World War II History Book Review “The Deceivers” by Thaddeus Holt The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War Book Review by Thomas Townsend (October 16, 2010)
Book Title: The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War Author: Thaddeus Holt Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Length: 1176 pages (paperback) Price: $22.95 Release Date: 10/01/2010 Reading rating: 8 (1 = very difficult; 10 = very easy) Overall rating: 5 (1 = average; 5 = outstanding) “Amongst the Spies of WWII” The shadowy world of espionage abhors the light of day. That's why we've not read too much detail about such operations in World War II. However, now that the war years - and generations - are passing away, much of this material is finally available for research and publication. "The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War" by Thaddeus Holt, published by Skyhorse Publishing, is one of the first works to fully exploit the access to the espionage records of World War II. Holt, a lawyer by trade and a former Deputy Under Secretary of the Army, has produced an exhaustive tome of over 1,000 pages that covers all aspects of the Allied efforts to undermine Germany and Japan via intelligence, counterintelligence and espionage.
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The book covers many of the main characters of the Allied secretive spy organizations, secret operations, the faults and successes of the Axis intelligence groups, the equipment used by both sides as well as the philosophy of intelligence work. Never just a dry recitation of the facts, Holt's narrative reads easily without using much technical jargon, although one can get confused by the profusion of named intelligence and espionage operations detailed in the text. Similarly there is a dizzying alphabet soup of acronyms, not surprising for a book on the military which is known to have a penchant for acronymic abbreviation. Extensive appendices, glossaries and a comprehensive index that comprise nearly one-third of the book aid the reader in this regard, and are a boon to historians both amateur and professional, but accessing this information can interrupt the flow of the narrative. Without using the appendices, the barrage of operations and acronyms produce a haze of familiarity in the reader's mind much like characters in a Tolstoy novel: you recognize having read about them before but it's only through context that you remember exactly who it is. That having been said, "The Deceivers" is a fabulous addition to anyone's World War II library. It will not be consigned to the top shelf of my bookcase where the 'read once and never looked at again' books live. It remains close at hand, waiting to gradually become dog-eared as I page through it for World War II intelligence information. I'd give the book two thumbs up, but since it's about spies, I'll just wink at you and whisper the code sign: "Buy it."
World War II History (http://wwarii.com) | Release Date: Oct. 16, 2010 Contact: Steven Terjeson – reviews@wwarii.com
About the Reviewer: Thomas Townsend is a member of the World War II History Review Team. He is the son of a US veteran of WWII and is a former teacher of English and Music. Tom is a volunteer at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio and publishes “On this Day in WWII” on Twitter.com.