Patrick Marnham
Author of Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley
About the Author
Works by Patrick Marnham
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1943-08-15
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Jerusalem, Palestine
Oxfordshire, England, UK - Education
- Downside School, Bath
University of Oxford (Corpus Christi) - Occupations
- biographer
journalist - Awards and honors
- Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 888
- Popularity
- #28,847
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 68
- Languages
- 7
In 1943 a senior leader of de Gaulle's force in occupied France was captured by the Germans and died. At almost the same time, a resistance cell supported/run by the secret service intheUK was destroyed by the SS. The book suggests that the two events are related, and are likely to have been part of a deception plan to convince the German command that an allied landing in France was imminent.
In the end, the available information is incomplete. I think the author is likely to be right, but some doubt remains.
But, regardless of the big issue, the book gives the reader an idea of the successes, and the dreadful failures of British intelligence.
In the Netherlands a wireless operator was captured by the Germans who proceeded to "run" him to fool the British. Radio messages at the time included a version of what we might now term 'two factor authentication' - an initial code, and the a second 'true identity check' in the body of the message. The captured officer omitted the second check - which should have been read as an alert that he had been compromised. The Secret Service in London instead took it as an understandable error. As a result, in the next 10 months 43 of 48 officers dropped into the Netherlands were captured by the Germans on arrival (40 of whom died in German hands), and all 544 containers of stores (weapons and explosives) flown in were captured by the Germans. Unbelievable incompetence!
Coincidentally, the same happened again at the time of the 1943 arrests in France - this time the buffoon in charge in London sent an immediate reply to the compromised officer in France telling him of his security breach and telling him that it should never happen again - clearly informing the Germans of the officer's attempt to warn of his capture.
Overall, the book is a fascinating insight into a terrible aspect of 20th century warfare.… (more)