Wade, Robert Pollack (Oral history)

British officer served with Special Operations Executive Headquarters, Cairo, Egypt, 1942-1943; served as liaison officer with Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 1943-1944

REEL 1 Aspects of period as staff officer with Headquarters, 8th Armoured Div in Egypt, 9/1942-11/1942: posting as liasion officer to Headquarters, 8th Armoured Div under Major-General Charles Gairdner; duties; wireless operations including signals deception in Quattara Depression, 10/1942; visiting friend at Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Rostum Buildings, Cairo 10/1942; awareness of role of Special Operations Executive. Aspects of period as officer with Special Operations Executive in Cairo, Egypt, 11/1942-4/1943: recruitment to Special Operations Executive, 11/1942; training; advantages of personal physical fitness; question of preparedness for operations; value of military training; impressions of personnel and suspicions of left-wing activities at Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Cairo. Recollections of period as liaison officer with Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 1943-1944: political objectives of mission to Yugoslavia; parachute drop to operate in Niš, Kruševac and Kraljevo areas of Yugoslavia, 4/1943; injury to Yugoslav translator; problems with deception reception fires and abandoning first parachute drop; composition of Mission Rodium team; dangers from Bulgars and Milan Nedić's forces; how he was joined by escaped Australian prisoner of war Sergeant Ross Sayers; importance for security; memories of Major Neil Selby, reasons for delay in arriving to head mission; discipline of unit; co-ordination of air drops with moon phases; question of scale of plans to mobilise Yugoslav forces. REEL 2 Continues: relations within group; story of capture and death of wireless operator Sergeant John Rochester, 18/8/1943; trekking in mountainous terrain and Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1943; instance of being accused of running away from Major Dragutin Keserović by Major Bill Hudson; work with Chetniks on arrival, 4/1943; problems securing Chetnik personnel for sabotage operations against T mines and bridges for fear of reprisals; Captain John Stott's concussion on parachute dropping into area, summer 1943; receiving message of Captain Basil Davidon's parachute drop; Major Neil Selby's capture en route to Belgrade; camping with Captain John Stott; question of knowledge of British policy towards Yugoslav Partisans; first meeting with Major Bill Hudson; reaction to receiving message from Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Cairo, Egypt abandoning missions attached to Chetnik groups, 13/12/1943; plans for bridge blowing projects with Chetniks; reconniasance for operations; walking into ambush of Bulgars and Germans and casualties. REEL 3 Continues: second ambush; opinion of Chetnik deceit in willingness to carry out operations; decision to leave Major Dragutin Keserović's group and head for coast, 12/1943; nature of journey with party to coast, 12/1943; memories of Bill Hudson and encounter with Yugoslav Partisans, 31/12/1943; story of Major Bill Hudson's liaising with both Josip Tito and Draža Mihailović. REEL 4 Continues: opinion of Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks as fighting forces; story of Major Bill Hudson's advice to Prime Minister Winston Churchill; period with Yugoslav Partisans, early 1944; pledge not to shave; dining with Yugoslav Partisan leaders; witnessing amputation of partisan's hand; nature of conditions in Yugoslavia; story of British Liaison Officer Major Anthony Hunter issuing information taken verbatim from Yugoslav Partisan group; Yugoslav Partisan refusal to play 'God Save The King' and being piped out of town to 'It's A Long Way To Tipperary'; period in Myrani with Bill Hudson and Captain Peter Kemp; story of American Lieutenant-Colonel Al Seitz's escape from Yugoslavia; bridge playing; Yugoslav Partisan conscription from villages; Yugoslav Partisan attitudes towards German reprisals; question of attitudes of Yugoslav peasantry towards Axis forces; opinion of achievements in Yugoslavia; background to leaving Yugoslavia; story of sending exuberant New Year's message to Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Cairo, 3/1944; role of forces led by Milan Nedić in Yugoslavia.