SOE
Page 39
NOTES
Chapter 1
1. Details of the spy Richter’s short stay in England are in PRO files KV2/30–33, HO144/21576, and CRIM1/1350. Albert Pierrepoint’s autobiography Executioner: Pierrepoint deals with his execution in Chapter 5 pp.135–138. Further details are contained in PRO file PCOM9/909.
Chapter 2
1. The term Fifth Column applies to enemy sympathisers who might provide active assistance to an invader and originates from the Spanish Civil War rebel collaborators in Madrid in 1936 when four rebel columns were advancing on the city. The fifth column were the sympathisers already in the city.
2. PRO file HS7/27.
3. Secret Flotillas by Brooks Richards.
4. Winston Churchill’s Toyshop by Stuart Macrae.
5. The Partisan Leader’s Handbook is reproduced in Appendix 2 of SOE in the Low Countries by M.R.D. Foot.
6. SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–46 by M.R.D. Foot.
Chapter 3
1. Information from a leaflet by SmithKlineBeecham, the owners of The Frythe in the late 1990s, and recollections of Berkeley Mason.
2. J. Harmston, an estate worker living locally, in Hertfordshire Countryside, Vol. 32, No. 214, Feb 1977.
3. ‘A Description of the Building and Equipment of the Thermostat Hut, Station IX’, Ref. JTVR/4956, 11 July 1945.
4. PRO file HS7/27 History of AD/Z Directorate (Research, Development and Supply).
5. Hertfordshire County Archives AP/A7 Vol. 1–Vol. 3 and D/Esd T1.
6. PRO file HS7/286
7. Mrs Mary Fields, whose parents were in service at Bride Hall before and during part of the war, provided the domestic background for this section.
8. PRO file HS7/286.
9. Information from The Book of Elstree & Boreham Wood and Elstree & Boreham Wood in Camera by Stephen A. Castle.
Chapter 4
1. Stuart Macrae, Winston Churchill’s Toyshop (1971).
2. Everett’s involvement in wartime work at Oxford is of some interest since it illustrates the complacency which developed in some quarters of the Establishment between 1918 and 1939. A major scare had arisen early in the War when secret intelligence had indicated that the Germans were preparing to use arsenic trihydride (arsine, code-named ARTHUR) as a war gas. The cause of the panic was the discovery that while the German respirator gave protection against this gas, the British version, which had remained unchanged since 1918, allowed it to penetrate. The importance of this discovery did not seem to have been appreciated by the top brass at the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down. When the research group from Oxford visited Porton in May 1940 to discuss their work they met the Military Commandant who gave them little encouragement. He dismissed their research, saying that ‘attempts to improve the British service respirator were like gilding the lily’! This was not what these young scientists wanted to hear, but this did not deter them from working long hours into the night to develop a charcoal with catalytic properties to deal with arsine. Their call-up had been deferred and they were desperately keen to make a contribution to the war effort. (It must be said, however, that someone in the Home Office had taken the threat of gas warfare seriously and had, by October 1938, arranged for the design and production of the civilian respirator which was issued, in its cardboard box, to the whole population.) The further objective of the Oxford work was to seek an alternative source of raw material for active charcoal. Traditionally in the UK this had been coconut shell but this had to be imported by sea and an indigenous material was needed. Finely ground coal briquetted under high pressure was the solution, but the choice of coal was critical. After an extensive survey of British coals and various blends an appropriate solution had been found and, by incorporation of metal catalysts, copper and silver, resistance to a range of gases was achieved. It was then possible for those engaged in this task to be reassigned to other work.
3. For details see SOE Syllabus – Lessons in Ungentlemanly Warfare, World War II with introduction by Denis Rigden. Public Record Office 2001.
Chapter 5
1. SOE in France by M.R.D. Foot.
2. PRO file HS7/27.
3. This Grim and Savage Game by Tom Moon.
4. Plotting Hitler’s Death by Joachim Fest. Also recounted by Rigden in Kill the Fuhrer, p. 169.
5. PRO file HS7/286.
6. PRO file HS8/774.
7. Secret Agent’s Handbook of Special Devices, Public Record Office, 2000.
8. Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott, p. 250, footnote.
9. Danger UXB by M.J. Jappy, Channel 4 Books, 2001. Also The Truth About Dirty Tricks by Chapman Pincher, 1991.
Chapter 6
1. From the personal recollections of Prof D.H. Everett, FRS.
2. Correspondence with Anthony Brooks, DSO, MC.
3. PRO file HS8/817.
4. Ibid.
5. PRO file PREM3/409/5.
6. Ibid.
7. Coastal Command 1939–1942, HMSO, 1943, p. 101.
8. PRO file PREM3/409/5.
9. PRO file HS7/145.
10. PRO file FO898/356.
11. PRO file HS7/286.
12. PRO file HS7/110.
13. PRO file CAB81/53.
14. Ibid.
15. PRO file CAB104/234.
16. R. Harris and J. Paxman, A Higher Form of Killing, Hill and Wang, 1982. G.B. Carter, ‘The Legend of Fildes and the Heydrich Assassination’, ASA Newsletter 96–4, 16 August 1996.
17. British Security Coordination – The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940–45, with introduction by Nigel West.
18. A tiny metal sphere containing ricin was used by an Eastern Bloc agent to kill a Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, in London in 1978. The sphere was fired into his leg from a weapon disguised as an umbrella.
19. PRO file CAB81/55.
20. PRO file CAB81/58.
21. PRO file HS7/210.
22. PRO file CAB81/19.
Chapter 7
1. Sabotage! The story of Lt Col J. Elder Wills by Leslie Bell, T. Werner Laurie 1957.
2. PRO file HS8/199.
3. See Secret Agent by David Stafford, pp. 55–57.
4. PRO file HS7/110.
5. PRO file HS7/46.
6. PRO file PREM3 409/5.
7. PRO file HS8/199.
8. PRO file HS7/46. Remainder of section from PRO files HS7/27, HS7/30, HS7/47, HS7/49.
Chapter 8
1. Information for this section has been drawn also from the appendices to The History of the R&D Section provided by kind permission of the SOE Adviser to the FCO.
2. PRO file HS7/286.
3. PRO file HS8/199.
4. Soldier of Fortune magazine.
5. Ladd and Melton, Clandestine Warfare.
6. PRO file HS7/110.
7. PRO file HS7/286.
8. John D Walter, Secret Firearms. An Illustrated History of Miniature and Concealed Handguns.
9. Ladd and Melton, Clandestine Warfare.
10. Details of the Welbike are from British Forces Motorcycles 1925–45 by C.J. Orchard and S.J. Madden.
11. SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1945 by M.R.D. Foot, pp. 110–11.
12. PRO file ADM226/48.
13. PRO file HS7/47.
Chapter 9
1. Cockleshell Heroes by C.E. Lucas Phillips.
2. This appears to have been an adaptation of the Budig Wing, details of which are in PRO file AVIA13/549 and in the 11 December 1935 issue of The Aeroplane.
3. PRO file HS8/199.
4. Underwater Warriors by Paul Kemp, p. 67.
5. Ibid.
6. PRO file HS8/252.
7. PRO file HS7/286.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. IWM photo archive negative HU56761.
11. Secret Agent’s Handbook of Special Devices, Public Record Office.
12. PRO file DEFE2/958.
13. Secret Flotillas by Brook
s Richards.
14. PRO file HS8/897.
15. PRO file ADM1/17161.
16. PRO file HS7/287.
17. PRO file HS8/798.
18. PRO file ADM1/13413.
19. PRO file DEFE2/1009.
20. PRO file ADM204/525.
21. PRO file HS1/232.
22. PRO file HS7/88.
23. PRO file ADM1/16297.
24. PRO file HS7/286.
25. PRO file HS7/287.
26. PRO file ADM1/17161.
27. Ibid.
28. Cockleshell Heroes.
29. PRO file HS7/286.
30. PRO file HS7/287.
31. PRO file HS8/199.
32. PRO file ADM226/48.
33. PRO file HS7/287.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. PRO file HS7/175.
Chapter 10
1. Much of the detailed information in this chapter is from the scientific notebooks and personal recollections of the late Prof D.H. Everett, FRS.
2. PRO file HS7/27. ‘History of the Trials Section’ – Appendix A.
Chapter 11
1. SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1946 by M.R.D. Foot.
2. PRO file HS7/50.
3. Ibid.
4. Secret Agent’s Handbook of Special Devices, Public Record Office.
5. PRO file HS7/50.
6. Ibid.
7. PRO files HS7/47, HS7/109, HS7/110 and HS8/418.
8. PRO file HS7/286.
9. As retold by J.T. van Riemsdijk in 2001.
10. PRO file HS7/286.
11. From the personal reminiscences of the late Prof D.H. Everett FRS.
12. Report DHE/A/4684 dated 27 October 1944.
13. Much of this section is based on the notebooks and personal recollections of Prof D.H. Everett FRS who was in charge of both the trials work and the Air Supply Research Section.
Chapter 12
1. Much of this section is drawn from the Sound Archives of the Imperial War Museum, Audio Tapes 11035/6.
2. PRO file AVIA22/2757.
3. PRO file HS7/46.
4. ‘Jacqueline’ Pioneer of the Resistance by Stella King, 1989.
5. The Vital Link by Philip Warner.
6. PRO file HS7/37.
7. The Giant-Killers by John Oram Thomas, 1975.
8. PRO file HS7/36.
9. PRO file AVIA22/2757.
10. The Royal Signals Museum kindly allowed the author to photograph some exhibits.
11. The reminiscences of Mr Eric Slater, formerly in RCD, are also drawn upon.
Chapter 13
1. Much of this chapter is drawn from PRO file HS7/27.
Chapter 14
1. PRO file HS7/46.
2. Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott, p. 44.
3. PRO file HS8/252.
4. PRO file HS7/46.
Chapter 15
1. PRO file PREM3/408/5.
2. PRO file HS8/775.
3. PRO file HS8/199.
4. PRO file PREM3/408/5.
5. PRO file HS7/287.
6. PRO file PREM3/408/5.
7. Ibid.
8. PRO file HS7/282.
9. PRO file HS7/280.
10. PRO file HS7/175 Appendix ‘F’.
11. Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts introduced by Sir Charles Frank, Institute of Physics Publishing, 1993. For an alternative view of Germany’s atomic bomb programme see Henshall, Philip, Nuclear Axis, Sutton, 2000.
12. From J.T. van Riemsdijk who was also involved at Station IX. An engineer, he recalls how, with his knowledge of French and Dutch, he was called upon to translate and re-draw sketches of targets obtained from agents in the field.
13. PRO file HS7/181.
14. Prof D.H. Everett FRS provided information for this section from personal recollections.
15. Joachim Fest, Plotting Hitler’s Death.
16. J.C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System.
17. John Cloake, Templer, Tiger of Malaya.
18. Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks was also drawn upon.
19. PRO file HS7/147.
20. PRO file KV4/69.
21. PRO file FO898/356.
22. Templer, Tiger of Malaya.
Chapter 16
1. PRO file HS7/88.
Chapter 17
1. PRO file WO33/2256.
2. Ibid.
3. Recounted by J.T. van Riemsdijk.
4. Recounted by Prof D.H. Everett, FRS.
5. PRO file HS7/27.
6. This anecdote appears in PRO file HS7/287.
Chapter 18
1. The Infernal Grove by Malcolm Muggeridge.
2. PRO file HS7/27.
3. Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts introduced by Sir Charles Frank, Institute of Physics Publishing, 1993.
4. The author, FB, was the ICI Engineer-in-Charge.
5. Resistance: European resistance to Nazism 1940–1945 by M.R.D. Foot, 1976.
Appendix B
1. PRO file AVIA22/1588
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