SOE) by Donat Gallagher James Cook University
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EVELYN WAUGH STUDIES Vol. 43, No. 2 Autumn 2012 Captain Evelyn Waugh and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) by Donat Gallagher James Cook University “There was something in him . of the sort of subaltern who was disliked in his regiment and got himself posted to S.O.E.”[1] Early in the Second War the British Government set up a highly secret Special Operations Executive (SOE). Its many tasks included sabotage, espionage, and aiding resistance movements in nations occupied by the Axis; in Winston Churchill’s words, its mission was “to set Europe ablaze.” It had many auxiliary units, one of which might interest United States readers while suggesting the flavour of the organization. This was British Security Coordination (BSC) in the Rockefeller Center in New York, whose history (unlike that of most other such units) survived shredding through the enterprise of some of its members. Led by a Canadian tycoon, William Stephenson, its brief from Churchill was to “do all that was not being done and could not be done by overt means” to “drag America into the war.” Before Pearl Harbour, BSC sabotaged United States firms dealing with Germany and undermined isolationist groups like America First and the pro-Nazi Bund. This they did by blackmail and assassination and by running a “rumour mill” against opponents of the war with information obtained from wire taps and burgled safes. They also bought a news agency to plant untrue stories in obscure papers; friendly columnists like Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson then picked them up. BSC faked incidents to influence American public opinion, the most famous being the forging and planting of a “secret Nazi map” and the “Belmonte letter.” The “secret map” showed South America divided into five Nazi states, one of which included the Panama Canal, while the “Belmonte letter” outlined a Nazi plot to overthrow the Bolivian Government. When the letter and map were “discovered,” President Roosevelt furiously denounced them as proof of German designs on the United States, probably knowing them to be forgeries.[2] In short, SOE (a.k.a. the “Baker Street Irregulars” and the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare") was a clandestine organization. It was also intensely political, mirroring the differences that split most Resistance Movements. At one extreme were Communists, who tried to use the war to create a socialist society after the conflict; at the other were those who merely wished to defeat Germany. The SOE section located in Cairo (MO4) with responsibility for Yugoslavia contained a very strong Communist element, which cruelly sabotaged the trickle of help being given to General Mihailovic’s Chetniks. After waiting for nights in bitter cold and deadly peril, the Chetniks might receive a parachute drop of nothing but toilet paper, or bales of Italian-Occupied-Ethiopia paper money. SOE did most to install Marshall Tito’s Communist Partisans as the sole Yugoslav resistance movement recognized by the Allies, the situation that obtained when Waugh arrived in Yugoslavia in July 1944 and to which he was so strongly opposed. But SOE also ran prosaic facilities, such as parachute-training centres. And it was in one of these secret centres that our hero, Captain Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh, first came into contact with SOE. Later, when Waugh was ordered to serve in Yugoslavia, he was mistakenly posted to SOE and remained incongruously on their books for five months, although, when the error was rectified, the correction was backdated. To understand why Waugh came to be on a parachute course under SOE auspices, it is necessary to return to July 1943. At the beginning of that month, Captain Waugh of the Royal Horse Guards was an Intelligence Officer (GSO3) within the Headquarters Unit of the Special Service Brigade. But since early April he had been appointed the Brigade’s Liaison Officer to Combined Operations Headquarters (COHQ). Now, at the beginning of July, he was booked on “D. + 42 Convoy ” leaving in early August to join his Commanding Officer, Brigadier Robert (Bob) Laycock in “Operation Husky,” the Allied invasion of Sicily. Waugh had his Brigadier’s explicit orders to remain at his post in COHQ until he sailed. But by 17 July, at the unscrupulous instigation of Laycock’s Deputy, Lt Colonel Lord “Shimi” Lovat, who was determined that Waugh would not be posted to Italy, and through the agency of General Charles Haydon, Vice- Chief of Combined Operations, Waugh had been dismissed from COHQ and forced to resign from the Special Service Brigade.[3] (As an aside, I have spelled out Waugh’s status in the Headquarters Unit of the Special Service Brigade and his posting to COHQ because Christopher Sykes is so shockingly misleading about the subject. He writes: “By the end of 1941 No. 8 Commando were back in England and their Battalion Headquarters were in Sherborne in Dorset. There Evelyn remained with them…. In July 1943 Colonel Laycock was ordered to take No. 8 Commando to Italy.”[4] This, despite the fact that No. 8 Commando had been disbanded in 1941, and despite the fact that Waugh’s career at this point is unintelligible without knowing the unit in which he was serving and his attachment to COHQ. The moral is that Sykes is reliable only when he writes memoir about incidents in which he personally participated, and even then he can stray. When a subject needs enquiry, he writes from vague memory, often stating nonsense as fact.) After his forced resignation from the Special Service Brigade, a deeply despondent Waugh retired to the training establishment of the Royal Horse Guards at Windsor to await other employment (Diaries 547-48). As Humphrey Carpenter eloquently puts it, he was “immeasurably hurt … the Army’s rejection of him was a blow comparable to his [first] wife’s unfaithfulness.”[5] But Waugh was determined to justify himself and he found precarious—and severely interrupted—employment from 25 September 1943 to 8 July 1944 with Lt Colonel William (Bill) Stirling, then trying, against powerful opposition, to create the 2 Special Air Service Regiment (2 SAS). When it seemed that Stirling might succeed, Waugh hoped to “make good” as a soldier and confound General Haydon: Bill has fixed luncheon with the Prime Minister to discuss the future of SAS. I hope to get appointed G2 [i.e., Major; he was G3, Captain], though, war weary, I dread the prospect of organization and training and a hundred new acquaintances. But after my treatment by Haydon I must ‘make good’ as a soldier. Nothing can upset him more than to find me promoted as a result of his intemperance. (Diaries 551). Lt Colonel Stirling, while admirably brave and visionary, was no administrator. Waugh’s “employment” remained informal until 25 October, when he “was able to drag [Stirling] to adjutant-general’s office and fix my posting” (Diaries 553). We next hear of Waugh on the point of sailing to North Africa to join Stirling and the 2 SAS troops already there. Waugh is having “difficulty [on account of something held up in an office] with the draft I was to take to North Africa”; but he “straightens out” the difficulty and “gets the party sent on leave” (Diaries 555). On 8 November1943 the “draft” was on the point of departure for North Africa. Laura had come to “see off” Evelyn. But the following day produced a shock reversal: “came a cable from Allied Force HQ [in the Middle East] cancelling our journey,” presumably because the war was moving on from the Mediterranean to Europe, and because parts of the Army were hostile to the SAS (Field Marshal Montgomery’s attack on Bill’s brother, David Stirling, founder of the original SAS, has passed into legend). And here the plot thickens. Waugh’s thwarted draft was first ordered “to await Bill’s return.” But four days later, “on 13 November, came a further order sending us back to our units.” The orders to return to their units, however, conflicted with orders left by Bill Stirling. Waugh writes: “we have no one in this country responsible for us and SAS is in process of absorption by Airborne Corps with, I think, the elimination of Bill [Stirling]. Randolph [Churchill] has flown away and I have no status from which to negotiate. Bill’s signal required preparations to be made for return of SAS, but no one acts.” The draft, with one exception, did not go back to their units. And while they were in Army Limbo, Waugh, “with Phil’s [Philip Dunne’s] help … was able to arrange a parachute course at the secret house near Ringway kept by SO(E).” The words “was able to arrange” cover many mysteries. Gaining access to SOE parachute training without the written orders of the Commanding Officer of 2 SAS—who had left only verbal instructions about mounting such a course with Christopher Sykes before departing for North Africa—was a difficult task. Waugh acknowledges the help of Captain Philip Dunne MC, a former Member of Parliament and of leading regiments, with influence far beyond that of a normal Captain. Oddly, Christopher Sykes also claims credit for organizing the course, citing a signature he obtained from Major-General Bob Laycock, now Chief of Combined Operations; he also claims to have tamed a Staff Officer who had screamed abuse on separate occasions at both Waugh and Sykes and ordered them back to their regiments (316–17). The truth seems to be that Waugh and Sykes each contributed to setting up the parachute course. Their accounts are certainly complementary. For example, Waugh says that the course was arranged for Ringway, close to Manchester, the base for No.1 Parachute Training School RAF.