GRGR(5) Katje and the Nazis

[rj]

> > I saw a tv documentary program recently about female Allied operatives
> > in WWII (should have noted the title!) The O.S.S. was definitely up and
> > running and had operatives in the field by 1944, if not earlier I think.
 
Just an update:

Another episode of this tv series was on last night dealing with the
O.S.S. It started up in July 1941 under the direction of William
Donovan. British S.O.E. people came over and trained the O.S.S. recruits
at Camp X on Lake Ontario. In early 1942 William Fairburn (sp.),
seemingly a rather cruel man who had developed something of a reputation
in Shanghai, took over the training. It appears that the operatives were
trained in bomb-making, arm-to-arm combat, sabotage, and clandestine
propaganda activities. He designed a dagger which bears his name, a
little triangular-bladed knife with maximum utility for piercing and
slashing, rather than for opening c-rations. He introduced the use of
the garrotte, and all operatives were given a length of garrotting wire.
He also advocated that in one-on-one combat a soldier should kick his
adversary in the testicles as soon as possible. The Americans developed
little one man mini-subs and radio-controlled boats and scuba gear that
didn't make tell-tale bubbles on the surface, as well as concealed bombs
in petrol jerry cans and other handy espionage tools.

The program claimed that S.O.E. (and O.S.S.) were the prototypes of
terrorist organisations which have operated across the globe ever since.
The program's title is 'Secrets of War': it's fairly recent and narrated
by Charlton Heston. There is a website at

http://www.secretsofwar.com/

"SECRETS OF WAR airs in the United States as "Sworn to Secrecy" on The
History Channel, Sunday nights at 9pm ET/10pm PT and repeats the
following Saturday at 5pm ET/2pm PT."

These were the two relevant episodes, I saw episode 4, dealing with the
S.O.E. and O.S.S., last night 

3. Women Spies of World War II - They were unlikely heroes who fought
behind enemy lines in every theater of World War Two.  Female spies
unearthed secrets, supported the resistance and destroyed the morale of
the enemy. From women OSS agents dropped behind enemy lines, to female
radio operators inside the Third Reich, stories of the decisive
intelligence-gathering role women played in the war...

4. Weapons of the Shadow War - They were the stuff of fantasy and
terror.  Instruments of sabotage and clandestine operations. Born of
great desperation and used under the cover of darkness, special tools of
spies and espionage agents delivered war to the heart of the enemy on
the invisible battleground...

The series plays up the role of these types of shadow war activities and
operatives, and the agencies which administered them, while the
Knightley book cfa mentioned plays them down. Pynchon plays them both up
and down I think. The White Visitation motley crew in blackface
galumphing around the marshes depicts S.O.E. as somewhat of a joke, but
then all those German rockets misfiring -- "often the rockets, crazed,
turn at random, whinnying terribly in the sky, turn about and fall
according each to its madness so unreachable, and it is feared,
incurable" (96) shows how hit and miss the 'real' war effort was as
well. And, on the other side of this, the Schwarzkommando film ploy
actually works, better than anyone could ever have expected, and the
occasional German rocket does (did) find its mark, Katje's for example.

best