Название: Section D for Destruction: Forerunner of SOE: The Story of Section D of the Secret Intelligence ServiceАвтор: Malcolm Atkin
Издательство: Pen and Sword Military
Год: 2017
Страниц: 410
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub
Размер: 10.1 MB
When Neville Chamberlain made his famous Peace in Our Time statement in 1938, after the Munich Agreement with Hitler, he may, or may not, have been aware that the new Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service was already making plans to mount an all-out political and sabotage war against Nazi Germany. This was a new form of warfare, encompassing bribery, black propaganda and sabotage by agents described as having no morals or scruples. To the horror of many, it disregarded the conventions of neutrality and was prepared to hit the Nazi state wherever it could do most damage. Malcolm Atkin reveals how Section D's struggle to build a European wide anti-Nazi resistance movement was met with widespread suspicion from government, to the extent of a systematic destruction of its reputation. It was, however, a key pioneer of irregular warfare that led to the formation of the famous Special Operations Executive (SOE). His study is the first in-depth account of it to be published since the release of previously secret documents to the National Archives.
The wider history of Section D has attracted little attention in the historical literature, usually only as a preamble to accounts of SOE and negative in tone, fossilising the opinion of earlier writers. The present work has, wherever possible, returned to the original documents that are now publicly available in the National Archives and elsewhere. Yet even in 2017, some documents relating to the work of Section D have been redacted on national security grounds and some personnel files are subject to data protection. The story remains incomplete but it is now possible to offer a much broader picture of the work of Section D than has been possible hitherto, and a reassessment of its impact on the development of irregular warfare. It is also a story of the machinations and rivalries of the British government and its intelligence services in the early years of the war and the reluctance amongst many to engage with the consequences of ‘total war’.
The policy of SIS is not to comment on the existence of its officers and agents, present or past. There are obvious security considerations in wishing to keep the identity of such people secret for as long as possible but this has meant that the contribution of SIS during the Second World War has been under-estimated, in favour of the flood of books dealing with its rivals in SOE. It has also meant that the contribution of many individuals, including those who worked for Section D, has never been publicly acknowledged. A further problem in trying to unravel the history of Section D in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East is that its work, and the identity of its agents, became entangled in post-war politics. The history of resistance to the Nazis in the Balkans was heavily rewritten to give maximum credit to the Communist parties that subsequently took power, whereas those groups that worked with Section D before the Communist Party took up the struggle risked being persecuted as agents of a foreign power. Such times have passed and hopefully this book will help give better appreciation for their efforts.
The British Foreign Office and War Office of the time did not take kindly to unorthodox thinkers and every effort was made at the time to systematically destroy the reputation of Laurence Grand, the head of Section D.¹ The attacks have largely been taken at face value in post-war historiography but, although Grand certainly had his flaws, many criticisms were politically motivated and undeserved. An unknown civil servant appended to the brusque letter of dismissal of Grand in September 1940 ‘a word of thanks would not have come amiss’.² Hopefully the present work will allow the contribution of Laurence Grand to irregular warfare to be considered in a kinder light.
Contents:
List of Plates
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Preface
Introduction
1. Creating the ‘Fourth Arm’ – 1938
2. Section D goes to War
3. Technical Development and Training
4. Western Europe: the Fascist Powers
5. Western Europe: Allied and Neutral Countries
6. The Balkans
7. The Aegean and Middle East
8. Central and Eastern Europe
9. Scandinavia
10. Britain and the USA
11. Into SOE
Conclusions
Online Appendices
Appendix 1. The D Scheme, March 1940
Appendix 2. Officers and Agents of Section D, SIS, 1938–1940
Notes
Bibliography
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