Offered to the attention of Soviet readers, the book "Special Purpose Intelligence," written by the English author Patrick Beasley and published in London in 1977, complements the rather wide and well-known list of books published in the West and partially translated into Russian related to the history of World War II, and in particular the war at sea. [...] The specific side that distinguishes P. Beasley's book from many other American and English books published and translated in the West is that the author covers... a little-known area of ​ ​ one of the most important types of support for the preparation and conduct of hostilities of various sizes - intelligence support.