Brian Lett

Brian Lett is the author of a number of excellent works of military history and I looked forward to this one, not least due to the intriguing title. Unfortunately, the title may be a bit misleading.

Lett’s book explores three parallel developments, two of them in depth. The first concerns the hundreds of thousands of German and Italian prisoners of war held in Britain towards the end of the Second World War. These men, who were young, fit, and only recently captured, represented a genuine security threat to the country. Hardened Nazis in the camps kept them in line, sometimes by hanging those seen as disloyal to the Reich (hence the ‘hangmen’ in the title).

The second part is a detailed look at a number of the local British fascists and Nazis nearly all of whom were detained in 1940 and held without trial. All of these men were dangerous, in some cases armed, and they too represented a security threat. They were all released in 1944 as the war was winding down with Germany’s defeat now all-but-certain. Lett thinks that their release was premature.

Which brings up the third strand of Lett’s story: the Ardennes offensive that began in mid-December 1944, which was Hitler’s last attempt to deal a death-blow to the Allies (and a smaller, lesser-known offensive in northern Italy). Though the Ardennes offensive started relatively well for the Germans, it quickly ran out of steam.

Lett attempts to bring all three strands together, arguing that a number of escape attempts from POW camps in Britain, the presence of British fascists now at large, and the offensive on the continent were all linked. The POWs were to seize American arms, uniforms and vehicles from nearby hospitals (Lett makes a parallel to Skorzeny’s Nazi commandos who dressed up as Americans in the Ardennes). The British fascists were to provide assistance once the men were out of the camps. And it was all timed to result in a dash to London to decapitate the British government by killing the Prime Minister — while at the same time, Skorzeny’s men would rush to Paris to capture or kill General Eisenhower.

It’s a great story and fascinating to contemplate, but I’m not sure it all works. Lett was a lawyer and surely understands that the evidence here may not all stack up. That there was a security threat — both from the POWs and the local Nazis — has long been understood. But there’s little evidence that the threats were linked in any meaningful way. And whether the escape attempts (none of which worked very well) were timed to provide support for the offensive in Belgium is also not proven.

Still, a well researched book and an intriguing idea — even it not entirely convincing.… (altro)

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Ian Fleming and SOE’s Operation Postmaster: The Top Secret Story Behind 007 by Brian Lett recaps Operation Postmaster and the men who made it a success. One of them is James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming who got his ideas for his novels while working in British intelligence.

Operation Postmaster was conducted by British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) in January 1942, when World War II was starting to ramp up. The objective of Postmaster was to board German and Italian ships which were anchored in Fernando Po (Spanish Guinea), and sail them to Lagos.

The SOE and SSRF were on their own during the operation, as British authorities refused to support them since they were breaching Spanish neutrality, even though it was assumed that the Spanish, if they joined the war, would be on the side of the Axis. Not surprisingly, these same authorities had no problems with taking credit for the operation.

The author did not set out to write a thriller, real people have to deal with real problems which take time to be solved. They can’t be solved in a 20 second conversation with the right people, or with the point of a gun. While the effort to compare the men of the SOE to James Bond is commendable, even super-secret agents will be broken down by simple bureaucracy.

The story mainly follows a small group of soldiers, the first of the SOE, who were rescued from Dunkirk and follows them through Operation Postmaster. These were not English upper-class men playing games, or tough orphans grown up to hone their broad skills, becoming fine blades, but men of all walks of life. These men banded together with a single mindset to accomplish the task they were given.

Ian Fleming and SOE’s Operation Postmaster: The Top Secret Story Behind 007 by Brian Lett goes into the planning, execution, and the personalities which made this operation a success and paved the road for the SOE’s continued existence. Sometimes the author goes on a stretch, trying to tie the mission and the men to the Bond books, but it is a fun exercise, especially if you read the books. Alas, we’ll never know.… (altro)