Japanese warships steam into Port Arthur, Manchuria, bombarding Russian defenses and ships. Sidney Reilly purportedly sold Japanese information about the port when he lived there just before the war.

Secret Intelligence Service

The Mysterious Sidney Reilly

by Vince Hawkins

On the evening of November 5, 1925, Prisoner #73 was taken from his cell in the infamous Lubyanka Prison and driven to a woods in the Sokolniki district outside Moscow. Read more

Secret Intelligence Service

OSS Agents: Kill or be Killed

By Patrick J. Chaisson

In utter silence, the saboteurs carefully wired their target for demolition. All knew even the slightest noise might alert sentries to their presence underneath the Occoquan Creek bridge in northern Virginia. Read more

Britain appeared doomed until the German naval codes were cracked.

Secret Intelligence Service

The Codebreakers’ War in the Atlantic

By Gene J. Pfeffer

The Battle of the Atlantic was a life-and-death struggle between the German Kriegsmarine and the Allied navies that was fought for control of Britain’s lifeline to its empire and to the United States. Read more

Secret Intelligence Service

German Military’s Emissary for Peace

By Jon Diamond

Many accounts have been written about the peace mission flight of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess and his parachute landing in a farm field in Scotland in May 1941 to discuss with the Duke of Hamilton a proposal to end hostilities. Read more

German soldiers operate an Enigma machine, sending classified information encoded through a system of rotor settings that were believed to be virtually impossible to crack. However, Allied cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park were reading top secret German communications for some time during World War II.

Secret Intelligence Service

The Miracle of Bletchley Park

By Hervie Haufler

Great Britain’s military intelligence leaders learned from their experience in World War I that the kinds of minds capable of breaking codes are a rare commodity and are often not likely to blossom in a military atmosphere. Read more

Secret Intelligence Service

WWII Spies: the Soviet Cambridge Network

by Peter Kross

In the modern era, the majority of those accused of spying have done so for monetary purposes—the quick acquisition of wealth as opposed to ideological or philosophical reasons. Read more

The island of Guernsey is oddly patrolled by two British bobbies and a German sentry. The Channel Islands were the only British territory to endure occupation by the Nazis during World War II.

Secret Intelligence Service

Secret Agent Man: The Story of Eddie Chapman

By Peter Kross

Nations have often pressed unsavory characters and criminals into service during wartime, rationalizing that such action is in the best interest of the country during extraordinary times. Read more

From Around the Network

  • A GI rushes past the hulk of a burning German tank, destroyed by the resurgent Americans who first fought their enemy on land at Kasserine.

    WWII

    American Baptism of Fire at Kasserine Pass
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    Robert F. Ashby’s ‘D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine’
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