Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Bought this for my son (13) as he is really interested in WWII. We also have a home in WV where one of the German spy's spent some time hiding from the US Government and he is mentioned in the book. He has enjoyed reading the different stories.

I like short stories, but this a special genre: a collection of mysteries of one or two pages about World War II. The author is an historian, the collection is fantastic, but the reading is a bit frustrating, because there is no character description,no development, just the bare facts.

If you are a WWII buff, it in an interesting addition for your collection: I bet that even historians do not know half of theses stories.

Any novelist without a subject would find here a treasure: any of these stories would make a great novel.

However, if you are just an ordinary reader like me, it falls short: it is collection of small interesting facts, but there is no meat.