FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 1 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE. Prisoners of War

Prisoners of War are often referred to by the acronym POW.

The Hong Kong garrison was a mixed force of about 14 000 British, Indian, Canadian, and Chinese soldiers. Defence equipment consisted of a few anti-aircraft guns, six airplanes, and a few small gunboats.

Two battalions of Canadian soldiers, the Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles from Quebec, totaling 1975 men, arrived in Hong Kong on November 16, 1941, under the command of Brigadier J.K. Lawson.

Less than a month later, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong from the landward side. The defenders resisted bravely but were forced to surrender on Christmas Day. Allied losses were 2445 killed, wounded and missing. Canadian losses were 267 killed, including Brigadier Lawson, and 290 more were to die during 44 months of often brutal captivity.

Canadian POWs were first interned on Hong Kong Island and on mainland China. Between January 1943 and April 1944, more than 1100 Canadians were moved to Japan to work as forced labourers, mainly in coal and iron ore mines. One survivor tells his story:

“One of my boys caught a rat and cooked it, and he saved me a small portion. I sat it on top of my rice while it was still hot, so I could taste that flavor through the rice. When you’re starving, anything tastes good.”

- CSM Red Windsor, POW Japan

Canadian forces arrive to defend Hong Kong

Allied POWs await liberation from the HMCS Prince Robert, in Hong Kong, 1945

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 2 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE. Secret War – Online Flash Movie

- Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_wwt wo_movies_soe.shtml

- Plug in some ear buds and watch the movie animation about the Allies’ Secret Operations Executive during World War II

- Respond to the questions on your student worksheet as you watch.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 3 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE. Camp X

We all know that many Canadians fought with the Allied forces to defend democracy during the Second World War. Many of these people were killed or wounded and all made tremendous sacrifices serving their country.

Not so well known are the contributions made by a small, but unique, group of Canadians who served the cause of freedom in a different way—those who volunteered to be “secret agents.” These brave men and women worked behind enemy lines, in German-occupied Europe and Japanese-occupied Asia, supporting the efforts of the underground resistance movements. These resistance movements were made up of local people fighting against fascist powers trying to take over their countries. Many Canadians fought behind enemy lines in the Second World War as agents for the British organizations that, stealthily, slowly at first but with growing effectiveness, raided coastal German and Japanese defenses, operated agent networks and organized acts of sabotage in occupied countries. They wore no uniforms, and all knew without exception, that if captured, they could not look for the smallest protection from the Allied command. Many were captured, tortured, and executed by hostile forces. Most Canadians who became secret agents during the Second World War served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). With almost 14000 members at its peak, the SOE, was an organization of highly trained saboteurs which was secretly created by the British War Cabinet on the 22nd of July 1940. The SOE was soon unleashed by Prime Minister to strike fear into the heart of Asia and set occupied Europe ablaze. With an urgent need to train secret agents for missions behind enemy lines, Camp X was established on a 275-acre farm bordering Lake between the city of and the Town of Whitby. It was the first secret agent training school in North America. The Camp was the first experiment of its kind in Anglo / American / Canadian intelligence cooperation and operated as one of the hubs of intelligence training and wartime communications for the Allied war effort. Agent training at Camp X was extremely rigorous and ran nonstop around the clock, winter and summer. The Camp’s curriculum, which was designed to make or break potential agents, covered a variety of intelligence / counter intelligence and infiltration techniques. Agents endured intense physical fitness training, live fire exercises and were taught the basics in survival training, hand to hand combat (silent kill), use of small arms, parachute jumping, explosives training, map reading, radio operation, secret writing, agent recruitment, disguises, propaganda, and psychological warfare techniques.

In 1944, the Camp ceased operating as a secret agent training school but survived the transition from the World War to the Cold War with the emergence of the Soviet threat and went on to play an important role as a top secret communications facility (Hydra).

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 4 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE.

Sneakers adapted to leave false footprints: These shoes were devised for raiding parties in the Far East. They left prints in the sand that looked like the bare footprints of local people. Heavy boot prints would have been an instant giveaway.

These plaster logs were designed to smuggle arms and ammunition into enemy territory. The arms or ammunition were packed into cardboard containers, and sealed to protect the contents from the damp. The sealed containers were then built into dummy logs, which were carefully modelled on actual common tree varieties of the place of destination. They were then painted and embellished with moss and lichen, to make them look even more real.

appropriate These chambers were used to conceal messages or objects. Toothpaste tubes were also used, but clearly the chamber would have been smaller. All the tubes were branded with the name of an manufacturer, and the top of the tube was filled with shaving cream or toothpaste so that it could be used normally, averting any suspicion.

This normal bottle cork has had a secret compartment whittled out of it. It was used to conceal codes and micro- prints from the enemy.

he

These incendiary suitcases were intended to provide security for secret documents, and act as a booby trap for any snooping enemy soldier or secret policeman. They also came in the form of briefcases. To open t case safely, the SOE agent had to make sure that the right hand lock was pressed down and held to the right. If this wasn't done, the left hand lock would fire the charges when anyone attempted to click it open.

It is not known whether the sleeve gun was actually used in the field. According to the SOE catalogue, the assassin lets the gun slide into his hand and presses the muzzle against the victim, whilst pulling the trigger with his thumb. As the gun is only a few inches in length, it can then once again be hidden up the sleeve. The bullet cartridge remains within the gun, so there is no tell-tale evidence left lying around. The gun had a range of up to three yards, but allowed only one shot.

The SOE used a range of disguise techniques. The illustration shows what the catalogue claims can be done with a 'little shading, a theatrical moustache and a pair of glasses'. These minimalist, but highly effective, disguise techniques were drilled home to the SOE recruits by their instructors. In the field, new disguises had to be quick and easy. For more radical disguises, some agents even underwent plastic surgery to change their appearance.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 5 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE.

Gustave Bieler – was born in Montreal, and was the first Canadian Special Operations

Executive (SOE) agent to work in occupied France. After four months of training, Bieler parachuted into France, when his spine was badly injured. Even so, he organized a sabotage group. They derailed and blew up trains carrying troops and arms.

Bieler was captured with his radio operator in 1944. Months of torture by the Gestapo failed to break Bieler, and this won him the respect of his captors. When Bieler was marched to his death in September 1944, he was granted the unusual “privilege” of being shot by firing squad instead of being hanged. Henry Fung – Henry Fung was the first Chinese-Canadian agent to be parachuted into Malaya, in June 1945. Only 19 years old, he worked with an SOE team, blowing up telephone lines and railway bridges, and harassing Japanese road convoys. When he fell ill with malaria and jaundice, Henry was evacuated to Britain and eventually made his way home to Canada. Nevertheless, when the war ended he helped receive the surrender of Japanese forces in their jungle garrisons. Henry Fung was one of the hundreds of young Chinese-Canadians who volunteered for SOE service in the Asia-Pacific.

Joe Galleny – was trained as an elite espionage agent and parachuted into Nazi- held Yugoslavia. Later, in Hungary, Joe was captured and tortured. He lost 170 pounds (77kg). He escaped and, while hiding out in Budapest, helped forge travel documents for fellow spies and Jews facing Nazi persecution. When the Russians arrived, they took him into custody but he was eventually freed. He felt he had aged two decades in his two-year stint as a secret agent.

Frank Pickersgill – of Winnipeg was captured when he landed in France. Nazi double agents had given him away. He refused to break under brutal questioning. When his captors switched from threats to bribery, he broke a bottle on his interrogator’s desk, slashed the throat of an SS guard, and jumped out a second floor window before being stopped by 4 bullets. In prison camp, he organized resistance, helping prisoners regain lost pride. The Nazis finally executed Pickersgill and 15 other agents by hanging them from meat hooks in 1944. First blue plaque for British spy as WWII secret agent who survived Gestapo is honoured By NIALL FIRTH

And in the He is the first secret agent to be First World commemorated with an English War the RAF Heritage blue plaque which was fighter unveiled at Queen Court, command Guildford Street, in Camden, officer was London, where he lived with his captured by wife Barbara. the Russians It was unveiled by his niece, Carol and only Green. managed to escape by Yeo-Thomas' biographer Mark strangling his Seaman with members of the guard. aircrew from No 47 Squadron at RAF Lyneham at his home today Today, more After completing his education, than 60 years undertaken in France, where he after he grew up, and in England, Yeo- received the Thomas joined the Allied armies George Cross, in the First World War. Yeo-Thomas's life was ADVENTURES OF THE celebrated with a blue WHITE RABBIT plaque outside 1920 - Captured by the Russians his home. and escapes by strangling guard On a secret mission in 1939 - Joins the RAF France during Wing Commander Edward Yeo the Second World War he evaded 1942 - Joins ranks of the Special Thomas, one of Britain's most capture by the Nazis by hiding in a Operations Executive famous secret agents, in 1944 hearse. His action-packed life was the 1943 - Dropped by parachute stuff of boyhood fantasy. In 1944 he was captured by the into France where he helps to Gestapo and tortured before organise the Resistance As the famous spy codenamed being held at the notorious 'The White Rabbit', Forest Buchenwald concentration camp. 1944 - Captured and tortured by Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas the Gestapo and held at spent the Second World War The spy is recognised by the Buchenwald concentration camp behind enemy lines and was Oxford Dictionary of National captured and tortured by the Biography as 'among the most 1945 - Realises his dream of Nazis. outstanding workers behind returning home to his wife enemy lines whom Britain produced'. 1946 - Awarded the George Cross This was also the year that he met Barbara Dean, with whom he In 1943 he dropped by parachute One month later he was betrayed would come to share the flat at into France. and captured by the Gestapo. Queen Court, from the date she A second mission to France later acquired it in 1941 and then that year saw Yeo-Thomas He was subjected to long periods throughout the rest of the war organising and planning strategy of interrogation, torture and years. with underground group leaders, imprisonment in France before investigating the Maquis's urgent being deported to Buchenwald. After completing more than two need for supplies and avoiding years in the RAF, including work capture concealed inside a He avoided execution and as an intelligence officer in Fighter hearse. survived other Nazi camps before Command, Yeo-Thomas wanted a finally escaping and reaching the more active part in the war and He reported back directly to the US lines as the war ended. wanted to help liberate France. Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, In 1945 his dream of returning on his return to London, and home to his wife was realised. ensured an increase in weapons In 1942 he joined the ranks of the and supplies for the resistance in For his exceptional courage, Yeo- Special Operations Executive France. Thomas was awarded the George (SOE), acting as a liaison officer Cross, the Military Cross and bar, between SOE and General de In February 1944, Yeo-Thomas the Croix de Guerre, the Polish Gaulle's Bureau Central de left Queen Court on his third cross of merit, and was made a Renseignements et d'Action. mission to France - his hardest. commander of the Legion d'honneur.

After helping to bring to trial several Nazi war criminals, he returned to work - of all things - in a Paris fashion house in 1946 and in 1950 joined the Federation of British Industries as its representative in France, a position he held until his death in 1964.

His biographer said: 'His story is more extraordinary than any fiction dreamed up by a novelist or filmed by Hollywood. 'As the title of his biography states, he was the 'Bravest of the Brave'.'

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Centre 6 USE THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOSSIER TO FURTHER YOUR TRAINING AS AN AGENT OF

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE. The Enigma Machine

Enigma machines were used extensively by Germany throughout WWII.

Enigma allowed an operator to type in a message, then scramble it by means of three to five notched wheels, or rotors, which displayed different letters of the alphabet. The receiver needed to know the exact settings of these rotors in order to reconstitute the coded text. Over the years the basic machine became more complicated, as German code experts added plugs with electronic circuits.

Helped by its closer links to the German engineering industry, the Poles managed to reconstruct an Enigma machine, complete with internal wiring, and to read the Wehrmacht's messages between 1933 and 1938. With German invasion imminent in 1939, the Poles opted to share their secrets with the British. Britain's Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, became the centre for Allied efforts to keep up with dramatic war-induced changes in Enigma output. A host of top mathematicians and general problem-solvers was recruited, and a bank of early computers, known as 'bombes', was built to work out the vast number of permutations in Enigma settings. The Germans were convinced that Enigma output could not be broken, so they used the machine for all sorts of communications – on the battlefield, at sea, in the sky and, significantly, within its secret services. The British described any intelligence gained from Enigma as 'Ultra', and considered it top secret.

Source C:

In February 1942 the Germans hit back by introducing a new fourth wheel (multiplying the number of settings another 26 times) into their Naval Enigma machines. The resulting 'net' was known to the Germans as 'Triton' and to the British as 'Shark'. For almost a year Bletchley could make no inroads into Shark, and Allied losses in the Atlantic again increased alarmingly. In December 1942 Shark was broken, but German innovations meant that the Allies had to wait until August the following year before Naval Enigma was regularly read again. By then the Americans were active combatants, providing much-needed computer power to Bletchley.

Source A:

Bletchley's resources were concentrated on breaking Enigma codes used by German U-boats in this sphere of war. If the Allies could find out in advance where U-boats were hunting, they could direct their ships, carrying crucial supplies from North America, away from these danger zones.

Source B:

It soon became clear that the best way of keeping up with rapid changes in ciphers and related technology was to capture Enigma machines and code-books on board German vessels.

A breakthrough came in March 1941, however, when the German trawler Krebs was captured off Norway, complete with two Enigma machines and the Naval Enigma settings list for the previous month. This allowed German

Naval Enigma to be read, albeit with some delay, in April, by codebreakers at Bletchley.

The capture of the supply ship Gedania and weather ship Lauenburg in June yielded codebooks for the following month, and opened the way to the reading of Naval Enigma almost concurrently with events.

The ambush of three German U-boats off Cape Verde in September, however, coupled with a dramatic fall in the number of Allied ships sunk in the North Atlantic, led the German Admiral

Karl Dönitz to question if the navy's cipher had been compromised.

Source D: Charles “Checker” Tompkins, shown here as a member of the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. A Métis man, speaking fluent Cree, he helped develop the Cree code for transmitting vital messages in WW2, one of many Canadian “code talkers”.

Several Indigenous Cree from western Canada – Alberta and Saskatchewan – had joined the army and were given a very secret assignment of communications.

The Canadian Indigenous language speakers would translate vital messages into Cree and transmit them to another Cree speaker at the other end who would translate the message back into English.

One day he was summoned to Canadian military headquarters in London, under unusual secrecy, not even his commanding officer was told why.

There it was explained his new role as a “code talker”. Because many military terms didn’t exist in native languages, new terms had to be made up for things like tanks, machine guns, and bombers. A machine gun might be called, for example, a “little gun that shoots fast”, while a Mosquito fighter-bomber would use the Cree word for mosquito: “sakimes”.

After a week of developing new terms, they went to work. Tompkins was sent to work with the American 8th Air Force, and was sworn to absolute secrecy.

From: http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2015/07/15/the-unbreakable-canadian-code-of-the-second-world-war/