HITLER'S SPIES : German Military Intelligence in World War 2 by Kahn, David

New York 1978, Macmillan, US 1st edition, hard bound w/dj, VG/VG condition,( gift inscription on front free end paper ), 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, , xiii, 671 pages, illus, numerous notes & bibliog, index. --------------------------------------------------------------------------Filled with episodes of intrigue and adventure. A German patrol wriggles through Russian lines to return with details of Soviet defenses. An expert Luftwaffe interrogator teases secret information from downed Allied airmen. Two spies steal ashore in Maine and make their way down into New York City. A pilot soars high over Suez to photograph Allied naval concentrations. Abwehr chief, Admiral Canaris, loses his fight for power to the boyish, charming Walter Schellenberg, who at 31 becomes head of all German intelligence. Hitler, in a rage, sweeping photographs and documents from his map table when they bring him unwelcome news. And at its climax, Hitler's Spies recounts how German intelligence handled three of the war's most critical events: the invasion of Russia, the landings in North Africa, the D-Day assault.FIRST FULL ACCOUNT OF HITLER'S INTELLIGENCE MACHINE Hitler's Spies explodes the myth of the German "super spy" and dramatically constructs the story of how Germany lost the battle of intelligence. Never before has anyone depicted the entire mechanism of German intelligence-not just the international network of spies, but the wiretappers and the attaches, the industrialists and the evaluators. Never before has anyone disclosed the infighting among the various agencies, nor demonstrated the clear superiority of Allied intelligence! It is a fascinating tale, told here in its entirety for the first time.The famed Abwehr under Canaris, the dreaded SD, the spies and intelligence gatherers of the Foreign Office, the army, navy, and air force-author David Kahn reveals how they functioned, and how they compiled, interpreted, and evaluated information. He tells of the many brilliant individuals who achieved major successes, but overall how German intelligence was a dismal failure. With rare exceptions, Hitler and his high command often disbelieved their own officers, distrusted them, and misused and ignored their reports.The clear superiority of a democracy us a dictatorship was never more clearly demonstrated than on the intelligence battlefronts of World War II. And the defeat of Germany, in the final analysis, was as much due to the failure of its intelligence system-the jealous battles between agents and officers and the withholding of facts to curry favors-than to any other cause.David Kahn, author of the best-selling The Codebreakers, spent eight years researching and writing this book. For a year he examined original documents in the military archives at Freiburg-im-Breisgau and discovered numerous unpublished papers and photographs, many of which are printed here. Kahn traveled thousands of miles to interview German intelligence agents and officers.