ISSN 2514-0361 INTEL RPS LIGENCE CO Newsletter of the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum www.intelligencemuseum.org HMRC Charity Reg. No.XT32851 No.23, Summer 2019 WWII SECRET LISTENER JOINS FICM By Richard Harper his year we have the very great privilege of welcoming TEric Mark as a member of FICM. He has a unique connection to the Intelligence Corps in that he saw service in WWII as a Secret Listener. Eric was born in 1922 in Magdeburg, Germany, of Jewish parentage. With the onset of the 1930s, his parents recognised the threat posed by Nazism and sent Eric to England in 1935. He was 12 years old. He never saw his parents again. They were sent to the gas chambers, as were the rest of his family, although he managed to get his younger brother to England shortly An original cartoon by Fenwick, before war broke out. from the Tatler, 1950s, captioned: With the outbreak of war, Eric was ‘I’m afraid the Intelligence Corps interned on the Isle of Wight as were Eric presented with his FICM joining-up will get us in the end, Cyril’. many of German origin, according papers by Richard Harper on Corps Day. Published on the announcement of the to Churchill’s exhortation in 1940 Photo: CY to ‘Collar the Lot’. He decided to cadre of regular officers for the Corps. volunteer for the British Army, and in Acc. No. 2257, Corps Archive. Ed. common with all foreign-national volunteers, was posted to the Pioneer Corps. From there he transferred to the Intelligence Corps on 8th July 1944. He was put to work as a Secret Listener, bugging the conversations of captured German generals at Trent Park in London. At the end of the war, as an NCO, he was posted to the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre at Bad Nenndorf where they were listening in to captured German civilian internees What’s inside? of importance, scientists and Nazi war criminals. Eric is now the last surviving Secret Listener of WWII. RAF and SOE .......................... 2 Wentworth Woodhouse .......... 2 In civilian life he first had a career with Shell and when Britain joined the Common Market in Protecting Charles II .............. 3 1973, Eric was offered a post in Brussels in the Transport Directorate. He and his wife Miriam Looking for a chair ............... 3 now live in Belgium. n With thanks to Mrs Miriam Mark and Dr Helen Fry Fighting Hero No. 4................ 4 D-Day 75 ................................ 5 Digital doings ........................ 5 What military leader said this? New trustees ........................... 6 Back to school ........................ 6 ‘Nothing helps a fighting force more than correct FICM GOES DIGITAL information. Moreover, it should be in perfect order, ‘Soldiers Bathing’ .................. 7 Trustee matters ...................... 8 and done well by capable personnel.’ See page 5 for Ben Hodges’ Alan Edwards Award ............ 8 Answer on p.7 report on Twitter and Facebook Editorial ................................. 8 DISTRIBUTION GUIDANCE While this newsletter does not include classified information, it is intended for the personal use of FICM members, their families and close friends only. Your co-operation in observing this guidance is much appreciated. BOOK REVIEW by Peter Jefferies Runways to Freedom: The Special Duties Squadrons of RAF Tempsford by Robert Body, 2017 he activities of the Special Operations during operations and their resting places, where At the end Executive (SOE) and Secret Intelligence known. It makes for sobering reading. of the book there is a short Service (SIS) in World War II have been Intelligence support for the squadrons’ efforts was T assessment on the effectiveness of SD covered by many publications. To support these vested in the intelligence cell at Tempsford. Like most flights but this is mainly confined to personal wide-ranging operations, two Special Duties RAF intelligence cells, and I speak from personal accolades. squadrons were formed and based at RAF experience, it was mainly a receiver of processed Tempsford in Bedfordshire operating throughout intelligence for dissemination to the aircrews rather Is this a book for general reading? The short answer Europe and the Balkans. The book draws on than a producer of intelligence. However, they is no. But to a student of SOE and SIS operations in three main sources: documents in The National produced some intelligence in the form of post- World War II, it provides a detailed and valuable insight Archive, Royal Air Force Form 540 Operational mission reports and debriefs that would mainly be into the RAF’s support to those operations and helps Record Books (ORB) for the two squadrons, RAF used for squadron operations with some, after suitable to build up the complete picture of those operations bowdlerisation, being fed into the wider intelligence for which the RAF put in much effort but received Tempsford, personal memories and anecdotes. community. Air photography supplied by the Central relatively little in return. A full picture is provided The latter add a human dimension to what could Interpretation Unit/Allied Central Interpretation Unit when read in conjunction with the official history, The otherwise have been a somewhat dry official was used as a crew aid to identify landing and pick up RAF and the SOE: Special Duty Operations in Europe history. sites. Any intelligence received from the field by mail During World War II, 2016. n The need for Special Duties units was identified in packages would be forwarded directly to the relevant 1940 and a Flight (419) was under Fighter Command, authorities without passing through the station later resubordinated to Bomber Command. It mainly intelligence cell. operated during the ‘Moon Period’ one week either side of the full moon. Special Duties operations suffered from the RAF’s inter-war doctrine that saw DO YOU HAVE MEMORIES specialist roles as being a ‘bolt-on goody’ that could be carried out by line fighter or bomber squadrons. OF WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE? Consequently they were open to being misemployed, especially in the time outside the Moon Period. It soon became apparent that Special Duties squadrons needed to be experts in both aeronautical and other unique skills pertinent to the efficient delivery of Special Duties operations. By mid-1941, the two Wentworth Woodhouse squadrons (138 and 161), using an eclectic mix of aircraft, were directly controlled by the Air Ministry and he Intelligence Corps Depot was located at house. based at RAF Tempsford which brought them closer to Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham The depot HQ QM’s store and part of No 2 (Training) London and their primary customers. They had two from November 1943 to August 1946; the main roles: the insertion and extraction of agents and T Company, MT section, cookhouse and NAAFI were officers mess, unit cinema and ATS quarters were urgent mail by either landing in enemy territory or located in the stables: HQ company, the remainder parachute; and the delivery of arms and other supplies in the house, the main parts of the Depot were of 2 Company and No 3 (Holding) Company were to the many European resistance groups. located in the stables, outhouses and a Nissen located in the Nissen huts. hut camp near the village entrance. Wentworth The stables have a fountain in its centre which came The book comprehensively covers the conduct of Woodhouse is two 18th-century houses joined Special Duties operations, with the first part devoted into its own when rehearsals for the 1946 victory back to back, just like a very large semi-detached, to operating procedures and execution of operations, parade were held, the fountain being a substitute including the layout and identification of drop zones but it’s actually one house! for the cenotaph. The riding school was used as the and landing strips. Arms deliveries used air-droppable Incorporated in the middle of the house is what NAAFI and cookhouse. containers, an example of which can be found in the remains of a house created c.1630 for Sir Thomas We, the Archive and Research team, are seeking help museum, and packages, standing offshore and orbiting Wentworth, later created Earl of Strafford and with collecting any memories, anecdotes, ephemera to conduct detailed radio conversations with agents. executed on Tower Hill in 1641. or historic items which relate to the Intelligence As their area of operations contracted following D-Day, Corps’ time at Wentworth Woodhouse. They may be priority stores delivery, such as taking air photographs The two houses cannot be seen at the same time as they face east and west. The west front of 1725 is your memories or those of your family – they are all from the UK to the 21st Army Group Photographic important to us, however large or small! Interpretation Unit in the field, and liaison flights Baroque, whilst the east front of 1730 is Palladian. became part of their operations. The house with its frontage of 615 feet is the second If you are happy to share your knowledge largest front of any house in Europe, second only of this important event of our history, The second part analyses squadron activities year- to the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin please contact us either by email: by-year from 1942 until 1945. Each chapter contains outside St Petersburg. [email protected] detailed records of individual operations with details or by post: of personnel and aircraft and a narrative. One such Built on a scale to mirror the house, the stable record is about the first failed attempt to destroy the block built by John Carr around 1768 was reputedly Wentworth Woodhouse, Wentworth, Norsk Hydro in October 1942, an operation that built from the winnings of the 2nd Marquess of Rotherham S62 7TQ Rockingham’s stallion, Whistlejacket.