Sharing Secrets With Stalin: How the Allies Traded Intelligence, 1941-1945

The operable word in the title of this excellent, somewhat revisionist historical work is "Sharing." Conventional wisdom has held that cooperation by Anglo-American and Soviet intelligence agencies during WWII was a one-way street, leading straight to Moscow. However, Smith (Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg) has sought to disabuse readers of this notion in this well-written account filled with original material and documentation. Early in the war, official British intelligence attempted to warn Stalin of an imminent German invasion; and Smith doesn't minimize the impact of the infamous "Cambridge Five," Soviet agents who passed along a great deal of sensitive material clandestinely. However, he has thoughtfully catalogued the long sequence of important intelligence materials passed along to the Anglo-Americans by the Soviets. These included information about the new German weapons, such as the 150mm cannon, the Tiger II tank, naval mines and much more. On the Pacific front, there was information about Japanese orders of battle and troop dispositions, even though Japan and the U.S.S.R. were officially at peace. Perhaps most important was weather information from Siberian stations. The author also reveals a little known fact that the Anglo-Americans shared information on the famed cryptanalysis projects ULTRA and MAGIC, despite official disclaimers to the contrary. The book makes good reading for anyone interested in the history of WWII intelligence.