79-601: Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998) was an American military officer who worked for the Office of Strategic Services , where he trained Allied special forces personnel in close-quarters combat during World War II . He held the rank of colonel . Applegate was born on June 21, 1914, in Oregon . He was a descendant of Charles Applegate , who blazed the Oregon Trail in 1843 with his brothers Jesse and Lindsay and established
158-430: A 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox, tasteless poison tablets ("K" and "L" pills), and cigarettes laced with tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (an extract of Indian hemp) to induce uncontrollable chattiness. The OSS also developed innovative communication equipment such as wiretap gadgets, electronic beacons for locating agents, and the "Joan-Eleanor" portable radio system that made it possible for operatives on
237-512: A 2nd dan black belt, and then Chinese martial arts . He developed his own fighting system — Defendu —and taught it to members of that police force in order to reduce officer fatalities. He described this system as based primarily on his personal experience, which according to police records included some 600 non-training fights, by his retirement at age 55 from the job of Assistant Commissioner in 1940. In 1951, he went to Cyprus to train police and in 1952 (and 1956) Fairbairn provided training to
316-480: A brutal and effective system. He was the close-combat coordinator for all clandestine missions and this role brought him into contact with other fighters and martial artists of the time period such as a Finnish soldier who killed 21 Russians with a knife, and the founder of the British SAS : David Stirling . At one point during the war, he served as the personal bodyguard to President Franklin D Roosevelt . After
395-471: A captured Kϋbelwagon ; to report by radio. But the Kϋbelwagon was put out of action while in the glider; three tires and the long-range radio were shot up (German gunners were told to attack the gliders not the tow planes). The OSS espionage and sabotage operations produced a steady demand for highly specialized equipment. General Donovan invited experts, organized workshops, and funded labs that later formed
474-552: A lot of information, its reliability was increasingly questioned by British intelligence. By May 1944, through collaboration between the OSS, British intelligence, Cairo, and Washington, the entire Dogwood-chain was found to be unreliable and dangerous. Planting phony information into the OSS was intended to misdirect the resources of the Allies. Schwarz's Dogwood-chain, which was the largest American intelligence gathering tool in occupied territory,
553-523: A lung ailment kept him from holding a combat position. In 1941, Applegate was developing armed and unarmed close quarter combat courses for the US Army at Camp Ritchie when he was recruited by Wild Bill Donovan for the OSS, specifically to build and run what was called "The School for Spies and Assassins", the location of which is now Camp David . Donovan had Applegate learn all that he could about armed and unarmed fighting from William E. Fairbairn to form
632-571: A personal assistant named Walter Arndt and established himself as an employee of the Istanbul Western Electrik Kompani. Through Schwarz and Arndt the OSS was able to infiltrate anti-fascist groups in Austria, Hungary, and Germany. Schwarz was able to convince Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Swiss diplomatic couriers to smuggle American intelligence information into these territories and establish contact with elements antagonistic to
711-695: A representative from OSS visited the 442nd Infantry Regiment looking to recruit volunteers willing to undertake "extremely hazardous assignment." All selected were Nisei . The recruits were assigned to OSS Detachments 101 and 202, in the China-Burma-India Theater. "Once deployed, they were to interrogate prisoners, translate documents, monitor radio communications, and conduct covert operations... Detachment 101 and 102's clandestine operations were extremely successful." William E. Fairbairn Lieutenant Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn ( / ˈ f ɛər b ɛər n / ; 28 February 1885 – 20 June 1960)
790-469: A result, plans and production facilities for V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks and aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.) were passed on to Allied general staffs in order to enable Allied bombers to get accurate air strikes. The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews through its contacts with the Semperit factory near Auschwitz. The group was gradually dismantled by
869-622: A special anti-riot squad for the Shanghai police force. He also developed numerous firearms training courses and items of police equipment, including a special metal-lined bulletproof vest designed to stop high-velocity bullets from the 7.63x25mm Mauser pistol . During World War II , he was recruited by the British Special Operations Executive as an Army officer ; he was given the nickname "Dangerous Dan". Together with fellow close-combat instructor Eric Sykes , Fairbairn
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#1732880559221948-573: A variety of sites, primary among these was Station S in Northern Virginia near where Dulles International Airport now stands. Recent research from remaining records from the OSS Station S program describes how those characteristics (independent thought, effective intelligence, interpersonal skills) were found among OSS candidates One such agent was Ivy League polyglot and Jewish American baseball catcher Moe Berg , who played 15 seasons in
1027-511: A weak blade point and the impossibility of determining the blade's orientation by grip alone). Boker Knives offers several versions of the A-F knife. Gerber Legendary Blades produced a line of folding knives by Applegate and Bill Harsey, Jr. based on the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife. In the late 1980s Applegate released a modified version of Fairbairn's Smatchet , which had been used by
1106-532: Is published to ensure the retention and dissemination of useful information which is not intended to become doctrine or to be published in Fleet Marine Force manuals. and This reference publication was written in 1976 by Lieutenant Colonel Rex Applegate, USA (Ret), with the help of the Combat Section, Military Intelligence Training Center, Camp Ritchie, Maryland. At last there is one volume which speaks to
1185-582: The Applegate Trail . Applegate began hunting and shooting at a young age and learned marksmanship from his uncle Gus Peret who was a famed exhibition shooter and professional hunter at the time. Applegate graduated from the University of Oregon with a Business Degree in 1940 and went on to take a commission in the US Army as a second lieutenant . His first billet was with the 209th Military Police Company as
1264-692: The Axis powers during World War II , including Mao Zedong 's Red Army in China (known as the Dixie Mission ) and the Viet Minh in French Indochina . OSS officer Archimedes Patti played a central role in OSS operations in French Indochina and met frequently with Ho Chi Minh in 1945. One of the greatest accomplishments of the OSS during World War II was its penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS operatives. The OSS
1343-890: The Department of State 's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On December 14, 2016, the organization was collectively honored with a Congressional Gold Medal . Prior to the formation of the OSS, the various departments of the executive branch, including the State , Treasury , Navy , and War Departments, conducted American intelligence activities on an ad hoc basis, with no overall direction, coordination, or control. The US Army and US Navy had separate code-breaking departments: Signal Intelligence Service and OP-20-G . (A previous code-breaking operation of
1422-735: The James Bond novels. When not traveling to promote his pistol-shooting methods, Applegate spent his last years at the Applegate House in Yoncalla, Oregon and at his home in Scottsburg, Oregon. Rex Applegate's daughter, historian Shannon Applegate , who writes and lectures on Oregon and the Applegate family history, lives in the adjacent homestead. Granddaughter, Jessica Applegate Brown, owns and manages Applegate House Vineyards, an organic vineyard on
1501-722: The Royal Marine Light Infantry starting in 1901, and joined the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) in 1907. He served in one of the red light districts . During his service with the International Police in Shanghai, Fairbairn reportedly engaged in hundreds of street fights in the course of his duties during a twenty-year career. Much of his body, arms, legs, torso, even the palms of his hands, were covered with scars from knife wounds from those fights. Fairbairn later created, organised, trained and commanded
1580-584: The Singapore Police Force 's Riot Squad unit, which is now Police Tactical Unit . Together with Eric A. Sykes , Fairbairn developed innovative pistol shooting techniques and handgun specifications for the SMP which were later disseminated by their book Shooting to Live With the One-Hand Gun (1942), along with various other police innovations such as riot batons , armoured vests , and other equipment. He
1659-490: The "Spy School" and also sent for parachute, weapons, and commando training, and Morse code and encryption lessons at STS 102. After completion of their spy training, these agents were sent back on missions to the Balkans and Italy where their accents would not pose a problem for their assimilation. The names of all 13,000 OSS personnel and documents of their OSS service, previously a closely guarded secret, were released by
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#17328805592211738-502: The Allies advanced, a school was established in southern Italy. In the Far East, OSS training facilities were established in India, Ceylon, and then China. The London branch of the OSS, its first overseas facility, was at 70 Grosvenor Street, W1. In addition to training local agents, the overseas OSS schools also provided advanced training and field exercises for graduates of the training camps in
1817-560: The Axis and Allied powers had spy networks. The railroads connecting central Asia with Europe, as well as Turkey's close proximity to the Balkan states, placed it at a crossroads of intelligence gathering. The goal of the OSS Istanbul operation called Project Net-1 was to infiltrate and extenuate subversive action in the old Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires . The head of operations at OSS Istanbul
1896-734: The Far East and provided equipment for agents until American production was established. Writes Fink: William Casey , who headed up OSS's Europe-based human-intelligence operations, the Secret Intelligence Branch, and went on to become director of the CIA, wrote in his autobiography, The Secret War Against Hitler , that Ellis was not only writing blueprints but involved in on-the-ground, logistical programs: "Dick Ellis, [an] experienced British pro, helped establish training centres, mostly around Washington." United States Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle commented: "The really active head of
1975-723: The German authorities because of a double agent who worked for both the OSS and the Gestapo. This uncovered a transfer of money from the Americans to Vienna via Istanbul and Budapest, and most of the members were executed after a People's Court hearing. In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services set up operations in Istanbul. Turkey, as a neutral country during the Second World War, was a place where both
2054-592: The National Park Service to add the Headquarters complex to the National Register of Historic Places. At Camp X , near Whitby, Ontario , an "assassination and elimination" training program was operated by the British Special Operations Executive , assigning exceptional masters in the art of knife-wielding combat, such as William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes , to instruct trainees. Many members of
2133-519: The Nazis and their collaborators. Couriers and agents memorized information and produced analytical reports; when they were not able to memorize effectively they recorded information on microfilm and hid it in their shoes or hollowed pencils. Through this process information about the Nazi regime made its way to Macfarland and the OSS in Istanbul and eventually to Washington. While the OSS "Dogwood-chain" produced
2212-506: The OSS between the Army and the Navy. While explaining the purpose and mission of his department and introducing various gadgets and tools, he reportedly casually dropped into a waste basket a Hedy, a panic-inducing explosive device in the shape of a firecracker, which shortly produced a loud shrieking sound followed by a deafening boom. The presentation was interrupted and did not resume since everyone in
2291-555: The OSS during World War II . Julia Child , who later authored cookbooks, worked directly under Donovan. René Joyeuse M.D. , MS , FACS was a Swiss, French and American soldier, physician and researcher, who distinguished himself as an agent of Allied intelligence in German-occupied France during World War II. He received the US Army Distinguished Service Cross for his actions with the OSS, after
2370-503: The OSS employed almost 24,000 people. From 1943 to 1945, the OSS played a major role in training Kuomintang troops in China and Burma , and recruited Kachin and other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in Burma fighting the Japanese Army. Among other activities, the OSS helped arm, train, and supply resistance movements in areas occupied by
2449-602: The OSS operatives who put his techniques into action during World War II. Applegate was a proponent of the combat pistol shooting system outlined in Kill or Get Killed , which is based on point shooting with a strong emphasis on training for close-range, fast-response shooting. This system is somewhat at odds with another prominent system (developed and promoted by Jeff Cooper ) called the modern technique . Both systems have many supporters, with variants of Cooper's system being more commonly used. Supporters of Cooper's methods point to
Rex Applegate - Misplaced Pages Continue
2528-515: The OSS, after the expansion out of and away from COI, eventually found itself headquartered at a complex near 23rd Street and E Street in Washington, D.C. This complex was unassuming, appearing to be a mix of normal government offices and apartment buildings to nearby residents and office workers. It is known as the "Navy Hill Complex," "Potomac Hill Complex," and the " E Street Complex ." The OSS Society and State Department have engaged in efforts with
2607-760: The Office of Strategic Services also were trained there. It was dubbed "the school of mayhem and murder" by George Hunter White who trained at the facility in the 1940's. Beginning in January 1941, Colonel Millard Preston Goodfellow , creator and Director of the Special Operations Branch (at this time still known as SA/G within the COI), negotiated with the National Park Service to obtain three tracts of land to be dedicated as training camps for both SA/G and SA/B. In March, he assigned Garland H. Williams to be
2686-513: The Rockefeller Center". According to Thomas F. Troy, paraphrasing Stephenson, Ellis 'was the tradecraft expert, the organization man, the one who furnished Bill Donovan with charts and memoranda on running an intelligence organization". Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers and the existing US agencies were skeptical if not hostile to the British. Until some months after Pearl Harbor,
2765-481: The SAS and OSS during World War II. The development of this weapon began as a collaborative effort between Applegate and Fairbairn during the war. Applegate named his 10-inch (25 cm) double-edged knife the "Applegate-Fairbairn Combat Smatchet"; it was initially offered as a handmade knife by Bill Harsey, Jr., and later by Wells Creek Gun and Knife Works, and after that by Al Mar Knives . Following Mar's death, Böker Knives
2844-607: The Shanghai Municipal Police from 1907 to 1940. Fairbairn drew heavily on Chinese martial arts , which he simplified and tailored to the needs of police training in one of the world's most crime-ridden cities, due to its history of crime related to the opium trade, the rebellion , and the activities of Triad gangsters. His result was the development of Defendu , widely considered the first of what became known as modern combatives . Applegate's techniques are heavily based on Fairbairn's Defendu, enhanced with feedback from
2923-517: The State Department, the MI-8 , run by Herbert Yardley , had been shut down in 1929 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson , deeming it an inappropriate function for the diplomatic arm, because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail." ) The FBI was responsible for domestic security and anti-espionage operations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about American intelligence deficiencies. On
3002-576: The Training Director of these facilities. Commander N.G.A Woolley was loaned to COI by the British Navy and helped Donovan and Goodfellow to organize underwater training and craft landing. From these incipient beginnings, the Office of Strategic Services opened camps in the United States, and finally abroad. Prince William Forest Park (then known as Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area)
3081-426: The U.S. Army. For his achievements in training OSS personnel, Fairbairn was promoted eventually to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by the end of the war, and received the U.S. Legion of Merit (Officer grade) at the specific request of OSS-founder "Wild Bill" Donovan . After joining the SMP, he studied boxing , wrestling , savate , tenshinshinyo ry jiu jitsu from Okada-sensei, Kodokan judo in which he gained
3160-488: The US National Archives on August 14, 2008. Among the 24,000 names were those of Sterling Hayden , Milton Wolff , Carl C. Cable , Julia Child , Ralph Bunche , Arthur Goldberg , Saul K. Padover , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. , Bruce Sundlun , William Colby , René Joyeuse , and John Ford . The 750,000 pages in the 35,000 personnel files include applications of people who were not recruited or hired, as well as
3239-741: The United States and for Americans who enlisted in the OSS in the war zones. The most famous of the latter was Virginia Hall in France. The OSS's Mediterranean training center in Cairo, Egypt, known to many as the Spy School , was a lavish palace belonging to King Farouk's brother-in-law, called Ras el Kanayas . It was modeled after the SOE's training facility STS 102 in Haifa, Palestine. Americans whose heritage stemmed from Italy , Yugoslavia , and Greece were trained at
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3318-920: The base at the Gjefsjøen mountain farm, the group conducted successful railroad sabotages, with the intention of preventing the withdrawal of German forces from northern Norway. Operasjon Rype was the only U.S. operation on German-occupied Norwegian soil during WW2. The group consisted mainly of Norwegian Americans recruited from the 99th Infantry Battalion . Operasjon Rype was led by William Colby . The OSS sent four teams of two under Captain Stephen Vinciguerra (codename Algonquin , teams Alsace, Poissy, S&S and Student), with Operation Varsity in March 1945 to infiltrate and report from behind enemy lines, but none succeeded. Team S&S had two agents in Wehrmacht uniforms and
3397-498: The blueprint. Said Ellis: I was soon requested to draft a blueprint for an American intelligence agency, the equivalent of BSC [British Security Co-ordination] and based on these British wartime improvisations... detailed tables of organisation were disclosed to Washington... among these were the organisational tables that led to the birth of General William Donovan's OSS. After submitting his (and Ellis's) work, "Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information", Donovan
3476-555: The bulk of OSS intelligence came from the UK. British Security Co-ordination (BSC), under the direction of Ellis, trained the first OSS agents in Canada, until training stations were set up in the US with guidance from BSC instructors, who also provided information on how the SOE was arranged and managed. The British immediately made available their short-wave broadcasting capabilities to Europe, Africa, and
3555-404: The close of World War II, Applegate spent the next 15 years as an advisor to the government of Mexico who made him an "Honorary General". Applegate was friends with actor John Wayne and in addition to teaching Wayne how to shoot, Applegate served as a technical advisor on the set of The Alamo . Applegate was said to be the source and inspiration for several of Ian Fleming 's characters in
3634-774: The core of the Research & Development Branch. Boston chemist Stanley P. Lovell became its first head, and Donovan humorously called him his " Professor Moriarty ". Throughout the war years, the OSS Research & Development successfully adapted Allied weapons and espionage equipment, and produced its own line of novel spy tools and gadgets, including silenced pistols, lightweight sub-machine guns, " Beano " grenades that exploded upon impact, explosives disguised as lumps of coal ("Black Joe") or bags of Chinese flour ("Aunt Jemima"), acetone time delay fuses for limpet mines , compasses hidden in uniform buttons, playing cards that concealed maps,
3713-531: The duration of World War II , the Office of Strategic Services was conducting multiple activities and missions, including collecting intelligence by spying, performing acts of sabotage , waging propaganda war, organizing and coordinating anti-Nazi resistance groups in Europe, and providing military training for anti-Japanese guerrilla movements in Asia, among other things. At the height of its influence during World War II,
3792-510: The forefathers of today's commandos was Navy Lieutenant Jack Taylor . He was sequestered by the OSS early in the war and had a long career behind enemy lines. Taro and Mitsu Yashima , both Japanese political dissidents who were imprisoned in Japan for protesting its militarist regime, worked for the OSS in psychological warfare against the Japanese Empire. Nisei linguists In late 1943,
3871-466: The ground to establish secure contact with a plane that was preparing to land or drop cargo. The OSS Research & Development also printed fake German and Japanese-issued identification cards, and various passes, ration cards, and counterfeit money. On August 28, 1943, Stanley Lovell was asked to make a presentation in front of a hostile Joint Chiefs of Staff , who were skeptical of OSS plans beyond collecting military intelligence and were ready to split
3950-404: The historic Applegate House property. In 1943 he wrote Kill or Get Killed , which is still considered a classic manual of Western-style hand-to-hand combat . The updated 1976 edition of Kill or Get Killed was published by the US Marine Corps as Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication 12-80. From the foreword: Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-80, Kill or Get Killed ,
4029-483: The intelligence section in [William] Donovan's [OSS] group is [Ellis] ... in other words, [Stephenson's] assistant in the British intelligence [sic] is running Donovan's intelligence service." The Office of Strategic Services was established by a Presidential military order issued by President Roosevelt on June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct special operations not assigned to other agencies. During
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#17328805592214108-410: The major leagues. As a Secret Intelligence agent, he was dispatched to seek information on German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his knowledge on the atomic bomb . One of the most highly decorated and flamboyant OSS soldiers was US Marine Colonel Peter Ortiz . Enlisting early in the war, as a French Foreign Legionnaire , he went on to join the OSS and to be the most highly decorated US Marine in
4187-551: The near-universal use of his system in the International Practical Shooting Confederation and other forms of action shooting , while Applegate's supporters point to police incidents where officers trained in Cooper's methods discharge many rounds at close range (most measured in tens of feet (3 m) or less) with few (if any) disabling hits. The last years of Applegate's life were spent promoting his combat-pistol-shooting methods to police agencies. Applegate co-wrote The Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate (with Chuck Melson), and
4266-447: The necessity of forgetting any idea of gentlemanly conduct or fighting fair: "Get tough, get down in the gutter, win at all costs... I teach what is called 'Gutter Fighting.' There's no fair play, no rules except one: kill or be killed ," he declared. One of his pupils was Raymond Westerling , who fought behind enemy lines in Burma and Indonesia . In 1941, he appeared in a training movie titled "Unarmed Combat", demonstrating many of
4345-437: The operations in Switzerland run by Allen Dulles that provided extensive information on German strength, air defenses , submarine production, and the V-1 and V-2 weapons. It revealed some of the secret German efforts in chemical and biological warfare . Switzerland's station also supported resistance fighters in France , Austria and Italy , and helped with the surrender of German forces in Italy in 1945. For
4424-480: The papers before returning them the following January, but there is no record of Arlington Hall receiving them, and CIA and NSA archives have no surviving copies. This codebook was in fact used as part of the Venona decryption effort, which helped uncover large-scale Soviet espionage in North America. RYPE was the codename of the airborne unit who was dropped in the Norwegian mountains of Snåsa on March 24, 1945 to carry out sabotage actions behind enemy lines. From
4503-429: The program and build up the dive element for the organization. His responsibilities included training and developing methods of combining self-contained diving and swimmer delivery including the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit for the OSS "Operational Swimmer Group". Growing involvement of the OSS with coastal infiltration and water-based sabotage eventually led to creation of the OSS Maritime Unit . The bulk of
4582-405: The room fled. In reality, the Hedy, jokingly named after Hollywood movie star Hedy Lamarr for her ability to distract men, later saved the lives of some trapped OSS operatives. Not all projects worked. Some ideas were odd, such as a failed attempt to use insects to spread anthrax in Spain. Stanley Lovell was later quoted saying, "It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid
4661-522: The service records of those who served. OSS soldiers were primarily inducted from the United States Armed Forces . Other members included foreign nationals including displaced individuals from the former czarist Russia, an example being Prince Serge Obolensky . Donovan sought independent thinkers, and in order to bring together those many intelligent, quick-witted individuals who could think out-of-the box, he chose them from all walks of life, backgrounds, without distinction to culture or religion. Donovan
4740-514: The strikes, holds and throws of Defendu, for use by the Home Guard, Commandos, and military services. This training movie was narrated by actor David Niven , who had joined the Commandos early in the war, and was trained by Fairbairn himself. In 1942, Fairbairn appeared, again uncredited, in an OSS training movie titled "OSS Training Center", directed by John Ford . Fairbairn again demonstrated unarmed combat, and also his version of " Point Shooting ", later adopted and refined by Rex Applegate for use by
4819-426: The subjects of unarmed combat (offensive and defensive), combat use of weapons, disarming the enemy, handling of prisoners, the handle of mob/crowd disobedience, the use of chemicals in such situations, and how to establish a professional riot control unit. Applegate developed the techniques outlined in the book during his work with William E. Fairbairn , who had previously developed his own techniques while working for
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#17328805592214898-607: The suggestion of William Stephenson , the senior British intelligence officer in the western hemisphere, Roosevelt requested that William J. Donovan draft a plan for an intelligence service based on the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Special Operations Executive (SOE). Donovan envisioned a single agency responsible for foreign intelligence and special operations involving commandos , disinformation , partisan and guerrilla activities. Donovan worked closely with Australian-born British intelligence officer Charles Howard 'Dick' Ellis , who has been credited with writing
4977-465: The war he became a Physician, Researcher and was a co-founder of The American Trauma Society. "Jumping Joe" Savoldi (code name Sampson) was recruited by the OSS in 1942 because of his hand-to-hand combat and language skills as well as his deep knowledge of the Italian geography and Benito Mussolini's compound. He was assigned to the Special Operations Branch and took part in missions in North Africa, Italy, and France during 1943–1945. One of
5056-400: The war, however unorthodox or untried". In 1939, a young physician named Christian J. Lambertsen developed an oxygen rebreather set (the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit ) and demonstrated it to the OSS—after already being rejected by the U.S. Navy—in a pool at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C., in 1942. The OSS not only bought into the concept, they hired Lambertsen to lead
5135-447: The war, the OSS supplied policymakers with facts and estimates, but the OSS never had jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence activities. The FBI was left responsible for intelligence work in Latin America, and the Army and Navy continued to develop and rely on their own sources of intelligence. OSS proved especially useful in providing a worldwide overview of the German war effort, its strengths and weaknesses. In direct operations it
5214-405: Was a British soldier and police officer. He developed hand-to-hand combat methods for the Shanghai Police during the interwar period , as well as for the Allied special forces during World War II. He created his own fighting system known as Defendu . Notably, this included innovative pistol shooting techniques and the development of the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife . Fairbairn served with
5293-412: Was a banker from Chicago named Lanning "Packy" Macfarland, who maintained a cover story as a banker for the American lend-lease program . Macfarland hired Alfred Schwarz, an Austrian businessman (* 25. April 1904 in Prostějov , Austria-Hungary ; † 13. August 1988 in Lucerne , Switzerland ) who came to be known as "Dogwood" and ended up establishing the Dogwood information chain. Dogwood in turn hired
5372-404: Was a founding member of the International Close Combat Instructors Association. In the early 1980s, Applegate released a design called the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife (a modified version of the World War II Fairbairn-Sykes knife). The new knife's design was a collaborative effort by Applegate and Fairbairn during World War II, eliminating the major weaknesses of the F-S knife (among them
5451-481: Was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II . The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces . Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion , and post-war planning. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors,
5530-504: Was appointed "Coordinator of Information" on July 11, 1941, heading the new organization known as the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). Ellis, described as Donovan's "right-hand man", "effectively ran the organization". Writes Fink: Ellis was sent from New York by William Stephenson "to Washington to open a sub-station to facilitate daily liaison with Donovan, who reciprocated by sending [future Director of Central Intelligence, DCI] Allen Welsh Dulles to liaise with BSC in
5609-424: Was commissioned with the General List in 1941. Fairbairn and Sykes were both commissioned as second lieutenants on 15 July 1940. He trained British, American and Canadian Commandos and No. 2 Dutch Troop 10th Inter-Allied Commando forces , US Rangers candidates, and personnel of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), mainly for close-combat, pistol-shooting and knife-fighting techniques. Fairbairn emphasised
5688-584: Was licensed to produce it. Applegate later had Harsey design a "Mini-Smatchet" (with a 4.75-inch (12.1 cm) blade) which was produced by Boker. Applegate was inducted into the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 1994 Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia in recognition of the impact his designs have made upon the cutlery industry and for his writings on knife fighting. Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services ( OSS )
5767-768: Was modeled after Great Britain's Special Operations Executive , which included parachute, sabotage, self-defense, weapons, and leadership training to support guerrilla or partisan resistance. Considered most mysterious of all was the "cloak and dagger" Secret Intelligence, or SI branch. Secret Intelligence employed "country estates as schools for introducing recruits into the murky world of espionage. Thus, it established Training Areas E and RTU-11 ("the Farm") in spacious manor houses with surrounding horse farms." Morale Operations training included psychological warfare and propaganda. The Congressional Country Club (Area F) in Bethesda, Maryland ,
5846-482: Was quoted as saying, "I'd rather have a young lieutenant with enough guts to disobey a direct order than a colonel too regimented to think for himself." In a matter of a few short months, he formed an organization which equalled and then rivalled Great Britain's Secret Intelligence Service and its Special Operations Executive . Donovan, inspired by Britain's SOE, assembled an outstanding group of clinical psychologists to carry out evaluations of potential OSS candidates at
5925-504: Was responsible for training German and Austrian individuals for missions inside Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists and Socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi prisoners-of-war, and German and Jewish refugees. The OSS also recruited and ran one of the war's most important spies, the German diplomat Fritz Kolbe . From 1943 the OSS was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around Kaplan Heinrich Maier . As
6004-460: Was shortly thereafter shut down. The OSS purchased Soviet code and cipher material (or Finnish information on them) from émigré Finnish army officers in late 1944. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. , protested that this violated an agreement President Roosevelt made with the Soviet Union not to interfere with Soviet cipher traffic from the United States. General Donovan might have copied
6083-535: Was successful in supporting Operation Torch in French North Africa in 1942, where it identified pro-Allied potential supporters and located landing sites. OSS operations in neutral countries, especially Stockholm , Sweden , provided in-depth information on German advanced technology. The Madrid station set up agent networks in France that supported the Allied invasion of southern France in 1944. Most famous were
6162-594: Was the primary OSS training facility. The Facilities of the Catalina Island Marine Institute at Toyon Bay on Santa Catalina Island , Calif. , are composed (in part) of a former OSS survival training camp. The National Park Service commissioned a study of OSS National Park training facilities by Professor John Chambers of Rutgers University. The main OSS training camps abroad were located initially in Great Britain, French Algeria, and Egypt; later as
6241-540: Was the site of an OSS training camp that operated from 1942 to 1945. Area "C", consisting of approximately 6,000 acres (24 km ), was used extensively for communications training, whereas Area "A" was used for training some of the OGs (Operational Groups). Catoctin Mountain Park , now the location of Camp David , was the site of OSS training Area "B" where the first Special Operations, or SO, were trained. Special Operations
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