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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
It's a fascinating period. British intelligence was doing their best to play with the heads of the Nazis. They were assisted in this by the Nazis, who had different intelligence services competing with each other, and spies directed by and loyal to their particular spymasters, who were often trying to undermine each other to rise in the hierarchy.
There was one case where the British turned a Nazi agent, then deliberately ran him as incompetently as they could manage, with the idea that the Nazis would discover it, and get an unrealistically low opinion of British Intelligence abilities. Only one problem: the Nazis never picked up that the guy was a double agent... 
If you should happen to encounter it, there's a charming British film called "I was Monty's double", in which an actor who resembles Montgomery is recruited by British Intelligence to pretend he is Montgomery, and then sent as Montgomery on an inspection tour of North Africa. It's the build up to the Normandy invasion, and the Germans know a strike is coming, but don't know whether it will be across the English Channel, or up from North Africa, or both, and Intelligence wants to keep them guessing and their forces divided as long as possible.
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Dennis |
Dennis,
Thanks for the tip about "I was Monty's Double." I looked on Netflix here in the US and was disappointed that it doesn't seem to be available here. I'll keep looking. There has to be a way to get it. I wanted to add that there's supposedly a film version in development for MacIntyre's other book
Agent Zigzag, based on the Eddie Chapman tale. Good stuff. Gimme a con man and an espionage mission in a compelling historical setting and I'm hooked.
Steve