Read more
Despite the mighty invasion force the Americans and British mustered in England in early 1944, a top Allied general warned: If the Germans have even a 48-hour advance notice of the time and place of the Normandy landings, we could suffer a monstrous catastrophe! For his part, Adolf Hitler planned to inflict such a massive bloodbath on the invaders that the Allies would agree to a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany.
Hoodwinking Hitler is an action-packed, you-are-there account about a colossal and incredibly intricate deception scheme created and implemented by ingenious and diabolical minds, machinations intended to bamboozle the Germans on true Allied invasion plans. Facets of the global chicanery included electronic spoofing, double agents, diplomatic deceit, whispering campaigns, femmes fatales, camouflage, strategic feints, the French underground, murder plots, phony military installations, misleading bombing raids, sabotage, propaganda, traps, fake codes, and kidnap schemes. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies gained total surprise, mostly because of what Winston Churchill called the greatest hoax in history. But not until two months later, when the Allies broke out of Normandy, did the deception scheme pass into history. By that time, ultimate Allied victory in Europe was assured.
List of contents
A Plot to Murder President Roosevelt
An Ingenious Stratagem Is Unveiled
The "Santa Clauses" Duel with the "Blacks"
Machinations at Herrengasse 23
Istanbul Intrigue
Eavesdropping on the Fuehrer
A Conspiracy in Lisbon
A Flip-Flop by the Russian Bear
"Wild Bill" and His OSS
The Old Fox Is Trapped
Illusions in the Balkans
Focus on the Atlantic Wall
The Double-Cross "First Violins"
Behind the White Cliffs of Dover
A Ghost Army Threatens Norway
Connivances in Stockholm
Tightening the Security Lid
A High-Level Epidemic of the Jitters
Behind Enemy Lines
Vendetta and Copperhead
Electronic Spoofing
Invasion Fever
Threshold of a Mighty Endeavor
D-Day Decoys and Deceptions
Bombs, Bullets and Broadcasts
The Invasion Remains in Jeopardy
Rommel Clashes with the Fuehrer
Alles Kaputt!
Bibliography
Index
About the author
WILLIAM B. BREUER is a decorated combat veteran of World War II who landed with the first assault waves in Normandy. He is one of today's most popular military historians and the author of 25 books since 1982. Ten were selections of the Military Book Club, six translated into foreign languages. A first class author who writes with an emphasis on human drama, says The Wall Street Journal.
