The Traitor of Arnhem
The Untold Story of WWII's Greatest Betrayal and the Moment that Changed History Forever
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3.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
The dramatic story of a betrayal that changed the course of World War II—the never-before-revealed role of the Cambridge Spies in the devastating Allied defeat at the Battle of Arnhem.
The end of World War II is in sight.
Following the overwhelming victory on D-Day, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin all seek to shape the future to their own ends by winning the race to Berlin.
The British launch Operation Market Garden, the greatest airborne operation the world has ever seen. It is a bold roll of the dice that, if successful, will end the war in weeks. But behind the scenes spies are working their craft, the Allies’ plans are betrayed, the operation fails—and thousands of our soldiers die.
The Traitor of Arnhem tells the never-before-told story of this famed operation and of the spies working to cause the catastrophic defeat. One traitor is a terrifying giant of a man, a supposed hero of the resistance who sends hundreds of fellow freedom fighters to torture and death; the other is an aristocrat and an English gentleman, working from inside the heart of the Allied war effort in London. Both of them are working for the Russians.
Drawn from newly released archives and shedding fresh light on the spies responsible for its failure, The Traitor of Arnhem is the remarkable account of the battle that would transform the conclusion of the European campaign and the start of the Cold War.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Verkaik (The Traitor of Colditz) uncovers a startling new dimension to a well-known story of betrayal in this riveting account. Operation Market Garden, the September 1944 British-led invasion of the Netherlands by Allied paratroopers, was famously a failure—one usually chalked up to the revelation of the plan to the Nazis by Dutch partisan Christiaan Lindemans. While researching Lindemans, Verkaik stumbled upon allegations by his Nazi handler that Lindemans had been working for the Soviets. The Soviets, Verkaik theorizes, had sought to pass information about the invasion to the Nazis in order to halt the Allies' western advance, giving the Soviets time to reach Berlin first. Discovering that the intelligence Lindemans gave to the Nazis wasn't their earliest warning about the invasion, Verkaik turns his focus to MI5 and the Soviet spy ring within its ranks. He homes in on spy Anthony Blunt, whose reputation after the war Verkaik alleges was whitewashed as a noble communist merely helping an Allied nation, when in reality, according to Verkaik, Blunt betrayed Operation Market Garden to the Nazis at the Soviets' behest, leading to thousands of British deaths. Verkaik offers fine-grained accountings of both Blunt's and Lindemans's actions that make his thesis add up—including Blunt's ironic role as leader of the high-stakes hunt for a mole whom Verkaik posits was Blunt himself. It's an explosive and paradigm-shifting account.
