Hello Carl,Carl Schwamberger wrote:Refresh my memory, I cant recall Buckmaster in the literature I've read.Poot wrote:...
Not to take anything away from the SOE's successes, but everything that Buckmaster touched seemed to go sideways in rather disastrous form...
Pat
Thanks
Buckmaster was the leader of SOE's 'F' Section, and notoriously incompetent. For example, he was notified numerous times by alarmed signals operatives in SOE that agents in the field had been sending messages without using a deliberately mis-spselled word at the beginning of their transmissions. Omission of this word for each agent was used to signal that they were compromised, and likely in German custody. Time and time again, the agents omitted their words, and Buckmaster rashly assumed that they had simply forgotten. As a result, Giskes and other German intell officers were able to dominate the Funkspiele, radioing to send more agents and materiel, and netting more and more SOE agents and capturing entire cells and networks of the Dutch Resistance.
It is likely, along with the expected dynamics of inter-service rivalries, that Buckmaster's repeatedly demonstrated incompetence directly contributed to the friction with SIS, who were focused on intelligence gathering rather than operations and direct actions, which invariably drew the attention and vengeance of German forces. The result could and frequently did upset the intelligence gathering efforts of the SIS.
Pat