Editor’s Pick
⭐ Highest RecommendedOffice of Strategic Services: Combined & Remastered Manuals
Unites all eight original Office of Strategic Services manuals — faithfully reproduced and newly formatted for clarity and continuity. Each manual has been meticulously typeset and standardized to preserve historical integrity while enhancing usability for research, study, and instruction. Available in hardcover and paperback.
Declassified OSS Field Manuals
8 DocumentsSimple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)
Outlines practical methods for ordinary citizens to disrupt enemy operations using simple, low-risk acts — wasting time, spreading confusion, and minor physical sabotage that could cumulatively degrade enemy efficiency. Written for distribution in occupied territories as a primer on low-end disruptive tactics.
Morale Operations Field Manual
Guided OSS officers in psychological and propaganda campaigns designed to weaken enemy confidence. Provides detailed techniques for rumor-spreading, black propaganda, and other covert methods of undermining morale behind enemy lines. A foundational reference in the study of psychological operations and information warfare.
Special Operations Field Manual
A comprehensive guide for training and conducting irregular warfare operations during World War II. Covers planning, organization, guerrilla tactics, demolitions, and coordination with resistance movements. Reflects the OSS’s role as the forerunner of modern U.S. special operations forces, blending doctrine with practical fieldcraft.
OSS Organization and Functions
Provides an overview of the OSS’s internal structure, outlining the roles, responsibilities, and coordination of its various branches during World War II. Captures the OSS’s evolution into a unified wartime intelligence organization and remains a key reference for understanding the origins of U.S. covert and special operations.
Maritime Unit Field Manual
Documents the doctrine and methods of the OSS Maritime Unit, the forerunner of today’s naval special operations. Covers coastal infiltration, swimmer delivery systems, demolition techniques, and specialized maritime sabotage operations. Reflects the OSS’s pioneering role in combining irregular warfare with naval tactics.
Operational Groups Field Manual
Outlines the organization, training, and mission of the OSS Operational Groups — elite, uniformed units conducting guerrilla warfare in occupied Europe. Covers small-unit tactics, coordination with resistance forces, demolitions, and intelligence integration. Precursor to modern U.S. Army Special Forces.
OSS Secret Intelligence Manual
A procedural handbook for clandestine intelligence work during World War II. Lays out organizational principles, tradecraft, and security practices for gathering, evaluating, and transmitting critical information. Emphasizes cover work, compartmentation, secure communications, and rigorous source evaluation.
OSS Provisional Basic Field Manual
A field primer for OSS personnel preparing for overseas operations. Describes essential duties, reporting standards, and practical preparations — including training scopes, arrival and departure procedures, and handling of agents and records under high risk. Stresses clarity, speed of reporting, and minimal paperwork.
War Reports, Assessments & Specialist Documents
4 DocumentsOSS Special Weapons and Devices
An illustrated manual produced by the OSS Research and Development Branch cataloguing specialized weapons and devices developed for sabotage, covert action, and unconventional warfare. Details the design, construction, and employment of clandestine tools — including explosives, incendiaries, disguised firearms, and mechanical sabotage equipment — for field agents and resistance networks.
The Assessment of Men (1948)
A landmark study detailing the OSS’s groundbreaking WWII psychological program for selecting spies and agents. The OSS developed innovative, multi-day, scenario-based assessments to evaluate candidates’ adaptability, resilience, and problem-solving skills — methods that still influence modern intelligence and corporate talent selection.
War Report of the OSS — Vol. I
Documents the creation and wartime operations of the Office of Strategic Services — the United States’ first coordinated intelligence organization. Compiled by Kermit Roosevelt’s History Project, it traces the OSS’s origins, missions, structure, and lasting global legacy in shaping modern American espionage, covert action, and psychological-warfare doctrine.
The Overseas Targets — War Report of the OSS Vol. II
Chronicles the overseas operations of the OSS across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Details field missions, intelligence networks, sabotage, and guerrilla coordination from London to Burma, illustrating how OSS shaped Allied strategy, global resistance movements, and the enduring institutional foundations of postwar intelligence.
Additional Historical Accounts of the OSS
6 BooksWild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage
The definitive biography of William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan — the lawyer, war hero, and visionary who built the OSS from scratch and shaped U.S. intelligence for generations. Essential reading for understanding the institutional origins of modern American covert action.
OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency
A detailed institutional history of the OSS, tracing how America’s first centralized intelligence apparatus was assembled, deployed, and eventually disbanded — laying the groundwork for the CIA and the modern U.S. intelligence community.
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of WWII’s OSS
Chronicles the largely untold stories of the men and women who served as OSS agents in the field — their recruitment, training, missions, and the personal cost of covert operations behind enemy lines across multiple theaters of the war.
The OSS: A Captivating Guide to America’s First Spy Agency and Its Secret Operations in WWII
An accessible overview of the OSS — its formation, key operations, major figures, and lasting influence on U.S. military and intelligence strategy. A solid entry point for readers new to the history of American covert action.
The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of WWII Secret Warfare
The story of the OSS’s Research and Development Branch under Stanley Lovell — the scientists, engineers, and inventors who created the gadgets, poisons, and devices used by Allied agents. A fascinating look at the intersection of science and clandestine warfare.
OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War
Examines OSS operations in wartime China — navigating the complex rivalry between Nationalist and Communist forces while building intelligence networks that would shape the early Cold War. A critical study of how WWII covert operations set the stage for decades of conflict in Asia.
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