The number one bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat exposes the true story of the D Day Spies.

The classic account of how British intelligence penetrated and practically operated Nazi Germany’s spy network within the British Isles With great imagination, care, and precise coordination, the British were able to identify Nazi agents, induce many to defect, and supply completely false information to Germany about bombings, battles, and even the D-Day invasion. Told by the man who masterminded the entire, unbelievable four-and-a-half-year scheme, and filled with extraordinary stories and dazzling tidbits, The Double-Cross System is a testimony to Britain’s skill in the fine art of counterespionage.

Describes the life of Juan Pujol, a poultry farmer who opposed the Nazis and concocted a series of staggering lies that lead to his becoming one of Germany's most valued spies, while actually acting as a double-agent for the Allies.

J.C. Masterman was chairman of the Double-Cross Committee at the height of World War Two. This is his account of the double agents, deception and counter-espionage which were key to the victory of D-Day. Written as an official report for MI5 in 1945, originally published with the permission of the British Government over twenty years later, The Double-Cross System details the Allied handling of enemy agents and the British infiltration of Nazi spy-rings. Telling the stories of the agents codenamed Zigzag, Tricycle, Garbo and Snow, Masterman also tells the story of a triumphant operation in the Second World War’s intelligence effort.

"This book describes and analyzes the history of the Mediterranean "Double-Cross System" of the Second World War, an intelligence operation run primarily by British officers which turned captured German spies into double agents. Through a complex system of coordination, they were utilized from 1941 to the end of the war in 1945 to secure Allied territory through security and counter-intelligence operations, and also to deceive the German military by passing false information about Allied military planning and operations. The primary questions addressed by the book are: how did the double-cross-system come into existence; what effects did it have on the intelligence war and the broader military conflict; and why did it have those effects? The book contains chapters assessing how the system came into being and how it was organized, and also chapters which analyze its performance in security and counter-intelligence operations, and in deception."--Provided by publisher.

Startling new revelations about collaboration between the Allies and the German Secret Service. Based on extensive primary source research, John Bryden’s Fighting to Lose presents compelling evidence that the German intelligence service — the Abwehr — undertook to rescue Britain from certain defeat in 1941. Recently opened secret intelligence files indicate that the famed British double-cross or double-agent system was in fact a German triple-cross system. These files also reveal that British intelligence secretly appealed to the Abwehr for help during the war, and that the Abwehr’s chief, Admiral Canaris, responded by providing Churchill with the ammunition needed in order to persuade Roosevelt to lure the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor. These findings and others like them make John Bryden’s Fighting to Lose one of the most fascinating books about World War II to be published for many years.

THE DOUBLE-CROSS SYSTEM is not the only document to describe double agents and deception. It is simply the best. Masterman gives us a world of stratagems, inhabited by characters like SNOW, ZIZAG and TRICYCLE. They were known only by these cover names and in them they lived and operated, Nuance became all. Even the methods of communication between the agent and the enemy, whether by wireless, by secret writing, or by personal contact in neutral countries, required empathy on the part of the case officers and planners. The details of a man's wireless style, for example, the warning signals, the very rhythm of the key in sending messages must be mastered so that if the agent should die or for one reason or another be removed, a substitution could be made but not recognised. 'A game played with dynamite in which those who couldn't play were executed. . . . . Should on no account be missed by anyone who enjoys a good thriller. ' Anthony Price, OXFORD MAIL.