Description
Object description
British officer served as air operations co-ordinator with Air Operations Section, Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt, 1943; served as liaison officer with Special Operations Executive to Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia, 1944-1945; served as intelligence officer with No 1 Special Force, Special Operations Executive in Italy, 1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Ireland and GB, 1919-1939: family; education; employment; enlistment in London Irish Rifles,Territorial Army in London; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 9/1939; impressions of Nazi regime during visit to Cologne, Germany, 1937. Recollections of period as air operations co-ordinator with Air Operations Section, Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt, 1943: recruitment to Special Operations Executive in Cairo, 5/1943; organisation of air operations; question of complaints received from personnel.
REEL 2 Continues: location of air bases in North Africa; story of departure of Fitzroy Maclean's party for Yugoslavia from North Africa; daily routine. Aspects of training with Special Operations Executive in Palestine, 1943-1944: difficulty in transferring from staff work to operational work; attending training course in Haifa, preparations for drop into Yugoslavia. Recollections of period as liaison officer with Special Operations Executive to to Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia, 1944-1945: parachute drop and reception in Yugoslavia; his team; fate of Varodina staff; British personnel with Yugoslav Partisans.
REEL 3 Continues: conditions for Yugoslav Partisans; question of treatment of Chetnik and Partisan prisoners; opinion of partisan political attitudes; memories of James Klugmann in Cairo, Egypt; effects on partisans eating plastic explosives mistaken for food; near capture by Germans; German air attacks; continual movement; relations with partisans; presence of political commissars.
REEL 4 Continues: opinion of military calibre of partisans; question of Communist instruction amongst partisans; literacy lessons organised by partisans; Yugoslav Partisan rejection of gold and payments from Special Operations Executive; opinion of Yugoslav Partisans; arranging evacuation of partisan wounded from Tuzla in Douglas Dakotas, 7/1944; arranging landing strips; opinion of skill of pilots; arrival of Soviet Army and Yugoslav reaction.
REEL 5 Continues: relations with Soviet Army; disciplining of Soviet Army troops; memories of Basil Davidson; illnesses contracted during period in Yugoslavia; story of partisan reaction to anti-Communist wireless operator Steve Brandreth being awarded Soviet commendation; background to leaving Yugoslavia. Aspects of period as intelligence officer with No 1 Special Force, Special Operations Executive in Italy, 1945: staff disorganisation at Special Operations Executive Headquarters in Bari; intelligence gathering role in northern Italy from 2/1945.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of character of Italian Resistance; ease with which Italian Partisans handed their arms in at end of Second World War, 5/1945; incidents of retribution against members of Fascist regime; move to Genoa; leaving Special Operations Executive.