HELEN FRY

The Daily Mail's War Book of the Year 2019.

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A few days before the start of World War Two, Secret Intelligence Service Spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to trial 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 intelligence-gathering mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at a further three sites to provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology and deadly German V-weapons being developed by the Nazis.

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In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operations at three clandestine sites: Trent Park (North London), and Latimer House and Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire.

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Upon arrival at stately homes like Trent Park, high ranking German Generals and commanders were given a ‘phoney’ interrogation, then treated as ‘guests’, wined and dined at exclusive clubs, given cigars and whiskey, and encouraged to talk. There was even a fake aristocrat to charm the generals.

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And so it was that the Allies secured access to some of Hitler’s most closely guarded secrets – and from those most entrusted to protect them.