Lee, Peter Murray (Oral history)

British private and NCO served with Royal Army Medical Corps attached to 13th General Hospital in France, 1939-1940; officer served as field security officer with Intelligence Corps in GB, 1940-1942; served with Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Baker Street, London, GB, 1942-1943; served as Head of Security, Special Operations Executive in Algeria and Italy, 1943-1944

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1913-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as private and NCO with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB and France, 1939-1940: background to call up to Royal Army Medical Corps; move to France with 13th General Hospital, winter 1939-1940; evacuation from St Malo, 6/1940. Aspects of period as officer with Intelligence Corps in GB, 1940-1942: background to volunteering for Intelligence Corps; attending course at Matlock; objective of course; question of flexible and static controls; course routine and content; technique of interrogating prisoners. REEL 2 Continues: importance of discretion; final course report; his language proficiency; posting to M11 in War Office in London; duties; personalities working in section; daily life during German Air Force attacks on London, 1941; censorship work. Recollections of period as security officer with Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Baker Street in London, GB, 1942-1943: background to joining Special Operations Executive, 4/1942-5/1942. REEL 3 Continues: selection procedure, 5/1942; cover name of organisation; introduction to his duties; security arrangements at Baker Street Headquarters; making acquaintance with Field Security Agents; question of unpopularity of Special Operations Executive with regular armed services; ranks used by Field Security Agents; impressions of trainee agents; selection of suitable agents. REEL 4 Continues: use of women to debrief agents; reporting on suitability of characters of trainee agents; adherence to Official Secrets Act; court martial and imprisonment of officer; his production of security handbook; use of country houses as training centres; inventions emanating from Station IX on Frythe Estate; memories of Gerald Lakin; fate of agents sent to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in Czechoslovakia; vetting of recruits; problems of security leaks; reorganisation of personnel. REEL 5 Continues: division of GSOII duties and liaison with country sections; story of creating cover story for German Jewish agent; liaison with various country sections; amusing story of Hardy Amies and grenade; question of poor security in Belgian Section; his estimate of Gestapo; work of Norwegian Section; memories of radio operator Denis Rake codenamed ‘Dieudonne’; further details of other sections; work pressure; social life; need to restrict friendships to colleagues. REEL 6 Continues: character of personnel at Baker Street; Special Operations Executive subdivisions and use of ‘cooler’; Special Operations Executive Security Section; memories of Harry Ree; fate of Sergeant McAlister; background to joining Massingham Mission. Recollections of period as Head of Security, Special Operations Executive in Algeria, 5/1943-9/1943: mustering of personnel for move to Algeria; flight in KLM aircraft to Algeria with Gerry Holdsworth; arrival at Maison Blanche; establishment of headquarters at Club des Pins; use of Spanish Communist guard; inexperience of OSS personnel. REEL 7 Continues: security problems at Club des Pins sites; memories of Douglas Fairbanks Jr; character of terrain; death of agent during parachute training; relations with Secret Intelligence Service and sabotage organisations; negotiations between Douglas Dodds-Parker and General Badoglio before Italian armistice; visit from King George VI. Recollections of period as Head of Security, Special Operations Executive in Italy, 1943-1944: story of voyage from North Africa via Malta to Italy, late 1943. REEL 8 Continues: establishing operational and security headquarters in Monopoli and Bari; recruitment of personnel as interrogators; interrogation techniques; setting up 300 Field Security Section in Bari; German Air Force raid on Bari Harbour; memories of Nina Tamplin; move to Rome after liberation, 6/1944; liaison with Vatican; story of his audience with Pope Pius XI. REEL 9 Continues: creation of card index for interrogations; dining with female agent Christine Granville; visits to opera in Rome; establishing communications over River Arno; financing field security section operations through black market; use of index for keeping tabs on Italian Communists; crossing front-line; story of radio operator captured by Germans and his transmitting of double transposition code; liaison with British Embassy in Rome. REEL 10 Continues: memories of visits by war artists Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden; issue of certificates to returning agents; opinion of Communist influence in Italy after wartime involvement with resistance movement; memories of Vladimir ‘Popski’ Peniakoff; his tour of northern Italy; background to leaving Italy.