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The Man Who Never Was ( Oxford Paperbacks)

The Man Who Never Was ( Oxford Paperbacks)

List Price: $10.95
Your Price: $10.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great, and True, Espionage Story...
Review: "The Man Who Never Was" is an interesting and true story of WWII espionage prior to the invasion of Sicily. I bought the book after seeing a History Channel episode of the topic, and I'm glad I did.

The story is best told by Ewen Montagu, the intelligence officer behind what is known as "Operation Mincemeat". His vantage point is ideal for telling this tale. His access to the how the operation developed, the people, side-stories, funny happenings, the actual letters, and all the other details could be no better provided by anyone else. What makes the story interesting for me is not only the details, but how Ewen was able to put himself in the shoes of the Germans, and through all the details, orchestrate a diversion of German forces from Sicily. The book also offers concrete details of the real effect of the operation obtained from German archives after the war. Such total first hand information is the making of a quality history book, and this is a first-class telling of an interesting operation. If you like WWII, spy stories, or history, then this a good read.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun read, good story
Review: "The Man Who Never Was" is a real page-turner, even though I already knew the basic story. Lots of good information on a well-conceived and -executed intelligence operation that the Germans fell for hook, line and sinker. Makes me wonder how many failed counterintelligence operations we suffered to achieve one success? Writing can be a little stuffy in a couple places but on the whole is good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great, and True, Espionage Story...
Review: "The Man Who Never Was" is an interesting and true story of WWII espionage prior to the invasion of Sicily. I bought the book after seeing a History Channel episode of the topic, and I'm glad I did.

The story is best told by Ewen Montagu, the intelligence officer behind what is known as "Operation Mincemeat". His vantage point is ideal for telling this tale. His access to the how the operation developed, the people, side-stories, funny happenings, the actual letters, and all the other details could be no better provided by anyone else. What makes the story interesting for me is not only the details, but how Ewen was able to put himself in the shoes of the Germans, and through all the details, orchestrate a diversion of German forces from Sicily. The book also offers concrete details of the real effect of the operation obtained from German archives after the war. Such total first hand information is the making of a quality history book, and this is a first-class telling of an interesting operation. If you like WWII, spy stories, or history, then this a good read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: First hand account of a brilliant espionage campaign
Review: Modern novellists would never have thought of this simple yet highly complicated plan to deceive the Germans during World War II. This book is written by Ewen Montagu who actually undertook the whole operation. Due to the fact of its high secrecy it could not first be revealed until the Mid-1950's when the first edition came out. Even then the full story could not be told for one of the other great secrets of WWII (the fact that the British had cracked the German code 'Engima') meant that the progress of the deception was monitored throughout its progress.

The deception was simple - dump a body with highly secret documents in a place where the Germans will be party to the find. Make it so convincing that they will take the bait. This was to mislead the Germans over the true place where the allies wanted to land (Sicily) so getting them to fortify another part of South Eastern Europe instead - the Dodecanese and Sardinia. It was a plan to save lives - as many allied lives as possible by reducing German resistance. And it worked - beautifully.

This book by Montagu gives us the absolute inside story with all the twists and turns to how the idea was conceived and how it was implemented. And for such a simple idea it was of course relatively complicated to implement. How to find an appropriately dead body to dump - where to dump it - how to make sure the Germans would find it without being suspicious of the material and so on. All very fascinating stuff and makes for a good, quick and easy read - it is very well-written and if nothing else is such an amazing story it is hard to put down.

This story is well publicised now - it has been the subject of at least one film and one documentary in the "Secrets of World War II" series, however it is nothing like information straight from the horses mouth to make you appreciate what it was all about.

My conclusion - Relatively short book but highly readable and very well worthwhile picking up even if your interest isn't in the arena of either War or World War II.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Famous case
Review: This case is very famous. I remember reading about it in a declassified article in a Swedish book meant to teach intelligence to students of journalism at Lund University.


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