Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook469 pages7 hours
MI5: British Security Service Operations, 1909–1945: The True Story of the Most Secret counter-espionage Organisation in the World
By Nigel West
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
MI5 is arguably the most secret and misunderstood of all the British government departments. Its enigmatic title – much more than its proper name, the Security Service – stands in the public mind for the dark world of the secret services in general. In reality it has a very specific brief: counterintelligence. Its object is to combat espionage and subversion directed against the UK.
Nigel West’s book traces the history of MI5 clearly and accurately from its modest beginnings in 1909 until 1945, with the main part of the book focussing upon the important role which MI5 played in the Second World War. This includes the story of the sixteen enemy agents who were rounded up in Britain who were either hanged or shot; the manipulation of the Axis espionage networks by the use of ‘turned’ Abwehr agents (the famous Double Cross System), and the all-important check on its success provided by the intercepted German signals so brilliantly decoded at Bletchley; and the various deceptions practiced on the German High Command.
The book, which is laced with true anecdotes as bizarre and compulsively readable as any novel, is the fruit of years of painstaking research in the course of which Nigel West has traced and interviewed more than a hundred people who figure prominently in the story: German and Soviet agents, counterintelligence officers and, most remarkably, more than a dozen of the double agents.
In this new and revised edition, Nigel West details the organizational charts which show the structure of the wartime security apparatus, in what is regarded as the most accurate and informative account ever written of MI5 before and during the Second World War.
Nigel West’s book traces the history of MI5 clearly and accurately from its modest beginnings in 1909 until 1945, with the main part of the book focussing upon the important role which MI5 played in the Second World War. This includes the story of the sixteen enemy agents who were rounded up in Britain who were either hanged or shot; the manipulation of the Axis espionage networks by the use of ‘turned’ Abwehr agents (the famous Double Cross System), and the all-important check on its success provided by the intercepted German signals so brilliantly decoded at Bletchley; and the various deceptions practiced on the German High Command.
The book, which is laced with true anecdotes as bizarre and compulsively readable as any novel, is the fruit of years of painstaking research in the course of which Nigel West has traced and interviewed more than a hundred people who figure prominently in the story: German and Soviet agents, counterintelligence officers and, most remarkably, more than a dozen of the double agents.
In this new and revised edition, Nigel West details the organizational charts which show the structure of the wartime security apparatus, in what is regarded as the most accurate and informative account ever written of MI5 before and during the Second World War.
Unavailable
Author
Nigel West
Nigel West is a military historian specialising in security and intelligence issues. He was voted ‘the experts’ expert’ by a panel of other spy writers in The Observer, with the Sunday Times commenting: ‘His information is so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West’s sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories.’ In 2003, he was awarded the US Association of Former Intelligence Officers’ first Lifetime Literature Achievement Award, and until 2015, he lectured at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Alexandria, Virginia. His website can be found at www.nigelwest.com.
Read more from Nigel West
MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations, 1909–1945 Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organisation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5At Her Majestys Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britains Intelligence Service, MI6 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cold War Counterfeit Spies: Tales of Espionage; Genuine or Bogus? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDouble Agent Celery: MI5's Crooked Hero Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitler's Trojan Horse: The Fall of the Abwehr, 1943–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAssassinations Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Garbo: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Spy of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spycraft Secrets: An Espionage A-Z Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Churchill's Spy Files: MI5's Top-Secret Wartime Reports Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCodeword Overlord: Axis Espionage and the D-Day Landings Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Clear Case of Genius: Room 40's Code-Breaking Pioneer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDouble Cross in Cairo: The True Story of the Spy Who Turned the Tide of War in the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Nest of Vipers: The Rise Of The Abwehr Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpies Who Changed History: The Greatest Spies & Agents of the 20th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to MI5
Related ebooks
At Her Majestys Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britains Intelligence Service, MI6 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of Mi6: The Intelligence and Espionage Agency of the British Government Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMI5 at War 1909-1918: How MI5 Foiled the Spies of the Kaiser in the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeating the Nazi Invader: Hitler’s Spies, Saboteurs and Secrets in Britain 1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeating the Nazi Invader: Hitler's Spies, Saboteurs and Secrets in Britain 1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed List: MI5 and British Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Service Against the Nazi Regime: How Our Spies Dealt with Hitler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Door: Spies, Secret Intelligence and British Prime Ministers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5GARBO: The Spy Who Saved D-Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSection D for Destruction: Forerunner of SOE: The Story of Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Secret Army Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spy and Counterspy: Secret Agents and Double Agents from the Second World War to the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCountering Hitler's Spies: British Military Intelligence, 1940–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA matter of intelligence: MI5 and the surveillance of anti–Nazi refugees, 1933–50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Shadows: The extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFighting to Lose: How the German Secret Intelligence Service Helped the Allies Win the Second World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Double Agent Celery: MI5's Crooked Hero Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Northern Ireland: The Troubles: From The Provos to The Det, 1968–1998 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forgotten Giant of Bletchley Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCode Wars: How 'Ultra' and 'Magic' Led to Allied Victory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMI5 in the Great War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Secret Wartime Britain: Hidden Places that Helped Win the Second World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Wars & Military For You
Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Chatter: World War I and Intelligence in American Memory, with Mark Stout 0% found this document usefulWoodrow Wilson and the Great War (with Philip Zelikow) 0% found this document usefulEliza Manningham-Buller: Kirsty Young's castaway is former head of MI5 Eliza Manningham-Buller. 0% found this document usefulEliza Manningham-Buller: Kirsty Young's castaway is former head of MI5 Eliza Manningham-Buller. 0% found this document usefulA Taste for Treason, Part 1: PO BOX 629 | WW2: Sophia Di Martino delves into the murky world of pre-War Nazi espionage. 50% found this document usefulSupersonic Nazi Vengeance: V2 Rocket (Part 1) 100% found this document usefulThe Belfast Blitz: The city's story of war and the heroic bravery that emerged. 0% found this document usefulRe:sound #240 The Aftermath Show: This hour two stories about what remains after the fighting stops. 0% found this document useful247. Medieval Treason 0% found this document useful45: WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE with Helen Fry 0% found this document usefulThe new Dark Age of Espionage 0% found this document usefulThe Fight To Free Julian Assange, with Kevin Gosztola 0% found this document useful
Related articles
News from MI5 Finest HourArticle
News from MI5
Nov 5, 2018
Nigel West, Churchill’s Spy Files: MI5’s Top Secret Wartime Reports, The History Press, 2018, 464 pages, $35/£25. ISBN 978–0750985499 In April 1943, as the North African campaign approached its climax in Tunisia, MI5, Britain’s Security Service, beg
3 min readMUSEUMS & EVENTS History of WarArticle
MUSEUMS & EVENTS
Dec 21, 2023
3 min readReporting On The Troubles History of WarArticle
Reporting On The Troubles
Oct 31, 2019
8 min readThe Style & Technique Of BEN MACINTYRE Writing MagazineArticle
The Style & Technique Of BEN MACINTYRE
Mar 5, 2020
‘If you’re looking for a good spy thriller, I definitely recommend this,’ said a review in the Daily Express. The book was not an invented spy yarn, but a true story – Agent Zigzag. Fact can be stranger than fiction. Ben Macintyre, historian and Time
6 min readFault Lines MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military HistoryArticle
Fault Lines
Oct 5, 2021
4 min readThe Spies Who Came In From The Continent Foreign Policy MagazineArticle
The Spies Who Came In From The Continent
Apr 25, 2019
6 min readThe Enemy Within World War IIArticle
The Enemy Within
Mar 16, 2021
12 min read“These Priceless Messages” Finest HourArticle
“These Priceless Messages”
Aug 2, 2023
7 min readBeating The Nazi Invader History of WarArticle
Beating The Nazi Invader
Jan 21, 2021
1 min readMi9 Evasion Service A History For In Of World Escape The Secret War And Two History of WarArticle
Mi9 Evasion Service A History For In Of World Escape The Secret War And Two
Mar 18, 2021
2 min readThe “Hidden Armies” of Britain That Battled the Nazis Literary HubArticle
The “Hidden Armies” of Britain That Battled the Nazis
Oct 25, 2019
13 min readAction This Day Finest HourArticle
Action This Day
Feb 11, 2022
2 min readEncounters BBC History MagazineArticle
Encounters
Nov 24, 2022
3 min readThe Wwii School For Escape Artists All About HistoryArticle
The Wwii School For Escape Artists
Apr 22, 2021
7 min readBritain's Secret Army History of WarArticle
Britain's Secret Army
Jun 11, 2020
8 min readBritain’s Nazi collaborators The Critic MagazineArticle
Britain’s Nazi collaborators
Oct 29, 2020
3 min readHitting A Home Run BBC History MagazineArticle
Hitting A Home Run
Oct 1, 2020
2 min readMUSEUMS & EVENTS History of WarArticle
MUSEUMS & EVENTS
Oct 4, 2018
6 min readClose Encounters of the Royal Kind Fortean TimesArticle
Close Encounters of the Royal Kind
Jul 14, 2022
Last month Britain celebrated an unprecedented event: the 70th anniversary of a monarch’s ascension to the throne. While in Britain’s constitutional monarchy the Queen has limited say in the actual running of the country, people have long wondered ho
4 min readWar On Nazis In Oz And In The Air The Critic MagazineArticle
War On Nazis In Oz And In The Air
Feb 29, 2024
3 min readA Bet On The British World War IIArticle
A Bet On The British
Jun 4, 2019
12 min readA “Villain for All Seasons” Finest HourArticle
A “Villain for All Seasons”
Aug 5, 2020
The real, complex, and historically important Churchill is increasingly disappearing behind crudely mythologised versions erected by those who wish to defend a political position or a series of values, and those who wish to attack them. On the one ha
9 min readReviews History of WarArticle
Reviews
Oct 4, 2018
8 min readInterview Giles Milton Ungentlemanly Warfare Military HistoryArticle
Interview Giles Milton Ungentlemanly Warfare
Oct 30, 2018
In the spring of 1940, as World War II embroiled Continental Europe, the British government merged three top-secret services to create an organization dedicated to derailing Adolf Hitler’s onrushing war machine via sabotage, propaganda and other mean
4 min readNorthern Ireland History of WarArticle
Northern Ireland
Dec 22, 2022
3 min readTV, FILM & RADIO History RevealedArticle
TV, FILM & RADIO
Nov 24, 2022
5 min readTrump’s Soviet Approach to Intelligence The AtlanticArticle
Trump’s Soviet Approach to Intelligence
Sep 15, 2018
4 min readHistory Guardian WeeklyArticle
History
Apr 7, 2023
3 min readThe Deadly Game History of WarArticle
The Deadly Game
Mar 14, 2024
1 min readWe Shall Never Surrender Country LifeArticle
We Shall Never Surrender
Nov 2, 2022
5 min read
Reviews for MI5
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews