You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger

by Roger Hall

Book Overview

With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. First published in 1957 to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000O28SAS
• Release Date: January 1957
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Roger Hall's comic experiences in the OSS

Hall's book is his funny story volunteering for, training in, and working within America's WWII OSS unit (pre-cursor to the modern CIA). Like all good soldiers, Hall sought to escape the boredom, heat, and humidity of camp life for anything else. So, he volunteered for the OSS - only knowing that at least it was something different and possibly dangerous - oh my! The book takes us through numerous training assignments of Hall's - patrolling, ambushing, parachuting, espionage basics, infiltration into civilian organizations, and more. Typical of most American WWII soldiers, he spent far more time training than he ever did in combat. The most interesting sections of the book are his parachute and espionage training. He describes both in fascinating detail. It is quite funny to see how amateurish much of his spy training was - I suppose that's why the CIA would have liked for the book not to be published. Hall writes in an irrevent and playful style that makes his book both fun and easy to read. He is the type of original smart-ass that self-important superior officials love to hate. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, especially as it pokes fun at a rather serious business.

So very glad it's back in print!

I first read this book in the summer of 1976, when I was at Shattuck School in Faribault, MN. I thought it was an absolute hoot, and was I ever delighted to find that my high school had a copy, too! After I graduated HS, I had my eyes open for a copy, but for a long, long, long time the only ones I could find for sale had exorbitant price tags. How this was ever let go out of print escapes me.

The Most Popular Book at the Army Intelligence School

In August 1964, when I arrived at Fort Holabird, MD, the home of the US Army Intelligence School (USAINTS) I was pleasantly surprised. The place was more like a small college campus than a military installation, except for the mess hall which served better food than any institution of higher learning. There was a small but excellent library that even had a very good selection of classical music. The most popular book in the library was "You're Stepping On My Cloak and Dagger." Not only were the library copies well-worn, the bookstore had trouble keeping copies in stock. The training portions of the book were so familiar that everyone loved the book. This book is to the intelligence business what M.A.S.H. is to combat surgeons. No one who has ever been in the intelligence business (about 40 years for me) could read this book without laughing aloud throughout. I think that even readers without this personal experience will find the book hilarious. I have given away numerous copies of this book over the last four decades. My last copy has been missing for many years (an unreturned loan) so I was ecstatic to find the book back in print. I have ordered several copies so that I will never again be without this long-time favorite volume.

I am so glad this has been reprinted

One of the funniest books I've read in any genre. If Dave Barry had been eligible for enlistment in 1942 this is the the kind of book he might have written. Roger Hall's account of his time in the O.S.S. is full of dry wit, bawdy humor, accute assessments of the Army's intelligence operations during World War II, and his own vivid personality. The pace is fast, people and situations are clearly delineated in a few deft words, and the irreverence only heightens the sobering reality of military life in a time of war. Thirty years after I first read it this book still makes me laugh.