The full story of the most important spy of the twentieth century. Perfect for fans of Ben Macintyre, Judith Pearson and Larry Loftis. During World War Two, Reinhard Gehlen had been Hitler’s top intelligence officer on the Eastern Front. However, while many of high-ranking fellow Nazis were tried, convicted, and incarcerated for their actions, Gehlen instead found work with the Americans, at the CIA. What work had Gehlen done during the Second World War that made him so valuable to the United States of America? And how was this leading German spy able to change his allegiance to Allies so swiftly to become an integral spy master of the emerging Cold War? The lives of spies are notoriously shrouded in secrecy, however, by utilizing Gehlen’s own memoirs as well as numerous other sources from his years during World War Two and the Cold War, Charles Whiting is able to piece together the story of this mysterious man. Germany’s Master Spy traces his early days as Heinz Guderian’s chief of Intelligence on the Eastern Front through his successful organization of a military spy system in the Soviet Union, to his post-war years with the CIA and the founding of West Germany’s own intelligence system. This book is essential reading for all interested in the shadowy world of espionage, revealing the story of how one Second World War spy came to shape the power dynamics of the Cold War.
Author
Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler. Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years. After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy. His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II. One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer. "He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books." Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.
