A Genius for Deception
How Cunning Helped the British Win Two World Wars
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $39.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Napoleon Ryan
-
By:
-
Nicholas Rankin
About this listen
In February 1942, intelligence officer Victor Jones erected 150 tents behind British lines in North Africa. "Hiding tanks in Bedouin tents was an old British trick," writes Nicholas Rankin. German general Erwin Rommel not only knew of the ploy, but had copied it himself. Jones knew that Rommel knew. In fact, he counted on it - for these tents were empty. With the deception that he was carrying out a deception, Jones made a weak point look like a trap. In A Genius for Deception, Nicholas Rankin offers a lively and comprehensive history of how Britain bluffed, tricked, and spied its way to victory in two world wars. As Rankin shows, a coherent program of strategic deception emerged in World War I, resting on the pillars of camouflage, propaganda, secret intelligence, and special forces. All forms of deception found an avid sponsor in Winston Churchill, who carried his enthusiasm for deceiving the enemy into World War II.
Rankin vividly recounts such little-known episodes as the invention of camouflage by two French artist-soldiers, the creation of dummy airfields for the Germans to bomb during the Blitz, and the fabrication of an army that would supposedly invade Greece. Strategic deception would be key to a number of WWII battles, culminating in the massive misdirection that proved critical to the success of the D-Day invasion in 1944. Deeply researched and written with an eye for telling detail, A Genius for Deception shows how the British used craft and cunning to help win the most devastating wars in human history.
©2008 Nicholas Rankin (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Forty-Seven Days
- How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I
- By: Mitchell Yockelson
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne stands as the deadliest clash in American history: More than a million untested American soldiers went up against a better-trained and more experienced German army, costing more than 26,000 deaths and leaving nearly 100,000 wounded. Yet, in 47 days of intense combat, those Americans pushed back the enemy and forced the Germans to surrender, bringing the First World War to an end - a feat the British and the French had not achieved after more than three years of fighting.
-
-
Comprehensive history of The First Army in WWI
- By Bruce Miller on 03-08-18
-
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
- The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
-
-
Fascinating book, great performance
- By Ted on 05-30-16
By: Rick Atkinson
-
The Rising Sun
- The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 41 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."
-
-
A political as well as military history
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-30-15
By: John Toland
-
World at War: Amazing Stories of Bravery, Survival and Courage from 1914-1945
- By: War History Journals
- Narrated by: Daniel Griffin
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World at War follows the stories of several men along their journey throughout WW1 and WW2. Walk in the boots of the world’s fighters during long years of slaughter, exhaustion, and the near-collapse of our civilization. Hear about about a time when many of the world’s mightiest empires were reduced to rubble, millions of people killed, and the foundations of our modern world fractured forever.
-
-
Good stories to build interest in casual history fans.
- By S. H. Moore on 11-18-20
-
Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
-
-
Those Who Dared, Won!
- By Matthew on 10-07-16
By: Ben Macintyre
-
Agent Garbo
- The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler & Saved D-Day
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis’ only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint - the real invasion would come at Calais.
-
-
Good story, writing overly dramatic
- By Matthew on 08-13-13
By: Stephan Talty
-
Forty-Seven Days
- How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I
- By: Mitchell Yockelson
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne stands as the deadliest clash in American history: More than a million untested American soldiers went up against a better-trained and more experienced German army, costing more than 26,000 deaths and leaving nearly 100,000 wounded. Yet, in 47 days of intense combat, those Americans pushed back the enemy and forced the Germans to surrender, bringing the First World War to an end - a feat the British and the French had not achieved after more than three years of fighting.
-
-
Comprehensive history of The First Army in WWI
- By Bruce Miller on 03-08-18
-
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
- The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
-
-
Fascinating book, great performance
- By Ted on 05-30-16
By: Rick Atkinson
-
The Rising Sun
- The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 41 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."
-
-
A political as well as military history
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-30-15
By: John Toland
-
World at War: Amazing Stories of Bravery, Survival and Courage from 1914-1945
- By: War History Journals
- Narrated by: Daniel Griffin
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World at War follows the stories of several men along their journey throughout WW1 and WW2. Walk in the boots of the world’s fighters during long years of slaughter, exhaustion, and the near-collapse of our civilization. Hear about about a time when many of the world’s mightiest empires were reduced to rubble, millions of people killed, and the foundations of our modern world fractured forever.
-
-
Good stories to build interest in casual history fans.
- By S. H. Moore on 11-18-20
-
Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
-
-
Those Who Dared, Won!
- By Matthew on 10-07-16
By: Ben Macintyre
-
Agent Garbo
- The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler & Saved D-Day
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis’ only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint - the real invasion would come at Calais.
-
-
Good story, writing overly dramatic
- By Matthew on 08-13-13
By: Stephan Talty
-
The Storm of War
- A New History of the Second World War
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 28 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days, cost $1.5 trillion, and claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. Why did the Axis lose? And could they, with a different strategy, have won? Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. From the western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he tells the story of the war - the grand strategy and the individual experience, the cruelty and the heroism - as never before.
-
-
A very interesting book with some shortcomings.
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-24-11
By: Andrew Roberts
-
Hitler's Last Days
- The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator
- By: Bill O'Reilly
- Narrated by: Bill O'Reilly - introduction, Robert Petkoff
- Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By early 1945 the destruction of the German Nazi State seems certain. The Allied forces, led by American generals George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, are gaining control of Europe, leaving German leaders scrambling. Facing defeat, Adolf Hitler flees to a secret bunker with his new wife, Eva Braun, and his beloved dog, Blondi. It is there that all three would meet their ends, thus ending the Third Reich and one of the darkest chapters of history.
-
-
2/3 end of WW2 1/3 Demise of Hitler~4 STAR
- By Molly on 09-02-15
By: Bill O'Reilly
-
Operation Mincemeat
- How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag was hailed as “rollicking, spellbinding” (New York Times), “wildly improbable but entirely true” (Entertainment Weekly), and, quite simply, “the best book ever written” (Boston Globe). In his new book, Operation Mincemeat, he tells an extraordinary story that will delight his legions of fans. In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated - Operation Mincemeat.
-
-
Better than the movie
- By Jack M on 06-23-10
By: Ben Macintyre
-
Alone
- Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory
- By: Michael Korda
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic of remarkable originality, Alone captures the heroism of World War II as movingly as any book in recent memory. Bringing to vivid life the world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the war, Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Clouds of Glory, chronicles the outbreak of hostilities, recalling as a prescient young boy the enveloping tension that defined pre-Blitz London, and then as a military historian the great events that would alter the course of the 20th century.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-11-17
By: Michael Korda
-
The Last Battle
- By: Cornelius Ryan
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater. The last offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich, it devastated one of Europe’s historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war’s bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come.
-
-
Thanks to Dan Carlin of Hardcore History podcasts.
- By GB on 06-30-12
By: Cornelius Ryan
-
American Caesar
- Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 31 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtually all Americans above a certain age hold strong opinions about Douglas MacArthur. They either worship him or despise him. Now, in this superb book, one of our most outstanding writers, after a meticulous three-year examination of the record, presents his startling insights about the man. The narrative is gripping, because the general's life was fascinating. It is moving, because he was a man of vision. It ends, finally, in tragedy, because his character, though majestic, was tragically flawed.
-
-
A Great American
- By Charlotte A. Hu on 05-19-13
-
The Generals
- Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated historian Winston Groom tells the intertwined and uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall - from the World War I battle that shaped them to their greatest achievement: leading the allies to victory in World War II.
-
-
Nothing new here
- By Mike From Mesa on 01-13-16
By: Winston Groom
-
The Fall of Berlin 1945
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc - tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known.
-
-
Engrossing
- By Salui on 09-06-16
By: Antony Beevor
-
Berlin Diary
- The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the acclaimed journalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent.
-
-
The Real Rise and Fall
- By Robert on 02-26-14
-
Spain in Our Hearts
- Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war.
-
-
Great book very well written and narrated
- By James750 on 05-12-16
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Allies
- Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Winston Groom tells the complex story of how Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - the three iconic and vastly different Allied leaders - aligned to win World War II and created a new world order.
-
-
Great read
- By Kindle Customer on 05-26-19
By: Winston Groom
-
Dunkirk
- By: Joshua Levine
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.
-
-
I am so pissed
- By SCOTT on 07-04-17
By: Joshua Levine
Related to this topic
-
Agent Garbo
- The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler & Saved D-Day
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis’ only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint - the real invasion would come at Calais.
-
-
Good story, writing overly dramatic
- By Matthew on 08-13-13
By: Stephan Talty
-
Alone
- Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory
- By: Michael Korda
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic of remarkable originality, Alone captures the heroism of World War II as movingly as any book in recent memory. Bringing to vivid life the world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the war, Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Clouds of Glory, chronicles the outbreak of hostilities, recalling as a prescient young boy the enveloping tension that defined pre-Blitz London, and then as a military historian the great events that would alter the course of the 20th century.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-11-17
By: Michael Korda
-
Spain in Our Hearts
- Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war.
-
-
Great book very well written and narrated
- By James750 on 05-12-16
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Generals
- Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated historian Winston Groom tells the intertwined and uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall - from the World War I battle that shaped them to their greatest achievement: leading the allies to victory in World War II.
-
-
Nothing new here
- By Mike From Mesa on 01-13-16
By: Winston Groom
-
The Allies
- Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Winston Groom tells the complex story of how Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - the three iconic and vastly different Allied leaders - aligned to win World War II and created a new world order.
-
-
Great read
- By Kindle Customer on 05-26-19
By: Winston Groom
-
Dunkirk
- By: Joshua Levine
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.
-
-
I am so pissed
- By SCOTT on 07-04-17
By: Joshua Levine
-
Agent Garbo
- The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler & Saved D-Day
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis’ only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint - the real invasion would come at Calais.
-
-
Good story, writing overly dramatic
- By Matthew on 08-13-13
By: Stephan Talty
-
Alone
- Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory
- By: Michael Korda
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic of remarkable originality, Alone captures the heroism of World War II as movingly as any book in recent memory. Bringing to vivid life the world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the war, Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Clouds of Glory, chronicles the outbreak of hostilities, recalling as a prescient young boy the enveloping tension that defined pre-Blitz London, and then as a military historian the great events that would alter the course of the 20th century.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-11-17
By: Michael Korda
-
Spain in Our Hearts
- Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war.
-
-
Great book very well written and narrated
- By James750 on 05-12-16
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Generals
- Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated historian Winston Groom tells the intertwined and uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall - from the World War I battle that shaped them to their greatest achievement: leading the allies to victory in World War II.
-
-
Nothing new here
- By Mike From Mesa on 01-13-16
By: Winston Groom
-
The Allies
- Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Winston Groom tells the complex story of how Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - the three iconic and vastly different Allied leaders - aligned to win World War II and created a new world order.
-
-
Great read
- By Kindle Customer on 05-26-19
By: Winston Groom
-
Dunkirk
- By: Joshua Levine
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.
-
-
I am so pissed
- By SCOTT on 07-04-17
By: Joshua Levine
-
Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: Its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now his talents were put to more devious use: He built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich.
-
-
Rip-Roarin' Tale of Devoted 'Cads'!
- By Gillian on 02-08-17
By: Giles Milton
-
To End All Wars
- A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper.
-
-
A story of personalities
- By Tad Davis on 06-09-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Spymistress
- The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: Nicholas Camm
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A rousing tale of espionage and unsung valor, this is the captivating true story of Vera Atkins, Great Britain's spymistress from the age of 25. With her fierce intelligence, blunt manner, personal courage, and exceptional informants, Vera ran countless missions throughout the 1930s. After rising to the leadership echelon in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by Winston Churchill, she became head of a clandestine army in World War II.
-
-
Great Story - Unfortunately Monotone Performance
- By Glenn on 03-29-14
-
Moscow 1941
- A City and Its People at War
- By: Rodric Braithwaite
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1941 Battle of Moscow, unquestionably one of the most decisive battles of World War II, marked the first strategic defeat of the German armed forces in their seemingly unstoppable march across Europe. The Soviets lost many more people in this one battle than the British and Americans lost in the whole of the Second World War. Now, with authority and narrative power, Rodric Braithwaite tells the story in large part through the individual experiences of ordinary Russian men and women.
-
-
slow, repetitive
- By Wylie on 12-27-06
-
Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
-
-
Those Who Dared, Won!
- By Matthew on 10-07-16
By: Ben Macintyre
-
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs
- The Unknown Story of World War II's OSS
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"A revealing look into the intrigue and extraordinary courage of our intelligence gatherers of World War II. A rare combination of suspense thriller and true heroism by a great American writer." (Clive Cussler, New York Times best-selling author)
-
-
Great book...
- By Nicholas G. on 05-11-05
-
Crete 1941
- The Battle and the Resistance
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.
-
-
Engrossing
- By Jean on 02-01-16
By: Antony Beevor
-
Douglas MacArthur
- American Warrior
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 39 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Douglas MacArthur was arguably the last American public figure to be worshipped unreservedly as a national hero, the last military figure to conjure up the romantic stirrings once evoked by George Armstrong Custer and Robert E. Lee. But he was also one of America's most divisive figures, a man whose entire career was steeped in controversy. Was he an avatar or an anachronism, a brilliant strategist or a vainglorious mountebank?
-
-
Claims to be balanced... glosses over flaws
- By Us 5 Camp on 07-03-18
By: Arthur Herman
-
Operation Mincemeat
- How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag was hailed as “rollicking, spellbinding” (New York Times), “wildly improbable but entirely true” (Entertainment Weekly), and, quite simply, “the best book ever written” (Boston Globe). In his new book, Operation Mincemeat, he tells an extraordinary story that will delight his legions of fans. In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated - Operation Mincemeat.
-
-
Better than the movie
- By Jack M on 06-23-10
By: Ben Macintyre
-
The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941
- The War in The West, Volume 1
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 27 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For seven decades, our understanding of World War II has been shaped by a standard narrative built on conventional wisdom, propaganda, the dramatic but narrow experiences of soldiers on the ground, and an early generation of historians. For his new history, James Holland has spent over 12 years unearthing new research, recording original testimony, and visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible.
-
-
Good Book painfully read
- By richard on 01-21-16
By: James Holland
-
Patton, Montgomery, Rommel
- Masters of War
- By: Terry Brighton
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Second World War, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany each produced one land-force commander who stood out from the rest: George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. All were arrogant, publicity seeking, and personally flawed, yet each possessed a genius for command and an unrivaled enthusiasm for combat.
-
-
Excellent ... Patton, Montgomery, Rommel
- By John VandenBrook on 01-10-10
By: Terry Brighton
-
Berlin Diary
- The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the acclaimed journalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent.
-
-
The Real Rise and Fall
- By Robert on 02-26-14
What listeners say about A Genius for Deception
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T
- 12-25-20
Great book
Stranger than fiction in some aspects. Highly recommend. Narration was amazing. Needs better, longer conclusion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin Stokes
- 05-26-15
Highly Recommended even for Fiction Readers
I mostly read fiction, so this book was a radical departure for me. The stories I usually read are carefully engineered to hold my interest for every moment through character building, exciting plot elements and the satisfaction of the conclusion.
It is quite an accomplishment that the author could produce 20+ hours of information about what seems to be a very narrow facet of world war 2 that is more interesting than the lion's share of epic fiction I read.
There is something very satisfying in the knowledge that all these wild tales are actually true. In today's books and movies, we are routinely presented with gigantic conspiracies and unlikely coincidences which defy common sense. In this book, the author brings to light a variety of all kinds of daring plans, many of which actually worked. He also does a good job of filling in the background, giving the reader an understanding of why these plans were necessary. He also fleshes out some of the more interesting personalities involved.
Not every chapter of the book was equally interesting, but as a book of this type I would put it in the top of its category.
As an American, it stood out that the author does not my country in very high regard, but this attitude was not a major theme and did not stop me from enjoying the book. My overall conclusion is that any listener who enjoys reading about WW2 will not regret purchasing this title.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- algotte
- 12-14-17
Great book, but need quiet space to listen
The book is great. The narrator was a bit hard to follow, since he liked to trail off at the end of sentences or for dramatic effect. It made listening in the car or other noisy areas difficult. I found myself rewinding often to try to catch what was said.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Northwesterner
- 05-11-20
Compelling storytelling at its finest
I'm not one to really gush about an audiobook but this is one that is compelling in both the author storytelling skill as well as Napeleon Ryan's as narrator. Napeleon was not only so well suited but beautifully directed as weil in his delivery. So kudos to everyone who created this wonderful audiowork.
Let me paint two pictures that came to my minds eye as I listened:
1. You're in a UK Command bunker in WWll. The room is filled with information flowing in and out filtered by various folks in the dim light. In the middle of the room, a map of Europe with little models of ships and soldiers representing movements and data.
In the middle of the smokey room, speaking is the Command Leader: The leader is the narrator Napeleon Ryan.
2. Or perhaps you're sitting with a retired WWll leader in a dark paneled wood room, with cigar and a whiskey located in a quiet reserved and discrete club in London. And Napeleon Ryan, as the leader is sharing you this story.
Author Nicholas Rankin's rich mesmerizing work comes alive further with Napoleon Ryan crisp, concise delivery. I don't know if this book won any awards or if it was nominated, but I would have voted for it. This audio book delivers and then some! I look forward to more from Nicholas Rankin and Napoleon Ryan.
In the 70s, there was a acclaimed British TV series called World at War narrated by Sir Lawrence Olivier. In my opinion, this book and the audiobook, like World at War, is compelling storytelling at its finest. So enjoy!
And Mr. Rankin, keep writing these wonderful works! You have a gift.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jean
- 10-23-14
A page turner
Nicholas Rankin tells about Archibald Wavell, whose career began in the Boer War and ended with him a Field Marshall and Viceroy of India. Wavell wrote “The beginnings of any war by the British are always marked by improvidence, improvisation, and too often, alas, impossibilities being asked of the troops.” Improvisation defined British deception operations, camouflaging soldiers in the field, building entire fake armies and fake cities to fool airborne reconnaissance and bombers, counter sniping with dummy heads-all originated in the British amateur spirit and gift for discovering a way forward out of the strangest materials. The first half of the book is about World War One and the second half covers World War Two.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Solomon J. Solomon a portrait painter became obsessed with camouflaging soldiers. With the help from members of the London theatrical and artistic worlds he started a British Army School of Camouflage in Hyde Park. Another painter marine artist Norman Wilkinson designed a better method to camouflage ships from submarine attacks. He used a vivid painting of the vessel that dazzled and gave the impression that the head is where the stern is.
Sefton Delmer in late 1930s produced a German language radio program to entertain and seed disinformation to demoralize Hitler’s troops. The program ran all during the war. The author also discusses the famous Operation Mincemeat. Rankin states that the British Military have always looked for ways to outsmart their enemies, by hiding the extent of and defensive weakness and obscuring the timing and direction of any offensives. The author states the British integrate deception into the highest level of strategic planning during the two world wars. Some escapades became famous: phony units with pretend tanks, a double of General Bernard Montgomery arriving in Gibraltar to discuss fake operations. I got a good laugh at one story Rankin tells about the Luftwaffe paying tribute to a dummy railhead in Egypt by dropping a wooden bomb on it.
Churchill loved cloak-dagger exploits and was fascinated by cryptography, and military wizardry. Churchill promoted unorthodox figures who excelled in the crucial field of camouflage, propaganda, secret intelligence and Special Forces operation. Rank quotes one of Churchill’s famous declarations that he lived up to that “in wartime the truth should be protected by a bodyguard of lies.”
The book is a page turner and lots of fun; it covers many exciting and interesting illustration of British deception. If you are interested in either WWI or WWII or just in military history this is a must book for you. It is fairly long at about 22 hours. Napoleon Ryan does a great job narrating the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 09-29-15
Interesting
The first half of the book covers the First World War. Perhaps, because I've spent very little time with that period, the narrative seemed a bit confusing. I wasn't sure of the point nor that all would qualify under the deception label. The Second World War section is better, and the connection to the First makes the first part more important and significant. Overall interesting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!