Brown, Oliver Haward (Oral history)

British NCO served with 144th Anti-Aircraft Coy, Royal Engineers in GB, 1939-1940; officer served with 2nd Bn Buffs (East Kent Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1941; trained with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1941-1942; served as instructor with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1942-1944; served with Jedburgh Team Alastair, F Section, Special Operations Executive in France, 8/1944-9/1944; commanded ME 25, Special Operations Executive in Ceylon, 11/1944-8/1945

REEL 1 Background in France and GB, 1914-1939: family; education in France and facility in French language. Aspects of period as NCO with 144th Anti-Aircraft Coy, Royal Engineers in GB, 1939-1940: background to joining Territorial Army, 8/1939; method of using searchlights; types of people in unit; opinion of British Army's professionalism, 1939-1940; location of searchlight sites; coning German aircraft in searchlights. Aspects of period as officer with 2nd Bn Buffs (East Kent Regt), 131st Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1941: joining battalion on commissioning, 5/1940; sight of little ships leaving for Dunkirk Evacuation at Babbacombe; morale at regimental depot, Canterbury Barracks at time of Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940; sight of bombing of London from Forest Row, 9/1940. Aspects of recruitment and training as officer with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1941-1942: reasons for volunteering for Special Operations Executive; interview at War Office, London. REEL 2 Continues: impressions on arrival at Station IX, The Frythe, Welwyn Garden City; reaction to discovery of purpose of unit and need to parachute; ploy used to reassure recruits; parachute training at No 1 Parachute Training School, RAF at RAF Ringway. Recollections of period as instructor with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1942-1944: posting as instructor to STS 45 Hatherop Castle, Fairford; impressions of Flemming Muus and Birger Rasmussen during training; story of how Birger Rasmussen was caught by Germans with Brown's photograph on him and how that affected his own mission in France, 1944; work with Danish Section; impressions of Danish agents. REEL 3 Continues: setting traps to capture two suspected infiltrators amongst trainees at STS 45 Hatherop Castle, Fairford; difficulty of work with Sudeten Germans at STS 6 West Court, Finchampstead; his work with Polish recruits at STS 49 Forthampton House, Tewkesbury; political divisions between Polish recruits; story of acquiring General Wladyslaw Sikorski's cane; interview with Colin Gubbins about establishment of Jedburgh teams; contrasting attitudes of British and Americans towards Jedburgh concept; problems in commandant Frank Spooner's relations with American recruits; concerns about Jedburgh teams. REEL 4 Continues: relations with other Jedburgh instructors; purpose and role of Jedburgh teams; memories of Colin Gubbins; impressions of Odette Sansom and Violette Szabo during training; his pressurising to be sent to France, 1944. Recollections of operations as officer with Jedburgh Team Alastair, Section F, Special Operations Executive in France, 8/1944-9/1944: allocation of area of operations in Vosges region and team's objectives; problems getting to France, 8/1944; his bad parachute landing, 28/8/1944; character of French Forces of the Interior (FFI) resistance groups in Vosges region; German Army defector who joined resistance group. REEL 5 Continues: opinion of Communist Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) resistance; story illustrating behaviour of German forces in Vosges region; organising Maquis into operational groups; problems accomplishing objectives of team; assisting United States Army over River Moselle, 9/1944; dangerous tasks given him by US Army including dealing with German gun position; civic reception on liberation in Nancy, 15/9/1944; degree of danger in clandestine work in France; narrow escape from Germans at farmhouse; his cover story; escaping detection despite being questioned by Germans; value of training in escaping detection. REEL 6 Continues: Recollections of period commanding ME 25, Special Operations Executive in Ceylon, 11/1944-8/1945: posting to training unit in Ceylon, 11/1944; briefing from Colin Gubbins; reaction to requirements of multi-national composition of unit; changes on arrival at unit; posting of Force 136 teams on various operations; attitude towards working under Lord Louis Mountbatten; role of ME 25; friendship with Freddie Spencer Chapman; end of mission in Far East, 1945; return to GB.