Review: Clever deception on a grand strategic scale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 6, 2012
As a military history buff, the words "World War II" are usually all it takes to induce me to download a book. And Kindle Singles have been especially productive in bringing to light many of the fascinating little-known footnotes of the war. "D for Deception" is about the career of Dennis Wheatley, a popular author of prewar thrillers in England who predated Ian Fleming's 007 stories by more than a decade. In real life, Wheatley was much like his dashing character Gregory Sallust. When war broke out in Europe, he wanted to do his part, but he was too old for combat.Instead he found his niche masterminding strategic deceptions that would fool the Germans into reinforcing certain garrisons where the British wanted them to think an attack was coming (Norway), or withholding reinforcements at a real point of attack (Normandy). After proving the merits of Wheatley's special unit with the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, the unit began working on their biggest deception yet - the D-Day landings in Normandy. "D for Deception" is the inside story of how Wheatley and his colleagues pulled it off, an achievement no less important than the codebreakers' work at Bletchley Park. It was also interesting to read about Wheatley's connection with an agent named "Garbo," whose real name was Juan Pujol Garcia, whose story was featured in another Kindle Single ("Double-Edged Sword").I liked the author's style, mingling actual text from Wheatley's prewar spy novels with her own text. Overall, this was a well written, fascinating narration of a vital behind-the-scenes part of the war that deserves to be known.