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    Spied In Plain Sight
    Spied In Plain Sight
    Spied In Plain Sight
    Ebook77 pages37 minutes

    Spied In Plain Sight

    By Bruce Buckfelder

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    About this ebook

    Industrial espionage on behalf of the President of the United States of America. but this isn't a movie. It's the true story of Lawrence Bell, president of Bell Aircraft, and his 1938 journey through Germany, Italy, France, and England. His mission was to evaluate the aircraft industries of friend and (probable) foe and report back to the President Franklin Roosevelt so that our own readiness for war could be evaluated.

    Bell's report, was file in September, 1938. Bell's pre-war connections allowed him to get quite close to the German war machine. He found a very formidable adversary in Nazi Germany, a capable ally rushing to catch up in England, and questionable readiness in France and Italy.

    A post-war visit to war-torn Europe sewed the seeds of America's (and Bell Aircraft's) growth in rocketry and ballistic missiles as the hot war turned cold..

    Any history buff, especially the reader interested in how the U.S. prepared for it's role in the largest conflict in history, will find Spied in Plain Sight a compelllng read.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBruce Buckfelder
    Release dateMar 4, 2015
    ISBN9781311109644
    Spied In Plain Sight

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      Book preview

      Spied In Plain Sight - Bruce Buckfelder

      I. Introduction

      This is the stuff movie thrillers are made of: At the request of the U.S. president an American industrialist travels to foreign lands to collect information on their readiness for war. He relies on his reputation in the industry, and previous relationships with foreign scientists and officials, to glean information from allies and potential enemies alike. This is the true story of just such an adventure.

      II. The World in 1938

      In 1938 the conflict that would become known as World War II was, for all intents and purposes, already underway. Japan went to war against China in 1933, occupied Manchuria, and would eventually hold large areas of Southeast Asia—from French Indochina (Viet Nam) to Burma, threatening the British colony of India. More than 200,000 Chinese were massacred in what would be known as the Rape of Nanking. Not satisfied with what their military had already achieved, the Japanese quest to build the ‘Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’ was just beginning. The Sphere, with Tokyo at the center, was to include eastern Asia from Siberia to Indochina, Australia, and the Pacific Islands – many of which were cut loose by their colonial governments upon the fall of France and the Netherlands to Nazi Germany in 1940. Japan’s goals would ultimately prove to be too ambitious for a small island nation with no natural resources of its own, but it would take many years and many thousands of lives lost to defeat them.

      In Europe, seeds for the war to come were being sown. Adolph Hitler had German industries dedicated to the production of war materiel since he assumed power. The rebuilding of the German military was in violation of the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I. Many Germans felt that the Versailles treaty was unjust and vowed to restore their country’s proper place on the European and World stage. Hitler’s promises to rebuild the nation’s strength created a rise in German nationalism that was a major reason for his election to the position of Chancellor—leading to his subsequent usurpation of complete power.

      Italy, under Benito Mussolini, was also preparing for war. The Italians wanted to avenge their 1896 loss at Adwa, in Ethiopia, so in 1935 they invaded the African nation. The Italians were also seeking natural resources. The Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, fell to the Italians after eight months of fighting.

      From 1936 to 1939, Germany tested the effectiveness of its weapons in the Spanish Civil War, supporting the forces of General Franco in their effort to overthrow the Spanish monarchy. Hitler hoped to create a military ally in General Franco that would enclose France in a triangle of Italy, Germany, and Spain. Franco’s demands for German support after the Civil War were too steep for Hitler—who wanted a puppet more than a partner—so the two never completed an agreement.

      The Soviet Union, under Josef Stalin, was also aware of the drumbeat of war coming from the European continent. The Communist purges of the 1920’s and 1930’s took as many lives, by some estimates, as the Soviets would lose in World War II – upwards of 20 million. Stalin knew that this left his country ill-prepared to fight Germany’s state-of-the-art military.

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