Churchills School For Saboteurs

The secret life of Brickendonbury Manor & the WW2 assassins & saboteurs who set occupied Europe alight.

Between 1940 and 1945, over twenty Dutch men attended a course in industrial sabotage at Brickendonbury Manor, near Hertford, UK, before being parachuted into Holland to undertake attacks on targets across the country. This book tells the stories of their successes and failures.

Between 1940 and 1944 forty Belgians were trained in industrial sabotage at Brickendonbury Manor, near Hertford, UK. This book tells the stories of their successes and failures when they were dropped into Belgian. They include: Emile Tromme, Robert Jourdain, Armand Campion, Octave Fabri, Jean Scohier, Jean Cassart, Henri Verhaeghen, André Wendelen, Achille Hottia, Oscar Catherine, Valère Passelecq, Willy Bernaert, Jean Deflem, Léon Kaanen, ? Piquart, Felicien Moreau, Victor Lemmens, Pierre Osterrieth, Pierre Vliex, Frederic Veldekens, Henri Frenay, Jean Woluwe and Jean van Gyseghem, Jean Schools, Leon Engelen, Adhemar Delplace, Francois Mathot, André Berten, Alphonse Mabille, Theo Andries, André Bayet, Pierre Davreux, Léon Joye, Georges André, Maurice Bertrand, Robert Duby, Zephir Braibant, Leon Servais, Raymonde Thonon and André Guissart.

Between 1940 and 1944 dozens of French men and some women were trained in industrial sabotage at Brickendonbury Manor, near Hertford, UK before being infiltrated into France on top secret missions to destroy transport, industrial and telecommunications targets. They included Raymond Basset, Madeleine Bayard, Georges Bergé, M. Bernard, Raymond Cabard, Francis Cammaerts, Marcel Clech, Elizabeth Devereaux-Rochester, J. Forman, John Farmer, Georges, Albert Guèrisse (Pat O'Leary), André Jarrot, Jules Lesage, J. le Tac, Bob Maloubier, Claude Peri, Petit-Laurent, Jean Pillet, Harry Rée, J. Renault, Charles Rechenmann, Robert Rodriguez, Maurice Southgate, André Varnier, Nancy Wake and Pearl Witherington. Numerous other French men and women took part in sabotage activities and their contribution to the country's liberation needs to be acknowledged.

Following the outbreak of war in 1939, the British Intelligence Services needed a school to train agents to be infiltrated behind enemy lines in occupied Europe. Brickendonbury Manor was requisitioned and run by the Secret Intelligence Service's D Section. They already had training schools in Palestine. With the formation of the Special Operations Executive in July 1940, they took over the training and Brickendonbury specialised in sabotage. George Rheam, described as the father of industrial sabotage, and fellow instructors prepared a handbook which was used by SOE trainers in similar schools overseas. Bernard O'Connor, author of numerous books on World War Two sabotage, provides a detailed foreword.

In late-1943 Harry Rée, one of Britain's secret agents operating in eastern France, witnessed an RAF bombing mission on Peugeot's automobile factory in Sochaux/Montbéliard. As many bombs missed their target, damaging houses and killing innocent French civilians, he was aware that it could turn public opinion against the Allies. With the agreement of his boss in the Special Operations Executive, he approached one of Peugeot's directors and made him an offer: Agree to have your vital machinery sabotaged or have the factory destroyed by British or American bombers. To help the director decide, he was offered compensation by the Allies after the war. When this novel approach proved successful, SOE set up a blackmail sabotage committee which targeted over thirty French factories. Over twenty specially trained agents, both men and women, were infiltrated on missions which included blackmail sabotage. This book details their successes and failures.

During the Second World War, Gibraltar faced the threat of invasion by Italy, Germany, and Spain. The Abwehr, the German Intelligence Service, rather than use their own saboteurs, paid young Spanish men to undertake over sixty sabotage attacks on military installations and shipping with limited success. The Italian Decima Flotilla MAS, a specialist team of underwater frogmen, launched eight attacks which were relatively successful and Spanish Falangists made several unsuccessful attempts. The British Secret Intelligence Service endeavoured to stop or at least limit such attacks. Using contemporary files from the National Archives in Kew, autobiographies, biographies, histories and newspaper articles, this documentary history investigates the successes and failures of these attacks on Gibraltar and the roles played by intelligence officers, agents, double agents in discovering and preventing such acts. The book sheds light on an unusual and largely overlooked aspect of Gibraltar's history.

Norwegians trained in industrial sabotage at Brickendonbury Manor, near Hertford, U.K. were infiltrated by the 'Shetland Bus', fishing boats, motorboats, submarines or parachuted in by planes to attack targets across Norway. They included Karl Aarsaether, Jan Allen, Johannes S. Andersen, Gunnar Berg, Torfinn Bjørnås, Svein Blindheim, Peter Deinboll, Andreas Fasting, Kasper Fjell, Gunnar Fougner, Arne Gjestland, Per Getz, Gregers Gram, Sverre Granlund, Torleif Grong, Arne Haegstad, Knut Haukelid, Claus Helberg, Thor Helliessen, Willy Houlder, Kasper Idland, Fredrik Kayser, Arne Kjelstrup, Frithjof Pedersen Kviljo, Ruben Langmo, Alf Lindeberg, Martin Linge, Max Manus, Odd Nilsen, Nils Nordland, Martin Olsen, Erik Gjems-Onstad, Arthur Pevik, Johnny Pevik, Jens Anton Poulsson, Joachim Rønneberg, Einar Skinnarland, Paal Skjærpe, Gunnar Sønsteby Odd Starheim, Hans Storhaug, Birger Strømsheim, Harald Svindseth, Edvard Tallasken, Gunvald Tomstad, Ragnar Ulstein, Karl Vilnes, Leif Well and Aasmund Wisløff. .

Frank 'Bunny' Rymills was an RAF pilot during World War Two. He flew on top secret missions into France from RAF Tempsford, a small airfield about fifty miles from London and half way between Cambridge and Bedford, or from RAF Tangmere on the south coast near Southampton. In his small Lysander aircraft, he carried secret agents and their luggage, landed them in remote fields and returned to England with important passengers. The man often waiting to meet him in France was Henri Déricourt, an enigmatic character who had the responsibility of arranging these flights, ensuring those to be sent back got to the field safely and the arriving agents sent on to their destinations to complete their dangerous missions behind enemy lines. When many of these agents were arrested, suspicion fell on Déricourt. Many thought he was a double or triple agent. Arrested after the war, he was tried and acquitted. This is Rymill's contribution to the debate.

During the Second World War, the German Intelligence Service infiltrated specially-trained agents into Iceland to collect military, naval, aviation and meteorological intelligence to be transmitted back to Hamburg by wireless or secret writing. Some agents managed to evade capture for a few weeks but most handed themselves into the authorities shortly after landing. Sent to London for interrogation by MI5, rather than be executed as enemy spies, they revealed their life stories and provided details of their training, their instructors and how they were infiltrated. They included Olev Saetrang, Ib Riis, Sigurjon Jonsson, Jens Palsson, Peter Thomsen aka Jens Fridriksson, Larus Thorsteinsson, Einar Sigvaldason, Magnus Gudbjornsson, Sverrir Matthiasson, Ernst Fresenius, Sigurdur Juliusson, Hjalti Bjornsson and Gudbrandur Hlidar. Three of these spies were 'turned', used as double agents to transmit British-inspired messages to deceive the Germans about Arctic convoys and a fake Allied invasion of Norway.