arrival of the Red Army. In France and in Italy, the adoption of the slogans of national liberation provided the communist parties with a formidable democratic legitimacy, which established them as key players in the political lives of their countries.
The British and the Americans worked to stir up, support, control, and direct these resistance groups. London created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Washington the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), both of whom sent agents into occupied Europe to liaise directly with the guerilla groups. Through the Comintern, Moscow carefully coordinated the actions of the European communist parties with the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, which was acting for the first time as a key player in the arena of international relations.
The forests and the mountains where the partisans were fighting the Germans soon became a major part of the proxy war that the Big Three waged to shift the post-war geopolitical balance in their favour. Looking for the first time at the Big Three in a comparative study and spanning Europe from Yugoslavia to Poland, from Greece to France and Italy, this book vividly depicts and sharply analyses how this proxy war shaped the history of the post-war settlement. In so doing, Piffer deftly connects high political histories with history from below, making the book important reading for all those interested in the history of the war and cold war, communism and Resistance, and diplomacy and intelligence.
A June 2024 release:
by John S. MicgielDescription:
After the Battle of the Bulge—which had begun with a German attack that American intelligence failed to anticipate—the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), forerunner of the CIA, revamped its intelligence operations in Europe. Confronted with staff shortages and needing native language speakers, the OSS decided to enlist the cooperation of volunteers from occupied countries for intelligence-gathering operations. As part of Project Eagle, Polish soldiers were recruited and trained to go behind the lines of the Third Reich. Project Eagle tells this fascinating World War II story of intelligence and espionage that until now has been hidden away in the archives of the OSS.
The OSS had worked with Polish exiles throughout the war, but Project Eagle would mark a new and dramatic chapter in their cooperation. In early 1945, American intelligence recruited thirty-two Poles—a unique group of men who had been forcibly conscripted into the German Wehrmacht, were captured in France and Italy, and were pulled from Allied prisoner of war camps. They were then trained in intelligence gathering as well as espionage to assist the Allies in their invasion of Germany. Not long after—in March 1945—they parachuted behind enemy lines, equipped only with falsified documents and radios. For six weeks, up until Germany’s surrender, the Polish spy teams roved Germany, assisting ground commanders and providing counterintelligence assistance.
Sounds like something a bit different, thanks for the details Jerome!
An April 2024 release:
by Dermot TuringDescription:
Everyone knows the story of Enigma and secret codebreaking in the Second World War: the triumph of Bletchley Park over world-class cipher technology. Except that excellence in codebreaking was nearly betrayed by incompetence in codemaking.
German codebreakers were effective and Allied codes and ciphers were weak. With both sides reading each other’s codes, the biggest secret of all – that the codes had been broken – was now at risk. Sooner or later, on one side or the other, the cipher failures would become known, the systems would be changed and the most valuable source of intelligence would dry up.
Were it not for obstinacy, overconfidence and ostrichism. On both sides. The Germans demanded that the traitors be rooted out; the British stifled cipher questions beneath a tangle of committees. The codebreakers’ contest became a struggle to lose the cipher war.
From the very outset, the Enigma secret was one of treachery, betrayal and deception. This is the story of the people who fought behind the scenes for cipher security – and of the Enigma traitors.
Sounds very interesting. In my own work I have come across repeated warnings from prisoners of war that British mercantile and naval ciphers were compromised, yet the reaction seems to have been very sluggish.
An August 2024 release:
by Sara B. CastroDescription:
In the midst of World War II, the United States sent a liaison mission to the headquarters of Chinese Communist forces behind the lines in Yan'an, China. Nicknamed the "Dixie Mission," for its location in "rebel" territory, it was an interagency delegation that included intelligence officers from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The intelligence officers were there to gather intelligence that would help the war effort against Japan, but interagency and political conflicts erupted over whether or not the mission would expand beyond intelligence collection to operations with the Communists.
Mission to Mao is a social history of the OSS officers in the field and their clash with political appointees and Washington over the direction of the US relationship with the Chinese Communists. The book reveals the attempts of America's inexperienced intelligence officers to improvise operations and to try to define a role for themselves. The book takes us beyond the history of "China hands" versus American anticommunists who backed Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek, introducing more nuance. Sara B. Castro shows how potential benefits for the war effort were thwarted by politicization, but she also shows how the OSS officers overreached their authority and suffered from their own biases and blindspots. The book draws upon over 14,000 unpublished records from five archives plus numerous published white papers, memoirs, and scholarly studies to with a focus on the individual American intelligence officers who spent time in Yan'an working with Communist leaders.
A February 2024 release:
by Ronald Drabkin Description:
Frederick Rutland was an accomplished aviator, British WWI war hero, and real-life James Bond. He was the first pilot to take off and land a plane on a ship, a decorated warrior for his feats of bravery and rescue, was trusted by the admirals of the Royal Navy, had a succession of aeronautical inventions, and designed the first modern aircraft carrier. He was perhaps the most famous early twentieth-century naval aviator.
Despite all of this, and due mostly to class politics, Rutland was not promoted in the new Royal Air Force in the wake of WWI. This ignominy led the disgruntled Rutland to become a spy for the Japanese government. Plied with riches and given a salary ten times the highest-paid admiral, shuttled between Los Angeles and Tokyo where he lived in large mansions in both Beverly Hills and Yokohama, and insinuating himself into both LA high society and Japan’s high command, Rutland would go on to contribute to the Japanese navy with both strategic and technical intelligence. This included scouting trips to Pearl Harbor, investigations of military preparedness, and aircraft technology. All this while living a double life, frequenting private California clubs and hosting lavish affairs for Hollywood stars and military dignitaries in his mansion on the Los Angeles Bird Streets.
Supported by recently declassified FBI files and by incorporating unique and rare research through MI5 and Japanese Naval archives that few English speakers have access to, author Ronald Drabkin pieces together to completion, for the first time, this stranger-than-fiction story of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters of espionage history.
Jerome wrote: "A February 2024 release: by Ronald Drabkin Description:
Frederick Rutland..."
This sounds fascinating - a known but under-explored aspect of Rutland's life. Among his earlier achievements was a pioneering reconnaissance before the Battle of Jutland which might have shaped the course of the engagement - if his signals had been received.
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)
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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)
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https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/2...