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I did a quick search on "OSS" and "Donovan" but came up with relatively little on this site. I'd really like to read a couple of histories of the OSS in WW2. Any recommendations? :munchin
Trip_Wire (RIP)
04-09-2005, 10:15
I did a quick search on "OSS" and "Donovan" but came up with relatively little on this site. I'd really like to read a couple of histories of the OSS in WW2. Any recommendations? :munchin
Did you find this one?
http://www.osssociety.org/links.html
Thanks, TW, I was searching on this site for reviews and recommendations (Amazon had someting like 400 titles to choose from). But your link looks like a great source of info, too. :lifter
NousDefionsDoc
04-09-2005, 11:09
Excellent Book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074323572X/qid=1113066542/sr=8-8/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i8_xgl14/102-8316396-3333726?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
Another good one. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0304352020/qid=1113097511/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7390010-3016969?v=glance&s=books) Although this one deals with both the SOE and OSS, showing some of the competition and cooperation between the organizations.
Bill Harsey
04-10-2005, 07:50
Looks like I have more homework to do.
Thanks!
Thanks, guys, I've ordered both of these. BTW, Trip Wire's link page will get you to all sorts of great info.
I did a quick search on "OSS" and "Donovan" but came up with relatively little on this site. I'd really like to read a couple of histories of the OSS in WW2. Any recommendations? :munchin
Piercing the Reich by Joseph Persico...was required reading for every O when i was at Bad Toelz...memoirs by Jack Singlaub and William Colby have a sections regarding their actions in the OSS...somewhere, around here, i have The Secret War Report of the OSS ...a little hard to read with the strike throughs and deletions...
DunbarFC
04-10-2005, 22:07
Excellent Book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074323572X/qid=1113066542/sr=8-8/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i8_xgl14/102-8316396-3333726?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
I concur
Great book
Available for free from the Preservation of American Hellenic History:
Greek / American Operational Group Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (http://www.pahh.com/oss/toc.html)
Memoirs of World War 2, by Andrew S. Mousalimas
A great book is: Selection of Personnel for Clandestine Operations: Assessment of Men - Donald W. Fiske
Piercing the Reich by Joseph Persico...was required reading for every O when i was at Bad Toelz...memoirs by Jack Singlaub and William Colby have a sections regarding their actions in the OSS...somewhere, around here, i have The Secret War Report of the OSS ...a little hard to read with the strike throughs and deletions...
A member of the distinguished Operation Jedburgh (Singlaub was part of the three man team code named JAMES), John Kirk Singlaub parachuted behind German lines in August 1944 to work with the French Resistance after the D-Day invasion during WW2. A founding member of CIA, he headed CIA operations in postwar Manchuria during the Chinese Communist revolution, led troops in the Korean War, managed the secret war along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam, and worked with the Contras in Nicaragua. Active for 40 years in overt and covert operations, he had private and secret interviews with many military and government leaders worldwide. He personally knew William Casey, DCI during the Reagan Administration, as well as Oliver North, and was involved in the Iran–Contra affair. A highly decorated Major General, he is a true American hero and is still alive.
The only one I have on hand is a tome my dad passed along: Cloak & Gown - Scholars In The Secret War, 1939-1961 by Robin W. Winks. ISBN 0-688-08665-9
It's not very "action packed" but could complement a self-education into the OSS and early cold war history.
If you are interested, PM a mail address and I'll send it along on a loaner basis.
There seems to have been a renewed interest in the OSS during the past five years, because some great books have been relesed. My favorite has been Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America's First Shadow War by Colin Beavan. The Jedburghs by LTC Will Irwin was also quite good. They have even been reprinting You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger by Roger Hall, which is a more humorous memoir.
For anyone interested in the topic, I recommend starting with Operation Jedburgh and then moving on to some of the other titles in this thread.
Col. Bank's book, "From OSS to Green Beret" has a lot of good stories on his OSS days.