Hitler’s British Traitors cover art

Hitler’s British Traitors

Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

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Drawing on hundreds of declassified official files - many of them previously unpublished - Tim Tate uncovers the largely unknown history of more than 70 British traitors who were convicted, mostly in secret trials, of working to help Nazi Germany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
All stars
Most relevant
Tim Tate in a very well researched book exposes the incompetant and arbitrary way that Britain dealt with perceived enemies of the state in the first half of the 20th C. Sadly, being a member of the aristocracy seems to have conferred a degree of immunity against prosecution irrespective of unsavoury behaviour. The redaction of the archives tells its own story. The final chapter adds further food for thought.

A salutory lesson from history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

After a bit of a slow start, I found myself immersed in this fascinating insight into how normal people have managed to get themselves caught up in espionage, sometimes motivated solely by ideology with no involvement from foreign intelligence agencies. Parallels can be drawn with modern day where people take to twitter and social media to promote their loyalties to various regimes such as Putin, Trump, IS etc.

The knowledge and experience of the research comes across in the narration. Tim Tate also sounds a bit like Harry Hill which gives the audiobook a very period feel.

Highly recommended.

Fascinating insight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A worrying, well researched, work of history. Provides a another key to understanding British society.

Fascinating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

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

Interesting but a bit repetitious

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews