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Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies    by Ben MacIntyre & John Skewes Amazon.com order for
Double Cross
by Ben MacIntyre
Order:  USA  Can
Broadway, 2013 (2012)
Hardcover, Softcover, CD, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

This New York Times bestseller which shed light on the trickery that went into setting up the D-Day landings in 1944 is now in paperback. Because of the due diligence of the Allies and a series of moves that were meant to deceive the Germans into believing that the forthcoming attack would be aimed at Norway and the area around Calais, France, the landings in France did not result in as great a loss of life as most planners imagined.

This entertaining and engaging book details the sophisticated and successful Double Cross operation and is told from the perspective of many of the key players who made the deception successful.

'The D-Day spies were not traditional warriors. None carried weapons, yet the soldiers who did owed the spies a huge and unconscious debt as they stormed the beaches of Normandy in June 1944,' writes MacIntyre. 'These secret agents fought exclusively with words, drama and make-believe. Their tales begin before the outbreak of war but then overlap, interconnect, and finally interlock on D-Day, in the greatest deception operations ever attempted.'

With code names like Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo, these undercover agents worked behind-the-scenes at great personal risk to turn the tide of battle and make sure that Hitler's plan for conquest was totally derailed and crushed. This is the story of these overlooked and nearly forgotten heroes.

Thanks to over thirty pages of photos, Double Cross is an extremely well illustrated volume; hence, the reader doesn't have to use his/her imagination to picture the individuals and events discussed as this captivating story unfolds.

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