Donovan's Devils

OSS Commandos Behind Enemy Lines - Europe, World War II

De: Albert Lulushi

Narrado por: Noah Michael Levine

The stirring, little-known story of the forerunners to today's Special Forces.

The OSS - Office of Strategic Services - created under the command of William Donovan, has been celebrated for its cloak-and-dagger operations during World War II and as the precursor of the CIA. As the "Oh So Social", it has also been portrayed as a club for the well-connected before, during, and after the war. Donovan's Devils tells the story of a different OSS, that of ordinary soldiers, recruited from among first- and second-generation immigrants, who volunteered for dangerous duty behind enemy lines and risked their lives in Italy, France, the Balkans, and elsewhere in Europe.

Organized into Operational Groups, they infiltrated into enemy territory by air or sea and operated for days, weeks, or months hundreds of miles from the closest Allied troops. They performed sabotage, organized native resistance, and rescued downed airmen, nurses, and prisoners of war. Their enemy showed them no mercy, and sometimes their closest friends betrayed them. They were the precursors to today's Special Forces operators.

Based on declassified OSS records, personal collections, and oral histories of participants from both sides of the conflict, Donovan's Devils provides the most comprehensive account to date of the Operational Group activities, including a detailed narrative of the ill-fated Ginny mission, which resulted in the one of the OSS's gravest losses of the war.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history - books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times best seller or a national best seller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 Albert Lulushi (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Good not great book and narration.

The narrator had a commanding albeit inflexibile voice that keeps your attention, but offers nothing new. The story itself is a fascinating look into American covert operations in WW2, specifically with a focus on the European theater. It details harrowing stories and the exceptional mission of soldiers conducting espionage and 5th column actions. The downfall is the story looses itself in the background of ww2 often devoting too much to the generic history of ww2 which is ironic, because one of the first things the author complains about, is not enough time to tell the millions of stories. If only he had realized that his main audience would be those that already know ww2 and don't need a repeat history lesson, he could've fit a fair bit more into the book. The ending note is ironic too, how all of the success in ww2 culminated in the US intelligence success in Afghanistan and US victory(lol yeah thats a little outta place now). Otherwise a good read and highly recommend

An interesting look at the OSS in the ETO

I hate to leave a critical comment, but in this case I must. This audiobook focuses primarily on Italy and a bit in other parts of the ETO, but fails to give a full sense of the OSS’s work. Instead it gets bogged down in minutiae.

On top of this, the narrator, who in other respects is good, mispronounced so many words that it grated on the nerves. I don’t just mean difficult ones, but rather very common ones that he should have looked up how to pronounce before starting such a project, like Wehrmacht! That error ultimately rests with the producer and editor.

“Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero” by Anthony Cave Brown is a far better choice.

Need to make movies about Donavon

Amazing stories of the OSS. Fascinating! It almost reads like a novel. Movies need to be made on this.

great book

very detailed information about covert action in WWII. For any history buff this is a good read.

Historically Significant

Important operational details, not a broad brush overview or "glorious" rendition of history. Well done.

Good, informative

This book was good and gave a lot of interesting details. I only wish it would have given information on other theaters as well.

Noah Michael Levine reading ruins the story

If one is going to perform a book written about acts that occurred on foreign soil then please take the time to pronounce the names of people, places and descriptions properly. Noah’s pronunciation of German, French and Italian words is distracting at best and just down right painful at worst. A small example of a word used many times is “Wehrmacht “. Noah constantly pronounces it “Wehr maakt “ with a hard W and not “vehr maakt” with a V.

Learn and practice words in other languages before talking a book full of them please!!

Unique Look

Where does Donovan's Devils rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Good. The author or narrator might have chosen to avoid reading glossary/appendix type opens that readers typically skipped over.

What other book might you compare Donovan's Devils to and why?

Like many works on the OSS it offers a solid overview but this is one of the few works to focus on the Operational Groups.

Interesting, but Too Much of a Ramble

Albert Lulushi isn't giving us a history of OSS operations behind the lines here, but rather sets out to restrict his book only to an account of the OSS' OG Teams in the European Theatre of Operations, but as a result, has very little to actually describe, given the short period (1944-45) in which these OG Teams were in action. He therefore beefs up his book with a long preamble on British commando operations in Europe, and their interactions with American rangers. This takes up something like a third of the book, when it could easily have been dealt with in one chapter if Lulushi had been willing to go into more detail about OG Team operations than he was. Another third of the book is taken up with two unnecessarily long and detailed judicial procedures; the first on the investigation into the execution of an OG Team in Italy, and the subsequent trial and execution of its perpetrator; and the murder of an OG Team leader by his men in Italy, and the subsequent inconclusive trial of the accused. Both these incidents could have been dealt with in a couple of paragraphs as they are barely relevant to the account.

Noah Michael Levine's narration is generally acceptable, except for the hard-to-ignore mispronunciations of some very commonly known names and places. It's hard to imagine that the author would have misspelled names to end up with 'Lewis Mountbatten' and 'Edwin Rommel', which must be the fault of the narrator, who goes on to howlers such as 'Sucker-hausen', 'Britney' (in France), 'Afrika Corpse', and 'General der Inventory'. I understand that no self-respecting American feels the need to use two syllables when one will do, but to refer to the famous German city (and the trials it eventually gave its name to) as 'Noonberg' seems a bit much. Even one of the most famous American paratroop songs 'Blood on the Risers' (sung to the tune of the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'), with its now well-known chorus 'Glory, glory, what a helluva way to die', is pronounced 'Gory gory', (though this is a far more common mistake, and is possibly the fault of Albert Lulushi rather than Levine).

Overall, while the book is quite listenable, it's hardly wonderful.

full of interesting info but drags

The ending section of this books drags on and the book as a whole lacks focus