Book 58: Operation Kronstadt

Operation Kronstadt by Harry Ferguson tells the world about the early MI6mission in Kronstadt. This mission was an amazing intelligence success and showed real heroism by the men who participated.

Operation Kronstadt was one of the first major attempts to get intelligence in the Soviet Union.  The British would run CMB’s between Terrioki, Finland and Kronstadt which was one of the armed fortresses guarding Petrograd.  This mission was dual prong in the end, to attack the fortresses and to help get Paul Dukes out of Soviet Russia.

Operation Kronstadt was an easy read and it seemed to really have a hold on the history. It realized that the mission was both really successful in areas and had a lot of problems. The problems included many of the classic intelligence problems over the years: trusting the wrong people, betraying your cover, lack of supervision, and etc. The mission successes were very important especially the intelligence that Paul Dukes was able to gather in Soviet Russia and sinking a couple Soviet ships. Plus it allowed the CMBs to really got a lot of work.

It’s not often that you get to see both the operational successes and problems. This book reminds me of Main Enemy by showing intelligence by the intelligence operations in a certain part of the globe and really placing it in time.  It was one of the first books that I’ve seen that showed the immaturity of the MI6 program.