Description
Object description
Copy of two ts reports (6pp and 12pp, 1945) about a mission in North East Italy (August – November 1944) where he parachuted near Tramonti (12 - 13 August) at the head of a Special Operations Executive (SOE) unit with the objective of establishing a base for subversive operations in southern Austria, describing the nature of the partisan organisation in the area, the difficulties of operating due to the low morale of the local population, the meagre food rations and fear of reprisals by the Germans, the utilisation of Austrian deserters, the noticeable improvement in morale from late September due to increased Allied successes in the West and on the Russian Front, the lack of RAF air support and promised supplies for the mission and the precarious position in which this placed him with the partisans, the failure of the mission to penetrate Austria largely due to strong Gestapo control, and the need to operate from within Italy, close to the border at Carnia and Tramonte, the capture of two of the British operatives by Germans, the price of 800,000 Lire put on his head by the Germans, and his impression of the Slovenian partisans with whom contact was made when the mission walked out, with an appendix in the longer report detailing agents, couriers and safe houses; together with copy of ts report (5pp, 1945) written by E C Barker about his role in the mission and his capture with a fellow operative by the Germans (October 1944) describing their interrogation by the Gestapo, imprisonment at Gestapo Headquarters in Trieste, Coroneo prison and then Stalag XVIIA (Kaisersteinbruch) (January – April 1945) and his escape to Hungary when the Russians overran the camp; copy of DSO citation awarded to Fielding announced 2 August 1945 (4pp, December 1988) and ts copy of Fielding's obituary (2pp, 'The Daily Telegraph' February 2005).
Content description
Copy of two ts reports (6pp and 12pp, 1945) about a mission in North East Italy (August – November 1944) where he parachuted near Tramonti (12 - 13 August) at the head of a Special Operations Executive (SOE) unit with the objective of establishing a base for subversive operations in southern Austria, describing the nature of the partisan organisation in the area, the difficulties of operating due to the low morale of the local population, the meagre food rations and fear of reprisals by the Germans, the utilisation of Austrian deserters, the noticeable improvement in morale from late September due to increased Allied successes in the West and on the Russian Front, the lack of RAF air support and promised supplies for the mission and the precarious position in which this placed him with the partisans, the failure of the mission to penetrate Austria largely due to strong Gestapo control, and the need to operate from within Italy, close to the border at Carnia and Tramonte, the capture of two of the British operatives by Germans, the price of 800,000 Lire put on his head by the Germans, and his impression of the Slovenian partisans with whom contact was made when the mission walked out, with an appendix in the longer report detailing agents, couriers and safe houses; together with copy of ts report (5pp, 1945) written by E C Barker about his role in the mission and his capture with a fellow operative by the Germans (October 1944) describing their interrogation by the Gestapo, imprisonment at Gestapo Headquarters in Trieste, Coroneo prison and then Stalag XVIIA (Kaisersteinbruch) (January – April 1945) and his escape to Hungary when the Russians overran the camp; copy of DSO citation awarded to Fielding announced 2 August 1945 (4pp, December 1988) and ts copy of Fielding's obituary (2pp, 'The Daily Telegraph' February 2005).
History note
Cataloguer KM