The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley in World War II: a supplement

The origins of British war-time Deception ...

Allenby

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Wavell

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One of the telegrams Wavell sent Churchill urging
on the latter the merits of strategic deception', and
(right) Churchill refers the matter to his military
Assistant 'Pug' Ismay for action

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Dudley Clarke (left) and Peter Fleming (right)

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Unbeknownst to DW, while he was writing his War Papers, important developments were taking place in the field of Strategic Deception.

In World War One, General Allenby in particular had used Deception to great effect in his Palestinian campaign. On one occasion he arranged for a large number of camels to be ridden into the desert on the Turkish flank, creating huge clouds of dust and leading the Turks to believe they were being encircled. Allenby then made a totally unexpected and successful attack to their front.

On another occasion - and in something of a foretaste for 'The Man Who Never Was' - the Turks were allowed in the so-called 'Haversack Ruse' to capture a blood-stained haversack containing documents which hinted that, rather than attack Beersheba, Allenby was about to mount a sea attack on Gaza. An intensive bombardment of Gaza then followed which convinced the Turks that Gaza was Allenby's main objective, thus allowing Allenby to take Beersheba with ease.

Recalling these success by his mentor Lord Allenby, in November 1940, and while DW was busy writing his civilian War Papers, General (later to become Field Marshal) Wavell, who was now Commander-in-Chief of Middle East Command, had the already proven (Dudley had already been Military Assistant to a Chief of Imperial General Staff) but idiosyncratic soldier Dudley Clarke sent out to him in the Middle East to assist with Deception.

So effective were Dudley Clarke with his 'A Force' that a little under a year later in October 1941, Wavell sent Clarke back to London to brief the Chiefs of Staff on his successes, as a result of which Oliver Stanley was charged with setting up a small team to carry out these activities as an addition to his other responsibilities in London.

Later on, Wavell was to get travel-writer and adventurer Peter Fleming (the elder brother of Ian Fleming of later James Bond fame) to carry out similar activities for him in the Far East.

As can be seen from two of the Exhibits, as late as May 1942, a few months after DW had been put into uniform, Wavell was continuing to urge Churchill to put something really effective along these lines at the heart of the War effort.

For DW's word profiles of Dudley Clarke and of Peter Fleming, click here.

References : 'The Deception Planners' Chapter 1.

'Not in the Limelight' by Sir Ronald Wingate, pp 189-192.

Provenance : Photos regarding Wavell advocating the importance of Deception courtesy of The National Archives [AIR 20/3693]