Audio only
Operation Sparrow
The Incredible True Story of the North American Spies Who Tricked Hitler and Won the WarBy Jason BellNarrated by Grover GardnerLength9h 28m
About this audiobook
The extraordinary true WWII story of three American commandos who parachuted behind enemy lines with orders to get captured—and convince the Nazis that D-Day was coming a thousand miles away.
March 16, 1944. Colonel Duke jumped into Hitler's Europe to lead Operation Sparrow, an OSS mission authorized by the president. Duke was forty-eight, twice the age of most paratroopers. He had played pro football for the New York Giants, flown fighter planes, and made his fortune in advertising before World War II made him a spy behind enemy lines.
Within days, the three Sparrows were captured in Hungary. It wasn't a failure. It was the plan. Under brutal Gestapo interrogation, Duke and his men set out to convince the Third Reich that the D-Day invasion would strike the Balkans, far from France.
Survive torture while making a lie sound true—it was either genius or suicidal. Probably both.
If the ruse held, Axis divisions would defend the wrong coast. If it broke, three Americans would be shot as spies—and the Wehrmacht would be poised to win D-Day.
Of the tens of millions who fought in the war, the Sparrows were the only ones whose mission required capture by the Nazis. Drawing on recently declassified OSS files, Jason Bell brings their story to life.
Operation Sparrow reveals:
The American heroes who turned their own capture into a weapon
The Gestapo interrogation rooms that became a secret Allied battlefield
The top-secret deception that kept Hitler's divisions away from NormandyMeticulously researched and told at the pace of a thriller, Operation Sparrow is narrative history for readers of Operation Mincemeat and Unbroken.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir, Psychology
Length9 hrs 28 mins
Narrated byGrover Gardner
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 29, 2026
LanguageEnglish
More from Jason Bell
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass44h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m$0.99 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5.0 (2)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
LES MISERABLES (Illustrated Edition)Victor Hugo66h 17m$1 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m$33 · $0.00
The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated)Flavius Josephus59h 14m$3 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m$28 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m$0.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m5.0 (1)$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 37m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5.0 (2)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
The complete novelsJane Austen73h 18m$3.50 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m5.0 (1)$20 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m$23
The Complete Works of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare89h 26m$3.50 · $0.00
Vax FactsPaul Thomas MD, Deedee Hoover10h 26m$25
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m5.0 (1)$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m$26 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m$0.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m5.0 (1)$23 · $0.00
Nobody Knows My NameJames Baldwin5h 49m$17
You may also like
Last Boat to CadizBarnaby Conrad5h 19m$14 · $0.00
The Collected Works of John Buchan (Illustrated) (Annotated)John Buchan199h 19m$2 · $0.00
GreenmantleJohn Buchan9h 51m$1 · $0.00
Greenmantle (Spy & Mystery Series)John Buchan10h 58m$2 · $0.00
TrapezeSimon Mawer11h 23m$23
GreenmantleJohn Buchan9h 1m$20
The AmbushersDonald Hamilton5h 20m$17
The 39 Steps (Annotated)John Buchan5h 5m$0.99 · $0.00
The SpySuzanne Kamata1h 1m$5 · $0.00
John Buchan: 28 Novels & 40+ Short Stories (Illustrated)John Buchan427h 31m$1 · $0.00
GreenmantleJohn Buchan9h 27m$20
Worrals Flies AgainW. E. Johns6h 10m$1 · $0.00
The Thirty-Nine StepsJohn Buchan3h 53m$12
FoleyMichael Smith12h 11m$23
The SpySuzanne Kamata54m$14.10 · $0.00
Caught by the TurksFrancis Yeats-Brown7h 24m$2 · $0.00
Americans in ParisCharles Glass15h 19m$25
MYSTERY & ESPIONAGE Ultimate Collection – Complete Richard Hannay, Dickson McCunn & Sir Edward Leithen Series in One Premium Edition (Annotated)John Buchan149h 42m$2 · $0.00
The Hungry BladeLawrence Dudley11h 31m$20
The Secret History of World War IINeil Kagan, Stephen G. Hyslop11h 9m$23