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Hitler’s British Traitors

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Hitler’s British Traitors

By: Tim Tate
Narrated by: Tim Tate
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Summary

Hitler’s British Traitors is the first authoritative account of a well-kept secret: the British Fifth Column and its activities during the Second World War.

Drawing on hundreds of declassified official files - many of them previously unpublished - Tim Tate uncovers the largely unknown history of more than 70 British traitors who were convicted, mostly in secret trials, of working to help Nazi Germany win the war, and several hundred British Fascists who were interned without trial on evidence that they were working on behalf of the enemy. Four were condemned to death; two were executed.

This engrossing audiobook reveals the extraordinary methods adopted by MI5 to uncover British traitors and their German spymasters as well as two serious wartime plots by well-connected British fascists to mount a coup d’etat which would replace the government with an authoritarian pro-Nazi regime.

The audiobook also shows how archaic attitudes to social status and gender in Whitehall and the courts ensured that justice was neither fair nor equitable. Aristocratic British pro-Nazi sympathisers and collaborators were frequently protected while the less-privileged foot soldiers of the Fifth Column were interned, jailed or even executed for identical crimes.

©2019 Tim Tate (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Freedom & Security Military Politics & Government War Espionage Imperialism
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A really enjoyable read exploring an area not normally covered by historians of the 2nd World War. The story of how our secret services worked to stop home grown men and women spying for the enemy. Potential spies from the lowest strata of society to the aristocracy, what they did, how they were stopped and how the class system protected the rich and famous from real punishment for their efforts at treason, whilst ordinary folk suffered much stiffer punishment. Fascinating stuff

Britain's 5th Columnists

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Worth a listen but could have been shorter : with some of the narrative quite repetitious.

Interesting but a bit repetitious

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Excellent review of how much of Britain was supportive of the nazi ideology during wartime and prewar 1930 s. Makes you wonder how we won.

Evidence of the enemy within.

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Tim Tate's book was an impulse buy for me, but I am very pleased that I acquired it. It's a sometimes shocking, always entertaining, expose of the ineptitude and laxity which characterised the British response to fifth columnist supporters of Hitler's regime. Unsurprisingly, the 'establishment' doesn't come out of this story at all well. Known traitors in its ranks were either allowed to continue operating, or were dealt with leniently. Not so 'rank and file' fascists, who - once the war started - often felt the full weight of the law, up to and including the death penalty. Two things struck me most forcibly in listening to this book. Firstly, the sickening double standard applied to domestic fascists, depending on their social class. Secondly, the astounding ineptitude and amateurishness of MI5 in its early years - think Dad's Army crossed with 'Allo 'Allo!

This is, overall, a cracking historical account of the issue - scrupulously balanced and meticulously researched. The audio performance by the author is excellent. Best of all, it's an immensely absorbing and enlightening audio book that will appeal to anyone with an interest in history, espionage or warfare.

Excellent and accessible history!

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Having a healthy interest in the Second World War and espionage, I found this book well researched and well written I already knew some of the stories but was massively informed having listened to it in its entirety, it also confirmed what I already knew and is self evident today as it was 70 years ago ….. class and patronage will always trump justice and the rule of law compared to those who don’t come from the former or have any of the latter to fall back on.

Excellent read

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