“‘ Canidy and Stevens both laughed out loud. “C” chuckled, pleased that he had amused them. And that he had put them at ease.
KC” was a gentleman and subtle. The story was intended not only to amuse Canidy and Stevens but to remind them of the differences between the British and American cultures. And to suggest that they were all playing poker, the British and the Americans versus the Germans, and the BATISH versus the Americans. These points were not lost on either Major Canidy or Colonel Stevens.
In the First World War, the British and the French had agreed between themselves that since Americans knew nothing of war, the American entrance into the war would mean nothing more than an influx–albeit a massive one–of “colonial” troops and materiel to be used as the experts saw fit.
Things didn’t go quite as the British and French experts had planned, the American Commanding General “Black Jack” Pershing being rather reluctant to follow their orders. He announced, and stuck by his decision, that when Americans went into combat, they would be led by American officers, and would not be fed piecemeal into either English or French formations.
The situation was changed in this war. An American general was in overall command, reflecting the reality that Americans would have otherwise sent their troops and materiel to the Far East. Japanese, not Germans, occupied American territory. Americans would go along with the notion that the war should be won first in Europe, but only if their man, Eisenhower, was in charge.
Since a large and powerful body of American opinion still held that the European war was none of America’s business, it would have been politically impossible for Roosevelt to send a million American soldiers to Europe to be commanded by an Englishman.
The British understood this, but that did not change their devout belief that the Imperial General Staff, as well as MI-6 and the Special Operations Executive, were far better equipped to run military operations and intelligence than was Eisenhower and his American staff and the just-born, relatively speaking, office of Strategic Services.
If the British had their way, all the assets–materiel, personnel, and financial–of the OSS would be directed by the various intelligence officers who, in one way or another, all reported to’c.” Colonel William J. Donovan was the World War II equivalent for espionage and sabotage–for “strategic services”–of General Black Jack Pershing and the AEF of World War I, Despite their inexperience and despite any other objection the Imperial General Staff–or Winston Churchill himself-might have, Americans, Donovan insisted–with the authority of President Roosevelt–would run their own covert operations.
And, to the surprise of some British, the Americans had done well, in an intelligence sense, in the invasion of North Africa. If they had failed, perhaps there would have been a chance to argue again for British control. But that hadn’t happened. There was no way now to talk the Americans out of independent operation. There would be cooperation, nothing more.
And that, Stevens thought, was the real reason “C” was sitting across the poker table from him now. The ostensible purpose of this meeting had to do with certain operational details involving Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz. S and Johann Muller. If the British had been running these agents, the personal attention of “C” would not be required. “C” was here now to ensure that his people understood that the decision had been made to cooperate with the independently operating Americans.
Photostatic copies of all the MI-6 files on Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz and Johann Muller, on the von Heurten-Mitnitz family, on the Baron Fulmar, on the German rocket installation at Peenemunde, on German jet-engine experimentation, on everything the Americans had asked for, plus some things they hadn’t asked for but which they would find of interest, had been brought to the meeting at Station X. It took more than four hours before the Americans had examined the photostats and were out of questions, arranged the details of liaison with the British agents in Germany, and come to an understanding, an agreement, about where British support would end and the Americans would have to fend for themselves.
And then the Americans left.
The deputy chief of MI-6 sat alone with’c” at the poker table, a bemused look on his face.