Operation Columba The Secret Pigeon Service

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062667092
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Columba—The Secret Pigeon Service written by Gordon Corera and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating, untold story of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons as part of a clandestine espionage operation to gather information, communicate, and coordinate with members of the Resistance to defeat the Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II. Between 1941 and 1944, British intelligence dropped sixteen thousand homing pigeons in an arc across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Bordeaux, France to Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of a spy operation code-named Columba. Returning to MI14, the secret government branch in charge of the "Special Pigeon Service," the birds carried messages that offered a glimpse of life under the Germans in rural France, Holland, and Belgium. Written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the birds’ legs, these messages were sometimes comic, often tragic, and occasionally invaluable—reporting details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar systems, and even the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets used to terrorize London. The people who sent these messages were not trained spies. They were ordinary men and women willing to risk their lives in the name of freedom, including the "Leopold Vindictive" network—a small group of Belgian villagers led by an extraordinary priest named Joseph Raskin. The intelligence Raskin sent back by pigeon proved so valuable that it reached Churchill and MI6 parachuted agents behind enemy lines to assist him. Gordon Corera uses declassified documents and extensive original research to tell the story of the Operation Columba and the Secret Pigeon Service for the first time. A powerful tale of wartime espionage, bitter rivalries, extraordinary courage, astonishing betrayal, harrowing tragedy, and a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special mission, Operation Columba opens a fascinating new chapter in the annals of World War II. It is ultimately, the story of how, in one of the darkest and most dangerous times in history, under threat of death, people bravely chose to resist.

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195375238
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Shopping for Bombs written by Gordon Corera and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-10 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The riveting, inside story of the rise and fall of AQ Khan and his role in the devastating spread of nuclear technology over the last thirty years is told through this unique window into the challenges of stopping a new nuclear arms race.

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher : William Collins
ISBN 13 : 9780008220341
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Secret Pigeon Service written by Gordon Corera and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using declassified documents and extensive original research, Secret Pigeon Service tells the dramatic untold story of MI14(d) and its spy networks including the remarkable 'Leopold Vindictive', a Belgian resistance cell who used the pigeon they found in 1941 to spy on the Nazis. Everyone has heard of MI5 and MI6. Some may even have heard of MI9 which helped downed airmen escape in World War II. Few have heard of MI14(d) -- home to Operation Columba.

Author : Alan Hlad
Publisher : A John Scognamiglio Book
ISBN 13 : 1496728416
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Churchill's Secret Messenger written by Alan Hlad and published by A John Scognamiglio Book. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting story of World War II and the courage of one young woman as she is drafted into Churchill’s overseas spy network, aiding the French Resistance behind enemy lines and working to liberate Nazi-occupied Paris… London, 1941: In a cramped bunker in Winston Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms, underneath Westminster’s Treasury building, civilian women huddle at desks, typing up confidential documents and reports. Since her parents were killed in a bombing raid, Rose Teasdale has spent more hours than usual in Room 60, working double shifts, growing accustomed to the burnt scent of the Prime Minister’s cigars permeating the stale air. Winning the war is the only thing that matters, and she will gladly do her part. And when Rose’s fluency in French comes to the attention of Churchill himself, it brings a rare yet dangerous opportunity. Rose is recruited for the Special Operations Executive, a secret British organization that conducts espionage in Nazi-occupied Europe. After weeks of grueling training, Rose parachutes into France with a new codename: Dragonfly. Posing as a cosmetics saleswoman in Paris, she ferries messages to and from the Resistance, knowing that the slightest misstep means capture or death. Soon Rose is assigned to a new mission with Lazare Aron, a French Resistance fighter who has watched his beloved Paris become a shell of itself, with desolate streets and buildings draped in Swastikas. Since his parents were sent to a German work camp, Lazare has dedicated himself to the cause with the same fervor as Rose. Yet Rose’s very loyalty brings risks as she undertakes a high-stakes prison raid, and discovers how much she may have to sacrifice to justify Churchill’s faith in her . . . "A rousing historical novel." - The Akron Beacon Journal, Best Books of the Year for Churchill's Secret Messenger

Author : Elizabeth G. Macalaster
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476680809
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book War Pigeons written by Elizabeth G. Macalaster and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than seven decades, homing pigeons provided the U.S. military with its fastest most reliable means of communication. Originally bred for racing in the early 1800s, homing pigeons were later trained by pigeoneers to fly up to 60 mph for hundreds of miles, and served the United States for almost 75 years, through four wars on four continents. Barely weighing a pound, these extraordinary birds carried messages in and out of gas, smoke, exploding bombs and gunfire. They flew through jungles, deserts and mountains, not faltering even when faced with large expanses of ocean to cross. Sometimes they arrived nearly dead from wounds or exhaustion, refusing to give up until they reached their objective. This book is the first complete account of the remarkable service that homing pigeons provided for the American armed forces, from its fledgling beginnings after the Civil War to the birds' invaluable role in communications in every branch of the U.S. military through both World Wars and beyond. Personal narratives, primary sources and news articles tell the story of the pigeons' recruitment and training in the U.S., their deployment abroad and use on the home front.

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher : William Collins
ISBN 13 : 9780008318970
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Russians Among Us written by Gordon Corera and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781780227849
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Intercept written by Gordon Corera and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The computer was born to spy, and now computers are transforming espionage. But who are the spies and who is being spied on in today's interconnected world? This is the exhilarating secret history of the melding of technology and espionage. Gordon Corera's compelling narrative, rich with historical details and characters, takes us from the Second World War to the internet age, revealing the astonishing extent of cyberespionage carried out today. Drawing on unique access to intelligence agencies, heads of state, hackers and spies of all stripes, INTERCEPT is a ground-breaking exploration of the new space in which the worlds of espionage, geopolitics, diplomacy, international business, science and technology collide. Together, computers and spies are shaping the future. What was once the preserve of a few intelligence agencies now matters for us all.

Author : Gordon Corera
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0297861018
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Art of Betrayal written by Gordon Corera and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The secret history of MI6 - from the Cold War to the present day. The British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created a hundred years ago. Our understanding of what it is to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of James Bond and John le Carre. THE ART OF BETRAYAL provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction. It tells the story of how the secret service has changed since the end of World War II and by focusing on the people and the relationships that lie at the heart of espionage, revealing the danger, the drama, the intrigue, the moral ambiguities and the occasional comedy that comes with working for British intelligence. From the defining period of the early Cold War through to the modern day, MI6 has undergone a dramatic transformation from a gung-ho, amateurish organisation to its modern, no less controversial, incarnation. Gordon Corera reveals the triumphs and disasters along the way. The grand dramas of the Cold War and after - the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 11 September 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - are the backdrop for the human stories of the individual spies whose stories form the centrepiece of the narrative. But some of the individuals featured here, in turn, helped shape the course of those events. Corera draws on the first-hand accounts of those who have spied, lied and in some cases nearly died in service of the state. They range from the spymasters to the agents they ran to their sworn enemies. Many of these accounts are based on exclusive interviews and access. From Afghanistan to the Congo, from Moscow to the back streets of London, these are the voices of those who have worked on the front line of Britain's secret wars. And the truth is often more remarkable than the fiction.

Author : United States. War Department
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 86 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Signal Pigeon Company written by United States. War Department and published by . This book was released on 1944 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Marc E. Polymeropoulos
Publisher : HarperCollins Leadership
ISBN 13 : 1400223873
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Clarity in Crisis written by Marc E. Polymeropoulos and published by HarperCollins Leadership. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet your next crisis head on and get through it stronger than ever by using the hard-earned strategies and core principles from Marc Polymeropoulos, a highly decorated, 26-year operations officer with the CIA. Marc Polymeropoulos has had to live with the consequences of decisions made under the most high-stress circumstances you can imagine as a senior intelligence officer in the CIA, retiring from his 26 years of service as one of the CIA’s most decorated field officers. Though your crisis situations may not entail international counter terrorism as Marc’s did, in our age of social media and a 24-hour news cycle, the consequences of mishandling a crisis can escalate quickly, leaving irreparable damage to a company’s reputation and bottom line in its wake. In Clarity in Crisis, Marc shares how true leaders need to lead in and through times of crisis and thrive under conditions of ambiguity, rather than message their way out or duck from hard decisions. This book provides proven strategies and core principles that leaders can apply to meet any crisis head on and lead through it, including: The critical elements to managing crisis, such as knowing who you can always count on to execute under high-stress situations. An understanding of the importance of following and stressing key fundamentals and avoiding shortcuts that often do more harm than good. Implementation guidance from the “Mad Minute” section at the end of each chapter that summarizes key points and action items you can begin applying right away. How to gain confidence that you are ready for the next crisis and embrace any situation with no fear. Far from mere theory, Clarity in Crisis outlines the unique mindset and strategies Marc himself practiced and honed throughout his remarkable career. The core principles outlined in these pages will help you find unshakeable clarity in crisis and lead when others want to flee.