Counter Intelligence: World War II's Silent Soldiers

by Jim Miller

How did a baby-faced insurance agent wind up tracking Nazi "Werewolf " saboteurs, leading raids behind enemy lines and wrecking havoc with the German war machine? Young Jimmie Miller saw World War II as a career opportunity and signed up for the Army Counter Intelligence Corps thinking he would ride out the war in style. Instead, he wound up fighting his way across North Africa, France, Germany and Austria. Along the way, he found adventure and the career he sought, but it came with endless nightmares and a deeply troubled soul. This book is inspired by whispered stories my father and his Counter Intelligence Corps buddies told each other. In the end, they took their secrets to the grave and I don't pretend this is an accurate account of WW II espionage but it's a great story that covers many forgotten aspects of the war. The intrigue of North Africa, the southern D-Day invasion of France, raids on concentration camps, the recovery of stolen Jewish gold and the destruction of the Nazi's last-ditch terrorist these are the tales my father never told me.

232 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2010

About the author

Over the years, I have travelled to every corner of the world and experienced the unique and endlessly variable nature of its people. I have been a pilot, a psychologist, an Air Force officer restaurant owner and now, a hopeful writer. Over the years I've met presidents and foreign leaders. I've worked closely with Secret Service agents, United Nations figures, aviation experts many consequential people. As a former Boeing 747 pilot, I speak the language of aviation and was once Director of Operations for the Presidential Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base.
At heart, I am still a child of the Appalachian hills and my newest book "Kentucky Weed" harks back to the colorful' if violent, stories of the people.

Reviews

[Ted Mccormack · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like historical fiction? Read like a James Bond novel.

[Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, a career Air Force officer, spent years wondering about his father's shadowy career in the US Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) during WWII. Having only a few pieces of information, he decided to write a novel imagining his father's adventures in north Africa and Europe between 1941 and 1945.

Carefully researched, the book uses actual events as a backdrop for the exploits of Agent James Miller, a courageous and often reckless intelligence officer who succeeded in several near-impossible missions, escaped from capture by the Nazis and yet was barely recognized by the government for his contributions. The book is action-packed and reads like a war thriller, with blood and bullets and bombs on every page. We also get to know Miller as a person, raised in a poor family from the deep south, a brilliant man who wanted to get away from his tawdry roots.

In spite of all this, the author is not a skilled writer and the prose leaves much to be desired. Still, it's a valiant effort to tell the story of an undercover agent operating in extremely dangerous and unpredictable circumstances.