Agent Jack: The True Story of MI5's Secret Nazi Hunter
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
This is the incredible tale of Operation Fifth Column, a Second World War MI5 operation so secret that its existence was only revealed by the National Archives for the first time in 2014. Throughout the war and even for a couple of years afterwards, 'Agent Jack' - in reality, a bank clerk named Eric Roberts - acted as a Gestapo agent to whom hundreds of British-based Nazi sympathisers and informers passed their secrets, thinking that he was sending them back to Germany. Many were put on a salary by what they thought was the Third Reich and some were even 'awarded' Iron Crosses for their services to the Fatherland; they never found out the truth. Among the secrets they tried to pass were: a tip-off about Bletchley Park; details of the deadly Mosquito bomber; complete plans of a highly effective anti-radar technology codenamed WINDOW. The larger-than-life characters who populate the book include Roberts himself, the deceptively ordinary-seeming bank clerk; Maxwell Knight, who recruited Roberts; Victor Third Baron Rothschild, Roberts' spymaster, who did a sideline in bomb disposal using his Cartier screwdrivers; Theresa Clay, the distinguished biologist who co-ran the operation with Rothschild, but because she was a woman was only ever classified as an 'assistant'; Marita Perigoe, possibly the most dangerous of the fascists, who despite having her suspicions about Roberts, continued to recruit spies for him and pass him secrets to the end of the war.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book was a very fun one to read for no other reason than it was so interesting to see why people would voluntarily go against their own country and be pro-Nazi. When I learned about WWII as a kid, I knew that Britain had one of the best spy networks, but I didn't think much about it beyond that. This book makes you re-evaluate why someone would ally themselves with the Nazis.
I used to think that it was because some people were anti-Semitic, and that is true in some cases, but there were plenty of others who went against Britain because they hated Churchill, others who disliked the way Britain had allied themselves with Russia and a whole host of other reasons. This was a challenge to my thoughts on history I enjoyed learning about.
The only complaint that I have is how the narrator for the audiobook can be a bit boring at times. He is very quintessentially British, to the point where he can sound so monotone it can be somewhat dull in parts. Yet, I still enjoyed this book, and recommend you pick it up if you want a look at a small faucet of a larger World War. I give it a four out of five.
