Deceptions Of World War II

by William B. Breuer

Critical acclaim for William B. Breuer
""A first-class historian.""
-The Wall Street Journal
Top Secret Tales of World War II
""A book for rainy days and long solitary nights by the fire. If there were a genre for cozy nonfiction, this would be the template.""
-Publishers Weekly
""Perfect for the curious and adventure readers and those who love exotic tales and especially history buffs who will be surprised at what they didn't know. Recommended for nearly everyone.""
-Kirkus Reviews
Daring Missions of World War II
"" The author brings to light many previously unknown stories of behind-the-scenes bravery and covert activities that helped the Allies win critical victories.""
-Albuquerque Journal
Secret Weapons of World War II
""Rip-roaring tales . . . a delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out.""
-Publishers Weekly

Genres: History, Military Fiction, War, Nonfiction, Reference, Espionage

Hardcover

First published February 18, 2002

About the author

William B. Breuer landed with the first assault waves in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), then fought across Europe. Later, he founded a daily newspaper on a string in Rolla, Missouri, and after that, a highly successful public relations firm in St. Louis, Missouri. He had been writing books full time since 1982

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most destructive war in history and like all wars there were deceptions used by both sides to gain an advantage on the battlefield. Deceptions of World War II by William B. Breuer goes over various incidents of espionage and military trickery before and during the global conflict.

Over the course of roughly 240 pages, Breuer relates stories and anecdotes of incidents of underhand dealings, spying, and military intrigue surrounding World War II from both sides of the conflict. While some of them were interesting and worth reading about, many couldn’t be classified the same. Obviously what one person thinks is a deception could be different from someone else’s but to me when I think of deceptions in the context of a military conflict dropping spies behind enemy lines—while important to a military’s overall strategy—isn’t on the same level as the operations to create a phantom army to mask Operation Overlord or Operation Mincemeat neither of which were even mentioned in this book. And either Breur or his editors left in tiny mistakes that were factually incorrect with one of the most egregious being a line that said the Chief of German military intelligence was working for the British. So, while a nice book to pass the time overall I wasn’t impressed.

Deceptions of World War II is a slender volume of stories and anecdotes about the cloak-and-dagger events of the global conflict, but to me a lot didn’t feel like “deceptions”.

[Ronald Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an ok book. Like the title says, it consists of many short stories of various deceptions and schemes that were part of WWII. Some of them are very interesting, some are not. I found it interesting that one of the most well-known schemes of WWII was not included. That was the story of the fake army led my Gen Patton that was supposed to invade on D-Day. This was a great deception designed to draw the Germany attention away from the actual landings. A great ruse that succeeded but was not included in the book.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY interesting and great writing style

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everything in this book can be corroborated by checking Wikipedia. Accepting that, this is a very interesting collection of vignettes.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of a series of books that Breuer wrote on WWII exploits, all with similar titles (e.g. Top Secret Tales of World War II, Secret Weapons of World War II, Unexplained Mysteries of World War II). I got the impression that Breuer is sort of the Isaac Asimov of WWII history -- churning out popular histories on exotic themes. This isn't a bad thing, of course, and judging from this book he does a pretty good job of sifting through material and presenting the choice bits. The presentation was episodic, but there are some good accounts of masterful deception campaigns. Obviously, Operations Bodyguard and Fortitude, the D-Day deception campaigns, figure prominently.

[lcfcjs · Rating 2 out of 5]

The strongly American centric view of the author makes this a difficult read. While the detail is impressive, there's no bigger picture. No wider repercussions are discussed as a result of these "deceptions". If there were a few higher level explanations, they would add clear significance to the stories and would improve the book as a whole.

[Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, filled with some iconic spy stories and other lesser known ones. My favorite was about the large tarpaulin that was created by Hollywood craftsmen to conceal a California Lockheed factory from Japanese planes. About 10-15 of the chapters in this book would lend themselves to thrilling spy movies.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing. I could go for a little more detail but maybe it isn't available or maybe the author wanted to get as many stories as possible in a book that was small enough to keep the reader going.

[Recato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have done with some color photographs...

[daniel dirnfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book