Secret Reigate Grace Filby, Winston Churchill Martin Bormann

[TonyGosling]

Churchill's Secret Reigate
by Grace Filby
http://www.reigatehistory.co.uk/churchill.htm

Throughout history, Reigate and the North Downs have played an important part in the defence of Great Britain. Just 20 miles south of London, this unbeaten stronghold has the strategic advantage of extensive views southwards, stone, chalk and sand quarries, luxurious mansions, ancient underground tunnels and hidden byways disguised by plenty of tree cover.This was all familiar territory to Winston Churchill, who became Prime Minister soon after the start of World War 2. Over several decades he had visited the town as a guest. As well as visiting socially for weekends along with leading figures in society, he had chosen Reigate for meetings with key Navy personnel and Cabinet Ministers. When the Royal princes were at risk during an assassination plot in the 1920s, it was Reigate Priory that was chosen as a secret hideaway; Winston Churchill was spotted by the local policeman on guard duty at the back gate.

The Guest Book at Reigate Priory reveals the dates of Winston & Clementine Churchill's visits. A note pre-WW1 indicates that they played a new game of military strategy called "L'Attaque".

Winston Churchill, Bernard Montgomery and Dwight Eisenhower at an army reunion in 1951.
All 3 were in Reigate at various times during World War 2

Reigate Hill was an ideal choice for a WW2 defence post in case of an invasion. It also became the countryside HQ of the Army's South Eastern Command. It was here that General Bernard Montgomery was stationed in November 1941, later to mastermind the British and Canadian Army's role in the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy - the largest amphibious invasion in history that began 6th June 1944.

Reigate Hill Fort today, with an interpretation board showing the history dating back to the 1890s .
An original WW2 War Office Battle HQ document states "Sketch to Accompany Minutes of Meeting - Ventilation Shaft and Alternate Access to Fort" Does anyone know whether this additional access idea was put into practice? We would like to hear from you.

As a vital communications centre, a gas-proof and bomb-proof bunker was secretly mined by Royal Engineers from the Welsh coalfields.The location was the old chalk quarry by Crabtree Bottom, the lane behind the Yew Tree Inn and just below the old Fort. This was along the lines of the labyrinth of tunnels in the white cliffs beneath Dover Castle. With its corrugated iron archways and galleries, airlock doors and emphasis on ventilation, Reigate's Battle HQ design became the inspiration for another bunker in the South Downs near Newhaven.

This cut-off metal ventilation shaft in the old chalk quarry on Reigate Hill is visible evidence of Reigate's underground wartime bunker.

The South Downs' bunker, which was constructed for the Navy, is well documented and restored as an important National Heritage site. Bunkers were equipped with teleprinters and staffed by signals personnel. Motorbike dispatch riders were regular visitors and the whole area was heavily guarded. Even Reigate's prize-winning carrier pigeons were commandeered into service.

The Great Doods Pigeon Loft of 18 Doods Road, Reigate was commandeered for the war effort and kept under armed guard.

Being so accessible to London, local people became closely involved in the country's war effort. King George VI's Honorary Surgeon Major General Philip H. Mitchiner was a former Captain and Governor of Reigate Grammar School, and leading light in the Royal Army Medical Services, also lecturing on subjects such as the importance of maintaining calm and order during air raids or gas bombing. A former patient of his, Myra Collyer (nee Murden) started off in the Home Guard and then volunteered for the WAAF, where she spent nearly a year working in the Cabinet War Room whilst still in her teens. She was then posted to photographic intelligence HQ, RAF Medmenham as Sarah Churchill's shorthand typist. A contemporary of Myra's at Reigate County School For Girls was Jean Metcalfe, who became one of the BBC's first female announcers during the war. Jean Metcalfe's grandfather, by then living in Reigate, was the Prime Minister's personal barber! Young Eric Hurst, already a radio expert in Reigate, became closely involved in maintaining the equipment for signals intelligence at HQ Bletchley Park. He and his family were country neighbours of Baron J. Arthur Rank, the wealthy miller, film producer and founder of the Rank Organisation. Nearby on Reigate Heath lived Captain W E Johns, the author of the Biggles books which inspired many a young man to sign up for the RAF as a pilot.

The homes around 117 Reigate Hill were fortified as a defence post in case of an invasion, with gun holes covered by metal flaps and sandbags up to window height. The narrow lanes alongside led to 'Monty's Hideout' and the Army's S. E. Command HQ. A few yards down the hill is the historic byway known as Crabtree Bottom.

Numerous personnel arrived in Reigate from elsewhere. Eric Sykes, a young RAF signals engineer from Oldham was stationed in a tent in the beautiful landscaped estate of Gatton Park, home of Sir Jeremiah Colman of mustard and orchid fame. Now an internationally famous comedian, Eric had often walked down Reigate Hill to the town, awe-struck by the great contrasts compared with his northern upbringing. There are stories from local residents of the great surprise of finding that the lake at Gatton was being used for secret trialling of the amphibious military DUKW vehicles. United States military leader General Eisenhower visited Reigate for meetings to coordinate the roles of the British, Canadian and US Allies. He was accommodated nearby in the exclusive Gatton Road area.

After the troops had moved out and the war came to an end, there were still remnants of wartime evidence in Reigate. Basements of country houses, commandeered by the War Office, were concreted in. Sadly, the beautiful historic gates and railings at the entrance to Reigate Priory were severely damaged by an armoured vehicle. They had previously welcomed royalty and leading personalities such as Winston Churchill whereas now they were left to rust in the undergrowth for another half a century. The Great Doods Pigeon Loft had, unfortunately, suffered great losses during the war and the remaining birds lived out their days.The subterranean communications HQ concealed in the hillside became a source of fascination for local caving enthusiasts and Boy Scouts, until eventually the three or four entrances were sealed off discreetly for safety reasons. Still a remarkably peaceful and healthy environment close to London, Reigate town later became home for a Martin Bormann 'doppelganger'. He was evidently somehow involved in Churchill's top secret operations which successfully retrieved 95% of the "Nazi Gold".

Reigate Priory's magnificent Park Lane Gates and Railings welcomed visiting royalty and esteemed guests for over 200 years before being damaged by an armoured vehicle in WW2 and left to rust indefinitely.

There is so much more to discover about Churchill's Secret Reigate, as explained in an illustrated lecture now available on DVD.

Grace Filby has collected eye witness accounts and detailed clues about Churchill's Secret Reigate from various sources. Reigate History wish to thank Grace for the above article which is based on her two talks "Churchill's Secret Reigate" given in November 2009 and January 2010. The January talk is available on the DVD mentioned above.

[TonyGosling]

Churchill's Secret Reigate
A DVD of my 2010 illustrated lecture is available here.


Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJCej2DipNQ
Second intro to Churchill's Secret Reigate
820 views •Published on 14 Feb 2010
Grace Filby
1.08K subscribers
January 2010: Churchill Fellow, Grace Filby is introduced by Reigate resident Andrew Glass at her illustrated talk in Reigate, Surrey of unpublished research regarding World War 2 defence and strategy for D-Day.
A brand new DVD is available of the follow-up talk given in January 2010 to local residents.
CHASE hospice ambassador John Banks introduces the chosen charity.

Brief summary - Grace Filby 2010

Throughout history, Reigate and the North Downs have played an important part in the defence of Great Britain. Just 20 miles south of London, this unbeaten stronghold has the strategic advantage of extensive views southwards, stone, chalk and sand quarries, luxurious mansions, ancient underground tunnels and hidden byways disguised by plenty of tree cover.This was all familiar territory to Winston Churchill, who became Prime Minister soon after the start of World War 2. Over several decades he had visited the town as a guest. As well as visiting socially for weekends along with leading figures in society, he had chosen Reigate for meetings with key Navy personnel and Cabinet Ministers. When the Royal princes were at risk during an assassination plot in the 1920s, it was Reigate Priory that was chosen as a secret hideaway; Winston Churchill was spotted by the local policeman on guard duty at the back gate.

Reigate Hill was an ideal choice for a WW2 defence post in case of an invasion. It also became the countryside HQ of the Army's South Eastern Command. It was here that General Bernard Montgomery was stationed in November 1941, later to mastermind the British and Canadian Army's role in the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy - the largest amphibious invasion in history that began 6th June 1944.

As a vital communications centre, a gas-proof and bomb-proof bunker was secretly mined by Royal Engineers from the Welsh coalfields.The location was the old chalk quarry by Crabtree Bottom, the lane behind the Yew Tree Inn and just below the old Fort. This was along the lines of the labyrinth of tunnels in the white cliffs beneath Dover Castle. With its corrugated iron archways and galleries, airlock doors and emphasis on ventilation, Reigate's Battle HQ design became the inspiration for another bunker in the South Downs near Newhaven.

The South Downs' bunker, which was constructed for the Navy, is well documented and restored as an important National Heritage site. Bunkers were equipped with teleprinters and staffed by signals personnel. Motorbike dispatch riders were regular visitors and the whole area was heavily guarded. Even Reigate's prize-winning carrier pigeons were commandeered into service.

Being so accessible to London, local people became closely involved in the country's war effort. King George VI's Honorary Surgeon Major General Philip H. Mitchiner was a former Captain and Governor of Reigate Grammar School, and leading light in the Royal Army Medical Services, also lecturing on subjects such as the importance of maintaining calm and order during air raids or gas bombing. A former patient of his, Myra Collyer (nee Murden) started off in the Home Guard and then volunteered for the WAAF, where she spent nearly a year working in the Cabinet War Room whilst still in her teens. She was then posted to photographic intelligence HQ, RAF Medmenham as Sarah Churchill's shorthand typist. A contemporary of Myra's at Reigate County School For Girls was Jean Metcalfe, who became one of the BBC's first female announcers during the war. Jean Metcalfe's grandfather, by then living in Reigate, was the Prime Minister's personal barber! Young Eric Hurst, already a radio expert in Reigate, became closely involved in maintaining the equipment for signals intelligence at HQ Bletchley Park. He and his family were country neighbours of Baron J. Arthur Rank, the wealthy miller, film producer and founder of the Rank Organisation. Nearby on Reigate Heath lived Captain W E Johns, the author of the Biggles books which inspired many a young man to sign up for the RAF as a pilot.

Numerous personnel arrived in Reigate from elsewhere. Eric Sykes, a young RAF signals engineer from Oldham was stationed in a tent in the beautiful landscaped estate of Gatton Park, home of Sir Jeremiah Colman of mustard and orchid fame. Now an internationally famous comedian, Eric had often walked down Reigate Hill to the town, awe-struck by the great contrasts compared with his northern upbringing. There are stories from local residents of the great surprise of finding that the lake at Gatton was being used for secret trialling of the amphibious military DUKW vehicles. United States military leader General Eisenhower visited Reigate for meetings to coordinate the roles of the British, Canadian and US Allies. He was accommodated nearby in the exclusive Gatton Road area.

After the troops had moved out and the war came to an end, there were still remnants of wartime evidence in Reigate. Basements of country houses, commandeered by the War Office, were concreted in. Sadly, the beautiful historic gates and railings at the entrance to Reigate Priory were severely damaged by an armoured vehicle. They had previously welcomed royalty and leading personalities such as Winston Churchill whereas now they were left to rust in the undergrowth for another half a century. The Great Doods Pigeon Loft had, unfortunately, suffered great losses during the war and the remaining birds lived out their days.The subterranean communications HQ concealed in the hillside became a source of fascination for local caving enthusiasts and Boy Scouts, until eventually the three or four entrances were sealed off discreetly for safety reasons. Still a remarkably peaceful and healthy environment close to London, Reigate town later became home for a Martin Bormann 'doppelganger'. He was evidently somehow involved in Churchill's top secret operations which successfully retrieved 95% of the "Nazi Gold".

The finale to my unpublished research was a specially commissioned, light-hearted poem - with thanks.

VIEW OVER REIGATE by Barrie Singleton


When The Conqueror came to these shores
With his French names for food, and his laws
He endowed his Earl mate
With the gift of Reigate
Said: “I bet that’ll please ‘er indoors.”

But the people were true to their birth
Sons and daughters of this English earth
In good weather or rain
They would plod Pilgrims Lane
Knowing little of Mouton or Boeuf.

Then when Wren built St Paul’s he used stone
Of a type for which Reigate was known
Truly apt for his apse
Warding off all collapse
As time’s passage so aptly has shown.

More time passed and we faced Hitler’s war
We were threatened by sea, sky and shore
But this warrior land
Brooks no new foreign hand
Reigate’s grit was the key to endure.

Welsh miners exclaiming “duw duw!”
Drilled tunnels for Monty’s HQ.
Soon South Eastern Command’s
Subterranean band
Were installed ‘gainst what Gerry might do.

Such a contrast twixt Chevy and 3-ton
Ontario’s sons-with-a-gun
Found in Reigate a home
For their drawl and their chrome
And with our lads - in war - they were one.

Over years Reigate homed London Mayors
A King’s Surgeon, Professors and Sirs
Eric Sykes (not a joke)
And some ordinary folk;
Secret Princes? A policeman concurs.

Since they rammed out the A217
The motorist needs be forgiven
Racing by Crabtree Bottom
In Yew-shade, forgotten
As on to ‘elsewhere’ they are driven.

North to London and South to the sea
Reigate’s heights survey every degree
As if Fate had decreed
In our hour of need
Churchill's Reigate would keep Britain free.


Introductions:
by Mr Andrew Glass and Major-General Jamie Balfour





Acknowledgements
I wish to thank BVP Productions and Reigate Park Church for recording my 2nd lecture on January 30, 2010. Both events raised funds for CHASE children's hospice and awareness of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travelling Fellowships, with audiences of 90 then 140. Thanks to Mr Randolph Churchill, Major General Jamie Balfour and the Churchill Fellows and Churchill Centre members who supported either occasion when I gave this free lecture. Many friends and local residents also contributed to the research and delivery of this unpublished material, along with my table-top display which included a tiny autograph book signed by J Arthur Rank with some words of wisdom - and the actual BBC microphone through which Mr. Churchill announced VE Day.

I accredited contributors of photographs and memorabilia in my illustrated lectures and these were unscripted so I hope I didn't miss anyone. Special thanks to Mr Lewis Montague for gallantly reading an extract from comedian Eric Sykes' autobiography about wartime memories of Reigate, to Mr Sykes for his warm wishes, to Mr Barrie Singleton for the penning of a poem (see below), to Mr Nick Wells for technical support and company on an exploring mission on the steep slopes of Reigate Hill and to a nearby mansion with further evidence of wartime utmost secrecy and deception, to Mrs Sue Wylie regarding the Chesney Gold Medal and to my parents, Audrey and Denis Ward for their detailed background research over 50 years.

I am indebted to Mr Hugh Lunghi, who was stationed briefly in Reigate and also accompanied Mr Churchill as his Russian interpreter at conferences with former Soviet leader, Stalin. Mr Lunghi kindly corrected a little-known historical point about the biggest battle in history, which was, in fact, in Russia. Mr Ed Stonard and Mr Andrew Glass also nobly added their skills to my presentation of these lectures. There are many others whose input is greatly valued and fondly remembered.

On a sombre note, 30th January is the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, when he habitually addressed the German public about his beliefs: racial hatred and war-mongering. His plan was to confiscate the Jewish wealth for Nazi Gold.

However, 30th January was also the birthday of wartime US President Roosevelt, on which he often hosted a glittering fundraising birthday ball with the intention of preventing polio around the world. So in 2010 I would like to thank my entire audience for their generosity and warm appreciation, and especially for singing me a fine rendition of "Happy Birthday" too!

Grace Filby, Reigate

[TonyGosling]

Even the British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper admitted in his book The Last Days of Hitler there was no firm evidence that Martin Bormann was dead.
Three years ago, The News of the World told the story of a certain Peter Broderick-Hartley who had lived and died in Reigate, Surrey. The paper claimed he was, in fact, Martin Bormann, who had had plastic surgery.
In 1996, a British publisher paid £500,000 for rights to a book claiming that Winston Churchill smuggled Hitler's lieutenant to England in 1945 to get access to Nazi gold held in Swiss bank accounts. The author of the James Bond books, Ian Fleming, was also said to be involved.

Monday, 4 May, 1998, 16:29 GMT 17:29 UK
Martin Bormann: Hitler's henchman
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/87651.stm

Hapless reporters have travelled the globe in search of Hitler's confidante
More has been written about Martin Bormann since his disappearance in the dying days of World War II than during his lifetime as right-hand man to Adolf Hitler.
During the war, most Germans had never even heard of this shadowy figure.

Bormann joined the Nazi movement through the Freikorps and the German Nationalist Party, came to Hitler's attention early on and was rarely far from his side.

In 1943 the mysterious man - described variously as "banal", "vulgar" and "a boot-licker" - became Secretary to the Führer.

Unlike other prominent Nazi leaders like Goebbels, Goering and Himmler who enjoyed fame and notoriety, Bormann preferred to keep a low profile.

"Figures like him are easily overlooked," wrote Jochen van Lang, Bormann's biographer. "He was never the hero of dramatic scenes, never stood in the limelight."

Bormann maintained unlimited access to the Führer even when he withdrew from public life and took refuge at his country home at Berchtesgaden.

Hitler's confidante took advantage of his leader's self-imposed isolation to run the Chancellery - and effectively took control of the Reich. Any minister wishing to see Hitler had to approach Bormann first.

Wild goose chase

He was last seen on May 2, 1945 crouching beside a German tank near the Berlin bunker.

At the Nuremberg trials after the war, Bormann was condemned to death in abstentia for his leading role in the extermination of the Jews - and the long search for him began.

The British and German press became obsessed in their quest for the man so close to Hitler, who was godfather to Bormann's first son, Adolf.

Over the years, journalists, Nazi and bounty hunters were led from the remote jungles of South America ... to deepest Surrey. And at each turn the stories surrounding his whereabouts became more fantastical.

Several would-be Bormanns were spotted and even arrested - a Guatemalan peasant in 1967, a 72-year-old German living in Colombia a few years later.

Skeletons in the cupboard

The wild and imaginative stories about Bormann continued even after the discovery in 1972 of two skeletons near the Lehrter railway station in Berlin. The authorities said the men were probably Bormann and Ludwig Stumpfegger, one of Hitler's doctors. Splinters of glass cyanide capsules were found in the jawbones.

It is believed they escaped from Hitler's bunker, were trapped by crossfire and killed themselves.

Although the German Government was satisfied with this theory, they locked up the remains in a cupboard at the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office. Family members were prevented from taking them away until there was final identification.

Even the British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper admitted in his book The Last Days of Hitler there was no firm evidence that Martin Bormann was dead.

Three years ago, The News of the World told the story of a certain Peter Broderick-Hartley who had lived and died in Reigate, Surrey. The paper claimed he was, in fact, Martin Bormann, who had had plastic surgery.

In 1996, a British publisher paid £500,000 for rights to a book claiming that Winston Churchill smuggled Hitler's lieutenant to England in 1945 to get access to Nazi gold held in Swiss bank accounts. The author of the James Bond books, Ian Fleming, was also said to be involved.

Now, DNA tests seem to prove the skeleton found in Berlin is indeed that of Hitler's henchman.

[TonyGosling]

The Press Association picked up my interview, and although the daily papers only thought it worth a short paragraph, the Mail on Sunday gave it about six inches on its front page after its reporter, Nick Fielding, spoke to me about it on the telephone. It was not news coverage, however, that brought OpJB to astonishing life again, but a message on my answering machine from a John Ffitch-Hayes who trained horses in his establishment in Lewes, East Sussex.

What Ffitch-Hayes and his wife, Anne, had to tell me in a long conversation on the phone was mind-boggling in the context of our search for the final days of Martin Bormann. Anne had been working on a book about Bormann in England which was in its final stages of preparation and research. It seems that John Ffitch-Hayes's son had been the close friend of the son of a woman, Hanne Nelson, who possessed formidable evidence that she had been Bormann's mistress in England and had borne him a daughter. The Ffitch-Hayes had photographs, letters, passports which Hanne had given them proving their relationship.

I immediately called Creighton with this startling development, and as a man who had for years been accused of inventing the OpJB fable he was extremely delighted with this corroboration of his story that Bormann had, indeed, been brought to England. For me this positive reaction on his part was heartening because if he had fantasized the whole thing would he not have produced a Hanne Nelson in his story in the first place?

John and Anne Ffitch-Hayes met Christopher and myself at my flat on 17 May 1995, and we were shown close-up photographs of a man with the same broad cheekbones and hairline as Hitler's secretary. Only later were we told that extensive plastic surgery had been done on this man's face to make him look enough like Bormann, who had undergone operational surgery on his features.

They produced a photo of a tweed-suited man posing leisurely in an English meadow who called himself Peter Broderick-Hartley. They also had British passports, issued in 1946 by the Foreign Office showing that Broderick-Hartley had been making trips to South Africa and South America while living in England. A letter was produced written by Bormann in the bunker three days before Hitler died and compared to a letter written to Hanne in 1963, which a graphologist believed was written by the same hand. Later we were shown a smiling photograph of Broderick-Hartley with his arm cosily around the waist of a contented-looking Hanne Nelson.

Hanne Nelson's relationship with Broderick-Hartley is briefly chronicled In OpJB. Bridget Winter spent days meeting her, weeks on the telephone talking to her and questioning the Ffitch-Hayes' about the evidence they had that Hanne's story was true. She was a Dane whose British husband had died a year before she met Broderick-Hartley in July 1960, when he leapt on a moving bus and sat down beside her. He said he was a civil engineer and an affair developed between them. Not long afterwards he began speaking to her in German and 'revealed' that he was Martin Bormann. By this time Hanne, although deeply disturbed by his pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiments, was so deeply in love with him that she decided to remain silent about his past. They never co-habited together - although she bore him a daughter on 1 August 1961 - because he was sharing a house with his housekeeper, Hilda or Amy Gant, who had a mysterious hold over him which Hanne never fathomed.

According to Hanne, Broderick-Hartley had grandiose plans for a new National Socialist Union in Europe, with its capital in Berlin, which would first of all unite all European countries and then convince the Americans to become part of a new world-empire in which German would be the first language. His passport shows that he travelled extensively in the Argentine, Paraguay and South Africa, where his cover as an engineer enabled him to contact émigré Nazis who shared his feverish ambitions. Hanne says he asked her to marry him in 1984 but she declined because her family had Jewish antecedents and she thought that Bormann's (Broderick-Hartley's) racist prejudices would undermine such a marriage. When he died on 20 June 1989, he was buried in an unmarked grave and Hanne did not attend the funeral.

Creighton was just as overwhelmed by this story as Bridget and myself. What he had discovered, however, was that the M Section had been aware of this liaison and when he told them that Hanne was revealing all, they cooperated with him in discovering if Hanne was really the same woman who had been Broderick-Hartley's lover six years before. At a small hotel in Sussex, Bridget and Creighton had lunch with her during which be expertly picked up by its base a glass she had been using and passed it to a waitress who was in reality an intelligence agent. Twenty-four hours later security control told him she was undoubtedly the woman who had been consorting with Broderick- Hartley.

Creighton, although he was still uneasy about Hanne's claims since he thought that the photographs of Broderick-Hartley did not quite match the Bormann he remembered, even accounting for the effects of plastic surgery, had now come round to believing her assertions and those of the Ffitch- Hayes that they had unravelled the mystery of Bormann's last days. .

Rather surprising at this stage in the saga was. that Susan Kemp, his main source of information, was not discouraging him In that belief. It was she who on 18 April 1991 informed him that Morton's records had not all been destroyed - which he had ordered - but that she and the M Section's photographic experts had made copies of them all before Morton died. She insisted, however, that for the book she knew he was writing, none of the originals could be taken away and that he could only use handwritten notes of relevant material.

Shortly after the disclosure of Hanne's relationship with Bormann/Broderick-Hartley, Creighton and Susan Kemp had lunch in a pub in the Surrey countryside and then stopped outside a cemetery. Walking along one of the paths, they stopped by a patch of mown grass. With a mischievous deadpan voice, she informed him that he was standing on Piglet's grave and that her original story that Bormann had died in 1956 had not been true. She confirmed Hanne's tale that he had died in 1989 and this unmarked spot was his last resting place. 'For a moment I was so startled that I did not believe her,' wrote Creighton, now having acknowledged to the press his real name of John Christopher Ainsworth-Davis. 'But then I looked at her and decided that she was not joking.'

All this fresh clinching evidence of the claim that Bormann had been brought to England by Creighton and Fleming roused Doubleday's interest once again, and since they had already paid £5,000 they were entitled to push ahead with publication plans. Their editorial director, Sally Gaminara, had seen all the Ffitch-Hayes material and thought that Creighton's book would be strengthened if a great deal of it could be incorporated in OpJB.

Bridget Winter was called back urgently from America where she was seeing a film company about a deal. After many meetings between Bridget and both Hanne and the Ffitch-Hayes, the terms of a contract with Doubleday were agreed. On 8 June 1995, Bridget Winter turned up at Doubleday's office in Ealing to finalize the deal but just before the contract was about to be signed Hanne came through on the telephone and demanded to speak to Sally Gaminara and renounced her part m the book and everything she had told us.

Faced with this startling dramatic turn, the deal fell apart, with Doubleday accusing us of perpetrating a hoax on them. On 17 June 1995 Bridget wrote to Sally Gaminara, defending herself against innuendoes of dishonesty and justifying her position by informing Doubleday that since that unfortunate and acrimonious meeting Hanne had telephoned her three times 'and on each occasion has agreed that what I said, was true - I also have it on tape'.

With Doubleday out of the way, I phoned HarperCollins, who had now absorbed Grafton, and asked to speak to Jonathan Lloyd, one of the Grafton executives who had considered the book in the first place. I thought they might think again if they saw the Broderick-Hartley photographs and documents produced by Hanne. I learnt that he had left to join the literary agents, Curtis Brown, as their Managing Director. Andrew Nurnberg eventually decided to abandon his role as Creighton's agent, because his faith in the book had been undermined by Christopher's inability to produce any individual other than himself who had been on the operation, or any other 'hard evidence' that satisfied him of its authenticity.

When Jonathan Lloyd saw the additional material, he thought as a literary agent that publishers in an auction were likely to pay a high price for OpJB. His judgement was quite right. No less than four prominent publishers put in substantial bids for it with the winner being Simon & Schuster who offered £450,000, plus a supplementary £50,000 depending on certain complex film and paperback rights. Nick Webb, the Chief Executive, like everyone else, was so excited by the book that he thought it would be a best-seller even if it could not be proved to be true. Its readability had been considerably enhanced by a re-write job done by the respected historical writer and journalist, Duff Hart-Davis. At first sceptical about its authenticity, Hart-Davis - after spending many months with Creighton - became a whole-hearted supporter of the enterprise. Hart-Davis, having heard about the project, contacted an executive at Doubleday and asked if he could read the manuscript. He had lunch with Creighton and Bridget Winter, after which he agreed to re-write the book. To gather more information about it, he had Creighton stay a couple of nights at his home. He wrote two chapters and a new outline, and it was on the basis of this that Doubleday put in their bid.

Nick Webb could hardly have been more enthusiastic about what he felt was a great publishing coup for his firm. Writing to Jonathan Lloyd on 6 November 1995 he wrote, 'We are all so thrilled with this project that it is becoming quite a torment being so discreet.' However he had not become so starry-eyed that he had lost his perspective about the book's value. In that same letter, he asked for a fresh Clause Four to be added which read 'The Publishers shall have the right to withdraw from this Agreement if it shall be proved that the Work is not authentic and shall be promptly reimbursed by the Proprietor (John Ainsworth-Davis) for any monies paid by the Publishers to the Proprietor under the terms of this Agreement.' Around this paragraph there developed a whirlpool of controversy in the coming months.

The Press reacted with a mixture of envy and incredulity that anyone had paid £500,000 for such a book. After all, the name Bormann become a music-hall joke after the Daily Express and the Hitler's diaries fiascos, and anyone venturing a suggestion that he had not died in Berlin - as recognized by the Intelligence establishment - was regarded as a nut-case, not to be taken seriously. When I sent a copy of OpJB in manuscript form to a senior editor of a newspaper group, it was returned to me with a polite rejection very quickly. It was evident from the pristine quality of the 400 or so typewritten pages that not one of them had been lifted from their original position and read.

In December 1995 double-page features turned up in the Daily Mail and the News of the World with photographs of Peter Broderick-Hartley cosily snuggled against Hanne, now named Johanne Nelson. She had been found by two Daily Mail reporters and told them of her life with Bormann who, she said, had also been known as William Hornegold. 'But I know in my soul that he was Martin Bormann.'

According to Hanne, Broderick-Hartley had told her he came to Britain after being forced out of Paraguay when that regime decided they no longer wanted to shelter war criminals. In that detail her story conflicts with Creighton's, but they unite in the conviction that Bormann did not die in Berlin and that at some time after the war he lived in England. She did not add much credence to her story by her belief that the housekeeper, Amy Gant, with whom she shared Broderick-Hartley's life, was really Eva Braun, Hitler's wife. She had no concrete evidence for such a bizarre speculation except that photographs of Gant revealed a woman who looked remarkably like Eva. Hanne's story about Bormann is still an enigma.

Having accepted the challenge of publishing OpJB with zest - a four-page colour advertisement in the trade journal, The Bookseller, enthused about the 'astonishing true story that will cause history to be re-written' - Nick Webb became assailed by doubts. The fact that deals were quickly tied up with German, Dutch and Japanese publishers did not console him. He hired a former MI5 agent, Gary Murray, to do a thorough investigation of the book and when Murray came up with a twenty-two-page denunciation, setting out details that branded Creighton as a forger and a liar, Nick Webb stated that unless the contract was revised he would seek legal redress to have publication stopped. He printed a disclaimer in the first pages stating that the publisher's independent research was unable to verify Creighton's account and that the 'documentary trail was often at odds with the author's narrative'. He also demanded that the advance be reduced to £150,000.

There followed months of acrimonious letters because Creighton insisted his story was true and that Gary Murray~ had dug up nothing more revealing than Nigel West's report for which we had paid £ 1000 three years ago. Two relatively piddling details, about Creighton's schooldays at Ampleforth and the date of his registration and arrival at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, apparently convinced Nick Webb that Creighton was a compulsive prevaricator.

Yet just as he had done with the West report, Creighton produced fact after fact supporting his version of the events which I, for one, found far more convincing than the vague accusations being made by Gary Murray. Creighton could bring in Cardinal Hume to verify his stay at Ampleforth. He insisted, with much justification, that the memory of a girl student who claimed that she saw him at RADA fifty years earlier on the first day of registration, when he had asserted that he was then on the Elbe and had been registered by friends who knew that his service duties would not allow him to be there until two weeks after the term began, was hardly damning evidence enough to demolish his credibility about OpJB.

Hoping to act as some sort of conciliatory liaison officer between Webb and Creighton, I invited Webb to lunch at a Chelsea restaurant. He confessed that his faith in OpJB had reached an abysmally low ebb. The reactions from colleagues and fellow publishers about us being taken in by a transparent hoax had put him in the most humiliating position of his professional career. He still wanted to publish, but he could get no help from Creighton about producing the concrete evidence he needed to persuasively vindicate his story.

Creighton became even more infuriated with Webb's lack of enthusiasm. However, claiming he was being mercilessly pressurized, he told me that he had persuaded Susan Kemp to come to my flat and answer searching questions about OpJB. She would also reveal herself to two employees of Simon & Schuster who were handling the publicity for the book. Creighton decided that it was not necessary to involve Nick Webb in such a meeting. This was by far the most heartening and supportive news anyone of us involved had received since becoming involved in the project. Not only had Susan Kemp been third in command in the kayaks bringing Bormann to Pots dam, but she was also Bormann's Intelligence Control when he arrived in England and eventually she took over Morton's position as head of the M Section. It was from her that all the truths and untruths had emanated about both Bormann and Broderick-Hartley. In every critical moment of the past eight years, Creighton had gone to her for advice, from handling ticklish queries by the press to resolving financial negotiations with publishers.

None of us knew her real name or address. We only knew that she had reached a relatively high position in the civil service and was now retired. In 1992, as already mentioned, she had sworn an affidavit in a solicitor's office in London in which she declared in its first paragraph that she fully understood 'the criminal penalties that may apply to any false statement knowingly made in this affidavit.'

She then goes on to swear that having seen the manuscript of three hundred and fifty eight pages called OpJB, she is the Operational Second Officer Woman's Royal Naval Service referred to in it by the nom de guerre Susan Kemp. She then confirms that she took part in the actual operation described in the book and in the subsequent cover-up operations to establish that OpJB never did take place nor that Ian Fleming had ever been in command of it.

If she was truly the Susan Kemp, whose name appeared regularly in the thousands of pages I had seen about OpJB, then surely she would satisfy Nick Webb's insistence that another single individual involved with the expedition should come forward before he would once more be convinced of its authenticity.

She turned out to be a rather ample, cheerful elderly woman with brown hair, of medium height who wore glasses. Christopher Creighton arrived with her at my flat and made very few interjections during the course of our forty-five minute conversation. I began my chat with her - I felt it would be inappropriate to press her as if she were undergoing some sort of cross-examination - by saying how pleased I was to see her at last since I had been living with her by proxy for seven years.

She explained that it was chiefly her training as a wireless operator that got her into Operation James Bond. Paddling a kayak had come easily to her because she had done a great deal of punting at school. Here Creighton interrupted that he was never keen on her paddling technique since she only paddled on one side of the kayak, rather than on both sides as was the usual method. She never liked Bormann because he seemed rather grubby to her. I asked her about Fleming and if he ever made any flirtatious passes at her. She admitted there were other girls who received his advances but she wasn't one of them because she had a regular boyfriend at the time. She confirmed Creighton's statement that she had not destroyed all of the M Section documents, and that most of the originals were still in Security custody.

I had decided I would not press for details about her life at Birdham or how OpJB was organized technically because, if she was a phoney these were the easiest details she could have mugged up on and repeated to me. Before seeing me she had spoken to two of Simon & Schuster's publicity people and it was their task to interrogate her about the technical secrets they wanted revealed. Before leaving, having seen some family photographs in my drawing room, she asked if one of them was a relative of mine she had gone to school with as a child. She jotted down a small friendly note indicating her delight at the coincidence that, by such a strange route, she had been reminded of someone she had known as a small girl. Having been involved with actresses on and off stage for forty years, I was thoroughly convinced that she was not putting on a performance for me and that she was the Susan Kemp revealed in Creighton's book.

Some months after that interview she told Creighton precisely what had happened to Bormann after he came to England. She also confessed that Creighton had been lied to about Broderick-Hartley, his activities and the place and date of his death. Creighton, like so many other people who had been used for intelligence purposes, had been fed a cover-story for M Section's purposes.

In OpJB Creighton sets out the details of this deception. In essence it concerned the nervousness in government circles about the chances that their harbouring of a convicted war criminal, in order to further a secret deal with America about German funds in Swiss banks, would be found out, with obvious serious and embarrassing consequences. The best way to sustain the cover-up was, on the one hand, to provide convincing supporting evidence that Bormann was killed in Berlin as reported by Hugh Trevor-Roper and others and, on the other hand, to encourage so many false stories about sightings of Bormann in every part of the world that the Press would do no more than suppress a yawn at any news about him. The Daily Express fiasco about his presence in the Argentine was exactly the kind of event British Intelligence cherished.

In furtherance of this all-important goal, the M Section did not refrain from using someone like Creighton, who had been In on the operation from its very beginning and thought he knew what was going on, as a victim of their disinformation strategy. He was thoroughly taken in by the Broderick-Hartley masquerade and proof of his innocence lies in the fact that he agreed to pay large sums money to both Hanne Nelson and the Ffitch-Hayes for the exclusive right to their material, and to prevent them from selling it to other publishers interested in a Bormann story. It is extremely unlikely that such money out of his projected royalties - almost £50,000 - would have been promised for information which he knew was phoney if, as has been charged, he had made up the entire fictitious epic on his own. Surely this is corroboration of his persistent claim that he was not perpetrating an elaborate hoax.

In OpJB he writes, 'Although I did not know it, my own section was playing me along. For several months I was greatly excited by my belief that I had at last stumbled on the truth about Bormann's later years. I knew that during the early 1950s suspicion and rumour had been rife throughout Europe, with many fingers pointing at England. I also knew that after the end of the war several doppelgangers had performed well in Italy, Germany and other countries. What I did not know was that in 1952 the M Section had found a strikingly good replica of Bormann, in the form of Peter Broderick-Hartley, on their own doorstep, and had decided to make use of him also. The idea was that, if ever anyone seemed to be coming uncomfortably close to the truth, the British authorities could produce the resident double and say, "There you are. Of course he looks like Bormann, but in fact he's got nothing to do with him.'"

The man selected to play the part of Bormann/Broderick-Hartley was a small-time confidence man named Hornegold with several children scattered in various countries, who enthusiastically took to his training and education in the ways of Martin Bormann, since he was well-paid and it enabled him to indulge in a very full sex life.

I must confess that even though Creighton went along with the Broderick-Hartley deception, I always felt, when we discussed it, that he had reservations which he would not reveal to me. In OpJB he confirms that he could never reconcile the photographs of Broderick-Hartley with the image of Bormann stamped on his mind fifty years earlier. Susan Kemp was, as usual, the person to reveal to him what M Section's devious tricks were up to. In the spring of 1996, perhaps because the years were eroding the justification for secrecy, she told him that when he started work on his book in 1989, the Section had deliberately set out to discredit him by making him believe Bormann had died in Hampshire in April 1956, and that the grave Susan Kemp had shown him was authentic.

But what had upset the Section's disinformation plans was the accidental appearance of Hanne Nelson with her version of events. They were afraid she might publish her story independently, thus necessitating their involvement in some extremely tricky manoeuvres to rubbish her experience. At first they decided to support her claims to Creighton, but once they realized that Creighton was convinced that Broderick-Hartley was not Bormann, Susan Kemp was given permission to tell him the truth.

It seems that what had actually happened between 1945 and 1956 was that, from his base in England, Bormann made several trips to South America, under the control of the M Section and the American CIA where Barbara Brabenov - still in the intelligence service supervised his activities, resulting in large sums of cash and jewellery being unearthed, as well as the undermining of several conspiracies by wanted high-level Nazis still engaged in plotting a return of a fascist regime to the newly democratic Germany.

Creighton and Fleming were, of course, not concerned with the ethical question of harbouring a convicted major war criminal in England after the war. They assumed the Intelligence authorities must have had valid state reasons for carrying out such a deception and they obeyed orders. Although Churchill authorized the original decision to use Bormann to save vast sums of money for a financially weakened Britain, it was ultimately a decision that must have been confirmed by Attlee, whose Labour administration came to power in July 1945.

Naturally there was a great deal of anxiety lest the news of Bormann's eleven year stay in Britain would be discovered. It was the visit of the Soviet leaders, Bulganin and Khrushchev, to Britain in April 1956 at the height of the Cold War that increased the edginess of security circles about the presence of their controversial visitor. It is Susan Kemp's revelation that she was called into the office of Prime Minster Anthony Eden and screamed at by an hysterical Eden, who attacked her for allowing such a risky situation to continue.

Losing his temper in a string of obscenities, he banged the desk and shouted 'We're cosseting him like a * VIP I want him out of the country before these bloody Russians get here. Why don't you just cut the bloody man's head off and throw him into the sea!' Calming down after this tantrum, he returned to his normal, polite self and in a courteous voice said, 'Be so good, my dear Miss Kemp, as to escort him out of the country by 25 April.' .

Herr Schuler, the alias under which Bormann had been living in the riding school, conveniently 'died' and a coffin bearing his name was buried in the village graveyard that Creighton was first lied to about by Susan Kemp. Under escort, Bormann was flown to the Argentine, where he was put under the control of the section headed by Brabenov. Although he was only fifty-five, his health was failing and no more information-gathering activities were demanded of him.

He was moved to Paraguay, where after a long illness he died in February 1959 What happened to the corpse after that has been the subject of much debate. . ,

https://www.bilderberg.org/shulman.htm