Download or read book Britain s Secret Defences written by Andrew Chatterton and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full history of the highly trained and ruthless civilian volunteers secretly trained across Britain to be deployed in the case of a German invasion. The narrative surrounding Britain’s anti-invasion forces has often centered on ‘Dad’s Army’-like characters running around with pitchforks, on unpreparedness and sense of inevitability of invasion and defeat. The truth, however, is very different. Top-secret, highly trained and ruthless civilian volunteers were being recruited as early as the summer of 1940. Had the Germans attempted an invasion they would have been countered by saboteurs and guerrilla fighters emerging from secret bunkers, and monitored by swathes of spies and observers who would have passed details on via runners, wireless operators and ATS women in disguised bunkers. Alongside these secret forces, the Home Guard were also setting up their own ‘guerrilla groups’, and SIS (MI6) were setting up post-occupation groups of civilians – including teenagers – to act as sabotage cells, wireless operators, and assassins had the Nazis taken control of the country. The civilians involved in these groups understood the need for absolute secrecy and their commitment to keeping quiet meant that most went to their grave without ever telling anyone of their role, not even their closest family members. There has been no official and little public recognition of what these dedicated men and women were willing to do for their country in its hour of need, and after over 80 years of silence the time has come to highlight their remarkable role.

Download or read book Britain s Secret Defences written by Andrew Chatterton and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new comprehensive history of the secret defensive preparations made in Britain in World War II to be deployed in the case of Nazi invasion.

Download or read book Fortress Britain 1940 written by Andrew Chatterton and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2024-08-15 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Through meticulous research in archives and crumbling ventilation shafts, Chatterton paints a picture of Britain in the Second World War that turns our popular narrative on its head. This is important, shocking, and impressive.” — Dan Snow MBE, historian, broadcaster and television presenter Alone, unprepared and weak. These are generally the words used to describe Britain’s position in 1940, part of a narrative that has been built up ever since the end of World War II. However, the reality is very different. On land, sea and in the air, Britain was prepared. It had the most powerful navy in the world; the RAF was relatively strong, but more importantly, was operating as part of a plan and a joined-up group system that was in reality never in any real danger of being defeated; even the post-Dunkirk British Army was better armed than the post-war narrative tells us. These forces were backed up by the Home Guard, and thousands of men and women in secret roles ready to help fight the invasion of the country. Even if all of this had gone wrong and the Nazis had defeated Britain militarily then a separate, highly secret civilian group were ready to become active only after the occupation had started. One word associated more than any other during this period of the Second World War is ‘Alone’ – Churchill played upon this in his speeches but in 1940, Britain had a hugely powerful empire. Although in many cases this support was thousands of miles away, the Empire and other Allies would have played a huge role had the Germans had invaded, one that has been overlooked in many accounts.

Download or read book Fortress Britain 1940 written by Andrew Chatterton and published by . This book was released on 2024-08-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain in 1940 was not unprepared nor alone--this new history assesses the British armed forces and secret civilian organisations that stood ready to fight off a German invasion.

Download or read book Britain s Secret War written by Michael Smith and published by Andre Deutsch. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book contains removable documents of facsimile items.

Download or read book Churchill s Secret Defence Army written by Arthur Ward and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the spring of 1940, the phoney war suddenly became very real. In April Hitler's forces, invaded Norway and a month later began their assault on France and the Low Countries. The Anglo/French allies were routed. The British escaped to fight another day after evacuating the bulk of their armies at Dunkirk. When on 10 May Winston Churchill became Prime Minister he soon discovered that the nation's defenses were in a parlous state and a Nazi invasion was a very real possibility. By the end of the month, nearly a million British citizens had joined the Local Defense Volunteers, soon to become the Home Guard, of Dad's Army fame. Churchill, however, realized the Home Guard was initially of little more than PR value, an important morale booster. A more serious deterrent needed to be created if Hitler's panzer divisions and the full might of the blitzkrieg were to be thwarted. Consequently, to supplement the sorely ill-equipped regular forces (all of their tanks and most of their artillery had been abandoned in France) a new, British resistance force was required. The intentionally blandly named Auxiliary Units might have been the answer. Formed in the Summer of 1940, in great secrecy, this force of 'stay behind' saboteurs and assassins was intended to cause havoc behind the German front line should the Wehrmacht gain a foothold in Britain. Their mission was to go to cover, hiding in underground bunkers for the first 14 days of invasion and then springing up, at nightfall, to gather intelligence, interrogate prisoners, destroying fuel and ammunition dumps as they went about their deadly business. Each Auxilier knew his life expectancy was short, a matter of weeks. He also knew he could not tell a soul about his activities, even his spouse. 'Dads Army' they were not. Following the publication of his 50th anniversary history of the Battle of Britain, A Nation Alone, written in association with the RAF Museum, Arthur Ward looked deeper into the story of the Invasion Summer of 1940 and enjoyed unique opportunities to interview those involved with Auxiliary Units at the very top and in the front line, as volunteers in a six-man cell.

Download or read book Britain s Secret War against Japan 1937 1945 written by Douglas Ford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new look at how Britain’s defence establishment learned to engage Japan’s armed forces as the Pacific War progressed. Douglas Ford reveals that, prior to Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia in December 1941, the British held a contemptuous view of Japanese military prowess. He shows that the situation was not helped by the high level of secrecy which surrounded Japan’s war planning, as well as the absence of prior engagements with the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army. The fall of ‘Fortress Singapore’ in February 1942 dispelled the notion that the Japanese were incapable of challenging the West. British military officials acknowledged how their forces in the Far East were inadequate, and made a concerted effort to improve their strength and efficiency. However, because Britain’s forces were tied down in their operations in Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean, they had to fight the Japanese with limited resources. Drawing upon the lessons obtained through Allied experiences in the Pacific theatres as well as their own encounters in Southeast Asia, the British used the available intelligence on the strategy, tactics and morale of Japan’s armed forces to make the best use of what they had, and by the closing stages of the war in 1944 to 1945, they were able to devise a war plan which paved the way for the successful war effort. This book will be of great interest to all students of the Second World War, intelligence studies, British military history and strategic studies in general.

Download or read book Blue Streak written by John Boyes and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1950s the United States wished to concentrate its defence resources on the development of a 4,000 mile range intercontinental ballistic missile. As a stop-gap measure, US defence chiefs hoped to assist Britain with the development of its own intermediate range missile. Despite US concerns that British resources were limited the Air Ministry nonetheless proceeded with the missile, called Blue Streak, to fulfil the operational requirement which would give Britain an independent deterrent which should remain invulnerable until the early 1970s. Blue Streak: Britain's Medium Range Ballistic Missile traces the path from the political decision to issue the contracts through the early development and testing both in the UK and in Australia. The reasons for the project's cancellation are considered and Blue Streak's subsequent role as the first stage of the ELDO civilian satellite launcher is noted. A requirement of the project was the need to base the missiles in underground launchers to protect them from attack. This aspect of the project is fully covered using recently available information and specially drawn plans.

Download or read book With Britain in Mortal Danger written by John Warwicker and published by Cerberus Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1938 the War Office ordered the Director of Military Intelligence to create a unit that would research the tactics and organisation needed in the event of an invasion. After Dunkirk Lt Col Holland's Military Intelligence (Research) expanded greatly, secretly recruiting civilians and service personnel thought suitable for subversive and irregular warfare. Although never called upon, their story remained shrouded in secrecy for half a century.

Download or read book Their Trade is Treachery written by Harry Champan Pincher and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harry Chapman Pincher is regarded as one of the finest investigative reporters of the twentieth century. Over the course of a glittering six-decade career, he became notorious as a relentless investigator of spies and their secret trade, proving to be a constant thorn in the side of the establishment. So influential was he that Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once asked, 'Can nothing be done to suppress Mr Chapman Pincher?' It is for his sensational 1981 book, Their Trade is Treachery, that he is perhaps best known. In this extraordinary volume he dissected the Soviet Union's inflitration of the western world and helped unmask the Cambridge Five. He also outlined his suspicions that former MI5 chief Roger Hollis was in fact a super spy at the heart of a ring of double agents poisoning the secret intelligence service from within. However, the Hollis revelation was just one of the book's many astounding coups. Its impact at the time was immense and highly controversial, sending ripples through the British intelligence and political landscapes. Never before had any writer penetrated so deeply and authoritatively into this world - and few have since. Available now for the first time in thirty years, this eye-opening volume is an incomparable and definitive account of the thrilling nature of Cold War espionage and treachery. The Dialogue Espionage Classics series began in 2010 with the purpose of bringing back classic out-of-print spy stories that should never be forgotten. From the Great War to the Cold War, from the French Resistance to the Cambridge Five, from Special Operations to Bletchley Park, this fascinating spy history series includes some of the best military, espionage and adventure stories ever told.

Download or read book The Last Ditch written by David Lampe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Novelists, historians, and theorists have often toyed with the question: what would have happened if the Germans had occupied Britain in 1940? Based on years of persistent detective work, The Last Ditch investigates the German plans and the countermeasures undertaken through the specially formed British Resistance Organization. The very existence of this Resistance movement remained a secret for more than two decades until the silence was finally broken by Lampe. Few would have escaped oppression and inevitable gruesome consequences would have followed. There was to be mass deportation; wholesale appropriations of the country’s agricultural, mineral, and industrial produce; and widespread arrests, as revealed in the notorious Gestapo Arrest List—reprinted here in full. Lampe captures the mood of the post-Dunkirk period, setting the tone and immersing the reader in the challenging physical and psychological environment of those critical weeks and months. Although they never went into action, the Resistance was ready and waiting: the last ditch of Britain’s defense. So successful was their organization that they became the model for the Resistance and underground movements that were to arise all over occupied Europe. Included within are chilling interviews with key players that modern works cannot duplicate. In telling their story, Lampe relates one of the best-kept secrets of World War II and presents insight into what might have been.

Download or read book Britain s Shield written by David Zimmerman and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2010-08-15 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of radar and the crucial role it played in Britain's air defences during World War II from an expert in warfare technology.

Download or read book Women in Intelligence written by Helen Fry and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking history of women in British intelligence, revealing their pivotal role across the first half of the twentieth century From the twentieth century onward, women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence, defying the conventions of their time. Across both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, women ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines, and interrogated prisoners. And, back in Bletchley and Whitehall, women’s vital administrative work in MI offices kept the British war engine running. In this major, panoramic history, Helen Fry looks at the rich and varied work women undertook as civilians and in uniform. From spies in the Belgian network “La Dame Blanche,” knitting coded messages into jumpers, to those who interpreted aerial images and even ran entire sections, Fry shows just how crucial women were in the intelligence mission. Filled with hitherto unknown stories, Women in Intelligence places new research on record for the first time and showcases the inspirational contributions of these remarkable women.

Download or read book British Secret Service During the Great War written by Nicholas Everitt and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2021-04-26 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the First World War and gives a contemporary view of events and actions by the secret service. The author reminds his readers that he is unable to recount all of the escapades of the service as he has a duty to protect them and their secrets, but it is probably fair to believe that he has many secrets to tell.

Download or read book Britain s Secret Wars written by T. J. Coles and published by CLAIRVIEW BOOKS. This book was released on 2018-12-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a devastating analysis, T. J. Coles reveals the true extent of Britain’s covert foreign policy that supports war, conflict and oppression around the world. Unbeknownst to the broad population, the Shadow State sponsors a ‘new world order’ that allies Britain with America’s quest for global power – what the Pentagon calls ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’. Coles documents how British operatives have interfered in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Yemen with the aim of deposing unwanted regimes. In doing so, they have helped create extensive terrorist networks across the Middle East, reviving previously-failing Jihadist groups such as ISIL, which has now transformed into an international terror franchise. In addition to waging clandestine wars in the Middle East, the secret services have used the military to run drugs by proxy in Colombia, train death squads in Bangladesh and support instability in Ukraine, where NATO’s strategic encroachment on Russia is drawing the world closer to terminal nuclear confrontation. Coles unearths Britain’s involvement in the recent ethnic cleansing of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan government, the invasion of Somalia by Somali and Ethiopian warlords, and Indonesia’s atrocities in Papua. He also exposes the extensive use of drones for murder and intimidation across the Middle East and elsewhere. Britain’s Secret Wars is essential reading for anyone who wants to dig beneath the surface of current events. This expanded edition features a new Preface.

Download or read book Section D for Destruction written by Malcolm Atkin and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Neville Chamberlain made his famous Peace in Our Time statement in 1938, after the Munich Agreement with Hitler, he may, or may not, have been aware that the new Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service was already making plans to mount an all-out political and sabotage war against Nazi Germany. This was a new form of warfare, encompassing bribery, black propaganda and sabotage by agents described as having no morals or scruples. To the horror of many, it disregarded the conventions of neutrality and was prepared to hit the Nazi state wherever it could do most damage. Malcolm Atkin reveals how Section D's struggle to build a European wide anti-Nazi resistance movement was met with widespread suspicion from government, to the extent of a systematic destruction of its reputation. It was, however, a key pioneer of irregular warfare that led to the formation of the famous Special Operations Executive (SOE). His study is the first in-depth account of it to be published since the release of previously secret documents to the National Archives.

Download or read book Intelligence Defence and Diplomacy written by Richard J. Aldrich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was Britain's reaction to the death of Stalin? How has Britain reconciled a modern nuclear strategy with its traditional imperial defence commitments around the world? How has secret intelligence affected the Special Relationship' since 1945? Certain clear questions and perennial themes run through British overseas policy since 1945. This book examines them, drawing on new research by leading historians and scholars in the field.