The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed: And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II [Paperback]

William B. Breuer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0471267392 | ISBN-13: 978-0471267393 | Edition: 1

A rare treat for World War II history buffs and fans of the strange, absurd, and unexplained

Acclaimed military historian William Breuer takes readers on a trip through the looking glass to acquaint them with the weirder side of World War II. Featuring a cast of characters including double- and triple-agents, femme fatales, fearless leaders, and men at arms, The Spy who Spent the War In Bed is a collection of seventy concise, vividly rendered tales of war, ranging from laugh-out-loud funny, to inspiring, to just-plain-bizarre. For instance, there's the one about how reputed Irish Republican Army members in New York conned Nazi intelligence out of a small fortune. There's also a thrilling account of how four American newsmen bagged an entire German platoon. And there's the haunting tale of the "Mystery Plane," an experimental aircraft that took off on a short test flight over England one sunny afternoon in 1938 and simply vanished into a cloudless summer sky. This book draws on personal interviews, official archives, and declassified documents, as well as the vast literature on World War II.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William B. Breuer is a military historian and author of more than twenty-seven books, over ten of which have been main selections of the Military Book Club. They include Unexplained Mysteries of World War II, Undercover Tales of World War II, Deceptions of World War II, Secret Weapons of World War II, The Great Raid on Cabanatuan, Feuding Allies, and MacArthur's Undercover War. Daring Missions of World War II and Top Secret Tales of World War II, both also published by Wiley, have been Conservative Book Club selections.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471267392
• ISBN-13: 978-0471267393
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,451,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light Bedtime Reading for WWII Buffs, May 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed: And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II (Paperback)

By Bill Marsano. This book is for fun, although it does appear to be well researched (there are chapter notes, and they often refer to actual published sources, not websites and TV shows) and the author is an established writer on military affairs. It's the content that's fun--a likable and sometimes funny collection of oddball stories of foolery by Axis and Allies alike. The anecdotes--there are several dozen of them--run from one end of the war to the other. They include the US general who lost his pants on a secret mission; the German spy who was caught with a batch of secret plans--but got away when his captors simply forgot about him; the incredible shortsightedness of the British government about Bletchley Park (where the Enigma secrets were unraveled); and secret agents who bilked their masters of large sums of money for high times--and provided no intelligence whatsoever (Joe Stalin's son was among them). This is a brisk tour of the situation-comedy side or WWII, and the author's charmingly dated, almost archaic tabloid writing style only adds to the fun. Bill Marsano is a long-time WWII buff himself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Events, December 27, 2005

By 

T. Berner (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed: And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II (Paperback)

This is a better book for dipping into than for reading cover to cover. It is full of interesting and engaging stories, but it is clearly designed for the "dipper." We are told at least ten times, for instance, the "feld grau" means field gray means the average German soldier. It would also be better if the author had better sources for his stories. Most of the stories are footnoted "author's files" which tells you nothing. A lot of fun, though.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for short reading periods, July 24, 2006

By 

Alyssa Whidden Kendall (Severn, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed: And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II (Paperback)

I have a lengthy commute on a train and discovered this author purely by accident. William Breuer writes brief tales with a sense of humor about the incidents during WWII. I found this book to be amusing and a nice light read about the war, as opposed to other authors who are very in-depth. Don't let the title of this one throw you off. It's pretty good.