The Protection of British, American and German Intelligence during the Second World War ; La protection du renseignement britannique, américain et allemand pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale
This thesis investigates the protection of British intelligence sources during World War Two, and includes a comparison with American and German practices. In these three countries, intelligence officers adopted very different approaches to preserve these sources and to ensure that the latter could be used in the long term. Each country had a different perception of the balance between the immediate use of intelligence and the protection of its sources, between the short-term benefits and long-term preservation of these assets in the context of the war. Drawing on a vast amount of archival material, both civilian and military, this research presents these three countries' various approaches and uses this analysis to reflect on their concrete achievements. This study interrogates the preconceived ideas about these countries' intelligence practices, in particular the reputation of secrecy of the British agencies, as opposed to the lack of discretion of their American counterparts. Moreover, this thesis emphasises the particular situation of German secret services in a very divided country.The ambiguous cooperation between Britain and the United States during the Second World War helped pave the way for their « special relationship ». During the war, the balance of power between the two nations shifted dramatically, in the intelligence field as in many others. Moreover, the analysis of the exchanges between the British intelligence officers and their French and Soviet colleagues opens new research avenues in the study of their international relations and on these complex and fluctuating alliances. ; Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de la protection des sources de renseignement britanniques pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en enrichissant cette analyse grâce à des éléments de comparaison avec les pratiques privilégiées aux États-Unis et en Allemagne. Dans ces trois pays, des approches très différentes sont adoptées afin de s'assurer de la durabilité des sources et de pouvoir continuer à exploiter ces données ...