Donovan's Devils
OSS Commandos Behind Enemy Lines - Europe, World War II
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Narrated by:
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Noah Michael Levine
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By:
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Albert Lulushi
About this listen
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
May 1945. Hitler is dead, and the Third Reich is little more than smoking rubble. No GI wants to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. But for cigar-chewing, rough-talking, hard-drinking, hard-charging Captain Jack Lee and his men, there is one more mission: rescue 14 prominent French prisoners held in an SS-guarded castle high in the Austrian Alps. It's a dangerous mission, but Lee has help from a decorated German Wehrmacht officer and his men, who voluntarily join the fight.
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A Maddening Book
- By Reggie on 09-23-17
By: Stephen Harding
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Otto Skorzeny
- The Devil’s Disciple
- By: Stuart Smith
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. "Hitler's favorite commando" acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison. He could be brave and resourceful, but was also a notorious egoist and an unrepentant Nazi until the end of his life. Stuart Smith draws on years of in-depth research to uncover the truth about Skorzeny's career and complex personality.
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Balanced and fascinating story of Skorzeny
- By MortonC on 04-14-19
By: Stuart Smith
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The Great Gamble
- The Soviet War in Afghanistan
- By: Gregory Feifer
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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During the last years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent some of its most elite troops to unfamiliar lands in Central Asia to fight a vaguely defined enemy, which eventually defeated their superior number with unconventional tactics. Although the Soviet leadership initially saw the invasion as a victory, many Russian soldiers came to view the war as a demoralizing and devastating defeat, the consequences of which had a substantial impact on the Soviet Union and its collapse.
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Correction
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 11-22-09
By: Gregory Feifer
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The Frozen Chosen
- The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Frozen Chosen is an account of the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by the First Marine Division from November to December 1950, following the intervention of Red China in the Korean War. Fought during the worst blizzard in a century, it is considered by the US Marine Corps to be the Corps' finest hour. Fourteen Medals of Honor, a record for any American battle, and 85 Navy Crosses attest to the intensity of the battle.
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Fascinating story, very bad narration
- By Mat J Monk on 03-31-17
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Crete 1941
- The Battle and the Resistance
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 02-01-16
By: Antony Beevor
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The Brenner Assignment
- The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Like a scene from Where Eagles Dare, a small team of American spies parachutes into Italy behind enemy lines. Their orders: link up with local partisans and sabotage the well-guarded Brenner Pass - the Nazis' crucial supply route through the Alps - thereby bringing the German war effort in Italy to a grinding halt.
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Interesting History
- By Gary L. Richardson on 03-21-24
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No Mission Is Impossible
- The Death-Defying Missions of the Israeli Special Forces
- By: Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In No Mission Is Impossible, Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal return with the intensely absorbing, fast-paced story of 30 of the boldest missions of the Israeli special forces. Bar-Zohar and Mishal depict in electrifying detail major battles, raids in enemy territory, and death-defying commando missions while also sharing the personal stories of both soldiers and top commanders, revealing their hopes and fears. The stories are often of victories, but sometimes they're of immense failures.
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Kept me somewhat entertained. Forgettable though
- By Oliver Nielsen on 05-06-16
By: Michael Bar-Zohar, and others
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The Second World War: A Complete History
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 43 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, offers a complete history of World War II. It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-Day - August 14, 1945 - it had involved every major power, and had become global in its reach. In the final accounting, it would turn out to be - in both human terms and material resources - the costliest war in history, taking the lives of forty-six million people.
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A Catalog of Atrocities, Ignores the Japanese
- By Doc G on 02-28-19
By: Martin Gilbert
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Snow & Steel
- The Battle of the Bulge 1944-45
- By: Peter Caddick-Adams
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Tim Reynolds
- Length: 31 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Between December 16, 1944 and January 15, 1945, American forces found themselves entrenched in the heavily forested Ardennes region of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg defending against an advancing German army amid freezing temperatures, deep snow, and dense fog. Operation Herbstnebel - Autumn Mist - was a massive German counter-offensive that stunned the Allies in its scope and intensity.
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fascinating and thorough, painful narration
- By richard on 01-05-15
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The Nazi Hunters
- The Ultra-Secret SAS Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
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Fascinating and little known WW2 story
- By Paul Atwater on 10-16-20
By: Damien Lewis
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Desert Fox
- The Storied Military Career of Erwin Rommel
- By: Samuel W. Mitcham Jr.
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the strange and fascinating life of Erwin Rommel, from his days as a youth in Imperial Germany - when he had a child out of wedlock with an early girlfriend - through his lauded military exploits during World War I to his death by suicide during World War II, after he attempted a failed coup against Hitler. Rommel was a man of contradictions: a soldier who wrote a best-selling book about World War I, a commander who went from commanding Hitler's bodyguard to trying to kill him, and a serious military mind who was known for participating in practical jokes.
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Amazing Detail, Amazing Story!
- By Al888 on 05-19-19
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Chesty
- The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC
- By: Colonel Jon T. Hoffman USMCR
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 23 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Marine Corps is known for its heroes, and Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller has long been considered the greatest of them all. His assignments and activities covered an extraordinary spectrum of warfare. With his bulldog face, barrel chest (which earned him the nickname Chesty), gruff voice, and common touch, Puller became - and has remained - the epitome of the marine combat officer. Author Jon Hoffman has been given special access to Puller's personal papers as well as his personnel record. The result will unquestionably stand as the last word about Chesty Puller.
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Great book great man good read
- By Just_Shoppin on 07-10-18
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War at the End of the World
- Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945
- By: James P. Duffy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.
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The WW2 New Guinea Campaign
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 09-26-18
By: James P. Duffy
What listeners say about Donovan's Devils
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-17-21
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
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- Thomas Le Min
- 04-11-21
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.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rev. CJD
- 05-23-22
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.
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- Marksharrar
- 01-14-22
great book
very detailed information about covert action in WWII. For any history buff this is a good read.
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- Hector L Santiago
- 03-10-21
History of Intelligence
Great book it is the basis of the Intelligence. That follows until modern days.
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1 person found this helpful
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Unique contribution to ww2 commando stories.
Narration: prosaic.
Content: informative description of OSS actions of ww2. Recommended. Genuinely novel contribution. Recommended.
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- P Owen
- 04-14-22
Truman's concern echoes Jan 6th FBI involvement
the epilogue speaks volumes as to the concerns Truman held regarding the potential misuse of the federal law enforcement and intelligence organizations by unethical presidents of his own party.
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- Jeremy Moneyheffe
- 04-05-22
excellent and a great read
excellent a a wealth of information acot OSS and the early Cia birth. Great about what went on in Italy during the war.
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- Blake
- 01-14-23
Somewhat Bumpy Read Through Various Adventures
Reading Donovan’s Devils reminded me of watching a fireworks show: there are lots of rockets and some explode into brilliant bursts, some go up and sort of fizzle and some are just duds. This book tells the story of multiple OSS operations and goes into great detail on some of them, and scant detail on others, and seriously, some of the operations just aren’t that interesting. Large passages provide details of general military operations not related to the OSS, as a framework for the various clandestine operations, and the overall read is a bit bumpy as the reader zigs in and out of the OSS world. The narration is smooth, consistently unattenuated throughout the book, which makes the listen sort of boring. Think of a movie without any underlying dramatic underscore, instead with a steady tone at the same frequency throughout the movie. If you want an overview of some of the activities of the OSS this book does the job, but without much excitement.
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- David B. Paulson
- 04-29-21
Historically Significant
Important operational details, not a broad brush overview or "glorious" rendition of history. Well done.
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