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68 books · Read · subject Intel history · page 1 of 3

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

Ben Macintyre

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Intel history WWII Espionage Intel history Biography ISBN 9780307353405

Harmony Books · 2007

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began. In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted MI5, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen. Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation, and, miraculously, keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way. The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded. Both countries provided for the mother of his child and his mistress. Sixty years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapman’s death, MI5 has now declassified all of Chapman’s files, releasing more than 1,800 pages of top secret material and allowing the full story of Agent Zigzag to be told for the first time. A gripping story of loyalty, love, and treachery, Agent Zigzag offers a unique glimpse into the psychology of espionage, with its thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Stephen Kinzer

★★★★★
Read Advanced intel Intel history Military history Espionage GWOT Middle East Intel history Orthodox / theology ISBN 9780471678786

Wiley · August 12, 2004

Half a century ago, the United States overthrew a Middle Eastern government for the first time. The victim was Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. Although the coup seemed a success at first, today it serves as a chilling lesson about the dangers of foreign intervention.In this book, veteran New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer gives the first full account of this fateful operation. His account is centered around an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the events of August 1953, and concludes with an assessment of the coup's "haunting and terrible legacy." Operation Ajax, as the plot was code-named, reshaped the history of Iran, the Middle East, and the world. It restored Mohammad Reza Shah to the Peacock Throne, allowing him to impose a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Islamic Revolution, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection."It is not far-fetched," Kinzer asserts in this book, "to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York."Drawing on research in the United States and Iran, and using material from a long-secret CIA report, Kinzer explains the background of the coup and tells how it was carried out. It is a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents. There are accounts of bribes, staged riots, suitcases full of cash, and midnight meetings between the Shah and CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt, who was smuggled in and out of the royal palace under a blanket in the back seat of a car. Roosevelt,the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, was a real-life James Bond in an era when CIA agents operated mainly by their wits. After his first coup attempt failed, he organized a second attempt that succeeded three days later.The colorful cast of characters includes the terrified young Shah, who fled his country at the first sign of trouble; General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Gulf War commander and the radio voice of "Gang Busters," who flew to Tehran on a secret mission that helped set the coup in motion; and the fiery Prime Minister Mossadegh, who outraged the West by nationalizing the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The British, outraged by the seizure of their oil company, persuaded President Dwight Eisenhower that Mossadegh was leading Iran toward Communism. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain became the coup's main sponsors. Brimming with insights into Middle Eastern history and American foreign policy, this book is an eye-opening look at an event whose unintended consequences - Islamic revolution and violent anti-Americanism--have shaped the modern world. As the United States assumes an ever-widening role in the Middle East, it is essential reading.

Argo: How the CIA & Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History

Antonio J. Méndez

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Biographies Intel history Espionage Middle East Intel history ISBN 9780670026227

Viking · 2012

The true account of the 1979 rescue of six American hostages from Iran On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held dozens of Americans hostage, sparking a 444-day ordeal and a quake in global politics that still reverberates today. Beaneath this crisis another shocking story was known by only a select few: six Americans escaped the embassy and hid within a city roiling with suspicion and fear. A top-level CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them before they were detected. Disguising himself as a Hollywood producer, and supported by a cast of expert forgers, deep-cover CIA operatives, foreign agents, and Hollywood special-effects artists, Mendez traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake science fiction film called "Argo." While pretending to find the ideal film backdrops, Mendez and a colleague succeeded in contacting the escapees and eventually smuggled them out of Iran. After more than three decades, Antonio Mendez finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led. A riveting story of secret identities, international intrigue, and good old-fashioned American ingenuity, Argo is the pulse-pounding account of the history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage.

No cover · Amazon

Death of the Leaping Horseman: 24 Panzer-Division in Stalingrad 12th August-20th November 1942

Jason D. Mark

★★★★★
Read Military history Logistics WWII Air power Armor Russia / USSR Logistics Intel history

The gripping story of an elite panzer division and its battles in the shattered streets of Stalingrad. In "Death of the Leaping Horseman: 24th Panzer-Division in Stalingrad," the untold story of 24th Panzer-Division's savage fighting on Stalingrad's outskirts - and in the devastated ruins of the city itself - is revealed in a detailed day-by-day account. Beginning in the heady days of the victorious march toward Stalingrad in August 1942, the book follows the Division into Stalingrad's suburbs as it is slowly and inexorably suked into the fiery crucible that was Stalingrad. Panzer losses and casualties increased daily until finally, after three months of draining combat, the Division was reduced to a battlegroup consisting of a couple of panzers and a few hundred men. Woven through official combat reports and entries from the Division's war diaries are gripping accounts from the few remaining veterans - including an Oakleaves winner and several Knight's Cross winners. Contains over 200 photos and 85 maps and aerial photos.

No cover · Amazon

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

Ben Macintyre

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Intel history WWII Espionage Intel history

In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory.  In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.    On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties.  D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring that Hitler kept an entire army awaiting a fake invasion, saving thousands of lives, and securing an Allied victory at the most critical juncture in the war.    The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it, and the generals who led it. But this epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspectives of the key individuals in the Double Cross System. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing  Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and a volatile Frenchwoman, whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. The D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled, and their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymaster, both German and British. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time.    With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller,  Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.

Enigma: The Battle for the Code

Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Cryptography Military history Intel history WWII Espionage Naval Air power Intel history Orthodox / theology ISBN 9780471490357

Wiley · February 12, 2004

Winston Churchill called the cracking of the German Enigma Code "the secret weapon that won the war." Now, for the first time, noted British journalist Hugh-Sebag-Montefiore reveals the complete story of the breaking of the code by the Allies--the breaking that played a crucial role in the outcome of World War II. This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffe's version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish activities at Bletchley Park. Based in part on documents recently unearthed from American and British archives--including previously confidential government files--and in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma unearths the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that changed history.

Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda

John Keegan

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Intel history WWII Espionage GWOT Naval Air power Intel history Biography ISBN 0375400532

Knopf · 2003

In fiction, the spy is a glamorous figure whose secrets make or break peace, but, historically, has intelligence really been a vital step to military victories? In this breakthrough study, the preeminent war historian John Keegan goes to the heart of a series of important conflicts to develop a powerful argument about military intelligence. In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us nothing short of a new history of war through the prism of intelligence. He brings to life the split-second decisions that went into waging war before the benefit of aerial surveillance and electronic communications. The English admiral Horatio Nelson was hot on the heels of Napoleon’s fleet in the Mediterranean and never knew it, while Stonewall Jackson was able to compensate for the Confederacy’s disadvantage in firearms and manpower with detailed maps of the Appalachians. In the past century, espionage and decryption have changed the face of the Japanese surprise attack at the Battle of the Midway was thwarted by an early warning. Timely information, however, is only the beginning of the surprising and disturbing aspects of decisions that are made in war, where brute force is often more critical. Intelligence in War is a thought-provoking work that ranks among John Keegan’s finest achievements.

No cover · Amazon

Into Oblivion: The Story of Pionier-Batallion 305

Jason D. Mark

★★★★★
Read Logistics Military history WWII Cold War Air power Russia / USSR Logistics Intel history

After 16 months of training and garrison duty in France, Pionier-Bataillon 305 – together with the rest of 305. Infanterie-Division – was sent to the Eastern Front. Little could they know that an inevitable train of events had been set in motion that would lead to their destruction at Stalingrad barely nine months later. An unprecedented discovery of original material has permitted an examination of the brutal fighting on the Eastern Front through the eyes of one German battalion. Commanded by apolitical officers, reservists mainly, its ranks were filled with older-than-normal recruits. When they arrived on the Eastern Front in May 1942, it was a first time visit for most of them, yet they sensed what awaited them. Everyone knew someone who had been killed in the Soviet Union. Stories about the ferocity of combat on the Eastern Front had reached them through the soldier’s grapevine. They were under no illusions, but still believed they would prevail. Weeks of monotonous, endless marching were interspersed with terrifying encounters and set-piece attacks. How would this fresh battalion compare with experienced units? Were its men less jaded and more inspired than those that had been at the front since Barbarossa began in June 1941? Was the arrival of a tough, battle-hardened commander enough to compensate for the unit’s lack of combat experience? What effect did the ongoing casualties have on both the soldiers and the battalion’s performance in battle? By exploring and answering these questions and others, this intimate analysis of an ordinary battalion enables the Eastern Front to be seen as never before. • 620 pages on a high-quality satin (semi-gloss) stock • 210 x 157mm • Hardcover only • 327 photos • 56 maps and sketches • 7 aerial photos • 5 tables • 3 appendices, including officer biographies and medal lists.

Nancy Wake

Peter FitzSimons

★★★★★
Read Biographies Basic intel Intel history WWII Espionage Special ops Intel history Biography ISBN 9780732269197

HarperCollins Publishers · 28 January 2001

'Freedom is the only thing worth living for. While I was doing that work I used to think that it didn't matter if I died, because without freedom there was no point in living'. Nancy Wake In the early 1930's, Nancy Wake was a young woman enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. By the end of the Second World War she was the Gestapo's most wanted person. As a naive, young journalist, Nancy Wake witnessed a horrific scene of Nazi violence in a Viennese street. From that moment, she declared that she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazi presence. What began as a courier job here and there, became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, perfectly camouflaged by Nancy's high-society life in Marseille. Her network was soon so successful - and so notorious - that he had to flee France to escape the Gestapo who had dubbed her 'the white mouse' for her knack of slipping through its traps. But Nancy was a passionate enemy of the Nazis and refused to stay away. She trained with the British Special Operations Executive and parachuted back into France behind enemy lines. Again, this singular woman rallied to the cause, helping to lead a powerful underground fighting force, the Maquis. Supplying weapons and training the civilian Maquis, organising Allied parachute drops, cycling four hundred kilometres across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio - nothing seemed too difficult in her fight against the Nazis. Peter FitzSimons reveals Nancy Wake's compelling story, a tale of an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things.

No cover · Amazon

Panzerkrieg: Volume 1 - German Armoured Operations at Stalingrad

Jason D. Mark

★★★★★
Read Military history Advanced intel WWII Air power Armor Russia / USSR Intel history

For the first time ever, the operations of panzer formations at Stalingrad are examined in detail, from formation until demise. Stalingrad is perceived as a fierce man-versus-man struggle in the ruins of a major metropolis and the surrounding steppe; yet, 6. Armee possessed formidable armoured assets that helped it reach the Volga, defended its flanks and even supported assault groups within the claustrophobic confines of the city. In this first volume of a series dedicated to studying German armoured operations at Stalingrad, the combat histories of Panzer-Abteilungen 103, 129 and 160 will be examined in detail. These panzer battalions were drawn from panzer regiments on the quieter central sector of the Eastern Front. They were incorporated into motorized divisions for the 1942 summer campaign, and though most of their men thought they were headed to the Caucasus, all roads ultimately led to Stalingrad. As manpower levels dropped in their parent formations, the panzer battalions assumed a greater role in holding lengthy flanks while the main body of 6. Armee laid siege to Stalingrad. After encirclement in November 1942, the panzers assembled for a break-out operation, and when that failed to eventuate, they supported their struggling infantry brethren with plucky counterattacks and steadfast defense until fuel, ammunition and morale were depleted. Unprecedented access to Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), a government agency that maintains records of former Wehrmacht personnel, has permitted the life and death of each battalion to be analysed in incredible detail. The narrative is enhanced by hundreds of rare photos drawn from official archives, private collections and the albums of veterans themselves. -280 x 216 Portrait format -568 Pages on high-quality gloss paper -Hardcover only -559 Photos -12 Aerial photos -50 Maps -12 Tables -3 appendices showing the daily panzer strengths of each battalion

Sledgehammers: Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II

Christopher W. Wilbeck

★★★★★
Read Technical warfare Military history WWII Armor Russia / USSR Intel history Strategy / theory ISBN 9780971765023

The Aberjona Press · March 2004

The Tiger and King Tiger tanks gained legendary status during World War II. Numerous tank commanders attained phenomenal tallies of kills and accomplished extraordinary feats during combat in these tanks, building the legend to near mythic proportions after the war. During WWII, the Germans created eleven Army and three Waffen-SS heavy tank battalions. These heavy tank battalions were employed in nearly every part of Europe against almost every enemy of Germany. As vast in breadth and scope as the employment of Tiger battalions themselves, Sledgehammers provides historical examples and analysis of heavy tank battalions’ actions in North Africa, Normandy, Italy, the Ardennes Offensive, and numerous battles on the Eastern Front including Operation ZITADELLE/the Battle of Kursk, Operation BAGRATION, the battle of the Cherkassy Pocket, late war attacks to relieve Budapest, and many other more minor engagements. Although a great deal has already been published about Tiger tanks’ technical details and some of the units which used them, until now, very little has been written concerning the organization and tactical employment of these tanks throughout the German armed forces and across the theaters in which they were employed. Sledgehammers provides an in-depth look at heavy tank battalions’ organizations and tactics, including the tactical doctrine by which these elite units were supposed to fight and how they were actually employed on the battlefield by their commanders and crews. Even given the Tiger’s reputation, many readers will be amazed by the fearsome casualties inflicted by the crews of many of these behemoth armored vehicles. It is safe to say that no other armored vehicle of the war wreaked as much havoc among enemy formations as Tigers. Many will, however, also find it equally stunning to learn of the Tigers’ many technical and tactical vulnerabilities. Through the systematic use of extremely detailed primary source and other impeccably reliable research, Sledgehammers demolishes several major myths about Tigers in World War II. Meticulously researched and written with the perspective and respect for Tigers' crews that only a professional tanker can bring to the subject, Sledgehammers synthesizes information to provide new and definitive insights into the strengths and flaws of World War II’s most feared and legendary tanks. Prologue by famed Tiger ace Otto Carius. Epilogue by Tiger killers Viktor Iskrov and Ray Holt. 35 original maps. 42 photos.

The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II

Gregory A. Freeman

★★★★★
Read WWII Air power Intel history Biography ISBN 9780451222121

Nal Caliber · 2007

Draws on recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews to recount the dramatic story of a World War II rescue mission in 1944 during which the OSS embarked on a daring scheme to recover more than five hundred airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. 40,000 first printing.

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan

Ben Macintyre

★★★★★
Read Advanced intel Intel history Espionage GWOT Intel history Biography ISBN 9780374529574

Farrar, Straus and Giroux · April 14, 2005

The riveting story that inspired Kipling's classic tale and a John Huston movie The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before. Soldier, spy, doctor, naturalist, traveler and writer, Josiah Harlan wanted to be a king, with all the imperialist hubris of his times. In an amazing twenty-year journey around Central Asia, he was variously employed as surgeon to the Maharaja of Punjab, revolutionary agent for the exiled Afghan King, and then commander-in-chief of the Afghan armies. In 1838, he set off in the footsteps of Alexander the Great across the Hindu Kush and forged his own kingdom, only to be ejected from Afghanistan a few months later by the invading British. Using a trove of newly-discovered documents, Harlan's own unpublished journals, and with a revised Preface detailing the unexpected discovery of Harlan's descendents, Ben Macintyre's The Man Who Would Be King tells the astonishing tale of the man who would be the first and last American king.

The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America

Burton W. Folsom Jr.

★★★★★
Read Logistics Logistics Intel history Economics ISBN 0963020307

Young America's Foundation · 1991

The Myth of the Robber Barons describes the role of key entrepreneurs in the economic growth of the United States from 1850 to 1910. The entrepreneurs studied are Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Charles Schwab, and the Scranton family. Most historians argue that these men, and others like them, were Robber Barons. The story, however, is more complicated. The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs, such as Hill, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller, succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. The political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and in railroads the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies, or in some way use government to stop competitors. The market entrepreneurs helped lead to the rise of the U. S. as a major economic power. By 1910, the U. S. dominated the world in oil, steel, and railroads led by Rockefeller, Schwab (and Carnegie), and Hill. The political entrepreneurs, by contrast, were a drain on the taxpayers and a thorn in the side of the market entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the political entrepreneurs often failed without help from government they could not produce competitive products. The author describes this clash of the market entrepreneurs and the political entrepreneurs. In the Mellon chapter, the author describes how Andrew Mellon an entrepreneur in oil and aluminum became Secretary of Treasury under Coolidge. In office, Mellon was the first American to practice supply-side economics. He supported cuts on income tax rates for all groups. The rate cut on the wealthiest Americans, from 73 percent to 25 percent, freed up investment capital and led to American economic growth during the 1920s. Also, the amount of revenue into the federal treasury increased sharply after tax rates were cut. The Myth of the Robber Barons has separate chapters on Vanderbilt, Hill, Schwab, Mellon, and the Scrantons. The author also has a conclusion, in which he looks at the textbook bias on the subject of Robber Barons and the rise of the U. S. in the late 1800s. This chapter explores three leading college texts in U. S. history and shows how they misread American history and disparage market entrepreneurs instead of the political entrepreneurs. This book is in its fifth edition, and is widely adopted in college and high school classrooms across the U. S.

The Secret War in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union, China and Anglo-American Intelligence in the Afghan War (Library of Middle East History)

Panagiotis Dimitrakis

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Intel history Cold War Espionage GWOT China Russia / USSR Middle East Intel history ISBN 9781780764191

I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd · 2013

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in support of a Marxist-Leninist government, and the subsequent nine-year conflict with the indigenous Afghan Mujahedeen was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Cold War. Key details of the circumstances surrounding the invasion and its ultimate conclusion only months before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 have long remained unclear; it is a confidential narrative of clandestine correspondence, covert operations and failed intelligence. The Secret War in Afghanistan undertakes a full analysis of recently declassified intelligence archives in order to asses Anglo-American secret intelligence and diplomacy relating to the invasion of Afghanistan and unveil the Cold War realities behind the rhetoric. Rooted at every turn in close examination of the primary evidence, it outlines the secret operations of the CIA, MI6 and the KGB, and the full extent of the aid and intelligence from the West which armed and trained the Afghan fighters. Drawing from US, UK and Russian archives, Panagiotis Dimitrakis analyses the Chinese arms deals with the CIA, the multiple recorded intelligence failures of KGB intelligence and secret letters from the office of Margaret Thatcher to Jimmy Carter. In so doing, this study brings a new scholarly perspective to some of the most controversial events of Cold War history. Dimitrakis also outlines the full extent of China's involvement in arming the Mujahedeen, which led to the PRC effectively fighting the Soviet Union by proxy. This will be essential reading for scholars and students of the Cold War, American History and the Modern Middle East.

The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War

James J. Wirtz

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Vietnam Intel history Strategy / theory ISBN 9780801482090

Cornell University Press · July 1994

In this account of one of the worst intelligence failures in American history, James J. Wirtz explains why U.S. forces were surprised by the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive in 1968. Wirtz reconstructs the turning point of the Vietnam War in unprecedented detail. Drawing upon Vietcong and recently declassified U.S. sources, he is able to trace the strategy and unfolding of the Tet campaign as well as the U.S. response.

Tigers In The Mud: The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius

Otto Carius

★★★★★
Read Intel history Military history WWII Armor Intel history Biography ISBN 0811729117

Stackpole Books · 2003

WWII began with a metallic roar as the German Blitzkrieg raced across Europe, spearheaded by the most dreaded weapon of the 20th century: the Panzer. No German tank better represents that thundering power than the infamous Tiger, and Otto Carius was one of the most successful commanders to ever take a Tiger into battle, destroying well over 150 enemy tanks during his incredible career.

No cover · Amazon

Weaving the Tangled Web: Military Deception in Large-Scale Combat Operations (Large-Scale Combat Operations Series Book 1)

Christopher M. Rein

★★★★★
Read Basic intel Military history Intel history WWII Korea Cold War GWOT Guerrilla / COIN China Russia / USSR Middle East Intel history Strategy / theory

This book is from Army University Press and is Volume 1 in it's Large-Scale Combat Operations Series. It has footnotes, maps, and pictures, and was originally published in 2018. “Since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1989, the specter of large-scale ground combat against a peer adversary was remote. During the years following, the US Army found itself increasingly called upon to lead multinational operations in the lower to middle tiers of the range of military operations and conflict continuum. The events of 11 September 2001 led to more than 15 years of intense focus on counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and stability operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. An entire generation of Army leaders and Soldiers were culturally imprinted by this experience. We emerged as an Army more capable in limited contingency operations than at any time in our nation’s history, but the geopolitical landscape continues to shift and the risk of great power conflict is no longer a remote possibility. “While our Army focused on limited contingency operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, other regional and peer adversaries scrutinized US military processes and methods and adapted their own accordingly. As technology has proliferated and become accessible in even the most remote corners of the world, the US military’s competitive advantage is being challenged across all of the warfighting domains. In the last decade, we have witnessed an emergent China, a revanchist and aggressive Russia, a menacing North Korea, and a cavalier Iranian regime. Each of these adversaries seeks to change the world order in their favor and contest US strategic interests abroad. The chance for war against a peer or regional near-peer adversary has increased exponentially, and we must rapidly shift our focus to successfully compete in all domains and across the full range of military operations." Includes: Introduction: Multi-Domain Deception (Christopher M. Rein, General Editor); Chapter 1: The Belfort Ruse the American Deception plan for the battle of st. Mihiel, 1918 (Mark E. Grotelueschen); Chapter 2: From Beersheba To Megiddo British Deception Operations During The Palestine Campaign, 1917-1918; (Major Brian J. Drohan); Chapter 3: Operation Bertram British Deception At El Alamein (Gary W. Linhart); Chapter 4: Operations Barclay, Cascade, And Mincemeat Allied Deception In The Mediterranean, 1943 (Gregory S. Hospodor); Chapter 5: Operation Kreml German Strategic Deception On The Eastern Front In 1942 (Alan P. Donohue); Chapter 6: Red Star Resurgent Soviet Deception Operations At Stalingrad, 1942-1943 (First Lieutenant Kyle B. Vautrinot); Chapter 7: Operation Bagration Maskirovka At Its Height, Summer 1944 (Curtis S. King); Chapter 8: Deceive, Divert, And Delay Operation Fortitude In Support Of D-Day (Scott C. Farquhar); Chapter 9: Chinese Deception And The 1950 Intervention In The Korean War (Joseph G.D. Babb); Chapter 10: From Maneuvers To War The Egyptian Deception Plan On The Eve Of The Yom-Kippur War (Tal Tovy); Chapter 11: Target San Carlos British Deception During The Repossession Of The Falkland Islands (Steven Paget); Chapter 12: Deception In The Desert Deceiving Iraq In Operation Desert Storm (Donald P. Wright); Conclusion: The Future Of Military Deception Operations (Conrad C. Crane)

When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Modern War Studies)

David M. Glantz

★★★★★
Read Military history WWII Cold War Russia / USSR Intel history Strategy / theory Economics ISBN 0700608990

University of Kansas · 1998

By the time Pearl Harbor had ripped apart America's peacetime pretensions, the German blitzkrieg had already blasted the Red Army back to the gates of Moscow. Yet, less than four years later, the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flew above the ruins of Berlin, stark symbol of a miraculous comeback that destroyed the German army and shattered Hitler's imperial designs. Told in swift stirring prose, When Titans Clashed provides the first full account of this epic struggle from the Soviet perspective. David Glantz, one of the world's foremost authorities on the Soviet military, and Jonathan House present a fundamentally new interpretation of what the Russians called the "Great Patriotic War." Based on unprecedented access to formerly classified Soviet sources, they counter the German perspective that has dominated previous accounts and radically revise our understanding of the Soviet experience during World War II. Placing the war within its wider political, economic, and social contexts, the authors recount how the determined Soviets overcame their initial disasters to defeat the most powerful army ever assembled. As they vividly show, this truly was war waged on a titanic scale, sweeping across a half-million square miles from Moscow to Berlin, featuring monumental offensives and counteroffensives, and ultimately costing both sides combined a staggering forty million casualties. Their work offers new revelations on Soviet strategy and tactics, Stalin's role as supreme commander of the Red Army, the emergence of innovative and courageous commanders in the crucible of combat, numerous previously concealed or neglected military operations, German miscalculations on the road to the Red capital, the effect of D-Day and the "second front" on the Soviet effort, and the war's devastating impact on the Soviet economy and civilian population. An essential volume for anyone interested in World War II or Soviet history, When Titans Clashed will change forever how we look at one of the greatest military confrontations in world history.

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

Leo Marks

★★★★
Read Advanced intel Cryptography WWII Espionage Special ops Intel history Biography ISBN 9780684867809

Free Press · September 12, 2000

In 1942, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84 Charing Cross Road, and went off to fight the war. He was twenty-two. Soon recognized as a cryptographer of genius, he became head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where he revolutionized the codemaking techniques of the Allies and trained some of the most famous agents dropped into occupied Europe, including "the White Rabbit" and Violette Szabo. As a top codemaker, Marks had a unique perspective on one of the most fascinating and, until now, little-known aspects of the Second World War. Writing with the narrative flair and vivid characterization of his famous screenplays, Marks gives free rein to his keen sense of the absurd and his wry wit, resulting in a thrilling and poignant memoir that celebrates individual courage and endeavor, without losing sight of the human cost and horror of war.

Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-Ss

Johann Voss

★★★★
Read WWII Russia / USSR Intel history Biography ISBN 9780966638981

The Aberjona Press · July 2002

Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS is a book by Johann Voss (a pseudonym) detailing the experiences of a soldier in the Waffen-SS. Voss served in SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 11 "Reinhard Heydrich", part of the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord. Written in English, the book is mainly an account of his combat service against the Soviets in northern Karelia and Finland during the Second World War, with a shorter section describing combat against American forces in the Vosges and in the Saar-Moselle triangle in 1945. Voss also recalls his experiences of being a POW in the United States from 1945-1946, when he wrote his memoirs.

Economics in One Lesson

Henry Hazlitt

★★★★
Read Basic intel Logistics Economics Logistics Intel history Economics Orthodox / theology ISBN 9780870004278

Blackstone Audiobooks · 1946

A million copy seller, Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is a classic economic primer. But it is also much more, having become a fundamental influence on modern “libertarian” economics of the type espoused by Ron Paul and others. Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the “Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993), was a libertarian philosopher, an economist, and a journalist. He was the founding vice-president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an early editor of The Freeman magazine, an influential libertarian publication.  Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson, his seminal work, in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. Many current economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than 50 years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong — and strongly reasoned — anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson, every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.