General Discussions

Delving back into the world of intelligence and spies, I was delighted to see that no less than Jean Tulard has been taking an interest in the subject in this 30 min talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxB-97npws There is not much new in it, but I am sure a wider audience would be attracted to the subject if someone like Tulard is speaking. It does bring out the importance of strategic intelligence, especially with efforts to get information about North Africa.

Then I came across this short 8 minute podcast about an Austrian intelligence operative called Redisch, who covered his tracks by trading in tea. The History of Austria: Empire, Collapse, and Reinvention — Fexingo History | Austrian Spies: The Redisch Network in Napoleonic Wars (it’s the Sept 11th edition)

https://www.podbean.com/ei/dir-wkmcm-31023048 I cannot find anything in print, so it seems to be material from the archives.

Then in a random search, I came across ‘Der Feldherr Napoleon als Organisator’ by Herman Gierhl. I tend to reject the idea that Allied forces “reacted” to Napoleon’s methods after 1805, but this is perhaps a case of doing so. On p49 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ISkPAwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA49&dq=doppelspion+napoleon&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=doppelspion%20napoleon&f=false he mentions a former soldier called Boguszewski, who was inserted by the Allies into Napoleon’s main headquarters, where he gathered intelligence by chatting to the enemy and sympathisers (presumably German officers) as well as introducing fake intelligence to French systems. Lelorgne d’Ideville (also mentioned by Tulard), who was the French intelligence chief, obtained definite information about Boguszewski’s activities, but this spy managed to escape before he could be caught. Gierhl then says that a French agent brought the full contents of the Trachenberg Plan to Napoleon before it even reached Emperor Franz I.

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