Download 'A' Force: The Origins of British Deception During the Second World War AudioBook Free
"A" Drive explores a location of World Warfare II deception history that has often been neglected. While old studies have focused on the D-day deception campaign and Britain's infamous double-agents, this work explores the roots of Britain's deception activities to show how the English became such masterful deceivers. This is the first work to focus specifically on "A" Drive and the roots of English deception, evaluating how and just why the English first used deception in World Warfare II. More specifically, it traces the development of the "A" Drive firm - the first English organization to practice both tactical and tactical deception in the field. Formed in Cairo in 1941, "A" Drive was headed by an unconventional English colonel called Dudley Wrangel Clarke. Because there was no precedent for Clarke's "A" Drive, it truly functioned on the trial-and-error basis. The learning curve was steep, but Clarke was up for the task. By the Challenge of El Alamein, English deception had reached maturity. Moreover, it was there that the "deceptionists" set up the deception blueprint later employed by the London organizers to plan and perform Procedure Bodyguard, the campaign to conceal Allied intentions for the D-Day landing at Normandy. As opposed to prior deception histories which have tended to give attention to Britain's later efforts emphasizing Procedure Bodyguard, this work obviously shows that this strategy was forged much before in the deserts of Africa under the management of Dudley Clarke, not in London. Moreover, it was born not out of opportunity, but out of sheer desperation, when in June 1940 the English found themselves completely unprepared for war.
