Description
Object description
British officer served with Political Warfare Executive in GB and Vichy France, 1941-1943, inmate in Figueras and Barcelona Prisons in Spain, 1943; officer served with F and EU/P Sections, Special Operations Executive in GB, France and Belgium, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Belgium, GB and Switzerland, 1903-1939: family; education; background of employment with League of Nations in Switzerland; propaganda role attached to British Legations in Romania and Turkey, 1939-1941. Recollections of period as officer with Political Warfare Executive in GB and France, 1941-1943: recruitment to Political Warfare Executive for role in France and later transfer to F Section, Special Operations Executive; opinion of value of training received; injuring hand and missing parachute training; voyage in fishing vessel from Gibraltar to French coast, near Cannes; making contact in Cannes; cover story; arrival at Grenoble; failure of attempts to send communications from Grenoble including encoded postcard to Portugal; propaganda assessment role with Political Warfare Executive in France, spring 1943; reads extracts from report assessing propaganda requirements for Grenoble area; means of compiling information for report.
REEL 2 Continues: question of intelligence received from and influence of underground press; financing operations; lack of communications from Grenoble and decision to make contacts in Spain; securing guide for crossing of Pyrenees Mountains. Aspects of period as inmate in Figueras and Barcelona Prisons in Spain, 1943: arrest on arrival in Spain; imprisonment in Figueras Prison; Spanish Republican prisoners in prison; securing weekly allowance from British Consul General; conditions with Spaniards in prison; hygiene; status as British officer; body searches; accepting Franco salute and move to Barcelona Prison; black market wine; money allowances to military inmates of other nationalities; imprisonment of 'orphan' children of Republicans in Barcelona; release in village of Jaraba and transfer to Gibraltar; question of treatment of French inmates by prison authorities; return to GB. Recollections of period as officer with Special Operations Executive in GB, France and Belgium, 1943-1945: recruitment to Special Operations Executive; role investigating Polish-run Resistance groups in France; assignment to role by Ronald Hazell; crossing to French coast in motor torpedo boat;.
REEL 3 Continues: aborted landing and return to GB; attempt to secure guide for crossing into France from Spain; his smuggling into Perpignan, France on bus of criminals; contacts with Polish military and civilian organisations in France including head of civilian organisation, Alexander Kavalkovsky; reads extracts from M R D Foot's 'SOE in France' interpreting Chalmers-Wright's reports; points of disagreement with M R D Foot's interpretation of extent of sabotage carried out by Polish miners in Lille area, France, 1944; M R D Foot's amendments to second edition; roles of Polish Resistance members in France; accommodation at contact address in Paris, France supplied by Wing Commander F F E Yeo-Thomas; liaising with French Resistance in Lille area, France; question of cover story; opinion of aid to cover provided by being older than the average agent; soliciting help from furniture shop owner to provide contact point for Special Operations Executive; making contact with Special Operations Executive's D/FIN Section; initial suspicions about escape line; crossing Pyrenees Mountains; being taken to police station in Barcelona, Spain; characters at police station; elongated process of negotiating release from Spain through British Consul.
REEL 4 Continues: return to London and reconciliation with wife; receiving intelligence from Polish Resistance sources in France regarding V1 Flying Bomb landing sites in Lille area, France; agreement with Ronald Hazell to embark on third mission to France; drop with Belgians into southern Belgium; injuring back in parachute drop, 8/1944; failure to return to Lille area, France; atmosphere in liberated villages; contact with Ronald Hazell in Lille, France; medical examination of back injury and treatment; purpose of fourth mission to France, 1944-1945; rank on release from Army, 1/1946; question of reaction to experiences in occupied Europe; story of escaping Gestapo swoop on restaurant in Paris, France; other narrow escapes; episode of expedition with Belgian members of Maquis culminating in killing of six Germans.
