The Quirky Quiz

[Olham 164]

Now problem, Corsaire - time for the brain cells to settle...

[JimAttrill 24]

Can anyone join in?  Or am I jumping the queue?  Anyway, you don't have to answer if you don't want to...

 

Which pilot dropped the Army boot(s) on a German airfield in 1918? 

[Olham 164]

Jim, yes of course, you are welcome!

The rules are: the one who answered the last question correctly, will put the next one.

 

But since Corsaire will take some time for important stuff, we can have yours as an interlude.

I confess, I have no idea who did that.

Is it a sign in any way, saying something particular, when you throw boots at someone?

I know the Arabs throw their shoes after someone in disgrace.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Olham

[corsaire31 7]

Sorry guys very busy these days so if someone else wants to carry on, you're welcome...  I won't have much freetime until the weekend.

[rjw 48]

Major Roderic Stanley Dallas  of RFC-40 was reputed to have flown over the German aerodrome at La Brayelle where he dropped a pair of boots and a message saying something like "if you won't come up here and fight, here are a pair of boots for work on the ground".  He then bombed and strafed some ground crew. On his way home he bumped into two enemy aircraft, shooting down one Alb DV. This is all according to Royal Air Force Communiques 1918 (Communique no 5, page 56). I believe this happened in May of 1918.

Edited March 11, 2014 by rjw

[JimAttrill 24]

Correct.  Dallas was ex-RNAS and an Australian.  He often failed to claim victories so some think he was the highest-scoring Australian of the war.  He was promoted to Lt.Col and told to stop flying but never received the telegram as he was shot down and killed on 1 June 1918, possibly by a Fokker triplane flown by Leut. Werner, the commander of Jagdstaffel 14. 

 

So it's your turn Robert! 
 

[Olham 164]

Learning something with each new question - great stuff, folks!

[rjw 48]

Ok, Here is a very interesting one for you. Again it is about a Canadian Ace Pilot who flew for 73 Sqn.

He was shot down by German Ace Justus Grassman 28 July 1918.

 

What significant event in his life occurred in October 1918.

 

What role did he play in WWII.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

He sounds like an Intrepid fellow I must say.  

 

.

[von Baur 54]

I read his book many years ago. Fascinating. Where I first learned of Ian Fleming's involvement in...hmmmm, that may give it away.

 

 

**edit**

LOL, Lou. I'd thought of saying something like that, but you beat me to it.

Edited March 12, 2014 by von Baur

[rjw 48]

I read his book many years ago. Fascinating. Where I first learned of Ian Fleming's involvement in...hmmmm, that may give it away.

 

 

**edit**

LOL, Lou. I'd thought of saying something like that, but you beat me to it.

AH!!! You folks are undoubtedly Lurkers!! You would make good spies!!

[von Baur 54]

SPIES!!??!!  How dare you, sir?? Only the enemy uses spies, the dirty, rotten scoudrels!!!

 

We employ intelligence gatherers. And brave, wonderful lads they are, every mother's son of them.

[rjw 48]

SPIES!!??!!  How dare you, sir?? Only the enemy uses spies, the dirty, rotten scoudrels!!!

 

We employ intelligence gatherers. And brave, wonderful lads they are, every mother's son of them.

If I may steal an appropriate phrase: Muahahahaha!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

AH!!! You folks are undoubtedly Lurkers!! You would make good spies!!

 

Actually Robert, I did make a good spy, (or 'intelligence gatherer' to use von Baur's preferred term), for four years in the USAFSS.  All declassified now of course, but back in the day it was deadly serious and secret stuff.

 

.

Edited March 12, 2014 by RAF_Louvert

[corsaire31 7]

Just dropping by  

 

William Samuel Stephenson  12 victories

 

After being shot down by Justus Grassman, he was captured and held as POW.  October 1918 is when he managed to escape.

 

During WW2 he was Head of British Intelligence for the Western Hemisphere (he had been running British Security Coordination in New York City one year before the war)

 

( 5 minutes research :  list of Canadian Aces of WW1, which have been flying in 1918 with 73 squadron. I think we give too much information in our questions...)

Edited March 12, 2014 by corsaire31

[von Baur 54]

Stephenson wrote a book about his WWII exploits (I believe the title was "A Man Called Intrepid"...I know Intrepid was in there somewhere, because it was his code name). He described in it, among other things, how fascinated Ian Fleming was with deception...disguising weapons, transceivers and the like as other things so as not to arouse suspicion. He suggested that was where Fleming picked up on the idea, which he used later in his James Bond novels and became almost schtick in the movies.

[rjw 48]

Hi Corsaire;

 

Yes you got it, but I think Lou and Von Bauer knew first! Unless there is objection you were the one to verbalize it here so find a new quiz item! 

 

 

Here is a little more on his history:

 

Wiki Data:

 

On 15 August 1917, Stephenson was officially struck off the strength of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and granted a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.[5] Posted to 73 Squadron on 9 February 1918, he flew the Sopwith Camel biplane fighter and scored 12 victories to become a flying ace before he was shot down and crashed his plane behind enemy lines on 28 July 1918. During the incident Stephenson was injured by fire from a German ace pilot, Justus Grassmann,[6] by friendly fire from a French observer,[7] or by both. In any event he was subsequently captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war until he managed to escape in October 1918.[7]

By the end of World War I, Stephenson had achieved the rank of Captain and earned the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross. His medal citations perhaps foreshadow his later achievements, and read:

    For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When flying low and observing an open staff car on a road, he attacked it with such success that later it was seen lying in the ditch upside down. During the same flight he caused a stampede amongst some enemy transport horses on a road. Previous to this he had destroyed a hostile scout and a two-seater plane. His work has been of the highest order, and he has shown the greatest courage and energy in engaging every kind of target.
      - Military Cross citation, Supplement to the London Gazette, 22 June 1919.

    This officer has shown conspicuous gallantry and skill in attacking enemy troops and transports from low altitudes, causing heavy casualties. His reports, also, have contained valuable and precise information. He has further proved himself a keen antagonist in the air, having, during recent operations, accounted for six enemy aeroplanes.
      - Distinguished Flying Cross citation, Supplement to the London Gazette, 21 September 1928.

Interbellum

After World War I, Stephenson returned to Winnipeg and with a friend, Wilf Russell, started a hardware business — inspired largely by a can opener that Stephenson had taken from his POW camp. The business was unsuccessful, and he left Canada for England. In England, Stephenson soon became wealthy, with business contacts in many countries. In 1924 he married American tobacco heiress Mary French Simmons, of Springfield, Tennessee. That same year, Stephenson and George W. Walton patented a system for transmitting photographic images via wireless[8] that produced 100,000 pounds sterling per annum in royalties for the 18 year run of the patent (about $12 million per annum adjusted for inflation in 2010). In addition to his patent royalties, Stephenson swiftly diversified into several lucrative industries: radio manufacturing (General Radio Company Limited[9]); aircraft manufacturing (General Aircraft Limited); Pressed Steel Company that manufactured car bodies for the British motor industry; construction and cement as well as Shepperton Studios and Earls Court. Stephenson had a broad base of industrial contacts in Europe, Britain and North America as well as a large group of contacts in the international film industry. Shepperton Studios were the largest film studios in the world outside of Hollywood.

As early as April 1936, Stephenson was voluntarily providing confidential information to British opposition MP Winston Churchill about how Adolf Hitler's Nazi government was building up its armed forces and hiding military expenditures of eight hundred million pounds sterling. This was a clear violation of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and showed the growing Nazi threat to European and international security. Churchill used Stephenson's information in Parliament to warn against the appeasement policies of the government of Neville Chamberlain.[10]
World War II
BSC was housed on the 35th and 36th floors of the International Building, Rockefeller Center, New York

After World War II began (and over the objections of Sir Stewart Menzies, wartime head of British intelligence) now-Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent Stephenson to the United States on 21 June 1940, to covertly establish and run British Security Coordination (BSC) in New York City, over a year before U.S. entry into the war.

BSC, with headquarters at Room 3603 Rockefeller Center, became an umbrella organization that by war's end represented the British intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service, or SIS), SOE (Special Operations Executive) and PWE (Political Warfare Executive) throughout North America, South America and the Caribbean.[citation needed]

Stephenson's initial directives for BSC were to 1) investigate enemy activities; 2) institute security measures against sabotage to British property; and 3) organize American public opinion in favour of aid to Britain. Later this was expanded to include "the assurance of American participation in secret activities throughout the world in the closest possible collaboration with the British". Stephenson's official title was British Passport Control Officer. His unofficial mission was to create a secret British intelligence network throughout the western hemisphere, and to operate covertly and broadly on behalf of the British government and the Allies in aid of winning the war. He also became Churchill's personal representative to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[citation needed]

Stephenson was soon a close adviser to Roosevelt, and suggested that he put Stephenson's good friend William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan in charge of all U.S. intelligence services. Donovan founded the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which in 1947 would become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As senior representative of British intelligence in the western hemisphere, Stephenson was one of the few persons in the hemisphere who were authorized to view raw Ultra transcripts of German Enigma ciphers that had been decrypted at Britain's Bletchley Park facility. He was trusted by Churchill to decide what Ultra information to pass along to various branches of the U.S. and Canadian governments.[citation needed]
The Princess Hotel in Bermuda, home to British Imperial Censorship during the war, and to Sir William Stephenson after the war.

While it was still neutral, agreement was made for all trans-Atlantic mails from the USA to be routed through the British colony of Bermuda, 640 miles off the North Carolina coast. Airmails carried by both British and American aircraft were landed at RAF Darrell's Island and delivered to 1,200 censors of British Imperial Censorship, part of BSC, working in the Princess Hotel, who examined letters for secret communications before resealing them to leave no indication that they had been read. With BSC working closely with the FBI, the censors were responsible for the discovery and arrest of a number of Axis spies operating in the US, including the Joe K ring. After the war, Stephenson lived at the Princess Hotel for a time before buying his own home in Bermuda.[11]

Under Stephenson, BSC directly influenced U.S. media (including newspaper columns by Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson), and media in other hemisphere countries, toward pro-British and anti-Axis views. Once the U.S. had entered the war in Dec. 1941, BSC went on to train U.S. propagandists from the United States Office of War Information in Canada. BSC covert intelligence and propaganda efforts directly affected wartime developments in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, the Central American countries, Bermuda, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Stephenson worked without salary.[citation needed] He hired hundreds of people, mostly Canadian women, to staff his organization and covered much of the expense out of his own pocket. His employees included secretive communications genius Benjamin deForest "Pat" Bayly and future advertising wizard David Ogilvy. Stephenson employed Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, codenamed CYNTHIA, to seduce Vichy French officials into giving up Enigma ciphers and secrets from their Washington embassy.[12] At the height of the war Bayly, a University of Toronto professor from Moose Jaw, created the Rockex, the fast secure communications system that would eventually be relied on by all the Allies.[13]

Not least of Stephenson's contributions to the war effort was the setting up by BSC of Camp X in Whitby, Ontario, the first training school for clandestine operations in Canada and North America. Some 2,000 British, Canadian and American covert operators were trained there from 1941 to 1945, including students from ISO, OSS, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, United States Navy and Military Intelligence, and the United States Office of War Information, among them five future directors of what would become the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.[citation needed]

Camp X graduates operated in Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Balkans) as well as in Africa, Australia, India and the Pacific. They included Ian Fleming (though there is evidence to the contrary), future author of the James Bond books. It has been said that the fictional Goldfinger's raid on Fort Knox was inspired by a Stephenson plan (never carried out) to steal $2,883,000,000 in Vichy French gold reserves from the French Caribbean colony of Martinique.[14]

BSC purchased from Philadelphia radio station WCAU a ten-kilowatt transmitter and installed it at Camp X. By mid-1944, Hydra (as the Camp X transmitter was known) was transmitting 30,000 and receiving 9,000 message groups daily — much of the secret Allied intelligence traffic across the Atlantic.[citation needed]
Honours

Stephenson died on 31 January 1989, aged 92, in Paget, Bermuda.

For his extraordinary service to the war effort, he was knighted into the order of Knights Bachelor by King George VI in the 1945 New Year's Honours List. In recommending Stephenson for knighthood, Winston Churchill wrote: "This one is dear to my heart."

In November 1946 Stephenson received the Medal for Merit from President Harry S. Truman, at that time the highest U.S. civilian award; he was the second non-American to receive the medal.[15] General "Wild Bill" Donovan presented the award. The citation paid tribute to Stephenson's "valuable assistance to America in the fields of intelligence and special operations".

The "Quiet Canadian" was recognized by his native land late: he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada on 17 December 1979, and invested in the Order on 5 February 1980.

On 2 May 2000, CIA Executive Director David W. Carey, representing Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and Deputy Director John A. Gordon, accepted from the Intrepid Society of Winnipeg, Manitoba, a bronze statuette of Stephenson. In his remarks, Carey said:

    Sir William Stephenson played a key role in the creation of the CIA. He realized early on that America needed a strong intelligence organization and lobbied contacts close to President Roosevelt to appoint a U.S. "coordinator" to oversee FBI and military intelligence. He urged that the job be given to William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, who had recently toured British defences and gained the confidence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Although Roosevelt didn't establish exactly what Sir William had in mind, the organization created represented a revolutionary step in the history of American intelligence. Donovan's Office of Strategic Services was the first "central" U.S. intelligence service. OSS worked closely with and learned from Sir William and other Canadian and British officials during the war. A little later, these OSS officers formed the core of the CIA. Intrepid may not have technically been the father of CIA, but he's certainly in our lineage someplace.

On 8 August 2008, Stephenson was recognized for his work by Major General John M. Custer, Commandant of the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps. Custer inducted him as an honorary member of the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, an honour shared by only two other non-Americans.[16]

[corsaire31 7]

No time until week end, so I think it's fair that either Lou or Von Baur pick it up as it is clear they knew it right away without having to research.

[Olham 164]

Geeze, one day away, and I feel like a lecturer in a big edition - catching up needs half an hour!

Next time I'll brew a fresh coffee before!

[rjw 48]

Geeze, one day away, and I feel like a lecturer in a big edition - catching up needs half an hour!

Next time I'll brew a fresh coffee before!

That's my fault for such a long dissertation, but I thought his background was worth the effort Olham;

 

I find that often we only see the surface of things (you know, like someone is an ace and has a number of kills). Often the other life aspects of the pilot turn out to be even more fascinating. I like this thread because it brings things like this into the open. Things that we probably would not have spent the time investigating.

Each day on this forum and with those who contribute to it makes my life so much richer, not to mention the comradeship I feel with you all.

 

I have been more active over at SIMHQ since the release of WOFF mainly trying to stay ahead of developments and tuning WOFF, but I always come back to CA because of threads like this and the enjoyment of all you folks.

 

Best Regards;

[Olham 164]

Robert, I was only joking - you guys all contribute a lot of good knowledge and background detail.

Only the coffee was meant serious - tomorrow morning I'll have it ready, before I come in here.

[rjw 48]

Robert, I was only joking - you guys all contribute a lot of good knowledge and background detail.

Only the coffee was meant serious - tomorrow morning I'll have it ready, before I come in here.

No need to apologize. I realized you were joking but I just felt I had to explain the value of this thread to me!

[JimAttrill 24]

I like it here as well.  I open both every day and have a look around.  The above information on Stephenson is really amazing!  I wonder if he gets a mention in Churchill's history of the Second World War which I have on the shelf.  Most likely not as what he was doing was secret - until when? 

[von Baur 54]

I doubt Churchill's tome would've included much, if anything. But I've confirmed that Stephenson's story was titled "A Man Called Intrepid". Definitely worth reading, even though I believe it was strictly about his WWII espionage activities. It was where I first heard about Enigma, some of the "Magic" Division's work, and many other things.

 

For instance:

Allied bombers took a heavy toll on the supply lines to Rommel's Afrika Korps. The British knew exactly where these convoys would be, thanks to Ultra decrypts. But to prevent the Germans' figuring that out they would regularly schedule multiple recon flights in "likely" areas, knowing full well that all but one would be a waste of fuel. But that one would fly directly over the convoy, thus giving a plausible excuse for its discovery without tipping off the Germans that their unbreakable code had been broken.

 

Lots of other good stuff in there, too. But I warn you, don't read it if you think Monty was a WarGod and want to go on thinking that. Once you find out how much he was in on it'll become clear that no one could have lost to Rommel at El Alamein and that Market Garden was doomed before it began.

[rjw 48]

I doubt Churchill's tome would've included much, if anything. But I've confirmed that Stephenson's story was titled "A Man Called Intrepid". Definitely worth reading, even though I believe it was strictly about his WWII espionage activities. It was where I first heard about Enigma, some of the "Magic" Division's work, and many other things.

 

For instance:

Allied bombers took a heavy toll on the supply lines to Rommel's Afrika Korps. The British knew exactly where these convoys would be, thanks to Ultra decrypts. But to prevent the Germans' figuring that out they would regularly schedule multiple recon flights in "likely" areas, knowing full well that all but one would be a waste of fuel. But that one would fly directly over the convoy, thus giving a plausible excuse for its discovery without tipping off the Germans that their unbreakable code had been broken.

 

Lots of other good stuff in there, too. But I warn you, don't read it if you think Monty was a WarGod and want to go on thinking that. Once you find out how much he was in on it'll become clear that no one could have lost to Rommel at El Alamein and that Market Garden was doomed before it began.

 

You are correct and I guess the "Magic" division at Bletchley deserve as much credit for Rommel's defeat at El Alamein as Monty's troops, but as we know Bletchley was an enigma in it's own right!