Papa Spy : Love, Faith, and Betrayal in Wartime Spain by Jimmy Burns (2009

Description: Some great wartime history in PAPA SPY: LOVE, FAITH, AND BETRAYAL IN WARTIME SPAIN. This 395 page hardback by Jimmy Burns was published in 2009. From the DJ we read, "THE SPANISH THEATRE IN WORLD WAR II IS RARELY DISCUSSED AS NO FORMAL BATTLES WERE FOUGHT THERE-AND YET, AS PAPA SPY REVEALS, IT WAS CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT TO THE WAR'S OUTCOME. With Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939, Tom Burns, then a dashing young publisher in London, left his business for the Ministry of Information, the propaganda arm of the British secret services, and was sent as press attache to the British Embassy in Madrid. Spain was officially 'belligerent' during the war.However, Germany's support of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War gave Hitler a foothold south of the Pyrenees that could have given the Axis control of Gibraltar and the western Mediterranean ports, and dealt a potentially crippling blow to the Allied cause. Tom Burns and his small team were tasked with doing everything in their power to keep that from happening. After his father's death in 1995, journalist Jimmy Burns sought to uncover the truth behind the shadowy stories he had heard about his father's wartime involvement, and Papa Spy is the remarkable result. Interviewing a wide range of those involved-from ambassadors to secretaries who handled secret codes, from Spanish countesses who had once worked as spies to onetime Spanish Civil War urchins who had run secret errands for the British Embassy-and with rare access to Franco's personal archive and the MI5 files on his father kept secret for sixty-seven years, Burns discovered a much broader picture of the crucial impact of propaganda and secret intelligence in Spain and neighboring Portugal, bolstering Allied influence in southern Europe and preventing the Germans from occupying Spain and North Africa. Executing that objective became complicated for Tom Burns, who found her was making enemies at home, not least among them the soon-to-be notorious Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, head of MI6's Iberian section. Despite this, he helped carry out the decoy plot called 'The Man Who Never Was' and arranged what turned out to be actor Leslie Howard's fatal propaganda trip to Portugal and Spain. His story reveals as never before the critical role Spain played in determining the outcome of World War II." Good, good reading in this First Edition in like-new condition. Shipping and handling 4.80 Media Mail to US destinations. Canadian residents 20.75 First Class mail. All others welcome but extra postage required and shipped entirely at your risk.

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Location: Milton, Florida

End Time: 2024-12-15T21:49:42.000Z

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