The Unknown Soldier : The Allies' Greatest Deception in the Days Before D-Day

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Spy Tale Ever Told
Review: Tom Clancy wasn't very quotable in general, but one gem of his applies very well to this book: "The difference between fiction and nonfiction is that fiction has to be believable."

And sure enough, it's true. This nonfiction spy thriller has the best plot of any spy tale ever told - true OR invented - and the author, journalist/novelist James Leasor - has the surest grasp of the pen of any thriller author I've read. He doesn't put you to sleep like Clancy, but nor does he schlop on so much suspense and drama that you have to stop reading if you want to breathe.

The plot is complex, but here is an oversimplified version: a British spy is sent to France in the days before Normandy posing as a Nazi double agent. (One of the intriguing subplots of the book is how Nazi spies in England were used by the British to convince German High Command that the double agent really was German.) Once in France, he made contact (rather violently) with German intelligence, who interrogated many times.

The information he gave them was that the Allies would land at Calais. He supplied photographic evidence, as well as papers and memos "stolen" from Allied military officers - all completely fake. Although many professional soldiers, including Erwin Rommel, who met the agent in person, suspected the truth of the evidence, Adolf Hitler was interested - and summoned the man to a meeting in the Berchtesgaden.

The meeting was incredible: the agent was, in fact, a German Jew who had moved to England as a boy; it sickened him to be face-to-face with Hitler, and afterwards he had quite a stomach ache. He provided the Fuhrer with all the evidence he had with him...

...and Adolf Hitler realized he was an Allied agent. But, being the diabolical nutcase he was, Hitler decided that the Allies were trying to dupe the Nazis into thinking that they were going to land at NORMANDY by supplying evidence that they were going to land at CALAIS, so obviously (thought Hitler) they were going to land at CALAIS after all!

And thus, perversely, Allied High Command's grand scheme worked: and the poor agent was left to find his own way to somehow escape from the Germans (who were preparing to introduce him to the Gestapo) and make it to Bayeux intime to meet the invading forces after D-Day. His escape is just as incredible as the rest of the story (actually this summary doesn't do justice at all to the immense detail and remarkable triumph of the story).

This is the most thrilling spy story I've ever read - and all the better because it's true. Fabulous. It would make a terrific movie, and I don't know why it hasn't yet.

Buy it!