Red Orchestra: The Soviet Spy Network inside Nazi Europe
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Overview
A fascinating account of one of the most successful spying operations of World War IILong recognized as one of the most successful (and ruthless) spy networks in history, the Red Orchestra was a group of Soviet cells that operated throughout Germany and occupied Europe until late 1943. The Germans knew of its existence as early as 1941. Yet, it was only after two years of dogged detective work, lucky breaks, interrogation, and betrayals that they were able to silence the Red Orchestra for good. By that time the damage had been done and the Third Reich was facing extinction. Now, The Red Orchestra offers readers a unique opportunity to learn the complete story of Russia's hidden war against Nazi Germany. Vividly recreating a shadowy world of intrigue and espionage in war-torn Europe, The Red Orchestra introduces all the major players and describes spectacular feats of espionage performed right under the Germans' noses.
- Contains new research based on original sources
- A real-life spy story containing all the drama and suspense of the best spy fiction
- The first book to explore all three sectors of the spy operation: the Grand Chef's Western circuit in France, Belgium, and Holland; Die Rote Drei in Switzerland; and the Berlin network
V. E. TARRANT (South Wales, Great Britain) is a military and naval historian and author of several books on World War II.
Synopsis
A fascinating account of one of the most successful spying operations of World War II
Long recognized as one of the most successful (and ruthless) spy networks in history, the Red Orchestra was a group of Soviet cells that operated throughout Germany and occupied Europe until late 1943. The Germans knew of its existence as early as 1941. Yet, it was only after two years of dogged detective work, lucky breaks, interrogation, and betrayals that they were able to silence the Red Orchestra for good. By that time the damage had been done and the Third Reich was facing extinction. Now, The Red Orchestra offers readers a unique opportunity to learn the complete story of Russia's hidden war against Nazi Germany. Vividly recreating a shadowy world of intrigue and espionage in war-torn Europe, The Red Orchestra introduces all the major players and describes spectacular feats of espionage performed right under the Germans' noses.
- Contains new research based on original sources
- A real-life spy story containing all the drama and suspense of the best spy fiction
- The first book to explore all three sectors of the spy operation: the Grand Chef's Western circuit in France, Belgium, and Holland; Die Rote Drei in Switzerland; and the Berlin network
V. E. TARRANT (South Wales, Great Britain) is a military and naval historian and author of several books on World War II.
Publishers Weekly
This is at once an exciting adventure story and an excellent analysis of a modern intelligence operation. Agents and their contacts provided information; long-range radios enabled its rapid transmission. Soviet espionage against the Third Reich began in 1938, when veteran communist activist Leopold Trepper was assigned to create an information network. Recruiting sympathizers and resisters in France, the Low Countries and eventually Germany, until 1943 Trepper kept remarkably accurate data flowing to Moscow through his radio operators-the "pianists," dubbed the Red Orchestra. Then the Orchestra's transmitters were traced and monitored, and the organization was destroyed. Trepper, once captured, collaborated with the Gestapo, then made an escape. Most of those who had trusted him were executed. Trepper made his way back to Moscow, where because of his brief collaboration with Germany, he was imprisoned until 1954. In 1957, he returned to his native Poland; in 1974, he emigrated to Israel. He died in 1983. (Apr.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This is at once an exciting adventure story and an excellent analysis of a modern intelligence operation. Agents and their contacts provided information; long-range radios enabled its rapid transmission. Soviet espionage against the Third Reich began in 1938, when veteran communist activist Leopold Trepper was assigned to create an information network. Recruiting sympathizers and resisters in France, the Low Countries and eventually Germany, until 1943 Trepper kept remarkably accurate data flowing to Moscow through his radio operators-the "pianists," dubbed the Red Orchestra. Then the Orchestra's transmitters were traced and monitored, and the organization was destroyed. Trepper, once captured, collaborated with the Gestapo, then made an escape. Most of those who had trusted him were executed. Trepper made his way back to Moscow, where because of his brief collaboration with Germany, he was imprisoned until 1954. In 1957, he returned to his native Poland; in 1974, he emigrated to Israel. He died in 1983. (Apr.)Library Journal
This is a terrific book, a late-night page turner that World War II buffs, devotees of intrigue and spy stories, and fans of true-life adventure tales will enjoy. It brings into the open the nuts and bolts of one of history's most famous spy rings. For those who thought of Die Rote Kapelle as just a small, Berlin-based band of Soviet spies inside Nazi headquarters, the truth is more revealing. The Red Orchestra was a large spy network that included in its ranks trained Soviet agents, middle-class professionals, aristocrats, highly placed Nazi officers and officials, Communists, and workers. The information sent back was crucial to the Red Army's defeat of German forces. What may be new here is the account of the relative success of the Nazis in cracking much of the Die Rote Kapelle and, more surprising, of the number of agents who through torture or the threat of torture betrayed their comrades. Of 217 caught by the Gestapo, 143 died, most under horrendous conditions. An exciting story and, more importantly, a sobering story of politics, courage, and tough moral choices.-Henry Steck, SUNY Coll., CortlandKirkus Reviews
Perhaps the fullest account yet to have appeared of the extraordinary network of Soviet spies in the Second World War known as Die Rote Kapelle—the Red Orchestra.Tarrant, a military advisor and naval historian, clarifies a good deal of the confusion that has existed about the three sectors in which the Orchestra operated: the network in France, Belgium, and Holland; the Berlin network; and the most remarkable of all, the group that operated out of Switzerland, the so-called Lucy Ring, whose sources included Lieut. General Fritz Theile, second- in-command of the German High Command's communications branch, and Baron Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff, who was eventually to become Chief of Intelligence in one of the army groups on the Eastern front. The first two networks reported extraordinarily sensitive information from key areas of the German bureaucracy, but nothing compared to the work of the Lucy Ring, which gave Stalin the very date of the German attack on Russia, its objectives, and its strength. For reasons that still puzzle historians, Stalin refused to believe this information, but the Russians did not make this mistake a second time. The information that came from the headquarters of the German High Command enabled the Russians to surround the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and to predict precisely the direction and strength of the German attack in the great tank battle of Kursk. Lucy's sources, writes Tarrant, "were to cost the Germans the war on the Eastern Front." Most of the German officers were executed for their involvement in the 1944 Bomb Plot against Hitler, and the Swiss closed down the Lucy Ring, but by that time the fate of the Nazis was sealed.
Using mostly secondary sources, but economically and vividly, Tarrant traces the rise and achievements of one of the most successful spy rings in history and the grim fate (imprisonment, torture, and execution) of some of its operatives.