Operation Fortitude was the ingenious web of deception spun by the Allies to mislead the Nazis as to how & where the D-Day landings were to be mounted. One of the most creative intelligence operations of all time -- Kim Philby The story of how this web was woven is one of intrigue personal drama ground-breaking techniques internal resistance & good fortune. It is a tale of double agents black radio broadcasts phantom armies Ultra decrypts & dummy parachute drops. These diverse tactics were intended to come together to create a single narrative so compelling that it would convince Adolf Hitler of its authenticity. Operation Fortitude was intended to create the false impression that the Normandy landings were merely a feint to disguise a massive forthcoming invasion by this American force in the Pas de Calais. In other words the success of D-Day -- the beginning of the end of the Second World War -- was made possible by the efforts of men & women who were not present on the Normandy beaches. Men such as Juan Pujol a Spanish double-agent (code-name GARBO) who sent hundreds of wireless messages from London to Madrid in the build-up to D-Day relaying supposed intelligence from his fictitious spy network. This allowed the enemy to conclude that the number of Allied divisions preparing to invade was twice the actual number. Men such as R.V Jones the head of British Scientific Intelligence who masterminded the dropping of tinfoil confetti from the bomb-bay doors of Lancaster bombers creating a false impression that a flotilla of Allied ships was heading in the opposite direction to the genuine invasion fleet. Using first hand sources from a wide range of archives government documents letters & memos Operation Fortitude builds a picture of what wartime Britain was like as well as the immense pressure these men & women were working under & insure D-Day succeeded. ...

In March 1977 the largest LSD bust in history cracked a drugs ring based near Tregaron. Six million tabs of LSD were recovered by the police & 120 people were arrested throughout the UK & France. Stashes of LSD worth GBP100 million were also unearthed & GBP800 000 in money was discovered hidden in Swiss bank accounts. Eventually 17 defendants were jailed for a total of 130 years in the wake of the investigation code named Operation Julie. The history of this astonoshing drugs raid is written by Welsh author Lyn Ebenezer. A journalist at the time of the case itself Lyn

Includes:: new information never released before based on interviews with many of the men involved.

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One April morning in 1943 a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain & set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted & certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction & saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different in one crucial respect from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily the Allied armies planned to invade Greece. The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer & a brilliant Jewish barrister the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist a gold-prospector an inventor a beautiful secret service secretary a submarine captain three novelists a transvestite English spymaster an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing & a dead Welsh tramp. Using fraud imagination & seduction Churchill's team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate & so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. & it ended up on Hitler's desk. Ben Macintyre bestselling author of Agent Zigzag" weaves together private documents photographs memories letters & diaries as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 & Naval Intelligence to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat." ...

One April morning in 1943 a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain & set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted & certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction & saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different in one crucial respect from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily the Allied armies planned to invade Greece. The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer & a brilliant Jewish barrister the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist a gold-prospector an inventor a beautiful secret service secretary a submarine captain three novelists a transvestite English spymaster an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing & a dead Welsh tramp. Using fraud imagination & seduction Churchills team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate & so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. & it ended up on Hitlers desk. Ben Macintyre bestselling author of Agent Zigzag" weaves together private documents photographs memories letters & diaries as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 & Naval Intelligence to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat." ...

One April morning in 1943 a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain & set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted & certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction & saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different in one crucial respect from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily the Allied armies planned to invade Greece. The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer & a brilliant Jewish barrister the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist a gold-prospector an inventor a beautiful secret service secretary a submarine captain three novelists a transvestite English spymaster an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing & a dead Welsh tramp. Using fraud imagination & seduction Churchill's team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate & so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. & it ended up on Hitler's desk. Ben Macintyre bestselling author of Agent Zigzag weaves together private documents photographs memories letters & diaries as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 & Naval Intelligence to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat. ...

Three yetis are about to save the world in this hilarious new series by Alex Milway. Something strange is happening in the Welsh mountains. It should be the middle of summer but Snowdonia has been besieged by blizzards & ice storms. A company of Arctic-trained soldiers sent to investigate has disappeared & the only remaining hope is a secret troop of yeti agents
- the Mythical 9th Division.
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Modern methods of fishing aren't just for those in the know
- they can work for everyone. Knowing why fish behave as they do is
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At nightfall on December 7 1942 twelve British canoeists arrived by submarine off the coast of France tasked with infiltrating the dockyards of Bordeaux & wreaking havoc with the German shipping they found there. Manning fragile cockles through the turbulent waters of the Bay of Biscay & making an assault on a port bristling with German soldiers ordered to execute any Allied Commando they captured their prospects looked bleak. It was fully expected that all would die in the attempt. Featuring a cast of characters ranging from Blondie Hasler the ingenious & courageous leader of the raid to the Comtesse de Milleville who risked outrageous danger as she ran a secret resistance network Operation Suicide is an enthralling account of one of WWIIs most iconic missions. ...

Evie needs a good holiday. Not just because shes been working all hours in her job as a receptionist for two high-powered plastic surgeons
- but also because every holiday she has ever been on in her life has involved sunburn arguments & projectile vomiting
- & sometimes all three at once. Why cant she have a normal holiday like other people seem to have
- some sun sand sea & (hopefully) sex? So when Evies employers invite her to attend a conference with them in the south of France she cant believe her luck. At last the chance to hob nob with the rich & glamorous to party under the stars to live the life shes dreamed about. Its certainly the holiday of a lifetime
- but not quite in the way Evie imagines!



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Operation Torch was the code name given to the first Anglo-American amphibious operation of World War Two. It began on 8 November 1942 & was the invasion of Vichy French controlled Morocco & Algeria. Over 400 ships & 70 000 men were involved with overall command being the responsibility of American Lt Gen Dwight D Eisenhower. Air cover for the allied ground forces was initially provided by aircraft flown from Royal Navy & US Navy aircraft carriers. The RNs Fleet Carriers HMS Victorious HMS Formidable & HMS Furious & the escort carriers HMS Biter HMS Dasher HMS Argus & HMS Avenger which had every current operational Fleet Air Arm aircraft type embarked from the relatively newly introduced Seafires to Sea Hurricanes Fulmars Martlets Albacores & Swordfish plus Walrus from the Catapult Flights of battleships & cruisers. The US Navy carriers included the Fleet Carrier USS Ranger & the escort carriers USS Santee USS Suwannee & USS Sanamon plus USS Chenango which was carrying P-40F Warhawks of the USAAFs 33rd Fighter Group. US Navy aircraft involved were F4F Wildcats TBF Avengers & SBD Dauntlesses from the carriers with Curtiss SOC Seagulls & Vought OS2U Kingfishers from the battleships & cruisers. The airfield at Gibraltar was also packed with aircraft ready to be flown into the newly liberated Moroccan & Algerian airfields with over thirty squadrons of RAF & USAAF fighters & bombers amongst them. Facing this force was the Vichy French Armee de l Air & Aero Navale with almost 500 aircraft including the Dewoitine D.520 Morane Saulnier MS.406 Curtiss Hawk 75 Douglas DB-7 Martin 167 Loire et Olivier Le O 451 Bloch 174 & Potez 63.11 plus a range of fighter/fighter-bomber dive-bomber multi-engined bomber & transport aircraft from dozens of Luftwaffe units that were urgently sent to help. With the gaudy red & yellow Vichy French identification stripes & Torch Star markings the aircraft involved were not only an eclectic mix of types but a very colourful one too! ...