Double Cross by Ben Macintyre

Those wacky MI5 British intelligence offices are at it again in Ben Macintyre’s latest book Double Cross.

Like his earlier novel Operation Mincemeat, Macintyre relays the true story of how British intelligence used trickery and stagecraft to misinform the Nazi’s.

 Double Cross reveals the role that MI5 managed double agents played in the largest deception of the war, Operation Fortitude. This was a calculated effort by the British to fool the Nazi’s into believing that the D-Day invasion would take place at at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.  The double agents played a vital role in disseminating erroneous information to their Germans handlers.

Considering the enormous responsibility, one would expect a crack team of seasoned spies.

Nope.

If this wasn’t a true story you’d find these characters completely unbelievable.

The five “star” spies include a passionately patriotic Pole, a South American party girl, an emotional Frenchwoman and her little dog, a creative Spaniard, and a Serbian businessman.

Although their communication sounds like a class in creative writing, it was deadly serious and missteps had serious repercussions.

Macintyre does make it seem as if the entire D-Day success was due solely to spy craft. (Eisenhower might have had something to say to that.) There is no doubt however that the role of the MI5 and their ménage of spies was important to the success to the D-Day invasion.

Because this book covers so much ground, it is less engrossing than Operation Mincemeat. But still a good read.