David OKeefe - One Day in August: Ian Fleming, Enigma and the Deadly Raid on Dieppe

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Finalist for the RBC Charles Taylor Prize

Finalist for the John W. Dafoe Book Prize

Finalist for the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award

A Globe and MailBest Book

A fast-paced and convincing book, One Day in Augustclears up decades of misinformation about the ignoble raid and should provide comfort for the few remaining survivors of that notorious massacre Building on the work of previous historians who didnt have access to the documents he had, OKeefe has provided meaning to what has always been seen as a senseless massacre. And for Ron Beal, who witnessed the slaughter 71 years ago as a bewildered and terrified private, that is everything. Now I can die in peace, he told OKeefe. Now I know what my friends died for. Amen to that.

Toronto Star

Based on extensive original research OKeefes landmark new book presents a new and original explanation of what happened on that fateful August day in 1942.

The Globe and Mail(Best Book)

This is a valuable, well-researched, and thought provoking book. The author has uncovered new evidence and cleared up a lot of questions I have known for years that there was an intelligence-gathering element in the plan; but not to the extent revealed by David OKeefe. OKeefes book is a must read if one is to really understand the Dieppe raid.

Julian Thompson

Highly original and bracingly revisionist, One Day in Augustis that rare book that is able to say something new about something so familiar. Based on extensive research in official records in Canada and Britain, many of ii them previously undiscovered or long-forgotten, One Day in Augustis historical writing at its best: engrossing, revealing, and enlightening.

Citation, RBC Taylor Prize

OKeefe has definitely made the biggest breakthrough of the last twenty years in our understanding of the raid His principal research achievement is to have kept digging in the British archives with such persistence that the keepers of the British code-breaking secrets conceded that there was no point holding back the remaining records linking Bletchley Park, Ian Fleming and the Dieppe raid.

Peter Henshaw, Dieppe scholar and intelligence analyst, Privy Council Office

In the same way that intelligence in the Second World War had to be based on multiple sources rather than a single thunderclap moment or dramatic source, David has built this case through a whole series of small pieces of evidence [He] has certainly changed our view of Dieppe into the future; he has added a new dimension that we really werent aware of before.

Stephen Prince, Head, Naval Historical Branch, Royal Navy

The most important work on the [Dieppe] raid since it occurred in 1942.

Rocky Mountain Outlook

OKeefe tells a masterful story of the intrigue and cryptology behind the fighting forces I will be among the first to say that any subsequent book on Dieppe or Ultra intelligence will have to take into account his stunning new research and bold claims For years, popular histories were derided, especially by academics, as all story and no analysis, and for offering few new contributions to understanding the past. But that seems to be changing in recent years, as the best popularizers find new hooks and angles for their histories, and employ new evidence usually oral histories, or, in OKeefes case, deep archival research in innovative and revealing ways.

The Globe and Mail

Professor David OKeefe, a former officer in the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada), is an award-winning historian, author, film-maker and leading authority on Canadian military historical research. He currently teaches history at Marianopolis College in Quebec.