Operation Sparrow

The extraordinary true WWII story of three American commandos who parachuted behind enemy lines with orders to get captured—and convince the Nazis that D-Day was coming a thousand miles away.

March 16, 1944. Colonel Duke jumped into Hitler's Europe to lead Operation Sparrow, an OSS mission authorized by the president. Duke was forty-eight, twice the age of most paratroopers. He had played pro football for the New York Giants, flown fighter planes, and made his fortune in advertising before World War II made him a spy behind enemy lines.

Within days, the three Sparrows were captured in Hungary. It wasn't a failure. It was the plan. Under brutal Gestapo interrogation, Duke and his men set out to convince the Third Reich that the D-Day invasion would strike the Balkans, far from France.

Survive torture while making a lie sound true—it was either genius or suicidal. Probably both.

If the ruse held, Axis divisions would defend the wrong coast. If it broke, three Americans would be shot as spies—and the Wehrmacht would be poised to win D-Day.

Of the tens of millions who fought in the war, the Sparrows were the only ones whose mission required capture by the Nazis. Drawing on recently declassified OSS files, Jason Bell brings their story to life.

Operation Sparrow reveals:

• The American heroes who turned their own capture into a weapon
• The Gestapo interrogation rooms that became a secret Allied battlefield
• The top-secret deception that kept Hitler's divisions away from Normandy

Meticulously researched and told at the pace of a thriller, Operation Sparrow is narrative history for readers of Operation Mincemeat and Unbroken.