(no subject)
Jan. 17th, 2014 03:19 pmI just finished reading Ben MacIntyre's Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, a book about the double agents who fed the German intelligence service a constant stream of misinformation to keep them from doing anything about D-Day.
So I think I first heard about this book when![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
opusculasedfera talked about how she thought Ben McIntyre seemed a little disappointed that all the GLAMOROUS WORLD WAR II DOUBLE AGENTS that this book was about were in fact actually HILARIOUS WEIRDOS. Because I love hilarious weirdos, I decided I had to read it right away!
I disagree a bit with her analysis; my general impression was that Ben Macintyre was pretty much delighted by the fact that everything about this story is weird, implausible, and kind of hilarious. But perhaps this is just because I am so delighted by the fact that everything about this story is weird, implausible and kind of hilarious.
Agents featured in this book include:
( AGENT TRICYCLE, actual wealthy playboy industrialist )
( AGENT BRUTUS, actually more like a triple-crosser )
( AGENT TREASURE, the one with the dog )
( AGENT BRONX, so glamorous and so gay )
( AGENT GARBO, the best BSer in the land )
In fact, the Abwehr apparently eats EVERYONE'S BS up with a spoon. The way Macintyre tells it, ninety percent of their functional agents were working for the British all along, and the other ten percent were independent BS merchants like Pujol. Half the fun of the book is watching the British attempting to play these inordinately complicated mind games -- "we will sow DELICATE HINTS about a FAKE double agent so they won't suspect the REAL double agents so they CLEARLY cannot choose the wine in front of THEM!" -- while the Germans pick up on precisely zero of the delicate hints and keep on doing what they were going to do anyway.
Admittedly this is probably because half of the German intelligence agency is at this point too busy either embezzling money or plotting to try and kill Hitler. OR BOTH. Macintyre is generally happy to buy the "the Abwehr was just that corrupt and incompetent" theory of events, but it seems equally plausible that half the people involved did know perfectly well that they were being sold a line and were too disenchanted with the Nazi regime to care.
(Meanwhile, Soviet intelligence and the Cambridge Five are running rings around everybody, but that's neither here nor there.)
Anyway, the book as a whole seems to be intended as an argument towards "history is built around the weird personality quirks of individuals!" Obviously this is not the whole story, but it's a REALLY COMPELLING AND ENTERTAINING version of the story, and that's super OK by me. Seriously, this book is hilarious. I haven't even talked about the British mastermind who religiously wore tartan trousers! OR THE DOUBLE-CROSSING SPY PIGEONS.
So I think I first heard about this book when
opusculasedfera talked about how she thought Ben McIntyre seemed a little disappointed that all the GLAMOROUS WORLD WAR II DOUBLE AGENTS that this book was about were in fact actually HILARIOUS WEIRDOS. Because I love hilarious weirdos, I decided I had to read it right away! I disagree a bit with her analysis; my general impression was that Ben Macintyre was pretty much delighted by the fact that everything about this story is weird, implausible, and kind of hilarious. But perhaps this is just because I am so delighted by the fact that everything about this story is weird, implausible and kind of hilarious.
Agents featured in this book include:
( AGENT TRICYCLE, actual wealthy playboy industrialist )
( AGENT BRUTUS, actually more like a triple-crosser )
( AGENT TREASURE, the one with the dog )
( AGENT BRONX, so glamorous and so gay )
( AGENT GARBO, the best BSer in the land )
In fact, the Abwehr apparently eats EVERYONE'S BS up with a spoon. The way Macintyre tells it, ninety percent of their functional agents were working for the British all along, and the other ten percent were independent BS merchants like Pujol. Half the fun of the book is watching the British attempting to play these inordinately complicated mind games -- "we will sow DELICATE HINTS about a FAKE double agent so they won't suspect the REAL double agents so they CLEARLY cannot choose the wine in front of THEM!" -- while the Germans pick up on precisely zero of the delicate hints and keep on doing what they were going to do anyway.
Admittedly this is probably because half of the German intelligence agency is at this point too busy either embezzling money or plotting to try and kill Hitler. OR BOTH. Macintyre is generally happy to buy the "the Abwehr was just that corrupt and incompetent" theory of events, but it seems equally plausible that half the people involved did know perfectly well that they were being sold a line and were too disenchanted with the Nazi regime to care.
(Meanwhile, Soviet intelligence and the Cambridge Five are running rings around everybody, but that's neither here nor there.)
Anyway, the book as a whole seems to be intended as an argument towards "history is built around the weird personality quirks of individuals!" Obviously this is not the whole story, but it's a REALLY COMPELLING AND ENTERTAINING version of the story, and that's super OK by me. Seriously, this book is hilarious. I haven't even talked about the British mastermind who religiously wore tartan trousers! OR THE DOUBLE-CROSSING SPY PIGEONS.
