A Succession of Crises: SOE in the Middle East, 1940–45

Abstract

A detailed account of SOE in the Middle East is a prominent omission from the collection of studies on SOE during the Second World War. This is surprising given the importance of the region to Britain and the fact that some records were released, with a helpful guide, in 1994. Using these records, and the SOE War Diary (released in 1999), this article intends to show that SOE operations in the Middle East were characterized by a succession of crises. These fall into three periods: the early activities in 1940–41; the post-occupational planning phase of 1941–43, and the post-October 1943 period which saw reorganization, the recession of the German threat, the disbandment of the post-occupational schemes and the desire to re-tool SOE in the Middle East for peacetime/post-war problems.

Notes

For a useful, recent bibliography, see M.R.D. Foot's foreword to W.J.M. Mackenzie, The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1945 (London, 2000) pp.xxiii–xxvi; for North Africa see Martin Thomas, ‘The Massingham Mission: SOE in French North Africa, 1941–1944’, Intelligence and National Security, 11/4 (October 1996) pp.696–721. Some information on the Middle East can be culled from Nigel West, Secret War (London, 1992); Bickham Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (London, 1965); J.G. Beevor, SOE: Recollections and Reflections, 1940–45 (London, 1981); M. Marks, Between Silk and Cynanide (London, 1998); A. Cooper, Cairo in Wartime (London, 1996); Euan Butler, Amateur Agent (London, 1963); and Lady Ranfurly, To War with Whitaker. The Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939–1945 (London, 1994).

L. Atherton, SOE Operations in Africa and the Middle East. A Guide to the Newly Released Records in the Public Record Office (London, 1994).

Mackenzie, Secret History (note 1) Chs. VIII and XXI.

Ibid. p.xxix.

‘History of SOE in the Arab World’, September 1945; RWW/ME/4340 to RW, 23 September 1945. The National Archive, United Kingdom. Public Record Office (hereafter PRO). HS7/86

RWW/ME/4343 to RW, 27 September 1945, ref to AW/101 from AW/100 to RWW, 19 September 1945. PRO. HS7/86.

Atherton, SOE Operations (note 2) p.7.

PRO. HS7/85 and 285

They are: PRO. FO371/27049, 31321A and B and 40001B. The author has asked for their status to be reviewed.

They are Aden/Red Sea (PRO. HS3/1–3); Arab Countries (HS3/97–106, 108, 110, 112–13); Cyprus (HS3/121); Egypt (HS3/124–5); Malta and Tunisia (HS3/130, 135, 139, 142); Middle East (HS3/168, 174–6, 183–6, 188); Palestine (HS3/208); Turkey (HS3/226); Histories (HS3/87). The author has also asked for the status of these files to be reviewed.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.73.

Christopher Sykes, High Minded Murder (London, 1944) and The Song of a Shirt (London, 1953).

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.73.

Ibid. p.74. The Arab Bureau had faced similar obstruction during the First World War, not only from its military and diplomatic rivals in Egypt, but from the Government of India, which had responsibility for Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf and south Arabia. See Bruce Westrate, The Arab Bureau. British Policy and the Middle East, 1916–1920 (Philadelphia, 1992).

‘Report by C.D. to S.O. on former's visit to Middle East 30th July to 20th Aug. 1941’, 21 August 1941. PRO. HS3/193.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.40.

Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) p.172; M.R.D. Foot, SOE. Special Operations Executive, 1940–1946 (London, 1999 edn.) p.54; Marks, Silk and Cyanide (note 1) p.10; CEO ‘Minute on D Activities in the Middle East’, 7 August 1940. PRO. HS3/147.

D. Garnett, The Secret History of PWE. The Political Warfare Executive, 1939–45 (London, 2002) p.63.

AD to Jebb, 31 December 1940. PRO. HS3/147; Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) pp.172–3.

‘Report by C.D. to S.O.’ (note 15).

SOE War Diary, entries for 5, 8/9, 28/29 June 1941. PRO. HS7/217; Dalton to Wavell, 9 June 1941 and Wavell to Dalton, 16 June 1941. HS3/147; Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) pp.174–5.

Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) p.176.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.70; ‘Report by C.D. to S.O’ (note 15); SOE War Diary, entries for 25 March 1941. HS7/214; entries for 1, 19/20, 21 April 1941. HS7/215; SOE War Diary, entries for 3/4, 6, 24/25, 29/30 May 1941. HS7/216.

‘SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5); SOE War Diary, entries for 10/11, 14, 16 May 1941. HS7/216; D/HP to CD, 19 May 1941. HS3/154; Pollock to A/D1, 25 July 1941. HS3/147; L.S. Lvei-Ami, By Struggle and Revolt, Hagana, Etzel, Lechi, 1918–1948 (Tel Aviv, 1978) pp.154–5. I am grateful for Dr Orna Almog for drawing my attention to this and the other Hebrew sources referred to in this essay.

‘SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5).

This was the notorious sinking, by terrorist action, of a refugee ship in Haifa port on 25 November 1940, resulting in the deaths of some 240 men, women and children and 12 British Palestine Police.

D/HP to CD, 19 May 1941. PRO. HS3/154; Pollock to A/D1, 25 July 1941. HS3/147.

SOE presumed that Palmer's unit perished at sea when their boat was sunk (‘SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5); SOE War Diary, entries for 2, 19/20 April 1941. HS7/215). After the British conquest of Syria and the Lebanon, however, Moshe Shertok (later Sharett), head of the Jewish Agency's Political Department, conducted an exhaustive search and enquiry. He concluded that Palmer's unit had managed to struggle ashore at Tripoli, but that Vichy troops, alerted by an RAF raid, killed them all and covered up any trace of the massacre. Ben Tsiyonanur (ed.), Sefer Toldot Ha-Ganah, Kerech III [The Official History of the Haganah, Pt. III] (Tel-Aviv, 1973) p.364; Yehuda Slutzky, Kitzur Toldot Ha-Ganah [The Official History of the Haganah] (Tel Aviv, 1978) pp.322–3.

Report on Syria, 10 June 1941; Report on SO2 Activities in Syria, 12 June 1941, D/HP to CD, 15 June 1941, Edmund to SO2, 14 June 1941. PRO. HS3/154; SOE War Diary, entries for 16/17, 28/29 June 1941. HS7/217; ‘Anti-SO2 Dossier’, Fergusson report 30 June 1941. HS3/192.

Pollock to AD/1, 25 July 1941. PRO. HS3/147.

SOE War Diary, entries for 10, 26/27, January 1941. PRO. HS7/212; SOE War Diary, entry for 6 February 1941. HS7/213; SOE War Diary, entry for 7 and 19 March 1941. HS7/214; SOE War Diary, entry for 18 April 1941. HS7/215; SOE War Diary, entries for 27/28, 31 May 1941. HS7/216; SOE War Diary, entries for 1, 5, 6/7, 8/9, 12/13, 16/17, 18 June 1941. HS7/217; SOE War Diary, entry for 2 July 1941. HS7/218.

SOE War Diary, entry for 26 May 1941. PRO. HS7/216; SOE War Diary, entry for 19/20 June 1941. HS7/217; SOE War Diary, entries for 3/4, 11/12, 13/14 July 1941. HS7/218; D/HP to SO2, n.d. HS3/154.

SOE War Diary, entry for 27 March 1941. PRO. HS7/214; Entries for 9, 11, 24, 26/27 April 1941. HS7/215; entry for 15 May 1941. HS7/216; entry for 11/12 August 1941. HS7/219; Foot, SOE (note 17) p.251; Dawn M. Miller, ‘“ Raising the Tribes”: British Policy in Italian East Africa, 1938–41’, The Journal of Strategic Studies 22/1 (March 1999) pp.96–123.

SOE War Diary, entries for 6, 10, 14, 21 January 1941. PRO. HS7/212; SOE War Diary, entry for 23/24 February 1941. HS7/213; SOE War Diary, entry for 18 June 1941. HS7/217.

SOE War Diary, entry for 31 January 1941 PRO. HS7/212; entry for 9/10 February 1941. HS7/213; entry for 25 March 1941. HS7/214; Stonehewer-Bird to Baxter, tells. 31 and 32, 19 and 20 June 1941; Baxter to Bird, tel. 27, 6 February 1941, Bird to Baxter , tel. 83, 17 March 1941. FO371/27272, E1077/1077/25.

Smith memo, 10 May 1941. PRO. HS3/147; ‘Anti-S.O.2 Dossier’. HS3/192; Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) pp.176–8; Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.75; Ranfurly, War with Whitaker (note 1) pp.82, 92–3, 96–7, 100.

HS7/219, SOE War Diary, entry for 1 August 1941; HS3/197, Pollock to CD, 22 March 1941; For the Free Italy scheme see Kent Fedorowich, ‘Propaganda and Political Warfare: The Foreign Office, Italian POWs and the Free Italy Movement, 1940–3’, in Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich, Prisoners of War and their Captors in World War II (Oxford, 1996) pp.119–48.

HS3/192, ‘Anti-S.O.2 Dossier’, ‘Report on Certain Aspects of S.O.2 Middle East’ by Stirling, 30 June 1941 and ‘Notes on organization of S.O.2 in Middle East’, 30 June 1941.

HS3/193, CD's Report, 21 August 1941 (see note 13).

HS7/220, SOE War Diary, 11/14 September 1941.

Garnett, PWE (note 18), p.73.

CD's report, 21 August 1941 (see note 15), CD to AD for Minister, tel. 4, 11 August 1941. PRO. HS3/193; ‘Anti-S.O.1 Dossier’, minutes of 12 September and 1 October 1941. HS3/194; the Aziz el-Masri affair involved Thornhill being duped by the fervently nationalistic ex-Chief of the Egyptian General Staff, Aziz el-Masri, into encouraging the latter to fly to Iraq in order to neutralize the Rashid Ali revolt, when in fact his real intention was to defect to Rommel's forces in the Libyan Desert and raise an Egyptian Legion to fight for Egyptian independence. His attempted flight ended ignominiously when his aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Cairo airport and, after a month on the run, he was arrested. Aziz el-Masri's revelation of Thornhill's incautious involvement in his flight, however, effectively prevented the Egyptian government from proceeding with a trial, much to the fury of the British Ambassador, Lampson. For details see Saul Kelly, The Hunt for Zerzura (London, 2002) pp.160–72, 166, 168–72, 222–9, 248.

CD report, 21 August 1941, CD to AD for Minister, tel. 4, 11 August 1941. PRO. HS3/193; ‘Anti-S.O.1 Dossier’, minutes of 12 September and 1 October 1941; Leeper to Dalton, 17 August 1941. HS3/194; Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) pp.178–81.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 1) p.76.

Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) p.184.

Ibid. p.186.

Ibid. pp.186–90.

Ibid. pp.367–81; Garnett, PWE (note 18) pp.154–60; Propaganda remained under DPA, which retained its cover name of GSI(K), until it was dissolved in May 1943, when it came under DSO(A). GSI(K) had propaganda representatives organizing anti-Axis rumours in all DSO(A) countries. Pamphlets and written propaganda were distributed through cells. The Arab Bureau was closed down in October 1941 and replaced by an advisory committee called the Arab Panel, which was chaired by the Controller of the Ministry of Information in the Middle East and on which DSO(A) and GSI(K) were represented. While it advised on all overt propaganda to the Arabs and coordinated the work of the Publicity Officers, it also advised SOE on covert propaganda. See ‘History of SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5).

Mackenzie, SOE (note 1) p.507.

M. Deroc, Special Operations Explored: Yugoslavia in Turmoil 1941–1943 and the British Response (Boulder, CO, 1988); David Stafford, Britain and European Resistance, 1940–1945 (London and Toronto, 1980); Heather Williams, The Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Yugoslavia, 1941–5 (London, 2002); Christina Goulter-Zervoudakis, ‘ The Politicization of Intelligence: The British Experience in Greece, 1941–1944’, Intelligence and National Security, 13/1 (Spring 1998) pp.133–94.

SOE War Diary, 21/23 August 1941. PRO. HS7/219; SOE War Diary, January–March 1943. HS7/268.

SOE War Diary, 15/20, 26/30 September 1941. PRO. HS7/220.

For details see files PRO. HS3/230 and HS3/235.

SOE War Diary, August 1942. PRO. HS7/266

Memo on SOE activities in Arab Countries, Persia, Egypt and Cyprus', n.d. PRO. HS7/286.

SOE War Diary, March 1942. PRO. HS7/229; SOE War Diary, April 1942. HS7/230; SOE War Diary, August 1942. HS7/266.

SOE War Diary, May 1942. PRO. HS7/232; SOE War Diary, June 1942. HS7/234; SOE War Diary, August 1942. HS7/266; SOE War Diary, September 1942; SOE War Diary, October 1942. HS7/267.

Security Progress Report, 15 June 1943. PRO. HS8/874.

SOE War Diary, entry for 29 April 1941. PRO. HS7/215; SOE War Diary, entries for 3, 4, 9 May 1941. HS7/216; SOE War Diary, October–December 1942. HS7/267; SOE War Diary, January–March 1943. HS7/268.

See files PRO. HS3/166 and HS3/213, and P. Baram, The Department of State in the Middle East, 1919–1945 (Philadelphia, 1978) p.189.

‘History of SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5).

SOE War Diary, November–December 1942. PRO. HS7/267.

SOE War Diary, August 1942. PRO. HS7/266; SOE War Diary, April 1942. HS7/230; ‘History of SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5).

SOE War Diary, April 1942. PRO. HS7/230; SOE War Diary, June 1942. HS7/234; SOE War Diary, August 1942. HS7/266; SOE War Diary, November/December 1942. HS7/267.

SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. PRO. HS7/268

SOE War Diary, November/December 1942. PRO. HS7/267.

SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. PRO. HS7/268.

SOE War Diary, November/December 1942. PRO. HS7/267.

SOE War Diary, May 1942. PRO. HS7/232; SOE War Diary, June 1942. HS7/234.

SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. PRO. HS7/268.

‘History of SOE in the Arab World’ (note 5).

Ibid.

‘Memo on SOE Activities in Arab Countries, Persia, Egypt and Cyprus’, 1945. PRO. HS7/285.

Ibid.

SOE War Diary, November/December 1942. PRO. HS7/267; SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. HS7/268. In examining the use of bribery as a weapon, it was calculated in September 1942 that nearly two-thirds of the £300,000 authorized by the Treasury for SOE in the Arab World had been spent or earmarked for post-occupational schemes. Negotiations were then in progress for the delivery of gold bars to the National Bank of Egypt against the release of one million gold sovereigns, under the control of the Minister of State in the Middle East. Memo on ‘Use of Bribery as a Weapon’, 7 September 1942. HS3/122.

Thesiger seemed to be everywhere at this time. He was involved with G(R) in Abyssinia in 1940–41, with SOE in Syria/Palestine and Egypt in 1941–42 and A (Deception) Force in 1942, where he carried out operations behind enemy lines in the Western Desert.

See Saul Kelly, Cold War in the Desert (London, 2000) p.7.

SOE War Diary, October 1942. PRO. HS7/267; SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. HS7/268.

SOE War Diary, March 1942. PRO. HS7/229; SOE War Diary, April 1942. HS7/230; SOE War Diary, October 1942. HS7/267; SOE War Diary, January/March 1943. HS7/268.

Glenconner memo, ‘SOE's Role in the Moslem States of the Middle East’, 20 May 1943. PRO. HS7/285; SOE War Diary, April/June 1943. HS7/269.

For details of Zaehner's organization and activities see ‘Memorandum on SOE activities in Arab countries, Persia, Egypt and Cyprus’, n.d. and SOE War Diary, April/June 1945, ‘Subsidisation of the Persian Press’. PRO. HS7/285.

SOE War Diary, July/September 1943. PRO. HS7/270.

SOE War Diary, Propaganda, July/September 1943. PRO. HS7/284.

SOE War Diary, July/September 1943. PRO. HS7/270.

SOE War Diary, April/June 1944. PRO. HS7/273.

P. Wilkinson and J.B. Astley, Gubbins and SOE (London, 1993) pp.233–4.

SOE(45)34 and 43, Minutes of SOE Council Meeting meetings on 12 September and 7 December 1945; copy of JP(45)235, 2nd prelim. draft. PRO. HS8/202.

SOE(45)R43, Review of Activities for May, June, July 1945. PRO. HS8/247.

SOE(45)R45, Review of SOE Activities for September 1945. PRO. HS8/247.

SOE (45)R14, Review of SOE Activities for August 1945. PRO. HS8/247; R.J. Aldrich, The Hidden Hand. Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London, 2001) p.136.

AW100 (Cairo) to SO2, 2048, 25 October 1945. PRO. HS3/123; for Lampson's scepticism see Lampson to Cavendish-Bentinck, 8 June 1945. FO371/45272/E4561/1630/65.

SOE War Diary, April/June 1944. PRO. HS7/273.

SOE War Diary, July/September 1943. PRO. HS7/270.