The New York Times Book Review - Josef Joffe
…tales of luck, pluck and doom are not the best reason for plowing through the 600 pages of The Secret War. To begin, the book embodies a herculean research effort down to the minutest detail. Fear not. In spite of its heft, this tome is a real page turner. Screenwriters might cull a few thrillers from the text—and populate them with real-life heroes, fools and traitors. Finally, Hastings provides a welcome reality check for those who draw their spy lore from TV shows or movies like The Imitation Game…For all its focus on the Anglo-American brotherhood, The Secret War also covers the whole front from the French and Dutch resistance to the German Abwehr and the Soviet NKVD. Like the rest, these chapters blend first-rate reportage, finely chiseled portraits and in-depth research. They brim with true tales of sacrifice and petty-mindedness, miraculous breakthroughs and cynical betrayal.
Publishers Weekly
05/23/2016
Hastings (Catastrophe: 1914) further solidifies his gift for combining scholarship and readability in this scintillating overview of intelligence operations in WWII. He moves through the large, highly specialized body of knowledge to share the whole story: machines and code books, agents and double agents, deceptions and illusions. Combining chronological and thematic approaches, Hastings makes a strong case that "it is impossible justly to attribute all credit for the success or blame for the failure of an operation to any single factor." Even the vaunted ULTRA system was part of a structure dependent on human skill, judgment, and intuition. Stalin's discounting of the barking "dogs in the night"—the stream of accurate intelligence on Germany's intentions in 1941—brought the U.S.S.R. to the brink of catastrophe. In contrast, the U.S. victory at Midway owed much to Adm. Chester Nimitz accepting the word of radio intelligence that, still in its early stages, was "practically the only source" of reports in the Central Pacific. Hastings takes readers behind the lines with Britain's Special Operations Executive and describes parallel missions in such neutral states as Ireland and Portugal. He also provides character sketches of a number of clandestine agents. Hastings tells it all in a book everyone interested in WWII should acquire. (May)
From the Publisher
Hastings (Catastrophe: 1914) further solidifies his gift for combining scholarship and readability in this scintillating overview of intelligence operations in WWII...Hastings tells it all in a book everyone interested in WWII should acquire.” — Publishers Weekly
“Ambitious and often fascinating...This wide-ranging account is filled with compelling characters...A superb survey of an always interesting aspect of warfare.” — Booklist
“[Hastings] brilliantly depicts the byzantine world of intelligence agencies, with dry humor and perception.” — New York Review of Books
“[D]efinitive….This is a marvelous book - smart, carefully and exhaustively researched and highly informative. Even those exceptionally knowledgeable about World War II will find it extremely valuable. It is compelling and fascinating reading.” — Christian Science Monitor
New York Review of Books
[Hastings] brilliantly depicts the byzantine world of intelligence agencies, with dry humor and perception.
Christian Science Monitor
[D]efinitive….This is a marvelous book - smart, carefully and exhaustively researched and highly informative. Even those exceptionally knowledgeable about World War II will find it extremely valuable. It is compelling and fascinating reading.
Booklist
Ambitious and often fascinating...This wide-ranging account is filled with compelling characters...A superb survey of an always interesting aspect of warfare.
Booklist
Ambitious and often fascinating...This wide-ranging account is filled with compelling characters...A superb survey of an always interesting aspect of warfare.
Library Journal
03/01/2016
Some books are like spies in that it is often necessary to peel back layers to reveal their true intent. This latest work from Hastings (Catastrophe 1914; All Hell Let Loose) falls within this realm, paying homage to World War II intelligence agencies. Uncovering complex information, the text reveals three narrative themes: mere intelligence did not win the war, democracies were more advantageously attuned to their agencies' output, and that Germany, Japan, and Russia ignored insights that conflicted with their interests, leading to consequences on the battlefield. This dense and occasionally cumbersome work is not a chronology of events; instead the author provides readers with a thorough understanding of how intelligence operated during the conflict. Hastings' narrative fits nicely with titles such as Christof Mauch's The Shadow War Against Hitler, Nigel West and Oleg Tsarev's TRIPLEX, and David Kahn's Hitler's Spies. VERDICT Recommended for World War II and spy enthusiasts as well as those who desire an informative historical read.—Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio
AUGUST 2016 - AudioFile
The story of WWII’s spies, codes, and various resistance/guerilla movements has probably never been given such a broad treatment as it has in this audiobook. Narrator Steven Crossley’s British accent gives his narration a winsome and academic-sounding quality. Looking at all of the belligerents, Hastings shows the successes and failures of the British, Americans, Soviets, Germans, Japanese, and a number of other lesser powers. Everybody was spying on everybody, but the Soviets seemed to have the most clear-eyed view of their goals for the war and after, although they had their own share of failures, too. The production is long and will take a lot of stamina from the listener but will be worth it for those who persevere. That Crossley was able to make it to the end of this with such consistency and strength of voice is a feat in itself. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-02-17
Taking a break with Catastrophe: 1914 (2013), veteran military historian Hastings returns to World War II with the usual entirely satisfying results. There are plenty of excellent accounts of the war's espionage, codebreaking, and secret operations. Hastings mentions authors, including Stephen Budiansky and David Kahn, and warns that he will cover the same ground, adding that many popular histories and almost all memoirs and even official reports from the participants are largely fiction—including the recent acclaimed film about Alan Turing, The Imitation Game. The Red Army defeated Germany with modest help from the Allied Army, which, across the world, defeated Japan. Hastings disparages writers who describe a secret activity that turned the tide, but few readers will be able to resist his version of events. Hitler and Stalin scorned Britain's armies, but, influenced by the work of Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, and John Buchan, they "viewed its spies with extravagant respect, indeed cherished a belief in their omniscience" that was entirely undeserved. Money was no object in Soviet espionage. Agents penetrated the Nazi high command and all Allied government, sending back an avalanche of information that was routinely ignored. Obsessed with finding conspiracies, the paranoid Stalin distrusted everyone, foreigners most of all, and rejected findings that contradicted his beliefs. Allied codebreakers deserve the praise lavished on them, but Hastings points out that the German codebreakers were no slouches. While Bletchley Park broke enemy naval codes intermittently, Germany read British naval codes throughout the war. Hastings has little quarrel with historians who agree that resistance fighters did more to promote postwar self-respect of occupied nations than hasten Allied victory. As he notes in closing, in the digital age, "the importance to national security of intelligence, eavesdropping, codebreaking and counter-insurgency has never been greater." A masterful account of wartime skulduggery that has relevance still today.
