The Mare's Nest
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''The Mare's Nest'' is a 1964 book by English author
David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, especially Nazi Germany. He was found to be a Holocaust denier in a British court ...
, focusing on the German
V-weapons V-weapons, known in original German as (, German: "retaliatory weapons", "reprisal weapons"), were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and Aerial ...
campaign of 1944–45 and the Allied military and intelligence effort (
Operation Crossbow ''Crossbow'' was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German V-weapons, long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched agai ...
) to counter it. The book covers both sides of the story – the Allied arguments over how to interpret intelligence concerning the status and existence of the V-weapons and the German debate over how to deploy the new weapons to make the most of their supposed capacity to reverse the tide of the war. During his research for the book, Irving discovered that the Allies had broken the German Enigma code, over a decade before that became public knowledge, but agreed to keep it secret. ''The Mare's Nest'' was well received by reviewers and those involved in Operation Crossbow and has been widely cited by authors writing about the V-weapons program. Retrospectively, the book is still praised for its extensive research but criticised for minimising the Nazi slave labour programmes of
Mittelwerk Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...
and Nordhausen, about which Irving certainly knew.


Publication history

The book was Irving's second, published the year after his best-seller '' The Destruction of Dresden'', and had its origins in the success of that book. Irving had intended to return to studying for a degree but abandoned his plans when his publisher proposed that he should write two more books, covering the V-weapons programme and the life of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. He discovered that
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
's scientific adviser, Lord Cherwell, had been closely involved in tracking the V-weapons and that Cherwell's papers were held at
Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...
,
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. Irving was given full access to the archive and made a startling discovery: that the Allies had been reading the German codes, a fact that was still regarded as top secret. He began to fear that he would be denied access to the archive if the authorities realised that he had uncovered ULTRA, the Allies' wartime programme of decrypting the
Enigma machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...
codes and other German codes and cyphers. As he later put it, he resorted to doing "the unthinkable. I began borrowing documents, taking them down to London to copy. But I always sedulously returned them."Guttenplan, p. 44 Irving nonetheless worked the secret material into his book, writing an entire chapter about Enigma in the first draft of ''The Mare's Nest''. When it came to the attention of the authorities, "one night I was visited at my flat by men in belted raincoats who came and physically seized the chapter. I was summoned to the
Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
, twelve men sitting around a polished table, where it was explained to me why he informationwas not being released and we appeal to you as an English gentleman not to release t" Irving cooperated and withdrew the chapter, but by this time he had copied enough material from Cherwell's archive to furnish several more books. ULTRA remained secret for another decade. The book's title comes from a phrase used by Lord Cherwell to describe the V-weapons; he was sceptical of the existence of the
V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...
, regarding it (wrongly, as it turned out) as technologically infeasible, and referred to it as a "mare's nest" (meaning a remarkable discovery which later turns out to be illusory).


Reception

The book was well received at the time by reviewers. Writing in ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'', William Kimber called it "remarkable" for its coverage of both sides, Allied and German. He concluded that the book shows that the British reached the right conclusions, despite errors along the way, while the Germans hindered their own efforts with disputes between the army, air force, SS and civilian ministers. ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' noted that the book highlighted how the hunt for the V-weapons was punctuated by "conflicts of personality between scientists, intelligence officers, and Service leaders", while at the same time conveying "the efficiency of the British Intelligence Services at the lower level" even if the higher-level co-ordination was sometimes lacking. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
's''
Clare Hollingworth Clare Hollingworth (10 October 1911 – 10 January 2017) was an English journalist and author. She was the first war correspondent to report the outbreak of World War II, described as "the scoop of the century". As a rookie reporter for ''The ...
noted that the book "provides some excellent quotations from intelligence documents, both British and German, as well as sketches of
Peenemünde Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...
and of the -2 rocket and suggested that "perhaps scientists or soldiers engaged in rocketry" would find it useful. William Connor, under his pen-name ''Cassandra'' in ''
The Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead ...
'', called it "one of the most fascinating books I have read for a long time".
Duncan Sandys Duncan Edwin Duncan-Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys (; 24 January 1908 – 26 November 1987), was a British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a ...
, who had chaired the Crossbow Committee responsible for co-ordinating the Allied response to the V-weapons, called it an "authoritative account of the V-weapon offensive" in his review for the London ''
Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
''. He commended the author for having "successfully woven is researchtogether into a coherent narrative, written in a brisk style", though he faulted Irving for having relied too heavily on Lord Cherwell's papers, with the result that he had treated "the problem as primarily one of scientific intelligence and
aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...
insufficient attention to other more important aspects of the operation." Nonetheless, Sandys concluded, "students will find in ''The Mare's Nest'' a mine of important information, while much wider circles will enjoy David Irving's vivid presentation of a strange story." The book has been widely cited by authors covering the V-weapons programme. Even after Irving's reputation was destroyed after his exposure as a Holocaust denier, Michael J. Neufeld of the Smithsonian's
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...
has described ''The Mare's Nest'' as "the most complete account on both Allied and German sides of the V-weapons campaign in the last two years of the war."


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mare's Nest, The 1964 non-fiction books Books by David Irving English-language non-fiction books History books about World War II V-weapons