Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Ultra Hush-Hush: Espionage and Special Missions
Illustrator: David Craig
Nonfiction
For ages 12 and up
Annick Press, 2003 ISBN: 978-1550377781
You may have heard people say that fact can sometimes be more fantastic that fiction. This is certainly the case when you hear some of the true stories from the World War II years. During this war both sides of the conflict spent a lot of time and energy in spying on, and trying to mislead, one another. Imagine using a dead body to feed the other side false information. The English did in fact do this, placing false papers on the body of a man and arranging for the papers he carried on his person to be seen by the Nazis. Because of these papers the Nazis were led to believe that the Allies were going to attack Greece and Sardinia when in fact their next target was the island of Sicily.
In turn the Nazis were also very creative. To prevent the Dutch from blowing up a vital bridge crossing, the Germans sent a special team ahead to secure the bridge. The members of the team pretended to be Dutch military police and prisoners of war. The Dutch had no idea that these visitors to the bridge were a threat until the last minuet when the Germans shot the real Dutch Guards. The bridge was saved and the Germans were able to use it in the invasion of Holland.
Packed with fascinating stories, well written background information, mini biographies and more, this book will give readers an intriguing look at the some of the more out of the ordinary events which took place during World War II. Readers will come to appreciate how important spying was during this time and how vital it was to keep the enemy in the dark about what was really going on.
Plenty of illustrations, maps, and photographs give the book an added dimension, breaking up the text and giving the reader a visual sense of WWII secrets and operations.
