DW was naturally gregarious, and had made a wide circle of influential contacts when writing his war papers.
He widened these considerably when he became a junior officer - for DW's account of how this happened, click here.
DW frequently received lunches from, or gave lunches to both the 'top brass' and to his colleagues in other sections, and in the course of these he would convert unbelievers to LCS's cause. As DW recalled in his memoirs, he would sometimes come back and lie down for an hour in Attlee's or Beaverbrook's bedroom to sleep it off - having arranged for a colleague to wake him up if there was an urgent call.
On New Years Eve 1942/3, DW threw a big party in the basement restaurant at Chatsworth Court, to which a large number of the 'top brass' came, including 'Pug' Ismay, Jack Slessor and various other Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals. They were regaled with some of the wine, foie gras and other luxury items that DW had wisely laid in before the war.
Bevan was away at the time and Ronald Wingate was temporarily in charge. As the party drew to a close at around 3 a.m., Wingate drew DW to one side and gave him another job - Roosevelt and Churchill were going to the Casablanca conference, and DW was to draw up the initial plans to stop anyone suspecting that anything unusual was going on.
To read more about this, click here
References : The Deception Planners pp 29-30,61-2, 109-111.
Phil Baker pp 420 - 421.
Tina Rosenberg Chapter 7
