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R. V. Jones

Most Secret War Paperback – International Edition, September 22, 2009

by Victor Jones (Author)

4.6 429 ratings

Part of: Penguin World War II Collection (5 books)

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Reginald Jones was nothing less than a genius. And his appointment to the Intelligence Section of Britain's Air Ministry in 1939 led to some of the most astonishing scientific and technological breakthroughs of the Second World War. In Most Secret War he details how Britain stealthily stole the war from under the Germans' noses by outsmarting their intelligence at every turn. He tells of the 'battle of the beams'; detecting and defeating flying bombs; using chaff to confuse radar; and many other ingenious ideas and devices. Jones was the man with the plan to save Britain and his story makes for riveting reading.

Part of series

Penguin World War II Collection
Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin UK
Publication date

September 22, 2009
Dimensions

5 x 1.05 x 7.75 inches
ISBN-10

0141042826
ISBN-13

978-0141042824
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Reginald Victor Jones was an English physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in the Second World War. He died in 1997.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin UK; UK ed. edition (September 22, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141042826
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141042824
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.05 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,449 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 429 ratings

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4.6 out of 5

429 global ratings

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pidloop

two books in one

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2020

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This is like reading two different books blended together, sometimes mixed within the same sentence.

Book one is a technical discussion of radar, direction finding, flying bombs and rockets. The point of view is from military intelligence, that is, how the Allies decided what was required both for defense and offense, and what we could discern about what the Nazi's were doing in these areas. The information provided is quite detailed including original notes and maps and unfolds in chronological order beginning with the late '30s. I found this "book" to be excellent.

Book two is about the petty arguments, inflated egos and blindness of "experts". Just one example is how a decision to change from one side-pointing aircraft reconnaissance camera (which was prone to blurred images) to two forward-pointing cameras, one on each wing tip (which created far less blurring as well as stereo pairs to gauge scale and distance) was delayed for months until the man in charge was given the kind of fruit he wanted to make jam. Seriously. I found this book a disgusting menagerie of the worst of the human spirit.

Unfortunately, the proportion of the second "book" gradually increases, so by the end there is little more than heartbreaking discussions of how thousands and thousands of deaths on both sides were caused by raw arrogance and unchecked stupidity.

In spite of this, I give the book the maximum rating because the author seems completely credible in both areas and when studying history it is important to get the whole story, good or bad.

3 people found this helpful

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Nate L

Bureaucracy Survival Guide

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2017

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I enjoyed this book much better than I thought I would. (I know that's a backhanded compliment, but I was expecting it to be at least pretty good.)

I had read the free preview and a few of the reviews, and I was steeling myself to wade through ponderous and self-indulgent exposition to get to the "good stuff." Thankfully, I think this book is much better than most memoirs-- even some of those considered "classics." Jones manages to be entertaining from a storytelling point of view, and informative from an historical one. Also, I think it deserves emphasis that, given the subject matter, he manages to keep the tone relatively light-hearted. (I'm thinking, in contrast, of two works about other national crises I *tried* to read recently-- the 9/11 Commission Report and Stress Test by Timothy Geithner-- the former I had to put down for being too depressing, and the latter for being too stressful.)

Naturally, I tended to read it with an eye toward applicability to my own life. So, for me, this was a book above all else about bureaucracies, and how to navigate them. I found it very interesting to hear about the different cliques of military intelligence, and I think Jones illustrates very well how the line between "objectivity" and "advocacy" can get blurred, especially when one has to make decisions on limited information. In other words, it seemed like there were many instances in the book where, in the absence of the ability to "prove" that a certain course of action is best, people basically reverted to intuition or feeling or whatever to choose which course of action to support. To me, this is an important lesson in bureaucracy: expect decisions to be made by the leadership, even if those decisions are not good ones!

2 people found this helpful

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Jeff

A masterpiece of scientific and military history, delivered with a real flair for story telling

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2012

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R.V. Jones is a legendary figure in British scientific intelligence. One can argue that without him, Britain might have lost the air war in the early parts of WWII.

Most Secret War is his account of his scientific training and then how he used that during the war to defeat virtually ever weapon systems the Germans employed including directional radio beams for bombers, radar, the V1 and V2 missile programs, and Hitler's efforts to build an atomic bomb, which turn out to have been further along than most people realize. All of this is really interesting and told with the right amount of narrative detail to hold the interest of most any reader.

What really makes the book stand apart from most historical accounts of WWII is the insight of Jones into British military and intelligence organizations, as well as his anecdotes of life during the war. It's very unusual to encounter what feels like a fairly objective view of critical historical moments while also getting many many glimpses of day time life during the war in Britain. Jones, despite his scientific training, could have been a well read observer of the social scene, which is surprising for someone who would not have been insulted to be called a scientific boffin.

The book is liberally illustrated with maps, drawings, and photographs that makes his points come through all the better for them. Although 500 pages in length, Jones's rapid narrative makes the pages fly and I read this book in a day and a half, and was hungry for more.

Highly, highly recommended!

9 people found this helpful

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steve uk

A genius mind that helped blunt the Nazi menace.

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2015

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RV Jones was a genius. Winston Churchill being the astute person he was recognized a real talent in his midsts and utilized his amazing talents accordingly. Mr Jones is quite simply a genius whose work for the British Intelligence Service can never be underestimated. The book tells the story of the amazing things that were achieved mostly by the most amazing means. For instance the way he discovers the German radar setup across Europe is fascinating. Devising means to stop the V weapon menace and discovering the secrets of Peenemunde from photo recon and intelligence reports from spies etc is indeed worthy of high praise. Churchill trusted Jones even when he had a lot of enemies trying to bring him down. It was partly due to Jones's deductions that Peenemunde was eventually bombed.
Jones is very humble and readily heaps praise on others who help contribute to his success. I read the hardback version of this book under a different title years ago, but in my move to the USA it got lost sadly. If logical thinking and detective work interest you this book will amaze you.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

JEAN Y LEGOUAS

Simply remarkable!

Reviewed in France on July 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is a unique book.
Not only because it deals with amply illustrated first-hand fundamental scientific and technical matters that proved to be of the utmost importance for the Allies victory, but also because Dr. Jones always shares his achievements with his subordinates. He thereby displays a deep humane personality, including an acute and very British sense of humour.

lesley booth

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

Good read

Richard L

Fabulous Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book was purchased to replace a previous copy, which has unfortunately gone missing at home. It is one of, if not the best book written about the contributions to the Allied war effort by scientists, armed forces personnel and patriots in many countries who on a daily basis, risked the lives and liberty for Great Britain and her allies during World War II.

This particular edition, unfortunately suffers from a cheapening of the materials from which it is made. The paper is of inferior quality and because of this some of the maps and illustrations are very difficult to interpret. The original edition had the photographs printed on high quality photo paper, which is not the case in the current book. It is now extremely difficult to see just what the RAF photographic staff really saw on the originals.

Having said that, it was worth the purchase, but I hope I can find my original copy somewhere soon.

One person found this helpful

Peter B

A good balance.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

I have read a lot of books on the "Intelligence War" and this is one of the best, being full of information but unlike some also very readable. To someone who has not read other books on the subject they might think that the author is overclaiming the importance of his contribution to the Second World War, and no doubt he is to some extent, but there are plenty of other sources which confirm that he and his department were serious players, though perhaps he downplays others contributions a little at times.

To somebody not of this country it might seem stereotypically "English" when he meets his contacts from other organisations in their London Clubs, and when he quotes Greek philosopy in his reports but I suppose that is a measure of the people he worked with, in the same way that the staff at Bletchley Park were in many cases academics and often rather an eccentric lot. The one thing that struck me as incongruous was when he and his new wife took a holiday in August 1940 right at the height of the Battle of Britain - I doubt that would happen now in the middle of a war!

The book ranges from the early 30's to the second period with Churchill as PM in the early1950's and is a very good guide to "Air Intelligence" which was the author's field. If you want to know about Naval Intelligence I can also recommend Patrick Beesly's "Very Special Intelligence". That just leave Army Intelligence and I am still trying to find a good book on that.

All in all I am glad I bought this book and I can recommend it to anybody who wants a highly readable account with plenty of detail.

6 people found this helpful

J

Excellent book

Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2022

Verified Purchase

Among the best WW2 history books I have read. Focus on Military Intelligence gathering.

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