Oss Special Weapons and Equipments

Oss Special Weapons and Equipments

Author: H. Keith Melton

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated

Published: 1992-04-01

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780806982397

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Describes weapons and devices used by OSS agents in intelligence work during World War II, including a cigar pistol and explosive coal


Clandestine Warfare

Clandestine Warfare

Author: James D. Ladd

Publisher:

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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Examines the weapons and equipment used by the British SOE and the American OSS.


Trained to be an OSS Spy

Trained to be an OSS Spy

Author: Helias Doundoulakis, Gabriella Gafni

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1499059833

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Imagine the Terror: On a seemingly ordinary day in May, 1941, a boy from a tiny village in Crete faces an unexpected threat - the invasion of German troops. He runs for cover - his first escape in a series of encounters with destiny. Imagine the Adventure: The boy and his brother work for the SOE, an underground branch of the English Intelligence Service. When the resistance movement is uncovered, they quickly escape through the mountains of Crete, hiding from the enemy in broad daylight. Danger looms everywhere. Imagine the Glamour: The boy trains to be a spy for the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services), the SOE's newly formed American intelligence counterpart. Imagine the Peril: While on his undercover mission in Salonica, the boy constantly risks his life, operating a wireless radio in plain view. Will the German police ever discover him? Imagine the Courage: If captured, the boy resolves to take a poison capsule that will quickly end his young life, rather than endure torture. Often, he finds himself seconds away from that dreaded event. Imagine the Victory of living to tell the tale at age 91... It's all true! No imagination is necessary. This is the stuff of movies--a must-read story about the Game of Life. The author's story, along with those of other agents, was featured in the documentary Camp X: Secret Agent School, a production by YAP Films, and was aired on HISTORY Channel in Canada and other networks worldwide.


The OSS and Ho Chi Minh

The OSS and Ho Chi Minh

Author: Dixee Bartholomew-Feis

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2006-05-12

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0700616527

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Some will be shocked to find out that the United States and Ho Chi Minh, our nemesis for much of the Vietnam War, were once allies. Indeed, during the last year of World War II, American spies in Indochina found themselves working closely with Ho Chi Minh and other anti-colonial factions-compelled by circumstances to fight together against the Japanese. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis reveals how this relationship emerged and operated and how it impacted Vietnam's struggle for independence. The men of General William Donovan's newly-formed Office of Strategic Services closely collaborated with communist groups in both Europe and Asia against the Axis enemies. In Vietnam, this meant that OSS officers worked with Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, whose ultimate aim was to rid the region of all imperialist powers, not just the Japanese. Ho, for his part, did whatever he could to encourage the OSS's negative view of the French, who were desperate to regain their colony. Revealing details not previously known about their covert operations, Bartholomew-Feis chronicles the exploits of these allies as they developed their network of informants, sabotaged the Japanese occupation's infrastructure, conducted guerrilla operations, and searched for downed American fliers and Allied POWs. Although the OSS did not bring Ho Chi Minh to power, Bartholomew-Feis shows that its apparent support for the Viet Minh played a significant symbolic role in helping them fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Japan's surrender. Her study also hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam. Based partly on interviews with surviving OSS agents who served in Vietnam, Bartholomew-Feis's engaging narrative and compelling insights speak to the yearnings of an oppressed people-and remind us that history does indeed make strange bedfellows.


CIA Special Weapons & Equipment

CIA Special Weapons & Equipment

Author: Harold Keith Melton

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780806987323

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Describes a variety of espionage devices and includes information on the purpose of each device and instructions for its use


The OSS in Burma

The OSS in Burma

Author: Troy J. Sacquety

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0700620184

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"One could not choose a worse place for fighting the Japanese," said Winston Churchill of North Burma, deeming it "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable." But it was here that the fledgling Office of Strategic Services conducted its most successful combat operations of World War II. Troy Sacquety takes readers into Burma's steaming jungles in the first book to fully cover the exploits and contributions of the OSS's Detachment 101 against the Japanese Imperial Army. Functioning independently of both the U.S. Army and OSS headquarters-and with no operational or organizational model to follow-Detachment 101 was given enormous latitude in terms of developing its mission and methods. It grew from an inexperienced and poorly supported group of 21 agents training on the job in a lethal environment to a powerful force encompassing 10,000 guerrillas (spread across as many as 8 battalions), 60 long-range agents, and 400 short-range agents. By April 1945, it remained the only American ground force in North Burma while simultaneously conducting daring amphibious operations that contributed to the liberation of Rangoon. With unrivaled access to OSS archives, Sacquety vividly recounts the 101's story with a depth of detail that makes the disease-plagued and monsoon-drenched Burmese theater come unnervingly alive. He describes the organizational evolution of Detachment 101 and shows how the unit's flexibility allowed it to evolve to meet the changing battlefield environment. He depicts the Detachment's two sharply contrasting field commanders: headstrong Colonel Carl Eifler, who pushed the unit beyond its capabilities, and the more measured Colonel William Peers, who molded it into a model special operations force. He also highlights the heroic Kachin tribesmen, fierce fighters defending their tribal homeland and instrumental in acclimating the Americans to terrain, weather, and cultures in ways that were vital to the success of the Detachment's operations. While veterans' memoirs have discussed OSS activities in Burma, this is the first book to describe in detail how it achieved its success—portraying an operational unit that can be seen as a prototype for today's Special Forces. Featuring dozens of illustrations, The OSS in Burma rescues from oblivion the daring exploits of a key intelligence and military unit in Japan's defeat in World War II and tells a gripping story that will satisfy scholars and buffs alike.


W. E. B. Griffin The Devil's Weapons

W. E. B. Griffin The Devil's Weapons

Author: Peter Kirsanow

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-10-10

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0593422309

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Dick Canidy and the agents of the OSS scour war-torn Poland looking for a rocket scientist who holds the secrets to the Nazis most dangerous weapon in this new entry in W.E.B. Griffin's New York Times bestselling Men at War series. April 1940. By terms of the Soviet Nazi Nonaggression pact, the two dictatorships divided the helpless nation of Poland. Now, the Russians are rounding up enemies of the state in their occupation zone, but one essential target slips away. Dr. Sebastian Kapsky had spent years working with Walter Riedel and Werner von Braun in the early days of rocket science, but as a man with a conscience he refused to continue when he saw the perversion of their work by the Nazis. That makes him the most knowledgeable person about German superweapons outside of Germany. The Germans want him. The Soviets are desperate to grab him, but Wild Bill Donovan knows there's only one man who can find him in the middle of a war zone and get him out—Dick Canidy.


Wild Bill Donovan

Wild Bill Donovan

Author: Douglas Waller

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-02-21

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1416576207

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"Entertaining history...Donovan was a combination of bold innovator and imprudent rule bender, which made him not only a remarkable wartime leader but also an extraordinary figure in American history" (The New York Times Book Review). He was one of America's most exciting and secretive generals--the man Franklin Roosevelt made his top spy in World War II. A mythic figure whose legacy is still intensely debated, "Wild Bill" Donovan was director of the Office of Strategic Services (the country's first national intelligence agency) and the father of today's CIA. Donovan introduced the nation to the dark arts of covert warfare on a scale it had never seen before. Now, veteran journalist Douglas Waller has mined government and private archives throughout the United States and England, drawn on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and interviewed scores of Donovan's relatives, friends, and associates to produce a riveting biography of one of the most powerful men in modern espionage. William Joseph Donovan's life was packed with personal drama. The son of poor Irish Catholic parents, he married into Protestant wealth and fought heroically in World War I, where he earned the nickname "Wild Bill" for his intense leadership and the Medal of Honor for his heroism. After the war he made millions as a Republican lawyer on Wall Street until FDR, a Democrat, tapped him to be his strategic intelligence chief. A charismatic leader, Donovan was revered by his secret agents. Yet at times he was reckless--risking his life unnecessarily in war zones, engaging in extramarital affairs that became fodder for his political enemies--and he endured heartbreaking tragedy when family members died at young ages. Wild Bill Donovan reads like an action-packed spy thriller, with stories of daring young men and women in his OSS sneaking behind enemy lines for sabotage, breaking into Washington embassies to steal secrets, plotting to topple Adolf Hitler, and suffering brutal torture or death when they were captured by the Gestapo. It is also a tale of political intrigue, of infighting at the highest levels of government, of powerful men pitted against one another. Donovan fought enemies at home as often as the Axis abroad. Generals in the Pentagon plotted against him. J. Edgar Hoover had FBI agents dig up dirt on him. Donovan stole secrets from the Soviets before the dawn of the Cold War and had intense battles with Winston Churchill and British spy chiefs over foreign turf. Separating fact from fiction, Waller investigates the successes and the occasional spectacular failures of Donovan's intelligence career. It makes for a gripping and revealing portrait of this most controversial spymaster.


Simple Sabotage Field Manual

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

Author: Office of Strategic Services

Publisher: The Floating Press

Published: 2009-06-01

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 1775415473

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This Simple Sabotage Field Manual, a genuine guide from the Second World War, states that its purpose is to "characterize simple sabotage, to outline its possible effects, and to present suggestions for inciting and executing it." Among the other fine pieces of advice in this handy volume, one is encouraged to "switch address labels on enemy baggage", "let cutting tools grow dull", "forget to provide paper in toilets", and "change sign posts at intersections and forks; the enemy will go the wrong way and it may be miles before he discovers his mistakes."