Read,
Anthony, and David Fisher. Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1984. New York: Viking, 1985. Read,
Anthony, and David Fisher. Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1984. New York: Viking, 1985.
According to Phillips, IJIC 1.1, Lt. Col. Sir Claude Edward Majoribanks Dansey "was an intelligence mover and shaker ... from the turn of the century through World War II." He was allowed "to establish his own European Service -- the 'Z Organization'" but that organization was "penetrated beyond redemption by Nazi intelligence." This book "deserves a place on the bookshelf of any serious student of the British silent services." On the other hand, Sexton advises that the work "[s]hould be used with caution."
Røholt,
Bjørn, with Bjarne W. Thorsen. Usynlige soldater: Nordmenn i Secret Service forteller. Oslo: Aschehaug, 1990.
McKay, I&NS 10.3, says Røholt has produced "a lively, marvelously detailed and authoritative account of the work of the some 250 agents who made up the SIS network in Norway. Both Røholt and Thorsen actively participated with distinction in the secret war.... Usynlige soldater is an important contribution both to the history of [t]he secret war in Norway and to the history of SIS."
Rose, R.S., and Gordon D. Scott. JOHNNY: A Spy's Life. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.
According to Peake, Studies 54.3 (Sep. 2010) and Intelligencer 18.1 (Fall-Winter 2010), the central character here is Johnan Heinrich Amadeus de Graaf who in his lifetime was a communist radical, GRU operative, and double agent for MI6 after 1933. This "is an unusual story of a double agent who fought the Nazis and the communists and survived."
Ryan, Mark. The Hornet's Sting: The Untold Story of Britain's Second World War Spy Thomas Sneum. London: Piatkus, 2008. New York: Skyhorse Publishing; 2009.
Kirkus: "A ripping real-life yarn of espionage and daring.... Ryan skillfully builds and sustains interest through a narrative that grows increasingly convoluted."
Salmon,
Patrick. Britain and Norway in the Second World War. London: HMSO, 1995.
Foot, I&NS 11.1: This book brings together the papers from a 1991 conference in Oxford where scholars and participants in World War II examined the Anglo-Norwegian alliance. There are "several gems in this book," and readers will enjoy the book's "well-informed and well-written text."
Smith, Michael. Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1999. London: Coronet, 1999.
Simon, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 20, no. 2 (2002), notes that in his "cover" job as the British Passport Control Officer in Berlin, Frank Foley of MI6 "bent the rules, twisted and turned, risked his job, his reputation, and at times his very life to save the lives of people he often did not even know." In 1999, Foley "was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem."
Tennant, Peter.
1. "Swedish Intelligence in the Second World War." Intelligence and National Security 2, no. 3 (Apr. 1987): 354-361.
Under cover as the press attaché at the British Embassy in Stockholm, Tennant worked for SIS, and occasionally SOE, in Sweden during World War II. Here, the author looks at the achievements of Swedish intelligence during the war.
2. Touchlines of War. Hull: University of Hull Press, 1992. Boston: Park & Co., 1992.
To Watt, I&NS 9.1, the "whole book is filled with small clutches of original insights, such as to make it an indispensable addition to the bookshelf of any student of the politics of the Second World War."
[Trevor-Roper, Hugh]
Lord Dacre of Glanton. "Sideways into S.I.S." In In the Name
of Intelligence: Essays in Honor of Walter Pforzheimer, eds. Hayden
B. Peake and Samuel Halpern, 251-257. Washington, DC: NIBC Press, 1994.
Lord Dacre tells the story of how M.I.8(c) -- the War Office's Radio Security Service -- was absorbed by the British SIS/MI6.
Wark,
Wesley K. "'Our Man in Riga': Reflections on the SIS Career and Writings
of Leslie Nicholson." Intelligence and National Security 11,
no. 4 (Oct. 1996): 625-644.
This article, "a revised version of the introduction that appears in the reprint edition of 'John Whitwell' [Leslie Nicholson], British Agent (London: Frank Cass, 1997)," is a good piece of intelligence scholarship. It shows the work of a well-versed practitioner working with the materials available -- and around those that are not.
West, Nigel. [Rupert Allason] "The Legacy of Graham Greene: Superspy." World Intelligence Review 13, no. 6 (1994): 1, 3.
This is a quick look at three biographies of Greene and their treatment of his association with British wartime intelligence: Anthony Mockler, Graham Greene: Three Lives (Edinburgh: Mackay, 1994); Michael Shelden, Graham Greene: The Man Within (London: Heinemann, [?1987]); and Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. 1, 1904-1939, and Vol. II, 1939-1955 (New York: Viking: 1990, 1994).
Greene served with MI6 from 1941 to 1944, when he moved to the Foreign Office. His stint with MI6 included postings in Lagos, Freetown, and the Portuguese desk in Section V (Counterintelligence), where he was Kim Philby's subordinate. According to West, "Sherry's account is fairly accurate..., the more accurate one overall.... [B]ut the least flattering account, written by Shelden, provides the most meat for the intelligence cognoscente." Mockler's book "has some additional details concerning the counterespionage scene in Lisbon when Greene was supervising Section V's Portuguese desk. Mockler, however, relied heavily on Malcolm Muggeridge's memoirs."
Winter, P.R.J. "A Higher Form of Intelligence: Hugh Trevor-Roper and Wartime British Secret Service." Intelligence and National Security 22, no. 6 (Dec. 2007): 847-880.
From abstract: This article highlights "the fact that, contrary to the impression engendered by F.H. Hinsley's dry and depersonalized multi-volume official history..., Major H.R. Trevor-Roper ... not only had a 'good war', but a rich and colourful one."
Winterbotham,
Frederick W. The Nazi Connection. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1978. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside,
1978.
According to Constantinides, the author includes brief mentions of his connection with Ultra; but, in keeping with the title, focuses more on his prewar "meetings and contacts with prominent Nazis for purposes of intelligence as an SIS officer." Winterbotham also recounts the part "he and the French played in prewar aerial espionage over Germany," and discusses SIS intelligence collection operations against the Luftwaffe.
An earlier and more constrained version of the events covered here was published as Secret and Personal (London: Kimber, 1969). Although Constantinides notes that the earlier book "deals with matters not found in the 1978 work," I suggest that only the most serious researcher need venture beyond The Nazi Connection for these aspects of Winterbotham's story.
Farago, The Game of the Foxes (1971), pp. 80-86, has a brief account from the German point of view of the story of the Winterbotham contacts with Nazi leaders, including his meeting with Hess and Hitler in 1934.
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