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The first authoritative account of a well-kept secret: the British Fifth Column and its activities during the Second World War.
Fascinating
The extent to which the British far right supported Hitler, even after the outbreak of the second world war, has largely been suppressed. Now Tim Tate's absorbing study offers a bracing reappraisal of their sympathies. ... Tate reveals the widespread existence of a fifth column in Britain, using hitherto unseen archival material.
Tim Tate, in Hitler's British Traitors, [explores] the entire grimy landscape of British treachery during the Second World War and the astonishing rogues' gallery of traitors working to help Nazi Germany win. [He makes] excellent use of the vast trove of material declassified by MI5 in recent years.
[A] fascinating, shocking and -- given our times -- slightly worrying read
A brilliant book
A superb book ... absolutely gripping
Tate explores many engrossing accounts of espionage and counter-espionage uncovered in the archives, as well as the jaw-dropping ineptitude and complacency of the authorities who, though all too keen to imprison and execute petty criminals recruited by German intelligence, displayed a characteristic restraint when dealing with far more threatening and powerful traitors. ... Tate's formidable scholarship paints a picture of Britain during the war that is a far cry from the reassuring story told about our collective heroism of a nation united under the banner of Keep Calm and Carry On.
An unfailingly readable, darkly revealing book of great scholarship.
[Hitler's British Traitors] shakes the story the nation tells itself that the British stood alone against Adolf Hitler in 1940 and went on to win the war ... [it] shows that if Hitler's planned invasion had succeeded after the fall of France he would have found collaborators as fanatical as those in all the countries the Wehrmacht had conquered.
Tim Tate is an award-winning documentary film-maker, investigative journalist and author of numerous books of non-fiction, including the best-selling Slave Girl (John Blake, 2009) and Hitler's Forgotten Children (Elliott & Thompson, 2015) telling the story of the largely-secret Nazi Lebensborn programme through the life of one of its victims. He lives in Wiltshire.