Over the Wall

A BRIXMIS Intelligence Officer Behind the Iron Curtain

By Will Britten

There is still very little that has been published about the work of BRIXMIS during the Cold War. However, Over the Wall now shines a light on BRIXMAS as one of the four allied military missions operating throughout the whole of the Cold War period, and surely one of the most fascinating and effective intelligence collection agencies of the era.

Written by Will Britten, a career Military Intelligence Officer, this hardback book treats us to a fresh, and in places hard-hitting, look at the British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany. BRIXMIS, was arguably the most successful and enduring intelligence organisation of the whole Cold War, with its three-man teams maintaining
a permanent presence behind the Iron Curtain, patrolling East German soil every single day from 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the face of post-war Europe.

Over the Wall is the story of Will's experiences as one of the last generation of Cold War warriors, detailing reconnaissance missions in the depths of the DDR, targeting by Stasi surveillance teams, fascinating personal contacts with 'the enemy' and human source operations. Beyond this, he puts forward the shocking proposition that Moscow had almost certainly compromised BRIXMIS through their own agents operating within the wider US military system. Providing a rare insight into the activities of the GRU-staffed Soviet military teams deployed reciprocally in West Germany, Over the Wall ultimately poses an intriguing question: in the final balance, whose missions were operationally
more effective?

Size 156 x 268mm, 320 pages, Hardback, ISBN: 9781803998565