Among the notable achievements of the designers at Station XV were exploding rats which were intended to be deposited where they would be thrown into boiler fireboxes, causing substantial damage. The Germans’ discovery of the plot probably caused greater mayhem among the occupying forces than would have been achieved from the actual damage to the boilers. The tiny explosive ‘tyre-bursters’ capable of wrecking a car wheel were disguised as local animal droppings – horses in Europe, mules in Italy and camels in North Africa. London Zoo, through the good offices of Julian Huxley (of BBC Brains Trust fame), provided an assortment of droppings which were reproduced in plastic, hand-painted, filled with the explosive device and used as booby traps.
Very early in the war the possibility was recognised of disguising a bomb as a lump of coal. Coal was the main fuel for power stations and factory boilers as well as for steam locomotives which were the norm on all surface railways. In the Brown Book of Devices, published in late 1939, explosive coal, coke, briquettes, logs, etc. were all considered. (No surviving copies of the Brown Book of Devices or the Sabotage Handbook, mentioned later, have been traced.) At this stage the actual material was bored out to take an explosive charge, but this method had serious drawbacks in production and experiments took place to devise an alternative. At Station XV RSM Wally Bull, a film studio plasterer, under the direction of Wills, worked with S/Sgt Nunney who perfected the following method for producing fake coal.
The piece of ‘coal’ was made by moulding it in two halves using Herculite plaster mixed to a creamy consistency to which was added 25 per cent of Dextrine and Black Ebony water dye. Each half-shell was reinforced with scrim. When they were dry the interior of each half was painted with shellac, the explosive was inserted and the two moulded halves were joined together with plaster and secured by metal cleats. The assembled lump was then varnished with shellac and dressed with real coal dust to give the final authentic appearance.
A later development of this device was the use of a GP charge instead of plastic explosive. The GP charge, being in a metal container, permitted the pouring of liquid plaster around it while in the mould. Thus the ‘coal’ could be cast without a join. About 3½ tons (3563 kg) of this explosive ‘coal’ was made between 1941 and 1945. It is said that because of the fear that coal supplies had been contaminated by the fake explosive variety, many locomotive drivers in the Balkans refused to operate their trains.
In August 1943 the SOE Council expressed its concern over a German propaganda statement that the Allies were making indiscriminate use of booby-trap devices and exposing children to serious risk. This, of course, was exactly what the Germans were doing with their Butterfly Bombs in East Anglia. SOE now ordered that its disguised explosive devices were to be used only for specific purposes and with reasonable safeguards against their falling into civilian hands.2
One of the cleverly made containers used to conceal weapons or explosives was indistinguishable from a standard oil drum. But the top part could be removed and was held in place by an internal bayonet fitting. In case the drum cap was removed in an inspection, beneath it was a narrow, cylindrical liquid container. Anyone looking beneath the screw cap would see liquid and even if they dipped it with a stick, it would be seen to have the same depth as the drum. It was discovered that new oil drums were virtually unobtainable in occupied Europe so these items had also to be artificially aged. An offensive weapon using some of the same techniques was the exploding engineers’ oil can. This was a conventional can which had a container fitted beneath the filling hole so that anyone checking to see if it was full could see oil in this small receptacle. The body of the can contained explosive and when the spout was unscrewed a pencil time fuse could be inserted and the spout replaced. This oil can would not look out of place close to a vital piece of enemy machinery. The device had originally been produced in late 1941 by Peter Henry at Station IX and been described in the Shipping section of The Sabotage Handbook, but later cans (106 were produced up to December 1944) were made at Station XV by S/Sgt Jones.
The concealment of wireless transmitters was important for a number of reasons. They could be incorporated in domestic sets, cylinder vacuum cleaners, portable gramophones or adding machines. However, wireless operators had, for security reasons, to move their sets every few days to avoid being tracked down by the German locating vans. The standard set was contained in an easily recognisable suitcase, so one of Wills’s early jobs was to provide a camouflaged version in which the set was easily portable. He sought out old continental types, which could be copied and made to look old by ingenious processes he devised. Suitcases to accommodate wireless sets were designed for the country of use and were carefully artificially aged so as not to attract attention. This effect was achieved by the highly skilled use of sandpaper and Vaseline by technicians who in civilian life had been employed on creating props for the film industry The process was further enhanced by the simple expedient of having a few ORs play football with the cases in the yard.
To meet other specific requirements, Station XV produced a wide range of ‘aged’ suitcases and briefcases of designs consistent with those in use in the country in which the agent was to operate. Again, the closest attention to detail was called for. In one early recorded instance an agent was arrested because the lock on the suitcase he was carrying was of a type not used in France.
There was a regular demand for an incendiary briefcase which, if the agent was arrested, could be ignited to destroy its contents; or alternatively, would ignite if an unauthorised attempt was made to open it. A number of detailed designs were developed although, as noted in Chapter 8, the ignition mechanism tended to be unreliable causing malfunction leading to premature operation.
Another job was the concealing of codes, which led Wills to produce a new type of invisible ink which only became visible under infra-red light provided by a torch with a suitable IR filter. Yet another simple and effective device was a sandal for use in the Far East. Two versions were produced: one to leave the imprint of a bare native foot and the other of a Japanese army boot.
THE TAILORING GROUP
Every agent infiltrated into enemy-held territory had to be kitted out with clothing appropriate to the area in which he or she was working. Even the smallest item had to be reproduced so as not to betray the agent. Immediately before they embarked on their transport, usually a Special Operations aircraft, they were searched in minute detail to ensure they were not inadvertently carrying some giveaway item such as a bus or theatre ticket, a British-made tie, belt, pen or matches. Camouflage Section could not hope to produce with their own labour the huge numbers of articles of clothing called for. They were therefore forced to take into their confidence – to a degree anyway – some commercial firms. One such was a clothing supplier by the name of Loroco Ltd which had workrooms at 19 and 20 Margaret Street, near Oxford Circus in London. Another was Anchor Models Ltd, just around the corner at 14 Great Titchfield Street. Clothing was a particular problem as continental tailoring and stitching was distinctive. Refugees from occupied Europe were given new clothes in exchange for their old ones which were taken by SOE, unpicked and examined in minute detail by a Jewish tailor from Austria by the name of Claudia Pulver. The differences in cut between the European and English tailoring were carefully noted and cardboard patterns produced so that a whole range of items could be produced by the band of seamstresses recruited specially for the work. The employment of refugee tailors and seamstresses producing naturally in their own national styles ensured that they were convincing copies which eventually found their way back to the streets of continental Europe. Attention to detail was absolutely vital. For example, at a time when detachable collars were the norm, the back stud hole on an English collar was vertical whereas on the continental version it was horizontal. This was something which could have been easily noticed by a German interrogator. Another feature which was not to be overlooked was the removal by careful use of a dental drill of the trade name ‘Lightnin
g’ from the pull of English zip fasteners. And, of course, the foreign labels had to be faithfully reproduced for the new clothes.3 As one Danish group reported, not having any labels at all was as suspicious to a searcher as having the wrong markings. But, as it happened, British markings in Denmark were commonplace and harmless.4
At the peak of SOE operations sixteen agents a day were being fitted out with continental clothing correct down to the smallest detail. A comprehensive range of men’s clothing and personal equipment was held in stock, 8,665 articles being issued in one month in 1944 from a stock of 20,040. By June 1944 over 90,000 articles of clothing were being issued during a year. Interestingly, no stock of women’s clothing was held because fashion tended to change by district. Female agents had a bespoke service.
It was not only clothes that agents had to be careful about. Another essential task which the skilled technicians at Station XV carried out was the supplying to agents of bicycle tyres identical to the Continental brands. Anyone in the Resistance could have been easily betrayed by being spotted riding a cycle equipped with Dunlop tyres.
MAKE-UP SECTION
It became apparent that greater expertise needed to be devoted to the disguising of agents themselves, in particular those who had fallen under suspicion by the enemy and were returning to the field. This time the film industry’s experience was called upon to secure the services of make-up experts. Together with eminent plastic surgeons they proved capable of some remarkable changes in appearance. And, of course, if an agent’s appearance was altered, so too had to be the photographs on the identity papers which everyone in occupied territories had to carry. To deal with this aspect of SOE’s work, Camouflage Section set up on 1 March 1943 a Photographic and Make-up Section at Nos 2 and 3 Trevor Square off Knightsbridge and designated it Station XVc. Its cover name was MO1(SP) Photographic Department. Between its inception and mid-November 1944 this unit was to photograph 1,620 agents, making an average of 1,700 prints per month. In addition, it provided photographs of 1,784 men for British military passes (an average of 560 prints per month), and an average of 750 photographic enlargements per month for Records Section. Another small but highly skilled unit within the Camouflage Section was the Printing and Art Department. They produced all fake labels and printing matter to complete the efficient concealment of items produced elsewhere in SOE’s Research and Development Section. They also provided armlets for invading forces, insignias for foreign uniforms and facilities for the printing of codes on silk.
Camouflage Section could adapt almost any commonplace item either to conceal arms or to become a weapon. A bundle of faggots could conceal a suitcase radio, a Chianti bottle a booby-trap bomb. They held in stock a wide range of foreign boxes, tinned goods and labels covering most European countries and Japan. In 1942 the camouflage section produced over 150 different species of disguised articles. Apart from the variety of items which were camouflaged, the quantity was enormous; at one period over 30 tons/month (30,500 kg/month) of arms and ammunition were being camouflaged for one Country Section alone.
By April 1943 the total complement of personnel producing goods at Station XV was five officers, one civilian, 71 ORs, 38 ATS ORs. At Station XVa, the central London branch, there were two ATS officers, one civilian ranking as an officer, ten male ORs and two ATS ORs.
FORGERY SECTION
While all this chicanery was going on at the Thatched Barn, at Briggens near Roydon in Essex, the home of Lord Aldenham, a highly skilled Forgery Section had been set up. Its origins are interesting. In 1940 Briggens was Polish Training School STS 38 where three of its Polish technicians took over part of the cellars to begin the production of the forged documents needed by their compatriots about to drop back into their homeland. Their lack of experience in the work resulted in a British officer taking over control in February 1941, but he, too, was replaced after two months by a more experienced officer who eventually took control of the entire station. Another officer was appointed to take control in London and to liaise with the Country Sections, for this enterprise was no longer a Polish-only one, the value of a central forgery facility for the whole of SOE having been rapidly recognised. Expansion became necessary and the assistance of Scotland Yard was obtained in the recruitment of a first-class forger of handwriting and signatures. The demands on Station XIV, as Briggens became known, grew as their reputation expanded and soon it was decided that Polish Training School STS38 should leave the premises, allowing the printing works to take over the whole extensive house, appropriately on 1 April 1942. In November that year Lt Col Hazell took charge of the False Document Section from Lt Col Perkins.5
Newitt also had a small facility at the Imperial College of Science but the main work was done at Station XIV. Virtually any document one needed to live in occupied countries could be copied and reproduced to a standard that was indistinguishable from the original. Highly skilled technicians, some of them ex-convicts, forged large amounts of currency, travel documents and work permits for agents. How SOE identified people with this talent for forgery is interesting in itself, as is speculation as to how their careers might have developed after the war. Among the forgery schemes dreamed up by SOE and PWE was the dropping of counterfeit ration cards of the type used by the German Services when on leave. In April 1943 Lord Selborne reported to the Prime Minister that 300,000 had been dropped over a number of German cities. ‘There is most gratifying evidence in the German Press of the disturbance and confusion caused by this pleasantry,’ he said.6
In June 1943 the SOE Council discussed the possibility of using microphotography as a means of communication of documents and illustrations. It had been demonstrated that using a high-grade camera with ultra-fine-grain film and the correct technique it was possible to reduce foolscap size documents to a mere 1/8 in square, at which size the images could be easily hidden; for example, under a postage stamp stuck to a letter. It was decided to pursue this activity and arrangements were put in hand to fit out Station XIV with Leica cameras, grainless film and a special typewriter.7
Station XIV employed a maximum staff of 50 and produced over 275,000 individual documents in its life.8
At various times Camouflage Sections were formed in Italy, Algiers and Cairo. As more effort was devoted to the Far East two were set up in India and another in Australia. In January 1945, as the Allies advanced through Europe, Camouflage Section established a satellite workshop outside Brussels. This was the time when agents were going into Germany, sometimes being despatched from SOE stations in liberated countries. Thus it was expedient to carry out some of the camouflage or disguising work close to their point of departure.
Some of the work of the Camouflage Section has been likened to schoolboy pranks: all of it fulfilled the objective of causing death, destruction and mayhem to the enemy. There is no doubt that the major part of the work enabled agents to move around within occupied territories and to transport vital arms and equipment under the guise of everyday items, a facility without which SOE’s task would have been infinitely harder. However the Section will be remembered, its high degree of inspiration, creativity and skill cannot be denied.
EIGHT
ENGINEERING SECTION – WEAPONS
The Engineering Section headed by Maj (later Lt Col) J. Dolphin was formed in 1941 originally to service the laboratories, to design and construct their testing gear and to produce prototypes of fuses and small mechanisms developed in other Sections. This role very soon changed as a result of a series of urgent operational requirements. The Section’s functions expanded while some of their work for the Physico-Chemical Section was taken over by a small workshop housing the Fuses and Small Mechanisms Sub-Section.
Besides meeting the needs of the laboratories, the members of the Engineering Section were encouraged to develop their own imaginative projects. Furthermore, this degree of freedom, which recognised the skills of the toolmakers, fine mechanics and technicians, worked wonders for their morale. Many of SOE’s requirements were un
ique and urgent and there were no regular stores in existence to satisfy them. The normal channels of specialist design in the Forces were overloaded, so SOE had to undertake the design and development of a number of novel ideas specifically for its own use. Much information and experience was gained through these projects and in Newitt’s postwar view the decision to go it alone was largely justified.
The major areas with which the Engineering Section became involved were new weapons, mainly small arms, and the means for clandestine attacks on waterborne craft including naval vessels. This chapter deals with the development of a range of hand-held weapons, and in particular with their silenced versions. It also includes accounts of the mobile versions of the limpet mine and of the tree spigot mortar for use as an ambush weapon. Work on submersible craft forms the subject matter for the next chapter. A host of other devices were developed by the Engineering Section, though many of them did not go into production. They are listed in Appendix D,1 and a few of them will be discussed in what follows. From time to time equipment was developed to meet the operational requirements of other Services, such as the expressed need of the Airborne Division for a motorcycle which could be dropped by parachute.
As Station IX grew in size so did the need of the Engineering Section for more space. This was satisfied by the erection of a large carpenters’ shop and a sheet metal shop each of some 1,200 sq ft in area. Later hangars were built to give an additional 5,000 sq ft in which to fabricate the first twenty Welman submarines while arrangements were made for their subsequent external production. During the period up to September 1944 the Engineering Section expanded from four staff to 160, and from 600 sq ft of working area to 20,000 sq ft.
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