British Military Current Events

[daftandbarmy]

Realpolitik in action, well done those chaps...

MI5 chief defends links with foreign agencies accused of tortureMI5 had a duty to work with overseas agencies to counter 'imminent' al-Qaida threat, says Jonathan Evans

The head of MI5 has issued a vigorous defence of the organisation's co-operation with intelligence agencies known to use torture, saying that it thwarted many terrorist attacks after 9/11 and saved British lives.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the mounting concern over British involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas, Jonathan Evans, the director-general of the security service, said the country had quickly needed help to understand the nature of the threat from al-Qaida at a time when another attack could have been imminent.

"In my view we would have been derelict in our duty if we had not worked, circumspectly, with overseas liaisons who were in a position to provide intelligence that could safeguard this country from attack," he said.

Speaking at his old university, Bristol, last night, Evans said he did not defend "the abuses that have recently come to light within the US system since 9/11". He said working with the intelligence agencies of other countries that he did not identify had posed "a real dilemma" for MI5 officers working in difficult and at times dangerous circumstances.

"Given the pressing need to understand and uncover al-Qaida's plans, were we to deal, however circumspectly, with those security services who had experience of working against al-Qaida on their own territory? Or were we to refuse to deal with them, accepting that in so doing we would be cutting off a potentially vital source of information that would prevent attacks in the west?"

Evans defended the current system of oversight of MI5 and the other main intelligence agencies, MI6 and GCHQ, by ministers, retired judges and a committee of MPs and peers, the intelligence and security committee (ISC).


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/16/mi5-chief-torture-al-qaida

 

[daftandbarmy]

Generals join forces to resist 'hijacking' by BNP

The Armed Forces are in danger of being hijacked by far-right extremists “for their own dubious ends”, a group of former generals warn today.
The British National Party is tarnishing the Forces’ reputation by associating itself with the sacrifices of servicemen, they write. They highlight fears within military circles that the party is exploiting their public standing.
The letter, seen by The Times, is signed by General Sir Mike Jackson and General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former heads of the Army, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, former Chief of the Defence Staff, and Major-General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the Gulf War.
“We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain’s military for their own advantage to cease and desist,” they write. “The values of these extremists — many of whom are essentially racist — are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6881808.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

Historians may never be privy to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wartime secrets that rest in dusty classified archives at Kew. The British spymasters are the masters of squirrelling away secrets. No agency of the British government was more devious than the ultra-secret MI-5, the counterpart of the United States’ OSS.

One such secret survived for more than 60 years and, obviously, it fooled the guards in German prisoner of war camps. It is remarkable that the clever ruse escaped detection by the ever vigilante German minders.

Downed fliers and captured soldiers and sailors desperately needed help with escaping materials. Their most pressing need was an accurate map — showing where their camp was located and the locations of some “safe houses,” where a PoW on the lam could go for food and shelter.

Paper maps were unsatisfactory; they crackled when opened and closed; when they got wet they turned into sodden mush. Even, in pristine condition, they wore out rapidly from usage.
MI-5 had an idea of printing maps on silk, which overcame all the negatives of paper maps.
There was only one manufacturer in England — John Waddington Limited — capable of the technology of printing on silk. The company was only too happy to pitch in to help the war effort.

By sheer coincidence, Waddingtons was also the exclusive licensee in the United Kingdom for the American board game Monopoly. Board “games and pastimes” qualified for inclusion in “CARE” packages sent by the International Red Cross to prisoners of war.

Under tight secrecy, in a heavily guarded workshop at Waddingtons, a unit mass-produced escape maps, each keyed to the area around the camps. A map could be folded into such a tiny dot that it could fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.

The inventive boffins at Waddingtons also added a tiny magnetic compass to a token and a two part metal file that could be screwed together.

Not content to leave it at that, Waddingtons also inserted genuine high denomination German, Italian and French currency — hidden in the piles of Monopoly money.
Before their bombers took off, Allied air crews were told how to identify a “loaded” Monopoly game. Waddingtons rigged the sets by means of a tiny red dot looking like a minor printing glitch. The dot was located in the Free Parking square.

Of all the Allied prisoners who staged successful escapes, one-third were helped by the Monopoly set with the red dot. All escaped prisoners were sworn to secrecy indefinitely because MI-5 might want to keep this successful trick for another war in the future. MI-5 invoked the Official Secrets Act, which carried severe reprisals and incarceration if breached.

The Monopoly caper was not de-classified until recently when the surviving Waddingtons boffins, as well as the company itself, were finally recognized at a public ceremony.

You can bet the farm that Allied flyers over Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other trouble spots have secreted somewhere in their equipment a Waddingtons inspired — or Waddingtons crafted — map.
Today, one of the Waddingtons Monopoly sets with maps, files and foreign currency would be a much sought after prize by a collector of war memorabilia.

http://www.ottawasun.com/comment/columnists/pat_macadam/2009/10/23/11506466.html

 

[The Bread Guy]

Re:  this.....

Territorial Army told to stop training for six months to save money
Michael Evans, Times Online, 10 Oct 09
Article link

The Territorial Army has been told to stop training for six months to save millions of pounds from the Army’s budget because of growing financial pressure on the Ministry of Defence.

Drill-hall instruction, weekend exercises and all other training associated with the TA will stop, cutting costs by about £20 million ....

...some good news to report:

Territorial Army budget cuts plans halted
Gordon Brown was forced into a climbdown last night when he agreed to halt plans to cut £20 million from the Territorial Army budget.
(....)

It comes after pressure from reservists and the Conservatives who argued that the move would lead to large numbers of TA members leaving the service.

The Daily Telegraph revealed on Monday that Mr Brown was anxious to avoid a political row over the Armed Forces only months after he relented in a battle over Gurkhas who want to settle in Britain and was preparing to climbdown and find the money.

The Ministry of Defence made a first attempt to allay growing anger over the cuts on Monday, offering £2.5 million to replace some of the training nights reservists were to lose.

But that concession failed to defuse the situation and significantly, a number of senior Labour backbenchers joined the criticism of the Government over the cuts. Several spoke out in the Commons on Monday, and others criticized ministers at a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night.

Serving TA officers had warned that cutting their training would leave them unprepared for battle ....

 

[daftandbarmy]

Might Gordon Clown's climb down have something to do with pressure from people like this chap, who just happen to be TA officers and aslo sit in the House of Lords?

Major-General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Grosvenor,_6th_Duke_of_Westminster

 

[CougarKing]

This ship will reportedly relieve the HMS Endurance there as well.

Official statement from the MoD website:

Scott deploys to Antarctic
A Military Operations news article
29 Oct 09


The Royal Navy's advanced deep water survey ship HMS Scott deployed this week in the pouring rain from Devonport, Plymouth, to the Antarctic for the first time.


Scott will be patrolling and surveying the Antarctic and South Atlantic. This is the first time HMS Scott's state-of-the-art sonar suite has been deployed to the Antarctic and it is hoped her work will help deepen understanding of this little-known part of the world and the marine environment.

The ship's other aim will be to maintain the United Kingdom's presence in the region during Austral summer 2009/2010.

(...)

 

[mariomike]

"Report: 3 British soldiers shot in live fire exercise on Falkland Islands":
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/world/2009/10/31/11592421.html

 

[AmmoTech90]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6899628.ece

Shared in accordance...

Bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan was on last day of tour
The Army has lost another experienced bomb disposal specialist, with the death announced today of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid who was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device (IED) which he was trying to defuse.

More on link.

RIP Oz.

 

[CougarKing]

A semi-related topic:

To think that they recently started allowing women into their ranks, IIRC:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_beefeater

LONDON – Women faced their share of trouble at the Tower of London, including three queens who were beheaded there.

But treachery has long been considered a thing of the past at the notorious 11th century fortress. At least until now.

If charges made Monday are true, the Tower — a popular tourist attraction and home to Britain's Crown Jewels — will add bullying to the list of foul deeds committed there. The victim: the first woman selected to join the all-male ranks of the Tower's yeoman warders, popularly known as "Beefeaters."

Moira Cameron — a veteran of long military service — was named a warder at the Tower two years ago. Hers was supposed to be a happy story about how a bastion of male supremacy could become a place where women, too, could serve queen and country.

On Monday, embarrassed Tower officials conceded that Cameron had apparently been subjected to a campaign of bullying and harassment conducted by some of her resentful male colleagues. They said two male warders have been suspended and a third is under investigation for suspected harassment of Cameron.

(...)

 

[mariomike]

"First woman Beefeater was 'bullied'":
LONDON
November 4, 2009
http://www.theage.com.au/world/first-woman-beefeater-was-bullied-20091103-hv7r.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

Siegfried Sassoon: The reluctant hero

Cambridge University is on the verge of securing Siegfried Sassoon's personal papers for posterity – his unpublished poems and letters are more relevant than ever, says Michael Morpurgo


I once came across a letter written by a military officer to a soldier's mother. "We regret to inform you," it said, "that your son was shot at dawn for cowardice." I later discovered that more than 300 British soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion during the first world war. Two were shot because they had fallen asleep on the job.

As far as I know, Siegfried Sassoon didn't write about these soldiers. But what he did do, as I did when I went to the graves at Ypres, was get angry about the futility of the war. In July 1917, Sassoon – poet, diarist, satirist, officer with the Royal Welch Fusiliers and winner of the Military Cross – was away from the front due to injury. He wrote a letter to his commanding officer, declining to return to duty because he believed the war was being deliberately prolonged by those who had the power to end it. "I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation," wrote Sassoon, who was nicknamed Mad Jack by his men, "has now become a war of aggression and conquest."

Sassoon's letter, titled A Soldier's Declaration, was published in newspapers and read out in the Commons; it very nearly got him executed. Now, a handwritten copy of the letter is among the wonderful collection of Sassoon's personal papers – among them the diaries and notebooks he carried with him to the front – that Cambridge University has all but secured for its library. The National Heritage Memorial Fund has today announced a grant of £550,000 towards their acquisition, which leaves just £110,000 to be raised.

This collection is vital to our understanding of war both then and now. The poets of the first world war – Sassoon, and others like Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas – evoke the pain and suffering of war in a way that I, when I discovered them aged 14 or 15, found riveting. I was a war baby. Born in 1943, I grew up with the suffering of the second world war all around me. I played in bomb sites, and my mother cried often, mourning the death of the uncle I never knew – Uncle Peter, who was in the RAF and was shot down in 1940, aged 21, and whose photograph was always on the mantelpiece. But it was only when I read Sassoon, and the others, that I realised how extraordinarily brave these soldiers, and these poets, were. They faced down the most difficult thing for any of us to face down: our own mortality.

The thing that sets Sassoon's work apart is that he was so connected to his soldiers. One of the previously unpublished poems in this collection provides an account of that connection, and of the wrongs Sassoon felt were being dished out to his men:


Can I forget the voice of one who cried

For me to save him, save him, as

he died?

I will remember you, and from

your wrongs

Shall rise the power and the

poignance of my songs

And this shall comfort me until

the end

That I have been your captain and

your friend.


It's just a scrap torn from a notebook, but it's hugely powerful. Sassoon is more political, more edgy, than the other war poets. But he wasn't always violently against the war. The poem he wrote on the first page of his earliest wartime notebook is also included in this collection. Called Simpleton, it's about his faith that "God marches with the armies". "He loves to hear men laugh," Sassoon wrote, "and when they fall he triumphs in their wounds."

At that time, Sassoon was in tune with the spirit of the war. It was only when he saw the suffering and the pointlessness of it all that he changed his mind. He had a great sardonic wit, too. There's a wonderful short poem Sassoon wrote called The General – about jolly chaps going off to the front, and the general on his horse sending them to their death. Sassoon knew that the soldiers' deaths were coming at the behest of people who didn't understand the military situation: they simply hurled men at barbed wire and machine guns.

Sassoon had the courage to say what, at the time, you absolutely couldn't say, and to some extent, still can't: that there was no point in just going on fighting and fighting. If you read out Sassoon's A Soldier's Declaration in Commons now, it would create the same furore it did in 1917 – because we're exactly where we were then. We're not in a world war, though some might call it a world crisis. But we are still sending young men and women to die in wars that many people in this country don't agree with: wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for supposedly democratic principles – and yet we have a president of Afghanistan who has arrived in the most undemocratic manner. And we have soldiers coming back in coffins.

We're all so adept at turning people into heroes. Sassoon admired the courage of the soldiers, just as many in this country do now; it was the causes he was dubious about. And still, in our wars, with every day, every week, every month that goes by, someone dies. And every time someone dies there's a mother left, a father, a lover, a wife, a child. Sassoon was asking us why men were still dying. His is a voice that really needs to be heard now.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/03/siegfried-sassoon-michael-morpurgo

 

[AmmoTech90]

Interview with SSgt Schmid's wife.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=48474674001

Words fail me.

 

[time expired]

Daftandbarmy,Sassoon was not above twisting the facts to provide a
good poem(story),but he was right about certain people prolonging the
war,they were called the Germans who stubbornly refused to leave their
trenches in occupied France,our ally,remember,and go home.
His writings also provided ammo for the" Never again for King and
Country" movement that swept the universeties in the 1930s and led
directly to the appeasement policies of the British government and the
2nd World War.
And by the way 84 British Generals died in action in WW1 and 30% of
them were killed by small arms fire,that does not quite square with
Siegfried's view of General Officers
                                Regards

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . . And by the way 84 British Generals died in action in WW1 and 30% of
them were killed by small arms fire,that does not quite square with
Siegfried's view of General Officers

That's an interesting statistic - do you have a reference?

 

[Michael OLeary]

That's an interesting statistic - do you have a reference?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/197586.stm

What is much less widely known is that 78 British and Dominion officers of the rank of Brigadier General and above died on active service in the First World War while a further 146 were wounded. These figures alone show that, contrary to popular belief, British Generals frequently went close enough to the battle zone to place themselves in considerable danger.

 

[Michael OLeary]

I can't vouch for that stat. But, I have read that Hitler's regime executed 84 of their own generals. I've also read that in 1793-94 that the French guillotined 84 of their own generals. That a General was more likely to be killed by their own government than by enemy forces. Just stuff you read on the internet. No idea if any of it is true. 

Then maybe you should try doing some relevant research instead pf posting useless commentary.

 

[Michael OLeary]

And some other figures:
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46483

Officers Died in the Great War lists 52 officers of Commands and Staff that died. All but 2 are above the rank of lt col and 4 VCs are included. There must be more because I have noted that it does not include Maj-Gen Thesiger Co 9 Div, killed at Loos.


I could not find anything in 'Tommy' but from 'Mud, Blood and Poppycock' Gordon Corrigan states:

'Altogether four British lieutenant generals, twelve major-generals and eighty-one brigadier generals died or were killed between 1914 and 1918. A further 146 were wounded or taken prisoner. Whatever else the generals were doing, they were certainly not sitting in comfortable chateaux.' Corrigan refers to 'Bloody Red Tabs' as a source document.

Looks like the above are taken from SDGW figures.
For the years 1914-1918, CWGC has at least 5 UK lieutenant generals, 18 major generals (14 UK, 1 India, 1 Canada, 2 Australian) and 96 brigadier generals (85 UK, 2 Australia, 3 New Zealand, 6 Indian).
By 1921 the numbers had increased to at least 6, 28 and 112 for the three general ranks respectively.

SDGW - Soldiers Died in the Great War
CWGC - Commonwealth War Graves Commission

 

[daftandbarmy]

General Melchett: Don't worry, when you go over the top, Captain Darling and I will be right behind you.

Captain Blackadder: Yes, about 23 miles behind us.

 

[Rifleman62]

Lipsett comanded the 8th Bn (90th Winnipeg Rifles) CEF at the start of the war. Lipsett Hall, Kapyong Barracks Winnipeg is named for him.

Orginally posted: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3882

From "Bloody Red Tabs" by Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (page 82/83):

Major-General L.J. Lipsett C.B. C.M.G.
G.O.C. 4th Division

Louis James Lipsett was born in June, 1874, and was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment in October 1894. In 1897 and 1898 he took part in operations on the north-west frontier of India. He held Staff appointments in South Africa from 1904 to 1907 and then became A.D.C. to Major-Generals commanding the 6th Division, Eastern Command and the 2nd Division, Aldershot Command from 1907 to 1908. In 1911 he was G.S.0.2 with the Canadian Forces, and in September, 1915, he was appointed Brigadier-General Commanding the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the lst Canadian Division. When Major-General Mercer (q.v.) was killed, Lipsett took command of the 3rd Canadian Division in June, 1916, and commanded this division until September, 1918, when he took command of the British 4th Division. He was made a C.M.G in 1915 and a C.B. in 1918.
In October, 1918,- Major-General Lipsett became the last British General to be killed in the Great War when he was mortally wounded in front of his own front line, as is described in the diary of the General Staff, 4th Division: 'Escaudoeuvres (near Cambrai). 14/10/18. At 15.15 a telephone message was received from Brigadier-General Green, Cornmanding 10th Infantry Brigade, to say that the Divisional Commander, Major-General Lipsett, had been killed while engaged on a reconnaissance. This constitutes a very deplorable loss to the Division.' The facts appear to be as follows: General Lipsett had gone up with General Macnaughten, of 12 Brigade, and an officer of 49th Division to reconnoitre the 49th Divisional front which this division expects to take over. His particular object was to gain a view of the crossing of the river Selle between Haspres and Sauloir. He was crawling down the slope E. of the wood in P.25.a., in front of our own posts which ran along the E. edge of the wood W. of Sauloir, when he was hit in the face, probably by a machine-gun bullet. He managed to stagger back to the wood, but died almost immediately.15/10/18. The funeral of Major-General Lipsett, C.B. C.M.G. took place at Queant at 15.00, arrangements being made by the 3rd Canadian Division which he had commanded for 2 ½ years. Among those present were the G.O.C.'s First Army, Canadian Corps and XXII Corps, representatives of the 4th Division, Canadian Corps and 3rd Canadian Division and Major H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.' MajorGeneral Lipsett is buried in Queant Communal Cemetery British Extension, France.

There is also a photograph of his funeral in the book.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Man charged with 1977 IRA murder of British Army officer Captain Robert Nairac

A man was charged yesterday with the infamous IRA murder of an undercover British Army intelligence officer in Northern Ireland more than 30 years ago.

Kevin Crilly, a woodcutter, was already facing charges of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning Grenadier Guardsman Captain Robert Nairac.

The 59-year-old - who spent nearly three decades in the U.S. living under an assumed name following the soldier's disappearance - was charged with murder before he appeared at Newry Magistrates' Court for a bail hearing on the two lesser counts.

The abduction and murder of Captain Nairac, 29, in 1977 is considered one of the most brutal incidents in the Troubles.

Using the name Danny McAlevey, the officer was undercover and singing Republican songs in the Three Steps pub, in remote Bandit Country close to the border with the Irish Republic, when he was seized in a scuffle.
He was taken across the border, tortured and then shot dead in an isolated field.

His body has never been found and it was suspected his injuries were so severe that it was put through a meat processing machine so that it could never be found.

Captain Nairac, who had trained with the SAS, was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
The citation praised the resistance of the Oxford-educated officer to his abductors and his bravery under 'a succession of exceptionally savage assaults' which failed to break him.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226997/Man-charged-1977-IRA-murder-British-Army-officer-Captain-Robert-Nairac.html#ixzz0WcMlpsGv