UNDERCOVER TALES OF WORLD WAR II, by William B. Breuer, JohnWiley & Sons, Inc., Publisher, NY 1999. This is a compendium of vignettes describing "the dangerous, high-stakes realm of espionage and intelligence, where "the most successful operations are the ones we have never heard about."

This is the author's thirty-first book, following the format of his successful 1997 "Unexplained Mysteries of World War II." Intelligence officers, both current and former, will enjoy the numerous examples of successful disinformation ploys, from the feeding of false information to the use of illusion to hide the Suez Canal from General Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox. Veterans of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) will linger over the exploits of former comrades-in-arms. Those who lived during the years of World War II will find between the covers reminders of people both pleasant and sad. The story on "The FBI Undercover in South America" reminds us of both the successes -- 887 Germnan spies were identified, 24 secret radio stations located and 30 transmitters detected -- - but also, of those who died in the process. Four FBI men were killed ( including Dennis Haberfeld, a 1942 FBI school classmate of our reviewer, Ray Wannal). Dennis died only three months after completing his training, a reminder of the sacrifices made by so many young men and women during World War II in vital undercover operations, so skilfully portrayed in this attention-capturing book. (Reviewed by Raymond Wannal, former Assistant Dir FBI) (RoyJ)

Reviewed in AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #28-99, July 15, 1999

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