had been decorated by the Americans for the OSS blueprint.
Whoever wrote it, the contents must have boosted Donovan’s campaign to start a secret service. He faced angry political opposition, because anything that smacked of a secret state sounded like Communism to Republicans, and Hoover, in charge of the FBI, was deeply suspicious on principle of anything the British liked. William Stephenson was well aware of this, but he urged Donovan to persist. The British needed America on side, but they didn’t need an ally that leaked like a sieve.
• P ROPAGANDA AND OTHER P REOCCUPATIONS •
When Fleming returned to England, he turned his attention to the Political Warfare Executive, the PWE. This was set up to feed ‘white propaganda’ to the BBC German Service and to transmit black propaganda through its own radio station, GS1, Gustav Siegfried Eins, to encourage rumours to spread among the German population and U-boat crews in particular. Material from Naval Intelligence’s interrogators inspired much of its output. Ian’s friend Sefton Delmer, formerly of the Express , had been working for it since the start of the war. His parents were Australian, but his first language was German, and GS1 was presented by an imaginary Nazi. It was highly successful, although the convincing ‘Fake Nazi’ caused a collective raising of eyebrows in Whitehall. Ian’s own broadcasting career was short-lived and not wildly successful, since in December of 1941 he recorded a confident talk for the BBC German Service and the following day, HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were sunk off Malaya. Godfrey had commanded the Repulse for three years until 1939.
The winter of 1941–42 was relatively quiet. The Blitz was over and the V-1s and V-2s had not yet begun. At Christmas there was something to celebrate. Pearl Harbor had kicked the USA into action at last. In the spring, there were Americans in uniform everywhere, officers in the Berkeley Bar and ratings strolling through Piccadilly and Leicester Square.
Ian had moved to a tiny flat in Athenaeum Court, overlooking Green Park. He was seeing Anne O’Neill and several other upper class young women, as well as Maud Russell. Muriel Wright, for whom he’d found a Whitehall job, had been a model before the war. He found her rather dim, but he had persuaded her to take his 17-year-old sister Amaryllis riding regularly in Richmond Park.
Anne was resident mostly at the Dorchester, where Ian often played bridge with her and her lifelong friend Loelia Duchess of Westminster. The Duchess, who was separated from the Duke, had a crush on Ian that does not seem to have been reciprocated. She was six years older than him and had been a ‘bright young thing’ in the 1920s. He never could take her seriously as a seductive older woman, but he did immortalise her as the matronly Loelia Ponsonby in the Bond books. It was Maud Russell for whom he had real respect and affection, and it seems to have been mutual. She gave him a keepsake that he treasured: a gold cigarette case, disguised by a coating of gunmetal. She understood his love of deceit.
• T HE O SS AND J AMAICA •
Rear-Admiral Godfrey was to be kicked upstairs at the end of September 1942; promoted to vice-admiral and sent to Bombay, his job at the Admiralty placed in safer hands. Like Cotton, he was a man who did his job outstandingly well but whose abrasive self-confidence caused offence. Ewen Montagu, who liked him, said he was ‘a shit, but a genius’. Before leaving his post, he found it necessary to go on Naval Intelligence business to New York, and he took Ian Fleming with him. They visited the thirty-sixth floor of the RCA building in Rockefeller Center, and at William Stephenson’s apartment they met Ernest Cuneo, the lawyer and former footballer who would become Ian’s lifelong friend. Ian was to be Naval Intelligence’s liaison officer with the OSS in London, and in New York, Junius Morgan, of the banking family, was his
Whoever wrote it, the contents must have boosted Donovan’s campaign to start a secret service. He faced angry political opposition, because anything that smacked of a secret state sounded like Communism to Republicans, and Hoover, in charge of the FBI, was deeply suspicious on principle of anything the British liked. William Stephenson was well aware of this, but he urged Donovan to persist. The British needed America on side, but they didn’t need an ally that leaked like a sieve.
• P ROPAGANDA AND OTHER P REOCCUPATIONS •
When Fleming returned to England, he turned his attention to the Political Warfare Executive, the PWE. This was set up to feed ‘white propaganda’ to the BBC German Service and to transmit black propaganda through its own radio station, GS1, Gustav Siegfried Eins, to encourage rumours to spread among the German population and U-boat crews in particular. Material from Naval Intelligence’s interrogators inspired much of its output. Ian’s friend Sefton Delmer, formerly of the Express , had been working for it since the start of the war. His parents were Australian, but his first language was German, and GS1 was presented by an imaginary Nazi. It was highly successful, although the convincing ‘Fake Nazi’ caused a collective raising of eyebrows in Whitehall. Ian’s own broadcasting career was short-lived and not wildly successful, since in December of 1941 he recorded a confident talk for the BBC German Service and the following day, HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were sunk off Malaya. Godfrey had commanded the Repulse for three years until 1939.
The winter of 1941–42 was relatively quiet. The Blitz was over and the V-1s and V-2s had not yet begun. At Christmas there was something to celebrate. Pearl Harbor had kicked the USA into action at last. In the spring, there were Americans in uniform everywhere, officers in the Berkeley Bar and ratings strolling through Piccadilly and Leicester Square.
Ian had moved to a tiny flat in Athenaeum Court, overlooking Green Park. He was seeing Anne O’Neill and several other upper class young women, as well as Maud Russell. Muriel Wright, for whom he’d found a Whitehall job, had been a model before the war. He found her rather dim, but he had persuaded her to take his 17-year-old sister Amaryllis riding regularly in Richmond Park.
Anne was resident mostly at the Dorchester, where Ian often played bridge with her and her lifelong friend Loelia Duchess of Westminster. The Duchess, who was separated from the Duke, had a crush on Ian that does not seem to have been reciprocated. She was six years older than him and had been a ‘bright young thing’ in the 1920s. He never could take her seriously as a seductive older woman, but he did immortalise her as the matronly Loelia Ponsonby in the Bond books. It was Maud Russell for whom he had real respect and affection, and it seems to have been mutual. She gave him a keepsake that he treasured: a gold cigarette case, disguised by a coating of gunmetal. She understood his love of deceit.
• T HE O SS AND J AMAICA •
Rear-Admiral Godfrey was to be kicked upstairs at the end of September 1942; promoted to vice-admiral and sent to Bombay, his job at the Admiralty placed in safer hands. Like Cotton, he was a man who did his job outstandingly well but whose abrasive self-confidence caused offence. Ewen Montagu, who liked him, said he was ‘a shit, but a genius’. Before leaving his post, he found it necessary to go on Naval Intelligence business to New York, and he took Ian Fleming with him. They visited the thirty-sixth floor of the RCA building in Rockefeller Center, and at William Stephenson’s apartment they met Ernest Cuneo, the lawyer and former footballer who would become Ian’s lifelong friend. Ian was to be Naval Intelligence’s liaison officer with the OSS in London, and in New York, Junius Morgan, of the banking family, was his
Similar Books
