97-759: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling , DSO , OBE (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a Scottish officer in the British Army and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS). Under his leadership, the SAS carried out hit-and-run raids behind the Axis lines of the North African campaign . He saw active service during the Second World War until he
194-472: A Royal Navy attaché – and worked with them to open channels of misinformation to the enemy. In Wolfson, Clarke had found an important resource and, in his own words, began "a long and profitable partnership for Deception and MI9 matters in Turkey which was to last for the rest of the war". Clarke left Istanbul on 16 May , travelling covertly back to Egypt via Syria and Lebanon in order to reconnoitre
291-541: A complementary deception. The focus on France left Clarke supporting the Allied push through Italy. He noted that "the peculiar circumstances of the Mediterranean Theater made it a sheer impossibility to have a hiatus of more than a week or two duration between Deception Plans." In quick succession 'A' Force executed deceptions that included the operations Oakenfield and Zeppelin . Later that spring Clarke
388-657: A deception operation to convince Rommel that his advance on Gazala was heading into a trap. The plan, which involved Victor Jones creating a strong fictional force of 300 tanks on the British right hand flank, was in full swing during February. The operation appears to have had limited effect. Rommel delayed his advance until May, when British forces were routed at the Battle of Gazala and the Germans resumed their push toward Egypt. Upon his return to Cairo, on 15 February , Clarke
485-844: A department similar to 'A' Force should be created in London. Clarke was offered the job, reporting directly to the Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet . He declined, citing loyalty to the Middle East, but his decision was in large part due to the greater operational freedom and status he enjoyed in North Africa. The London Controlling Section was formed and, after some disorganisation, prospered under John Bevan , with whom Clarke would later work closely. Pleased with his success in London, Clarke returned to Lisbon on 12 October posing as
582-516: A disinformation campaign, Operation Treatment. On 9 September Clarke was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The citation recognised his efforts in setting up A-Force, but referred to its less clandestine MI9 escape and evasion work. Clarke had his mind on other things besides awards and El Alamein. He delegated much of the ongoing planning to 'A' Force staff, as
679-681: A first taste of the activities that would define his later military career. In 1925, during another period of leave, Clarke covered the Rif War for the Morning Post . Over the inter-war period, Clarke became involved in the theatre and drama establishments of his postings. In 1923, he re-formed the Royal Artillery Officers Dramatic Club and was responsible for the Royal Artillery's display at
776-514: A hand in the formation of three famed military units. Phantom forces, of which the SAS was only Clarke's first, played a crucial part in deception operations during the war – including along the Western Front in 1944 – but for the rest of April 1941 he worked hard to build his department. Clarke's "War Establishment" granted him three officers, several enlisted men and a small array of vehicles. A recruitment drive paid off in
873-558: A journalist for The Times named "Wrangal Craker". His aim was to carry on the semi-undercover work of spreading rumours and misinformation to the Germans. Later that month, in Madrid, he was arrested while dressed as a woman. Guy Liddell , wartime counter-espionage head at MI5 , said of the incident: "I'm afraid to say that after his stay in Lisbon as a bogus journalist he has got rather over-confident about his powers as an agent." Clarke
970-656: A military assistant to Sir John Dill, now a full general and Chief of the General Staff , at the War Office. On 30 May 1940 , inspired by childhood recollections of similar Boer forces as well as experiences during the Arab uprising in Palestine, Clarke sketched out an idea for small amphibious raiding parties, called Commandos. On 5 June , while Dill was inspecting the troops evacuated from Dunkirk , Clarke suggested
1067-472: A parachute brigade existing in North Africa . Stirling's new special operations unit was, at the outset, short of equipment (particularly tents and related gear) when the unit set up at Kibrit Air Base . The first operation of the new SAS was to steal from a nearby well-equipped New Zealand regiment various supplies including tents, bedding, tables, chairs and a piano. After at least four trips, they had
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#17327807732921164-616: A proud military heritage. He was the son of Brigadier-General Archibald Stirling , of Keir, and Margaret Fraser, daughter of Simon Fraser , the Lord Lovat (a descendant of Charles II ). Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat was a first cousin. His paternal grandparents were Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Lady Anna Maria Leslie-Melville. Stirling was educated in England at the Catholic boarding school Ampleforth College . He
1261-500: A raid led by Stirling. The following year Stirling was awarded "substantial damages " in a libel action about the article. After the war, Stirling organised deals to provide British weapons and military personnel to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia , for various privatised foreign policy operations. Along with several associates, Stirling formed Watchguard International Ltd, initially with offices in Sloane Street (where
1358-463: A scheme to mislead Italian forces into expecting an invasion of Italian Somaliland instead of Eritrea , the real Allied target. Operation Camilla fooled the Italian leadership completely but instead of diverting troops as the British hoped, they withdrew their forces into Eritrea. From this failure Clarke learned a first lesson, one he would teach to many other deception officers during the war: that
1455-481: A series of disagreements and Stirling ceased to take an active part in 1972. In mid-1970s, Stirling became increasingly worried that an "undemocratic event" would occur and decided to organise a private army to overthrow the government. He created an organisation called Great Britain 75 and recruited members from the aristocratic clubs in Mayfair; these were mainly ex-military men, and often former SAS members. The plan
1552-606: A small team of highly trained soldiers with the advantage of surprise could attack several targets from the desert in a single night. Believing that taking his idea up the chain of command was unlikely to work, Stirling decided to go straight to the top. On crutches following a parachuting accident, he stealthily entered Middle East headquarters in Cairo (under, through, or over a fence) in an effort to see Commander-in-Chief , Middle East Command General Sir Claude Auchinleck . Spotted by guards, Stirling abandoned his crutches and entered
1649-480: A subsection of 'A' Force devoted to forgeries. With his office organised, Clarke was happy to leave day-to-day management to his staff. He then embarked on a trip to Turkey, where he worked to establish a network of misinformation as well as carry out his MI9 role. There he met two important figures in Turkish intelligence – Brigadier Allan Arnold , the British military attaché , and Commander Vladimir Wolfson,
1746-451: A war establishment and set up Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force with a small staff to plan deception operations. Once satisfied with the department's structure, he pursued intelligence contacts in Turkey and Spain. In late 1941 Clarke was called to London, where his deception work had come to the attention of Allied high command. Shortly afterward, while in Madrid, he was arrested wearing women's clothing, in circumstances that remain unclear. He
1843-405: A well-stocked camp. After a brief period of training, an initial attempt at attacking a German airfield by parachute landing on 16 November 1941 in support of Operation Crusader proved to be disastrous for the unit. Of the original 55 men, some 34 were killed, wounded or captured far from the target, after being blown off course or landing in the wrong area, during one of the biggest storms to hit
1940-482: Is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies , most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel . Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel . The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence. Sometimes, the term 'half-colonel' is used in casual conversation in
2037-595: The 1936 Arab uprising . During the Second World War, Clarke joined John Dill 's staff, where he proposed and helped to implement an idea for raids into France – an early form of the British Commandos. In 1940, Archibald Wavell called Clarke to Cairo and placed him in charge of strategic deception. As a cover, he was employed to set up a regional organisation for MI9 , a British escape and evasion department. The following year Clarke received
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#17327807732922134-470: The Lewes bomb , the first hand-held dual explosive and incendiary device, was invented by Jock Lewes . American Jeeps, which were able to deal with the harsh desert terrain better than other transport, were cut down, adapted and fitted with Vickers K machine guns fore and aft. Stirling also pioneered the use of small groups to escape detection. Finding it difficult to lead from the rear, Stirling often led from
2231-726: The Royal Artillery as an officer in 1916 but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps after finding he was too young to fight in France. He spent the First World War learning to fly, first in Reading and then Egypt. Clarke returned to the Royal Artillery in 1919 and had a varied career doing intelligence work in the Middle East. In 1936 he was posted to Palestine, where he helped organise the British repression of
2328-652: 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 . Born in Johannesburg and brought up near London, Clarke joined
2425-637: The Twelfth Army to his fictional order of battle, and began to make them look like a convincing threat to Crete and the Greek mainland. For this new deception 'A' Force had strong support from London – in April the famed Operation Mincemeat was used to help bolster Clarke's deceptive thrust toward Crete. By this point 'A' Force had much expanded beyond the small flat in Cairo, adding representatives with
2522-503: The 1925 Royal Tournament . In 1933 and 1934, he wrote and directed two Christmas pantomimes . In 1936, Clarke was posted, at his request, to Palestine , just in time to participate in the 1936 Arab uprising . The British presence in Jerusalem was minimal at that time, comprising two battalions of infantry and a motley collection of air and armour under the command of Colonel Jack Evetts . Clarke, as one of only two staff officers ,
2619-453: The 1st SAS. At first the plan was intended to deter the Axis from extending an offensive against the USSR southward into the region. After a slow start, in early 1942, Cascade began to take effect. As early as May, Axis intelligence began to overestimate Allied strength by nearly 30%. In July the operation expanded. Clarke introduced more and more fictitious divisions and by the end of the year
2716-615: The 6th so he adopted the guise of 'A' Force. The name was intentionally vague, designed to add to the mythology of his fictional airborne unit. Although at first only a cover name, the department soon became real and took control of deception in the region. On 28 March 1941 Clarke requisitioned No. 6 Sharia Kasr-el-Nill , Cairo – opposite 6th Division HQ and below a brothel – and in April received an official mandate for his department. "Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force" moved into their new offices on 8 April 1941 and Clarke began to recruit his staff. The name SAS came mainly from
2813-627: The British Army in Libya. Auchinleck rallied his forces at El Alamein and asked Clarke to draft plans for delaying the Axis advance, giving the Allies time to withdraw. Operation Sentinel was designed to convince Rommel, using camouflage, fakery and radio deception, that substantial British armour sat between him and the retreating Eighth Army. In spite of his success at El Alamein Auchinleck
2910-511: The British Army. Additionally, in the U.S. Army 'light colonel' has been used informally in the past. In the British military, it is customary to refer to either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel by their first names when mentioning them, e.g "Colonel Tim will be at the parade". In the United States Air Force, the term 'light bird' or 'light bird colonel' (as opposed to a 'full bird colonel') is an acceptable casual reference to
3007-868: The Chelsea Hotel later opened), latterly in South Audley Street in Mayfair . Business was chiefly with the Gulf States. He was linked, along with Denys Rowley, to a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 1970 or 1971. Stirling was the founder of “ private military company ” KAS International, also known as KAS Enterprises. Watchguard International Ltd was a private military company , registered in Jersey in 1965 by Stirling and John Woodhouse . Woodhouse's first assignment
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3104-689: The German advances. Before leaving for the Eighth Army headquarters in Gazala , Clarke left a note, which he later described as "begging for the whole question of deception machinery in the Command to be reviewed completely afresh during his absence." Once on the ground he found a shaken army conducting a hesitant withdrawal, and in urgent need of delaying tactics to slow the German advance. After brainstorming with his team in Cairo, Clarke envisioned Bastion,
3201-443: The Germans had accepted many of them as real formations. By 1944, when the operation was superseded, it had completely fooled the enemy. Cascade was a major success for Clarke; it supported most of the subsequent major deceptions for the remainder of the war (by providing established fictional units) and proved that deception on a grand scale was a realistic strategy. In May, before Cascade had become fully operational, Rommel defeated
3298-507: The Italians. He dressed two soldiers in "1 SAS" uniforms and set them to wander around Cairo, Port Said and Alexandria hinting at missions in Crete or Libya . By March, Clarke had another scheme in the works, a deception cover for Operation Cordite, the 6th Infantry Division invasion of the Greek island Rhodes . His work interviewing locals about the island could not be associated with
3395-544: The Middle East had caught the attention of high command, and Clarke was asked to write a paper about his experiences. While in London, Clarke met many of his counterparts on the Western Front. He attended meetings of the Twenty Committee and Chiefs of Staff Committee (which was chaired by his old commander, John Dill). The paper on deception met with approval in the establishment and it was decided that
3492-511: The army in Sicily and offices in Algiers and Nairobi. Clarke roved around the region acting as overseer of the department's operations. On 14 October he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), the citation (marked "not for publication") praised Clarke's ongoing work, referring to him as "irreplaceable". In December 1943, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier. Although
3589-487: The building, only to come face-to-face with an officer with whom he had previously fallen out. Retreating rapidly, he entered the office of the deputy chief of staff, Major General Neil Ritchie . Stirling explained his plan to Ritchie, immediately after which Ritchie persuaded Auchinleck to allow Stirling to form a new special operations unit. The unit was given the deliberately misleading name "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade" to reinforce Dudley Clarke 's deception of
3686-526: The department was now well established. Instead he flew to London and Washington in October to discuss strategic deception for Operation Torch , the forthcoming British-American invasion of the French North African colonies, leaving Charles Richardson (a planning officer at Eight Army HQ) and Geoffrey Barkas (Director of Camouflage, Middle East Command) to implement Operation Bertram. For
3783-544: The department. Command of the remaining tactical deceptions was transferred to Caserta . Clarke, along with a skeleton staff, remained in Egypt to tie up the loose ends of various operations and to begin his history of the department. In April 1945, Clarke left Cairo for London; on 18 June he called a meeting of the remaining 'A' Force members at the Great Central Hotel where the department was disbanded. Clarke
3880-434: The early 8 Commando , envisioned a new special forces unit consisting of small commando teams intended to operate behind enemy lines. Clarke gave the project his full backing, and the unit was named "L" Detachment, Special Air Service – in part to help solidify the existence of the larger fictional force in the minds of the enemy. Stirling's force later evolved into the modern-day Special Air Service . Clarke therefore had
3977-474: The engagement, although he escaped harm and returned to Gibraltar. Rather than attempting another trip to London, Clarke was interviewed by the Governor of Gibraltar, Lord Gort , who judged Clarke's answers acceptable and concluded that "we can reasonably expect that this escapade and its consequences will have given him sufficient shock to make him more prudent in the immediate future". It is unclear why Clarke
David Stirling - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-693: The fact I was anxious to get the full co-operation of a very ingenious individual called Dudley Clark[e], who was responsible for running a deception operation in Cairo ;... Clark[e] was quite an influential chap and promised to give me all the help he could if I would use the name of his bogus brigade of parachutists, which is the Special Air Service, the SAS David Stirling , 1985 Clarke's airborne SAS had another legacy. In May 1941 David Stirling , an injured member of
4171-455: The field on 14 November 1946 and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1990 New Year Honours for services to the military. in 1984 the new base of the SAS was renamed Stirling Lines (from Bradbury Lines) in his honour. In 2002 the SAS memorial, a statue of Stirling standing on a rock, was unveiled on the Hill of Row near his family's estate at Park of Keir. Two bronze plaques were stolen from
4268-571: The first time deception experts from across the theatres of war worked together. John Bevan of the London Controlling Section hosted an October conference for Clarke, Peter Fleming from India, and representatives from Washington. The meeting agreed on plans for a disinformation campaign, which would attempt to convince German high command that the Allied targets in Africa were Dakar and Sicily (the far eastern and western limits of
4365-656: The form of highly experienced staff. To help with visual deception he brought in Victor Jones and Jasper Maskelyne . He also recruited a Scots Guards officer, Captain Ogilvie-Grant, to manage the MI9 escape and evasion work, which had been adopted as cover for the whole of 'A' Force. Finally, the services of Major E. Titterington, originally a member of Maunsell's SIME, were obtained for help in creating forged documents; eventually Titterington's operation expanded to form
4462-628: The front, his SAS units driving through enemy airfields in the Jeeps to shoot up aircraft and crew. The first Jeep-borne airfield raid occurred soon after acquiring the first batch of Jeeps in June 1942, when Stirling's SAS group attacked the Italian-held Bagush airfield along with two other Axis airfields all in the same night. After returning to Cairo, Stirling collected a consignment of more Jeeps for further airfield raids. His biggest success
4559-483: The frontier force Rogers' Rangers in the film Northwest Passage , for Donovan's unit. In May of the following year the United States Army Rangers were founded. In February, Clarke suffered from an attack of jaundice that put him out of action for about six weeks. He was visited regularly by Maunsell who was, by that time, a firm friend. At first Clarke worked alone and in secret, under
4656-548: The ground that British forces would have to invade when entering the country. He arrived in Cairo on 21 May . Despite Clarke and Wavell's successes in deception, the North African campaign was turning against the Allies. Germany had reinforced their Italian allies and in 1941 Erwin Rommel had taken command of Axis forces and won early victories. Churchill replaced Wavell with Claude Auchinleck . Clarke's new commander
4753-476: The ground, dozens of supply dumps, wrecked railways and telecommunications, and had put hundreds of enemy vehicles out of action. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery described Stirling as "mad, quite mad". Stirling transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers in 1947. Stirling was granted the honorary rank of Lt. Col as a reservist, a rank that he retained on his retirement in 1965. Stirling
4850-434: The idea to him, and the prime minister approved the plan on the following day. Clarke, under Brigadier Otto Lunde, was tasked with setting up a new department, MO9, and began to recruit soldiers for what would later become the British Commandos . The first raid into France, Operation Collar , took place on 24 June 1940. Clarke obtained permission to accompany the 120-strong force, but was not allowed to go ashore. The attempt
4947-543: The key to deception was not to make your enemy think what you wish but to get them to do what you want. Clarke had not forgotten his previous pet scheme: the Commandos. In January 1941 , he met the American Colonel William J. Donovan while the latter was touring the region. Clarke's description of the 1940 British unit inspired Donovan to emulate the idea. Clarke suggested the name "Rangers", after
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#17327807732925044-409: The late 19th century, where he became embroiled in the Jameson Raid . Ernest managed to avoid prison for his part in the raid and, via a co-conspirator, obtained a job at a gold mining company. Once settled, Ernest married Madeline Gardiner, and a short while later, Dudley was born. During the Second Boer War , the Clarke family was trapped in the siege of Ladysmith . Although an infant at the time of
5141-448: The minimum age of sixteen and a half. To his own surprise (he had petitioned the Charterhouse headmaster for a recommendation, allowing him to bypass the exam, on the expectation of failing), he passed and in early 1916 attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich . In November 1916, Clarke was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery . When his regiment deployed to France, Clarke had to stay behind because, aged 17, he
5238-502: The much-expanded 'A' Force, and his theory of deception, to have matured beyond the basic trial and error of the previous years. In March 1942 Clarke had begun to draft ideas for an ambitious order-of-battle deception. He had found that the process of convincing the enemy of the existence of a notional force was long and tedious. Operation Cascade was intended to create the fiction of a much increased Allied force in North Africa, including eight divisions , three new brigades , and even
5335-419: The new No. 8 (Guards) Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock , which became part of Force Z (later named " Layforce "). On 1 February 1941, Layforce sailed for the Middle East, in support of the capture of Rhodes , but were soon disbanded after suffering heavy casualties in the Battle of Crete and the Battle of the Litani River . Stirling remained convinced that due to the mechanised nature of war,
5432-429: The newly formed Royal Flying Corps . I've always been a little proud of the fact that, when Britain went to war with Germany on 4th August 1914, I was already in uniform and under arms ... I was only fifteen and a half and no more than a private in the Charterhouse Contingent of the Officers Training corps Eager to be in active service, Clarke applied to sit the Army Entrance Exam in 1915, as soon as he had reached
5529-400: The newspaper's disparaging portrayal of Stirling as a right-wing ' Colonel Blimp '. During the mid to late 1970s, Stirling created a secret organisation designed to undermine trades unionism from within. He recruited like-minded individuals from within the trade union movement, with the express intention that they should cause as much trouble during conferences as permissible. One such member
5626-402: The next five years. On his arrival in Cairo, Clarke began to build a network of useful contacts. He befriended Lieutenant-Colonel Raymund Maunsell, who operated Security Intelligence Middle East (SIME), the agency in charge of counter-espionage in the region. Maunsell later worked closely with Clarke, helping to feed misinformation to the enemy via double agents . Clarke's first deception was
5723-534: The official title "Intelligence Officer (special duties) to the Commander-in-Chief". He had neither staff nor official mandate, and worked from a "converted bathroom" at the British Army headquarters, Cairo. His cover role was to establish a regional department for MI9 , the less secret organisation tasked with helping Allied servicemen in escape and evasion tactics. Far from being a token cover, Clarke ran MI9's Middle East department, in tandem with his deception work, until August 1944 . Clarke's one-man show in deception
5820-432: The promotion did not include perks associated with higher ranks (such as a car and driver) Clarke used his charisma to obtain them anyway. In 1944 the Allies finally focused on France and the Western Front. Bevan and the London Controlling Section were tasked with inventing an elaborate masquerade to cover the Normandy invasion, a vindication of the theory pioneered by Clarke and Wavell: that every real operation should have
5917-445: The rank but is never used directly towards the rank holder. A lieutenant colonel is typically in charge of a battalion or regiment in the army. The following articles deal with the rank of lieutenant colonel: Dudley Clarke Brigadier Dudley Wrangel Clarke , CB , CBE ( 27 April 1899 – 7 May 1974 ) was an officer in the British Army , known as a pioneer of military deception operations during
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#17327807732926014-455: The region. Escaping only with the help of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) – who were designated to pick up the unit after the attack – Stirling agreed that approaching by land under the cover of night would be safer and more effective than parachuting. As quickly as possible he organised raids on ports using this simple method, bluffing through checkpoints at night using the language skills of some of his soldiers. Under Stirling's leadership,
6111-440: The siege, Clarke later tried to claim a campaign medal . Soon afterwards, the family returned to England, moving to Watford , where Clarke's brother, the screenwriter T. E. B. Clarke , was born in 1907. From an early age, Clarke wanted a career in the armed forces. In 1912, he attended Charterhouse School , where he was exposed to the glamorous parties and smart uniforms of the nearby military presence at Aldershot , including
6208-506: The society's attempt to deal with the problem of different levels of social development in a non-racial way was ineffective, although it received surprising validation when the South African Communist Party used Stirling's multi-racial elitist model for its 1955 "Congress Alliance" with the African National Congress of South Africa. Stirling resigned as Chairman of the Society in 1959. In September 1967 Len Deighton wrote an article in The Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop ,
6305-494: The statue sometime around the end of May 2014. The current Laird of the Keir estate is his nephew Archie Stirling , a millionaire businessman and former Scots Guards officer. Stirling was depicted by Connor Swindells in the 2022 television historical drama SAS: Rogue Heroes . Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( UK : / l ɛ f ˈ t ɛ n ən t ˈ k ɜːr n əl / lef- TEN -ənt KUR -nəl , US : / l uː ˈ t ɛ n -/ loo- TEN - )
6402-428: The theatre). Four days after Montgomery's success at El Alamein, on 8 November , Allied forces landed in Morocco and Algeria to the surprise of German forces there. On 14 October Clarke, along with Bevan and Flemming, met Churchill to discuss all the Allied deception strategies. 1943 would be the peak of deception operations for Clarke and 'A' Force – in 1944 the focus switched to the Western Front. Until then he
6499-454: The war, Clarke had a varied military career that began with a posting to Mesopotamia in 1919. During the Iraqi revolt of 1920 , he helped evacuate Europeans from the region by boat. While on extended leave in Turkey in 1922, he became involved in the Chanak Crisis , a threatened Turkish attack on British and French troops. Clarke volunteered to help the local British force and was tasked with feeding misinformation to Turkish nationalists –
6596-460: The war, he was asked to record the history of 'A' Force. He retired in 1947 and lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity. As well as pursuing a literary career that produced two histories and a thriller , he worked for the Conservative Party and was a director of Securicor . He died in London in 1974. Clarke was born in Johannesburg on 27 April 1899 . His father, Ernest Clarke, grew up in Kingston upon Hull and moved to South Africa in
6693-426: Was Kate Losinska , who was Head of the Civil and Public Services Association . Funding for this "operation" came primarily from his friend Sir James Goldsmith . Stirling was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the Middle East on 24 February 1942, appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in
6790-414: Was Orde Wingate , the second was Dudley Clarke. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Clarke was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and began working on intelligence tasks. He worked with Wavell in the Middle East to research possible Allied supply lines, undertook two trips to Norway (in an effort to maintain its neutrality), and conducted secret missions in Calais and Ireland. In May 1940 Clarke became
6887-429: Was mentioned in despatches on 19 October 1944, relating to his work setting up 'A' Force. The planning and implementation of deception measures which have played a major part in the successes achieved in this theatre have been due in large measure to the originality of thought, imagination and initiative displayed by this officer. The citation was announced in The London Gazette on 22 February 1945. Clarke received
6984-558: Was annoyed at what he saw as a power grab and at the sudden high profile of deception operations (Bagnold's promotion was widely publicised). Over the next few months Bagnold secured more and more of the day-to-day management of deception operations leaving 'A' Force, and Clarke, in a training and advisory capacity. Despite this, Clarke's services were in high demand as the opening months of 1942 saw Allied forces in North Africa suffering serious defeats. On 2 February Auchinleck dispatched Clarke to Libya with urgent orders to assist in halting
7081-630: Was captured in January 1943. He spent the rest of the war in captivity, despite making several attempts to escape. Stirling left the Regular Army in 1947. He founded the Capricorn Africa Society , which aimed to fight racial discrimination in Africa, but Stirling's preference to a limited, elitist voting franchise over universal suffrage limited the movement's appeal. He subsequently formed various private military companies and
7178-643: Was commanding the North African campaign. He believed that deception was a key part of warfare. On 13 December he summoned Clarke to Egypt, telling high command he wished to set up "a special section of Intelligence for Deception". While awaiting Clarke's arrival, Wavell initiated a successful deception against the Italian forces at Sidi Barrani . Clarke reached Cairo on 18 December, to be greeted by Tony Simonds – another old hand from Palestine. Wavell put Clarke in charge, albeit under great secrecy, of broad strategic deception operations in North Africa. He held this position, under subsequent Mediterranean commanders, for
7275-487: Was faced with organising an effective response to guerrilla warfare . He first set to work improving communications between the small Royal Air Force contingent and the army. It was here that he met Tony Simonds, an intelligence officer sent to the region with express orders to set up an intelligence network. Clarke and Simonds worked to feed reliable information to British forces. Toward the end of 1936, more troops were dispatched to Palestine. Lieutenant-General John Dill
7372-408: Was impressed with Wavell's setup, so 'A' Force and the rest of Middle Eastern Command continued to operate as before. Clarke travelled to Lisbon on 22 August 1941 aiming, as with his earlier Turkey trip, to open up lines of deception into Axis forces. He spent around a month in the area, posing as a flamboyant journalist, before being summoned back to London. His successful deception activities in
7469-522: Was inspired by a war film, Five Graves to Cairo , to create Operation Copperhead . Bernard Montgomery had recently been moved to England to take command of the ground forces intended for the Normandy invasion. To confuse the Germans, Clarke located a look-alike , pre-war actor Lieutenant M. E. Clifton James , and brought him to the Mediterranean under much ceremony. Through 1944 'A' Force
7566-534: Was linked with a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s. He also attempted to organise efforts to undermine trades unionism and to overthrow the British government, none of which made significant headway. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1990, and died later the same year. Stirling was born and raised in Keir House, Perthshire, into an aristocratic Scottish family with
7663-426: Was not a major success, with only one of the four units managing to kill enemy troops. While waiting on the beach for his men to return, Clarke's boat was apparently spotted by a German patrol. Somehow Clarke was injured in the ear during, he said, an exchange of fire. Ernest Chappell, who was also on the beach, said that the patrol had not opened fire. In Cairo, Archibald Wavell, Clarke's old commander in Palestine,
7760-411: Was not to last long. In January 1941 Clarke began Operation Abeam, fabricating the existence of a British paratrooper regiment in the region. It would be two years before such troops reached the Mediterranean, but Clarke hoped to play on Italian fears of an airborne assault. He created a fictional 1st Special Air Service Brigade , using faked documents, photographs and reports, which leaked back to
7857-542: Was on the night of 26–27 July 1942 when his SAS squadron, armed with 18 jeeps, raided the Sidi Haneish landing strip and destroyed 37 Axis aircraft (mostly bombers and heavy transport) for the loss of two men killed. After a drive through the desert, evading enemy patrols and aircraft, Stirling and his men reached the safety of their advance camp at Qaret Tartura on the edge of the Qattara Depression . He
7954-766: Was part of the Ampleforth Officer Training Corps . He attended Trinity College, Cambridge , for a year before going to Paris to unsuccessfully attempt to become an artist. Stirling was commissioned into the Scots Guards on 24 July 1937. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939. Stirling was in Montana, USA, working as a cattle-rancher until returning to Britain on SS Manhattan , from New York City to Southampton on 16 September 1939. In June 1940, he volunteered for
8051-615: Was placed in command, and Clarke became his chief of staff . In 1937, Dill was replaced by Major-General Archibald Wavell , the commander who would later give Clarke free rein in Middle Eastern deception operations. In the preface to Clarke's 1948 book, Seven Assignments , Wavell wrote about their time together in Palestine: When I commanded in Palestine in 1937–38, I had on my staff two officers in whom I recognised an original, unorthodox outlook on soldiering ... One
8148-478: Was pleased to find that Auchinleck had restored 'A' Force as the sole deception organisation at HQ. Bagnold's enterprise was entirely sidelined and he moved on to other things. Clarke, who in March was promoted to full colonel, said that Bastion had taught him much: "We learnt more Lessons from it than from almost any other plan and it helped us evolve three important principles." By the end of March, Clarke considered
8245-467: Was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in September 1942. These hit-and-run operations eventually proved Stirling's undoing; he was captured by the Germans in January 1943 having been dubbed "The Phantom Major" by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel . Although Stirling escaped from the Germans, he was subsequently re-captured by the Italians, who took great delight in the embarrassment this caused to their German allies. He made four further escape attempts, before he
8342-470: Was released and after being questioned by the governor of Gibraltar, allowed to return to Cairo. During Clarke's absence, deception hierarchy in Middle East Command had become muddled. Colonel Ralph Bagnold had taken over deception planning, pushing 'A' Force aside. Clarke was sent to El Alamein , where Allied forces were on the retreat, to work on deception plans. Upon his return, Bagnold
8439-476: Was released, apparently at the behest of a German contact who believed him to be "an important agent who was ready to assist the Germans", and made his way to Gibraltar . Clarke's run of bad luck continued. He was ordered back to London to explain the Madrid incident to his superiors but the ship he was on, the Ariosto , was torpedoed by a U-boat on 24 October . The Ariosto was one of three ships sunk in
8536-654: Was replaced by Harold Alexander on 8 August , Clarke's third commander in under two years. Bernard Montgomery was handed control of the Eighth Army and instructed to push Rommel back. Montgomery knew Clarke, having taught him infantry tactics at the Staff College in 1931, and instructed him to prepare deception plans for the Second Battle of El Alamein . The plan involved major camouflage activity, Operation Bertram , radio deception, Operation Canwell and
8633-517: Was sent to Colditz Castle , where he remained as a prisoner for the rest of the war. He arrived on 20 August 1944 and was given the task of setting up the Colditz British Intelligence Unit by a Stay-Behind Order ( SBO ) which was in place in the area. Following Stirling's capture, Paddy Mayne took command of the SAS. In North Africa, in the 15 months before Stirling's capture, the SAS had destroyed over 250 aircraft on
8730-422: Was sidelined and 'A' Force reinstated as the primary deception department. Throughout 1942 Clarke implemented Operation Cascade , an order of battle deception which added many fictional units to the Allied formations. Cascade was a success; by the end of the war the enemy had accepted most of the formations as real. From 1942 to 1945, Clarke continued to organise deception in North Africa and southern Europe. After
8827-421: Was slowly winding down. Clarke was involved in planning Operation Bodyguard , a major cover plan for the Allied landing in Normandy, and he was tasked with executing the (largely political) deceptions in the Middle Eastern region. However, by the end of the summer 'A' Force's usefulness in operations had reached its end. On 13 October Clarke held a party (true to form, at a Cairo cinema) for the remaining members of
8924-523: Was that in the event of civil unrest resulting in the breakdown of normal Government operations, they would take over its running. He described this in detail in an interview from 1974, part of which is featured in Adam Curtis 's documentary The Mayfair Set , episode 1: "Who Pays Wins". In August 1974, before Stirling was ready to go public with GB75, the pacifist magazine Peace News obtained and published his plans. His biographer Alan Hoe disputed
9021-434: Was the founder of the Capricorn Africa Society , promoting freedom from racial discrimination in Africa. Founded in 1949, while much of Africa was still under colonial rule, it had its high point at the 1956 Salima Conference. However, because of his opposition to universal suffrage, preferring a qualified and very elitist voting franchise, educated Africans were divided on it and it attracted insufficient support. Consequently,
9118-645: Was to go to Yemen to report on the state of the royalist forces when a cease-fire was declared. At the same time Stirling was cultivating his contacts in the Iranian government and exploring the chances of obtaining work in Africa. The company operated in Zambia and in Sierra Leone , providing training teams and advising on security matters, but its founders' maverick ways of doing business caused its eventual downfall. Woodhouse resigned as Director of Operations after
9215-644: Was too young to fight. Frustrated, he applied to join the Royal Flying Corps and transferred to the School of Military Aeronautics in Reading in November 1917 . The following April he was posted to Egypt to complete his flight training, where he stayed until January 1919 . Despite his promotion to the rank of lieutenant , Clarke transferred back to the Royal Artillery on his return to England. After
9312-656: Was very busy between Operation Barclay and the continuing Cascade. The main Allied push that year was toward Sicily , as decided by high command in January. Barclay was the elaborate deception with which Clarke was tasked, an operation to mislead the Axis into expecting attacks on the far eastern and western extremities of the northern Mediterranean theatre – namely the Balkan Peninsula and southern France. On 15 March Clarke again met Bevan, in Algiers , to discuss strategy for Barclay. Building on Cascade he added
9409-742: Was wearing a dress, but reports of the incident indicated he had been following a lead and gone a little too far in his spy-craft. Photographs of his disguise, obtained from the Spanish police, circulated in London and were viewed mostly with amusement. He was allowed to return to Cairo and reached Egypt on 18 November . Although he escaped disciplinary action over the incident, it was the last time Clarke attempted his own espionage work. Back in Cairo, Clarke discovered that much had changed during his absence. The recently promoted Colonel Ralph Bagnold had been appointed "Chief Deception Officer" at Middle Eastern HQ and had taken charge of tactical deception. Clarke
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