Description
Object description
British officer served aboard HMS Arethusa, 3rd Cruiser Sqdn, Mediterranean Fleet in Aegean Sea, 9/1939-11/1939; served assistant naval attaché with Section D, Special Intelligence Service and Special Operations Executive in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1/1940-4/1941; served with Special Operations Executive during operations on Spitzbergen, Norway, 9/1941-9/1943; served with Special Operations Executive in the Balkans, 9/1943-12/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer aboard HMS Arethusa, 3rd Cruiser Sqdn, Mediterranean Fleet in Aegean Sea, 9/1939-11/1939: prior recollection of participation in research expeditions to Arctic, 1930-1939. contraband control duties. Recollections of period as assistant naval attaché with Section D, Secret Intelligence Service and Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 1/1940-4/1941: main objectives of role in Belgrade; opinion of plans to block River Danube by Section D; question of amateurishness by both sides in early stages of war; connection with Serbian political parties and smuggling of arms; reasons for strength of pro-Allied feeling in Serbia; personnel in British Embassy at Belgrade; opinion of increasing professionalism of Section D; awareness of support for Axis powers among Croats; loyalties in other non-Serbian areas; his role with Special Operations Executive; effects of arrival of Senior Special Operations Executive Representative Lieutenent-Colonel Thomas Masterson, 10/1940; opinion of role of Prince Paul, early 1941; aspects of coup d'etat in Belgrade, 27/3/1941; question of British and personal involvement in preparations for coup; German Air Force attack on Belgrade, 4/1941; evacuating Belgrade and hiding cases of plastic explosives; sight of mutinying Croat soldiers in Mostar, 9/4/1941; escape attempt by British party, 4/1941.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of role of Prince Paul in crisis, 3/1941-4/1941; contacts with Agrarian Party in Serbia; rural social structure of Serbia; Serbian political attitudes; memories of Draža Mihailović; Serbian attitudes towards possibility of forging Balkan alliance against Germany, 3/1941; capture by Italians and repatriation via Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal, 1941; impressions of Deutsches Afrika Korps at Foggia, Italy, 4/1941; release to GB, 8/1941; Recollections of period as officer with Special Operations Executive during operations on Spitzbergen Island, Norway, 9/1941-9/1943: background to evacuation of Soviet and Norwegian mining population from Spitzbergen Island on HMT Empress of Canada during Operation Gauntlet, 9/1941.
REEL 3 Continues: strategic value of Spitzbergen Island; decision to place Anglo-Norwegian holding force on Spitzbergen Island; provision of two Norwegian vessels Isbjorn and Selis for Operation Fritham; reconaissance flight in Consolidated Catalina of 240 Sqdn, No 15 Group, Coastal Command, RAF, 4/4/1942-5/4/1942; question of Royal Air Force inexperience of flying at high latitudes; development of Arctic as new strategic area; organisation and composition of holding force for Operation Fritham; sailing from Iceland, 1/5/1942; attack by Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft on holding force on sea ice during Operation Fritham, 14/5/1942; morale of British and Norwegian survivors; supply and evacuation flights flown by light Lieutenant Dennis 'Tim' Healy of 210 Sqdn, No 15 Group, Coastal Command, RAF, 5/1942-6/1942; arrival of reinforcements and Norwegian Military Governor Captain Ernst Ullring during Operation Gearbox, 6/1942-7/1942; Captain Ernst Ullring's attacks on German forces around Spitzbergen; story illustrating effects of Allied disruption of German meteorological stations; German Navy attack on Spitzbergen Island, 9/1943; participation in reconnaissance flight over Spitzbergen Island, 9/1943; loss of Flight Lieutenant Dennis 'Tim' Healy, 25/9/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: research conducted by Amherst Whatman and Edward Appleton on ionosphere during expeditions to Spitzbergen Island group, 1935-1936; memories of Edward Appleton; abortive plan to destroy aerial torpedo stores at Banak, Norway, 1942-1943. Recollections of operations as officer with Special Operations Executive in Balkans, 9/1943-12/1944: plans to mine River Danube; deception work with Anthony Quayle in Albania at time of landings in Italy, 9/1943; story of rescuing stranded American nurses from Albania; opinion of mistreatment of agents by Special Operations Executive Headquarters in Bari, Italy including Anthony Quayle; personal status within Special Operations Executive; operation to resupply radio set to Fitzroy Maclean en route to Korcula Island, Yugoslavia; strength of partisans on Korcula Island, Yugoslavia; opinion of role of key personnel and internal rivalries at Special Operations Executive Headquarters in Baker Street, London, Bari, Italy and Cairo, Egypt.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of role of personnel in Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt and Bari, Italy including view of James Klugmann as Soviet spy, independence of Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt from London and pro-Soviet influences; recollections of Brigadier Cleveland Keble, James Klugmann, John Ennals, Basil Davidson and Hugh Seton-Watson.
REEL 6 Continues: resuming planning for mining of River Danube, 2/1944-3/1944; intelligence gathering role after parachute drop from Handley Page Halifax Mk II of 1586 (Polish Special Duties) Flight, RAF in Niš area, Yugoslavia, 6/1944; involvement with Yugoslav Partisans in actions against Bulgarians, Germans and Chetniks in Nis area, Yugoslavia, 7/1944-9/1944; conduct of partisans in villages; reaction to low levels of Chetnik opposition; relations between partisans and villagers; movements cross-country; skirmishes and capture of German unit; initial contact with Soviet Army, Turnu Severin, Romania, 9/1944; welcome received at Soviet Army regimental headquarters and reaction to his uniform; story of greetings message sent from General Sukhenakov to Admiral Andrew Cunningham; accompanying Soviet Army on operations in Turnu Severin area, Romania, 9/1944; relations with Soviet Army; in action against German unit and Soviet casualties during fighting, wireless operator's hiding underwater in stream; hospitality of senior Soviet officer during train journey to Sofia, Bulgaria.
REEL 7 Continues: delousing at Balkan Hotel, Sofia; story of reporting to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin at Soviet Army headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria, 9/1944; Soviet hospitality; hearing from Tolbukhin of casualties inflicted to Soviet forces by mines in River Danube; conditions of offer made to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin to minesweep River Danube; story of being punished by Soviets, 9/1944-10/1944; story of rejecting proposal by female Soviet Air Force pilot; return to Caserta, Italy, 12/1944; illness and recuperation; opinion of forcible repatriations of non-Communist Yugoslavs at end of war; knowledge of scale of Yugoslavian civil conflict; Fitzroy MacLean's posting to monitor handling of Yugoslavians in Northern Italy in 1946; intervening against James Klugmann and John Ennals to prevent return of Croatian women and children from Bari, Italy, 5/1944; advance of Soviet Army in Balkans, 1944.
REEL 8 Continues: further details of advance of Soviet Army through Balkans, 1944.
