Hoodwinked: Deception and Resistance (Outwitting the Enemy: Stories from World War II) - Softcover

Stephen Shapiro is a lifelong aficionado of military history, and a recipient of the Canadian War Museum History Award.

Tina Forrester is a researcher and writer on a broad spectrum of subjects. Her previous works include Ultra Hush-Hush, and The Birthday Book.

Illustrator David Craig is highly skilled at depicting historical events and people. His previous works include the dramatic illustrations in the children's books Attack on Pearl Harbor and First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane. The latter title won the 2003 James Madison Book Award.

Introduction

The Second World War happened half a century before you were born -- a very long time ago. Yet even today, the name Adolf Hitler and images of concentration camps, Japanese prisoner of war camps, and atom bombs fill many hearts with dread.

Hitler was a cruel and dangerous man who drove his followers to commit incredible atrocities. The Nazis murdered millions of civilians: 6 million Jews as well as other groups Hitler deemed inferior to Germans, such as Russians and Poles. But Second World War horrors also took place in Asia. Torture, insufficient food, and poor sanitary conditions at many Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camps killed large numbers of Allies. And the Second World War presented humanity with a new and terrifying horror: the atomic bomb. Some argue that dropping the A-bomb on Japan shortened the war. Certainly it introduced a scale of destruction never before seen. These bombs were the forerunners of the weapons of mass destruction that we so fear today.

On September 1, 1939, the Germans stunned the world by invading Poland. The German army crushed the Poles in just a few days. Most countries did not want to fight a war. Memories of the First World War, in which 9 million military lives were lost and so much of Europe was destroyed, were strong. But there was another reason most of the world was unprepared: the Great Depression. During the 1930s, many governments were preoccupied with trying to find food and work for their citizens who were jobless and hungry.

In Germany, meanwhile, Hitler spent most of the 1930s building the armed forces and ordering factories to produce war materials. He also took the first steps in the creation of his empire. He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 (which Germany had been forbidden to occupy after the First World War), annexed Austria in 1938, and then began to seize Czechoslovakia later the same year. Hitler claimed that all he wanted to do was bring the German-speaking people under one government -- his. But when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, it was finally clear that he had to be stopped or all of Europe would fall. Two days later, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, and India declared war on Germany. Canada followed suit a week later.

The next spring (1940), Germany invaded one country after another. Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France all fell before the German advance. Italy, which had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939, now declared war on the Allies. The Nazis occupied or had control over most of western Europe, and the British feared their country would be next. The Germans did indeed bomb Britain's airfields and cities very heavily in August and September 1940 (the Battle of Britain). They also attempted to cut off Great Britain's supplies arriving by sea. But the British, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, refused to surrender.

In the spring of 1941, Hitler turned his focus to the eastern front: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also known as Russia). First, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria occupied Yugoslavia and Greece to ensure the Allies would not attack Hitler's armies as they pushed eastward. Then, in June, German armies attacked the Russians. After a few months, Hitler realized that the Russians were much tougher than he had thought. He had believed the conflict would be over by Christmas 1941, but the Russians continued to fight. With the onset of frigid winter conditions, many German troops died from hunger and cold.

To make matters worse for Hitler, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The Japanese emperor, Hirohito, wanted to destroy the U.S. fleet to keep the Americans from hindering the expansion of his empire. The United States responded by declaring war on Japan. Germany was then forced to declare war on the U.S. because Germany had signed a pact with Japan in 1940 that promised that if one country was attacked, the other would help defend it. Now all the world's major powers were at war. What's more, Americans were on their way to Europe to fight the Nazis.

The Second World War was waged on land, on sea, and in the air. The Axis and Allies fought around the world. The war lasted six years and cost more in financial terms than any war before it. But even worse was the huge loss of life: at least 30 million people died. (That's more than live in Canada or California today.) In Europe, the war finally ended on May 8, 1945 -- VE (Victory in Europe) day. Four months later, the war ended in Asia on September 2, 1945 -- VJ (Victory over Japan) day.

When the war started, many feared that Germany was undefeatable. But as the Allies waged war, it became apparent that many factors would shape the outcome. This book looks at the ways in which creative thinking, daring schemes, and clever deception helped change the course of history. The stories of the people involved and their commitment to influence the destiny of their world are lasting tributes to courage and ingenuity. The U.S. 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, for example, invented fake weapons -- such as dummy Sherman tanks made of inflatable rubber -- that helped the Allies win battles in France. The invasion of Italy was successful in large part because of a British ploy whereby a dead soldier convinced Hitler that the Allies were about to land in Greece rather than Sicily. The Allies lured the Germans into traps, tricked enemy commanders into believing lies, and hid their intentions from their opponents -- trickery that helped the Allies defeat a stronger foe. But the Allies had to be on their guard as the Germans used tricks too!

Other stories profile the freedom fighters who risked everything to resist the enemy. Many of them were ordinary people, civilians like Tony Brooks and his cohorts, who 'repaired' the bearings on railway flatcars with a special paste that made the wheels seize up after a few miles of travel. The Germans were furious! They had planned to use the flatcars to carry tanks and armored vehicles to reinforce their troops just after D-Day. Resistance groups proved it was possible for courageous heroes to obstruct the Germans in spite of the enemy's large numbers and powerful weapons.

Would the Allies win or lose? Imagination and courage helped shift the balance.