My Crime Beat Column: The Secret War Of James Bond's Creator, Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming often told friends that he planned to write "the spy story to end all spy stories."

And Fleming, true to his word, went on to create the world's best known fictional secret agent, James Bond.

I was first introduced to James Bond at a South Philadelphia movie theater in 1963. I was 11-years-old when I saw Sean Connery's first portrayal of Bond in Dr No and the film inspired me to read Fleming's darker, more complex James Bond thrillers. I've been a Fleming aficionado ever since.

I'm certainly not alone. According to a recent Conde Nast survey, since Casino Royale, Fleming's first Bond thriller, was published in 1953, Bond has generated nearly $14 billion from the book, movies and video games, making Bond one of the most lucrative fictional characters in history.

The Bond novels and films also inspired the spy mania throughout the 1960s, generating a great influx of spy films, novels, TV programs, toys and gadgets, as well as sparking a public interest in the true world of espionage.

In addition to my enjoyment of fictional spies a teenager, I also became an avid student of espionage. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 17 and performed security work as a young sailor and later as a Defense Department civilian employee. As a writer, I've covered espionage for newspapers, magazines and Internet publications.

As the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is breaking box office records, I thought I should cover Ian Fleming's World War II experience in the field of espionage.

As a teenager I read John Pearson's biography of Fleming and discovered that he led an interesting life as a journalist, a thriller writer, and as a British naval intelligence officer during World War II.

In addition to working on operations, taking covert trips around the world and performing liaison work with British and American intelligence agencies, Royal Navy Commander Fleming was also instrumental in the creation of a crack team of naval intelligence-gathering ccommandos called the 30 Assault Unit.

Craig Cabell, a British journalist and author who has previously written books on Frederick Forsyth and Dennis Wheatly, used recently released documents, private papers and interviews to present a clearer picture of Fleming's wartime service in Ian Fleming's Secret War (Pen & Sword).

Cabell writes that Fleming was at the center of wartime events and met key figures like Sir William Stephenson and General William "Wild Bill" Donovan.

I contacted Cabell and asked him asked him about Fleming's service.

"Fleming was the personal assistant to the British director of naval intelligence, Rear Admiral John Godfrey, but he managed to do a little more than just his day job, Cabell told me. "He got in early enough in the morning to do all his basic admin duties and worked late into the evening. Fleming's formation of 30 Assault Unit was a major war contribution, and I feel that Fleming had more than a passing knowledge of Hess' infamous flight to the U.K."

Cabell told me that Fleming wanted to see action, but Admiral Godfrey would not allow him, as Fleming was his right-hand man, almost a confidant, and he knew far too much to be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

"Fleming understood that he was desk bound," Cabell said. "But with 30 Assault Unit (30 AU), his brain child, he could be their man at base, filtering intelligence to them, administrating the returns and sticking up for them when they were criticized. They, on the other hand, would do much good on his behalf."

"Admiral Godfey was the model for "M," clearly," Cabell said. "M and Godfrey served aboard the smae Royal Navy ship and enjoyed the smae wine. And Lt. Commander Patrick Dalzel-Job, a 30 AU member, was the real inspiration for Bond; well, at least partly."

According to Dalzel-Job's obit in the Guardian, "He could ski backwards, navigate a midget submarine and undertake the riskiest parachute jumps. His WWII exploits are the epitome of derring-do behind enemy lines ... and like Bond, he sometimes defied authority."

In my view, Fleming created Bond with 30AU commandos like Dalzel-Job and secret agents like Sidney Reilly in mind, but he also added what he called his own "quirks and characteristics" to his famous character.

Cabell said that 30 AU recovered enemy documentation and equipment, took prisoners, interrogated them, and then got the information home to Fleming.

"The 30 AU discovered much intelligence about u-boats, locations of German naval bases around the world, radar and codes and, most importantly - as far as I'm concerned - the locations and filtering of intelligence concerning V rocket sites, which must have assisted operations "Cross Bow," "Big Ben" and "Paperclip" in a major way," Cabell explained.

The unit was not popular with everyone, including General George S. Patton, the commander of the U.S. Third Army, who called the 30 AU commandos "Limey gangsters" after they blew a bank vault as part of one operation.

"30 AU looked like a bunch of rebels and Patton wasn't very happy with that," Cabell said. "The fact that they didn't wear their helmets annoyed him to hell. The 30 AU veterans i met were very proud of that quote."

"I love the veterans and I feel proud to have met them," Cabell continued. "They were very proud of Fleming's input into the unit and gave him credit for providing them with the very best equipment. They said that he looked after them even though it was only the officers who met him."

Cabell said that Fleming's service gave him a solid intelligence background, which he later used in his thrillers. Cabell said that there are isolated incidents ina ll the early books, especially Moonraker, where Fleming wrote about the original V rockets and a 30 AU connection.

Cabell's book is a must for Fleming aficionados and for students of espionage.

Note: The above column originally appeared at Greathistory.com.           

My Crime Beat Column: A Look Back At Ian Fleming's Iconic James Bond Character

In 1963 an impressionable 11-year-old boy attended a Saturday afternoon showing of Dr No at the Colonial movie theater in South Philadelphia. I've been an admirer of Ian Fleming (seen in the below photo) ever since that initial film viewing.

The first nine books in my now extensive library were Fleming's and many of my lifelong interests such as travel, crime and espionage were all sparked by Fleming. As a teenager, I was fascinated by Fleming’s use of exotic locales, women and villains in the stories.

Many years later, I was thrilled to have been able to spend a week with my wife at Goldeneye, Fleming’s villa in Oracabessa, Jamaica. Fleming wrote all of the James Bond novels at this cliff top villa that overlooks the Caribbean Sea.

Fleming had steps carved out of the cliff, which lead down to a private beach and a small cave. Like Fleming, I went free diving in the cove, and I worked at Fleming’s original Jamaican Blue Mahoe writing desk.

The staff at the villa included a wonderful woman named Violet, who was Fleming’s original housekeeper, and Ramsey, who worked for Ian Fleming when he was a teenager. The Jamaicans knew Fleming as "the Commander," his naval rank when he first visited Jamaica.

When I asked Violet about Fleming, she had tears in her eyes when she replied, "The Commander was a good man."

It was truly a dream vacation for a Fleming aficionado.

As an aficionado, I was quite pleased to discover that Penguin’s Modern Classics re-released the complete set of 14 James Bond novels in April, marking the fiftieth anniversary of one of fiction's most enduring characters. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first James Bond thriller, was completed in 1952, the year I was born, and published in 1953.

In the publishing of the Fleming novels in hardback, paperback and Audi book, Penguin praised Fleming’s work, noting that the novels were immediately recognized as classic thrillers by his contemporaries Kingsley Amis, Raymond Chandler and John Betjeman.

"Fleming was able to peer beyond the Cold War limitations of mere spy fiction and to anticipate the emerging milieu of the Colombian cartels, Osama bin Laden and, indeed the Russian Mafia, as well as the nightmarish idea that some such fanatical freelance megalomaniac would eventually collar some weapons-grade plutonium," Christopher Hitchens wrote in his introduction to the newly released novels.

With the books back in print, my hope is that they will gain a new generation of readers who only know the James Bond character from the hugely successful film series. The twentieth Bond film will be coming out this November.

Although I loved Sean Connery’s portrayal of James Bond in the early films, the series has sadly transformed from thrillers with a few humorous asides to action-comedies and later turned to camp and self-parody. After Roger Moore finally gave up the role to Timothy Dalton, and then to Pierce Brosnan, the films have thankfully returned somewhat to being thrillers.

It seems to me that with each film after Goldfinger the producers tried to top the previous Bond film in stunts, gadgetry and outlandishness. Like most of Fleming’s faithful readers, I wish the films had followed the novels more closely. The books, which have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, have little connection to the current James Bond films other than the use of the character. To many who only know the films, James Bond is no better than a comic book character.

Ian Lancaster Fleming often told friends that he was going to write "the spy story to end all spy stories."

He was born in London, England on May 28th in 1908. Fleming’s father, Major Valentine Fleming, was killed in France in 1917 during the First World War shortly before Ian’s ninth birthday.

Fleming attended Eton, Sandhurst and the Universities of Geneva and Munich. In his twenties, he worked as a correspondent for Reuters News Agency and he was dispatched to the Soviet Union in 1933 to cover the famous spy trial of six British engineers who worked for Metropolitan-Vickers.

He later worked as a stockbroker until the start of WWII when he became the personal assistant to the director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey. Royal Navy Commander Ian Fleming worked out of Room 39 at the Admiralty for the course of the war.

Fleming accompanied Godfrey to the U.S. to establish closer relations and he met with J. Edgar Hoover and William Stephenson, who was "The Man Called Intrepid." He visited Camp X in Canada where allied spies and commandos were being trained. Much of his wartime experience would find their way into his books.

On another naval intelligence mission in 1942 he ventured to Jamaica to meet with his American counterparts over concerns about German U-Boat in the Caribbean. He fell in love with the tropical island and bought an old donkey racetrack and built a house there he called Goldeneye.

After the war, Fleming returned to journalism and became the foreign manager for the London Sunday Times. A long-time bachelor and "womanizer" like his James Bond character, he finally married Ann O’ Neill. He often told reporters that he wrote the books to get over the shock of getting married at the age of 42.

Each year he spent the months of January and February at Goldeneye, where he wrote that year’s James Bond novel.

Not that it matters, as Ian Fleming himself wrote in the introduction to From Russia With Love, but much of the background material in his books was accurate.

He was a journalist and intelligence officer before he became a novelist, so his books contain a good deal of what he called "incidental intelligence."

From the practices of voodoo in Live and Let Die, to genealogy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, his books explained in detail a wide variety of subjects. He also richly described places, products and events, which added authentic touches to his stories.

Although Fleming has been criticized for creating unbelievable villains like Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Dr. No, one should stop and consider real life villains Martin Bormann, Al Capone, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein.

Or consider Manuel Noriega, a tin-pot dictator who was involved in international drug operations, believed in witchcraft and wore red bikini underwear for protection from his enemies.

Top that, Mr. Goldfinger.

In a 1964 Playboy magazine interview, Fleming said that Bond was a man of action, a cipher, and simply a blunt instrument in the hands of the government. But Fleming also infused the character with some of his own "quirks and characteristics."

He said he wanted Bond to be entirely an anonymous instrument and let the action of the book carry him along. He wanted the character to more or less follow the pattern of Raymond Chandler’s or Dashiell Hammett’s heroes – believable people, believable heroes.

"He’s sort of an amalgam of romantic tough guys, dressed in 20th Century clothes, using 20th Century language," Fleming told Playboy. "More true to the type of commandos and secret service men than to the heroes of ancient thrillers."

The double O license to kill was a fictional device to make Bond’s job more interesting. He said he got the idea of the double O from the Admiralty, which at the beginning of the war used the double O prefix on all of its top-secret signals.

Bond battled SMERSH, which was a contraction of Smert Shpionam, meaning Death to Spies. SMERSH was a real Soviet counterintelligence group that hunted and executed anti-Soviet spies during WWII.

In the later books Bond took on SPECTRE – The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. SPECTRE was an international crime organization that contained elements of SMERSH, the Gestapo and international organized crime groups.

He readily admitted his plots were fantastic, yet he said they were often based on the real world of intelligence. He noted that on occasion a news story would "lift a corner of the veil" and reveal the real world of spies and commandos.

Fleming made note of the case of the Russian assassin Captain Nikoly Khokhlov, who came equipped with an electrically operated gun fitted with a silencer and concealed in a gold cigarette case. The gun fired bullets tipped in cyanide, which might lead a pathologist to rule the cause of death to be heart failure.

"I can trace most of the central incidents in my books to real happenings," Fleming wrote in a magazine article. "The line between fact and fiction is a very narrow one."

Fleming would often dismiss his books as mere entertainment, but he also said that thrillers may not be "literature with a capital L," but it was possible to write what he described as "thrillers designed to be read as literature."

He went on to say that the practitioners of this form have included Edgar Allen Poe, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. He said he saw nothing shameful in his aiming as high as that.

Fleming died in August of 1964 when he was 56. He did not live to see the film Goldfinger, which was released later that year. He died of a heart attack, which his character Darko Kerim in the novel From Russia With Love described as "the Iron Crab."

Fleming died, as he thought he would, from living too much, and from living too well.

Most photos of Ian Fleming show him in the last years of his life, but I’ve always liked an earlier photo of him, where he is standing in his Royal Navy uniform before a fireplace in Room 39 at the Admiralty.

In this photo (see below) he is young and handsome, with dark hair and a cold sardonic look on his face. He looks like an awful lot like his character James Bond.

For more information on Ian Fleming, you can read "The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson and Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond by Andrew Lycett.

And course you must read the James Bond novels:

Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia With Love
Dr No
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only
Thunderball
The Spy Who Loved Me
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man With The Golden Gun
Octopussy and The Living Daylight

Note: The above column originally appeared in the Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine in 2002.

The Real Reason Ian Fleming Wrote 'Casino Royale,' The First James Bond Thriller

Andrew Lycett, the author of good biograhy of Ian Fleming, offers a piece on huffingtonpost.com on why Fleming wrote the first James Bond thriller.

Ian Fleming's mind was a jumble of conflicting thoughts and emotions when he sat down to his first draft of Casino Royale in Jamaica in February 1952.

He liked to joke that he finally got round to writing his first James Bond novel because he needed something to take his mind off his impending marriage to Ann, the striking dark-haired aristocratic woman with whom he had an on-off affair for over a decade, and who had recently divorced her second husband, Lord Rothermere, owner of the powerful Daily Mail newspaper.

But this was a typical Fleming flim-flam. He had been talking for several years about his desire to write the 'spy novel to end all spy novels'. But his attention had simply drifted in other directions.

After hostilities ended, he had been recruited as Foreign Manager of another London-based newspaper, the Sunday Times, a job that required him to build up a network of foreign correspondents, not so different from the agents with whom he liaised when he was the influential war-time Personal Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey.

In that earlier job, he had been Godfrey's gate-keeper in Room 39 of the Admiralty. He dealt directly with MI6 and the other secret services on behalf of his boss. He saw agents going to and returning from the field. He played a major role in liaising on intelligence matters with President Roosevelt's special enjoy, Colonel "Wild" Bill Donovan, whom he visited in Washington in the summer of 1941 and helped draw up guidelines for the combined US intelligence agency which would later become the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and then the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). One of his memos detailing the ideal American agent seems in retrospect to anticipate the qualities of James Bond. Donovan later presented him with a .38 Colt Police Positive revolver inscribed "For Special Services."

Fleming was essentially a bureaucrat during the war. But, being an imaginative man (he had written poetry in his youth), he could not help thinking about a more active role as a secret agent.

Before James Bond could make his first appearance at Royale Les Eaux in Casino Royale, however, Fleming had to get his own life in order. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-lycett/ian-fleming-book_b_4024547.html

You can also read my column on Ian Fleming and James Bond via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

A Look Back At Ian Fleming's 1964 Memorial Service

As Ian Fleming died on this day in 1964, I was pleased to come across Fleming's good friend William Plomer's address at Fleming's memorial service.

Thanks to the web site Spyvibe, one can read what Plomer said about Ian Fleming at the service:

Only since his death has it begun to be more generally understood that he had done well in several different careers, and that he was a character of some complexity. But those who were at school with him, or who used to work with him in the City, or in Reuters, or in the Admiralty, or in the newspaper world, who had watched him creating his original and important library, or who saw him enjoying life in Jamaica, or who at any time travelled or played cards or golf with him, can confirm that he was a man who touched life at many points. And how many men can one say of him, not only that he had much to give but gave all he had got? One is reminded of James Bond's saying: "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

... from 1939, seven years of his life were absorbed by his work in the Naval Intelligence Division. Just before the War, Admiral Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence, who had long shown a more elastic understanding of the world and of his own profession than was likely to be discernible in more conventional sailors, recruited Ian from the City. This was on the recommendation of no lesser persons than Sir Edward Peacock and Sir Montague Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England.

It wasn't only his quick and resourceful brain that Ian brought to the service of his country, but administrative ability. He was an unfailing source of brilliant and constructive ideas, and he had the faculty of knowing how to apply them in a practical way. Also, in a service traditionally silent, and sometimes tongue-tied, he was notably articulate both in conversation and on paper; and, like most capable officers, he felt that there were times when the risk of giving offense was nothing compared with the importance of being, if necessary, blunt. He was never ready to defer to pomposity, incompetence and red tape. As right-hand man to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Ian was inevitably tied down to the Admiralty, but he did make a number of necessary sorties, with or without his chief.  No doubt it was his anxiety to take his own share in active service (though his own kind of service could hardly be called inactive) that caused Admiral Godfrey to send him to sea as an observer during the assault on Dieppe, with strict instructions to take care that he didn't get lost in France. 

I wish to emphasize, because it may not be fully understood even among many who knew him, or thought they knew him, that long before he began to write his first book, Ian was one of those whose services to his country, during those menacing years, made it possible for us to survive and to be here together indulging in reminiscence today. That may seem to you too obvious a remark, a kind of memorial cliche, but it isn't. When I was lately talking over with Admiral Godfrey the nature of Ian's wartime services, he summed it all up in a most memorable phrase, better I think than any laurel wreath or shining medal. "Ian," he said, "was a war-winner."

You can read the rest of the address via the below link:

http://spyvibe.blogspot.com/2013/08/ian-fleming-memorial-service.html   

Ian Fleming, Creator Of James Bond, Died On This Day In 1964

On this day in 1964 Ian Fleming, the great thriller writer and creator of the iconic character James Bond, died in England. He was 56.

You can read more about Ian Fleming at his web site http://www.ianfleming.com/ian-fleming/

You can also read my column on Ian Fleming and James Bond via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

And you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming's World War II service as a naval intelligence officer and his creation of the commando group the 30 Assault Unit via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html    

An Officer And A Gentleman: Actor Dominic Cooper Appears As James Bond Creator Ian Fleming In Film Bio

The British newspaper the Daily Mail offers photographs of actor Dominic Cooper as he portrays James Bond author Ian Fleming, who served in British Naval Intelligence during World War II, for a film bio. (The real Commander Ian Fleming can be seen in the above photo).

You can read the piece and view the photos of Cooper as Fleming via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2352000/Former-Mama-Mia-star-Dominic-Cooper-looks-smart-smouldering-films-007-creator-Ian-Fleming-biopic.html?ito=feeds-newsxml 

And you can watch a trailer of the series  via the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCkRIk1oAuA

And you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming's World War II experiences via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos4.jpg

Identity Of Double Agent Killed By MI6 in WWII Revealed: How Ian Fleming Helped Cover Up Secret That Stayed Buried For 70 years

 

Kerry McDermott at the British newspaper the Daily Mail offers a piece that reveals a secret from War World II.

Foreign Office files kept secret for more than 70 years have revealed details of how Mi6 kidnapped and killed a French double agent during World War Two - and ordered the creator of James Bond to help them cover it up.

In July 1941 British Intelligence learned that 'deeply trusted' Captain Pierre Lablache-Combier - a Royal Navy commander recruited by MI6 and posted to Spain - had divulged secrets to the Nazi-backed French Vichy government. 

James Bond writer Ian Fleming (seen in the above photo) - then a Naval Intelligence officer - issued an official report stating the officer was 'missing believed drowned'. In fact, the 'complete double-crosser' was killed as Secret Service operatives scrambled to smuggle him out of Spain.  

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330825/Identity-double-agent-killed-MI6-WWII-revealed-newly-released-files.html

Filming Fleming: A Look Back At The Film Bios Of James Bond Creator Ian Fleming

MI6, the James Bond web site, not the British intelligence agency, offers an interesting look back at three film biographies of thriller writer Ian Fleming.

Naval commander, stockbroker, journalist, author, and bon vivant are just some of the words that can be used to describe Ian Fleming. With his birth on May 28, 1908, the world was certainly introduced to a unique individual whose total life experiences, it could be argued, were leading up to the creation of master spy James Bond. But, who really was Ian Fleming? Since the 007 phenomenon began sixty years ago it has been fashionable for critics and fans alike to proclaim that Fleming was James Bond and James Bond was Ian Fleming. However, the threads of Fleming's real life are layered and complex and this assessment has since been proven to be not so cut and dried.

What was real and what has since been embellished? Since his death on August 12, 1964, three movies Goldeneye, Spymaker, and Age of Heroes have attempted to answer these questions by focusing on different aspects and times within his life. While these films may be of mixed quality and merit, together they show how Fleming's all-too-short life and work can be ably juxtaposed with the timeless character he created.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/history_fleming_on_film.php3?t=&s=&id=03437

 

I have not yet seen Age of Heroes, but I interviewed two authors who wrote about Fleming's creation and involvement with the World War II commando group 30 Assault Unit, and they didn't think much of the film.

 

I recall not liking Spymaster very much, as the filmmakers put in a lot of fiction in an attempt to make Fleming out to be a James Bond character. Goldeneye, not to be confused with the James Bond film also named Goldeneye, was a fine film and I liked Charles Dance as Fleming.

 

Fleming, in my view, is as interesting a character as his fictional creation. Fleming was a womanizer like Bond and he traveled the world and saw and did interesting things as a journalist before and after World War II and during the war as a naval intelligence officer. These experiences allowed him to write authentically about crime and espionage.

 

I look forward to the new Fleming film, although I fear the filmmakers may spend more time on his  sex foibles than his world adventures.

 

There are several good books about Fleming's life, including two biographys written by John Pearson and Andrew Lycett, and For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond by Ben Macintye.  

 

You can also read my piece in Counterterrorism magazine on Fleming's time as a naval intelligence officer in World War II via the below links:

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos2.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos3.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos4.jpg 

Ian Fleming's Wartime Naval Jacket Sold At Auction

MI6, the James Bond web site, not the British Secret Intelligence Service, offers coverage of the auction sale of Ian Fleming's British Royal Navy jacket.

He wore the jacket (seen above) aboard a British warship during the Dieppe Raid in World War II.

At the outbreak of war Ian Fleming joined the Naval Intelligence Division, where he was quickly promoted from lieutenant to commander. He liaised on behalf of the director of naval intelligence with the other secret services. One of few people given access to Ultra intelligence, he was responsible for the navy's input into anti-German black propaganda" (ODNB). Primarily based at the Admiralty's Room 39, Fleming accompanied the allied troops as an observer on the "Dieppe Raid", an assault on the German held port carried out on 19 August, 1942.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=9822&t=mi6&s=news

You can also read my magazine piece on Ian Fleming and his creation of the World War II intelligence-commando group 30 Assault Unit via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html

My Piece On The 30 Assault Unit, The British WWII Commando Group Created By Ian Fleming, The Creator Of James Bond

The latest issue of Counterterrorism magazine offers my piece on Ian Fleming and the British commando group he created in World War II.

Before he sat down at his desk at his Jamaican villa Goldeneye in 1952 and wrote the classic James Bond thrillers, Ian Fleming served as a Royal Navy officer during World War II.

Commander Fleming served as the personal assistant to the Director of British Naval Intelligence and one of Fleming's accomplishments during the war was the creation of a naval intelligence-commando group called the 30 Assault Unit. 

You can read my piece via below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

Before James Bond: A New Book On Ian Fleming's World War II Commandos

MI6 - the James Bond web site, not the British Secret Intelligence Service - announced the publication of a new book about Ian Fleming's wartime experiences in British Naval Intelligence and his creation of an elite group of naval intelligence-commandos called the 30 Assault Unit.

You can read the MI6 piece on Nicholas Rankin's Ian Fleming's Commandos (Faber & Faber) via the below link:

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/literature_ian_flemings_commandos.php3?t=&s=&id=02937

I interviewed Craig Cabell, the author of a previous book on Ian Fleming and the 30 Assault Unit called Ian Fleming's Secret War (Sword & Shield).

You can read my GreatHistory.com interview via the below links:

http://greathistory.com/the-secret-war-of-james-bonds-creator-ian-fleming.htm

http://greathistory.com/the-secret-war-of-james-bonds-creator-part-2.htm

You can also read my piece on Ian Fleming and the James Bond phenomenon via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html