A Blunt Assessment of One of History’s Great Betrayals
BOOK REVIEW: THE TRAITOR OF ARNHEM: The Untold Story of WWII’s Greatest Betrayal and the Moment that Changed History Forever
By Robert Verkaik/Pegagus Books
Reviewed by: Martin Petersen
The Reviewer — Martin Petersen is a CIA veteran, Asia expert, and a Cipher Brief Expert. He is the author of City of Lost Souls, A Novel of Shanghai 1932.
REVIEW — Operation Market Garden—Arnhem, the bridge too far—was the largest airborne operation in history, eclipsing even D-Day. Over 35,000 British, U.S., and Allied paratroopers were dropped over Holland in a race to secure bridges over the Rhine. It was a daring gamble to end the war in Europe by Christmas. It was an ambitious plan, the brainchild of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and one that depended on secrecy and careful timing to succeed. It was also the biggest allied defeat of WWII and Germany’s last victory on the battlefield. And, it was doomed from the start because the Germans were waiting thanks to their penetration of the Dutch Resistance.
But there was more than one betrayer of Arnhem, according to Robert Verkaik, who draws on recently declassified British MI-5 documents as well as research in the U.S. and Dutch archives, in his book “The Traitor of Arnhem.” He takes the reader through all the issues with the Dutch Resistance focusing on the triple agent known as King Kong, who did tip off the Germans. But more damaging, according to Verkaik, was intelligence that came via a German Abwehr officer in Stockholm who had an agent code named Josephine.
ULTRA intercepts in 1943 alerted the British and Americans to Josephine’s existence, but the agent’s true identity was never confirmed. Verkaik makes a strong circumstantial case that the vital tip on Market Garden came from one of Russia’s British agents, Anthony Blunt, the so-called fourth man, who Verkaik believes was Josephine.
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Market Garden was not only about ending the war with Germany but also about determining the political landscape of post-war Europe. And the prize was Berlin. Churchill saw clearly what Stalin was doing with the Communist resistance movements and believed that whoever got to Berlin first would be in the stronger position to dictate what post-war Germany would look like. Stalin thought the same, but his armies were still in Ukraine in September 1944. A successful Market Garden would ensure that the Americans and British would win the race and claim the prize.
British investigation into the identity of Josephine after the war came to naught. The man who oversaw the early investigation into Josephine for MI-5 was: Anthony Blunt. The interrogation report on the German Abwehr officer who supposedly handled Josephine was not shared with OSS. Other avenues of investigation were cut off, and a report commissioned by the British Government and done by an MI-6 officer looks like an effort to cover up the truth about Blunt, according to Verkaik.
Verkaik also deals with the horrible consequences for Holland of Market Garden’s failure. German reprisals, including the withholding of food, devastated the country and caused severe famine during the winter of 1944-45. Holland was not fully liberated by the Allies until May 1945. For those interested in SOE, codes, and French and Dutch resistance groups, I also highly recommend Leo Mark’s classic, Between Silk and Cyanide.
The Traitor of Arnhem earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
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