Based on extensive research in British and French archives as well as substantial relevant literature, Howard’s book examines the efforts primarily of France and Britain to observe and understand the purpose of Germany’s secret violations of the 1919 peace treaty and extensive rearmament in the 1930s. The Soviet Union and the United States are generally omitted, and there is no bibliography.

The book opens with a good review of British and French espionage in Germany in the 1920s, which is followed by an account of both governments’ watching the rise of Adolf Hitler in German politics. The author repeatedly and quite fairly presents the substantial differences and the varying levels of cooperation between the two governments and their operations in the field. There were many instances of specific espionage successes and failures, and the author provides interesting and detailed accounts of numerous examples of both.

Howard correctly emphasizes both London’s...

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