SECRET ALLIANCES: Special Operations and Intelligence

In this extraordinary book, historian Tony Insall reveals how some of the most striking achievements of the Norwegian resistance were the detailed reports produced by intelligence agents living in the dangerous conditions of the country's desolate wilderness. A definitive appraisal of Anglo-Norwegian WWII cooperation, he provides remarkable insights into the uniquely close political relationship that afforded powerful assistance for a successful resistance movement. Using previously unpublished archival material from London, Oslo and Moscow, Insall explores how SIS and SOE developed productive links with their Norwegian counterparts and examines the crucial intelligence from the Security Service and Bletchley Park codebreakers who supported their sabotage operations. Offering dramatic details on operations such as Gunnerside which targeted the heavy water plant in Vemork in order to foil the Nazis plans to build an atomic bomb and the sinking of the Tirpitz in November 1944 and Churchill 's obsession. Chapters cover the German invasion 1914, how Bletchley Park made the breakthrough cracking the Abwehr codes, espionage, agents, double agents and double cross, operations and problems 1941-43, the development of naval coverage, disrupting you both and retribution, recognition and compensation. With useful list of abbreviations, maps and illustrations. 422 pages.