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January 2[edit]

Backchannel communication between the belligerents in WW2[edit]

Can anyone recommend a good book about backchannel communication between the belligerents in WW2? I'm especially interested in communication between USSR and Germany while they were at war. Benjamin (talk) 06:55, 2 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are some allusions in a popular book about Strategic Deception (not well-received by all historians) by Anthony Cave Brown called Bodyguard of Lies (Harper and Row 1975, 947 pages, ISBN 978-1-59921-383-5). that is very sympathetic to German officers, such as Claus von Stauffenberg and the 20 July plotters, who wanted to approach the Western Allies through various back-channels (usually about dumping the Nazis and uniting against the Red Army). The other question about German-Soviet communications is also interesting.

—— Shakescene (talk) 01:10, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The U.S. had great difficulty establishing communications with the Japanese government toward the end of the war, and the only real method the Japanese had for talking to the U.S. was open radio broadcasts, which Japanese troops could also listen in on. This didn't do anything to facilitate surrender negotiations, or avert the dropping of the atomic bomb. At least Germany and the Soviet Union had Sweden as a convenient neutral location (though I don't know if they used it). AnonMoos (talk) 18:58, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]