Gladman, Brad K. "Air Power and Intelligence in the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-43." Intelligence
and National Security 13, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 144-162. Gladman, Brad K. "Air Power and Intelligence in the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-43." Intelligence
and National Security 13, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 144-162.
Axis supplies in the Western Desert were destroyed largely by an RAF land-based interdiction campaign that was guided by intelligence gained from sources other than Ultra.
Gordon, John W. The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940-1943. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1987.
For Cohen, I&NS 3.4, the author "makes a valuable contribution not only to the history of special forces in the Second World War, but to the study of special forces more generally." The focus is on the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), but the work also gives details on the activities of the Special Air Service (SAS). The reviewer finds the book to be "clearly written and well researched, although it confines itself primarily to British sources."
Gossett, Renee P. Conspiracy
in Algiers, 1942-1943. New York: The Nation, 1945.
Wilcox: "Account of espionage an[d] intrigue in World War II Algiers."
James, Malcolm. Born of the Desert: With the SAS in North Africa. London: Greenhill Books. 2001.
From advertisement: "The Special Air Service was formed in 1941 and quickly earned a reputation for stealth, daring and audacity in the Western Desert campaign. This elite force utilized the endless expanse of the desert to carry out surprise attacks and hit and run raids behind the Afrika Korps' lines, sowing confusion, fear and consternation."
Kelly, Saul. The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura. New York: Westview, 2003. 2004. [pb]
Leber, Booklist (quoted on amazon.com), notes that with the coming of war in 1939, "Englishman Ralph Bagnold, the greatest desert explorer, formed the Long Range Desert Group of patrols that gathered intelligence and generally bedeviled Italian and German troops, while Hungarian Count Ladislaus Almasy ... led the German equivalent of the LRDG, with less success." The author "has provided an impressively researched, heavily fact-laden account that could profit from more overview and analysis."
Kelly, Saul. "A Succession of Crises: SOE in the Middle East, 1940-45." Intelligence and National Security 20, no 1 (Mar. 2005): 121-146.
The focus here is on "SOE's operations in the geographic region" of the the Middle East, rather than coverage of the full slate of SOE Middle East's responsibilities, which included the Balkans. SOE "never managed to overcome the endemic suspicion by British military, political and diplomatic officials of its activities." Nevertheless, "SOE could claim some successes in the Middle East."
Kennedy Shaw, W.B.
Long Range Desert Group. London: Stackpole, 1990. Rev. ed. London: Greenhill, 2000.
According to Kelly, I&NS 16.1, this account by the unit's intelligence officer was first published in 1945 and takes the story of the LRDG only through the end of the war in Africa. Because of the absence of references to Ultra, the reviewer suggests that this work be read along with John Gordon, The Other Desert War (1987).
Lloyd Owen, David [Maj.-Gen.]
Providence Their Guide: The Long Range Desert Group, 1940-1945. Rev. ed. Barnsley, UK: Leo Cooper, 2000. Long Range Desert Group, 1940-1945: Providence Their Guide. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2001.
From advertisement for 2001 edition: The LRDG "became one of the greatest legends of the North African Campaign in World War II. This classic insider's account has been updated and supplemented with rare photographs from the LRDG collection in the Imperial War Museum."
According to Kelly, I&NS 16.1, this account by the unit's fourth and last commanding officer was first published in 1980 and takes the story of the LRDG through its disbanding in June 1945. Because of the absence of references to Ultra, the reviewer suggests that this work be read along with John Gordon, The Other Desert War (1987).
McKee, Alexander. El
Alamein: ULTRA and the Three Battles. London: Souvenir Press, 1991.
According to Kruh, Cryptologia 18.1, "this exciting account ... highlights the importance of Ultra, which provided advance information about ... Rommel's supply ships and troop movements."
Morgan, Mike. Sting of the Scorpion: The Inside Story of the Long Range Desert Group. London: Sutton, 2004.
Mure, David.
Mure served in Dudley Clarke's A Force in the Middle East during World War II.
1. Master of Deception: Tangled Webs in London and the Middle East. London: Kimber, 1980.
Clark comment: This is chronologically the second of Mure's two books listed here on the deception work of Dudley Clarke's A Force in the Middle East during World War II. The first book, Practise to Deceive, is the better of the two books to read.
Constantinides notes that this account is more pointed to "polemics against the Londoners and civilians in deception work." Additionally, there are "questionable facts and opinions" in this account.
2. Practise to Deceive. London: Kimber, 1977.
Constantinides comments that Mure has sought to balance the scales by giving Clarke and his deception work in the Mediterranean and the Middle East a level of recognition usually accorded only to London-run activities.
Piekalkiewicz, Janusz.
Tr., Fred Clemens. Rommel and the Secret War in North Africa 1941-1943:
Secret Intelligence in the North African Campaign. West Chester, PA: Schiffer, 1992.
According to Sexton, Piekalkiewicz "[t]races the impact of intercepts of German and Italian signals on the North African campaign."
Sansom, A. W. I
Spied Spies. London: Harrap, 1965.
Constantinides: The author headed British Field Security in Cairo in World War II and stayed in Cairo after the war as security officer at the British embassy in the period when Donald Maclean served there. He gives a good description of the Kondor case, but does not mention that the British knew the Kondor mission was coming. For the later period, "Maclean's activities outside the embassy are vividly described."
Slowikowski, Rygor
[MAJGEN]. In the Secret Service: The Lighting of the Torch. London:
Windrush, 1988.
Bennett, I&NS 4.1, comments that "[t]here seems to be no doubt that Slowikowski's Polish 'Agency Africa' was the single largest source of information about conditions in the Torch area..., but the decision to invade depended only marginally upon information from inside the territory ... and chiefly upon political and strategic considerations of far wider range." The work draws a "vivid picture ... of the daily life and work of an espionage organization."
Smith, Kevin D. "Coming into Its Own: The Contribution of Intelligence at the Battle of Alma Halfa." Military Review 82, no. 4 (Jul.-Aug. 2002): 74-77.
The article covers both the impact of Ultra material and the use of deception operations.
Smyth, Denis. "Screening
'Torch': Allied Counter-Intelligence and the Spanish Threat to the Secrecy
of the Allied Invasion of French North Africa in November 1942." Intelligence
and National Security 4, no. 2 (Apr. 1989): 335-356.
"The Anglo-American counter-intelligence and security services ... managed to keep to keep the Spaniards in the dark about Torch for as long as secrecy ... matter[ed]."
Thomas, Martin. "The
Massingham Mission: SOE in French North Africa, 1941-1944." Intelligence
and National Security 11, no. 4 (Oct. 1996): 696-721.
SOE's Massingham mission, the organization's advanced operational base near Algiers, was established in November 1942; it was dissolved as an independent station in May 1944. The tensions in the area between SOE's pro-Gaullist sympathies and OSS' cultivation of Darlan and Giraud are given an in-depth presentation. OSS North Africa and the Massingham mission were combined in the Special Project Operation Center (SPOC) in May 1944.
Timpson, Alastair, and Andrew Gibson-Watt. In Rommel's Backyard: A Memoir of the Long Range Desert Group. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2000.
From advertisement: "Instrumental in the British commando effort [against Rommel's Afrika Korps] was the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). Equipped with modified trucks and jeeps, the LRDG carried out its own raids and reconnaissance missions, and moved Special Air Service and Commando units into position for their own attacks. Alaistair Timpson, a captain in the Scots Guards, was commander of 6 (Guards) Patrol of the LRDG.... Timpson's original narrative has been ... edited by Andrew Gibson-Watt, who places each LRDG mission in the broader context of the Desert War and gives some insight into the character of the author."
Vaughan, Hal. FDR's 12 Apostles: The Spies Who Paved the Way for the Invasion of North Africa. Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2006.
Peake, Studies 51.3 (2007), says that this work "provides a detailed, stimulating account of the complex military, diplomatic, and intelligence relations among the allied government, the cantankerous Charles de Gaulle, the Vichy French, and numerous underground groups of various political persuasions ... in preparation for Operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa."
Wharton-Tigar, Edward, with A.J. Wilson. Burning Bright: The Autobiography of Edward Wharton-Tigar. Worcester Park: Metal Bulletin Books, 1987.
Wharton-Tigar served with SOE in North Africa in World War II. Among other exploits, he organized a covert mission, Operation Falaise, against a German-operated observation station near Tangier. See Smith, "The Bodden Line," I&NS 6.2/448-449 and fn. 4.
Williams, Manuela. "Mussolini's Secret War in the Mediterranean and the Middle East: Italian Intelligence and the British Response." Intelligence and National Security 22, no. 6 (Dec. 2007): 881-904.
From abstract: Despite the fragmentation of the Italian Fascist intelligence services, "[t]heir ability to establish relations ... with Arab nationalist leaders and their intense activities in British colonies, protectorates and mandates generated concern within the British Foreign and Colonial Offices. Meanwhile, poor intelligence coordination and assessment coupled with misguided assumptions about the nature of Arab nationalism hindered Britain's response to the challenge mounted by Mussolini's regime."
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