In February 1942, intelligence officer Victor Jones erected 150 tents behind British lines in North Africa. "Hiding tanks in Bedouin tents was an old British trick," writes Nicholas Rankin; German general Erwin Rommel not only knew of the ploy, he had copied it himself. Jones knew that Rommel knew. In fact, he counted on it—for these tents were empty. With the deception that he was carrying out a deception, Jones made a weak point look like a trap. Rankin offers a lively and comprehensive history of how Britain bluffed, tricked, and spied its way to victory in two world wars.
"Rankin's page-turner makes the most of the gifted amateurs, eccentrics, and professional illusionists responsible for the imaginative schemes of the British military and details the care and seriousness with which they were implemented."—Foreign Affairs
