Gubbins and Soe by Peter Wilkinson & Joan Bright Astley

Author:Peter Wilkinson & Joan Bright Astley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473814769
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military

While Gubbins had been fully engaged in discussing SOE’s future at the strategic level, there had been a series of operational disasters in North-West Europe, some of which have been already mentioned. The arrest and death of Jean Moulin and most of his closest collaborators had dealt a nearly mortal blow to the Free French resistance movement; while the almost simultaneous liquidation of the PROSPER circuit was no less disastrous for F Section’s hopes of establishing an effective organization in Northern France. Belgian resistance was crippled by intrigue and suspected of German penetration, and by July the rumours that SOE’s Dutch organization had been deeply penetrated had hardened almost into certainty. The attitude of the Chiefs of Staff was considered by Gubbins and many members of SOE to be shortsighted. Although the activities of the SIS, Admiralty and Air Ministry were cynical to say the least, it must be admitted that there were solid reasons for the Chiefs of Staff to display caution in accepting SOE’s claims at their face value. On the other hand, the Chiefs of Staff had already learnt to their cost that with all its faults SOE, or something like it, was indispensable for keeping at arm’s length importunate governments-in-exile and their general staffs, of whom the most persistent were the Poles.

Ever since the summer of 1939, the Poles had cast their spell on Gubbins, appealing particularly to the romantic side of his nature. Although in neither case could the slightest blame be attached to SOE, the catalogue of disasters which occurred about this time would be incomplete without the inclusion of the arrest on 30 June of General Rowecki, the brilliant commander of the Polish Home Army who had succeeded against all the odds in welding Polish resistance groups of widely different political persuasions and prejudices into a highly efficient paramilitary force. No less catastrophic for Polish unity was the death of Gubbins’ old friend, General Sikorski, who was drowned four days later on 4 July in an aircraft accident at Gibraltar. Gubbins immediately perceived the disastrous consequences of the loss of these two moderate men just when a decision had to be reached about future Polish-Soviet relations and the attitude to be adopted by the Home Army if Poland were overrun by the advancing Red Armies. In the longer term too, Gubbins realized that the inevitable Soviet demands for a revision of the Poles’ pre-war eastern frontier would be bound to have a detrimental effect on the British attitude towards Polish resistance.

Besides, Sikorski’s loss meant a great deal to him personally. Like many senior Polish officers, who had felt at home in Paris, spoken fluent French and were familiar with French military procedure, Sikorski had been shattered by the fall of France and had never entirely succeeded in acclimatizing himself to the British way of life. Gubbins had been one of a small circle of British friends, which included Victor Cazalet who perished with the General, whom Sikorski had trusted and consulted on a wide variety of subjects.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.