In June 1942, the U.S. Army began recruiting immigrants, the
children of immigrants, refugees, and others with language skills
and knowledge of enemy lands and cultures for a special military
intelligence group being trained in the mountains of northern
Maryland and sent into Europe and the Pacific. Ultimately, 15,000
men and some women received this specialized training and went on
to make vital contributions to victory in World War II. This is
their story, which Beverley Driver Eddy tells thoroughly and
colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie
Boys. The army recruited not just those fluent in German, French,
Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees
from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian,
Russian, Turkish, and other languages-as well as some 200 Native
Americans and 200 WACs. They were trained in photo interpretation,
terrain analysis, POW interrogation, counterintelligence,
espionage, signal intelligence (including pigeons), mapmaking,
intelligence gathering, and close combat. Many landed in France on
D-Day. Many more fanned out across Europe and around the world
completing their missions, often in cooperation with the OSS and
Counterintelligence Corps, sometimes on the front lines, often
behind the lines. The Ritchie Boys' intelligence proved vital
during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. They
helped craft the print and radio propaganda that wore down German
homefront morale. If caught, they could have been executed as
spies. After the war they translated and interrogated at the
Nuremberg trials. One participated in using war criminal Klaus
Barbie as an anti-communist agent. This is a different kind of
World War II story, and Eddy tells it with conviction, supported by
years of research and interviews.
General
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