The Traitor of Arnhem: The Untold Story of WWII’s Greatest Betrayal and the Moment That Changed History Forever

Historian Verkaik (The Traitor of Colditz) uncovers a startling new dimension to a well-known story of betrayal in this riveting account. Operation Market Garden, the September 1944 British-led invasion of the Netherlands by Allied paratroopers, was famously a failure—one usually chalked up to the revelation of the plan to the Nazis by Dutch partisan Christiaan Lindemans. While researching Lindemans, Verkaik stumbled upon allegations by his Nazi handler that Lindemans had been working for the Soviets. The Soviets, Verkaik theorizes, had sought to pass information about the invasion to the Nazis in order to halt the Allies’ western advance, giving the Soviets time to reach Berlin first. Discovering that the intelligence Lindemans gave to the Nazis wasn’t their earliest warning about the invasion, Verkaik turns his focus to MI5 and the Soviet spy ring within its ranks. He homes in on spy Anthony Blunt, whose reputation after the war Verkaik alleges was whitewashed as a noble communist merely helping an Allied nation, when in reality, according to Verkaik, Blunt betrayed Operation Market Garden to the Nazis at the Soviets’ behest, leading to thousands of British deaths. Verkaik offers fine-grained accountings of both Blunt’s and Lindemans’s actions that make his thesis add up—including Blunt’s ironic role as leader of the high-stakes hunt for a mole whom Verkaik posits was Blunt himself. It’s an explosive and paradigm-shifting account. (Feb.)