Secret War by Nigel West

Author:Nigel West
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2019-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

The main British Military Liaison Officer, Brigadier ‘Trotsky’ Davies, parachuted into Albania with a full headquarters team, dropped from two aircraft based at Benina, to a reception committee organised by CONSENSUS. A couple of nights later Alan Hare arrived with the remainder of the contingent. In July two RAF officers, Tony Neel and Andy Hands, were dropped and then, in August 1943, four teams were launched in two Halifaxes on the same day from Derna: SCULPTOR, led by Major Bill Tilman; SCONCE, headed by Major George Seymour; SAPLING, commanded by Major Gerry Field; and STEPMOTHER, consisting of Peter Kemp.18 Together these missions, attached to large mixed bands of Communist irregulars, Italian deserters and Bulgarian stragglers, harried the occupying forces by setting ambushes and organising raids on local enemy garrisons. Although none of the actions by themselves led to any general collapse of the occupation, the Germans were obliged to waste precious resources at a critical time by strengthening an area that had virtually no strategic value.

By the time McLean and Smiley had been extracted in November 1943, by MTB from the Albanian coast to Bari, SOE’s presence in Albania was quite considerable. Richard Riddell and Anthony Simcox were flown in to replace them, and by the end of April the following year Smiley was back, on CONSENSUS II, this time accompanied by Amery. In addition, John Hibberdine had been dropped in December with Lieutenants Merritt and Hibbert. Unfortunately, none of these operations was achieved without casualties. Two Halifaxes crashed in Albania while approaching their drop zones, killing all their crews and two entire SOE missions. Gerry Field blew himself up with high explosives while fishing, and Colonel Arthur Nicholls died of gangrene. SCONCE’S wireless operator, Bombardier Hill, was killed by enemy action and Trooper Roberts of STEPMOTHER died of exposure after he had been captured and had managed to escape. Brigadier Davies was also captured, on 8 January 1944, along with Jim Chesshire, Captain F. Trayhorn and his RAF sergeant, a former rear gunner named Smith. Another significant loss was Philip Leake, killed in a German air raid six weeks after he had landed in May 1944.

Although Davies was the most senior SOE officer to be captured in the Balkans, his knowledge of SOE’s operations was very limited. A regular officer, he had been mystified by his selection for clandestine work and, until he had arrived in Cairo, he had believed that he was destined for Yugoslavia. However, the same could not be said of Nicholls, who had been Gubbins’s Chief of Staff in London and had been destined to take over SOE Cairo from Keble. Davies recalls that Nicholls ‘was anxious not to be taken prisoner, as he had been in the organisation in London, and knew much of the secret side of Special Forces. He knew what the German Gestapo were capable of doing to captured SOE officers, and to what limits they went in interrogating prisoners.’19 Davies himself, though badly wounded, endured Mauthausen concentration camp and Colditz to be liberated in 1945.

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