Synopses & Reviews
Martin Allen has achieved pre-eminence as a researcher and writer specializing in the Second World War. In this, his third major book, Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS, emerges as a man with a huge personal agenda. Having secured for himself an unassailable position by manipulating Hitler into wiping out the SS's left-wing rivals, the SA, in The Night of the Long Knives, he continued to nurture political supremacy for himself while Hitler fought his military war. At the heart of Himmler's Secret War is the turning point of the war when, following the German defeat at Stalingrad, Himmler recognized that Germany would lose. Through his trusted envoy, Walter Schellenberg, he devoted much energy to negotiating his intended post-war role as the man who would lead Germany. He believed his intermediary, the British Ambassador in Sweden, Victor Mallet, was in direct contact with Winston Churchill. In fact, he was the victim of a highly effective sting by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE).
About the Author
Martin Allen is a leading authority on the Second World War. His particular skill lies in searching out witnesses and documents for information other historians have missed. His first book, Hidden Agenda, covering the Duke of Windsor's wartime activities, was nominated as Observer Book of the Year and published in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Allen's second book, The Hitler/Hess Deception, blew open the official version of Rudolph Hess as an eccentric adventurer and was published in seven languages and widely serialized. In this, his third book on political warfare in the Second World War, Martin Allen reveals Britian's top secret war of wits pitted against the German leadership to undermine Nazi Germany politically, and thereby ensure that Britian would emerge victorious in 1945.