The Walls Have Ears

Join Dr Helen Fry for the launch of her new book about the ‘secret listeners’ who helped shorten the Second World War.

During the Second World War, British intelligence bugged the conversations of thousands of German prisoners of war at three clandestine stately homes.

At the outbreak of the conflict, the unit had started off in a special compound in the Tower of London, under the directing genius of MI6 spymaster, Thomas Kendrick.

From 1942, captured German generals were housed in luxurious conditions at Trent Park in North London, and Latimer House and Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire. Lulled into a false sense of security, they dropped their guard and inadvertently gave away some of Hitler’s most closely guarded secrets, including discussions on new German technology.

Having worked through the declassified files, historian Helen Fry sheds light on one of the least-known, but greatest deceptions of the Second World War.