Book description
Wilhelm Canaris was appointed by Hitler to head the Abwehr (the German
secret service) 18 months after the Nazis came to power. But Canaris
turned against the Fuhrer and the Nazi regime, believing that Hitler
would start a war Germany could not win. In 1938 he was involved in an
attempted coup, undermined by British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain. In 1940 he sabotaged the German plan to invade England, and
fed General Franco vital information that helped him keep Spain out of
the war. For years he played a dangerous double game, desperately trying
to keep one step ahead of the Gestapo. The SS chief, Heinrich Himmler,
became suspicious of the Abwehr and by 1944, when Abwehr personnel were
involved in the attempted assassination of Hitler, he had the evidence
to arrest Canaris himself. Canaris was executed a few weeks before the
end of the war. Richard Bassett has worked in the City, advising
several of Europe's largest companies. Before that he worked in Central
Europe for many years, first as a professional horn player and then as a
staff correspondent of the London TIMES in Vienna, Rome and Warsaw,
where his dispatches covered the end of the Cold War and gave early
warning of the impending disintegration of Yugoslavia. He is married
with two children and divides his time between London and other parts of
Europe.
