by Nigel West
Paul had taught her to decipher the messages received from the German Intelligence Service and thereafter she had occasionally helped him in this; she had found it very difficult however, and Paul had sometimes been impatient with her when she had made mistakes. She had also made some effort to learn Morse, but that had been a tedious business; Paul had given her a test a few days ago, and had been quite angry when he had found how little she knew. Since that time she had assisted Paul mainly in the collection of military information.
Following the collapse of Greece in April 1941 the level of political infighting and scheming among senior politicians and the senior military hierarchy rivalled any play, and the mutiny of April 1944 among the ratings at Alexandria and Port Said was a manifestation of the discontent felt within the Royal Hellenic Navy when activists among the sailors on the lower decks demanded the government-in-exile be reconstituted to allow the participation of the Communist-controlled National Liberation Front (EAM). Their intervention was opposed by the officers and NCOs, usually anti-Communist ELAS supporters, who were placed under arrest by so-called Revolutionary Committees aboard the destroyer Terax and the corvettes Apostolis and Sachtouris. The mutiny was eventually crushed by the expedient of denying the ships food and water, but the bitterness would re-emerge during the postwar civil war. One destroyer, the Pindos, threw their officers overboard and, after a voyage to Malta, reached Italy where it surrendered to the local Communist Party. Seven members of the Royal Hellenic Navy were killed in Alexandria as officers led 250 volunteers over HMS Phoebe to reach the mutineers. Among the vessels involved were the repair ship Hyphaistos, the destroyer Criti, together with some minesweepers and auxiliaries. The last to give up in Port Said were men aboard the battleship Georgios Averof, six destroyers and the submarine Papanicolis. Finally the rebels who had seized control of the recruitment office in central Alexandria surrendered, bringing the episode to a close in Egypt. Meanwhile, the trouble spread to Malta where three submarines, the submarine escort Corinthia, the destroyer Spetses and two auxiliary ships were taken over until the Royal Navy arrested the ringleaders, most of whom were concentrated on the destroyer Navarinon, and sent them back to a detention camp in Egypt.
These events demonstrated the volatility of Greek exile politics and the sensitivity of issues which were likely to be exploited by the Axis if the opportunity arose.
MISANTHROPE’S SIME file identifies her as Mrs Evangeline Palidou, born in Canea, Crete on 25 July 1913. Five foot four inches tall, with brown hair and an oval face, her religion was Greek Orthodox. She had been issued with a Security Card, No. 615 on 28 May 1941 and had received a Red Card, No. 017002 on 25 May 1942. Educated at the Lycée in Canea, with a baccalauréat in French, she had been taken to visit Smyrna as a child in 1928. She had worked in the Anti-Fascist Movement in Crete from 1932 and been employed as a journalist on the anti-fascist newspaper Literia in 1933 before getting married and moving to Athens the following year. She returned to Crete in 1936, spent four months in exile on Naxos in 1938 after her arrest by the ‘4 August regime’, and then worked first as a mannequin and secretary, and then for counter-espionage in Greece from November 1940. She was divorced from her 33-year-old husband, Evangelos Ktistakis in March 1942 and from July 1942 she worked for SIME’s Greek Section and took up residence at the Metropolitan Hotel in Cairo.
Within SIME Evangeline was referred to as BGM, an acronym for ‘Blonde Gun Moll’, a name she acquired as a result of her reputation for packing a pistol. Some believed that she had shot one of her lovers dead, but others suggested this tale was something of an exaggeration, as she had simply thrown him off a roof.
The immense trouble taken by SIME to create MISANTHROPE extended to her entire family. He father, supposedly, was Nicholas Palides, aged sixty-four, formerly the director of economic services in Crete’s Ministry of Finance between 1910 and 1918. He then served in Athens for two years, then in Turkey for two years, returning to Crete where he still lived. His wife, Anastasia Kokytha, was aged fifty-eight, MISANTHROPE’S infant son was still in Crete, and her brother Ionis worked in the port office at Canea.
Nicossof announced her recruitment in a transmission on 24 July but ‘unfortunately uncertainty of livelihood – curtailment of his black bourse activities’ and the non-arrival of funds from his Axis partners finally forced him to find regular employment. After trying from 7 December until 25 December 1942 he secured a post as an interpreter in the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA), an organisation created in the First World War to govern the Ottoman Empire, CHEESE commenced his duties on 1 January 1943, and on 27 January he announced that ‘she could decode already and was learning to transmit’.
Nicossof’s employment by EOTA followed a discussion in SIME, led by James Robertson, over the merits of planting an enemy spy in the organisation. A study of his duties for EOTA, and his contact with other EOTA personnel, would be a tremendous advantage and greatly expand his access to information that would be instantly attractive to the Abwehr. As Robertson noted,
it would appear that in Eritrea OETA interpreters were also used as translators. While it is improbable that CHEESE’S knowledge of English is sufficient to allow him to be employed in this latter capacity under normal circumstances, he might reasonably be employed to translate Italian into French for the convenience of his officers, or to translate simple English phrases into Italian. The publication entitled Notes on the Military Government of Occupied Territories Part II defines the duties of OETA and contains some points which might be of use to CHEESE for transmission to the enemy.
1. Air Raid Precautions. OETA is responsible for the maintenance and repair of civil ARP. Hence it is probable that reports of air raid damage of the territory would reach OETA Cairo.
2. Police. Civil security. Native raiding. Control of arms. Hence probable that CHEESE would hear of sabotage, attacks by Arabs on Italian settlers, desertions from Libyan Arab Force (Gendarmerie), sale of arms by native troops, concealed arms.
3. Collection of political intelligence. Morale of local population both European and native.
4. Hygiene. OETA is responsible for maintenance of civil hospitals and enforcement of hygiene regulations. Also for supply of drugs to civil hospitals and doctors.
5. Supplies and rationing.
6. Maintenance of roads, railways, and communications. (When taken over from HEs and HCS to relieve them for other duties.)
7. Propaganda.
8. Military security (in conjunction with the Corps of Military Police and the Field Security Wing).
9. Removal and installation of enemy officials.
Given OETA’s very wide remit, and the breadth of its reach across the region, with a special emphasis on the former Italian colonies in East and North Africa, SIME was confident that CHEESE’S new status would not only provide him with an income, but would also make him an increasingly attractive asset to his Abwehr controllers. The lengths to which Simpson and Robertson went to create scenarios for CHEESE to acquire apparently harmless pieces of gossip that, to an Abwenhr analyst, might have a rather more significant interpretation, was extraordinary, and much time was spent drafting scenes, in much the same way that a playwright would construct an episode, which gave CHEESE an interesting tidbit. For example, Simpson imagined that
CHEESE has had rather a trying day at OETA, where his habit of a cup of coffee from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. does not meet with the full approval of his superiors. He drops into one of his favourite eating places, the Regent, just off the Kasr el Nil, the proprietor of which is a friend of his. (The Regent is patronised by British and Dominion NCOs and he has often gleaned titbits of information there.) On entering the place, he is pleased to see one of his Greek Army acquaintances. CHEESE joins him and they have dinner together. During dinner, the Greek tells him that they have returned from the desert and are back in Alexandria again. The Greek has taken the opportunity to pop down to Cairo to see a girlfriend of his. One may imagine his feelings on
learning that this girl has decided to become a nurse; and so he finds himself at a loose end. He welcomes CHEESE and proceeds to drink more wine than is really good for him. CHEESE asks what he intends doing when he is back in Alexandria? The Greek gloomily replies that he doesn’t know, but suspects that it will be more exercises again, adding that ‘as if they hadn’t done enough damned exercises already’. CHEESE discreetly guides the conversation into other channels adding that he, CHEESE, might be up in Alexandria soon, and that he would like to meet some of his aforetime friends and acquaintances, but supposes that they will not be so lucky as his friend, and still be up in the desert. The friend says that CHEESE needn’t worry. For the whole of the 1st Greek Brigade are back, less those who were unlucky enough to be bumped off, or wounded. Eventually CHEESE takes his friend back to the latter’s digs and then seeks his own flat.
This completely imaginary episode was created for the sole purpose of conveying the impression that the 1st Greek Brigade had been withdrawn from operations in the Western Desert and was now based in Alexandria. Similarly, another encounter, displaying some humour and entitled CHEESE Snoops Again, was conjured up in January 1943 to provide another piece of the Abwehr’s intelligence jigsaw puzzle:
On Friday evening, 9 January 1943, CHEESE had been called in by his temporary boss, namely (War Substantive Lieutenant), (Temporary Captain), Acting Major B. F. Cuselthwaite to translate some regulations into Italian and Greek. At the end of this task the gallant major was summoned by telephone to go along to another office. As he was going out of the door he said to CHEESE: ‘When you have finished with that bumph, pin all the papers together in their proper order and put them on the second shelf in that cupboard. Lock up the cupboard and give the key to the sergeant next door.’ Cuselthwaite then went off to his colleague’s office. CHEESE finished sorting out the papers and in so doing caught sight of an engagement padcum-diary, just alongside the blotting pad on the major’s table. His first glance was no more than cursory but as he was about to pick up the collected bumph, he recollected seeing the words ‘8th Army’. So he went to look again and saw the following entries for Tuesday 12 January:
– 1000Hrs Conference GHQ. 8th Army War game. (S says Monty wants full details re road and rail freight services? how soon get started, maintenance, reliability.
– 1315Hrs Lunch, Dick, Turf Club.? Golf Gezira.
– Ring up Air Q Movements re seats Col S / Benghazi. Try BOAC if no can do. 2 seats 18th.? how much.
– 1845Hrs Ring Angela re dinner Dolls 13th. Dick re. flat 13th. NAAFI re. whisky and gin. Any van der Rumm?
– Strickland – port facilities what naval personnel available – if any – whose responsibility? Not ours!
– 2100Hrs Joan, Continental.
– CHEESE noted other entries, the significance of which escaped him. However, on thinking things over on Friday evening, he came to the conclusion that he would verify the date as to the 8th Army, although he could not understand what ‘War game’ might mean. On Monday morning a colonel, whom he had not seen before, pushed his head round the major’s office door (CHEESE was doing some translations) and said, ‘B. F., don’t forget those draft schedules for that bloody war game tomorrow.’ The major replied: ‘They’re all OK, Sir. I don’t think Monty will catch us out this time!’
In expanding CHEESE’S circle of friends, SIME gave approval to another of Simpson’s ideas, that he should cultivate a BOAC employee who would act as a conduit for information that, in one proposal, would identify the First Army at Tripoli:
Through his British Airways employee friend … [CHEESE] has met a pilot of the Airways run from Cairo to Cyrenaica. This pilot … call him James from Portsea, Hants. … was introduced to the Amie1 a few weeks ago. Used by the RAF, has been lent to BOAC for a rest from operational duties, having had two years in the desert on bombers, now engaged upon flying freight planes. At a party this week he revealed to the Amie that he wanted to get back to work in the RAF again. Said that there was little or no fun in transporting supplies to Benghazi and bringing back staff officers. Didn’t mind bringing back ‘woundeds’, they were only too glad to have a quiet life for a time; but the staff officers were so fussy and must have their silly little ‘brief cases’ with them; instead of putting the blasted bags with the rest of their kit. Best crowd that he carried were some ‘commando wallahs and parachute blokes’ who threw a terrific party on the way to Benghazi. They were full of fun and terrifically keen to get cracking with the preparations for what they referred to as the ‘Triploli tea party’. Some of them were hoping to meet old friends whom they thought were now posted to the First Army.
A fourth tale dreamed up by SIME in January 1943 was intended to disclose inadvertently the supposed whereabouts of the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable, relying on CHEESE’S friend who worked for BOAC.
CHEESE meets BOAC friend in January 1943. They speak of this and that, running the gamut of desultory topics. CHEESE says that he is kept fairly busy in his new job with the OETA, relating one or two amusing incidents connected with some of the ‘officer personnel’.
BOAC … Mahmoud by name … tells CHEESE of an amusing episode, in his turn. A few days ago a couple of British naval officers with the letter ‘A’ in the curl of their golden rings upon their cuffs (CHEESE interrupts, wanting to know what the letter ‘A’ signifies. Mahmoud says that he has been told that it means the officers are naval aviators; and carries on with his tale.) One of these officers had changed in the plane … in which they were being flown to Cairo … and in changing had dropped a wallet. This wallet had, somehow, fallen into a crevice between the side of the machine and the flooring – and the officer to whom it had belonged had left word that he would call for it at the BOAC offices. Unfortunately, his name had been mislaid and to find out what was his name the wallet had been opened. The first things that came to light were several packets of French letters bearing the name of a Cape Town chemist, and some money (notes). The officer, on claiming the wallet, had opened it to check the notes, which were in South African currency, and out had dropped the rubber goods. The officer, good humouredly accepting the laughs against himself, had presented the three packets to the clerks, and had thrown out some pieces of paper, asking that they should be destroyed. The pieces of paper were nothing more than receipts for meals at various Cape Town restaurants and twelve pairs of silk stockings. CHEESE asked Mahmoud if he got one of the French letters, Mamoud produced a neat small envelope bearing the name Champion & Reads, Chemists, Alderney Street, Cape Town. This packet was in a larger envelope, on the top left-hand corner of which was printed the name ‘Harvey Greenacres (Prpty Ltd)’ in green and in the right-hand corner was a very small stamp, showing an airman in flying helmet and parachute harness. CHEESE shows interest in the stamp, so Mahmoud passes the envelope over to him to examine the stamp. While examining the stamp CHEESE sees that the envelope is addressed to: Lt. N. F. Ravenhead RN, HMS Indefatigable, c/o GPO Cape Town, A mild argument arises as to the pronunciation of the word ‘Indefatigable’. During this discussion Mahmoud tells CHEESE that this was the envelope that had contained the receipt for the twelve pairs of silk stockings. The conversation wanders off via the subject of silk stockings, to various other things that are in short supply and profits to be made if only one could lay one’s hands on the stuff. Later on, CHEESE considers whether there is any value in this information. He considers that it might be if he knew what sort of ship was HMS Indefatigable.
This apparently innocuous item obviously conveyed the impression that the Royal Navy’s most modern aircraft carrier had been in South Africa, the implication being that the warship, which carried seventy-three aircraft, had not only been commissioned, but was operational in the Indian Ocean, thereby doubling Admiral Sir James Somerville’s cruiser strength, which actually consisted of HMS Illustrious. His concern was the threat from Japanese submarines off the coast of Kenya, and the illusion of another carrier in the area was considered a likely deterren
t.
The reality, of course, was very different, for Indefatigable would remain under construction in the Clyde until she was commissioned in May 1944, and the bogus reports of the carrier’s arrival in Simonstown, supported by fake radio traffic transmitted in the Atlantic for the benefit of the Funkbeobachterdienst or B-Dienst, the Kriegsmarine’s signals interception branch, was intended to mislead both the Germans and the Japanese about British naval strength. Naturally, the problem for the deception planners was what to do with Indefatigable once the carrier had been established in the Indian Ocean, and the solution was to pretend that it had sailed to Addu, a very remote atoll in the even more remote Maldives. This scheme would become the source of some mirth, as no one in ‘A’ Force seemed to have a sufficient grasp of geography to know where precisely Addu was!
In December 1943 further measures were taken to support Plan BIJOU and tell the Abwehr that Indefatigable had returned to the Clyde for a refit, whereas the narrative simply reflected the carrier’s authentic commissioning. Later study of Axis intelligence assessments contained in ULTRA intercepts, confirmed that the enemy was quite convinced that both the Indefatigable and the Illustrious were major components of Somerville’s Far East command. However, the truth was that the carrier did not sail on her first patrol until July 1944, and did not reach the Far East until December.
In another example of Simpson’s fertile imagination, SIME developed a plausible narrative to explain the background to some of his material.
CHEESE was sent for by his boss in OETA and told that the British Army were looking for a number of Greek interpreters. All departments had been asked if they had any to spare. The boss had been told by his boss that OETA is to help if they can but he is loath to lose CHEESE. On the other hand CHEESE could be dispensed with in an emergency. What does CHEESE think about it? CHEESE thinks it is bloody awful. He will be parted from his precious set and what price his money if he is in Suez or Kabrit? He says he would be very sorry to leave OETA where he is so well looked after and that for private reasons he doesn’t want to leave Cairo. Of course, if the war effort demands it he will go but … boss says that he quite understands and will do his best but…