Shortly before he committed suicide in Berlin on 30 April, Hitler expelled Himmler from the Nazi Party because of his attempt to broker a peace deal with the Allies through Count Bernadotte, a Swede, and appointed Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz to succeed him as President and Supreme Commander. Himmler also had visions of surrendering to the Americans and being given a senior police appointment. Next day, Doenitz formed a provisional government at Flensburg and, after telling Himmler there was no room for him, concentrated on ensuring that German units surrendered to the British and Americans and not to the Soviets. Meanwhile, FS sections continued to patrol the lines of communication from Antwerp, while sections containing Danish and Norwegian linguists accompanied British forces liberating occupied Denmark and Norway, including the reformed 89 (Airborne) FSS.
The Security Section, Corps of Military Police hut at Mytchett where Field Security was first taught. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
France, 1939. Lt Col Gerald Templer, GSO1 (Intelligence) (on right) and Capt Attfield, GSO3 (Counter-Intelligence) at a railway station when the BEF deployed.
1940. Probably the first photo of Intelligence Corps. Left to right are RSM Bill Smith, Lt Col Frank Davis and LCpl Monro, fittingly in civilian clothes. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Mytchett, 1940. The first Auxiliary Territorial Service women to pass the Field Security Course. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Brigadier Sir David Petrie, who reinvigorated MI5 as Director-General between 1941 and 1946. He had previously headed the Delhi Intelligence Bureau and had joined the Intelligence Corps as a FS lieutenant in 1940.
Newcastle, 1941. A Port Security Intelligence Corps sergeant oversees the disembarkation of German prisoners, including a Luftwaffe officer, captured during a raid on Occupied Norway. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Libya, 1942. Two NCOs of 37 (1st Armoured Division) FSS, wearing the black berets of the Royal Tank Regiment, question Libyans for information. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
A relaxed group of Intelligence Corps NCOs attending a Field Security course at Matlock in 1942. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Sergeant Paul Backwell and Corporal Alan Tooth, of 50 (GHQ) FSS, ‘escorting officers’ to the double agent Eddie Chapman (Agent Zig Zag), during the deception to deceive the Germans into believing that the de Haviland factory at Hatfield had been sabotaged. (National Archives)
Captain John Dunlop. the first officer to command 89 (Para) FSS. He died, probably drowned, during the landings in Sicily in 1943. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Sicily, 1943. Two FS NCOs, one in civilian clothes, take the Fascist police chief to their jeep in Santa Marina. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Santa Marina. The NCOs take the police chief into FS HQ for questioning. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Santa Marina. One of the FS NCOs searches the office of the police chief. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Italy, 1944. Cpl D Reynolds, a draughtsman at HQ Eighth Army. In civil employment, he was an architectural assistant. (IWM TR 1722)
Italy. Captain Kym Isolani (in centre with goggles) with four members of F Squadron, who were recruited from Italian paratroopers who had surrendered in 1943 and then volunteered to fight with the Allies. (Paul Isolani-Smyth)
An Auxiliary Territorial Service NCO serving in the Intelligence Corps during the Second World War. Most served as linguistic transcribers and analysts in Signals Intelligence and at interrogation centres.
An air photographic interpretation office in Great Britain. The stereoscopes were used for several decades. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
The speed and agility of the Mosquito Mk34 was ideal for air photo recce. (Medmenham Collection)
Normandy, 1944. Here, 317 (Airborne) FSS, which supported the 6th Airborne Division at Ranville in Normandy. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Arnhem, 18 Sept 1944. Captain John Killick leads a 2 Para patrol while searching for Cpl Maybury, who had been reported missing. Although Intelligence Corps, Killick was badged as Suffolk Regiment. (Maria Austria Instituut)
Luneberg Heath, May 1945. Colonel James Ewart interprets for General Montgomery during the German surrender negotiations. On 1 July he was killed in a road traffic accident. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Germany, 1945. Field Security checks identity papers during the search for Heinrich Himmler on about 23 May. Several fake papers were unearthed. (IWM BU 6330)
Cpl Arthur Britton on a motorcycle in Tunisia, 1943. It was his meticulous inspection of German identity documents that led to the arrest of Himmler. (Bruce Bolinger)
Field Security at No. 1 Disbandment Camp screen German prisoners selected for release in order to help bring in the harvest in August 1945. (IWM BU 7511)
West Germany, 1945. Two Field Security sergeants pose in front of their VW Beetle special purpose vehicle. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Colonel G.T. Ward, the Tokyo Defence Attaché and intelligence officer, whose predictions about the Japanese Army were rejected by Malaya Command in 1941. He was told not to demoralize the troops. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
1946. Auswitchz camp commandant Rudolf Hoess shortly after his arrest by Field Security.
Members of the Burma Intelligence Corps, which played an important role in Fourteenth Army operations.
Tiddim Rd, Burma, 1944. Sergeants Hawksley and Russell, of 565 (5th Indian Division) FSS, search a house for Japanese stay-behind parties, stragglers and documents. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Burma, 1945. Captain Reginald Isaac seeks information from villagers during the advance to Rangoon in July. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Singapore, 1945. Sergeant Hawksley and a member of the Army Physical Corps with Allied prisoners of war at Changi prison camp. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Singapore, 1945. Captain Isaac escorts Japanese Kempei Tai officers and NCOs to a prison camp. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
French Indo-China (now Vietnam). Captain Tom Frost and members of 604 FSS in Saigon in 1945. (Christopher Frost)
Palestine. Members of 317 (Airborne) FSS at Haifa docks in 1947. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
The HQ Intelligence Corps, Maresfield Camp. Maresfield was home to the Intelligence Corps between 1948 and 1966. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Joint Services Language School, Bodmin, 1953. Dubbed by the Soviets as a ‘School for Spies’. Intelligence Corps officer-cadets who attended Russian language courses included the playwrights Michael Frayn (top left) and Alan Bennett (top right). (IWM HU51095)
Langeleben, 1959. An Intelligence Corps lance corporal wearing Royal Signals insignia to disguise the intelligence collection nature of 1 Wireless Regiment. (Langeleben Reunion Branch)
Kenya Emergency, 1954. An Intelligence Corps captain, in shorts, watches as the Mau Mau commander Waruhiu Itote (‘General China’) is loaded into an Army lorry after his capture near Mt Kenya. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
West Germany, 1950s. A smartly dressed Intelligence Corps sergeant outside his Field Security Section with the Section vehicles behind him. (Courtesy of the Intelligence Corps)
Cyprus Emergency. Two Intelligence Corps NCOs on Port Security duties at Famagusta in 1957. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Cyprus Emergency. The arrow indicates an EOKA hideout near Makhearas Monastery that was attacked by 1 Duke of Wellington’s Regt in 1957. Photographic Intelligence played a key role in locating guerrilla camps. (David Carter)
Borneo. An Intelligence Corps sergeant accompanied by an Auxiliary Police interpreter and two Land Dayaks during a visit to Tebedu longhouse in Sarawak in November 1963. (Major Peter Mobbs)
Borneo. An Auxiliary
Police FINCO Cpl Peter Mobbs and another Auxiliary Police officer on a bridge near Simanggang in 2nd Division, Sarawak. (Major Peter Mobbs)
A Canberra PR 9 lands at RAF Labuan after a sortie over Sarawak during Confrontation. (Mac Hawkins)
Templer Bks, Ashford. In the centre is the Depot. On the left is the School of Service Intelligence and on the right are HQ Intelligence Corps and the Other Ranks accommodation block of twelve eight-man rooms. Behind the Depot is the Other Ranks Cookhouse. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Aden Emergency, 1967. A rare photograph of an Intelligence Corps officer in civilian clothes, in this instance a lance corporal (on the left), with a drawn pistol, after an attack on a military vehicle. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
Vietnam, 1966. Two members of the Australian Intelligence Corps, HQ I Division at Nui Dat. (Australian Museum of Military Intelligence)
Northern Ireland. Members of 124 (HQ 3 Infantry Brigade) Intelligence Section and 33 Field Squadron RE prepare for waterborne operations on Lough Neagh using Rigid Raiders Antrim from Bridging Camp in 1974.
Oman, 1970. Three Intelligence Corps corporals in a forward position on the jebel above Salalah during the counter-insurgency campaign. (Major David Duncan)
Members of 5 Security Company providing real-time counter-intelligence cover for the 1976 NATO Exercise Spearpoint. The vehicle format of a military Escort and a Mini was normal for most Security Sections in West Germany. The white cross denotes ‘Umpire/Neutral’.
Possibly Emblem, Belgium, 1972. Two Intelligence Corps NCOs on Port Security duties. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
West Germany, 1980s. Imagery interpreters analyzing air photographs while wearing their NBC protective suits. (Courtesy of the Military Intelligence Museum)
A 2/4 wheel drive Mercedes Gelandewagen (G-Wagon) used by BRIXMIS between 1982 and 1990. With exceptional cross-country capability, they were fitted with an extra 90-litre fuel tank, a front-mounted electric winch and a stowed hand winch. Behind the G-Wagon is a Soviet-built ZIL 131 Radio truck.
Falklands, 1982. Two members of 81 (HQ 5 Infantry Brigade) Intelligence Section at Fitzroy. Both are wearing NBC overboots, which did much to prevent weather and temperature damage to their feet.
Falklands, 1982. View from the Intelligence Desk in the HMS Fearless Amphibious Operations Room. A Royal Marine of the 3 Commando Brigade Intelligence Section marks the Operations map.
Falklands, 1982. Argentine prisoners file past one of the four 155mm towed howitzers batteries identified as self-propelled. The guns had been landed two days before the Argentine surrender.
Gulf War, 1991. An Intelligence Corps SNCO briefs Prime Minister John Major at the end of the Gulf War. In the background is a Free Rocket Over Ground Type-7 (FROG 7) Resupply vehicle loaded with an inert rocket to resemble a missile launcher. (Courtesy of David Cross)
Belize. A Belizean police officer approaches the Mini Moke used by a Guatemalan Special Forces detachment that crossed the border in 1982. (Allan Hare)
London, 1992. A member of 163 (Special Security) Section, was invited to use the Prime Minister’s chair in the Cabinet Room while writing a report on 10 Downing Street. (Roy Millard)
Templer Bks, Ashford. Intelligence Centre families are introduced to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 27 February 1985. Members of the Royal Family have regularly visited the Intelligence Corps. (Private Collection)
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Occupied Trieste, Germany and Austria
British military authorities have seldom realised that an Intelligence system cannot be improvised and requires to be built over a period of time.
General Wavell, 1940
As winter merged into spring in 1945, the powerful Red Army took advantage of inadequate occupation provisions and by late March had occupied most of eastern Austria, including the majority of the province of Styria. It then entered Vienna on 13 April and, in spite of objections from the Western Allies, installed the socialist Karl Renner as head of the provisional Communist government. Further Soviet expansion was halted by US forces occupying the northern provinces while the French moved into the western provinces. The British 6th Armoured Division and 55 FSS advanced into Carinthia from Italy but encountered an immediate problem when Tito’s Partisans claimed the province to be Yugoslavian. However, the formidable presence of HQ V Corps and 78th Division, with its 88 FSS, ended their expansionist aspirations by 20 April.
Trieste
Eighth Army and Partisan leaders had agreed in March that the northern province of Venezia Giulia would be divided by the Morgan Line into two ‘zones of interest’, with the British assuming control of Trieste and its port facilities to support military operations and the occupation of Austria and Yugoslavia occupying the hinterland and the Istrian Peninsula. But the Partisan 4th Army reneged on 1 May and disrupted the entry into Trieste of the 2nd New Zealand Division, with its attached 407 FSS, until the next day by falsely claiming that a bridge over the River Isonzo had been prepared for demolition, and then accused them of entering the city without permission. As 412 FSS followed the New Zealanders and requisitioned a bank for its HQ, Corporal Douglas Lyle took a call from someone saying in halting English, ‘We know all about you’. He focused on a machine gun post manned by the ‘Jugs’, the Army nickname for the Partisans. Having moved to the harbour, 21 (Port Security) Section was soon fully occupied screening Jewish refugees making their way to Palestine and also preventing arms smuggling.
Germany
On Luneburg Heath south of Hamburg, the GHQ Liaison Regiment (usually known as ‘Phantom’) detachment attached to the Twenty-First Army Group Tactical Headquarters intercepted a message that Germany wished to capitulate. On 4 May three German staff cars brought three senior officers and a staff officer to negotiate the surrender of all German troops in Northern Germany, including those facing the Soviets. James Ewart, now a colonel and interpreting for General Montgomery, had played a vital role during the advance from the Ardennes by exploiting intelligence assets and regularly liaising with commanders in contact with the enemy, and thus supplied detailed intelligence assessments. Montgomery demanded unconditional surrender but when the delegation said they would have to refer to Admiral Doenitz, after lunch Montgomery showed them a map showing the extent of the Russian advance. The negotiations continued the next day and then at 6.00pm, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, initialled the capitulation of the German forces facing Twenty-First Army Group. One of those who witnessed the signing was Sergeant Kirby, whose Field Security detachment had been tasked to protect and administer the ‘German camp’ set up alongside Army HQ. On 7 May, Kirby accompanied a major instructed to deliver the surrender terms to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the Supreme Commander of the German Army, at Flensburg. They were accompanied by the journalist Chester Wilmot. Unfortunately, they were not expected and when faced with considerable hostility, Kirby insisted that the major wished to see Keitel, who was eventually tracked down and presented with the terms. On the same day, Dr Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Governor of Holland, had been detained by two Royal Welch Fusiliers at a bridge over the Elbe near Hamburg and handed over to Field Security.
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