THE LISTENING SERVICES OF VICTORY

Intercepting communications, breaking the codes used and penetrating enemy intentions — this is what the French signals intelligence services managed to do for more than four years. They enabled the high command to foil numerous attacks and to achieve, in 1918, Victory. 

From the Battle of the Marne to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, these services were present on every theatre of operations, in every battle and every engagement. At the forefront of technological innovation, they never ceased to evolve in order to continue intercepting, throughout the conflict, vital intelligence and thus give the French armies a "head start". 

Yet this essential contribution remained secret: during the war, so as not to reveal this trump card to the enemy; after the Armistice, so that this decisive advantage could be reused in the event of new conflicts; and finally, in the 1950s–1960s, with the passing of the principal figures involved...

A specialist in signals intelligence, General Jean-Marc Degoulange reveals for the first time the role of these men who worked in the shadows. The fruit of four years of research in the military archives, Les Écoutes de la Victoire lifts the veil on this espionage that changed the course of History.