Most helpful client reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Superb book on OSS spies inside Nazi Germany
By Frank
This is a superb book on a little-told aspect of World War II espionage — the infiltration of OSS spies into Nazi Germany, and their tales of survival (or capture) while attempting to gather intelligence, and send it to the Allies, from inside one of the most repressive police states for the duration of wartime. This book is FULL of arousing and attention holding tales and insights, providing sufficient detail to be rich, but not sufficient to be stilted. The book reads like a good spy novel, except fiction is bounded by realm of the possible, and these are real people.
This book goes well beyond “this happened, and then that happened.” The author explains the applicable history and structure of Nazi Germany, and examines the political and psychological pressures on the respective countries, spy organizations, and on the agents themselves. Worker activists and communists were helpful to the Allies as spies for the duration of the war, but dumped soon afterward.
One tale is of “Cicero,” the Albanian valet to the British ambassador to Ankara, who stole volumes of critical data from the ambassador’s safe and sold it to the Germans, including the “Overlord” code name of the Normandy invasion. Even after being warned, the British permitted Cicero to stay in his position for months. Yet another twist happens as conflicts and jealousies within German intelligence led the Germans to discount the actual intelligence Cicero provided. And as the final twist, the £300,000 remunerated by the Germans to Cicero was all counterfeit money.
One of the most arousing and attention holding stories is how the Germans came to build their “last stand” National Redoubt in Austria. It started as a completely mistaken OSS intelligence rumor — the Germans had no such plan. But when the Germans intercepted the American radio report of such “German plans,” the National Redoubt idea was sent to Hitler and implemented. A lot of our scarce espionage capablenesses were misdirected to examining enemy plans in the “National Redoubt” area for the duration of the war. American troops at the end of the European war left Berlin to the Russians, and turned to Austria to vanquish the very same almost-empty “National Redoubt” chimera we’d created.
One helpful clear or deep perception of the book was on the issue of whether the majority of standard Germans knew the intention of the concentration camps. One competent spy, doing his best to make observations, with an anti-Nazi bias (both characteristics different from most Germans), reported that the only data most Germans had of the intention of the concentration camps came from what they may have heard from American propaganda, which they dismissed, because Allied anti-German propaganda in World War I had been so exaggerated. The majority of Germans, if they knew of the camps, assumed they were places of confinement and not extermination. This did not apply, of course, to the minority of Germans involved with the camps, and perhaps those living near the camps.
The author goes into the psychology of what makes a good spy, in a very paranoid “papers, please” regime, who is always pushing the envelope, always at the the risk of capture and torture and perchance execution, but yet will have to survive in order to pass his/her data back to the Allies. What was the right type of man or woman to send into Nazi Germany with an crucial and delicate mission? (One description: “The idealisti campaigner was honorable and devious, inconspicuous and audacious, quick and prudent, zealous and cool.”) Should the OSS recruit usual captured German soldiers? Was it ethical to make promises to potential spies which couldn’t be kept? How could the OSS tell who was telling the truth, and who had contrary motivations — or determine who had the reputation to carry out well in uttermost circumstances?
I highly commend this book for any individual mesmerized in politics, history, or espionage.
2 of 2 humans found the following review helpful.
The Spy’s Spy Book
By Dan. C
This is the amazing story the the O.S.S america’s primary unfeigned intelligence service. This is the dazaling story of the 200 O.S.S agents that risked their life and pierced the German 3rd reich. it will compell you with it’s stories of heroism and danger. This is veritably one of the greatest spy books ever written and if you don’t read you miss a part of America’s classic spy history.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The Spy’s Spy Book
By Dan. C
This is the unfeigned story of America’s primary espionage service the OSS. This book holds story of adenture and heroism. For any person that likes adventure and spies this book is for you. ONe of the truely outstanding spy books of the century
See all 3 client reviews…
