The Solitary Spy: A Political Prisoner in Cold War Berlin

By Douglas Boyd

Book Overview

Of the 2.3 million National Servicemen conscripted during the Cold War, 5,000 attended the secret Joint Services School for Linguists, tasked with supplying much-needed Russian speakers to the services. After training, they were sent to the front lines in Germany and elsewhere to snoop on Russian aircraft. Posted to RAF Gatow in Berlin, Douglas Boyd came to know Hitler's devastated former capital, divided as it was into Soviet, French, US and British sectors. He describes the SIGINT work, his subsequent arrest by armed Stasi soldiers one night on the border, and how he became one of the most important political prisoners in Cold War Berlin.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 075099391X
• ISBN13: 9780750993913
• Release Date: March 2020
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 240 Pages