The Walls Have Ears

The Walls Have Ears reconstructs the British intelligence operation that secretly recorded German prisoners of war at specialised sites including Trent Park, Latimer House and Wilton Park. Prisoners were encouraged to talk in apparently private conditions while hidden microphones and teams of listeners captured discussions about military operations, weapons development, morale and the conduct of the war.

Helen Fry traces the system from its early wartime experiments under intelligence officer Thomas Kendrick to its increasingly sophisticated use against senior German officers. The intercepted conversations produced information about German technology and also preserved candid evidence concerning attitudes to Nazi crimes. The book is a nonfiction history of the intelligence operation and the people who ran it.