Spy Craft

The Greatest Intelligence Deception of WWII: Helen Fry on How Britain Bugged Hitler's Generals and Won the War from the Inside

Spy Craft

Show Notes

At the outbreak of World War Two, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick launched a top secret operation in which German prisoners' cells were bugged and secret listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations, an operation that would eventually expand to three clandestine sites including Trent Park in North London and Latimer House and Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire. Historian and leading expert Helen Fry joins the show to discuss her critically acclaimed book, walking through how high-ranking Nazi generals were given phony interrogations, then wined, dined, and encouraged to talk freely, never suspecting that every word was being captured and fed directly to Allied command. This episode is an essential listen for anyone drawn to the hidden architecture of wartime intelligence, covert deception operations, and the extraordinary human stories behind the greatest eavesdropping program in the history of modern warfare

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