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The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War

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This unique book is one of the handful of all-time great books on intelligence. It ranks alongside Kahn's The Codebreakers and Hitler's Spies, Hinsley's great history of British intelligence in WWII, Masterman's Double-Cross System, James Bamford's books, and some of the books by Christopher Andrew and Nigel West. And it is also a tremendous contribution to the history of World War II. The paper cover quotes two of the greatest authorities on WWII, Sir Michael Howard and Prof. Ernest May, saying that it is an essential addition to any WWII collection and they are right.

Any reader about WWII knows about a few of the deceptions the Allies brought off such as the one at D-Day and "The Man Who Never Was". Holt not only gives far more information about these than has ever been published. He also puts them into context as part of the overall history of Allied deception and how it developed from 1940 to 1945. And he has a huge amount of absolutely new information. This is especially true as far as U.S. deception, which has never been written about previously. Holt was allowed to use files in the Pentagon which had never before been declassified and he made the most of them.

As an old Naval Intelligence guy I was particularly glad to see the tremendous amount of material never before seen about the U.S. deceptions in the Pacific.

Also, the three appendixes are the kind of material for any student of intelligence history to die for, as the saying is. There is a list of all the Allied deception operations (you will be amazed how many there were), a list of all the Allied double agents and other channels that were played back to the Axis (again, you will be surprised how many of these there were), plus a list of all the phony units (army, air force, and navy, not just U.S. but British, French, Greek, etc. etc.)) that were palmed off on the enemy.

A definitely exceptional feature of this book is not only its complete and detailed history but how readable it is. It is told through the personalities of the American and British officers that conducted the deceptions and they are brought to life the way history books rarely do. One of the quotes from experts on the paper cover says it reads like a novel and this is totally true. In this field, in my experience a similar accomplishment has been managed only by David Kahn.

This book is a 100% "must have" for anybody seriously interested in WWII or intelligence.

Mr. Holt has written an impressive and exhaustively long account (over 1,100 pages) of the use of military misinformation during the Second World War. Well-written and researched, the narrative itself is over 800 pages with 300 pages of documentation and indexes. This is not the book for a reader who is seeking an introduction to the subject -- it is more an encyclopedia for the reader who enjoys the nuts and bolts of spycraft.

The book covers the tactics of all the Allies and Axis powers, focusing on the brilliant exploits of the masters of the game, the British. One of Mr. Holts thesis's is that the Allied sucess in the use of military misinformation gave them a major tactical advantage over the Germans, Japanese and Italians (as was proven in the sucess of the D-Day invasion and other operations).

This is the book for the serious WW II scholar who seeks information on this little known (and written about) topic. The sheer volume of characters, events and facts is a testament to the research skills of Mr. Holt who waded through thousands of recently declassified government documents. For the causal reader, "The Deceivers" is best read as a novel for those specific sections of interest to the reader : covering the French efforts in this area under Charles de Gaulle, or the American ruses in the Pacific or the complicated deceptions involved in the Normandy invasion.

Here is an outstanding contribution to a little-researched area of WWII history. The few existing texts on U.S. intelligence work during this period are often marred by lack of primary documentation and are often filled with author supposition. This text offers excellent analysis from a qualified expert in the field, coupled with an exceptional amount of first-hand information from those who lived it.

The material is presented in a logical, easy-to-read format, using language that is terse, informative yet never pedantic. The author's opinion may sneak in various passages, but overall it is an objective, thorough discussion of an area remarkably difficult to study. Intelligence is, after all, the business of secrets. That Holt has so effectively revealed these secrets--and done so in an exciting, fast-paced non-fiction book--is a testament to the author's considerable skills.

Recommended for libraries, military history fans, WWII enthusiasts and anyone interested in the history of U.S. intelligence work.

This is a strange piece of work. Holt kicks things off with a chapter extolling British general Dudley Clarke as World War II's master of deception without bothering to explain why he merits that status.

The book proceeds with a lengthy, minutely detailed record of virtually every deception operation carried out by the Allies, covering who was involved (and sometimes who wasn't), who came up with what idea and how, what resources were used, where they got them, how they got them where they were needed, at times down to the point of how the desks were arranged at headquarters, all without a single effort made to relate any of this frantic activity to the progress of the war at large or, for that matter, any external events whatsoever. An endless parade of odd operational names trundles by one after the other with no context, and, for the majority of readers, no meaning. Anyone coming to this book without a solid previous knowledge of the war would be completely lost. Beyond that, divorcing the strategic deception story from the war's larger context undercuts Holt's argument that deception was a crucial element to Allied victory, an argument I would have thought could be made with all the difficulty of falling off a chair.

"The Deceivers" is a pure example of the streetcar-transfer school of history, a historian getting so bogged down in the minutiae of his field of interest that he forgets there's a world out there. Compare this to David Kahn's masterly "Hitler's Spies" and "The Codebreakers", both dealing with closely related topics, both examplars of the historian's art.

It is a treat to get history at this level seen through the eyes of the participants. Their daily lives, what their personalities and personal relationships were like, etc. There are many wartime narratives from the viewpoint of the average GI, or even the average top commander, but very few that bring to life how the staff that was actually planning and executing operations worked and lived, and what kind of people they were. Add to that the amount of new information this author has dug up about some of the most fascinating intelligence operations of World War Two--and some of the most fascinating and varied intelligence operatives, ranging from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to F. Scott Fitzgerald's brother-in-law-- plus a very readable writing style, and you have a truly outstanding book.

This is a wonderful book for people who are seriously interested in military history and intelligence. Very very highly recommended for them. People who just want a quick read should stick to James Bond.

'In wartime,' said Winston Churchill famously, 'truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.' 'The Deceivers' is a monumental work and clearly labour of love, which provides both its strength and its weakness; I can understand why some reviewers here struggled with it. It is not the book for a reader seeking an introduction to the subject: this is a book for those seeking detailed information, with a lengthy, minutely detailed record of virtually every deception operation carried out by the Allies - and yes we do learn where everyone went for lunch - that could bewilder someone without a previous knowledge of the operations these deceptions were designed to support.

Nevertheless, Mr Holt has written a compelling account of an obscure and fascinating aspect of the war more closely related to show business than the brutal reality of killing. In what other military sphere could one hope to meet David Niven, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, magician Jasper Maskelyne, Peter Fleming (brother of Ian) and the strange writer, Dennis Wheatley? Because one purpose of deception is to beat the enemy with as little fighting as possible: to make him 'quite certain, very decisive, and wrong'. The hero of the story, if there is one, is an otherwise obscure colonel of Royal Artillery called Dudley Clarke. As Clarke wrote in the foreword to his unpublished memoirs, 'the secret war was waged rather to conserve than to destroy; the stakes were the lives of the frontline troops, and the organisation which fought it was able to count its gains from the number of casualties it could avert'. Here at last is just tribute to his efforts.

I am new at this and hope I am posting this review correctly. My wife gave me this book knowing that I am interested in military history and especially in intelligence. When I saw the ads on the back cover quoting people that said it reads like a novel and belongs on every WW2 bookshelf, I thought this was just the usual puffing, however, it is true. Holt tells the story of how the British and Americans fooled the Germans at D-day and on many other occasions with fake intelligence, telling it through the eyes of the participants, not only the allied officers (with great thumbnail character sketches of each of these) but sometimes the German intelligence agencies and spies and double agents themselves. A lot of the information is 100% new, I have never seen it reported anywhere else. Especially, his material about the work of the FBI, US military deception, the secret US outfit called Joint Security Control, etc.

It really does read like a novel, like a whole batch of thrillers rolled into one. Anybody interested in WW2 or in intelligence will "have a ball" with it.

The book is dauntingly large and heavy but contains documented accounts of the Allied undercover actions to deceive the Axis powers. It is fascinating reading, amusing in spots and quite amazing to consider the details to which they went. Makes Hogan's Heroes seem very minor stuff but this is factual.
Very interesting too in the use of odd bods like the author Dennis Wheatley and the way creative brains were put to a better use than than as inferior soldiers. The account of Wheatley's war work will fascinate any readers of his books since these experiences are interwovan with the literary output.
It makes a great gift for hard to suit men - I gave a copy to an 40 year old Army officer - he really enjoyed it, so much that he asked me to get more copies for his friends.

For anyone with even a cursory interest in military tactics -- and given the current situation in Iraq, it's hard to imagine not having some interest in the way war is waged -- this book is nothing short of sensational. Meticulously researched, beautifully written, and with tales of intrigue as thrilling as any spy novel, The Deceivers is a must read.

I'll first say I am envious of some of the sources in this book. Documents are mentioned that I have still been refused due to classification issues. (60 years later!). So that being said there is a gold mine of information in here on WW2 strategic deception. But that being said it does come up short of the tactical/operational decption side.

Had I not known the author is American I would think he was British from some of the less positve comments made about the American Army. This may stem from some of the British Sources used, and the fact that the British really diod not want to Yanks involved in deception (which they felt we would muck up).
That rivalry cannot be understated.

Shortly before his Death I was able to discuss this book with the former XO of the American Tactical decption unit (23rd Special Troops) who quite enjoyed it, thought it had a lot of good information, but he was also puzzled by the down playing of the American units, and felt that some of the information mentioned about men that were very well known to him were just not correct. One comment about an American officer bemoaning the American staff system in particular was found quite amazing and he just could not believe this to be true (of his very close friend).

So, I would say this is over all great book, and a must read on WW2 Allied depction, but the final story of the American involvement is still not completely told. For tactical/operation decption in the ETO see Ghosts of the ETO.