Tony S. (flashnm) reviewed The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945 on + 5 more book reviews
Interesting war history book. Author discusses in depth about deception done against the Germans, Including the agent code names and locations. He also talks about the British war strategies for espionage and counterespionage.
Tom W. (tomwill) -
I really enjoyed learning about this part of WWII. The Brits won the intelligence game against the Germans. This book summarizes all the German agents the Brits turned and used against the Germans. It is written as a paper justifying the double agent system and it's successes.
Thomas F. (hardtack) -
While this is a good introduction as to how the British ran a double cross spy system from their country, it is somewhat dated, as it was written in 1972. I do like the fact that it spends time describing the policy issues and techniques as to how they ran the German agents. Still, this might be boring for many readers, but if you are a student of WWII, then it is very useful. There are many other books which go into greater detail, and make for more enjoyable reading, and I have a entire shelf or more of them.
You really can't understand World War II unless you are familiar with the intelligence side of the war.
What is interesting about this book is that the author constantly refers to "secret sources" when referring to proof on how effective the double cross was to fooling the Germans. This is because the book was written before the breaking of the German Enigma Code was declassified. When that happened, how historians and other understood the intelligence 'games' of WW II completely changed. The Brits were reading the German secret messages and knew how the Germans rated their spies.
NOTE: What the British did for the German spies in Britain, the Germans did to the Allied spy system in Holland. Every Allied agent in Holland was captured and turned against the Allies. What is interesting is that the Allies, just like the Germans did for their system in Britain, ignored clues that these spies were compromised.
You really can't understand World War II unless you are familiar with the intelligence side of the war.
What is interesting about this book is that the author constantly refers to "secret sources" when referring to proof on how effective the double cross was to fooling the Germans. This is because the book was written before the breaking of the German Enigma Code was declassified. When that happened, how historians and other understood the intelligence 'games' of WW II completely changed. The Brits were reading the German secret messages and knew how the Germans rated their spies.
NOTE: What the British did for the German spies in Britain, the Germans did to the Allied spy system in Holland. Every Allied agent in Holland was captured and turned against the Allies. What is interesting is that the Allies, just like the Germans did for their system in Britain, ignored clues that these spies were compromised.
