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MI6 & ITS INVOLVEMENT IN WW2

British Secret Intelligence Service/MI6

The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) also known as MI6 is an agency committed to obtaining intelligence for the protection of the UK and her peoples interests. They use their overseas connections to prevent terrorism, the spread of nuclear and other non conventional weapons with the mission to provide vital intelligence that will protect UK national security and global security.

British Secret Service influence during WW2

Hugh Sinclair died in the fall of 1939 and was replaced by Colonel Stewart Menzies, who had served as Sinclair's deputy.

-Menzies took over a service comprising 42 officers and 55 secretaries.

-Menzies became chief just two months after war was declared.

-Menzies oversaw a dramatic expansion of the SIS in the fight to defeat the Germans.

-Menzies had played a pivotal role in the ‘secret war’, keeping his position when many around him lost theirs.

Service Clarence

‘Service Clarence’ may have been one of the most successful SIS networks during the war. This network was led by Hector Demarque and Walthère Dewé, who had earlier played a leading role in ‘La Dame Blanche’.

Throughout the war ‘Service Clarence’ provided valuable information on a wide range of enemy activity including coastal defenses, the effects of Allied bombing and the location of German units.

The ‘Alliance’ Network in Occupied France was led by Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. The network was described after the war by an SIS officer as the ‘copybook beautiful spy’. The network was extensive and by August 1942, there were 145 members listed. It was a source of high quality and detailed intelligence on enemy troop movements, German order of battle, and Nazi secret weapons.

Boniface

Ultra was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the War. One effort to hide the fact that Enigma had been broken was to give the reports the the appearance of information developed through espionage by an M16 spy, code named Boniface who operated a network within the Reich in Germany. Of course Boniface was a fictional character. Only the most important commanders knew of the Ultra secret. Because of this, during in the early phase of the War, many commanders did not trust the Ultra intelligence reports.

Thomas Kendrick

Throughout WW2, MI6 agent Thomas Kendrick, over saw a highly top secret unit at Latimer House near Chesham, Buckinghamshire that bugged the conversations of German prisoners of war. It is believed that over 10,000 conversations were recorded. It was in fact a prisoner-of-war camp where, from the M Room, his staff of ‘secret listeners’ bugged the conversations of captured U-boat crew, Luftwaffe pilots and army personnel in cells constructed in the cellars of the house.

Some of the important conversations first overheard in 1943 regarded Adolf Hitler’s secret missiles, the V1, V2 and V3, which saw Winston Churchill order their development sites to be bombed. The findings of these missiles allowed the RAF to destroy the missiles sites and postpone the German launch date. The significance of this event is that Hitler was planning to fire 300 missiles at London every day starting in 1943. The first launch of the V1 missile however was postponed to June 13 1944, one week after the D-day landings.

Many historians believe the Normandy landings would not have been possible had it not be for the work of MI6 agent Thomas Kendrick. Some people go as far to say that the war would have been lost without the bugging of important conversations at the Latimer House.

The “Sussex” Plan

As the British prepared for the Allied invasion of France in June 1944, SIS collaborated with its American and French allies in the creation of special teams of agents. Codenamed ‘Sussex’ these men and women, working in groups of 2 or 3, were to be dropped behind enemy lines and provide front-line intelligence after the D-Day invasion. By August 1944, just two months after the allies invaded, over 30 teams were in France and they had transmitted more than 800 messages back to the allies.

Training of SIS Agents

Until 1942, training of SIS officers and agents had been careless and disorganized. But, as the Service continued to expand rapidly, the need for more systematic training was recognized. Soon after in 1943, Commander Kenneth Cohen was appointed Chief Staff Officer (Training).

The first course in the summer of 1943 was attended by only three officers and the next, in September, by ten. At this point, the training section was already producing instructional manuals for overseas intelligence operations. By 1944, the Chief was already starting to see the impact the training was having on his staff.

Americans that worked for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services were trained by MI6 agents soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, December 7th 1941. These American agents were the start of what is today the Central Intelligence Agency.

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