A revealing, sometimes sinister and often hilarious look at the gadgets and devices devised to help spies in their profession.Spies claim that theirs is the second oldest profession. Secret agents across time have had the same key tasks: looking and listening, getting the information they need and smuggling it back home. Over the course of human history, some amazingly complex and imaginative tools have been created to help those working under the cloak of supreme secrecy.During the Second World War, British undercover agents were the heroes behind the scenes, playing a dangerous and sometimes deadly game - risking all to gather intelligence about their enemies. What did these agents have in their toolkits? What ingenious spy gadgets did they have up their sleeves? What devious tricks did they deploy to avoid detection?From the ingenious to the amusing, this highly visual book delves into espionage files that were long held top secret, revealing spycraft in action.
IntroductionThe OrganizationThe AgentTrainingSabotageDevices and GadgetsDisguiseDeceptionTouching BaseThe EnemyAbout this Book
The Spy ToolkitSecret AgentsSabotage: Explosive DevicesBooby TrapsIncendiary DevicesDisguise and DeceptionTouching Base
Dr Stephen Twigge is Head of Modern Collections at The National Archives. He was previously a historian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published a number of books and articles on cold war history including
German Unification 1989-90, Berlin in the Cold War 1948-1990, British Intelligence, Avoiding Armageddon and Planning Armageddon.
Über den Autor
The National Archives, Stephen Twigge
Klappentext
Spies claim that theirs is the second oldest profession. Secret agents across time have had the same key tasks: looking and listening, getting the information they need and smuggling it back home. Over the course of human history, some amazingly complex and imaginative tools have been created to help those working under the cloak of supreme secrecy.
During the Second World War, British undercover agents were the heroes behind the scenes, playing a dangerous and sometimes deadly game - risking all to gather intelligence about their enemies. What did these agents have in their toolkits? What ingenious spy gadgets did they have up their sleeves? What devious tricks did they deploy to avoid detection? From the ingenious to the amusing, this highly visual book delves into espionage files that were long held top secret, revealing spycraft in action.
Written in an engaging style, showing some of the amusing sides of spying in World War II, from fake moustaches and wigs to some of the more drastic plastic surgery and dental work undergone by spies to fool their would-be captors.
