THE CLANDESTINE LIVES of COLONEL DAVID SMILEY Code Name ‘Grin’
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Intelligence, Surveillance and Secret Warfare THE CLANDESTINE LIVES OF COLONEL DAVID SMILEY Code Name ‘Grin’ Clive Jones Series Editors: Richard J. Aldrich, Rory Cormac, Michael S. Goodman and Hugh Wilford This series explores the full spectrum of spying and secret warfare in a globalised world Intelligence has changed. Secret service is no longer just about spying or passively watching a target. Espionage chiefs now command secret armies and legions of cyber warriors who can quietly shape international relations itself. Intelligence actively supports diplomacy, peacekeeping and warfare: the entire spectrum of security activities. As traditional inter-state wars become more costly, covert action, black propaganda and other forms of secret interventionism become more important. This ranges from proxy warfare to covert action; from targeted killing to disruption activity. Meanwhile, surveillance permeates communica- tions to the point where many feel there is little privacy. Intelligence, and the accelerating technology that surrounds it, have never been more important for the citizen and the state. Titles in the Intelligence, Surveillance and Secret Warfare series include: Published: The Arab World and Western Intelligence: Analysing the Middle East, 1956–1981 Dina Rezk The Twilight of the British Empire: British Intelligence and Counter- Subversion in the Middle East, 1948–63 Chikara Hashimoto Chile, the CIA and the Cold War: A Transatlantic Perspective James Lockhart The Clandestine Lives of Colonel David Smiley: Code Name ‘Grin’ Clive Jones Forthcoming: Outsourcing US Intelligence: Private Contractors and Government Accountability Damien Van Puyvelde The Snowden Era on Screen: Signals Intelligence and Digital Surveillance James Smith The Problem of Secret Intelligence Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke The CIA and the Pursuit of Security: History, Documents and Contexts Hew Dylan https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-intelligence-surveillance-and-secret-warfare.html The Clandestine Lives of Colonel David Smiley Code Name ‘Grin’ Clive Jones For Sally (and the journey taken!) Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Clive Jones, 2019 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 4115 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 4117 9 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 4118 6 (epub) The right of Clive Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). All photographs reproduced by kind permission of David Smiley and Xan Smiley. Contents Preface vi Acknowledgements xii List of Illustrations xiv List of Abbreviations xvi 1. From the Cradle to Palestine 1 2. From Palestine to Abyssinia 15 3. Desert Wars 39 4. From Regular to Irregular 58 5. A Matter Called ‘Concensus’ 78 6. Three Majors: Two for Politics, One for Fighting 111 7. Burnt but Alive 146 8. Between Ubon and a Hard Place 172 9. From Espionage to Sabotage 198 10. Subversion and the Ceremonial 221 11. As Tough as Teak 253 12. Our Man in Yemen 286 13. An Uncomplicated Patriot 323 Bibliography 339 Index 352 The Clandestine Lives of Colonel David Smiley T. E. Lawrence’s beautifully written, if self-serving, narrative of the Arab revolt in the First World War to more earthy accounts of special forces in recent conflicts, how the individual or small group deals with adversity fires the popular imagination. Preface The life and career of David de Crespigny Smiley often proved the antithesis to the warfare of twentieth-century mass mobilisa- tion. Until his death in 2009, aged 92, Smiley epitomised an officer whose values echoed an earlier age. Loyalty to friends, devotion to the institutions of his country and adherence to abso- lute honesty were themes of a life often lived on the physical edge. I felt bloody ill all day, either malaria or handling explosives and I As Julian Amery, his wartime colleague in the Special Operations was sick twice. I think it is a recurrence of malaria. I felt better in Executive (SOE) in Albania, who was greatly to influence his the evening. We set off at 11 [pm] to blow the bridge, and arrived at post-war career, noted of Smiley: the bridge at midnight. We started to carry the explosives to under the bridge but got held up for half an hour while a Hun lorry proceeded He knew his own mind and spoke it on all occasions, not aggressively to have a puncture on top of the bridge, while we waited under it. At nor even bluntly, yet in a manner so direct that it left little room for last it left and all the explosives were carried under the bridge. I then argument and no doubt whatever as to his feelings and his views or his sent all the Albs [Albanians] away except Veli and Ramiz who worked intentions. Seldom given to speculation, he lived firmly in the present, with Jenkins and I for about two hours while a continuous stream of enjoying the good things of life and all that was agreeable or beautiful, traffic passed overhead. We set off time pencils as we had no safety though as an occasional patron rather than a connoisseur. He liked fuze [sic] and went away from the bridge.1 his friends and disliked his enemies, but was otherwise more interested David de C. Smiley, War Diary, 20 June 1944 in things than in men and found a rare satisfaction in organising a camp or testing the accuracy of a new weapon.2 Clandestine warfare and secret service during the Second World War and afterwards continues to exercise a fascination among This assessment is borne out in the diaries that Smiley wrote academics, journalists and the general public alike. Indeed, it on his myriad journeys. While mainly focused on the operational remains a paradox, when set against a conflict whose geographic side of his time ‘behind the lines’, from Abyssinia to Siam via scale and violent intensity denied strategic importance to all Albania and the Middle East, these diaries vividly describe the but a few actions carried out by both Allied and Axis special landscape, the people and the flora and fauna he encountered. forces, that academic studies, biographies, autobiographies, unit In Albania, Oman and Yemen, his writings, be they reports or histories and the study of particular incidents and events still diaries, also shed light on tribally based societies undergoing pro- grip the imagination. This is partly a reaction to the industrial found upheaval amid regional turmoil or, in the case of Albania, scale of war wherein, from 1914 onwards, the global nature of a world war. The difficulties of working in societies where sectar- conflict increasingly diminished the role of the individual. But ian identity, ethnic loyalty and religious persuasion often defied the emergence of special forces, ironically, gave the narrative of broader operational goals – what scholars of counter-insurgency war a more human face, an intimacy denied by the impersonal, would later refer to as the human terrain – are dominant themes.3 almost mechanistic, reference to armies, corps, divisions, brigades He remained, however, a professional soldier at heart, who and, indeed, battalions. This appeal continues to endure. From took as much pride in being a regular soldier as he did in his vi Preface T. E. Lawrence’s beautifully written, if self-serving, narrative of the Arab revolt in the First World War to more earthy accounts of special forces in recent conflicts, how the individual or small group deals with adversity fires the popular imagination. The life and career of David de Crespigny Smiley often proved the antithesis to the warfare of twentieth-century mass mobilisa- tion. Until his death in 2009, aged 92, Smiley epitomised an officer whose values echoed an earlier age. Loyalty to friends, devotion to the institutions of his country and adherence to abso- lute honesty were themes of a life often lived on the physical edge. As Julian Amery, his wartime colleague in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Albania, who was greatly to influence his post-war career, noted of Smiley: He knew his own mind and spoke it on all occasions, not aggressively nor even bluntly, yet in a manner so direct that it left little room for argument and no doubt whatever as to his feelings and his views or his intentions. Seldom given to speculation, he lived firmly in the present, enjoying the good things of life and all that was agreeable or beautiful, though as an occasional patron rather than a connoisseur. He liked his friends and disliked his enemies, but was otherwise more interested in things than in men and found a rare satisfaction in organising a camp or testing the accuracy of a new weapon.2 This assessment is borne out in the diaries that Smiley wrote on his myriad journeys. While mainly focused on the operational side of his time ‘behind the lines’, from Abyssinia to Siam via Albania and the Middle East, these diaries vividly describe the landscape, the people and the flora and fauna he encountered. In Albania, Oman and Yemen, his writings, be they reports or diaries, also shed light on tribally based societies undergoing pro- found upheaval amid regional turmoil or, in the case of Albania, a world war.