The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed: And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II

A rare treat for World War II history buffs and fans of the strange, absurd, and unexplained.

Acclaimed military historian William Breuer takes readers on a trip through the looking glass to acquaint them with the weirder side of World War II. Featuring a cast of characters including double- and triple-agents, femme fatales, fearless leaders, and men at arms, The Spy who Spent the War In Bed is a collection of seventy concise, vividly rendered tales of war, ranging from laugh-out-loud funny, to inspiring, to just-plain-bizarre. For instance, there’s the one about how reputed Irish Republican Army members in New York conned Nazi intelligence out of a small fortune. There’s also a thrilling account of how four American newsmen bagged an entire German platoon. And there’s the haunting tale of the "Mystery Plane," an experimental aircraft that took off on a short test flight over England one sunny afternoon in 1938 and simply vanished into a cloudless summer sky. This book draws on personal interviews, official archives, and declassified documents, as well as the vast literature on World War II.

William B. Breuer (Cleveland, TN) is the author of more than twenty-five books.