Download or read book The Guy Liddell Diaries Volume I 1939 1942 written by Nigel West and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume of Nigel West's acclaimed presentation of these fascinating diaries from the heart of Britain's Second World War intelligence operations. 'No intelligence buff can be without this volume and anyone interested in British twentieth century history needs it too.' M.R.D. Foot, The Spectator 'Regarded by historians as the most important military intelligence documents from the whole of the Second World War.' Irish Independent '[A] unique insight into the espionage secrets of the Second World War. Its historical importance is enhanced by the editing of Nigel West who, apart from decoding several obscure references to the secret war, persuaded the Security Service to break their rule of maintaining an agent's anonymity.' BBC History Magazine WALLFLOWERS is the codename given to one of the Security Service's most treasured possessions, the daily journal dictated from August 1939 to June 1945 by MI5's Director of Counter Espionage, Guy Liddell, to his secretary, Margo Huggins. The document was considered so highly classified that it was retained in the safe of successive Directors General, and special permission was required to read it. No other member of the Security Service is known to have maintained a diary and the twelve volumes of this journal represent a unique record of the events and personalities of the period, a veritable tour d'horizon of the entire subject. As Director, B Division, Liddell supervised all the major pre-war and wartime espionage investigations, maintained a watch on suspected pro-Nazis and laid the foundations of the famous 'double cross system' of enemy double agents. He was unquestionably one of the most reclusive and remarkable men of his generation, and a legend within his own organization.
Download or read book The Guy Liddell Diaries Vol II 1942 1945 written by Nigel West and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WALLFLOWERS is the codename given to one of the Security Service’s most treasured possessions, the daily journal dictated from August 1939 to June 1945 by MI5’s Director of Counter-Espionage, Guy Liddell, to his secretary, Margo Huggins. The document was considered so highly classified that it was retained in the safe of successive Directors-General, and special permission was required to read it. Liddell was one of three brothers who all won the Military Cross during the First World War and subsequently joined MI5. He initially first served in the Metropolitan Police Special Branch at Scotland Yard, dealing primarily with cases of Soviet espionage, until he was transferred to MI5 in 1931. His social connections proved important because in 1940 he employed Anthony Blunt as his personal assistant and became a close friend of both Guy Burgess and Victor Rothschild, and was acquainted with Kim Philby. Despite these links, when Liddell retired from the Security Service in 1952 he was appointed security adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission, an extremely sensitive post following the conviction of the physicist Klaus Fuchs two years earlier. No other member of the Security Service is known to have maintained a diary and the twelve volumes of this journal represents a unique record of the events and personalities of the period, a veritable tour d’horizon of the entire subject. As Director, B Division, Liddell supervised all the major pre-war and wartime espionage investigations, maintained a watch on suspected pro-Nazis and laid the foundations of the famous ‘double cross system’ of enemy double agents. He was unquestionably one of the most reclusive and remarkable men of his generation, and a legend within his own organisation.
Download or read book The Guy Liddell Diaries Volume I 1939 1942 written by Nigel West and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume of Nigel West's acclaimed presentation of these fascinating diaries from the heart of Britain's Second World War intelligence operations. 'No intelligence buff can be without this volume and anyone interested in British twentieth century history needs it too.' M.R.D. Foot, The Spectator 'Regarded by historians as the most important military intelligence documents from the whole of the Second World War.' Irish Independent '[A] unique insight into the espionage secrets of the Second World War. Its historical importance is enhanced by the editing of Nigel West who, apart from decoding several obscure references to the secret war, persuaded the Security Service to break their rule of maintaining an agent's anonymity.' BBC History Magazine WALLFLOWERS is the codename given to one of the Security Service's most treasured possessions, the daily journal dictated from August 1939 to June 1945 by MI5's Director of Counter Espionage, Guy Liddell, to his secretary, Margo Huggins. The document was considered so highly classified that it was retained in the safe of successive Directors General, and special permission was required to read it. No other member of the Security Service is known to have maintained a diary and the twelve volumes of this journal represent a unique record of the events and personalities of the period, a veritable tour d'horizon of the entire subject. As Director, B Division, Liddell supervised all the major pre-war and wartime espionage investigations, maintained a watch on suspected pro-Nazis and laid the foundations of the famous 'double cross system' of enemy double agents. He was unquestionably one of the most reclusive and remarkable men of his generation, and a legend within his own organization.
Download or read book The Guy Liddell Diaries written by Guy Maynard Liddell and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Rise of Germany 1939 1941 written by James Holland and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 794 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the early years of World War II based on extensive new research: “A genuinely fresh approach . . . exceptional” (The Wall Street Journal). James Holland, one of the leading young historians of World War II, has spent over a decade conducting new research, interviewing survivors, and exploring archives that have never before been so accessible to unearth forgotten memoirs, letters, and official records. In The Rise of Germany 1938–1941, Holland draws on this research to reconsider the strategy, tactics, and economic, political, and social aspects of the war. The Rise of Germany is a masterful book that redefines our understanding of the opening years of World War II. Beginning with the lead-up to the outbreak of war in 1939 and ending in the middle of 1941 on the eve of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia, this book is a landmark history of the war on land, in the air, and at sea. “Magnificent.” —Andrew Roberts, New York Times–bestselling author of The Storm of War
Download or read book International Law and the Cold War written by Matthew Craven and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine in detail the relationship between the Cold War and International Law.
Download or read book The Allies Strike Back 1941 1943 written by James Holland and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume two in this “expert, anecdote-filled, thoroughly entertaining” history of WWII follows The Rise of Germany as the Allied forces turn the tides (Kirkus). James Holland’s The Rise of Germany, the first volume in his War in the West trilogy, was widely praised for his impeccable research and lively narrative. Covering the dawn of World War II, it ended at a point when the Nazi war machine appeared to be unstoppable. Germany had taken Poland and France with shocking speed. London was bombed, and U-boats harried shipping on the Atlantic. But Germany hadn’t actually won the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic. It was not producing airplanes or submarines fast enough. And what looked like victory in Greece and Crete had expended crucial resources in short supply. The Allies Strike Back continues the narrative as Germany’s invasion of Russia unfolds in the east, while in the west, the Americans formally enter the war. In North Africa, following major setbacks at the hands of Rommel, the Allies storm to victory. Meanwhile, the bombing of Germany escalates, aiming to not only destroy the its military, industrial, and economic system, but also relentlessly crush civilian morale. Comprehensive and impeccably researched, “Holland brings a fresh eye to the ebb and flow of the conflict” in this “majestic saga” of 20th century history (Literary Review, UK).
Download or read book The London Cage written by Helen Fry and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first complete account of the fiercely guarded secrets of London’s clandestine interrogation center, operated by the British Secret Service from 1940 to 1948 Behind the locked doors of three mansions in London’s exclusive Kensington Palace Gardens neighborhood, the British Secret Service established a highly secret prison in 1940: the London Cage. Here recalcitrant German prisoners of war were subjected to “special intelligence treatment.” The stakes were high: the war’s outcome could hinge on obtaining information German prisoners were determined to withhold. After the war, high-ranking Nazi war criminals were housed in the Cage, revamped as an important center for investigating German war crimes. This riveting book reveals the full details of operations at the London Cage and subsequent efforts to hide them. Helen Fry’s extraordinary original research uncovers the grim picture of prisoners’ daily lives and of systemic Soviet-style mistreatment. The author also provides sensational evidence to counter official denials concerning the use of “truth drugs” and “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Bringing dark secrets to light, this groundbreaking book at last provides an objective and complete history of the London Cage.
Download or read book Misdefending the Realm written by Antony Percy and published by Legend Press Ltd. This book was released on 2017 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of how the Soviet Union successfully infiltrated the UK government in the years leading up to WW2, and specifically when the USSR was an ally of Nazi Germany (August 1939 - June 1941). Historians have previously argued that this success was due to the existence of a Communist 'super-mole' within MI5, and that in the fight against Fascism, multiple indulgences towards communists were an unavoidable strategy. The reality was very different. When a key Soviet defector warned of the deep insertion of agents within the corridors of power, the Comintern were obliged by the Hitler-Stalin pact to launch an aggressive counteroffensive in 1940. Britain's Security Service was persuaded that the threat from communist subversion was minimal. When this most damaging espionage was detected, MI5's officers engaged in an extensive cover-up to conceal their deficiencies. Exploiting recently declassified material and a broad range of historical and biographical sources, Antony Percy here reveals how the Soviet Union caught up so swiftly with Western expertise and weaponry, and so removed a key Western advantage over its Communist adversary as the Cold War ensued.
Download or read book The Beautiful Spy written by David Tremain and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2019-04-05 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1940 a beautiful young woman arrived by seaplane and rubber dinghy on the shores of Scotland accompanied by two men – one of Germany's many attempt to penetrate British defences and infiltrate spies into the UK. This seems to be one of the few established facts in the otherwise mysterious tale of Vera Eriksen. Even the origins of the woman described as 'the most beautiful spy' remain hazy, as does her ultimate fate. David Tremain delves into the archives, and in doing so begins to reveal glimpses of her fascinating life story: her career as a dancer in Paris; a tumultuous and violent dalliance with a White Russian officer of uncertain identity; her time in England with the Duchesse de Château-Thierry, an Abwehr agent; the suspicious and untimely death of her husband, and a rumoured pregnancy. The Beautiful Spy also grapples with perhaps the biggest mystery of all: what happened to Vera after she was released by the British?
Download or read book Blowing up the Rock German Italian and Spanish Sabotage attacks on Gibraltar during the Second World War written by Bernard O'Connor and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2020-01-05 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Second World War, Gibraltar faced the threat of invasion by Italy, Germany, and Spain. The Abwehr, the German Intelligence Service, rather than use their own saboteurs, paid young Spanish men to undertake over sixty sabotage attacks on military installations and shipping with limited success. The Italian Decima Flotilla MAS, a specialist team of underwater frogmen, launched eight attacks which were relatively successful and Spanish Falangists made several unsuccessful attempts. The British Secret Intelligence Service endeavoured to stop or at least limit such attacks. Using contemporary files from the National Archives in Kew, autobiographies, biographies, histories and newspaper articles, this documentary history investigates the successes and failures of these attacks on Gibraltar and the roles played by intelligence officers, agents, double agents in discovering and preventing such acts. The book sheds light on an unusual and largely overlooked aspect of Gibraltar's history.
Download or read book Rough Justice written by David Tremain and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2016-10-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What made a Dutchman escape to England in 1942 ostensibly to betray his country to the Germans? This story has remained a mysterious episode of the Second World War until now.
Download or read book The Real Special Relationship written by Michael Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gripping, deeply researched, and authoritative, the history of one of the closest intelligence and security relationships in the world The Special Relationship between the United States and Britain is touted by politicians when it suits their purpose and, as frequently, dismissed as myth, not least by the media. Yet the truth is that the two countries are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally. In The Real Special Relationship, Michael Smith reveals how it all began, eighty years ago, when a top-secret visit by four American codebreakers to Bletchley Park in February 1941—ten months before the US entered World War II—marked the start of a close collaboration between the intellitence services of the two nations. When that war ended and the Cold War began, both sides recognized that the way they worked together to decode German and Japanese ciphers could be used to counter the Soviet threat. They laid the foundation for the behind-the-scenes intelligence sharing that has continued—despite rivalries among the services and occasional political conflict and public disputes between the two nations—through the collapse of the Soviet Union, 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to the threats of the present moment. Smith, who served in British military intelligence, brings together a fascinating range of characters, from Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming to John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Edward Snowden. Supported by in-depth interviews and a broad range of personal contacts in the intelligence community, he takes the reader into the workings of MI6, the CIA, the NSA, and all those who strive to keep us safe. Sir John Scarlett, former chief of MI6, has written the introduction, and Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the NSA, has provided the foreword.
Download or read book Coffee With Hitler written by Charles Spicer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of how an eccentric group of intelligence agents used amateur diplomacy to penetrate the Nazi high command in an effort to prevent the start of World War II. "How might the British have handled Hitler differently?” remains one of history’s greatest "what ifs." Coffee with Hitler tells the astounding story of how a handful of amateur British intelligence agents wined, dined, and befriended the leading National Socialists between the wars. With support from royalty, aristocracy, politicians, and businessmen, they hoped to use the recently founded Anglo-German Fellowship as a vehicle to civilize and enlighten the Nazis. At the heart of the story are a pacifist Welsh historian, a World War I flying ace, and a butterfly-collecting businessman, who together offered the British government better intelligence on the horrifying rise of the Nazis than any other agents. Though they were only minor players in the terrible drama of Europe’s descent into its second twentieth-century war, these three protagonists operated within the British Establishment. They infiltrated the Nazi high command deeper than any other spies, relaying accurate intelligence to both their government and to its anti-appeasing critics. Straddling the porous border between hard and soft diplomacy, their activities fuelled tensions between the amateur and the professional diplomats in both London and Berlin. Having established a personal rapport with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, they delivered intelligence to him directly, too, paving the way for American military support for Great Britain against the Nazi threat. The settings for their public efforts ranged from tea parties in Downing Street, banquets at London’s best hotels, and the Coronation of George VI to coffee and cake at Hitler’s Bavarian mountain home, champagne galas at the Berlin Olympics, and afternoon receptions at the Nuremberg Rallies. More private encounters between the elites of both powers were nurtured by shooting weekends at English country homes, whisky drinking sessions at German estates, discreet meetings in London apartments, and whispered exchanges in the corridors of embassies and foreign ministries.
Download or read book Ireland s Revolutionary Diplomat written by Barry Whelan and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leopold Kerney was one of the most influential diplomats of twentieth-century Irish history. This book presents the first comprehensive biography of Kerney's career in its entirety from his recruitment to the diplomatic service to his time in France, Spain, Argentina, and Chile. Barry Whelan’s work provides fascinating new perceptions of Irish diplomatic history at seminal periods of the twentieth century, including the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, the Anglo-Irish Economic War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, from an eyewitness to those events. Drawing on over a decade of archival research in repositories in France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and Ireland, as well as through unique and unrestricted access to Kerney's private papers, Whelan successfully challenges previously published analyses of Kerney's work and debunks many of the perceived controversies surrounding his career. Ireland's Revolutionary Diplomat brings to life Kerney's connections with leading Irish figures from the revolutionary generation including Michael Collins, Ernest Blythe, George Gavan Duffy, Desmond FitzGerald, Arthur Griffith, and Seán T. O’Kelly, as well as his diplomatic colleagues in the service. More importantly, the book illuminates the decades-long friendship Kerney enjoyed with Éamon de Valera—the most important Irish political figure of the twentieth century—and shows how the "Chief" trusted and rewarded his friend throughout their long association. The book offers a fresh understanding of the Department of External Affairs and critically assesses the roles of Joseph Walshe, secretary of the department, as well as Colonel Dan Bryan, director of G2 (Irish Army Military Intelligence), who both conspired to destroy Kerney's reputation and career during and after World War II. Whelan sheds new light on other events in Kerney's career, such as his confidential reports from fascist Spain that exposed General Francisco Franco's crimes against his people. Whelan challenges other events previously seen by some historians as controversial, including Kerney’s major role in the Frank Ryan case, his contact with senior Nazi figures, especially Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer and German military intelligence, and his libel case against an acclaimed Irish historian Professor Desmond Williams. This book offers new observations on how Nazi Germany tried to utilize Kerney, unsuccessfully, as a liaison between the Irish government and Hitler’s regime. Captured German documents reveal the extent of this secret plan to alter Irish neutrality during World War II, which concerned both Adolf Hitler and the leading Nazis of his regime.
Download or read book Playboys and Mayfair Men written by Angus McLaren and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking true story of a diamond theft gone wrong. In December 1937, four respectable young men in their twenties, all products of elite English public schools, conspired to lure to the luxurious Hyde Park Hotel a representative of Cartier, the renowned jewelry firm. There, the “Mayfair men” brutally bludgeoned diamond salesman Etienne Bellenger and made off with eight rings that today would be worth approximately half a million pounds. Such well-connected young people were not supposed to appear in the prisoner’s dock at the Old Bailey. Not surprisingly, the popular newspapers had a field day responding to the public’s insatiable appetite for news about the upper-crust rowdies and their unsavory pasts. In Playboys and Mayfair Men, Angus McLaren recounts the violent robbery and sensational trial that followed. He uses the case as a hook to draw the reader into a revelatory exploration of key interwar social issues, from masculinity and cultural decadence to broader anxieties about moral decay. In his gripping depiction of Mayfair’s celebrity high life, McLaren describes the crime in detail, as well as the police investigation, the suspects, their trial, and the aftermath of their convictions.
Download or read book Britain s Moment in Palestine written by Michael J Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration for military and strategic reasons. This book analyses why and how the British took on the Palestine Mandate. It explores how their interests and policies changed during its course and why they evacuated the country in 1948. During the first decade of the Mandate the British enjoyed an influx of Jewish capital mobilized by the Zionists which enabled them not only to fund the administration of Palestine, but also her own regional imperial projects. But in the mid-1930s, as the clouds of World War Two gathered, Britain’s commitment to Zionism was superseded by the need to secure her strategic assets in the Middle East. In consequence she switched to a policy of appeasing the Arabs. In 1947, Britain abandoned her attempts to impose a settlement in Palestine that would be acceptable to the Arab States and referred Palestine to the United Nations, without recommendations, leaving the antagonists to settle their conflict on the battlefield. Based on archival sources, and the most up-to-date scholarly research, this comprehensive history offers new insights into Arab, British and Zionist policies. It is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Palestine, Israel, British Colonialism and the Middle East in general.
