"All that a spy book ought to be." -Weekly Review, 1921
"Captain Tuohy's tale of intelligence on all fronts may be described as the complete manual for the writer of spy stories." -The Spectator
Captain Tuohy's 1920 book "The Secret Corps" is a "tale of 'intelligence' on all fronts," a recital, or a narrative of the secret spy service in World War I. The author tells of spying in the great cities, at the front, and in Greece, Egypt, and other Near Eastern countries, where espionage flourishes without nurture. It is about bad and ugly male spies and about pretty and naughty lady spies, and it is altogether interesting; all that a spy book ought to be.
Captain Tuohy draws striking pictures, based on his own experience, of spy and counter-spy work, of the relentless cross-examination of prisoners, of easy chats with refugees, of the deliberate dissemination of false information intended to reach the enemy.
Captain Ferdinand Tuohy (1891-1953), after acting as war correspondent for the London Daily Mail in Belgium France Russia and Poland 1914 to 1915 and serving in the British army in France from 1915 to 1917 was attached to the General Staff of the British army and proceeded on a tour of inspection to Palestine Mesopotamia Salonica and Italy thus completing the entire circle of the world conflict.
In discussing Wolfgang Franck, a German spy operating in Palestine, Tuohy writes:
"While the British were holding the Jaffa-Jerusalem sector he came round, again as a staff officer, and passed from battalion to battalion in the front line posing as an inspecting officer. He questioned each battalion commander minutely on his instructions for the forthcoming British attack, and then returned unsuspected to the Turkish lines."
The book abounds with the unexpected. Once the truth was sometimes so obviously the truth that the Germans, intercepting the message, concluded it was not the truth or it would not have been sent, which was exactly what the English thought they would do.
As one review in 1921, put it, "The book keeps one all alert. A continued reading will make a man involuntarily get up from his chair very cautiously and cast a suspicious eye even on his intimate associates and surroundings until he remembers the world is at peace!"
In discussing use of women as secret spies, of one instance Tuohy writes:
"Whitehall wanted information about him, and so, when his particular failing became known to our local secret service chief, the latter decided 'to put a woman on to him' in the lingo of the trade. A fascinating Danish girl was accordingly engaged on a strictly cash basis and she proceeded to take up her abode at the Angleterre. In due course our young Prussian developed an interest in her and all seemed to be going according to plan. The rest of the story may be summarized in the words of the man who had engaged Froken:—
'One day she came to me at my office, burst into tears, put a sheaf of banknotes on the table, and said she couldn't carry out her job of pumping Fritz because she had fallen in love with him. That was the last time I ever engaged a woman.'"
"The Secret Corps" is an authentic and detailed record of intelligence work in many countries during the Great War
