Customer Reviews

Hitler's Espionage Machine: The True Story Behind One of the World's Most Ruthless Spy Networks

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i have not read the whole book, just a small snippet about heydrich (p 200). it says the assassination happened "at the troja bridge, where the traffic usually ground to a halt"... other sources say it was at a hairpin turn in the road that required a slowdown as curves do (and it was before a bridge but... the point is the curve was the main reason for the slowdown and reason for attack, not the bridge and traffic). it also says that the village of lidice had 'links' to the assassins. other sources say they simply parachute-landed near there. small mistakes... ok.

but the book also says heydrich was not a racist, and not a 'dedicated nazi', but just a careerist. that is a very controversial argument but has no citations or discussion, the statement is just made. other sources point out he chaired the wanssee conference, sent orders to einsatzgruppen, and uhm ...... lots of other actions that would seem to be evidence for the opposite argument.

This book is a very solid reference for the German Espionage machine. It covers considerable ground. The German espionage machine was divided essentially into the Abwehr under the traditional Army - Wehrmacht and the SD which was under the thumb of the SS. They were constant rivals, vying for power and prestige. This book details some excellent case studies and exploits of both groups. If you are interested in espionage and World War II history, then this book offers a strong grounding in the two agencies and their adventures.

Jorgensen's book on Nazi Germany's espionage apparatuses is at once well written, exhaustive in detail, well-researched, generously and thoughtfully illustrated, and a thrilling read. It is the best book of its kind I have read.

The book begins, shall we say, at the beginning - the early development of Imperial Germany's intelligence arm, Nicholai's Nachrichtendienst, prior to and during World War I, and constrasts its effectiveness with that of its adversaries. Upon Germany's loss of the war, this was disbanded, and from the time Weimar and then Nazi Germany once again thought to develop military and political intelligence it was playing catchup with its rivals.

The work was made more difficult still by the diffusion and dilution of effort which were a byproduct of Hitler's way of running the Third Reich. No one power center would be allowed to grow too strong unchecked, each would be in rivalry with every other. And so over time there were multiple competing intelligence services - the Wehrmacht's Abwehr under Canaris, the Nazi party's internal Gestapo, the SS Sicherheitsdienst operating wherever Himmler, Heydrich and Schellenberg could place their men, Gehlen's Fremde Heere Ost, Goering's Forschungsamt, naval intelligence, radio-intercept intelligence, even a small department under foreign secretary Rippentrop. There was considerable overlap, a good deal of confusion and double-dealing, and Jorgensen's conclusion ultimately is that this 'system' of devolved control and no central organization cost the German war effort considerably in efficiency.

Beyond the rise and organization of these various agencies, Jorgensen's book deals with concrete successes and failures of not only the Nazi intelligence services but also those of its competitors, including especially the GRU (Soviet military intelligence). There are chapters on the establishment of Communist spy networks in Germany, as well as the hunt to squash them. Numerous specific intelligence operations and efforts are examined in detail, and Jorgensen's writing makes these fascinating and tense. Some of the spectacular events are dealt with - Skorzeny's rescue of Mussolini from Gran Sasso, e.g. - but there is equally good stuff on much more quiet work such as radio counterintelligence, cryptography, code breaking, and the like.

An excellent addition to intelligence writing, and World War II history in general. Jorgensen's other WWII books are also well worth searching out, by the way.