During World War II, Noel Annan was privileged to witness at first hand the innermost workings of British intelligence in Bletchley park and elsewhere. Charged to second-guess German strategy from the gleanings of Ultra and the British spy networks in Europe, he was one of the "brains" behind British war planning. From Bomber Harris to Winston Churchill, to the great minds at Bletchley, he describes the people involved in this crucial work, leading eventually to the planning of Operation Overlord. After the war he was seconded to Germany to help oversee British interests, and his portrayal of Allied planning - and lack of it - and the immediate German renaissance through people like Adenauer, to whom he was particularly close, is of considerable importance to understanding Europe as it is today.