Probably O/T...: Museum of secrets to open warfares bag of tricks

THE TIMES
Court & Social
December 18, 2004

Military matters

Museum of secrets to open warfares bag of tricks
------------------------------------------------
Michael Tillotson

BY THE end of this month, the trustees of the Intelligence Corps Museum
hope to have raised the first £450,000 of the £1.25 million required to
carry this intriguing project to conclusion  although, of course, no
museum can ever claim to be complete. Earlier this year, the Duke of
Edinburgh, Colonel-in-Chief of the Intelligence Corps, became the patron
of the project and MoD funds were authorised to provide for three
professional staff alongside existing volunteers.

The original museum was founded in 1970 in Ashford, Kent, but relocated in
1997 to Chicksands, Bedfordshire, virtually the centre of a cluster of
intelligence-related and covert operations sites used during the Second
World War. Bletchley Park, where the German Enigma codes were deciphered,
is 13 miles to the west and Y Service operators responsible for
intercepting and passing enemy message traffic to Bletchley were housed in
huts behind the historic Chicksands Priory. Agents of the Special
Operations Executive (SOE) and the United States Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) were trained at Tempsford, ten miles to the northeast and
the Political Warfare Executive operated from the stables at Woburn Abbey.
There is a story that the Y Section work was shrouded in such secrecy that
a married couple recently visiting the museum discovered they had both
worked in the huts at different times during the war and neither had
previously told the other.

The purpose of the museum is to record the complex story of British
military intelligence, the commitment of those who served and, in
particular, the history of the Intelligence Corps, and to preserve the
archives and collection. Establishment of the Defence Intelligence and
Security Centre at the Chicksands site in 1997 provided an opportunity
make the exhibits available to the wider public. The museum building
stands close to the 11th-century priory, now the officers mess for the
centre. The museum development plans include a porch, in which the names
of members of the Intelligence Corps who lost their lives on active
service and those who were decorated will be displayed.

The exhibits include the Medmenham Collection of intelligence imagery
ranging from balloons to modern photography by Harrier reconnaissance
aircraft and satellites. Some of these are comical by modern standards,
for example a photograph of custom-made bicycles to run on railway tracks
for intelligence-gathering patrols in the South African (Boer) War of
1899-1902. More poignant is the radio disguised as a biscuit tin sent to
occupied Europe during the Second World War.

After development, an inter-active projection will place British military
intelligence in a world context and guide visitors to what they wish to
see. The museum is open to anyone who calls in advance to 01462-752896, or
who e-mails musarchdint-d-qb/[email protected] at least 24 hours notice is
required. In future, the website www.army.mod.uk/intelligence corps  now
under development  may be consulted for regular opening times. Anyone who
wishes to make a donation to the museum development appeal as a Gift Aid
donation should call the Helen OHara, the curatorial officer, on the same
number.


Tel :   01462-752896
email : musarchdint-d-qb/[email protected]


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1406944,00.html