
The Secret War
Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945
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Narrated by:
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Steven Crossley
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By:
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Max Hastings
About this listen
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 PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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War is hell get over it
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From one of our finest military historians, a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences.
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Superb
- By David on 04-05-21
By: Max Hastings
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World War Two
- A Graphic Account of the Greatest and Most Terrible Event in Human History (All You Need to Know)
- By: Sir Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Jon Connell
- Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Within Western culture, World War Two continues to exercise an extraordinary fascination for generations unborn when it took place. The obvious explanation is that it was the greatest and most terrible event in human history. Within the vast compass of the struggle, some individuals scaled summits of courage and nobility, while others plumbed depths of evil, in a fashion that compels the awe of posterity.
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Takeaways from our most eloquent living historian
- By Ted on 10-16-22
By: Sir Max Hastings
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Forgotten Ally
- China's World War II, 1937 - 1945
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
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Bland
- By Rodney on 01-23-14
By: Rana Mitter
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Operation Chastise
- The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know.
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Wish He Had Stuck to the Core Story
- By John on 06-22-20
By: Max Hastings
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Paris 1944
- Occupation, Resistance, Liberation: A Social History
- By: Patrick Bishop
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The fall of Paris to the Nazis on June 14th, 1940, was one of the darkest days of World War II. And the liberation of the city on August 25th, 1944, felt like the brightest. The liberation was also the biggest party of the century: champagne flowed freely, total strangers embraced—it was a celebration of life renewed against the backdrop of the world's favorite city, as experienced by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, Pablo Picasso, and Robert Capa.
By: Patrick Bishop
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The Sword and the Shield
- By: Christopher Andrew, Vasilli Mitrokhin
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This book reveals the most complete picture ever of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an extremely top secret archive which details the full extent of its worldwide network. Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the history department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other United States universities, and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs.
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Great book on the history of the KGB
- By Clydene on 05-28-12
By: Christopher Andrew, and others
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The Cold War's Killing Fields
- Rethinking the Long Peace
- By: Paul Thomas Chamberlin
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this sweeping, deeply researched book, Paul Thomas Chamberlin boldly argues that the Cold War, long viewed as a mostly peaceful, if tense, diplomatic standoff between democracy and communism, was actually a part of a vast, deadly conflict that killed millions on battlegrounds across the postcolonial world. For half a century, as an uneasy peace hung over Europe, ferocious proxy wars raged in the Cold War’s killing fields, resulting in more than 14 million dead - victims who remain largely forgotten and all but lost to history.
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Interesting but Biased
- By Jonathan W Schneider on 08-13-18
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Hero City
- Leningrad 1943–44
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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At the height of World War II the people of Leningrad endured a bitter 900-day siege. Prit Buttar tells the story of how the siege was finally broken. The Red Army had suffered multiple setbacks in the preceding two years but achieved a partial success by breaking the blockage in early 1943. However, this was followed by further failed attempts to lift the siege completely. This compelling history uses original Russian source material to vividly describe the deprivations visited upon those trapped. But it also details the tactical successes and strategic failures of both sides.
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Another great Prit Buttar book
- By Gary on 10-13-24
By: Prit Buttar
What listeners say about The Secret War
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-21-16
a very comprehensive history of secret warfare.
a bit long but a good narration. Tons of stories about every angle of WWII.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-16-19
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!!!!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 11-16-24
Detailed stories
This book had lots of details around the clandestine operations of WWII. Had so much detail that is was hard to follow for long periods of time.
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- B. In -t Veld
- 03-25-17
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.
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11 people found this helpful
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- ZS
- 06-05-20
Good Book
Very informational, flowed well.
A few shots at modern US policies that dampen the the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Grandma Katie
- 03-22-17
Narrator bland English.
Narrator gives condescending English tone, next time select a woman narrator, preferably with a Scottish, welsh or Irish accent.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Darrell Bibby
- 10-09-21
Enjoyable, informative with lots of information
Here is what one person wrote,
"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."
I couldn't agree more. The narrator has a British accent which I think fits well with the telling of the tales. I've my share of reading on the subject and this book covers stories that I know about along with new insights into the would of espionage.
And I didn't find it tedious at all.
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1 person found this helpful
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- George S. Dodge
- 01-11-17
Very thorough if somewhat lengthly.
This work is excellent on all accounts although a bit long but the information provided is worth the effort.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-10-23
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
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1 person found this helpful
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- J.
- 07-05-16
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.
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6 people found this helpful