Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II's OSS

By Patrick K. O'Donnell

Book Overview

The first-ever full story of American sabotage operations in World War II, based on hundreds of revealing interviews. The battles of World War II were won not only by the soldiers on the front lines,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074323572X
• ISBN13: 9780743235723
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.2" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

First hand Interviews With Spies from WWII

This book is not "War and Peace", nor is it a comprehensive book on spies, but rather it is a collection of stories using first hand testimony of the participants in the OSS in WWII. In that context the book is different from most of what must now be a 1000 books on WWII. The strength of this book is the excellent writing and the series of interesting characters and their stories, all involving ordinary men that do heroic things. Thankfully their stories have been recorded by the author since many of these men are now many in the 80's and their first hand recollections will soon be lost. In any case the book is better that one might expect. I first heard about this book on WABC where John Bachelor has interviewed a series of the living subjects or "spies" on air on his late daily show at 10:00 PM. The guys are ordinary but the stories are often riveting. They put themselves in tremendous danger with their patriotic actions. In many ways this book is like the recent Tim Russert book - a sleeper. The book seems okay from what you have heard from others and from interviews on the radio, but the book is actually a much better read. In many ways the both books (Russert and this book) are on subjects that when properly presented become compelling page turning reads. This is a great value and a good book.

This Book is Great

Pat O'Donnell has done it again. I read this book from cover to cover in just one day, and I think it's his best work yet. The stories of these real American heroes, told in their own words, really shows the emotions these men and women felt, and the hardships they endured 60 years ago. Most have maintained their vow of silence that long, both out of respect for the work that they did, but also because of some of the bad memories these experiences evoked. Pat O'Donnell got these heroes (no other way to describe them) to open up and relive some of their adventures and missions. The way that Mr. O'Donnell interwove their stories into his book made me wish that I had heard these stories first-hand, or even lived the adventure with them. Mr. O'Donnell has definitely succeeded in his mission to pull us into their world. I can't wait for the next book in his series.

Additional Editorial Reviews for OSS

"First rate reading for fans of cloak-and-dagger stuff..." -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)Review by Dennis Showalter for the History Book Club (OSS is a Main Selection)Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs is as gripping as a techno-thriller, with the bonus that its stories are true. O'Donnell's history of the Office of Strategic Service begins with President Franklin Roosevelt's decision that a country on the edge of entering a world war for survival needed an undercover foreign intelligence service. On July 11, 1941, he ordered the establishment of a Coordinator of Information, whose mission was to collect and analyze all information relevant to national security. Its head was Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan.Front-line infantryman in World War I, Wall Street lawyer and business executive, former Assistant Attorney General, Donovan became one of the century's masters of clandestine war. He argued convincingly that the U.S.needed an organization that would take the fight to the Axis through propaganda, espionage, sabotage and guerrilla operations. In June 1942 the COI's name was changed to Office of Strategic Service; it was placed directly under the Joint Chiefs of Staff-and Donovan set about building a legend. The "Oh So Secret" recruited from Ivy League schools, law firms, corporations, and-occasionally-prisons. Veterans of the Spanish Civil War, stigmatized elsewhere as "premature anti-fascists," were assigned to work with Communist resistance networks. Foreign nationals, even some prisoners of war, joined and went behind Axis lines with ropes around their necks, knowing they could expect only execution if captured.O'Donnell conducted extensive interviews with over 300 former OSS members. He then cross-checked their narratives, as far as possible, against the extensive OSS records in the National Archives, many only recently declassified. First committed in North Africa, OSS teams and individuals operated in Sicily and Italy, in the Balkans alongside their British counterparts. But it was in France that the organization did its best work and had its greatest days. Well before the invasion, OSS agents were parachuted in to contact and organize resistance groups. Once the invasion began, OSS teams engaged in guerrilla operations, especially against the 2nd SS Panzer Division on its march to Normandy. It was not all triumph. Individual operations were blown or defeated, usually at heavy cost in lives. A late-war OSS attempt to support partisans in Slovakia ended in disaster, with most of the agents falling into German hands. Nor was the OSS entirely about derring-do behind Axis lines. O'Donnell included a solid chapter describing the growing sophistication and effectiveness of OSS efforts in the field of propaganda. By the end of the war, OSS agents were conducting diplomatic negotiations as well, above all in Italy, where Allen Dulles, later chief of the Cold War CIA, played a key role in negotiating a theater-level German surrender.O'Donnel

A GRAND SLAM IN STORYTELLING

I bought the book and couldn't put it down after reading it straight through over the weekend. So much of O'Donnell's book contains new information on OSS and WWII. O'Donnell does a masterful job capturing OSS's most important missions and the incredible exploits of these men and women agents most of them untold until now. The narrative style of this book combined with oral history, allows it to read like some of Ambrose's classics like D-Day or Citizen Soldiers. O'Donnell has changed his style compared to his other books yet he still allows the voices of these incredible spies and Special Forces troops to speak I was really stunned with what OSS did during the war: everything from creating the first SEALS; to blowing up bridges in Greece; to operation CROSS a team of 100 ex-German POWs trained to kill or kidnap Hitler. Some of the best chapters revolve around Greece and the Balkans which have hardly been touched by most historians. Also entertaining was the chapter revolving around spy gadgets created in OSS labs. OSS made everything from umbrella guns to cigarettes that were .22 caliber pistols to something called the "Truth Drug." The missions into Germany itself made my hair stand up in the back of head, especially, the stories from Jewish-American veterans that went back facing almost certain death if they were captured.

Better than James Bond!

This book offers an extraordinary look into the lives of spies and soldiers during WWII. Historical narrative combined with first-hand accounts offers an amazing history of American intrigue. This suspense thriller is a must have for not only history buffs but also fans of the James Bond series. The reader gets an inside look at the way spies operated during WWII and helped win the war and many of the stories will remind the reader of scenes in James Bond movies. I highly recommend this book to anyone fascinated with today's "spies" in our War on Terror!