Books by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
MA thesis (University of Alberta), 1969
The Silesian Romanticist Wilhelm Contessa (Karl Wilhelm Salice-Contessa) is a sadly neglected mem... more The Silesian Romanticist Wilhelm Contessa (Karl Wilhelm Salice-Contessa) is a sadly neglected member of the literary set (Die Serapionsbrüder) that coalesced around E.T.A. Hoffmann in early 19th-century Berlin and that also included such Romantic writers as Adelbert Chamisso and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Contessa came to Berlin from Weimar as an established and very popular playwright whose plays had been produced and directed by Goethe himself, who admired Contessa's work. However, it is Contessa's charming narrative works that are examined in this thesis, which identifies the formulaic nature of Contessa's storylines and examines such recurrent themes as irrationality, guilt and redemption, apotheosis of the female, and even such dark Hoffmannesque motifs as incest and schizophrenia. The influence of Silesian folklore on Contessa's stories is also discussed and suitable subjects for further research are listed. [Language: English. However, German-language quotations are untranslated; a reading knowledge of German is therefore required].
The narrative of German covert initiatives and Allied security-intelligence measures in Persia (I... more The narrative of German covert initiatives and Allied security-intelligence measures in Persia (Iran) during the Second World War has been neglected by postwar historians mainly because of the unavailability of records and the absence of an authoritative secondary literature. The elimination of this lacuna in the intelligence history of the region is long overdue. By 1941, the espionage activity and subversive potential of the large German expatriate community in Persia had become unacceptable to the British and the Soviets, leading them to invade and occupy the country in August of that year. After the expulsion of the German diaspora, two German intelligence officers continued active espionage and subversion operations as staybehind agents within the British zone. Their efforts were ultimately negated by the defeat of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the headlong retreat of Army Group South from the Caucasus. The operational planners in Berlin then changed their focus from subversion of the Persian polity to sabotage against the Lend-Lease supply route across Persia. Of fourteen special operations planned against Persian strategic targets in 1943 the Germans executed only three, all of which failed. The cause of such catastrophic failure was organizational and operational dysfunction at all levels of the two rival German intelligence services—the Abwehr and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Of equal significance was the robust British response to the Nazi threat, which resulted in the capture of all German operatives on Persian soil and the elimination of any hostile threat to the region. Particularly effective was the liaison between the Security Service (MI5) and the British security-intelligence authorities (CICI) in Tehran. Against all odds, German interest in the region never waned: as final defeat loomed, the destruction of Persian targets became for the ideologically motivated SD synonymous with the obstruction of postwar Soviet interests.
A companion to the pioneering Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran), which told of German... more A companion to the pioneering Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran), which told of Germany's spectacular failure in the region, this carefully researched study of British, American, and Soviet success makes for fascinating reading. Espionage and Counterintelligence in Occupied Persia (Iran) introduces us to Allied and Axis spies, spycatchers, and spymasters and to the highly effective methods employed by regional security forces to safeguard the lines of communication, the Lend-Lease supply route from the Gulf to the Caspian, and the vital oilfields, pipelines, and refineries of Khuzistan from Nazi attack and indigenous sabotage. Of particular interest in this study of neglected operational narratives and key clandestine personalities is its lucid description and analysis of Anglo-American and Anglo-Soviet intelligence relations, as the three Allies moved inexorably towards postwar realignment and the Cold War. Available only by purchase or through your library. Nominated for The 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.
A pioneering investigation into the secret world of wartime Persia (Iran), meticulously sourced a... more A pioneering investigation into the secret world of wartime Persia (Iran), meticulously sourced and based on six years of extraordinarily wide and deep research in the German, British, and American archives. This study exposes the problems, pressures, and personalities among the competing German intelligence services that targeted Persia, and it describes the highly effective methods employed by the implacable Allied security forces that resisted them. It tells a riveting tale: there are parachutists, gold, guns, dynamite, double agents, mistresses, and Byzantine intrigues galore in this compelling historical narrative. At the same time, as a serious academic study and a penetrating analysis of catastrophic intelligence failure, Adrian O'Sullivan's book is a highly significant contribution to Second World War intelligence history. Available only by purchase or through your library.
Conference Presentations by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
"The 'Ratcatchers': British Secret Intelligence in Occupied Persia, 1942-44"
A paper presented at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (2015)
Journal Articles by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Iran Daily, 2021
Iran was officially neutral during World War II but opposing sides of the war did not wish, or co... more Iran was officially neutral during World War II but opposing sides of the war did not wish, or could not afford, to respect its neutrality. Barely two years into the war, Anglo-Soviet forces invaded Iran in an operation codenamed Countenance, effectively taking control of the country in a week. The strategic objective of the invasion was to maintain Allied supply lines to the USSR, already attacked by the Axis. Along with the combat and logistics aspects of war in the Iranian theatre, there had been a heated espionage rivalry between the Allied and the Axis powers. In two volumes on the matter published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014 and 2015, Adrian O’Sullivan, Professor of Intelligence History at Bishop Grosseteste University, has looked into the intelligence activities of the two sides of the war in Iran. In an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, he has elaborated on some of the core themes of his twin books.
Landscapes of Intelligence in the Third Reich: Visualising Abwehr Operations during the Second World War
Journal of Intelligence History, 2022
Co-authored with Dr Claire M. Hubbard-Hall. The German military-intelligence service (the Abwehr)... more Co-authored with Dr Claire M. Hubbard-Hall. The German military-intelligence service (the Abwehr) was a macrospatial organisation whose clandestine operational activities were significantly affected by such factors as place and space. As the Second World War progressed, the Abwehr’s covert spaces expanded and contracted dynamically, producing some challenging operational environments. The service responded in various ways to a changing landscape engendered by military occupation, overseas deployment, geographical distance, enemy activity, and imminent defeat. In response to the recent spatial turn in the theory and methodology of other disciplines, intelligence historians should now consider incorporating geospatial viewpoints more often into their textual accounts and perhaps even publishing dynamic online visualisations with the aid of historical geographic information systems (HGIS).
Wives of Secret Agents: Spyscapes of the Second World War and Female Agency
International Journal of Military History and Historiography, 2019
Co-authored with Dr Claire M. Hubbard-Hall. Few existing archival records or secondary sources ap... more Co-authored with Dr Claire M. Hubbard-Hall. Few existing archival records or secondary sources appear to narrate or describe the circumstances, relationships, and activities of “spy wives” during the Second World War. Intelligence historians currently find themselves at a turning point, where new approaches to the writing of intelligence history have been called for that transcend the study of operations and policy, while drawing when necessary upon the methodologies of such adjacent disciplines as social history and historical geoinformatics. It is therefore surely appropriate to conduct an examination of the hitherto neglected social phenomenon of female agency in the “spyscape” of wartime British and German covert operations. Through an examination of case studies of individual wives of intelligence operatives, constructed on the basis of information gathered from scattered primary and secondary sources, it is possible to assemble and analyse a wide, highly differentiated range of gender relationships at the intersection of the manifest and secret worlds.
Global War Studies, Mar 2015
The curiously neglected narrative of security intelligence in occupied Persia (Iran) reveals that... more The curiously neglected narrative of security intelligence in occupied Persia (Iran) reveals that where the German intelligence services failed catastrophically, British security measures triumphed spectacularly. However, from 1943 onwards, after Stalingrad and Kursk, the focus of the Allied intelligence services abruptly shifted from the war against Nazism to the prospect of postwar realignment and the struggle against Stalinism. Equally abruptly, the German services switched their operational priorities from subversion of the Persian polity to sabotage initiatives targeting the Lend-Lease supply route across Persia, the oil infrastructure of southwestern Persia, and Allied shipping in the Persian Gulf, all of which failed. By the end of the war, all German operatives on Persian soil had been captured, interrogated, and interned by British security. The initially amateur but ultimately professional "ratcatchers" of the Defence Security Office in Tehran also performed various routine but vital security functions throughout the region, not least the establishment and maintenance of a large registry numbering 61,000 personalities. Success came to the DSO partly because of the excellent communicative liaison sustained between the Tehran office and MI5 headquarters; important relationships were also created and nurtured with the Soviet security forces and the Americans. Available only by purchase or through your library.
Journal of the Iran Society, 2017
The hitherto neglected stories of three remarkable German intelligence officers who came to Persi... more The hitherto neglected stories of three remarkable German intelligence officers who came to Persia early in the Second World War, and who failed in everything they attempted. All three were Russia experts, not Persia experts, yet they adapted quickly to their immediate predicament when Persia was invaded by British and Russian forces in 1941. With no specific orders or funding from Berlin, with little knowledge of Persian culture or of Farsi, and with nothing but faith in Germany’s ultimate victory over the Bolsheviks to sustain them, these three intelligent but seriously flawed men set about the task of preparing for their vision of a German invasion and occupation of Persia and Iraq from the north, from Asia Minor, and from North Africa.
Asian Affairs, May 2017
This article is based on an illustrated lecture which Dr O'Sullivan gave to the Royal Society for... more This article is based on an illustrated lecture which Dr O'Sullivan gave to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on 15 November 2016.
Works reviewed by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Macris, Jeffrey. ‘Review of Espionage and Counterintelligence in Occupied Persia (Iran): The Success of the Allied Secret Services, 1941-1945 by Adrian O’Sullivan’. Journal of Military History 81, no. 1 (2017): 267-9.
Paehler, Katrin. 'Review of Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran): The Failure of the German Intelligence Services, 1939-1945' by Adrian O'Sullivan. Journal of Military History 80, no. 1 (2016): 273-74.
Moll, Martin. 'Review of Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran): The Failure of the German Intelligence Services, 1939-1945' by Adrian O'Sullivan. Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies 8, no. 2 (2014): 153-55.
Book Reviews by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
H-Diplo Review Essay 334
Espionage is a tricky activity for historians to narrate, and spying an even trickier occupation ... more Espionage is a tricky activity for historians to narrate, and spying an even trickier occupation to describe, simply because, if it is done right, espionage is supposed to be secret, and to remain secret. Consequently, before undertaking any attempt to document, narrate, and describe the history of the secret services, all that the average intelligence historian can usually see are two large signs that say 'Keep Out' and 'Go Away.' All too often book projects have to be abandoned because prospective authors are simply unable to find adequate archival or published material to support a full-length monograph. We investigative historians can hardly be blamed for occasionally feeling that we are perceived by the guardians of the secret world, whoever they may be, as some kind of post facto enemy, poking our unwelcome academic noses into things that are and should forever remain the sole preserve of the secret services. This is particularly true for Second World War intelligence historians, who still regularly encounter retained or heavily weeded files; blank lines, paragraphs, and whole pages; and concealed personalities, some 80 years on. But one perseveres stoically, of course: one defiantly hoists one's own large sign, which says: 'Keep Calm and Carry On.' And this Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones has done admirably with The Nazi Spy Ring in America, his latest study of espionage and counterespionage in the United States, producing -against considerable historiographical odds -a thoroughly readable yet learned contribution to the operational history of German intelligence and American security.
Book Review: Blood, Oil, and the Axis: The Allied Resistance against a Fascist State in Iraq and the Levant, 1941, by John Broich, reviewed by Adrian O’Sullivan. Journal of Military History 84, no. 2 (April 2020): 625-26.
Journal of Military History, 2020
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Books by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Conference Presentations by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Journal Articles by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Works reviewed by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Book Reviews by Adrian O'Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)