Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Betrayal: the Intelligence Campaign Against Adolf Hitler

Admiral Canaris first came to my attention while watching History Channel documentaries some years ago. I was intrigued by the noble qualities, intelligence and Pre-1914 values that Admiral Canaris maintained even while serving the ruthless regime that controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Before continuing, I must say that there are many outstanding books and authors that are available that cover the WWI and WWII periods. I’m grateful to many of these individuals for the insights and knowledge that can only come about through painstaking research. There are many such books available that cover specific battles, theatres of operation, etc… or the 1,000+ page novels that attempt the daunting task of covering the period from Versailles to 1945. All of these books have their place for the amateur and professional historian.

This book by Richard Bassett while relatively short (just under 300 pages) is a masterful piece that was truly enjoyable to read. The narrative flows well from page to page, chapter to chapter, and stays focused on the big picture of events. The items that I found intriguing in this book can be summed up as follows;
• Abwehr activities post Versailles treaty during the 1920s
• Conflict between Abwehr and SD/SS during 1930s through end of WWII
o Personal relationship between Admiral Canaris and Reinhard Heydrich
• Actions taken by Canaris to directly influence events to the detriment of German military and foreign policy during WWII years – specifically in Spain under Franco and intelligence reports relating to UK strengths and weaknesses immediately after Dunkirk
• Canaris/Abwehr actions relating to peace overtures with the allies
The reader will be confronted with many ‘what if’ questions during the course of this book. I certainly was.

For those reading this review, the only important question is ‘Is this book worth buying and reading’? The answer is a definitive yes.

My one complaint is the book cover with the Swastika. Admiral Canaris was a German soldier of the old tradition and a man of honor. A book cover that uses this symbol was truly not necessary and I wish such things could be avoided.

I am certainly grateful to the author for this book and the investment of his time and painstaking effort in bringing this book to the market. It is quite obvious that a great deal of effort and labor of love was involved in bringing this very important piece of historical research to the printing press, so that hobbyists historians such as myself can enjoy the fruits of such labor.

I became interested in this man's story after reading Philip Kerr's novel about the Second World War. He could have changed history and was a great hero, but so few of us know of his story. How sad that he was killed within days of the end of the war.

I really enjoyed reading this book. There was a lot about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris that I did not know. History books do not seem to mention him or much about him if they do. I actually first became aware of him in a work of fiction by the author Jack Higgins called The Eagle Has Landed. [[ASIN:0425177181 The Eagle Has Landed (Liam Devlin)]]. It is amazing to learn what Canaris was trying to do to subvert Hitler's plans. Canaris was a fascinating man. I found this book to be very informative. I learned a lot about the behind the scenes diplomacy and intelligence operations. I highly recommend this enlightening book! Also available are Michael Mueller's book [[ASIN:159114101X Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler's Spymaster]] and Heinze Hohne's. [[ASIN:0815410077 Canaris: Hitler's Master Spy]]

I really liked the complexity of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. He was not all good or all evil. The greatest thing about the book was the exploration of the man who never allowed greed or ambition to diminish his conscience or character. Well worth the read.

Much has been wirtten about the evil of Nazi Germany and justly so. The horrors of the Second World War are too numerous to mention and the artocities perpetrated by the Geramns have been covered many times. Out of this nightmare came some people who, even while still donning Nazi uniforms, were of the mind that the road that Hitler brought them down on would surely result in the total destruction of Germany.

Wilhelm Canaris, the head of intelligence in the Abwehr, was one of these people and the book gave a pretty good overview on the tightrope Canaris walked between falling into the sadism going on in the Reich and betraying his country outright. The book tells about the early years of Canaris and how he developed a love for intelligence. His efforts to help his ship evade British partols off the coast of South America while serving on the SMS Dresden are covered here. The book goes through his early family life, but only makes a few passing references to his marriage and later domestic affairs.

His love for Spanish culture is covered which started developing during his brief internment in Chile and blossomed into full bloom by the time he assisted Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Canaris was not a total saint, but he was realistic enough to know that the barbaric path his country went down led him to put out peace feelers to Great Britain as early as 1938. Through certain secret channels, he also was helpful in getting Jews and Catholics out of the country as well as foiling a plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII. His cunning and intelligence as head of the Abwehr fooled many of the top German brass and was almost successful in surviving the war, but incrimidating documents linking him with associates who desired to oust Hitler in a coup were discovered by the SS which led to his execution just before the fall of Berlin.

The book is well-researched which consulted original sources at archives within Germany, the United Kingdom and the US. A nice bibliography and index rounds out this excellent 300-page book and I highly recommend this book to those that wanted to know if there were any "good Nazis." Five stars.

An excellent book on the German Naval Secret Service.

Purchased this for my history buff husband and he loves it!