The disbandment of the Intelligence and Security Group (Far East Land Forces) saw several Intelligence Corps posted to the Intelligence and Security Unit, 28 (Australian, New Zealand and UK) Brigade (ANZUK). Among those made redundant was Mr Foo Yit Kim, who had worked with 1 FSS in 1946 and had been employed in the Pass Issue Office from 1953 until 1970.
Hong Kong
Blistered onto the border with China was the Colony of Hong Kong, entrusted to the British in agreement with China after two previous treaties which saw Hong Kong Island and Kowloon ceded in perpetuity and control of the New Territories governed by a 99-year lease, as agreed by 1898 Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. The nature of the lease did not hinder the development of the Colony as an important commercial and financial centre in the Far East. The People’s Liberation Army lurked across the border and only posed a threat during periods of tension, for instance during the Korean War. China abided by the treaty. Subversion and espionage were the main threats.
In 1966, 10 Intelligence and Security Company, which was based in the former Second World War prison camp in Argyle Camp, was stretched by serious disturbances inspired by the Maoist Red Guard coup in China, to the extent that when the People’s Liberation Army closed up to the border, Corps Day celebrations were abandoned.
Otherwise, the Company supported HQ British Forces, Hong Kong with ‘hearts and minds’ projects that included a community relations programme of building a school playground on Chep Lak Kok, a small island off Lantau Island; organizing Duke of Edinburgh Award training for Tak Oi Secondary School, which usually culminated in a hike in the New Territories; and Rural Area patrols in remote parts of the Colony.
Aden
British links with Aden dated from 1838 when it was ceded by a South Arabian sultan as the first colony of Queen Victoria’s reign. It became an important coaling station between India, the Far East and Australasia. For administrative purposes, it later was divided into the Western Protectorate and the Eastern Protectorate. When, after Suez, Egyptian-inspired, anti-British subversion from North Yemen led to incursions, in 1959, the threatened rulers in the Protectorate signed the accord that formed the Federation of Arab Emirates. It was joined by nine others in January 1963 to form the Federation of South Arabia. The mostly eastern states did not join and became the Protectorate of South Arabia.
In June 1963, Corporal George Jubb, who had been transferred from Bahrain, was part of a Middle East Command adventure training expedition that veered off course near the border and lost four soldiers killed, two wounded and twenty-one captured in an ambush. Twenty-seven, including Jubb, reached the National Guard fort at Tor el Baha. While diplomacy saw the prisoners released, the attack emboldened the fiercely-independent Radfan sultans astride the Dhala Road to dominate the trade and pilgrim route to Mecca. Eruptions of Arab nationalism in Aden saw a State of Emergency being declared in December by the new Federation of Arab Emirates, however, its Federal Regular Army had little impact in restoring order in the Radfan and in April 1964 it appealed for British military support.
HQ 39 Infantry Brigade arrived from Tidworth but since its Intelligence Platoon had just been disbanded, it was loaned 15 (5 Infantry Brigade) Intelligence and Security Platoon. then based in Iserlohn in West Germany. Based at Thumeir and under canvas for the next six months near a fort, the Platoon had five broad tasks:
• Intelligence – study enemy activity based on patrol reports, air reconnaisance and observations post operations.
• Brief and debrief battalion and company operations.
• Technical Intelligence – evaluate captured weapons.
• Security – Provide advice to Thumeir Base.
• Psychological operations – maintain contact with the local population.
When the Territorial Army Emergency Reserve was mobilized in April 1965 for six month tours, included in the ‘Ever Readies’ were several Intelligence Corps from Intelligence and Security Group (TA).
In October, 24 Infantry Brigade, with its 1 Intelligence and Security Platoon, rotated with 39 Brigade. The Brigade Commander, Brigadier Richard Bremner, later became Inspector, Intelligence Corps.
The Aden Emergency was declared in December 1963. The 1964 Defence White Paper declaration that Great Britain intended to retain Aden led to the Egyptian-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) conducting a terrorist campaign intent on driving the British from Aden. The thirty-six incidents in 1964 increased massively to 2,908 incidents in 1967, with grenades being the preferred weapon. By 1965, the Aden Special Branch had been crippled by assassination. An extract from the 1965 The Rose and The Laurel gives some flavour:
We remember the night Ma’ala main road was lit up, literally, by Sergeant Birrell’s car colliding with a Bazooka rocket. Another rocket narrowly missed Staff Webster’s flat and, on another occasion, two grenades landed in Lance Corporal Crawley’s beer whilst he was on a liaison visit to the Seaman’s Mission.
The Intelligence Corps contributed to the Aden Intelligence Centre, supported 24, 39 and Aden Brigades with Intelligence and Security platoons supported 24, 39 and the Aden Brigades and contributed to operations in the Radfan Mountains. Several Corps subalterns underwent their infantry attachments with Army and Royal Marines units in Aden. One was Mentioned in Despatches.
A major and warrant officer from the Joint Service Interrogation Wing sent to the Fort Morbut Interrogation Centre in 1964 again proved that interrogation was vital, even though the skill was scrutinized by Amnesty International, an organization founded by a former Intelligence Corps officer. Several Intelligence and Security Group ‘Ever Readies’ supported Fort Morbut on six month emergency tours. When the Prendergast Report led to a centralized intelligence strategy and the B (Counter-Terrorist) Group being formed in 1966, Intelligence Corps NCOs supported Special Branch Operations officers by analysing information from Brigade operational logs. Human Intelligence and Fort Morbut reports led to weapons and explosive finds and arrests in the districts of Crater, Sheik Othman and Ma’alla to the extent that the NLF was forced to re-organize. Throughout the Emergency, the terrorists tried to undermine Service morale by attacking families, a trend that began in Cyprus and continued in Northern Ireland. On 28 February 1967, a Foreign Office official and his wife invited several civilian and military security officers to supper, unaware that the NLF had kidnapped the mother of their houseboy and threatened to kill her unless he planted a bomb in their flat. At 9.00pm, it exploded in the dining room killing two people, including Mrs Ruth Wilkes, the wife of Major Keith Wilkes, who commanded the Counter-Intelligence Company. Radio Sana’s broadcasting from North Yemen had dubbed the Company the ‘Vipers of Villiers Street’. Although its members were placed near the top of assassination lists, its Cloak and Dagger Club was popular. In July, the Counter-Intelligence Company moved from Waterloo Lines.
During the final phases of the British withdrawal, the 3 Commando Brigade Intelligence Section on board the commando-carrier HMS Bulwark was supported by two JNCOs and then at midday on 29 November, two Intelligence Corps boarding a C-130 Hercules at RAF Khormaksar bound for Bahrain were among the last British troops to leave Aden.
The 1966 Defence White Paper was harsh and saw not only several regiments either disband or amalgamate, but also the rationalization of several Corps, notably the Royal Corps of Transport. It also led to the first of several attempted takeovers of the Intelligence Corps when the War Office proposed merging it with the Royal Military Police – on the grounds that eliminating at least one specialist Corps would soften the cuts. Although history linked the two Corps, the evolution of the Corps since 1940 enabled Brigadier Bulkeley, the Inspector of Intelligence, to convince the War Office Intelligence community that significant subversive and military threats to British interests remained and that in the event of a general war, assembling the Intelligence Corps in 1914 and 1939 had both initially proven counterproductive.
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nbsp; The acceptance of the Intelligence Corps as a body into the peacetime Army saw HQ Intelligence, the Depot and School of Military Intelligence vacate Maresfield in January 1966 and move to the new, compact, centrally-heated Templer Barracks on the outskirts of the Kentish market town of Ashford. The barracks were so named to acknowledge the immense contribution made by Gerald Templer, now a Field Marshal, to British military intelligence and the Intelligence Corps, in particular. To commemorate its eighteen years in Maresfield, the Corps presented the Parish Church with an oak bookcase inscribed with its crest and scroll in a small ceremony on 16 September 1965. Accessible from the A20 and backing onto Rowcroft Barracks, a focal point was Repton Manor and its tithe barn, both overlooked by an imposing oak tree. The Manor had been the family home of the Kentish landowner, Sir John Fogge (c1417-1490), who was described by the official biographer of Members of Parliament as ‘a great soldier, a good comrade and a powerful official’. He had survived the Wars of the Roses by allying himself to the winning side as the throne passed between the Houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor.
The period after the Defence White Paper was particularly difficult for the Intelligence Unit (United Kingdom) (TA) because the Ministry of Defence proposed to retain a small Army Reserve and there were anxieties it would be disbanded. When the news broke that that the Unit would survive, 14 Counter-Intelligence (East Command) Company joined 18 Counter-Intelligence Company at Hampstead in November 1966, in their third deployment in six years. On 1 April 1967, Lieutenant Colonel John Wilson formed the Intelligence and Security (Volunteers) and centralized several small Intelligence Corps units at the desirable Artillery House, Handel Street, London with an establishment of 161 officers and 342 other ranks divided into:
• 20 Security Company based Fitzjohns Avenue with detachments in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
• 21 Photographic Interpretation Company.
• 22 Interrogation Company at Handel Street.
• 10 Port Security Platoon at Belfast.
In spite of assurances, morale dipped, nevertheless, Wilson rejected suggestions that his plans for the Annual Camp were too ambitious and instructed the Group for its Annual Camp at St Martin’s Plain, Folkestone. He then launched Exercise Mixed Bag and dispersed the Group in mixed detachments across southern England to complete several tasks. Old loyalties and traditions were replaced by a new culture, culminating on 16 June in the ‘Fly Past’ at Templer Barracks. Wilson again ignored the recipe for collisions, chaos and breakdowns and watched as thirty-five Land Rovers and trailers lined on the parade square, without incident. Wilson’s faith was well founded and, with Brigadier Bulkeley taking the salute, Ex Mixed Bag became a part of Intelligence and Security Group (Volunteers) folklore.
The period after 1968 saw interesting blends of Regular and Territorial Army officers and other ranks emerge and as the surviving First 100 moved into senior positions, a trickle of officers from Sandhurst complemented transfers and the historically important commissioned other ranks continuing to provide experience and knowledge at middle management level. A steady flow of transferees representing a wide spectrum of the Army, some with active service experience, balanced direct entrants and Intelligence Corps trained by the All Arms Junior Leaders Regiment until about 1969, and then with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Apprentices College, Deepcut from 1970 to 1977. Education and military training, interspersed with battle camps, sport and adventure training, dominated the junior leaders curriculum. Intelligence Corps also completed a Staff Clerk course at Blackdown. Connections to the Corps were limited to a visit to Ashford and the final Pass Out parade to receive their Green Lanyards. Other ranks continued to leave the Depot as lance corporals. Several squads have since been made entirely of transferees for trade training. In 1975 the blend of experience was enriched when the Women’s Royal Army Corps were permitted to join the Corps in an operational capacity, as opposed to administrative. Women supporting the Corps had a long history stretching back to 1914 and were proud to wear the Corps badge.
On 1 April, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Madsen, who had fought with the Danish Resistance, formed Intelligence and Security Group (United Kingdom) to support the Army Strategic Reserve formed from 3rd Division by providing Operational Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence detachments for Divisional Headquarters and 5, 19 and 24 Infantry Brigades. The Detachments were supported by a Royal Army Ordnance photographer and a Royal Engineer draughtsman. An Intelligence Section supporting the Allied Mobile Force (Land) tasked to bolster NATO’s northern and southern flanks regularly exercised in Norway and Southern Europe. However, 89 (Parachute) Intelligence Section was not included in the re-organisation. When 3 Commando Brigade returned from the Far East, its Intelligence Corps Section reverted to Royal Marines. During the year, two NCOs from Intelligence and Security Group (Far East Land Forces) joined a 1 Kings Shropshire Light Infantry group sent to intervene in sectarian disturbances in Mauritius.
But the Corps, numbering 202 officers and 771 other ranks, was subjected to another takeover bid, this time by the Royal Signals, but this was quickly sunk by Brigadier David Williams, Brigadier, General Staff at the Ministry of Defence Intelligence Staff Committee, who announced that both Corps were mutually supportive, with the Royal Signals intercepting and tracking enemy transmissions and the Intelligence Corps analyzing information. The latter also had a historical, core skill that did not exist in the Royal Signals – Security and counter-intelligence. The survival of the Corps now assured for the foreseeable future, the principal of ‘Joint Service saw Armed Forces intelligence and security training centralized at Templer Barracks in 1969. The School of Military Intelligence was reformed into the Instructional Wing, Intelligence Centre until, in 1971, it was renamed the School of Service Intelligence. Commanded by an Intelligence Corps lieutenant colonel, instructors were drawn from the three Services and included an Australian Intelligence Corps exchange officer, usually with experience of Vietnam, and from 1973, a US officer. The School soon developed an enviable reputation for its expertise. Among delegates in June 1974 was His Royal Highness Lieutenant the Prince Charles RN attending an intelligence course. The Joint Services Interrogation Wing and its training compound, that doubled as a wartime Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, was briefly part of the School. Supported by 22 Intelligence Company (V), HMS Ferret (Royal Navy Reserve) and 7640 Flight (RAF Volunteer Reserve), it ran interrogation courses for selected Intelligence Corps officers and SNCOs and All Arms Tactical Questioning and Prisoner Handling and Resistance to Interrogation courses and, later, contributed to interview training at the Special Intelligence Wing at Repton Manor. Its regular exercise schedule included exercising prone to capture troops, Special Forces selection and All Arms Combat Survival, RAF aircrew escape and evasion at RAF Mountbatten and near Munich in the winter, and the NATO Long Range Patrol School. Deviation from adhering to Section 17 of the Third Geneva Conventions of giving regimental number, surname, first names and date of birth usually meant failure. It also ran courses for the US Armed Forces in the US and for the Royal Hong Kong Police. But always, hovering in the background, was the controversy that interrogation had attracted since the events at Bad Nenndorf in 1946/47.
Northern Ireland
A silver Celtic Cross unveiled as an Officer’s Mess table piece in December 2007 commemorates the contribution made by the Intelligence Corps to Operation Banner in Northern Ireland, however sensitivities about some activities during the thirty-seven years of The Troubles means that its story can only be summarized, however it did dominate the evolution of the Corps.
The first connection between the Intelligence Corps and the Republican movement appears to have been in 1941 when Captain George Devenish and two Field Security NCOs tasked to intercept the mail of Mr Cahir Healy, a Sinn Fein MP, found several letters suggesting contact with the Germans. Healy was interned in July and Devenish was quickly moved to England as a prison camp commandant. Healy later became a Westminster MP.
Two FS sections spent most of the Second World War in Northern Ireland. Formed in Sheerness, 43 FSS was on its way to Cherbourg when the French capitulated. Returning to England, it worked with the Corps of Military Police in several London railway stations before joining VI Corps in Omagh in June 1943. Working with the Royal Ulster Constabulary during a period after the IRA had conducted a bombing campaign in England, its duties were border surveillance, which included investigating a report of a U-Boat being refuelled in a Donegal inlet and investigating a walking stick containing a roll of film. It also gave security awareness talks to audiences ranging from Women’s Institutes to 2,000 US servicemen. Shortly before D-Day, the Section returned to England for pre-D-Day preparations at Kennington area near Ashford. The other Section, 48 (HQ Northern Ireland District) FSS was mainly tasked in Port Security, however it was also involved in the capture of a German agent parachuted into the country, seemingly in connection with Plan Kathleen to invade Ireland and threaten Great Britain’s back door and its transatlantic lines of communications. In 1955, it went to Libya where it remained for three years.
Sharing the Secret Page 36
