-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$U5AXGQAAA
FBGRQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F06%2Fnmrdf06.xml&sSh
eet=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F06%2Fixhomef.html
}}}>Begin
Friday 7 December 2001
The man who knows all the dark secrets
(Filed: 06/12/2001)
MRD FOOT - soldier, secret agent and grand old man of history - is
still uncovering treachery in the Second World War. Antony Beevor
reports.
MICHAEL RICHARD DANIELL FOOT enjoys a rare distinction for an
official historian. He is the only person to be referred to by his
real name in a John Le Carre spy novel. "Are you MRD Foot?" a
character asks George Smiley, who is pretending to write the Secret
Service's official history as a cover while he hunts for Karla's
mole. Le Carr�'s vignette is an amusing, yet significant tribute to
an unusual man.
Foot, at almost 82, does not look or act his age. He is tall and
slim. One might almost call him gaunt, if it were not for the eyes,
often twinkling at human and official absurdity. His precise, often
high, staccato deliv
ery sounds like a professional operator rapping out morse code. Yet no historian could
be more generous with good advice. "Have you read so-and- so on such-and-such?" is a
frequent greeting. "I think you should." And he i
s invariably right.
An official historian of secret institutions has to be trusted by the Civil Service
establishment as well as by the protagonists of his subject. When Foot began SOE in
France, (published in 1966), he was told to write it
"on the assumption that MI6 did not exist". Despite this minor handicap, the result
was a widely acknowledged classic.
Two decades later, he was invited by Lord Armstrong, the then Cabinet Secretary, to
tackle SOE in Belgium and the Netherlands - the subject of his new book. Armstrong
warned him that he would have to be re-vetted. Foot re
plied that he could not be re-vetted since he had never been positively vetted in the
first place. This, needless to say, produced a minor bureaucratic commotion in
Whitehall. But nobody, as every other historian would ac
knowledge, was better fitted to tackle the still controversial subject of Special
Operations Executive and Whitehall rivalries.
Foot's family, split between the Royal Navy and the Army, provided a good preparation
for the British tradition that there should be no warfare as venomous as inter-service
warfare. His great-great- uncle, the First Sea L
ord Jackie Fisher, sent his favourite niece a �10 note for her wedding, accompanied by
a terse message. He would never speak to her again because she was marrying an Army
officer. He kept his word.
Foot, a scholar at Winchester and then New College, Oxford, was 19 when war broke out
in his first long vac. From a searchlight battery on the Isle of Thanet during the
Battle of Britain, he found himself diverted onto th
e staff of Combined Operations.
Shortly before D-Day, he transferred to the staff of the SAS Brigade. (His reticence
is typical of the wartime generation - none of this appears in his Who's Who entry).
It was a truly international brigade, with two batt
alions of French and even a troop of Austrian Jews given Scottish names in a vain
attempt to help them, if captured. In fact, none of them intended to be taken alive.
In August 1944, just as the great breakout from Normandy was taking place, Foot
received a special mission. He was to track down a notorious SD (Sicherheitsdienst)
interrogator named Bonner, who had tortured some of the F
rench SAS after capture. But he and his men were ambushed by German paratroopers. Only
the driver escaped.
Foot was posted missing, presumed killed. He managed to escape from holding camps
around Saint-Nazaire three times. On the third attempt, he climbed into a Breton
farmhouse to find shelter. The unsympathetic farmer called
his peasant sons, who broke Foot's skull and his neck in a savage beating. He was
finally saved by a prisoner exchange and returned to the United Kingdom marked unfit
for active service. One of his last tasks in the Army
was to estimate the military casualties in the event of a full invasion of Japan. He
arrived at the figure of 1,500,000. The decision to use the two atomic bombs was taken
shortly afterwards.
Foot then returned to Oxford. He began a career which varied between teaching - he
spent six years as professor of Modern History at Manchester University - and writing
as a historian, both freelance and official. As well
as the highly regarded SOE in France, he edited four volumes of The Gladstone
Diaries, but his expertise in special operations soon led to him being known as "Mr
Resistance". Every seminar and conference on the subject r
equired his presence and preferably a paper. Foot's strength was to link the
experience of the agent on the ground with the organisational and geographical
handicaps of controllers back in London.
He also developed a very clear view of their problems with inter-service rivalry and
ministerial priorities. The Foreign Office saw SOE as an "intrusive nuisance with an
infinite capacity for diplomatic mischief". MI6 was
even more distrustful of the upstart organisation, sometimes with terrible results.
The story of SOE's disaster in Holland is important. In the course of the Abwehr
Operation North Pole, otherwise known as the Englandsspiel, more than 40 Dutch agents
trained by SOE were parachuted, one after another, int
o the arms of the Germans.
The Germans had captured one radio operator and forced him to signal back. He left out
his security check to indicate that he was transmitting under duress, but this was
overlooked in London.
>From then on, the Germans created an imaginary resistance network, picked the
>dropping zones and called for more supplies, money and agents to be dropped. Some
>prisoners were tortured, but most were so shocked to have fal
len into a trap, that they talked and radioed back as instructed. (SOE's N Section
still discounted the lack of security checks). Yet, even co-operation did not save the
hapless agents. The vast majority were executed. On
ly a handful survived the war.
It is a terrible story of lack of imagination, incompetence, obstinacy and amateurism
in London. But as Foot shows in SOE in the Low Countries, there were contributory
factors, not least treachery in Holland and the over-
readiness of some prisoners to talk. This gave the Germans the opportunity to pretend
to new captives that they had an agent in London and knew everything in advance.
The effect on the Dutch, when word of the disaster got out, was traumatic. Conspiracy
theories began to circulate that the British had done this on purpose. They were
trying to eliminate potential leaders as part of a pla
n to take over the Dutch colonies in the Far East. Foot, however, puts the record
straight by providing chapter and verse, to say nothing of his honest observations on
the human and organisational flaws in London.
He is once again uniquely qualified to handle such a difficult task. Apart from his
own gifts and expertise, Mirjam, his wife of nearly 30 years, is Dutch by origin and
the daughter of a former cabinet minister. She is al
so professor of library and archive studies at University College London, and until
recently a director of the British Library, so he cannot have lacked excellent advice.
Just as impressively, Michael Foot is still teaching a course on Second World War
history to American students. At almost 82, the mind remains as sharp as ever and the
judgment just as sound. If only George Smiley could h
ave had him at his right-hand from the start.
SOE in the Low Countries (St Ermin's Press, �25) by MRD Foot is available from
Telegraph Books Direct for �22 plus �1.99 p&p. Call 0870 155 7222
Antony Beevor's next book, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945 will be published by Viking in
April 2002
Previous story: Electronic 'paper' can be updated regularly
Next story: Yesterday in Parliament
� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
