GCHQ releases new details of spies' role in D-Day
GCHQ has today released new details of the intelligence agency’s top-secret contribution to D-Day to mark 80 years since the pivotal day that began the end of WW2.
The documents – released for the first time today – show a detailed intelligence ‘target list’ provided to the highly trained ‘30 Assault Unit’, as well as information about where such intelligence could be found within occupied territory, including such detailed instructions as, “It is reported that the secret books are kept in light metal chest in [the] office...”. The elite unit was tasked with bringing back documents, code books, cyphers and machinery relating to ENIGMA for GCHQ during the D-Day operation.
The documents marked ‘TOP SECRET’ and carrying the operational code name ‘BIGOT’, also contain a signature block from Naval Intelligence Commander Ian Fleming who signed off on the mission and would later go on to become the author of the James Bond series.
The new documents, released today from GCHQ archives, show a highly detailed intelligence ‘target list’ which was given to the 30 Assault Unit – tasked with recovering a number of intelligence assets from occupied territories during the D-Day operation. 30AU was the brainchild of Naval Intelligence Commander Ian Fleming, who liaised regularly with GCHQ (then called GC&CS) and often visited its wartime home of Bletchley Park. During D-Day, 30AU’s mission was to gather this intelligence for GCHQ.
The cover page, dated exactly one month before D-Day, is marked ‘TOP SECRET’ and with the operational code name ‘BIGOT’. It carries the title, “Target list for Operation Overlord” and the instruction that the document is not to leave the UK.
One section of the document sets out the overall aims and parameters of the forthcoming operations, namely, to capture “... items of immediate operational importance in the prosecution of the war against Germany.”
Another sentence adds that the document is “... intended solely for the officers of the No.30 Assault Unit.” This section carries the signature block of Commander Ian Fleming, who would go on to become the author of the James Bond series and was thought to have based the character on a fellow Royal Navy Officer in the No.36 Section.
Contained within the top-secret document, are detailed lists of the assets the 30AU was tasked with gathering, including, “All code books, cyphers and documents relating to signals, radar and communications: the “spools” (wheels) junction boxes and indications of settings used in connection with the German ‘ENIGMA’ cyphering machines.” The adjacent column contains details of where the objects were located.
One instruction details, “It is reported that the secret books are kept in a light metal chest in an office in the [U-boat] pens: the door is marked only with the name “Oberschreibersmaat Fritz Frank” without reference to his employment.”
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is well-known to have been a crucial part of the successes of D-Day, but this new information also sheds light on the covert work carried out by 30AU to gather intelligence for GCHQ that would be crucial in bringing about the end of WW2.
