Spies....Spying....Warfare.

[PoliticalChic]

“All warfare is based on deception.”
―Sun Tzu,The Art of War


'By way of deception, thou shalt do war.'
- the motto of the Mossad




Spies....spying....warfare.....Fascinating subjects.

If you are also fascinated by same, and if you read.....and you don't get your 'history education' from the History Channel or Oliver Stone, I have three books.....three related books.....to suggest.



1. The first is the true story of an actual spy, Eddie Chapman. Sixty years after the end of the war, MI5 declassified over 1800 pages of Chapman's war and personal record.

Chapman began his career as a criminal, a con man, bank robber, safe cracker, and burglar. After several stints in English prisons.... "Well along into his criminal career he was arrested in Scotland and charged with blowing up the safe of the headquarters of the Edinburgh Co-operative Society. Let out on bail, he fled to Jersey in the Channel Islands where he attempted unsuccessfully to continue his crooked ways... Chapman was still in prison when the Channel Islands were invaded by the Germans.."
Eddie Chapman - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


Jersey Island,,,, "...a possession of the Crown in right of Jersey,[8]off the coast of Normandy,France.[9 ]The bailiwick consists of the island of Jersey, along with surrounding uninhabited islands and rocks "
Jersey - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia




2. In a plan to get even with the British, and to return to Britain, Chapman makes overtures to the Germans, offering to spy for them.
What could be better for the Nazis than a Brit with a grudge and a history of the use of explosives!
His training in France and Germany is detailed in the book, and he is parachuted back into England to blow up a de Havilland Mosquito bomber factory.

This is the real stuff, not James Bond, or Gabriel Allon....!

Eddie Chapman - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia



4. "...World War II British double agent Eddie Chapman in this intriguing and balanced biography. Giving little thought to the morality of his decision, Chapman offered to work as a spy for the Germans in 1940 after his release from an English prison in the Channel Islands, then occupied by the Germans. After undergoing German military intelligence training, Chapman parachuted into England in December 1942 with instructions to sabotage a De Havilland aircraft factory, but he surrendered after landing safely.

Doubled by MI5 (the security service responsible for counterespionage), Chapman was used to feed vital disinformation to the enemy and was one of the few double agents to delude their German handlers until the end of the war. Meticulously researched—relying extensively on recently released wartime files of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service—Macintyre's biography often reads like a spy thriller."
Publishers Weekly



5. "Over and over through the years as I've read books about real life spies ("Comrade" Kim Philby and Sidney Reilly among others) I've been struck by how much more amazing these non-fiction stories were than those concocted as would-be pulp fiction thrillers. I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism.
Ben Macintyre's biography of Eddie Chapman gives us a man who continues that dubious tradition. This page-turner is fact-filled and well-written and the life it tells of outdoes anything fiction has cranked out in quite a while. "
Agent Zigzag A True Story of Nazi Espionage Love and Betrayal Ben Macintyre 9780307353412 Amazon.com Books



"Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal,"
by Ben Macintyre

 

[JakeStarkey]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Not too many spies needed these days as most people willingly enter their daily activities into a Mass of Social Media.

I know you mentioned James Bond as being fiction, and of course he is, but I recall in the last Bond flick that "M" stated that the best spies are "loners" or come from single child families? I can't remember. Yeah and i'm sure a generous helping of Sociopathic Narcissism helps too!

 

[PoliticalChic]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

Is that why you make every attempt to stick to me like a barnacle to an ocean liner?

Bad news, you geek.....greatness doesn't rub off.

 

[Moonglow]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

Is that why you make every attempt to stick to me like a barnacle to an ocean liner?

Bad news, you geek.....greatness doesn't rub off.

We can attest to that fact by observing your actions...

 

[PoliticalChic]

Not too many spies needed these days as most people willingly enter their daily activities into a Mass of Social Media.

I know you mentioned James Bond as being fiction, and of course he is, but I recall in the last Bond flick that "M" stated that the best spies are "loners" or come from single child families? I can't remember. Yeah and i'm sure a generous helping of Sociopathic Narcissism helps too!

Macintyre makes an interesting point about double agents......as in the case of Chapman, he was less motivated by either money or patriotism....

...but more by the need for adventure.
An adrenaline junkie.

Same for criminals, huh?

 

[PoliticalChic]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

Is that why you make every attempt to stick to me like a barnacle to an ocean liner?

Bad news, you geek.....greatness doesn't rub off.

We can attest to that fact by observing your actions...

I didn't mean to forget about you....another barnacle.


Barnacles like you two are easy to identify.....posts are about me, never about the subject of the thread.



But don't get the idea that I want to dissuade you dolts.......after all I am my favorite subject.



So.....how do you like winding up in the same category with the Jakal? Quite an insult, huh?

 

[JakeStarkey]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

Is that why you make every attempt to stick to me like a barnacle to an ocean liner? Bad news, you geek.....greatness doesn't rub off.

You are also delusional. The followers of your writing and pod casting follow do so for the grins and chuckles only.

 

[PoliticalChic]

"I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism." Of course you have.You have demonstrated an affinity for such in your years on the Board.

Is that why you make every attempt to stick to me like a barnacle to an ocean liner? Bad news, you geek.....greatness doesn't rub off.

You are also delusional. The followers of your writing and pod casting follow do so for the grins and chuckles only.

Did I just say you try to stick to me in the hope of catching some of my magic????

And here you are again.....still nothing about the thread, only lil' ol' moi.



Bet you never missed an episode of 'The Lives of the Rich and Famous."

And, I'm bettin' you've gotten the very same response from every attempted relationship.

True, geek?


Advice: If I were as ugly as you, I wouldn't day 'hi,'...I'd say 'booo.'

 

[PoliticalChic]

6. Eddie Chapman was a thief and a spy. The two vocations are similar....both specialize in stealing.


But Chapman giveth as well as receive.....he was a double agent, feeding misinformation to the Nazis.


a. "[Double Agents....spies who were turned] Some of these lasted only a short time before their cases were terminated; a few continued to delude their German handlers until the end of the war. A tiny handful, the very best were involved in the greatest strategic deception of all, Operation Fortitude, by which the Germans were persuaded to believe that the Allied invasion of France would be concentrated on the Pas de Calais, and not Normandy."
Ben Macintyre, 'Agent Zigzag'," p. 69




b. 'It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.'
Sun Tzu The Art of War



Chapman wasn't the only double-agent.
Some....quite unusual.
Stay tuned.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Well, well, well.....seems some of the Rooseveltian boot-lickers won't be satisfied unless FDR is involved in some way.....

OK.

7. When British super double-agent Chapman returned from being trained by the Germans, one of the first things he told the Brits that "the only way to invade Europe was from Africa via Italy." ("Agent Zigzag," p. 103).


Whether his analysis, or something he learned from "senior German officers he knew,..." he was saying exactly what 4-star Allied General Eisenhower said, prior to getting Stalin's demands (via Roosevelt and George Marshall), and the offer of a fifth star.

Eisenhower proved he was a 'company man'...a good soldier, and, ultimately changed his tune, and championed an attack from Normandy.

 

[PoliticalChic]

8. In his book, "Agent Zigzag," Ben Macintyre goes into great detail, and fascinating depth, as to the structure of British intelligence apparatus.


"...another organization was established, with senior representatives of all the military intelligences services....This was named the 'Twenty Committee"...the two Xs of a double cross make the number 'twenty' in Roman numerals."
"Agent Zigzag," p. 63.



Ewen Montagu was a member of the Twenty Committee, and the author of another engrossing revelation about spy tradecraft, "The Man Who Never Was."


Spies, it seems, can be quite effective even if they are not alive!

 

[PoliticalChic]

Now...about those dead spies.....
...and another true story of a spy.....


9. In 1942, the Allies were about to launch an attack from Africa, into Sicily...but needed to mislead the Germans into believing the attack would target Greece.


Brit Twenty Committee (XX= double cross) counter-intelligence officer Ewen Montagu came up with a plan, recounted in his book "The Man Who Never Was."




The government convinced a family to allow them to take the body of....

"...a young man died of pneumonia, so he would have fluid in the lungs as cause of death. In fact, he was an unclaimed homeless man who died from eating rat poison. A submarine slipped his body into the sea off Spain, making it look like he was a Royal Marine officer and courier, and a victim of an offshore airplane crash. This was done near a town with a known active Nazi agent. The brief case he was carrying falsely showed that the Allies would invade Greece, not Sicily." Man Who Never Was World War II s Boldest Counterintelligence Operation Bluejacket Books Ewen Montagu 9781557504487 Amazon.com Books


The Germans were fooled...and moved part of their forces from Sicily to Greece.

 

[PoliticalChic]

5. Both books above were factual tales of spies and spying,

"Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal,"
by Ben Macintyre

and

"The Man Who Never Was: World War II's Boldest Counterintelligence Operation,"
by Ewen Montagu


But, my favorite by far was the fictional work based around the details found in Macintyre's book, this one by the brilliant Daniel Silva.

The book, "The Unlikely Spy," has as said 'unlikely spy,' a history professor named Alfred Vicary. Vicary seems very much to be a name Silva gives to the real John Masterman.


a." Sir John Cecil Masterman(12 January 1891 – 6 June 1977) was a noted academic, sportsman and author. However, he was best known as chairman of theTwenty Committee, which duringWorld War IIran theDouble Cross System, the scheme that controlled double agents inBritain." John Cecil Masterman - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


6. Not tied to 'just the facts,' Silva is able to provide twists and turns, and bring in other missions and plans beyond the strict adherence to one particular adventure, as Macintyre and Montagu must.

"Many of the details and historical figures are accurately depicted, and realistically fleshed-out by Mr. Silva. Churchill, Hitler, Schellenberg, Himmler, Canaris and Eisenhower all have important roles in this action packed adventure - and their personas are fascinating.... If you could only read one book that would epitomize the best in the spy genre, Daniel Silva's The Unlikely Spy would be that book. "
Amazon.com Customer Reviews The Unlikely Spy

 

[PoliticalChic]

Daniel Silva's 'The Unlikely Spy'....a spy novel

Couldn't put the book down.

I loved the research that went into Silva's book, especially the details of how the Germans were tricked into believing that the Normandy invsion would come by way of Pas de Calais.


7. From the novel "The Unlikely Spy," by Daniel Silva.
Fieldmarshall von Rundstedt explains why he believes the Allied attack will aim at Calais, rather than 200 miles north, at Normandy.

a. "Calais is the strategic linchpin of the Channel coast. If the enemy secures a beachhead at Calais, he can turn to the east and be a few days' march from the Ruhrgebiet, our industrial heartland.

b. Another reason why Calais makes sense militarily- the Channel is the narrowest there. The enemy will be able to pour men and materiel into Calais four time faster that he would at Normandy or Brittany.

c. There are three excellent deep water ports in the Pas de Calais area: Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk. The enemy needs ports. It is my belief that the first goal of the invaders will be to seize a major port and reopen it as quickly as possible, for without a major port the enemy cannot supply his troops.

d. Normandy presents the enemy with many problems. The distance across the Channel is much greater. At some points, high cliffs stand between the beaches and the mainland. The closest harbor is Cherbourg, at the tip of a healvily defended peninsula. Even if he takes Cherbourg, he knows we would render i useless before surrendering it.

e. But the most logical argument against a strike at Normandy, is its geographic location. It is too far to the west. Even if the enemy succeeds in landing at Normandy, he runs the risk of being pinned down and strategically isolated. He must fight us all the way across France before even reaching German soil.