Spying on the Reich: The Cold War Against Hitler

Description

Exactly a century ago, intelligence agencies across Europe first became aware of a fanatical German nationalist whose political party was rapidly gathering momentum. His name was Adolf Hitler. From 1933, these spy services watched with growing alarm as they tried to determine what sort of threat Hitler's regime would now pose to the rest of Europe. Would Germany rearm, either covertly or in open defiance of the outside world? Would Hitler turn his attention eastwards - or did he also pose a threat to the west? What were the feelings and attitudes of ordinary Germans, towards their own regime as well as the outside world? Despite intense rivalry and mistrust between them, these spy chiefs began to liaise and close ranks against Nazi Germany. At the heart of this loose, informal network were the British and French intelligence services, alongside the Poles and Czechs. Some other countries - Holland, Belgium, and the United States - stood at the periphery. Drawing on a wide range of previously unpublished British, French, German, Danish, and Czech archival sources, Spying on the Reich tells the story of Germany and its rearmament in the 1920s and 1930s; its relations with foreign governments and their intelligence services; and the relations and rivalries between Western governments, seen through the prism of the cooperation, or lack of it, between their spy agencies. Along the way, it addresses some of the most intriguing questions that still perplex historians of the period, such as how and why Britain defended Poland in September 1939, and what alternative policies could have been pursued? Cover SPYING ON THE REICH: THE COLD WAR AGAINST HITLER Copyright Contents Abbreviations A Note on Sources List of plates Epigraph Map Introduction 1: Germany Reawakens 2: Foreign Spies Keep Watch 3: The Rise of Hitler 4: The New Mood in Berlin 1933 5: The Anglo-FrenchSpy Networks Inside Germany 6: ‘The Reliable Source’ 7: The French and Czechs Watch the Reich 8: ‘The Dark Continent’ 9: The International Spy Effort 10: Searching for New Sources of Information 11: Spying on the German Navy 12: Colonel Z and Other Spies 13: The French Step Up Their Operations 14: British Intelligence Watches the Reich 15: The ‘Spies’ Who Never Were, 1937‒1938 16: Watching Anschluss 17: Intelligence and the Sudeten Crises of 1938 18: Predicting Hitler’s Next Move 19: Intelligence and the Anglo-French Alliance 20: The ‘Spies’ Who Caused Panic 21: Signals from the Reich 22: The Nazi‒Soviet Pact 23: The Countdown to War Conclusion Index