Secret Operations Over Occupied Europe

This book tells the true story of the Bartter Crew, seven young men from Britain, Canada and Argentina who joined the fight against Nazi Germany. In August 1943 they were assigned to 138 Special Duties Squadron based in Tempsford, near Bedford. Flying low over Europe, skimming treetops ensuring Resistance groups were not forgotten. This is their story of SOE and BCRA operations, featuring spies, operations that were secret for decades from what was often called the most secret airfield in England. France, Yugoslavia and Denmark were covered in just a few months. During an operation, in December 1943, they were shot down over Denmark. The story continues with evasion for some, capture for others. The story comes up to date, Nigel Atkins, the son of the bomb aimer and second pilot, Brian Atkins, has travelled to multiple locations, interviewed people including one of the last surviving members of the Vercors Maquis, who recalled the crew's operation to the Vercors. Nigel is now firm friends with the son of one of the agents the crew dropped. It is fortunate that one of the crew recorded an interview with the Imperial War Museum. Another crew member wrote about some of his experiences and a former WAAF at Tempsford shared her experiences with us. National Archive files have been researched by Jan Christensen to offer a clear picture of the crews operations. It is hoped that this book will illuminate the human angle of these unsung heroes.

For several months in 1943, seven young airmen, all volunteers, were moulded into an RAF crew tasked with undertaking perilous operations over Occupied Europe. Drawn together from England, Argentina, and Canada, the crew, led by their captain, Flight Lieutenant Peter Bartter, were assigned to 138 (Special Duties) Squadron, based at RAF Tempsford. It was there that they flew low, over dangerous territory to deliver agents and equipment to aid the Resistance in Occupied Europe. When the Allies opened new fronts in North Africa and Italy, Bartter’s crew was seconded for some weeks to 624 Squadron flying from Blida in Algeria and Protville in Tunisia. On their return to the UK, they had the additional task of bringing back Winston Churchill’s son, Randolph. The crew’s last operation would be to fly Flemming Muus, as head of SOE in Denmark, to Roskilde in Denmark. However, tragedy struck when their Halifax Mk.II, BB378, was shot down approaching its destination on the night of 10/11 December 1943. Exemplary piloting skills from Peter Bartter brought the aircraft down in a frozen field with no injuries. Muus thankfully escaped. The crew, meanwhile, split into two groups – the officers, and the NCOs. The officers managed to evade capture and reach Sweden. One of the officers, Ernesto Howell, went on to re-join 138 Squadron, but was sadly killed flying over the North Sea in November 1944. The NCOs’ luck gave out, and they were all captured, spending the rest of the war in the notorious Stalag IV-B. From there, one of the NCOs managed to escape just before the camp liberated by the Russians. In this book, the crew are traced from their recruitment, to training, deployment and, for the survivors, their post-war lives. The next generation, René, son of agent Ernest Gimpel, and Nigel Atkins, son of Brian Atkins, the co-pilot, have become firm friends. Nigel Atkins traveled across Europe on a journey of discovery as he has met and interviewed many people while visiting multiple locations the crew only visited from above. From daring flights over occupied Europe to meetings over seventy years later, the excavation of the crash site and new friendships formed, this book has it all.

For several months in 1943, seven young airmen, all volunteers, were molded into an RAF crew tasked with undertaking perilous operations over Occupied Europe. Drawn together from England, Argentina, and Canada, the crew, led by their captain, Flight Lieutenant Peter Bartter, were assigned to 138 (Special Duties) Squadron, based at RAF Tempsford. It was there that they flew low, over dangerous territory to deliver agents and equipment to aid the Resistance in Occupied Europe. When the Allies opened new fronts in North Africa and Italy, Bartter's crew was seconded for some weeks to 624 Squadron flying from Blida in Algeria and Protville in Tunisia. On their return to the UK, they had the additional task of bringing back Winston Churchill's son, Randolph. The crew's last operation would be to fly Flemming Muus, as head of SOE in Denmark, to Roskilde in Denmark. However, tragedy struck when their Halifax Mk.II, BB378, was shot down approaching its destination on the night of 10/11 December 1943. Exemplary piloting skills from Peter Bartter brought the aircraft down in a frozen field with no injuries. Muus thankfully escaped. The crew, meanwhile, split into two groups - the officers, and the NCOs. The officers managed to evade capture and reach Sweden. One of the officers, Ernesto Howell, went on to re-join 138 Squadron, but was sadly killed flying over the North Sea in November 1944. The NCOs' luck gave out, and they were all captured, spending the rest of the war in the notorious Stalag IV-B. From there, one of the NCOs managed to escape just before the camp liberated by the Russians. In this book, the crew are traced from their recruitment, to training, deployment and, for the survivors, their post-war lives. The next generation, René, son of agent Ernest Gimpel, and Nigel Atkins, son of Brian Atkins, the co-pilot, have become firm friends. Nigel Atkins traveled across Europe on a journey of discovery as he has met and interviewed many people while visiting multiple locations the crew only visited from above. From daring flights over occupied Europe to meetings over seventy years later, the excavation of the crash site and new friendships formed, this book has it all.

Published to rave reviews, this is the never-before-told story of two brilliant young Canadians who became unlikely soldiers. Ken Macalister was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Frank Pickersgill was a doctoral student in classics at l’Université de Paris. Together, they volunteered for the British SOE and soon found themselves being trained to kill. On June 15, 1943, with false identities, they parachuted into the Rhone Valley, but there were double agents within the Resistance; too soon Macalister and Pickersgill were captured, tortured and put on a train for Germany. Vance has written a brilliant, heartbreaking book about heroism, betrayal and sacrifice, capturing the promise of a generation of young men who went to their deaths for a greater cause.

The books lets you in on the skills and tricks used by the British SOE (Special Operations Executive), the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the French Maquis, and other special forces in combat in Europe, Africa, and Asia between 1939 and 1945. Learn how to rig up a makeshift radio, how to pass undetected in enemy territory, how to live off the land and make shelter, and how to work as a sniper. Learn how operatives blow up bridges, roads, railways, and arms depots and how they work with the local resistance. Presented in a handy pocket-size format, the World War II Secret Operations Handbook takes the reader from arrival in enemy territory through survival, accomplishing a mission and finally ensuring sound exit strategies. The book also includes a number of sidebars on real-life secret operations from World War II.

The actual course given to all secret agents in SOE before working behind enemy lines. It includes everything you needed to know to go undercover – from documents, cover stories and how to live off the land to how to get through an interrogation.

This rare document is the original used to train special agents dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Used by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and its American counterpart, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), it is an authentic, word-for-word reproduction obtained from a former operative with the clandestine services. It includes sections on ciphers, propaganda, selection of targets, methods of attack, passive resistance, the liaison agent, interrogation and more. The forerunner of all U.S. government guides to sabotage, propaganda, interrogation, burglary and other dirty tricks, this extraordinary historical document makes for riveting reading.

A True Story of Heroism in Nazi-Occupied Greece [Some of] the most dramatic use of secret intelligence in the Western Theater resulted from covert operations against the Nazis in the cities of occupied Europe, which were implemented, to a great extent, by young men and women. For the most part, their stories remained shrouded in secrecy. Readers were carried away reading the brave feats of the partisans in the mountains, deserts, and jungles, while the strategic role of the spies and saboteurs in the cities remained almost anonymous. Rigas Rigopoulos offers a rare insight into the world of espionage and sabotage and the daily terror that characterized covert operations in Athens and Piraeus. Rigopoulos was one of many young Greeks appalled by the Axis occupation, but one of the few who was prepared to undertake the hazardous role of spy and saboteur.""