The ‘Massingham’ Mission and the Secret ‘Special Relationship’: Cooperation and Rivalry between the Anglo-American Clandestine Services in French North Africa, November 1942–May 1943

Abstract

The origins of the clandestine Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ during the first desperate years of the Second World War continue to fascinate historians. Yet until recently the scholarly focus has been on the institutional history of the alliance, and the role Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill played in fostering early covert initiatives. Now the emphasis is shifting to how the two leaders' directives were adapted and codified by ordinary members of the Anglo-American secret services – a sort of cloak-and-dagger social history. This essay explores how British and American operatives transformed their leaders' exhortations to work together into a feasible modus operandi at ‘Massingham’, a major clandestine training centre established west of Algiers after the Allied TORCH landings in November 1942.

Notes

In May 1944 ‘Massingham’ and other regional OSS elements were merged to form the Special Projects Operation Centre (SPOC). See M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944 (London, 1966) p.32.

Captain Jacky Porter, ‘FANY, The History of MASSINGHAM’ (unpublished ms, 15 September 1945) part I, p.3. The National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom, (formerly known as the Public Record Office, hereafter PRO). HS 7/169 – Mistakenly filed as the History of SOE in Corsica, with cover letter, notes, and appendices.

Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker, Reel 2, SOE Oral History Collection, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, London (hereafter IWMOH).

Jay Jakob, Spies and Saboteurs: Anglo-American Collaboration and Rivalry in Human Intelligence Collection and Special Operations, 1940–1945 (London, 1999) pp.74–9.

Martin Thomas, ‘The Massingham Mission: SOE in French North Africa, 1941–1944’, Intelligence and National Security 11/4 (1996) pp.696–721.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2).

Thomas, ‘Massingham Mission’ (note 5) p.717.

John Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations in the Cold War and After (London, 2001) p.2.

Bradley F. Smith, The Shadow Warriors: OSS and the Origins of the CIA (London, 1983) pp.165–7.

Thomas Troy, Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency (Frederick, MD, 1981) pp.179–99.

William J.M. Mackenzie, The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive, 1940–1945 (London, 2000) pp.391–2.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part I, p.1.

Mackenzie, SOE (note 11) p.405.

R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency (New York, 1972) p.242.

Bickham Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (London, 1965) pp.138–9.

Thomas Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson and the Origin of CIA (London, 1996) pp.62–132.

Jakob, Spies and Saboteurs (note 4) pp.74–9.

Cipher Telegram from New York to London, G [Stephenson] to CD [Hambro], 10 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56

Cipher Telegram from Washington to London, GM [Pleydell-Bouverie] to CD [Hambro], 10 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 15) pp.139–40.

Cipher Telegram from London to New York, CD [Hambro] to G [Stephenson], 11 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56.

Ibid.

Cipher Telegram from London to New York, CD [Hambro] to G [Stephenson], 14 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56.

Letter from D/CD(O) [Gubbins] to CD [Hambro], 23 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56.

Jakob, Spies and Saboteurs (note 4) p.79.

Letter from AM [unidentified] to D/CD(O) [Gubbins], circa 23 November 1942. PRO. HS 3/56.

Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 (Oxford, 2001) pp.178–80; Robert Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors (New York, 1964) p.128.

Jackson, Dark Years (note 27) pp.224–5.

Arthur Layton Funk, The Politics of TORCH: The Algiers Landings and the Allied Putsch, 1942 (New York, 1969) pp.246–8.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part I, p.2.

Ibid. p.6.

Douglas Dodds-Parker, Political Eunuch (London, 1986) p.xiv.

Ibid. pp.25 and 33.

Interview with the author, 7 January 2002.

Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (note 15) pp.138–40.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part I, p.6. Cap Matifou continued to serve as an administrative centre until all SOE facilities were moved to the Club des Pins on 17 February 1943.

Ibid. part I, p.4 (italics added).

JCS 170 and JCS 155/4/D. PRO. HS 3/56.

Sir Brooks Richards, Reel 9, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

F. Brooks Richards, Secret Flotillas: The Clandestine Sea Lines to France and French North Africa 1940–1944 (London, 1996) pp.598–607; Arthur Layton Funk, ‘The OSS in Algiers', in George C. Chalou (ed.), The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II (Washington, DC, 1992) pp.168–9.

Lord Selborne quoted in Arthur Layton Funk, ‘American Contacts With the Resistance in France, 1940–1943’, Military Affairs 34/1 (February 1970) p.18.

David Stafford, Churchill and Secret Service (London, 2000) p.292.

Ibid.

Jackson, Dark Years (note 27) p.448; Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) Part III, p.1.

Harris Smith, OSS (note 14) p.64.

Jakob, Spies and Saboteurs (note 4) pp.78–9.

Quoted in ibid. p.79.

Douglas Dodds-Parker, Setting Europe Ablaze: An Account of Some Ungentlemanly Warfare (London, 1984) p.124.

Troy, Donovan (note 16) pp.196–9.

Ibid.

Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (Oxford, 1995) p.377.

Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War 1939–1945 (London, 1967) p.248.

Dallek, Roosevelt (note 51) p.377.

Ibid. p.378.

Maurice Agulhon, The French Republic 1879–1992 (Oxford, 1990) p.287.

Jackson, Dark Years (note 27) pp.442–6.

Agulhon, French Republic (note 55) p.259.

Ibid. pp.455–6.

Ibid.; Peter Wilkinson and Joan Bright Astley, Gubbins and SOE (London, 1999) p.96; Dodds-Parker (note 3), Reel 2.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part VI, p.3.

Dodds-Parker (note 3), Reel 2.

Major Peter Murray Lee, Reel 6, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

Ibid. Reel 7.

Ibid.

Max Corvo, The OSS in Italy, 1942–1945, A Personal Memoir (New York, 1990) pp.18, 39, 49.

Timothy Pickering, Reel 2, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH; Lee, Reel 7, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

Harry Hargreaves, Reel 2, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

Ibid.

Ibid.; Lee (note 62) Reel 7.

Richards, Secret Flotillas (note 40) pp.629–30.

Ibid.

Ibid.; Richards (note 39) Reel 9; Dodds-Parker, Setting Europe Ablaze (note 48) pp.152–5.

Richards (note 39) Reel 9.

Funk, ‘OSS in Algiers’ (note 40) p.169; Richards (note 39) Reel 9.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part VI, pp.3–4; Hargreaves (note 67) Reel 2.

Training Report on Tenth Parachute Course [to Eddy and Dodds-Parker] 28 May 1943, National Archive & Records Administration, College Park., Maryland (hereafter NARA). RG 226, Entry 210, Box 128, Folder 1.

During the summer Rucker requested an official ‘parachute school’ syllabus from the US Army and formalized the process. By the end of 1943 he was instructing up to three groups of 20 men per week. Syllabus of Parachute School for the Director, Office of Strategic Services, Washington, DC [for Algiers] 28 July 1943; Subject: Aircraft for Operations, from Rucker to Eddy, 4 August 1943, NARA. RG 226, Entry 190, Box 90, Folder 26.

Night Exercise, Thursday, 18 March [1943], NARA. RG 226, Entry 190, Box 90, Folder 26.

Report on Boat Training Carried out on Behalf of OSS [by Captain Andrew Croft] 18 August 1943, NARA. RG 226, Entry 97, Box 12, Folder 221.

OSS Weapons Manual 1943, NARA. RG 226, Entry 97, Box 12, Folder 211; Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part VI, pp.1–2.

Ibid. p.2.

SOE and OSS used a ‘one-time pad’ cipher system. See David Stafford, Camp X: Canada's School for Secret Agents, 1941–45 (London, 1986).

Dodds-Parker (note 3) Reel 2.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) part VI, pp.5–6; Margaret Harvey-Cope (Peggy Widgery), Reel 2, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

Lee (note 62) Reel 7.

Audrey Rothwell, Reel 1, SOE Oral History Collection, IWMOH.

Huntington to Director: Handling of Agents in the Field, William Donovan, Director's Files, Box 13, Reel 97, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (hereafter CCAC).

Donovan to Huntington: Interoffice Memo, 7 May 1943, CCAC. Director's Files, Box 13, Reel 97.

Troy, Donovan (note 16) pp.207–8.

Jackson, Dark Years (note 27) p.458.

Bradley F. Smith, The Ultra-Magic Deals: And the Most Secret Special Relationship, 1940–1946 (New York, 1993) pp.46–7; Stafford, Churchill and Secret Service (note 42) p.234.

Thomas, ‘Massingham Mission’ (note 5) p.708.

Porter, ‘FANY’ (note 2) Parts I–V.