From start to finish I found this book fascinating. The Allies would stop at nothing to defeat the Germans and that meant they thought outside the box. No idea was dismissed and reading about those that they thought up and put into action ...well, on one hand I laughed a lot but I also had to face the fact that they would lead to deaths and that the fate of the world was first and foremost the goal. By any means necessary.
William "Wild Bill" Donovan decided that the scientist, Stanley Lovell, was the man for the job. Gathering together a group of scientists to create imaginative weapons of war and they were very good at what they did. These were not only things like bat bombs but valuable false papers needed by the agents dropped behind enemy lines - failure would mean their death.
John Lisle has written an engrossing and entertaining read and I will happily read anything else he decides to write.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. The tools of the trade for the OSS have never really interested me even the peculiar gadgets. However John Lisle has done a great job of putting a human face behind the creation of some of the most brilliant inventions and concepts of the Second World War. I would highly recommend this to those who want to see the genius minds behind some of the War’s most intriguing moments.

“If I was doing the stuff today that I did during the war, I would be in jail for 56 consecutive life sentences without a chance of parole.” (Pg 222). This sentance absolutely blows my mind, but it also accurately captures why this book is so fascinating. The schemes of the OSS are serious… the types of warfare that was invented and worked on are of the kind that make a person ask big questions about war, ethics, human nature/human rights.

There’s no doubt that there were some brilliant people that worked behind the scenes of WW2. It is fascinating to learn about, but also difficult to rectify (for me) from a morale perspective.

As a side note, the amount of research that goes into a book like this never ceases to amaze me.

"Darkly funny" is a term I do not throw around loosely and especially not when referring to war. However, some ideas are so insane as to cross into the realm of hilarity. When you are a scientist testing which excrement smell would work best on enemy soldiers, you must have to laugh once in a while.

This is just one of the more tame examples of irregular warfare discussed in The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle. If this wasn't pulled from real war files, reading about a "cat-bomb" would cause a reader to shut the book and forget it ever existed. Yet, here we are.

The story itself needs no particular storytelling acumen to be captivating. The true test of an author for a book like this is to highlight the farcical elements without losing sight of the fact that many of these ideas are intended to kill. The story of the OSS of World War II, the predecessor to the CIA, has some dark elements which are not funny at all. Luckily, Lisle balances this masterfully. I never laughed (and I laughed a lot) without losing sight of the greater tragedy in the background because Lisle quickly pulls the reader back to the real stakes when the dark humor reaches a fever pitch. He also breezes through the content which makes this highly readable even for people who don't normally read history.

(This book was provided as an advance read copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)

I was given an advance reading copy (arc) of this book by NetGalley.com and the publisher in return for a fair review. The Dirty Tricks Department was very well written and researched. Author John Lisle detailed the lives of the men who created the OSS (precursor to the CIA) during World War II. The Dirty Tricks Department was responsible for creating all of the spy regalia needed for espionage purposes. There were exploding pens, Aunt Jemima flour (an explosive compound disguised as flour), and Bat Bombs--exactly what they sound like. Nothing was too far-fetched for this group. There were also the ever-important false documents created to cover the men and women in the field should they be questioned. The Dirty Tricks Department explored thousands of ideas and developed many to ensure the success of their spies and resistance fighters. This book is not for the faint of heart and forget about being politically correct. A world war was underway and there was nothing the Allies wouldn't do to ensure the win. Lisle did a great job telling the story with humor and clarity. At times, it was painful to read about these brave men and women who risked everything to defeat Nazism, but they were heroes and deserve to be recognized for what they did. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an unusual story about World War II and I certainly hope John Lisle has more books up his sleeve!

This was an entertaining read, including history that I'm sure many would like to forget. There are indeed many dirty tricks unknown to many talked about in this book. Some ideas are more well known than others, and some while reading, you shake your head, wondering how someone could honestly come up with something so idiotic and pose it to their superiors. There were a lot of great stories included that were very enjoyable to read. Others because of their nature were hard to read as it was a dark time in our history.
I recommend this book to history lovers.

Fascinating history of US intelligence, and, yes, many of the tricks were pretty dirty.
Most histories of WW II focus on the military campaigns or major weapons like the atomic bomb. The Dirty Tricks Department describes another aspect of our war effort that contributed to many of these traditional military efforts, both major and minor.
An intelligence service requires intelligence but also creativity, and this talent became obvious immediately when the service was established. After they finished their training school, new recruits were tested by being sent out to steal classified material from American defense plants or other sensitive sources. Success in these tests accomplished two goals: it showed the recruit had some desirable skills, and it uncovered weaknesses in the targets’ security systems.
I expected to read about clever and sometimes bizarre ideas, like the Aunt Jemima project that disguised explosives as pancake mix, but I was not prepared for the amount of humor in the book, such as when Lytle Adams is trying to promote a project that would send bats loaded with bombs into enemy territory and comments that he has a sure winner with his project, but the authorities are working on trying to make bombs out of tiny atoms! In addition to humor, clever ideas can produce great tools as well as failure, but it also can result in sad disasters, both for the enemy and our own side. A test of the bat project in the United States, for example, totally destroyed an administration building, a control tower, and a barracks.
There is more to intelligence than just devices, and the “dirty tricks” department also looked at things like biological and chemical weapons, truth drugs, and what kinds of precautions were needed to protect our own agents infiltrating enemy territory. The amount of thinking and detail was amazing. For example, clothing often had to be altered to provide additional pockets, and the sewing had to match the technique of the supposed country of origin, e.g., German stitches used parallel threading instead of crisscross.
This book was unfailingly interesting and entertaining, but it was also sobering. Many of the topics considered, such as the chemical and biological initiatives, disturbed me, and it was interesting to see which were controversial and which were simply accepted as necessary for our defense. Whether you are a history buff or simply enjoy hearing about clever (and sometimes lamebrained) ideas, The Dirt Tricks Department is a book you will enjoy.
I received an advance review copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher

The Dirty Tricks Department
By John Lisle

This is a book about how the United States developed its intelligence services, starting with "Wild Bill" Donovan and the OSS through some of the post-World War II years to what is now known as the CIA.

Mr. Lisle presents a cast of characters – some who worked in R & D to develop new weapons previously unheard of; some who worked on developing identities for agents going behind enemy lines; some who worked on invisible ink and creating virtually perfect forgeries; and some who experimented with biological weapons.

In presenting these various people, Mr. Lisle manages to hold the reader's interest by supplying background information about the histories, personalities and the forces which drove each of these men and women to do what they did to keep America secure.

This is a must read for history buffs with an interest in how intelligence agencies evolve.

The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle
Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare

This book was so difficult to read. WWI, WWII, and Cold War historical fiction and non fiction are genres I read often. For that reason I've known bits and pieces of things that are written about in this book and I've even read about some of the scientists, military men and woman, and spies written about in this book. But getting down into the nitty gritty of the research and testing on humans and animals that went into ideas that went nowhere and ideas that were eventually implemented was eye opening and disheartening. Wars are never over, people are always trying to enslave and kill each other.

These are men (and some women) who are brainstorming and sometimes putting their own lives on the line to think up and develop "dirty tricks" of all kinds before the enemy can develop them and use them first. These military men and scientists so often seem like kids playing with their toy science kits, seeing what might go boom. But this is serious business and nothing is forever off the table. Some men might not want this or that kind of killing but often that method gets worked on somewhere and ends up coming into play. Men in power who were ethically against certain types of warfare change their minds as time goes on.

There is a lot of detail here and a lot of vagueness. For all we learn, I know there is so much more we don't learn about, and in some ways, I wish I didn't learn what I did. At the same time, extensive Appendix, References and Notes will be leading me to read more about some of the people and events mentioned here. Not all the people who worked on projects of mass destruction or tiny inventions that allowed spies to infiltrate the enemy sat back in a safe space while others put their lives on the line. Many of these people knew the enemy first hand and put their own lives at risk to stop the enemy.

It's difficult to put this book out of my mind but all of this has been going on since man existed, in one way or another. Realizing that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what has really gone on and is going on, it's never going to be over, war is always going on even if it's behind the scenes, in ways we don't see.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this history book on the varied activities of the Office of Strategic Services, the people involved and the tools they used to fight with during the Second World War.

There is much talk about the rules of war, but to win a fight, to end it quickly, fighting dirty is sometimes the only way. Fighting dirty means that everything is put into the battle to win, the beat the minds, the heart, the strength of the enemy. Propaganda, stealing secrets, sapping moral, destroying production, making the enemy and the people afraid of the dark and what might be lurking there. Every plan has to be lucky, for every unlucky moment means a waste money, time, training, and a human life. Every setback means more people dying somewhere. To paraphrase the leader of the OSS to his chief thinker you need someone with "“hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind", as Sir Arthur Conan once wrote about Professor Moriarty, the arch foe of Sherlock Holmes. And in Stanley Lovell, William Donovan got his Moriarty. Author John Lisle tells the story of these two men and much more in The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare. The book details their efforts to outwit America's enemies, the failures, successes, and the people involved.

Stanley Lovell was a industrial scientist in the shoe industry with a ideas that were outside of normal science, and a strong sense of democracy. Lovell was asked to go to Washington DC for a meeting with a group that was secret, and there he was introduced to a side of war that he was unfamiliar with. William "Wild Bill" Donovan recently appointed Head of the Office of Strategic, a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, placed Lovell in charge of designing the weapons that OSS agents could use to fight the war in the shadows. These included silenced pistols, pencil detonators, suicide pills, and everything spies would need to fight behind enemy lines. There were also weird weapons, bats with incendiary devices, or glow in the dark foxes. Soon the OSS had forgers for documents, clothing designers for region specific outfits and more. Lovell's legacy for tricks and tools continued after the war, a legacy the Central Intelligence Agency is still dealing with today.

A fascinating and well written account of the war in the shadows, and the tools that were used. This book hooks readers from the first chapter and really never lets up. The writing and the research are very good, with a handy appendix to explain terms more in depth. This book not only talks about the devices, but about the agents involved, sharing their stories of heroism, and their stories of failure and pain. Lisle is very good at communicating both the technical and human factor of the story. Plus Lisle goes into depth on the psychological toll, and how being in a war, a dirty war made everything including biological and chemical warfare against civilians fair game. The book also covers a bit about Lovell's legacy going into the Central Intelligence Agency's Mk-Ultra projects and how what Lovell did was an inspiration for their work. A very good history about a dark time, and a dirty war.

A very well written history, sure to be one of my favorites of the year. Recommended for World War II readers and fans of espionage. Also I would suggest this book for writers of science fiction or thrillers, because some of the ideas are really out there and deserve whole books about them, and to prove that the real world and academia is sometimes crazier than fiction.

Very informative book above the spying activities done during WWII. I learned a lot including how they made, tested, and used the various devices through the war in both theater. A little too textbook like for me but still very interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Warfare has always brought out the worst in institutional behavior. Actions that during peacetime would be considered wildly inappropriate and immoral can be justified by the need to defeat the enemy, who might or might not be doing even worse things. During World War II the US Gov't created the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was then dissolved and reformed as the Central Intelligence Agency.

Head of the OSS was Bill Donovan, and the mad scientist of the team was chemist Stanley Lovell, who was told it was his job to be the "Professor Moriarty" of the OSS. In other words, come up with sly, nefarious, and downright criminal ways to help spies and hurt the enemy. Poisoned pens, suicide pills, bombs, surreptitious cameras, nothing was off limits for Lovell and his team of masterminds.

"The Dirty Tricks Department" tells the story of the OSS, and while it's an astonishing inventory of just how many dirty tricks they created - not all of which worked properly! - it's also a historical record of the office and its main players. Unfortunately, it's not very well assembled narratively and comes across more as a treatise submitted for an advanced degree than something aimed at the common man. Every statement has a matching end note and the references number well over 500, meaning that phrases like "He[413] knew that it wouldn't be approved."

Still, the information is darn interesting and the OSS was instrumental in helping the Allies win the war and inspire a generation of spy novelists (and probably spies too). If you can wade through the poor structure and ignore the hundreds upon hundreds of superscript numbers peppering every page, there's much to be learned from this book.

Note: Since I read an ebook galley, I was shocked to realize that fully 35% of the book is endnotes and footnotes, something I've never previously experienced in any non-academic book.

nonfiction, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-figures, history-and-culture, espionage, assassins, chemist, sabotage, counterfeit-money, research-and-development, arson, counterfeit-documents, poisons, 20th-century,*****

In that time they were fighting a monstrous lunatic.
The development of the counter intelligence units in the US began in response to what was developing in Europe while this country was still in isolation mode. Much of that origination was aided by the work already being done by the professionals in London. One man who was deeply involved with the research and development aspects was Stanley Lovell. His life diverged after 1945, but the business of espionage and worse did not end with the war. The writing is well researched in declassified documents and documented during and after the prose. But it's hardly all grim and does slip in some very sly humor--"a terminal illness in front of a firing squad." A good read and perfect for those of us who geek history.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

This book chronicles the work of Bill Donovan, who became the first Coordinator of Information (COI) before heading up the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), his mad scientist inventor Stanley Lovell, and others who fought dirty for the sake of national security.

President Roosevelt appointed Donovan in 1941 as war in Europe escalated, to collect intelligence related to national security and perform espionage, sabotage and propaganda. The number of personnel in Donovan’s department grew and his responsibilities soared after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Now too large to be under the auspices of the White House, Roosevelt changed the name of Donovan’s organization to the Office of Strategic Services (a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency), and placed them under the purview of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

From these humble beginnings, Donovan defended the organization from barbs and quips, some well-deserved. Detractors said Donovan hired the rich and famous to divert them from serving in the armed forces. At a dinner party, Horace Schmahl made fun of Donovan’s agency, saying it was a “Tinker Toy outfit, spying on spies”. Donovan challenged Schmahl, saying he could steal his secret files and blow up his ammunition dump before midnight. Donovan made a discreet phone call to his office. His employees broke into Schmahl’s office and safe, stole his secret information, and planted fake dynamite at his ammunition dump. Donovan got the last laugh when he handed Schmahl the contents of his safe and told him where to find the fake dynamite, all before the dinner party was over.

As the OSS grew, Donovan created several departments to oversee divisions of the operation, including a branch to make lethal gear and gadgets on the order of Q, the fictional scientist who created such devices for James Bond. This group of scientists pursued ridiculous (attaching cats to bombs since cats always land on their feet), barbaric (biological warfare), and even some useful (time-delay detonation) ideas. They considered ways to assassinate foreign leaders and developed a lethal pill for US agents to ingest if captured. There were additional drug experiments, including a plot to spike Hitler’s food with female hormones.

The book mainly covers the time periods just before, during, and after World War II, although it mentions little of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and the CIA’s covert activities. The Dirty Tricks Department addresses the inventors’ moral dilemma of creating devices and tactics to kill, with most justifying it by believing their work would shorten the war.

The book covers a lot of material without becoming overly serious, as may be deduced from the title.

@JohnLisle @StMartinsPress

#NetGalley #covertactions #dirtytricks #WWII #spies #StanleyLovell #BillDonovan #COI #OSS #CIA

This book goes from outrageously funny (really???) to outrageously scarry. Everything you thought you knew about secreat agents and dirty tricks will be put under the microscope. Wins and misses enough to keep you enchanted.

Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing a copy of The Dirty Tricks Department

The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is one of those non-fiction reads that simply should not end. From the first chapter to the Appendix, this must-read is a mix of laugh-out-loud and sobering realization within the World War II years. Readers are treated to an incredible list of gags, gimmicks and tricks designed to outwit and outmaneuver America's enemies in the war. Try to keep a straight face when reading about the development of Aunt Jemima flour designed to explode, fake grenades and exploding pens. At the same time, much of the work is horrifying such as the development of chemical and biological weapons and truth drugs.
The OSS is the pre-CIA gathering place for a large number of scientists and military personnel determined to beat the enemy at all costs. While some of what these developers were involved with seemed outrageous. "We're at war, so anything is justified."
Do not miss out on this fascinating examination of "Wild Bill" Donovan, Stanley Lovell and so many others including President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself who played such important roles that go beyond our James Bond ideas.

THE DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT

This was a very enjoyable and educational book about the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the precursor to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). It highlights some of the masterminds behind its conception and development. What seemed to have begun as a mischief making and spy unit in nature, the OSS continued to develop to become far more sinister and dangerous in its methods.

The original COI (Coordinator of Information) Bill Donovan, chose chemist Stanley Lovell to head the newly created Research and Development branch of the OSS: Division 19. It was set up to invent creative ways to infiltrate the enemy through covert means during WWII, basically the “Q” of James Bond lore.

And so began the making of disguised explosives and incendiary devices; limpets, delayed timers, Bat Bombs, Javaman. New and improvised guns including the silencer and umbrella gun. And a myriad of testing experiments. Extensive training in Gutter Fighting, developing a “Mind Set” of invincibility, and Psychological Warfare to demoralize the enemy. Cloak & Dagger.

Brainstorming resulted in plans such as Operation Cornflakes, offensive smells, porn pamphlets, League of Lonely Women’s Club, Operation Fantasia which used live iridescent foxes to take advantage of cultural superstitions. Some of these ideas were implemented and others were simply filed away as being impractical or basically silly. Additional departments were set up to handle the development of documents and forgeries, camouflage and disguises.

Methods of devious warfare became much more sinister, including biological and chemical experiments, poison pills and truth drugs, and eventually MKULTRA.

The layout of the book was clear and easy to follow and it provided an excellent introduction to a wide variety of “special” forms of warfare. Each subject made me want to learn more. The Footnotes are really worth reading as they contain a lot of additional interesting information.

The extensive Appendix, References and Notes provide excellent source material for further reading.

I would like to thank NetGalley, John Lisle, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What FUN this book was! Lots of history that didn’t make the history books due to the attempts and repeated failures of spy-toys! Lots of successes of spy toys which probably never made the history books, either. It was a kind of research and development of the type spy toys we’ve seen in James Bond movies – except … these were real tools and utilized by the OSS (forerunner of the CIA) and the allies of the US during WWII.

The Berman Museum in Anniston, Alabama has a wealth of artifacts from WWII (in particular) as well as other wars fought by the US. Among the items from WWII are spy tools, many similar to the ones described in this book. For anyone really interested, I would highly recommend a trip to the Berman Museum – it houses a truly amazing collection.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, in exchange for an honest review. Written with not just depth of the subject matter, but a lot of humor, it is easily readable and an absolute delight! I highly recommend this book! You’ll be glad you read it!

This was, to me, an unexpectedly interesting book, more or less bringing to life James Bond's "Q" and his lab of extraordinary things for the spy world made from sometimes rather ordinary objects! It was more than inventing various spy equipment, however, and also ncluded documents, clothing, backgrounds, etc., for those intrepid people, both men and women, who spied for the Allies, often ending with their capture, torture, and death at the hands of the Nazis. So many of the peoplewho participated in this line of work came from educationalbackgrounds, and their adaptation to this line of work was fascinating to read as well.

This ebook was sent as an ARC to me by NetGalley; all opinions are my own.

If you have even a fleeting interest in the OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) and the dirty tricks they developed during WW II to spy on, fool, and/or kill the Japanese or Germans, this is the book to read! It is fun to read the history of the successes and failures of our nation's spooks.