Richard Melville "Bill" Brooker was a British soldier, spy, instructor, and commando during World War II, and integral to the Allied effort in defeating the Axis. He was a member of Churchill's Special Operations Executive (SOE), and Commandant of Camp X, where he trained the men and women who would become the leaders of the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), which became the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He is considered one of the fathers of modern American central intelligence, and gained the admiration of William J. Donovan and Allen Dulles, and even is mentioned as being a great instructor of spies in the memoirs of Kim Philby.[1][2]
Richard Melville Brooker | |
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| Nickname(s) |
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| Born | 23 September 1909 Paris |
| Died | 1994 (aged 84) |
| Buried | Sicklinghall Cemetery, Harrogate Borough, North Yorkshire, England |
| Allegiance | |
| Service | |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Commands | |
| Battles / wars | |
Early life
editBrooker was born on 23 December 1909 in Paris, France.[1] In the years before World War II, he was a traveling salesman for Nestlé.[1] Those who knew him gave him the title of a "born salesman."[1]
Prior to the war, Brooker joined the Force Service Protectorate.
World War II
editOn March 18, 1941, Brooker joined the SOE's training section, and trained scores of SOE operatives at Beaulieu on espionage and tradecraft prior to their departure to fight the Axis.[3][4]
In December 1941, Brooker was sent to Canada aboard the SS Pasteur with Lieutenant Colonel Roper Caldbeck to become the second in command of STS 103, or what is more commonly known today as Camp X.[3][5]
In August 1942, Brooker succeeded Roper Caldbeck as Commandant of Camp X.[3] He is said to have been the school's most popular commanding officer to this point.[6][7]
Bickham Sweet-Escott wrote:
"I have no doubt that OSS (Office of Strategic Services) got much more out of our training school in Canada, (Camp X) than from all the efforts of our party in Washington... What was unique about Oshawa was the personality of the commandant, Lieutenant-Colonel Brooker. Bill Brooker was a born salesman. He was a brilliant and convincing lecturer, and he had an immense wealth of stories from the real life of a secret agent to illustrate his points."
Brooker was noted as an unconventional instructor - he would occasionally interrupt his classes with exercises, including gunfire and other scenarios, and would ask his students to recall details like the number of shots fired and the caliber of the weapon.[7] He also gave them much sage advice: “If there’s anything loose in the intelligence business, you’re dead!” [8]
Brooker also trained OSS executives on the weekends on the fundamentals of training, creating "trained trainers" out of them.[9]
In the Winter of 1942, Brooker helped Garland H. Williams to completely redesign the training curriculum of the COI/OSS.[10]
Brooker also assisted, along with British Navy Commander N.G.A. Woolley, Millard Preston Goodfellow and William J. Donovan at the COI in creating an amphibious warfare training unit, that would become the OSS Maritime Unit training center.[11]
In March 1943, Brooker was reassigned to the OSS in Washington, D.C.[6][11]
Later in the year, William Donovan had Brooker deployed to Algeria to participate in joint SOE/OSS operations there.[10]
In 1944, Brooker would spend more time in Washington and New York, dividing his time in half between the two OSS operations, helping both to instruct students and build secret interception systems of German intelligences.[12]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Chan, Amy (2017-11-28). "Spy Class 101". HistoryNet. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Philby, Kim (1967). My Silent War.
- ^ a b c "Camp X Officers 1942". www.camp-x.com. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Cunningham, Cyril (1998). Beaulieu: The Finishing School for Secret Agents. Pen and Sword.
- ^ Stafford, David (January 1, 1987). Camp X: The Incredible and True Story of Canada's School for Secret Agents 1941. Dodd Mead.
- ^ a b "Camp X 75th Anniversary: A Brief History". CBC.ca. Dec 6, 2016.
- ^ a b "How Camp X Worked". HowStuffWorks. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ "OSS Agents: Kill or be Killed". Warfare History Network. 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
- ^ "Camp-X ● Official Site ● History of Camp-X". www.camp-x.com. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ a b Chambers, John Whiteclay (2008). "OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II" (PDF).
- ^ a b "OSS: LTC Ellery Huntington's Staff". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
- ^ "OSS - PERIODIC REPORTS OF THE DOCUMENT INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, 1944 | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov)". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-08.