SECRET WAR OF CHARLES FRASER-SMITH

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SECRET WAR OF CHARLES FRASER-SMITH

SECRET WAR OF CHARLES FRASER-SMITH

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NARRATOR: There was just one problem. Someone points out that there is no way of guaranteeing that the bomber won’t simply sink after crash landing in the sea, drowning all the commandos. The mission is called off.

NARRATOR: Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission you’ll hear the true stories behind the world’s greatest espionage operations. You’ll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their secret skills? And what would you do in their position? Initially Fraser-Smith supplied clothing and standard props (from second-hand sources) for SOE agents working behind enemy lines, but SOE directives and his taste for gadgetry led him to develop a wide range of spy and escape devices, including miniature cameras inside cigarette lighters, shaving brushes containing film, hairbrushes containing a map and saw, pencils containing maps, pens containing hidden compasses, steel shoelaces that doubled as garrottes or gigli saws, an asbestos-lined pipe for carrying secret documents, and much more. [4] [5] CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: There was no way we could guarantee the safety or success of our brave agents - particularly not their safety. But I like to think that my more unorthodox devices may have tipped the balance ever so slightly in their favor, given them - let’s say - an edge. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Blanche and I spoke long into the night. It wasn’t an easy decision but it was the right one. He had kept examples of most of his gadgets, and an exhibit of his wartime works was presented at the Exmoor Steam Railway, a tourist attraction in Bratton Fleming. Once a year, Fraser-Smith would spend a week explaining their workings to visitors.CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: The dangers of note-taking to an agent are, of course, immense. Discovery would be a death sentence and the same goes for the written instructions given to agents. So I came up with a couple of practical solutions. First, flash paper - paper impregnated with a chemical that allows it to burn instantly without ash or smoke. It just disappears. Quite magical. The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith, by Charles Fraser-Smith (Paternoster Press, ISBN 0-85364-409-8)

Charles Fraser-Smith was the son of a solicitor who owned a wholesale grocery business; he was orphaned at age seven. He was then brought up by a Christian missionary family in Hertfordshire. He went to school at Brighton College, where he was described as "scholastically useless except for woodwork and science and making things." In April 1943, the body was dropped into the sea from a Royal Navy submarine and then floated towards the coast of Spain, where it was spotted by a sardine fisherman and the series of events was set in train. It was at an Open Brethren meeting in Leeds when Charles was giving a talk on his experiences in Morocco, that the director of the Ministry of Supplies (MOS) in Leeds, G. Ritchie Rice, was in the audience as well as Sir George Oliver, Director General of MOS in London. A meeting was immediately set up with Ritchie Rice and after much discussion Charles was offered a job with the MOS in Leeds. NARRATOR: Two fellow committed Christians but these two happened to have a major role in Britain’s war effort. Ritchie Rice was the director of the Ministry of Supply in the city of Leeds, and Sir George Oliver was the director general of the Ministry of Supply in London.CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Exactly, much less an inventor or engineer. When the war started I had already found my calling. I was 36, married with a young family, and living very far from Whitehall and England.

Because of the wartime secrecy there was no written production process to work from. At the end of the war, any complete pencils still at the factory were sent off to the British Government, along with all written instructions and remaining components. Most, if not all of these, may have been destroyed.However, some European countries were now again at war with Germany, and when Italy decided to invade Turkey Charles and Blanche, who now had a young son called Brian, made the decision to return to England as soon as possible. Just as Charles and Blanche's two years were coming to an end they were approached in 1938 to look after a compound that had been set up by Mr. and Mrs. Fisk who required a short break. They were also asked if they would be willing to set up another orphanage. , In the effects they found a letter that was from the British authorities to a senior British officer in Tunisia that said the allies were set to invade German-held Greece and Sardinia from North Africa. Operation Mincemeat (Photo: Warner Brothers/Giles Keyte/Apple)



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