The Secret War

Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945

By: Max Hastings

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 30 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of the foremost historians of the period and the acclaimed author of Inferno and Catastrophe: 1914, The Secret War is a sweeping examination of one of the most important yet underexplored aspects of World War II - intelligence - showing how espionage successes and failures by the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, and Japan influenced the course of the war and its final outcome.

Spies, codes, and guerrillas played unprecedentedly critical roles in the Second World War, exploited by every nation in the struggle to gain secret knowledge of its foes, and to sow havoc behind the fronts. In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and some extraordinary sagas of intelligence and resistance, to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history.

©2015 Max Hastings (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

a very comprehensive history of secret warfare.

a bit long but a good narration. Tons of stories about every angle of WWII.

Great synthesis of WWII new and old info

Any WWII student must read this. E.g.. USA decrypts vs. Bletchley Park decrypts, and human int. vs. signals int. vs HARD POWER!!!!

Good Book

Very informational, flowed well.

A few shots at modern US policies that dampen the the book.

Very thorough if somewhat lengthly.

This work is excellent on all accounts although a bit long but the information provided is worth the effort.

Good information

Max Hastings does a great job of taking you from the upper levels of operations to the individual in the action. Well done

Spying--Maybe not so Important after all.

It's unusual for an author to write so much on a subject and conclude that it really wasn't all that important, but that is basically Hastings' thesis. The book looks at espionage and code breaking from the perspective of both the Allied and Axis powers. With the exception of a few cases such as Ultra and the intelligence gained by the US Navy before Midway, spying really did not alter the course of WWII. Either the intel was ignored because it was buried in a surfeit of data or conflicted with political ideology, or countries simply did not have the physical power at the critical point to alter the military outcome. This is a good read nevertheless. It resonates with current-day limitations in combating terrorism. There is a lot of minutia that is instantly forgotten and the book bogs down in spots, but the lives of spies are varied and interesting even if what they did contributed very little to the course of history.

Better read than listened to

This is one of those books that you can better read than listen to. The subject matter is very well treated, the narrator does a well enough job, but a there's a lot to ingest and a regular need to look back a few pages at a name or a date. And that, as we all know, is rather difficult with an audiobook.

Archival recitation but good.

Recitation for much of the book which made me feel like I was right there at The Archives with the author. the final few chapters were better than the first few chapters. The ending chapter was an excellent recap which I enjoyed more than any other

Complete, entertaining and deeply researched.

Simply a joy from beginning to end. Entertaining, broad, deep and filled with anecdotes and personal fates and stories.
Pretty much a complete story on the subject.

Some interesting stories, poorly organized

I love WWII history and very much appreciated this contribution. I think it would have been better to read this book, though. The complexity of the intertwined stories precluded presentation in a strictly chronological order. When listening to the book, the dates jumped around a lot and it was much more difficult to keep things straight in your head. Reading would probably have made this much easier. The narration was strong. The best part was about the spy ring that obtained US nuclear secrets. That would probably make a great book on its own.