Security Intelligence Middle East (SIME) (1912-1946) was an organisation made up of a number of British intelligence agencies supporting the British Military Government during the Second World War, based in Cairo, Egypt. It was composed of Security Service (MI5), with Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) provided by liaison officers and army Intelligence Corps personnel (including Field Security teams), but MI5 were the lead agency and provided the focus. [1] [2] [3]
SIME was created in December 1939 as the British Government sought to develop a more focussed approach to counter intelligence and developing security intelligence on the spectrum of threats from espionage, subversion, sabotage and eventually terrorism. [4] SIME's first chief (titled Defence Security Officer) was Colonel Raymond John Maunsell, although he had moved on by February 1945 as he was recorded as being at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force G2 based in northwestern Europe. [5] [6] [7] Another source (Hashimoto) notes that Maunsell's successor to SIME started in 1944, suggesting that Maunsell had moved on by then. [8]
A record of a 1947 visit by two senior Security Service officers to SIME confirmed that it was still based in Cairo and had offices in Baghdad, Jerusalem and Cyprus. [9]
According to Nigel West, Maunsell was succeeded by the following as Chief of SIME, [10] however Hashimoto, in his 2013 doctoral thesis provides dates of service for the other heads of SIME but does not have David Stewart listed. [11] Elsewhere Hashimoto notes that David Stewart had served as Deputy Head of SIME. [12]
The SIME organisational model was in employed elsewhere and in 1946 Security Intelligence Far East (SIFE) was established. SIME was disbanded in 1958. [14]
The Double-Cross System or XX System was a World War II counter-espionage and deception operation of the British Security Service. Nazi agents in Britain – real and false – were captured, turned themselves in or simply announced themselves, and were then used by the British to broadcast mainly disinformation to their Nazi controllers. Its operations were overseen by the Twenty Committee under the chairmanship of John Cecil Masterman; the name of the committee comes from the number 20 in Roman numerals: "XX".
The Security Service, also known as MI5, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).
Rupert William Simon Allason is a British former Conservative Party politician and professional author. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torbay in Devon, from 1987 to 1997. He writes books and articles on the subject of espionage under the pen name Nigel West.
Sir Maurice Oldfield was a British intelligence officer and espionage administrator. He served as the seventh director of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), from 1973 to 1978.
The Intelligence Corps is a corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a brigadier.
The Battle of Gazala was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
The Royal Air Force Police (RAFP) is the service police branch of the Royal Air Force, headed by the provost marshal of the Royal Air Force. Its headquarters are at RAF Honington and it deploys throughout the world to support RAF and UK defence missions.
Interventionism refers to the practise of "governmental interference in economic affairs at home or in political affairs of another country." In the context of international relations, a military intervention has been defined as "the deployment of military personnel across recognized boundaries for the purpose of determining the political authority structure in the target state." Interventions may just be focused on altering political authority structures, but also be conducted for humanitarian purposes, as well as debt collection.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence is the military intelligence branch of the Defence Forces, the Irish armed forces, and the national intelligence service of Ireland. The organisation has responsibility for the safety and security of the Irish Defence Forces, its personnel, and supporting the national security of Ireland. The directorate operates domestic and foreign intelligence sections, providing intelligence to the Government of Ireland concerning threats to the security of the state and the national interest from internal and external sources.
The Sudan Defence Force (SDF) was a locally recruited British-led force formed in 1925 to assist the police in the event of civil unrest, and to maintain the borders of British administered Sudan. During the Second World War, it also served beyond the Sudan in the East African Campaign and in the Western Desert Campaign.
Brigadier Dudley Wrangel Clarke, was an officer in the British Army, known as a pioneer of military deception operations during the Second World War. His ideas for combining fictional orders of battle, visual deception and double agents helped define Allied deception strategy during the war, for which he has been referred to as "the greatest British deceiver of WW2". Clarke was also instrumental in the founding of three famous military units, namely the British Commandos, the Special Air Service and the US Rangers.
Lieutenant Colonel Victor Harry Jones OBE was a British intelligence officer and "visual deception" expert during the Second World War. First serving with the 14th/20th King's Hussars in the First World War, he made a name for himself during the North African Campaign of the Second World War by using dummy tanks to mislead the enemy. In 1941 he was transferred to A Force in Cairo, under Dudley Clarke, to continue deception operations on a larger scale.
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 in support of the UK's national security. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within several government departments. The agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intelligence, performing espionage and counter-espionage. Their intelligence assessments contribute to the conduct of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom, maintaining the national security of the United Kingdom, military planning and law enforcement in the United Kingdom. The main organisations are the Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service (MI5), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and Defence Intelligence (DI).
Operations on the Northern front, East Africa, 1940 in the Second World War, were conducted by the British in Sudan and the Armed Forces Command of Italian East Africa in Eritrea and Ethiopia. On 1 June 1940, Amedeo, Duke of Aosta the Viceroy and Governor-General of the Africa Orientale Italiana, commander in chief of the Armed Forces Command of the Royal Italian Army and General of the Air Force, had about 290,476 local and metropolitan troops and by 1 August, mobilisation had increased the number to 371,053 troops. General Archibald Wavell, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of Middle East Command, had about 86,000 troops at his disposal for Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran and East Africa. About 36,000 troops were in Egypt and 27,500 men were training in Palestine.
John Desmond Beauchamp Doran was a British Army Intelligence Officer who started his career in intelligence in the Secret Intelligence Service. He spent most of his active service career in the Middle East during the Second World War and the troubles that followed in the British Mandatory Palestine. Doran's family were a long established military family with roots in County Wexford, Ireland. His father Walter Robert Butler Doran was a highly decorated British Army Officer, as were his uncles and grandfather.
Raymund John Maunsell (1903-1976) was a British Army Intelligence Officer.
Security Intelligence Far East (SIFE) was a British intelligence organization created in 1946 as the Far Eastern regional headquarters of the Security Service, MI5. It was based in British-controlled Singapore and established by Colonel Cyril Egerton Dixon, a career MI5 officer with a great deal of war time counter intelligence experience in Britain and India. SIFE was also a MI5 controlled organisation, which partially merged its counterintelligence section with the regional headquarters of MI6 in 1950. SIFE controlled a number of MI5 Defence Security Officers in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya and across the Far East.
The British Services Security Organisation (Germany) was a MI5 sponsored organisation supporting British senior commanders with multi-source security intelligence directed initially at counter espionage, but near the end of its operational life much involved in counter terrorism support.
Special Branch, abbreviated as SB, was established in 1934 under the Crime Department of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. The Branch disbanded in 1995 in the final days of colonial period.