My edition of J.C. Masterman’s book, “The Double-Cross System,” has an introduction, followed by a preface, followed by a forward.
The Introduction, written in this century, spends some time discussing a certain series of events that’s slightly related to the book. Then you get to the preface, written in 1973 or something, which discusses the same series of events as if you haven’t just finished reading them. (For all I know, the forward will rehash the rehash. I haven’t gotten there yet.)
And the sneaky trick is that you feel as though the guy writing in 1973 is being annoying, because his piece comes second. When really, the guy who wrote the introduction never bothered reading the preface.
Anyway, the book should be interesting, once I get past all the pre and pre-pre stuff.
It’s the true story of how WWII Great Britain caught and “turned” a bunch of German spies who came to the island. They then spent the war feeding misinformation, which the Germans generally swallowed whole.
After the war, when England had access to German records, they found that there was one spy who never got caught. ONE. They literally caught all the other spies that Germany sent over, and either turned them, or hanged them.
This book is about the turning. The double-crossing.
The name of their group was the 20 Committee. Why? Twenty in Roman numerals is: XX (Double Cross). Which makes me happy. Government drones having fun and naming their committee based on a pun of sorts.
And by the way, did you realize that the word committee has two Ms, two Ts, and then two Es? Ridiculous.
No comments yet.