Fry Helen. The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II

Yale University Press, 2019. — 320 p.A history of the elaborate and brilliantly sustained World War II intelligence operation by which Hitler s generals were tricked into giving away vital Nazi secrets.At the outbreak of World War Two, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners' cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites - and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis.In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation. On arrival at stately-homes-turned-prisons like Trent Park, high ranking German Generals and commanders were given a phoney interrogation, then treated as guests, wined and dined at exclusive clubs, and encouraged to talk. And so it was that the Allies got access to some of Hitler's most closely guarded secrets - and from those most entrusted to protect them.Historian Helen Fry has written extensively on WWII with particular reference to the 10,000 Germans & Austrians who fought for Britain in the war. The most popular is her Churchill's German Army, now available on Amazon as an e-book and the subject of a documentary by National Geographic Channel. Her WWII books continue to receive unprecedented ongoing media coverage in the national and international Press. Her most recent publication The M Room: Secret Listeners who Bugged the Nazis was a feature article on the BBC website, and Helen was interviewed with 2 surviving secret listeners on the BBC's One Show. The subject is a documentary for Channel 4 entitled Spying on Hitler's Army.