Silver: The Spy Who Fooled the Nazis

by Mihir Bose

Silver was the codename for the only quintuple spy of the Second World War, spying for the Italians, Germans, Japanese, Soviets and the British. The Germans awarded him the Iron Cross, Germany s highest military decoration, and paid him 2.5 million in today s money. In reality Silver deceived the Nazis on behalf of the Soviets and the British. In 1942 the Russians decided to share Silver with the British, the only time during the war that the Soviets agreed to such an arrangement. This brought him under the control of Peter Fleming who acted as his spy master. Germans also gave Silver a transmitter which broadcast misleading military information directly to Abwehr headquarters in Berlin. Silver was one of many codenames for a man whose real name was Bhagat Ram Talwar, a Hindu Pathan from the North West Frontier province of then British India. Between 1941 and 1945 Silver made twelve trips from Peshawar to Kabul to supply false information to the Germans, always making the near-200-mile journey on foot over mountain passes and hostile tribal territory.Once when an Afghan nearly rumbled him, he invited him to a curry meal in which he had mixed deadly tiger s whiskers killing the Afghan. "

Genres: History, British Literature

509 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 3, 2017

About the author

About Mihir Bose
Award-winning journalist and author Mihir Bose writes and broadcasts on social and historical issues and sport for outlets including the BBC, the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard and Irish Times.
He has written more than fifty books on sport, including football and cricket, and history, such as Bollywood, India and the extraordinary WW2 quintuple agent Silver. The subjects of his many biographies include Michael Grade, Moeen Ali and the Indian nationalist Subhas Bose (no relation).
Mihir was the BBC’s first sports editor and first non-white editor. He was chief sports news correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and worked for the Sunday Times for 20 years.
His honorary doctorate from Loughborough University was awarded for his outstanding contribution to journalism and the promotion of equality. Mihir is a member of the English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel and former chairman of the Reform Club. He and his wife Caroline live in London. He has a daughter, Indira.

Reviews

[Enrica Garzilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting book on Bhagat Ram Talwar, the agent for Italy, Germany, India, Russia, and UK who worked in 1941-46 between India, Russia, and Afghanistan. Friend of the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, he started his career as his own agent for Italy, where Netaji had one of his headquarters. The book is a biography but also gives an idea of what was going on during WW2, which was not only wars and conquers but an intense hidden activity between scholars, faqirs, agents, revolutionaries, ambassadors, and the governments.

[Sunil Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mihir Bose has written a wonderful saga about Silver(Talwar), the spy who fooled the Nazis, the British etc as a closet communist and who was instrumental in the escape of the famous Bose(Subhash Chandra) from India through Afghanistan to Russia and Germany.

Regionalism of the Bengalis rankles a little and their tendency to pass long-winding pompous judgments rather easily, but liked the facts here.

[Delson Roche · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of Silver, until I came across this book. It's a fascinating story of a quadruple agent.
The narration is slow and unwinding. There were times, I just wanted to give up-but somewhere in the pages, the gnawing curiosity of how Silver managed to hoodwink the security establishment kept me going.

Gald that I finished the book. Great story, but storytelling could have been better or more interesting.