Patrick Marnham

A somewhat odd book, in that about half of it is an account of the disappearance of Lord Lucan ca. 1974 in the wake of the murder of the nanny of his children and a violent assault on his estranged wife, and half of it is an extended account of the libel litigation that engulfed Private Eye, the muckracking magazine that employed the author, that arose out of what was, frankly, a tangential issue in the case. What salvages the book in the end is a rather thoughtful analysis of the relative guilt or innocence of Lord Lucan, with a theory that strikes a reader as reasonable and plausible.… (meer)

This a complex tale well told.
In 1943 a senior leader of de Gaulle's force in occupied France was captured by the Germans and died. At almost the same time, a resistance cell supported/run by the secret service intheUK was destroyed by the SS. The book suggests that the two events are related, and are likely to have been part of a deception plan to convince the German command that an allied landing in France was imminent.
In the end, the available information is incomplete. I think the author is likely to be right, but some doubt remains.
But, regardless of the big issue, the book gives the reader an idea of the successes, and the dreadful failures of British intelligence.
In the Netherlands a wireless operator was captured by the Germans who proceeded to "run" him to fool the British. Radio messages at the time included a version of what we might now term 'two factor authentication' - an initial code, and the a second 'true identity check' in the body of the message. The captured officer omitted the second check - which should have been read as an alert that he had been compromised. The Secret Service in London instead took it as an understandable error. As a result, in the next 10 months 43 of 48 officers dropped into the Netherlands were captured by the Germans on arrival (40 of whom died in German hands), and all 544 containers of stores (weapons and explosives) flown in were captured by the Germans. Unbelievable incompetence!
Coincidentally, the same happened again at the time of the 1943 arrests in France - this time the buffoon in charge in London sent an immediate reply to the compromised officer in France telling him of his security breach and telling him that it should never happen again - clearly informing the Germans of the officer's attempt to warn of his capture.
Overall, the book is a fascinating insight into a terrible aspect of 20th century warfare.… (meer)