British Security Co-ordination

Last updated

BSC operated from the 35th and 36th floors of the International Building, Rockefeller Center, New York during World War II 630 Fifth Avenue NYC 2007.jpg
BSC operated from the 35th and 36th floors of the International Building, Rockefeller Center, New York during World War II

British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

Contents

Its purpose was to investigate enemy activities, prevent sabotage against British interests in the Americas, and mobilise pro-British opinion in the Americas. As a 'huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda', the BSC influenced news coverage in the Herald Tribune , the New York Post , The Baltimore Sun , and Radio New York Worldwide. [1] The stories disseminated from the organisation's offices at Rockefeller Center would then be legitimately picked up by other radio stations and newspapers, before being relayed to the American public. [1] Through this, anti-German stories were placed in major American media outlets to help turn public opinion. [2]

Its cover was the British Passport Control Office. BSC benefitted from support given by the chief of the US Office of Strategic Services, William J. Donovan (whose organisation was modelled on British activities), and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was staunchly anti-Nazi. [3]

Beginnings

As head of the British Security Coordination, William Stephenson has been credited with changing American public opinion from an isolationist stance to a supportive tendency regarding America's entry into World War II. Sir William Stephenson from 1942 passport.jpg
As head of the British Security Coordination, William Stephenson has been credited with changing American public opinion from an isolationist stance to a supportive tendency regarding America's entry into World War II.

The declaration of war upon Germany by the British in September 1939 forced a break in liaison between SIS (MI6) and the FBI because of the Neutrality Acts of 1930s. William Stephenson was sent to the US by the head of SIS to see if it could be rekindled to an extent that SIS could operate effectively in the US. While J. Edgar Hoover was sympathetic, he could not go against the State Department without the President's authorisation; he also believed that if it was authorised, it should be a personal liaison between Stephenson and himself without other departments being informed. However, Roosevelt endorsed co-operation.

Stephenson's deputy at BSC was Australian-born British intelligence officer Dick Ellis. The pair had been introduced by Sir Ralph Glyn.

Ellis said Stephenson 'had been providing a great deal of information on German rearmament to Mr Churchill at that time he was not in office [prior to May 1940] but was playing quite an important role in providing background information to members of [the] House of Commons who were much more concerned with what was happening than the administration [of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain] seemed to be at the time... I introduced him to my own channels, to heads of intelligence. And that led to his being asked if he was going to America... if he would do what he could to reestablish a link between security authorities here and the FBI.’ [5]

The liaison was necessary because Britain's enemies were already present in the US and could expect sympathy and support from German and Italian immigrants, but the authorities there had no remit or interest in activities that were not directly against US security. [6]

Stephenson's report on the American situation advocated a secret organisation acting beyond purely SIS activities and covering all covert operations that could be done to ensure aid to Britain and an eventual entry of the US into the war. Stephenson was given this remit and the traditional cover of appointment as a 'Passport Control Officer' which he took up in June 1940. Although the existing setup in New York was lacking, Stephenson could call upon his personal liaison with Hoover, the support of Canada, the British ambassador, and his acquaintances with US interventionists.

Operation

The office, which was established for intelligence and propaganda services, was headed by Icelandic-Canadian industrialist William Stephenson. Its first tasks were to promote British interests in the United States, counter Nazi propaganda, and protect the Atlantic convoys from enemy sabotage.

The BSC was registered by the State Department as a foreign entity. It operated out of Room 3603 at Rockefeller Center and was officially known as the British Passport Control Office from which it had expanded. BSC acted as administrative headquarters more than operational one for SIS and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and was a channel for communications and liaison between US and British security and intelligence organisations. [7]

BSC used a number of legitimate outlets for its work. In 1940, a German agent, Gerhard Alois Westrick, who was cultivating support and possible sabotage among American oil companies, was effectively exposed through news articles placed in the New York Herald Tribune . A wave of public outrage was followed by Weldrick's expulsion from the US and the forced resignation of the head of Texaco (Torkild Rieber). Through third parties, BSC developed the independent and non-profit WRUL shortwave radio station foreign-language broadcast capability and then fed it stories it wanted disseminated worldwide. The station had a large number of listeners who corresponded with the station, which made it possible for reactions to the broadcasts to be directly monitored. For a period, the station was unwittingly the agent of BSC; after the US entered the war, the WRUL operation was turned over to US control.[ citation needed ]

Although the British and Americans were co-operating at the Prime Minister-President level at the time, the arrival of "British spies" in the United States infuriated J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and displeased the US Department of State.[ citation needed ]

Stephenson and Hoover did not see eye to eye but had cooperated in a number of operations against espionage activities by Nazi Germany in the US. The British hired Americans despite promising otherwise. The Americans who were recruited in the BSC were given British identification numbers beginning with the digits 4 and 8, apparently representing the 48 states.[ citation needed ]

In 1939, Stephenson arranged for the Princess Hotel in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda to become a censorship centre (after initially operating at Prospect Camp. All mail, radio and telegraphic traffic bound for Europe, the U.S. and the Far East were intercepted and analyzed by 1,200 censors, of British Imperial Censorship, part of British Security Coordination (BSC), before being routed to their destination. [8] [9] With BSC working closely with the FBI, the censors were responsible for the discovery and arrest of a number of Axis spies operating in the US, including the Joe K ring. [10]

It was through the BSC that the British acquired the powerful "Aspidistra" transmitter that was used for propaganda by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), BBC overseas broadcasts and by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the war against Germany. BSC also sourced a transmitter for it to communicate with the UK which was operated under the code name "Hydra" at Camp X, BSC's Special Training School No. 103, a Second World War paramilitary installation in Whitby, Ontario for training covert agents in the methods of "secret warfare". [11] [12] The Hydra station was established in May 1942 by engineer Benjamin deForest Bayly; he also invented a very fast coding/decoding machine for telegraph transmissions labelled the Rockex. [13] [14] Camp X had been established in December 1941 by Stephenson to train Allied agents in methods of clandestine operations; many graduates would be dropped behind enemy lines in Europe by SOE. [15] [14]

The British novelist William Boyd, in a 2006 article for The Guardian , [16] stated that although the total number of BSC agents operating in the US in the early 1940s is unknown, he estimated there were at least "many hundreds" and had seen "the figure of up to 3,000 mentioned".

Noël Coward saw Stephenson, colloquially known as "Little Bill", at the end of July 1940 when on a world entertainment and propaganda tour. He wrote that the "suite in the Hampshire House with the outsize chintz flowers crawling over the walls became pleasantly familiar to me..." and that Stephenson "had a considerable influence on the next few years of my life". Stephenson offered him a job but was overruled by London. [17]

Counter-smuggling and "shipping security"

South America was an important neutral source of trade for the Axis forces; its importance would increase after the US entry into the war in 1941. The Italian airline LATI operated a transatlantic service - between Rome and Rio de Janeiro - which was a conduit for high-value goods (platinum, mica, diamonds, etc.), agents and diplomatic bags. London instructed the BSC to do something about that.

The airline had connections with the Brazilian government through the President's son-in-law, and it was supplied, despite the US State Department protests, by Standard Oil in the US, making official channels ineffective. To curtail LATI's activities, the BSC decided that the Brazilians themselves would have to take measures - sabotage would be only a temporary inconvenience. Accordingly, the BSC constructed a forged letter of such accuracy that its authenticity could not be questioned even under forensic examination. The letter purported to come from LATI's head office to an executive of the company stationed in Brazil. The contents included disparaging references to the Brazilian president and to the US, and implied connections with a fascist opposition party in Brazil, the Party of Popular Representation (founded in 1945). Following a "burglary" of the executive's house, a photostat of the letter was placed with an American Associated Press reporter, who immediately took it to the American Embassy, which then showed the letter to the President of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas. LATI's operations in Brazil were confiscated and its personnel interned - the airline ceased transatlantic flights in December 1941. Brazil broke off relations with the Axis and joined the Allies in 1942. [18]

Notable BSC employees

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 William Boyd (19 August 2006), "The Secret Persuaders", The Guardian , retrieved 30 November 2013
  2. Macintyre, Ben (8 October 2006). "The Spy Who Raised Me". The New York Times . Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  3. David Ignatius (1 October 1989). "'45 papers detail British spying in U.S.'". Toledo Blade . The Washington Post . Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  4. Folkart, Burt A. (3 February 1989). "William Stephenson, 93; British Spymaster Dubbed 'Intrepid' Worked in U.S." Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  5. Fink, Jesse (2023). The Eagle in the Mirror. Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing. pp. 74–75. ISBN   9781785305108.
  6. The Secret History of British Intelligence p.xxvi
  7. Davies |MI6 and the Machinery of Spying | ISBN   0714683639 |4 December 2004 |pp 128, 131
  8. Hodgson, Tim. "Celebrating a wartime spy chief". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  9. "Hotel History of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess". Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel (Princess Hotel). Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  10. "Bermuda's WWII Espionage Role". BERNEWS. Bermuda. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  11. "Ontario War Memorials". Ontario War Memorials. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  12. Davies, p137
  13. "Bayly, Benjamin de Forest (Pat)".
  14. 1 2 "Parks Canada - News Releases and Backgrounders". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  15. "Camp X – Canada's secret spy school – Canadian Military History".
  16. Boyd, William, |William Boyd |"The Secret Persuaders", 19 August 2006
  17. Future Indefinite|Noel Coward |page 159, 194 |(William Heinemann, London, 1954)
  18. BSC p288-290
  19. "The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington", 2008, Jennet Conan
  20. Dorril, Stephen (2002). Mi6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-7432-0379-8.[ page needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Strategic Services</span> 1940s United States intelligence agency

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp X</span> WWII Allied training base in Canada

Camp X was the unofficial name of the secret Special Training School No. 103, a Second World War British paramilitary installation for training covert agents in the methods required for success in clandestine operations. It was located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario between Whitby and Oshawa in Ontario, Canada. The area is known today as Intrepid Park, after the code name for Sir William Stephenson, Director of British Security Co-ordination (BSC), who established the program to create the training facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Stephenson</span> Canadian spymaster

Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of the British Security Coordination (BSC) for the western allies during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence code name, Intrepid. Many people consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Elizabeth (Walsh) de Chastelain</span>

Marion Elizabeth (Walsh) de Chastelain was an American-born Canadian who worked as an agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service during World War II, passing on information from German-controlled Vichy French embassy to the Allies.

The Special Intelligence Service was a covert counterintelligence branch of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located in South America during World War II. It was established to monitor the activities of Nazi and pro-Nazi groups in Central and South America. The organization was a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Valuable</span> Western covert paramilitary operation

Operation Valuable was a covert operation conducted during the Cold War by the United Kingdom and the United States in collaboration with other Western Bloc nations. The operation aimed to overthrow the communist regime of Albanian ruler Enver Hoxha as part of broader efforts to counter communist influence around the world and install pro-Western leaders. It involved strategic military actions, incorporating air, naval, and ground assets in pursuit of its objectives. As part of the operation, MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a joint covert operation using Albanian expatriates as agents. Other anti-communist Albanians and Europeans from other nations worked as agents for Greek and Italian intelligence services, some supported by MI6 and the CIA. Many of the agents were caught, put on trial, and either shot or condemned to long prison terms of penal labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Jungle</span> 1945–1955 British MI6 program to infiltrate its agents into Poland and Baltic states

Operation Jungle was a programme by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) early in the Cold War from 1949 to 1955 for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into Poland and the Baltic states. The agents were mostly Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian exiles who had been trained in the United Kingdom and Sweden and were to link up with the anti-Soviet resistance against the communist governments. The naval operations of the programme were carried out by German crew-members of the German Mine Sweeping Administration under the control of the Royal Navy. The American-sponsored Gehlen Organization also got involved in the draft of agents from Eastern Europe. However, the MGB penetrated the network and captured or turned most of the agents.

Sir William George Eden Wiseman, 10th Baronet was a British intelligence agent and banker. He was a general partner at American investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Co. from 1929 till 1960.

National governments deal in both intelligence and military special operations functions that either should be completely secret, or simply cannot be linked to the sponsor. It is a continuing and unsolved question for governments whether clandestine intelligence collection and covert action should be under the same agency. The arguments for doing so include having centralized functions for monitoring covert action and clandestine HUMINT and making sure they do not conflict, as well as avoiding duplication in common services such as cover identity support, counterespionage, and secret communications. The arguments against doing so suggest that the management of the two activities takes a quite different mindset and skills, in part because clandestine collection almost always is on a slower timeline than covert action.

Operation Mass Appeal was an operation alleged to have been set up by the British Secret Intelligence Service in the runup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In December, 2003, former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter said it was a campaign aimed at planting disinformation in the media about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

There is a long history of close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom intelligence services; see Clandestine HUMINT and Covert Action for World War II and subsequent relationships. There are permanent liaison officers of each country in major intelligence agencies of the other, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Secret Intelligence Service ("MI6"), FBI and the Security Service (MI5), and National Security Agency (NSA) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). From 1943 to 2017, the Open Source Enterprise, a division of the CIA, was run out of Caversham Park in Reading, Berkshire. American officials worked closely with their British counterparts to monitor foreign TV and radio broadcasts, as well as online information.

Jennet Conant is an American non-fiction author and journalist. She has written five books about World War II, three of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list: Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of WWII, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, and A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS.

Ernest L. Cuneo was an American lawyer, newspaperman, author, and intelligence liaison. He was also a professional football player in the National Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Elizabeth Thorpe</span> British intelligence agent (1910–1963)

Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, also known as Betty Pack, Betty Thorpe, Elizabeth Pack, and Amy Brousse; was an Anglo-American spy, codenamed Cynthia, who worked for British Security Coordination (BSC) which was set up in New York City in 1940 during World War II by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). She later worked for the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Her method was sexual and romantic seduction of high-level foreign diplomats. She successfully obtained some intelligence on the German Enigma machines and the Black Chamber in Poland, obtained the cipher books of fascist Italy, and stole the Vichy French naval codes out of a locked safe within an embassy. In an article published two months before her death she wrote, "...in the dangerous years of Nazi aggression I looked upon myself as a soldier serving my country. No sacrifice was too great for the soldiers. I felt that, in my own way, I could do no less than they."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Ellis</span> British and Australian intelligence officer

Colonel Charles Howard "Dick" Ellis (1895–1975) was an Australian-born British intelligence officer credited with writing the blueprint for United States wartime intelligence agencies Coordinator of Information and Office of Strategic Services, what would become the CIA. For his contribution to the United States in World War II, he received the Legion of Merit from President Harry S. Truman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Welsh</span> British chemist and naval intelligence officer

Eric Welsh was a British chemist and naval intelligence officer during the Second World War. Between 1919 and 1940 he worked for the Bergen branch of the company International Paint Ltd. From 1941 he headed the Norwegian branch of Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Welsh is fleetingly referred to in the Norwegian television series The Heavy Water War and, based on the comments by Stephen Dorril of Welsh as a "...ladies' man who drank and smoked to excess" and a "master of dirty tricks", alluded to as one of the models to James Bond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of espionage</span>

Spying, as well as other intelligence assessment, has existed since ancient history. In the 1980s scholars characterized foreign intelligence as "the missing dimension" of historical scholarship." Since then a largely popular and scholarly literature has emerged. Special attention has been paid to World War II, as well as the Cold War era (1947–1989) that was a favorite for novelists and filmmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MI6</span> British intelligence agency

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence on foreign nationals in support of its Five Eyes partners. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.

Henry Landau OBE was a South African World War I volunteer who served with the British Army's Royal Field Artillery when he was recruited into what is now known as the SIS (MI6). He was notable as the handler of one of the most effective spy rings of the First World War, La Dame Blanche, and later wrote a number of bestselling novels about his experiences during the war.

E Squadron, formerly the Increment, is a British paramilitary unit tasked with conducting covert operations, paramilitary operations and others at the behest of the Director Special Forces and Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. Its members are selected from the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF), Defence Intelligence and are trained and tasked with carrying out operations in close contact with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6.

References