Free All the King's Men by Robert Marshall Page B

strangers to him.
    When Buckmaster succeeded as Head of French Section, he inherited a young man who had risen through the ranksto be Deputy Head. Nicholas Bodington had been an outside candidate for the post of ‘F’, but unfortunately all the worst habits that had been manifest in Paris also surfaced at Baker Street, and though there was no doubting his extraordinary courage and remarkably dexterous mind, there wasn’t one officer in F Section who would have followed Bodington anywhere. The relationship between these two men was not good; it could not have been otherwise. Bodington’s swift and cutting intellect was bound to clash with that of the generously spirited father figure.
    The other personality whose influence was felt just as strongly as Buckmaster’s was that of Vera Atkins. Flying Officer Atkins of the WAAF joined SOE in 1941 and surfaced in the role of Intelligence Officer. She was responsible for collecting all the intelligence that came into the place, either from returning agents or from the bits and pieces that trickled through from MI6, and turning it into practical information that could be used by agents in the field. Atkins’ powerful memory and sharp analytical mind earned her considerable respect and an authority that belied her official rank. She too felt a deep attachment for the agents who went to France, though her feelings were always well below the surface. Atkins was of much tougher stock.
    Gradually, Dansey’s few remaining appointees began drifting from their original positions and his access to SOE’s operations had to become more serpentine. The simple fact was that SOE was expanding and absorbing people who had no prior MI6 or Dansey connection. Probably the most significant personality within the entire organization was a Scot who had moved across from Military Intelligence. Brigadier Colin Gubbins wrote most of the Army’s manuals on guerrilla warfare, and it was his vision and his authority that eventually became the driving spirit behind SOE. He became Head of Operations in November 1940 and succeeded as Head of SOE in 1943.His tough, independent mind inevitably brought SOE into deeper conflict with the man they called ‘Uncle Claude’.
    1941 had been a year of training, organizing and of immense frustration. F Section struggled to get any kind of presence established in France, a struggle made more difficult by Dansey. F Section got so little intelligence about conditions in France that by the end of the year they still couldn’t put together a list of strategic targets. 3 Most of that information came from MI6, and Dansey just would not pass it on.
    1942 was a different story. After a great deal of criticism for foot-dragging, F Section finally began to see some action down in the southern, so-called Free Zone. In fact, the summer and autumn of 1942 saw an unprecedented whirl of clandestine activity all along the Mediterranean coast. Not just by SOE. Everyone seemed to be there.
    At the time when Déricourt was still shuttling back and forth between Marseilles and Vichy, there was a quickly expanding network of American agents, part of the newly named Office of Strategic Services – OSS (the precursor to the CIA); there was MI6’s new network expanding from the south, ALLIANCE, run by Marie Madelaine Foucarde; there was the Soviet Red Orchestra, whose second in command was operating from Marseilles; and, of course, in addition to all that, the SD was everywhere. Somehow, superimposed over what now seems like an entire espionage industry, SOE were trying to construct a network that would eventually reach north into the occupied zone.
    Like the proverbial two ships passing in the night, Bodington came to the South of France just as Déricourt was preparing to leave for Britain. On 15 July 1942, Bodington flew to Gibraltar with one of the first women agents SOE ever sent into the field, Yvonne Rudellat. When they were landed by felucca near Antibes on 20 July, Déricourt