Spy
Wars
A History of Covert Operations
in World War II
http://www.history.neu.edu/fac/burds/hnr2205.htm
HNR2205 Inquiries in Social Science
German reprisal against Soviet spies on the eastern front. The placard
reads: “They were activists of the
Bolshevik [communist] sabotage and spy organization.” [Private Collection]
Professor Jeffrey
Burds at: j.burds@neu.edu
269 Holmes Hall
Boston, MA 02115
Voice: 617-373-2079
Monday, Thursday 11:45-1:25
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 12:00-2:00,or by appt.
Teaching Assistant: Tom Jay Cinq-Mars cinqmars.t@neu.edu
Covert operations played a central role in the tactics of winners and losers in World War II. Espionage and sabotage operations dominate the narratives of the war on every front in every theater of operations. From code-breaking in Ultra and Magic to counter-intelligence in Operation Double-Cross, from deception at Normandy and Kursk to guerrilla warfare in the enemy's rear areas in Europe, Africa, and Asia, covert operations became a vital part of that war within the war. Drawing from film and fiction, supplemented by a wide variety of published and unpublished primary and secondary readings, we will investigate several case studies of covert operations in World War II. Emphasis is on interdisciplinary projects and presentations conducted on your own or in teams. There are no prerequisites.
Final grades will be calculated with attention to the following formula:
• Regular class attendance and well-informed, articulate participation in discussions: 10 percent
Attendance is required. No
student with three or more unexcused absences will pass this course.
• The average of five required quizzes: 20 percent
• With a team mate, run at least one class discussion (10 points) and one book presentation (20 points)
• Two typed
papers, 6-8 pages each
• Paper One is due 29 October: 20 percent
• Paper Two is due 10 December: 20 percent
All papers in the course should conform to the History Style Guide,
and all written work should be checked closely for spelling and grammatical
errors. Sloppy work will receive at least one full grade reduction.
A Statement on Academic Honesty
All written work in this course must be the student's own original work. Plagiarism--”the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work”--is a serious violation. Please note that the same shortcuts that make plagiarism so easy in our day also facilitate the instructor's verification of each student's work. In this course, all student work is checked closely for plagiarism. Northeastern University relies on Turnitin technology: “Every paper submitted is returned in the form of a customized Originality Report. Results are based on exhaustive searches of billions of pages from both current and archived instances of the internet, millions of student papers previously submitted to Turnitin, and commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals.” The point? If you misuse materials and submit other people's work as your own, you will be caught. Any student caught plagiarizing will automatically FAIL this course, and you will be formally charged for violation of university guidelines on academic honesty.
Northeastern University's Official Policy on Academic Honesty & Integrity
Readings
All books are available in low-cost paperback editions at Barnes & Nobles bookstore, and are on Closed Reserve in Snell Library.
-- Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
-- Callum MacDonald, The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich, the SS Butcher of Prague (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1998).
-- Terry Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler: Double Cross and Deception in World War II (Oxford: Osprey, 2008).
-- Patrick O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of World War II’s OSS (Citadel: 2006). [OUT OF PRINT]
Students are encouraged to order low-cost used
versions of these books on line before the semester starts. In addition,
students are expected to read and study short handouts to be distributed in
class. All handouts and notes for most lectures and/or discussions will be
available for review on the course
Week 1
Thursday,
10 September. Introduction.
DISCUSSION: What is espionage? Intelligence as a force multiplier
VIEW: The Invasion of Normandy, Scene 2 of Saving Private Ryan
Related (not required)
Materials
Aleksandr Orlov, Handbook of Intelligence and Guerilla Warfare (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963).
Week 2 Prelude: The 1930s
Monday, 14
September. On the Eve of War
READ for DISCUSSION: John H. Waller, The Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World War (New York: Random House, 1996), 3-59.
Related (not required) Materials
(1) John W. M. Chapman, “A Dance on
Eggs: Intelligence and the 'Anti-Comintern',” Journal of
Contemporary History, Volume 22, Number 2, Intelligence Services during the
Second World War (April, 1987), pp. 333-372.
(2) Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).
Thursday,
17 September. Japanese Intrigues: Prelude to War in the Soviet Middle East
READ for DISCUSSION: READ: Jeffrey Burds, “The Soviet War against ‘Fifth Columnists:’ The Case of Chechnya, 1942-1944,” Journal of Contemporary History, Volume 42, Number 2 (April 2007), excerpts from pp. 267, 273-282.
READ: Hiroaki Kuromiya and Georges Mamoulia , “Anti-Soviet Subversion: The Caucasian-Japanese Nexus, 1929-1945,” forthcoming in the October 2009 issue of Europe-Asia Studies.
Related Materials
(1) Carl Boyd, Hitler’s Japanese Confidant: General Oshima Hiroshi and Magic Intelligence, 1941-1945 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993).
Week 3 1939-1941
Monday, 21
September. Chamberlin, Munich, and Stalin’s About-Face; World War II
READ: Stalin’s
Espionage Networks on the Eve of World War II
Thursday,
24 September. Operation Pike; France 1940
READ: Brock Millman, “Toward War with Russia: British Naval and Air Planning for Conflict in the Near East, 1939–40,” Journal of Contemporary History 29(2) (April 1994): 261–83.
Related Materials
(1) Talbot Imlay, “Mind the Gap: The Perception and Reality of Communist Sabotage of French War Production during the Phoney War 1939-1940,” Past & Present, No. 189 (Nov., 2005), pp. 179-224.
Week 4 Intelligence Failures
Monday, 28
September. Barbarossa & Stalin
READ: L. Dvoinikh and N. Tarkhova, “What Military Intelligence Reported Historians Have a Chance to Analyze: Soviet Intelligence Dispatches on the Eve of War,” in Bruce W. Menning, ed. At the Threshold of War: The Soviet High Command in 1941 in Russian Studies in History: A Journal of Translations Volume 36, Number 3 (Winter 1997-98), pp. 77-93.
Related Materials
(1) David E. Murphy, What Stalin Knew: the Enigma of Barbarossa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
(2) Gabriel Gorodetsky, Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
Thursday, 1
October. The U.S. & Pearl Harbor
x READ: Peter Kahn, “The Intelligence Failure of Pearl Harbor,” Foreign Affairs Volume 70, Number 5 (Winter, 1991): 138-152. [Phillipps]
In class, we will view scenes from the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Related
Materials
x (1) Brian Villa and Timothy Wilford, “Signals intelligence and Pearl Harbor: The state of the question,” Intelligence and National Security, Volume 21, Issue 4 (2006): 520-556. [Copeland]
(2) John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (New York: Random House, 1995).
x (3) Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton, U.S.N.R. (Retired), “And I Was There. . .” Pearl Harbor and Midway, Breaking the Secrets (New York: Quill, 1985), selections. [Phillips]
Week 5 Reversals
Monday, 5
October. Our Man in Tokyo: Richard Sorge and the Moscow Counter-Offensive
x READ: Robert Whymant, Stalin’s
Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring (London: I. B. Tauris,
1996), pp. 220-238. [Cherchia]
Related Materials
(1) Alvin D. Coox, “The Lesser of Two Hells: NKVD General K. S. Lyushkov’s Defection to Japan, 1938-1945,” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies Part One Volume 11, Number 3 (1998): 145-186; Part Two Volume 11, Number 4 (1998): 72-110.
(2) Genrikh Borovik, The Philby Files: The Secret Life of Master Spy Kim Philby (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1994). Part 1 Part 2
Thursday, 9
October. Operation Daybreak: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the
Butcher of Prague
x READ: Callum MacDonald, The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich, the SS
Butcher of Prague (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1998).
[Ellis, Wu]
And SEE FILM: Operation
Daybreak: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Based upon a true, dangerous
operation in May 1942 to drop a small group of Czech and Slovak S.O.E. agents
into their own occupied country with the singular deadly mission to assassinate
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's protégé, Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor
(representing the Nazi protectorate over the Czech puppet-state) of Bohemia and
Moravia, hated as The Butcher of
Prague. The mission succeeded, but with tragic results.
Related Materials
(1) Frantisek Moravec, Master of Spies: The Memoirs of General Frantisek Moravec (New York: Doubleday, 1975).
x (2) Michael Fedornak, PARTIZAN: The Heroic Story of Michael Fedornak, American-Born Rusyn Spy Behind Enemy Lines and the Iron Curtain (Ellsworth, Maine: Downeast Graphics, 1998). [Cloonan]
Week 6 The Battle for Britain
Monday, 12
October. Columbus Day. No classes.
Thursday,
15 October. British Deception & ULTRA
x READ: Terry Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler: Double Cross and Deception in World War II (Oxford: Osprey, 2008), pp. 7-144. [Shmulevich, Simmons]
SEE FILM: Eye of
the Needle (1981)
Based on a novel by Ken Follett, this is a very effective portrayal of the
daunting task of fighting German spies in Great Britain during the war.
Operation Fortitude was the massive counter-intelligence operation undertaken
by the Allies during World War II. The goal of the operation was to divert
German military troops from Normandy, the site of Operation Overlord, the
Allied invasion of France. If the German OKW (High Command, Oberkommando der
Wehrmacht) were convinced that the invasion was to come at Calais, those
resources would not be able to reach the battlefield, blocked by the Seine
river.
To that
end, the Allies created the fictitious First United States Army Group (FUSAG),
positioned in southern England, near the Pas de Calais. FUSAG looked like a
massive concentration of troops—at least, from an aerial photograph. At ground
level, FUSAG could be made for what it really was: a charade. The allies in
this way wanted to move the German attention towards the fictitious
battleground rather than on their actual military base.
In the film, German spy Henry Faber discovers the truth of the British-American deception and races to inform Berlin.
An
inflatable Sherman tank, part of the strategic deception in Operation Overlord
Related Materials
x (1) Ben Macintyre, Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007). [Shmulevich, Simmons]
(2) Monro MacCloskey, Secret Air Missions: Counterinsurgency Operations in Southern Europe (New York: Richard Rosens, 1966).
Week 7 HUMINT
Monday, 19
October. CICERO
x READ: Süleyman Seydi, “The Intelligence War in Turkey during the Second World War: A Nazi Spy on British Premises in Istanbul,” Middle Eastern Studies Volume 40, Number 3 (May 2004): 75-85. [Stav]
SEE FILM: Five Fingers: A Man Called Cicero (1952)
Related Materials
(1) Richard Wires, The
Cicero Spy Affair: German Access to British Secrets in World War II (New
York: Praeger, 1999).
x (2) Barry Rubin, Istanbul Intrigues: Espionage, Sabotage and Diplomatic Treachery in the Spy Capital of WWII (New York: Pharos Books, 1991). [Stav]
Thursday,
22 October. Red Orchestra/Black Orchestra
x READ: Robert W. Stephan, Stalin's
Secret War: Soviet Counterintelligence Against the Nazis, 1941-1945 (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas,
2003), pages TBA [Jencso]
x READ: David Kahn, [“MAX: Germany's Greatest Spy in the East,”] Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (New York; Collier Books, 1978), pp. 312-317, 367-369. [Jencso]
Related Materials
x (1) V. E. Tarrant, The Red Orchestra (Wiley, 1996). [Jencso]
(2) Anne Nelson, The Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler (New York: Random House, 2009).
Week 8 France
Monday, 26
October. The Spy War in Occupied France
x READ: Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). [Muhrer, Eaton]
Before class, SEE the film: Les Femme de l’ombre [Women of the
Shadows]
Set during
World War II, “Female Agents” tells of one such group of agents on a mission
for the British government behind enemy lines in France in 1944. The mission,
to rescue a British geologist who was caught on the beaches of Normandy, the
information he has is crucial to the success of the D-day landings. Also there
is an SS colonel who is intent on cracking the geologists riddle and thwarting
the allied attacks who must be killed no matter what the cost. Assembling the
group a brother and sister team chose girls because of their backgrounds and
skills and after a one day refresher course in field skills they are off. From
this point on the film thanks to the story (based in truth) the acting
(universally brilliant) and the cinematography (breathtaking) grips like a vice
and doesn't let up until the credits roll.
Challenging and at times brutal it shows in very real terms what people
went through and what they sacrificed to bring down the evil Nazi regime. It
shows us a time that although we don't want to remember we should never forget
and this film is a fine example of the heroic work done by individuals that
eventually secured our freedom as a whole.
Related Materials
x (1) Rita Kramer, Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France
(New York: Penguin Books, 1995). [Hyatt]
x (2) Elizabeth P. McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS (Naval Institute Press, 2009). [Ellis]
Thursday, 29 October. Eisenhower and the Intelligence War in Europe
READ: Stephen E. Ambrose, “Eisenhower and the Intelligence Community in World War II,” Journal of Contemporary History Volume 16, Number 1 (January 1981): 153-166.
Optional Reading: Helene Deschamps-Adams, “Behind Enemy Lines in France,” in George C. Chalou, ed., The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), 140-164.
Related Materials
x (1) Russell Miller, Behind the Lines:The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002). [Wu]
x (2) Ian Valentine, Station 43: Audley End House and SOE’s Polish Section (Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 2004). [Copeland]
First short
papers are due.
Week 9 America and the Soviet Union
Monday, 2 November. Nazi Sabotage in America
x READ: Leon O. Prior, “Nazi
Invasion of Florida!” The Florida
Historical Quarterly Volume 49, Number 2 (October 1970): 129-139. [Copeland]
Related Materials
(1) Ladislas Farago, The Game of the Foxes the Untold Story of German Espionage in the United States and Great Britain During World War II (New York: David McKay, 1971).
x (2) Michael Dobbs, Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid in America (New York: Vintage, 2005). [Eaton]
(3) William Breuer, Hitler's Undercover War: The Nazi Espionage Invasion of the U.S.A (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).
Thursday, 5 November. Covert Operations on the Eastern Front;
Shellenberg & Operation Zeppelin
x READ: Perry Biddiscombe, “Unternehmen Zeppelin: The Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union, 1942-1945,” Europe-Asia Studies Volume 52, Number 6 (2000): 1115-1142. [Whyte]
Related Materials
(1) Perry Biddiscombe, “The problem with glass houses The Soviet recruitment and deployment of SS men as spies and saboteurs,” Intelligence and National Security (London) Vol. 15, No. 3 (2000): 131-145.
(2) Walter Schellenberg, The Labyrinth: Memoirs of Walter Schellenberg, Hitler’s Chief of Counterintelligence (Da Capo Press, 2000).
x (3) Presentation: Some aspect of Eastern Front Intelligence War [Whyte]
German interrogation
of a Soviet partisan, 1943
Week 10 Deception Operations
Monday, 9
November. OPERATION MINCEMEAT: The Sicilian Deception
x READ:
Terry Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler: Double
Cross and Deception in World War II (Oxford: Osprey, 2008), pp. 145-305.
[Haynes]
SEE WEEKEND FILM: The Man
Who Never Was (1956)
Clifton Webb stars in this fascinating account of a daring intelligence
operation designed to mislead the Nazis prior to the 1943 Allied invasion of
Sicily. In an effort to convince the Germans to redeploy their defenses, Lt.
Commander Montagu (Webb) creates a false English officer and fabricates letters
that indicate the British intend to land in Greece. Montagu than plants these
documents on a dead man and orchestrates the “discovery” of this “officer” on
the coast of Spain, Knowing the papers will fall into German hands. What
follows is a taut cat-and mouse game as British Intelligence waits for Berlin
to respond, then races to stay one step ahead of the Nazi agent dispatched to
determine if the dead man is genuine. This true story of ingenious deception is
a riveting tale of wartime espionage.
Related Materials
x (1) Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was: World War II’s Boldest Counter-Intelligence Operation (1953). [Muhrer]
Thursday,
12 November. The Normandy Deception
x READ: Stephen A. Ambrose, “Eisenhower, the Intelligence Community and the D-Day Invasion,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History Volume 64, Number 4 (Summer, 1981): 261-277. [Wagner, Harris]
FILM: First 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan
Related Materials
x (1) Colin Beavan, Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America’s First Shadow War (New York: Penguin, 2007). [Wagner]
x (2) Max Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle of Normandy (New York: Vintage, 2006). [Harris]
Week 11
Monday, 16 November. The XX System in World
War II
x READ: J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939-1945 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1972). [Cloonan, Hyatt]
Related Materials
x Stephen Budiansky, Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). [Cherchia]
The German Enigma machine
Thursday, 19 November. Getting it Right
SPECIAL LUNCH CLASS!
x READ: Timothy P. Mulligan, “Spies, Ciphers, and ‘Zitadelle’: Intelligence and the Battle of Kursk, 1943,” Journal of Contemporary History Volume 22, Number 2 (April 1987): 235-260. [Rudyak]
Related Materials:
x (1) Aleksei Popov, Diversanty
Stalina: Deiatel’nost organov Gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti na okkupirovannoi
sovetskoi territorii v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny [Stalin’s
Diversionary Agents: Operations of the Organs of State Security on
[German-]Occupied Soviet Territory in the Years of the Great Patriotic
War] (Moscow: Eksmo, 2004). [Rudyak]
(2) Patrick O’Donnell, Operatives,
Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of World War II’s OSS (Citadel:
2006).
(3) Lucas Delattre, Spy at the
Heart of the Third Reich: The
Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America’s Most Important Spy in World War
II (New York: Grove Press, 2006).
(4) Ben Parnell, Carpetbaggers:
America’s Secret War in Europe (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1987).
(5) Christoph Mauch, The Shadow War Against Hitler: The Covert
Operations of America’s Wartime Secret Intelligence Service (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2003).
Special Presentation: Family Recollections of Soviet Partisan Warfare in World War II [Rudyak]
Week 12
Monday, 23
November. 20 July 1944: The Plot to Kill Hitler
x READ: Waller, The Unseen War in Europe, 336-358. [Clark]
SEE
A very accurate portrayal of the July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolph
Hitler and its aftermath.
Related Materials
(1) P. R. J. Winter, “British Intelligence and the July Bomb Plot of 1944: A Reappraisal,” War in History Volume 13, Number 4 (2006): 468-494.
x (2) Mary Ellen Reese, General Reinhard Gehlen (George Mason University Press, 1990). [Clark]
Thursday,
26 November. Thanksgiving BREAK. No class.
Week 13
Monday, 30
November. OPERATION CROSSWORD
READ: Timothy J. Naftali, “ARTIFICE: James Angleton and X2 Operations in Italy,” in George C. Chalou, ed., The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), 218-245.
READ: V. Israelian, “Operation Crossword,” International Affairs: A Russian Journal of International Affairs : 141-151.
Related Materials
(1) Bradley F. Smith and Elena Agarossi, Operation Sunrise: The Secret Surrender (New York, 1979).
(2) David Alvarez and Robert A. Graham, Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage Against the Vatican, 1939-1945 (London: Frank Cass, 1997).
Thursday, 3
December. Sabotage Units in the Pacific Theater
READ: James R. Ward, “The Activities of Detachment 101 of the OSS,” in George C. Chalou, ed., The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), 318-327.
Related Materials
(1) Larry Alexander, Shadows in the Jungle: The Alamo Scouts Behind Japanese Lines in World War II (New York: NAL Calibre, 2009).
(2) Roger Hilsman, American Guerrilla: My War Behind Japanese Lines (Potomac Books, 2005).
(3) Dan Pinck, Journey to Peking: A Secret Agent in Wartime China (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003).
Week 14
Monday, 7 December. Monday. Operation TAILSPIN.
Readings TBA
Related Materials
(1) Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam: The Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with Soviet Power (Pluto Press, 1994). Second Edition.
Final short papers (on) are due in 249 Meserve Hall by 3:00 PM on Thursday, 10 December. All course work is due at this time.
There is no final examination in this course.