Operation Sparrow

For fans of World War II history and spycraft, this is the extraordinary true story of three American soldiers who parachuted into Hungary, deep in Axis territory, and fed game-changing false D-Day intelligence to the Nazis who captured them.

March 16, 1944: former New York Giants starter Col. Florimond Duke, Capt. Guy Nunn, and Maj. Alfred Suarez embarked on the most dangerous mission of their military careers, Operation: SPARROW, a covert mission that would have them parachuting deep into Europe to negotiate Hungary's surrender to the Allies. As secret agents the men faced more danger than regular soldiers as combatants engaged in espionage are not granted prisoner-of-war status, allowing them to be treated as criminals; knowing full well the risks, the men are committed to serving their country and ending the war. Unfortunately, within three days they're imprisoned as Hitler sends in thousands of German forces.

Unbeknownst to their captors, the Sparrows' commanders have planned for this express outcome. While they're being shuttled back and forth between different custodians and countries, vehemently denying being spies and desperately holding on to the military uniforms that protect them under the Geneva convention, the agents execute their second underlying mission: in the fact of increasingly harrowing interrogation they take every opportunity to sow disinformation. In particular they claim that the Allies are planning an attack in the Balkans, miles away from the intended target of Normandy. They won't realize the full implications their false intel will have on D-Day until after the war.

While they never accomplished all of their goals, Duke, Nunn, and Suarez waged their own war of deception, returning home from Europe as uncontested champions. Of the tens of millions of men who fought in WW2, these are the only three whose mission directly involved being captured and interrogated by the Nazis. Now, for the first time, historian Jason Bell brings this untold story to life!