Synopses & Reviews
In World War II, the Allies employed unprecedented methods and practiced the most successful military deception ever seen, meticulously feeding misinformation to Axis intelligence to lead Axis commanders into erroneous action. Thaddeus Holt's elegantly written and comprehensive book is the first to tell the full story behind these operations. Exactly how the Allies engaged in strategic deception has remained secret for decades. Now, with the help of newly declassified material, Holt reveals this secret to the world in a riveting work of historical scholarship.
Once the Americans joined the war in 1941, they had much to learn from theirBritish counterparts, who had been honing their deception skills for years. As the war progressed, the British took charge of misinformation efforts in the European theater, while the Americans focused on the Pacific. The Deceivers takes readers from the early British achievements in the Middle East and Europe at the beginning of the war to the massive Allied success of D-Day, American victory in the Pacific theater, and the war's culmination on the brink of an invasion of Japan.
Colonel John Bevan, who managed British deception operations from London, described the three essentials to strategic deception as good plans, double agents, and codebreaking, and The Deceivers covers each of these aspects in minute detail. Holt brings to life the little-known men, British and American, who ran Allied deception, such as Bevan, Dudley Clarke, Peter Fleming, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Newman Smith. He tracks the development of deception techniques and tells the hitherto unknown story of double agent management and other deception through the American FBI and Joint Security Control.
Full of fascinating sources and astounding revelations, The Deceivers is an indispensable volume and an unparalleled contribution to World War II literature.
Review
Nigel West
author of MI5, MI6, and Seven Spies Who Changed the World
A highly professional yet entertaining analysis of the dirty tricks ingeniously dreamed up by unscrupulous Allied intelligence personnel in World War II to defeat the enemy. Easily the best book yet written, or ever likely to be, on the subject, drawing on the most recent documents declassified on both sides of the Atlantic.
Review
Professor Sir Michael Howard
former Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford University, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, Yale University, and author of British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume 5, Strategic Deception
Mr. Holt's history of Allied deception in World War II is definitive. He has trawled through all the documentation, interviewed all the survivors, and put together a history as comprehensive as it is readable and entertaining. It is an astonishing achievement, and no library of the war can afford to be without it.
Review
R. James Woolsey
Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-95
Thaddeus Holt has given us a riveting history of the Allied deception operations in World War II. The British were especially masterful -- the sphinxlike and sardonic Dudley Clarke and his colleagues had a huge hand in the victory. Far more dramatic than any fiction.
Review
Robert Cowley
founding editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History
Just when you have convinced yourself that you have long ago imbibed the last word on the secret side of World War II, along comes Thaddeus Holt and his remarkable study. Superbly researched and full of fresh revelations, The Deceivers is not only immaculately written but wonderfully readable.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface
List of Abbreviations
Prologue, 1862-1940
1 The Master of the Game
2 The Art of Deception
3 The Customers
4 Most Secret Sources and Special Means
5 London Control
6 The Turning of the Tide
7 Enter the Yanks
8 Hustling the East (I)
9 The Soft Underbelly
10 Hustling the East (II)
11 American Deception Grows Up
12 Bodyguard
13 Quicksilver
14 Mediterranean Finale
15 Last Act in Europe
16 Hustling the East (III)
17 Bluebird
18 Last Round in Asia
Epilogue
Appendices
I Allied Deception Operations
II Special Means Channels
III The Phantom Armies
IV Maps
Bibliography
References
Index