THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion

Members can discuss any good book covering intelligence units and their operations during the Second World War in this area.

To kick start this new thread, here is a book covering one aspect of Russian intelligence operations during WW2:

by Vadim Berstein
Description:
SMERSH, acronym of the Russian phrase ‘Death to Spies’, is primarily known to readers as James Bond’s sinister opponent in Ian Fleming’s novels. Yet SMERSH was a real organization and just as diabolical as its fictional counterpart. No information was available on this organization until the fall of the Soviet Union, and its importance to WWII history is almost completely unknown to scholars and history readers alike. Ostensibly a military counterintelligence organization dedicated to fighting Nazis, SMERSH spent considerable time and effort terrifying its own, including writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was arrested for writing to a fellow officer. Its activities often strayed into the political sphere, exemplified by the arrests of many political leaders and foreign diplomats in Eastern Europe, including the famous rescuer of Hungarian Jews, Raoul Wallenberg, at the end of WWII.

While it was formally part of the Defence Commissariat, SMERSH was not under the control of the military hierarchy. In reality it was a secret service independent of the other Soviet security organizations. Its head, Viktor Abakumov, a shadowy and powerful figure whose biography is revealed here for the first time, reported directly to Joseph Stalin on a daily basis.

Based on a huge number of documents and memoirs available only in Russian, the book details all the known activities of SMERSH— its clever ‘radio games’, which used captured German officers to lure German intelligence into traps, mass vetting of Soviet troops who had been prisoners of the Germans, arrest and persecution of Red Army generals, infiltration of Nazi spy schools, participation in military tribunals and the ‘Special Board’ of the NKVD, and participation in the Nuremberg trials and the ‘Sovietization’ of Eastern Europe. Now, after ten years of research, a critical missing piece of the history of WWII and the Soviet secret services is finally exposed.

Reviews:
"Why is a book about SMERSH relevant today? As Mr. Birstein takes pains to point out, 'the present Russian government seems intent on whitewashing Stalin's atrocities and the history of the Soviet security services'." - The Washington Times

"Vadim Birstein's SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon has won the inaugural St Ermin's Hotel Intelligence Book of the Year Award 2012. Birstein's title is 'a very absorbing, thoroughly readable, extraordinarily detailed account of an organisation that...had a terrible, bloody history' according to the judges. - The Bookseller

"Dr. Vadim Birstein has written an authoritative and much-needed new study of the Soviet Union’s feared SMERSH counterintelligence agency ... bringing to life the increasingly forgotten harsh reality of the Communist police state." — Richard R. Valcourt, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence

One more book covering spies and Intel Ops from a pretty decent author:


by Ben Macintyre
Description:
In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory. In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring that Hitler kept an entire army awaiting a fake invasion, saving thousands of lives, and securing an Allied victory at the most critical juncture in the war.

The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it, and the generals who led it. But this epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspectives of the key individuals in the Double Cross System. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and a volatile Frenchwoman, whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. The D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled, and their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymaster, both German and British. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time.

With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.

Reviews:
“The story of D-Day – when 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy – as it’s never been told before….this amazing story shows how double agents and spies tricked the German army and saved thousands of Allied lives.” - New York Post

“Only with author Ben Macintyre’s scintillating account has this complex human drama, with all its tortuous twists and turns, finally received the cinematic treatment it deserves….This is edge-of-the seat stuff.” – WWII Magazine

“With the same skill and suspense he displayed in Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag….Macintyre effortlessly weaves the agents’ deliciously eccentric personalities with larger wartime events to shape a tale that reads like a top-notch spy thriller.” – Publishers Weekly

“Macintyre has written a tense, exciting real-life spy story that illuminates a largely obscure aspect of WWII.” – Booklist

“With his latest book, Double Cross, Ben Macintyre tells the astonishing true story of a bizarre group of misfit spies who played a critical role in the success of D-Day. The stories in this book, many of which have never before been told, are nothing short of incredible. Skillfully woven together, they form one of the most gripping narratives I have ever read.” – Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic

“Ben Macintyre and I work in the same period, and I should be reading him because he is such a scrupulous and insightful writer – a master historian. But, with Double Cross and his other excellent works, I always wind up reading him for pleasure. Double Cross may be his best yet, falling somewhere between top-class entertainment and pure addiction.” – Alan Furst, author of A Mission to Paris

"Ben Macintyre’s spellbinding account features an improbable cast of characters who pulled off a counter-intelligence feat that was breathtaking in its audacity. Their deceptions within deceptions—known as the Double Cross—were critical to the success of the D-Day invasion, and continued to mislead the Germans long after Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. A truly bravura performance, as is Macintyre’s fast-paced tale." - Andrew Nagorski, author of Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power

"How on earth, in 1944, did we dupe Berlin that we would attack the coast of France in completely the wrong place? It was a deception that saved tens of thousands of Allied lives. In Double Cross, Ben Macintyre ingeniously explains exactly how it was done." – Frederick Forsyth

"Never before revealed facts about the workings of the Intelligence Service in the build up to D-Day in the Second World War. Ben Macintyre's remarkable book is a gripping revelation." – Jack Higgins

“[Macintyre] has excelled himself with a cast of extraordinary characters and in his storytelling abilities....Double Cross is an utterly gripping story.” – Antony Beevor

“Enthralling....Macintyre is a master at leading the reader down some very tortuous paths while ensuring they never lose their bearings. He’s terrific, too, at animating his characters with the most succinct of touches....gripping.” - London Evening Standard

How about this book, I just purchased a copy today and it looks like it covers a little known subject of WW2:


by Sean Longden
Description:
The true story behind the elite secret unit that went behind enemy lines In 1945, as the Allied forces approached the German border having fought so bravely following the successful Normandy landings, it was decided that an elite unit was needed to work alongside the frontline soldiers as they headed east: they were called Target-Force. Until now their story has never appeared in any histories of the period.

Through extensive archival work and after interviewing many of the soldiers who tell their story here for the first time, historian Sean Longden can finally reveal the previously unknown story of the men who were sent into Germany to seize and secure highly developed Nazi military technology, key factories and scientists.

T-Force was born out of the chaos of war torn Europe in 1945, and it is no wonder the story reads like a spy thriller: the unit was top secret and originated from a plan belonging to the Naval intelligence officer, Ian Fleming, later the creator of James Bond. The unit was selected from the remnants of the infantry after Normandy and included drivers, sappers, bomb disposal experts, commandos and teams of expert scientists, specialists and engineers. What they discovered would not only shock the allied army but also play a huge role in the opening years of the Cold War.

Between March and summer 1945, the unit was constantly at work seizing targets in towns such as Bremen, Celle, Hamburg and Hanover, where they uncovered a secret laboratory hidden beneath a straw covered floor of a barn, vast blast furnaces in Ruhr Valley steel works that were dismantled and shipped back to England, and a fully functioning aircraft factory operating in two miles of underground tunnels. They went in search of codebooks that could decrypt the enemy's signals; new technology such as jet propelled engines, and mini submarines. They also hunted down the men behind these extraordinary feats: nearly 1,000 top scientists, some smuggled out of the Soviet Zone in unmarked lorries, including Werner Von Braun, the brains behind the V1 and V2 rockets who was to become a key figure in the American space race, Otto Hahn, Germany's foremost expert in nuclear fission and Helmut Walther, the man who inspired Ian Fleming's Moonraker.

Sean Longden's riveting history will change the story of how the second World War was won and how the first battles of the Cold War were fought; it reads like the finest espionage thriller of the era.

Review:
"In the autumn of 1944 – with German defeat inevitable – the Allies began to consider how they might secure Germany’s high-quality scientific, industrial and military assets before they could be destroyed or removed by the Nazi regime. With this in mind, the British raised Target- or T-Force. It was given a roving brief to seize codes and ciphers, radar equipment, the latest German U-boats and underwater weaponry and, indeed, any technological advance that might prove useful to Britain in the postwar world.

Rising to a strength of over 5000 personnel, T-Force was a rag-tag organisation, consisting of scientists, engineers, technicians, interpreters and some unorthodox ‘specialists’ who allegedly included safe-breakers released from His Majesty’s Pleasure. Supporting them was a military component, which because of manpower shortages was an unlikely amalgam of second-line infantry, artillerymen and pioneers.

At the end of March 1945, with the Allies across the Rhine and advancing into Germany, T-Force went into action. Typically operating just behind the front-line, T-Force would swoop on previously selected sites and secure their contents, although targets of opportunity often revealed unexpected riches. A few die-hard Nazis did their best to destroy or conceal their documents and equipment, but most Germans were cooperative, and those aware of the way the wind was blowing were only too keen to help.

T-Force’s finest moment came in the capture of Kiel, when on 4 May, in a flagrant breach of the ongoing armistice negotiations, a 500-strong unit raced to secure the Baltic city. They bluffed their way past thousands of armed Germans and persuaded them to hand over the port’s facilities in a move designed to forestall any potential Soviet advance on Kiel. The operation marked a fundamental change in the organisation’s remit: its prime role was now to limit the Soviet Union’s access to Germany’s military and scientific secrets. T-Force found itself in the vanguard of the nascent Cold War, spiriting away German technology and its scientists from under the noses of the Red Army.

The work of T-Force continued into 1947, when, with a decreasing military element, its activities were steadily wound down. Although it remains difficult to ascertain exactly how useful its work was, T-Force certainly dragged back masses of documents and machinery from Nazi Germany. This contained information on a myriad of subjects, including artillery range-firing data, ballistic-rocket and jet-propulsion research, aircraft aerodynamics, synthetic fuel and rubber production, chemical warfare, and radar and submarine design.

As a secret organisation there was little official acknowledgement of the work of T-Force. Accordingly, Sean Longden has performed a valuable service for veterans of T-Force in an illuminating and well-balanced book that makes highly effective use of personal testimonies and extensive archival research. The author has found a good story and told it well." - War Books Review by Adrian Gilbert.

You might like these:

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Penny Starns

by Richard Wires

Leo Hamalian

by Lucas Delattre

Good recommendations Jerome.

Yes Jerome a fine selection.

Here are some others:

byNicholas Rankin

byNicholas Rankin

byEric Metaxas

byHugh Sebag-Montefiore


byLarry Alexander

More excellent recommendations, thanks Michael for sharing!

Hmmm, I think I might have to check into Enigma: The Battle for the Code, I might need a copy for my library :)


by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Same here he is an excellent author.

I'm going to search around for a second-hand hardback copy, left you know if I grab a copy.

I ended up ordered a second hand HB edition of; Enigma: The Battle for the Code.


by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Sweet.

People may want to check these out:
by Joshua Levine

by Marcus Binney

The Quiet Canadian: The Secret Service Story Of Sir William Stephenson by H. Montgomery Hyde

The Wildest Province: Soe In The Land Of The Eagle by Roderick Bailey

by David Stafford

by M.R.D. Foot
Foot wrote a number of books on SOE, MI9 etc as he served with the SAS as an intelligence office in WWII in France, and was the historian of SOE.

These two may also be of interest too:
S O E In Scandinavia and SOE in the Far East by Charles Greig Cruickshank

Good suggestions & recommendations Geevee, thank you.

This new book has an intriguing theory on how the United States was dragged into the war that may interest some members here:


by John Koster
Description:
In Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor, author and World War II magazine columnist John Koster provides incontestable proof that Russia was a driving force behind Pearl Harbor.

Americans have long debated the cause of the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many have argued that the attack was a brilliant Japanese military coup, or a failure of U.S. intelligence agencies, or even a conspiracy of the Roosevelt administration. But despite the attention historians have paid to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the truth about that fateful day has remained a mystery-until now.

In Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor, author John Koster uses recently declassified evidence and never-before-translated documents to tell the real story of the day that FDR memorably declared would live in infamy, forever. "Operation Snow" shows how Joseph Stalin and the KGB used a vast network of double-agents and communist sympathizers - most notably, Harry Dexter White - to lead Japan into war against the United States, demonstrating incontestable Soviet involvement behind the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A thrilling tale of espionage, mystery and war, Operation Snow will forever change the way we think about Pearl Harbor and World War II.

Another interesting book covering a subject not normally given decent coverage in most WW2 histories:


by Taylor Downing
Description:
Spies in the Sky is the thrilling, little known story of the partner organisation to the famous code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. It is the story of the daring reconnaissance pilots who took aerial photographs over Occupied Europe during the most dangerous days of the Second World War, and of the photo interpreters who invented a completely new science to analyse those pictures. They were inventive and ingenious; they pioneered the development of 3D photography and their work provided vital Intelligence throughout the war. With a whole host of larger than life characters at its heart, from the legendary pilot Adrian 'Warby' Warburton, who went missing while on a mission, to photo interpreters Glyn Daniel, later a famous television personality, and Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah, Spies in the Sky is compelling reading, and the first full account of the story of aerial photography and the Intelligence gleaned from it in nearly fifty years.

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

by E. Bruce Reynolds

Good adds Jerome, thank you.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "One more book covering spies and Intel Ops from a pretty decent author:


by Ben Macintyre
Description:
In his celebrated bestsellers Age..."


About to start reading Double Cross. Will let the group knows how it goes. Thanks.

Hi Donny, will look forward to your views on this book, the author usually produces a pretty decent story.

Found some more:

by J.C. Masterman

by William Stevenson

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

by Sarah Helm

by Franklin Lindsay

by Christof Mauch

by Mark Ryan

by Charles Fenn

by Madeleine Masson

Dang, Jerome! You keep posting books that I have to add to my list! Thanks for the recommendations, though.

Ha, glad I can be of some assistance. I'll probably find some more, sorry :)

Some new/upcoming releases:

by Tom Keene

by Linda Kush

Good books there by the looks of it Jerome, thanks for the information on both titles.

And yet some MORE:

by Dixee R. Bartholomew-Feis

by Tom Moon

by Richard J. Aldrich

by Judith L. Pearson

by David Levy

Some good books there Jerome

Hi Jerome
I want to read Aldrich's book - if you get around to reading it I'd be pleased to hear your views.

Donny wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "One more book covering spies and Intel Ops from a pretty decent author:


by Ben Macintyre
Description:
In ..."

Donny, how was ? I have a copy but haven't started it yet. Also have purchased by the same author. The movie based on the book was outstanding and is called "The Man Who Never Was".

One of my favorite books on the subject that I've read recently is . It is really long but keeps you interested from beginning to end.

All of Ben MacIntyre's books are very good.

Second Dr. Michael's comments. Ben MacIntyre is a pretty good author and his books are great & fun reads.

There is a giveaway on Goodreads for this book until March 4th:
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville by Clare Mulley. It looks like a pretty good book from the blurb.

Thanks for the 'heads-up' on that giveaway book Paul, much appreciated.

Got to love a giveaway

I came across the mention of in one of my searches today and it sounds very interesting and has good reviews. Thought I would share. There was also a 1962 movie with William Holden by the same name.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055871/?...

Here is a new release due out in a few months that sounds quite interesting:


by Cate Lineberry
Description:
It is one of the greatest forgotten stories of World War II. When 26 Army Air Forces flight nurses and medics board a military transport plane in November 1943, they never anticipate a crash landing in Nazi territory, or their months-long fight to survive.

This long untold, true story begins as the group of men and women is on its way to evacuate wounded and sick troops near the frontlines in Italy. Caught in a violent storm, the plane is pushed off course and into the path of German fighter planes. Without a working radio or compass, the flight crew is flying blind after hours in the air and is forced to land in unforgiving and unknown terrain.

When the Americans emerge from their battered aircraft, they find themselves in Albania-a brutal and poverty-stricken country rife with chaos and danger-with only one gun among them. Met by battle-hardened partisans, they wander for months over rugged mountains during a brutal winter in their efforts to escape, facing a barrage of life-threatening incidents, including a German attack that almost costs them their lives. With hunger and sickness as their constant companions, the party is haunted by the threat of capture by the Nazis. Always on the move, they hide at night with courageous villagers who share what little food they have and risk death at Nazi hands to help them, hoping for the daring rescue attempts American and British agents plan in this tumultuous landscape of war.

The drama of the party captured the American public, but the details of their journey remained hidden for decades. A mesmerizing tale of the courage and bravery of ordinary people, THE SECRET RESCUE tells for the first time the whole story, of heroic struggle and endurance.

Reviews:
"Cate Lineberry has written a touching, thrilling, completely engrossing story of great courage under harrowing circumstances. This is a World War II story that few people have ever heard, but, after reading this book, no one will forget." - Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic

"Cate Lineberry has unearthed a little-known episode of World War II that has all the elements of a classic escape adventure. Carefully researched and compellingly told, The Secret Rescue is a suspenseful story of courage, audacity, and endurance behind enemy lines. I couldn't stop reading it." - Gary Krist, author of City of Scoundrels

"American nurses and medics, trapped behind enemy lines, hungry and haggard, dodging Nazis, hope dimming as winter gains strength. In Cate Lineberry's gifted hands, the true story of The Secret Rescue is a gripping and suspenseful tale, alive with rich details that carry readers along every step of this remarkable journey." - Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Lost in Shangri-La and Frozen in Time

"The Secret Rescue is narrative history at its best. Cate Lineberry uncovers a fascinating, long-forgotten drama that captured the world's attention during the darkest days of World War II and transforms it into a gripping story of courage under fire." - Daniel Stashower, author of The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War

"Cate Lineberry's The Secret Rescue is the kind of great story that makes you wonder, 'how come I didn't know about this?' A thrilling story of courage behind enemy lines." - Christopher S. Stewart, author of Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure

"Lineberry takes us into a part of World War II often neglected in war histories - the vantage point of nurses and medics. The medical air evacuation teams were as dangerous as they were heroic, and after this group of men and women crash lands in Nazi-held Albania, they face daunting physical and cultural challenges. Their story is a courageous journey across not only a foreign landscape, but the topography of the human spirit as well." - Molly Caldwell Crosby, author of The Great Pearl Heist and The American Plague

"The Secret Rescue is an intriguing and spellbinding story. Cate Lineberry has created an amazing piece of work and research that highlights the critical role played by the British clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in these dramatic events." - Art Reinhardt, OSS Veteran (China) and OSS Society, Treasurer

The book sounds excellent AR!

History of WWII hero unlocked from inside picnic basket revealing he was one of founding members of SAS

A really great article with some amazing photographs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

Christie wrote: "History of WWII hero unlocked from inside picnic basket revealing he was one of founding members of SAS

"Captain Riding was one of the first 36 members of the Secret Air Service (SAS) when it was formed in 1941..."

And here I thought it was the Special Air Service all these years. Those Daily Mail folks really know their history, huh?

Still, a great story and I wish he would have told Max Hastings or a similar historian about his missions.

I don't recognise the title Secret Air Service. Its first title when formed was L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade.

As Geevee has already stated in regards to the SAS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_...

My poor attempt at sarcasm having failed, I just figured the reporters at the Daily Mail are as lazy as the main stream media reporters here. "Secret Air Service" sounded good, so they went with it. Someone in the editorial process needs to study history.

Aye Mike I got it from knowing your knowledge on WWII etc plus your your clue being "huh?" and wanted to help with the right title for others. Sorry if it came across otherwise.

They are lazy and you wonder why a national paper doesn't check its copy.

These might interest you all as well:

by Alan Ogden

by David Stafford

by Knud J.V. Jespersen

Alan Ogden

by Alan Ogden

by Duncan McNab

Thanks for posting the details on those books Jerome, I'm sure a few members will love to check them out.

Those look really interesting. Thanks, Jerome!

Thanks Jerome - I'll look out for a copy of this as it'll go nicely alongside the SOE official histories I have: by Knud J.V. Jespersen

No problem, everybody. Glad I could help.