Changing Enemies: The Defeat and Regeneration of Germany [Paperback]

Noel Annan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2009

In January 1941, the twenty-four year old Noel Annan was assigned to Military Intelligence in Whitehall, where for the next four years he was to be involved in the crucial work of interpreting information supplied by a network of agents throughout occupied Europe and by the Ultra code-breakers at Bletchley Park. From Winston Churchill to Bomber Harris to the great minds at Bletchley, he describes in superbly characterised detail the people and the problems involved in this unusual and difficult work, which was to play such a vital role in the Allied victory. Immediately after the war in Europe ended, Noel Annan was seconded to the British Zone in defeated Germany to help rebuild the country which he and his colleagues had so recently been working to destroy. Germany's cities were in ruins, its people starving and demoralized, its industry smashed. Britain was changing enemies: from being the ally of the Western Powers, Soviet Russia now became a foe, and Annan got to know the new generation of German politicians who were to bring about the economic miracle that led to the country's renaissance. His account of this pivotal of European history is both fascinating in itself and of considerable importance to our understanding of Europe as it is today. 'Compact, critical, stimulating . . . obligatory reading for all contemporary historians.' Asa Briggs, Financial Times 'Nothing he has written is more fascinating . . . As history written by a participant, the book succeeds triumphantly.' John Grigg, Evening Standard 'A quite splendid example of how personal reminiscence can enrich historical understanding in the hands of a gifted writer.' Raymond Carr, Spectator

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Noel Annan was a young cadet in the British Intelligence Division known as M.I.14 responsible for monitoring German messages during World War II. His work put him in close proximity to leading figures in the British military as well as such secret resources as the British decoder called "Ultra." From this prime perch Annan witnessed the operations of England's war effort. After Germany's surrender, he was assigned to an administrative position in conquered Germany. He records the varied notions of reeducation that Allied officers designed for the defeated enemy, everything from philosophical debate to alter the German's conception of a good life to the organized dilution of German blood through orchestrated intermarriage. Working from his personal recollections, supplemented with thorough historical research, Lord Annan writes in the impassioned voice of an eyewitness to these historic events, and his memoir beats with the lively pulse inspired by the effort to defeat the Nazis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this crackling tale, former British intelligence officer Annan offers an insider's view of the military espionage that helped the Allies win the war against Hitler. When working on the Joint Intelligence Staff at Whitehall from 1941 to 1945, Annan's job was to sift a torrent of documents, reports and intercepted messages, to monitor German troop movements and to predict Hitler's next move. He portrays Winston Churchill as bullying, bellicose, a poor strategist who would have always had his way had it not been for General Alan Brooke, chairman of the Chiefs of Staff?the only man to stand up to the prime minister and avert his potentially disastrous strategy proposals. Annan provides intimate details on preparation for D-Day, the Nazi invasion of Greece, the Allied bombing campaign and Stalin's disregard of confidential British warnings of an impending German invasion. At war's end, the author spent 18 months in Berlin on the governing British Control Commission. He vividly describes power struggles among the Allied forces occupying Germany, his work in guiding post-Nazi Germany toward multiparty democracy, his friendship with Konrad Adenauer and the Soviet Union's abortive campaign to amalgamate its puppet, the German Communist Party, with Germany's Social Democrats?a plot that, the Allies feared, might have led to a German-Soviet alliance.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Faber and Faber (November 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571255086
• ISBN-13: 978-0571255085
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,898,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.