The OSS have always been one of the more obscure stories of WW2.  Like all spy services, mystery and secrecy was an essential tool of their trade.  With the OSS, there was also a mystique, that of the lethal deadly amateurs, who could go anywhere and do anything.  And overshadowing it all, their founder, the legendary Wild Bill Donovan.   

Douglas Waller’s biography is controlled, lucid and makes gripping reading.  He writes precisely and dispassionately about Donovan and the OSS.  In doing so he gives us a clear picture of a man and events previously shrouded in secrecy and half-truths, and of the achievements of a man whose reputation has been distorted by political enmity.

Early life

Waller skips over Bill Donovan’s early life and has it out of the way by page fifty (of 450 pages).  This is because he judges the important piece of Donovan’s life to be the years of the Second World War and his creation of the OSS.  So we get a sketch of Donovan’s early life.  Poor New York Irish, a bad scholar, tough, a born fighter.  As an adolescent he was for a while an unlikely candidate for the priesthood.  He was a handsome man, with an iron will to succeed and a prodigious appetite for work.  With these skills he quickly became a rising successful attorney and a society man-about town in New York.  Marrying well, he set about making a career and money.

World War 1

Then came World War 1.  Donovan volunteered and became a talented and bold officer.  A born leader of men, he was able to forge a fighting battalion that served honourably in the carnage.  Donovan was brave, cool and battle-smart.  He was wounded in action and at the end of the war he was the highest-decorated American officer to leave the war alive.  He returned to America a hero and a widely-known public figure. That set the stage for what was to follow.      

World War 2 looms

Douglas Waller is particularly good on America’s lack of preparedness at the outset of World War 2.  There was a sharp contrast between the US establishment and Bill Donovan, who had retained his political and military connections, and essential set himself up as an unofficial spymaster.  Hard to imagine, but the US had no spy service of note and was basically dependent on the British for handoffs of information.  The British come out of this quite well, at this time their spies are cunning, clever and well-led.       

At this point the book becomes a great read.  Donovan sets up the OSS in the teeth of powerful opposition, both from politicians and the military.  However what really sparkles is the re-telling of Donovan’s audacity and ingenuity.  From employing burglars to crack the safes of axis powers (remember that America was officially neutral at the start of the war) to setting up a propaganda and misinformation team that misled the Germans.  A cavalcade of brave, strange and downright crazy men pass through the doors of the OSS, recruited by Donovan to become spies and saboteurs.       

Patriot and hero

The war allows Waller to open out Donovan’s psychology, his ingenuity, willingness to take big risks, tireless energy and bottomless charisma.  He was clearly a man of incredible courage, willing to put himself on the frontline to sniff out the vital truth on behalf of his country.  Waller is even-handed and shows Donovan’s flaws, his lack of management skills, which became a real as the OSS grew in size.  Also Donovan’s “my way or the highway” decision making alienated many in the American war effort.  Donovan was also an incorrigible ladies man, with many affairs to his credit.  Waller is discreet here, he occasionally names names but really only hints at Donovan’s turbulent lovelife.

OSS in action

The OSS were hugely valuable to the American campaigns in North Africa and Europe.  Their information helped American generals make decisive battle choices; their saboteur campaigns with guerrilla forces hampered the Germans, saving allied lives.  Waller covers their missions comprehensively and it is possible to see exactly how the OSS won their victories.

This book is a tribute to the American spirit, of irreverence for authority and a love for enterprise and courage.  When Donovan setup the OSS, he was not a serving soldier, yet he was able to setup a successful spy service.  He was a maverick, yet Roosevelt backed Donovan and his smart, contrarian instincts.  The book shows how these were less regulated times, with greater freedom for men to make their mark  

But most of all there is Donovan, a giant of a man.  Astonishingly Donovan was 58 when he setup the OSS.  What a fighter!

This is a great biography, well researched, wise and well-written.  It is plain that it will become the standard work on Wild Bill Donovan.  This is a spy story that is better than fiction.  Recommended.