Through the course of two world wars, the British developed an amazing facility for all kinds of deception and deceit, and Nicholas Rankin has written a fine overview of the tactics, strategies, techniques and personalities involved. It’s really a book of two halves, reflecting the emerging art of camouflage during the Great War, and the development of a whole range of deception and propaganda techniques in the Second World War, which were fully integrated in to the management of the Allied war effort.

At the beginning of the Great War, the armies of Europe were in no way equipped for the coming conflict – concealment and disguise were not an accepted part of war on land. It took artists like Solomon J. Solomon to recognise the potential for using paint and readily available materials to hide artilley observation posts, disguise sniper positions and hide guns and troop movements. By the end of the war, all sides had seriously embraced camouflage – the development of ‘dazzle’ painting on ships, not attempting to hide them but to confuse observers, is particular fascinating. Rankin also documents the career of Laurence of Arabia, who recognised the value of what we now call ‘asymetric’ warfare, and indulged in deception of his Turkish opponents as a key component of his strategy. We also explore the beginnings of signals interception and codebreaking, from which Winston Churchill developed a fascination with intelligence that lasted the rest of his career.

In the Second World War, there are two main focal points, and two key characters: one is Dudley Clarke, who was instrumental in the considerable development of strategic and tactical deception by the UK and its Allies during the course of the war. Clarke was involved in making the spreading of deception by the Allies a systematic practice, completely integrated with strategic goals. Everything was tried, from spreading rumours and feeding back false intelligence using ‘turned’ German agents; creating entire fictional military units and simulating all aspects of their existence; even getting a doppelganger to impersonate General Montgomery and confuse the Germans as to his actual whereabouts.

The second focal point is the propagandist Sefton Delmer, whose masterful ‘black’ radio broadcasts to Germany sowed the seeds of doubt and uncertainty. Using a hugely powerful radio transmitter, he reached across Europe as well as out in to the Atlantic to the U-boat crews. There’s some seriously black humour, for instance in this broadcast designed to reinforce the rumour that Britain could defend itself from invasion by setting the sea on fire:

On the BBC German Service, Sefton Delmer gave mock English lessons: ‘Das Boot sinkt… the boat is sinking’ with useful verbs ‘Ich brenne… I burn, Du brennst… you burn, Er brennt… he burns… And if I may be allowed to suggest a phrase: Der SS Sturmfuhrer brennt auch ganz schon… The SS Captain is al-so bur-ning quite nice-ly.’

Rankin demonstrates how the developing black arts, deception and propaganda, supported by the Allied leadership from Churchill down, made a valuable contribution to Allied victory, and at no point more so than when huge numbers of German troops where held in the Pas de Calais for weeks after D-Day because they were convinced that another invasion was coming, the culmination of a huge deception plan.

This is a brilliant book, a wonderful survey of a disparate collection of aspects of the two World Wars. It’s engaging, anecdotal, well-researched and extremely enjoyable. My only quibble is with the title, which implies a unity to the subject matter that’s not really present, especially in the first half of the book, where Winston Churchill’s involvement is sometimes peripheral or non-existent. It’s a minor niggle, though, and does not detract from the satisfaction I derived from reading it.

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