Category: Article

Exploring the exfiltration of Thomas Becket through the Gilbertine Priory in October 1164 The Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum recently supported a series of events commemorating the 850th anniversary of the escape of Archbishop Thomas Becket, an escape greatly assisted by the Gilbertine Order. It is not often that Chicksands can celebrate the visit of a future saint and the study day explored an early documented record of timely assistance and hospitality in the highly successful exfiltration of a VVIP. The dramatic events of October 1164, just a few decades after the establishment of the Gilbertine Priory, offered an…

Between 1977 and 1980 I was stationed at the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC) at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire. In Spring 1978 I called to the Operations Officers office to be told that I, together with a WO2 “Mick”, had been selected to be part of a joint army/RAF team to support operations by Detachment 4 (Det 4) of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (9SRW), USAF at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk. Det 4 was equipped with the SR-71 Blackbird and U-2R ‘black’ aircraft and were permanently based at Mildenhall. The unit had an integral photographic processing and photographic interpretation…

The History of MI1(b) John Ferris points out in the bibliography to his invaluable work The British Army and Signals Intelligence1 “no historian has assessed the work of MI1(b) or MI1(e)” and that “while ample evidence survives on the latter organisation, the former may well remain forever in the shadows”. I found this very reassuring since I had found virtually nothing and must confess that the following article is, to a great extent based on the History of MI1(b) which can be found under reference HW7/35 C480318 in the National Archives. What I found particularly interesting is that I have…

“The Korean war although limited in geographical scope to a small Asian country and beginning as a struggle between armies of Koreans, the conflict eventually included combatants representing 20 different governments from six continents. Of the estimated casualties to military personnel more than half were non-Korean. The war rendered terrible destruction to the indigenous peoples yet still failed to resolve the political division of the country which remains a source of tension and danger to the present day. In its timing, its course and its outcome the Korean war served in many ways as a substitute for World War III”1…

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BATTLE FOR CYPRUS, 1974 ARTICLE FOR RUSI JOURNAL John Hughes-Wilson© According to the UN there are still two long standing unfinished wars, both halted only temporarily by a ceasefire or armistice. One is Korea; the other is Cyprus. The Greek-Turkish war on Cyprus of July and August 1974 still remains a legally unresolved international conflict. In fact, in Cyprus it was only a UN sponsored ceasefire that officially ended the fighting. This has been the situation for the past 37 years.1 A well armed corps of around 30,0002 Turks still garrisons the North, where its…

By Peter Jefferies Between October 1974 and March 1975 I was the liaison officer for the Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (Northern Ireland) or RICLO for short. The RICLO’s main duty was to liaise with armed forces and police units in the Province to advise them on the most suitable product(s) to meet their air photographic requirements. This entailed being on the road for some 4,000 miles a month and took up the majority of the RICLO’s time. The other part of the job was to deal with complex and unusual tasks and to assemble the best resources to meet the requirement.…