Listening in
6here should be a ban on booMs claiming to tell the ngreatesto anything related to the 5econd 9orld 9ar. *aving read this booM, however, + suspect that the title was not the authoros idea but the publisher s. 6he real scope of the booM itself is far more modest than its moniMer suggests at no point does it claim to depict the ngreatest intelligence operation of 9orld 9ar ++o. 9hat it does do is actually far more interesting.
6o her very great credit, *elen (ry has succeeded in writing a fantastically original and readable account of the various listening s or bugging s operations undertaMen by $ritish intelligence on captured )erman prisoners of war.
6he idea of covertly eavesdropping on the conversations of captured prisoners s from ordinary servicemen to high-ranMing )erman generals s was developed from the earliest days of the war. +nitial efforts began at the 6ower of .ondon but soon spread to different locations, including the comfortable surroundings of the reSuisitioned stately home 6rent 2arM. (ry details the idea behind the efforts, as well as the intelligence goodies that emerged, ranging from valuable military intelligence about naval operations and the development of new weapons to shocMingly franM discussions about war crimes and concentration camps.
+ntermingled with stories of those being listened in on are eSually compelling stories of those doing the listening. #t times thereos a powerful irony to this, as we witness ÅmigrÅ )erman ,ews translating the conversations of senior 0a\is s conversations that are assumed to be taMing place in secret.
4unning through the narrative is a focus on an important central figure $ritish intelligence oʛcer %olonel 6homas -endricM, the mastermind of the whole operation. +ndeed, the booM is as much his biography as it is an account of the eavesdropping efforts. 6he two stories are ineZtricably connected.
6he big Suestion, of course, is what results did these efforts produce! Did the intelligence gathered really change anything! (ry is circumspect in her conclusions. 5he maMes no bold claims and modestly suggests that too little is Mnown about the operations to warrant an answer. 'ven though it may not document the greatest intelligence operation of the war , this is nonetheless a great booM and a valuable contribution to scholarship on the 5econd 9orld 9ar.