The Double-Cross System: The Incredible True Story of How Nazi Spies Were Turned into Double Agents

Rating:
Summary: Basic Required Reading for Intelligence Professionals
Review: J.C. Masterman's "The Double-Cross System: The Incredible True Story of How Nazi Spies Were Turned into Double Agents" should be required reading for all counterintelligence and other human intelligence (HUMINT) personnel. Even after a 20+ year career as a human intelligence professional myself, this is one of the few "spy" books that I have. I consider this book a counterintelligence "how to" text book. To get the full impact of this book, I suggest first reading Ladaslas Farago's "Game of the Foxes", based on the files of Nazi Germany's intelligence service. After reading the German side of the story, the full impact of J.C. Masterman's book and this amazing intelligence operation will hit you right between they eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Basic Required Reading for Intelligence Professionals
Review: J.C. Masterman's "The Double-Cross System: The Incredible True Story of How Nazi Spies Were Turned into Double Agents" should be required reading for all counterintelligence and other human intelligence (HUMINT) personnel. Even after a 20+ year career as a human intelligence professional myself, this is one of the few "spy" books that I have. I consider this book a counterintelligence "how to" text book. To get the full impact of this book, I suggest first reading Ladaslas Farago's "Game of the Foxes", based on the files of Nazi Germany's intelligence service. After reading the German side of the story, the full impact of J.C. Masterman's book and this amazing intelligence operation will hit you right between they eyes.

Rating:
Summary: The XX or Double Cross Op misled the German Secret Service
Review: The Author was one of the few who ran the double cross system in MI5 using captured spies they ran back false intel on the planned invasion of France. Making the German's think that Normandy was a ploy to weaken the fortifications at Calais. The Best agent was codenamed GARBO whom the German's still believed in at the end of the war. They fooled them with false bomb damage reports from the V1&2 Rockets causing them to aim the Rockets short therefore missing London. A Great book on the Secret War.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fascinating--gives sense of the time
Review: This was written soon after the war (initially as a secret document) and is a candid assessment of the double-cross program's successes and failures; fortunately for the Allies, the former greatly outnumbered the latter. The author explains which operations worked, which did not, and why. He also explains how they could have exploited the system for further gains had they been more confident of their effectiveness in deceiving the Germans, but he also explains why they were cautious and why it was reasonable to be cautious given the circumstances. Details of individual cases are often fascinating, including meetings with German handlers in neutral nations and dealing with uncooperative agents. My only complaint was that the acronym glossary did not cover a lot of the acronyms used in the book.