The British and American Intelligence Divisions in Occupied Germany, 1945-1955 - A Secret System of Rule

This book provides the first history of the British and American Intelligence Divisions (IDs) in occupied Germany and the liaison between them. It reveals that after the fall of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, much of Germany was controlled by an Anglo-American secret system of rule which was the real backbone of the occupation and largely explains its successful outcomes. Based in Heidelberg, the American ID was the senior American military intelligence organisation in occupied Germany, responsible for the security of American forces in Europe. The British ID, based in Herford, was a purpose-built intelligence organisation designed to ensure the security of the British Zone of Germany and to help achieve the Allied occupation objectives. The IDs undertook military, scientific, security, political, and state-building intelligence tasks which each form the focus of a chapter in this book.


Luke Daly-Groves is a Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Manchester. Prior to this, he lectured at the University of Central Lancashire where he developed a specialist module on modern Germany (1933-1965). He has also taught the history of Germany and secret intelligence at the University of Leeds. In 2021, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society by invitation of the society's President, in recognition of his contribution to scholarship.