On September 24th, 2026, in collaboration with the Office of the President and the Departments of History and Media Arts & Culture, Dr. Jason Bell joined the John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy at 91ÁÔÆæ to discuss his new book, Operation Sparrow: The Incredible True Story of the North American Spies Who Tricked Hitler and Won the War. In attendance were President Tom Stritikus, Ambassador Virginia Palmer, and other notable attendees.
Bell is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He earned his PhD at Vanderbilt and has served as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Göttingen and a scholar-in-residence at Boston University. His research on phenomenology and pragmatism led him to the papers of Winthrop Bell, a Canadian philosopher who became one of Britain's key spies against Nazi Germany. That became his first book, Cracking the Nazi Code, a Canadian bestseller and award winner that has been optioned for film.
His new book uncovers the 80-year-old buried history of one of World War II most extraordinary missions. At the center of this uncovered operation is 91ÁÔÆæ own Guy Nunn. Nunn is an alumnus whose story and success are nothing short of incredible. Nunn was an orphan and scholarship student who later became student body president, a football sensation, Phi Beta Kappa English major, and a Rhodes Scholar. Following his extensive and impressive academic career, he joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a multi-lingual intelligence officer.
Once Dr. Bell took to the podium, the story began. The three commandos, Colonel Florimond Duke, the captain of the force, Major Alfred Suarez, and Captain Guy Nunn, the translator and an 91ÁÔÆæ alumnus of the class of 1934, knew their task: drop behind enemy lines with the direct goal of getting captured by the Nazis. It sounded like a death wish, with Nazi policy being to kill all commandos after torturing them for information, and it nearly was.
In the heat of World War II, the Allies needed a break in Nazi Germany defenses, where deception became a necessity in the war effort. British Forces planted false papers on the body of a homeless man dressed as a Royal Marines officer in Operation Mincemeat and constructed phantom field armies and tanks with success, but Nazi intelligence was catching onto the Allies™ manipulation of planted documents. Anyone could fake papers, but how can you fake living, breathing operatives?
Nunn and the Sparrows trained to do so, concocting a plan that the Allies were to invade through the Balkans in the largest land and sea attack in military history. If their stories didn™t perfectly match up, their cover would be blown, D-Day would fail, and they would almost certainly be executed.
And so, in 1944, the three Sparrows parachuted into rural Hungary and let themselves be captured by the Gestapo.
Bell highlighted a critical component to the deception: in order to build trust with the German interrogators, Nunn and the other two operatives strategically leaked international secrets that were actually sourced from foreign newspapers such as The New York Times. By telling dozens of verifiable truths, the Sparrows earned rapport with the Nazis. These truths led the Sparrows to successfully trick Hitler into believing that they were elite officers who were spearheading a massive Balkan operation. The ruse worked just as intended, and Nazi High Command poured 100,000 troops into Hungary, leaving a mere 50,000 to defend the vast coast of Normandy.
In his talk, Dr. Bell highlighted the horrifying experience and toll on the operatives who were behind the military strategy. The three Sparrows experienced chained solitary confinement, were under constant threat of execution, and learned of a blood bank that drained blood from other prisoners to use for German military personnel. Fellow prisoners of war were shot and killed lined up next to the Sparrows, an attempt to scare them into submission. But even in this abyss of violence and isolation, Guy Nunn managed to form a kinship with his fellow condemned prisoners. By lowering the water level of a prison toilet, Nunn was able to speak with anti-Nazi political prisoners hidden below, including conversing with an Austrian who asked if anyone would remember the political prisoners after the war. Nunn promised he would later carry on their stories to Americans once the Nazis were defeated.
During the Q&A, Bell addressed the question of why Operation Sparrow remained buried for so many years. He attributed the secrecy to complex Cold War politics and Soviet-Western territorial disputes in post-war Europe. Bell also shared insight about his transition from academic philosophy to narrative history, noting that writers must home in on moments of danger and hook the reader on heroes before tackling the complex history.
The talk was part of the Young Initiative fall speaker series, which continues October 29 with UCLA Daniel Treisman.