Jo L. (PIZZELLEBFS) reviewed Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring on + 331 more book reviews
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This is an excellent account of the Sorge spy ring that operated in Tokyo prior to and during WW II. Richard Sorge was an NKVD agent (predecessor to the KGB) who was sent to find out if Japan was going to attack the USSR.
His mission was a first rate success. He was able to tell Stalin that the Japanese militarists were going to attack to the south, against the East Indies, Philippines, and Australia. They would not attack Russia unless three things happened: the Germans captured Moscow, civil order broke down inside the USSR, and the Japanese Army had a significant force superiority along the Mongolian boder.
As a result of that information, Stalin pulled army divisions out of Siberia, and was able to use them for the counterattack outside Moscow in the Winter of 1941-2. That one piece of information could well have been the key to Hitler's defeat because if Moscow had fallen, the Germans probably would also have taken Stalingrad, and then captured the oil of the Middle East. Remember, the Luftwaffe didn't run out of airplanes; they ran out of fuel.
This book is an essential item for any historian of WW II.
This is an excellent account of the Sorge spy ring that operated in Tokyo prior to and during WW II. Richard Sorge was an NKVD agent (predecessor to the KGB) who was sent to find out if Japan was going to attack the USSR.
His mission was a first rate success. He was able to tell Stalin that the Japanese militarists were going to attack to the south, against the East Indies, Philippines, and Australia. They would not attack Russia unless three things happened: the Germans captured Moscow, civil order broke down inside the USSR, and the Japanese Army had a significant force superiority along the Mongolian boder.
As a result of that information, Stalin pulled army divisions out of Siberia, and was able to use them for the counterattack outside Moscow in the Winter of 1941-2. That one piece of information could well have been the key to Hitler's defeat because if Moscow had fallen, the Germans probably would also have taken Stalingrad, and then captured the oil of the Middle East. Remember, the Luftwaffe didn't run out of airplanes; they ran out of fuel.
This book is an essential item for any historian of WW II.
Durene R. (Berit913) reviewed Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring on + 373 more book reviews
Target Tokyo is a riveting account of espionage on a grand scale. Bristling with suspense, it tell the story of Russian-born Richard Sorge and the ingenious spy ring he masterminded in Japan before and during World War II.
A major work of World War II history, Target Tokyo is a portrait of an exoctic nation gearing up for war. It is also a study of duplicity on the hightest levels, of betrayals bother personal and national, with insights into the great leaders of the era-Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt-as they played out the drama that would determine the future of the world.
A major work of World War II history, Target Tokyo is a portrait of an exoctic nation gearing up for war. It is also a study of duplicity on the hightest levels, of betrayals bother personal and national, with insights into the great leaders of the era-Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt-as they played out the drama that would determine the future of the world.
Thomas F. (hardtack) -
A detailed history of the career of one of the most famous spy rings of pre- and early WW II. How the Soviet Sorge was able to preserve as a spy in the militaristic and paranoid Japan is a classic tale.
The story also relates the extraordinary strain that pretending to be someone you are not can have on your psyche. Russian-born, German Sorge played differing roles, not only to the Germans and Japanese, but also to many fellow spies and his many female lovers. In the end, although he trusted no one, he was still betrayed.
The story also relates the extraordinary strain that pretending to be someone you are not can have on your psyche. Russian-born, German Sorge played differing roles, not only to the Germans and Japanese, but also to many fellow spies and his many female lovers. In the end, although he trusted no one, he was still betrayed.
Frank S. (colonelstech) reviewed Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring on + 38 more book reviews
Prange and his co-authors describe the origins and operations of the famous Sorge Ring in Tokyo, one of the USSR's best HUMINT sources on their Nazi enemys. Sorge and his comrades provided top quality strategic diplomatic intellignece on the Nazi's intentions, including their plans to invade the Soviet Union. Like all Prange's histories, well-researched and extremely well-written.
