SECRET WAR OF CHARLES FRASER-SMITH

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Initially he supplied clothing and related props to for SOE agents, but this expanded to include ingenious devices such as hairbrushes with hidden compartments containing maps, cigarette lighters containing miniature cameras, and steel shoelaces that doubled as garrottes. Fraser was also involved in the intelligence operation codenamed Operation Mincemeat, which was designed to drop a body, carrying false papers to mislead the Nazis, off the Spanish coast. He was tasked with designing a trunk, 6' 2" long and 3' wide, to carry a "deadweight" of 200 lb that would be preserved in dry ice. When the dry ice evaporated, it filled the canister with carbon dioxide and drove out any oxygen, thus preserving the body without refrigeration. The plot that was the basis of the book (and later film) The Man Who Never Was. Later life

In most cases I was forced to go well outside the normal channels to get anything done. Knowing when something of mine went well - a gadget really worked and out-foxed the enemy, perhaps helping to save a valuable life - was all that I needed by way of inspiration. Interestingly, during these times with the threat of an invasion by the German army and the on-going bombing of towns and cities, people were cautioned not to discuss aspects of their daily lives. Montagu and Cholmondeley had a specific target in mind for their elaborate deception: Adolf Clauss, a German spy operating in the port of Huelva on Spain's south coast. He was known to be efficient, ruthless and extremely gullible. Charles and his brother Alfred were for a short time pupils at The Court House, a private school in North Finchley.Fraser-Smith was not the only gadget-master working for British intelligence during World War II. The SOE had various secret research and development laboratories including Station IX at the Natural History Museum and Station XII at the Frythe Hotel. Christopher Clayton Hutton of MI9, a clandestine unit within A-Force which specialised in escape and evasion, was also an inventor and deception-theorist. Major Jasper Maskelyne, a stage magician, also developed secret sabotage and subterfuge devices for MI-9. Operation Mincemeat David Porter wrote a full biography of Fraser-Smith in The Man Who Was Q: The True Story of Charles Fraser-Smith, the “Q” Wizard of WWII. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: The dangers of note-taking to an agent are, of course, immense. Discovery would be a death sentence and the same goes for the written instructions given to agents. So I came up with a couple of practical solutions. First, flash paper - paper impregnated with a chemical that allows it to burn instantly without ash or smoke. It just disappears. Quite magical.

CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: We left everything really, all we’d worked for and built. You could take only very limited funds with you. I remember standing with our son Brian near the quayside, waiting to board, and then the gendarmes began searching everybody. And that’s when I realized that things might not go so well for me. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Exactly, much less an inventor or engineer. When the war started I had already found my calling. I was 36, married with a young family, and living very far from Whitehall and England. Official secret: The remarkable story of escape aids, their invention, production, and the sequel, by Clayton Hutton (Crown Publishers, 1961, ASIN: B0007DU032). CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: He said he was impressed by my initiative and inventiveness, and he was looking for someone with those qualities to work in his department. After the war, Fraser-Smith bought a rundown dairy farm in Bratton Fleming, in southwest England. It became a profitable business. In the late 1970s, his family persuaded him to seek permission to write a book about his wartime exploits. With clearance under the Official Secrets Act he wrote several, donating the royalties to charity. [4]Many people have been offered up as the basis for James Bond’s characterization. Most being heroic war time figures or associates of Fleming. Several will probably be correct. Similarly, Fleming’s books were understandably influenced by his time as a naval intelligence officer during the Second World War.

Fraser was also involved in the intelligence operation codenamed Operation Mincemeat, [6] which was designed to drop a body, carrying false papers to mislead the Nazis, off the Spanish coast. He was tasked with designing a trunk, 6' 2" long and 3' wide, to carry a "deadweight" of 200lb that would be preserved in dry ice. When the dry ice evaporated, it filled the canister with carbon dioxide and drove out any oxygen, thus preserving the body without refrigeration. The plot was the basis of the book (and later film) The Man Who Never Was and the 2021 film Operation Mincemeat. [7] Later life [ edit ] NARRATOR: If you’re on an escape committee, a major priority is creating convincing forged documents, not easy from inside a jail.NARRATOR: In World War II, Britain possessed a unique asset in its fight against the Axis powers. A civil servant officially posted to the Ministry of Supply with a secret mission: to provide British agents and servicemen and women with the secret devices, gadgets needed to survive undercover. Meet Charles Fraser-Smith. Because of the wartime secrecy there was no written production process to work from. At the end of the war, any complete pencils still at the factory were sent off to the British Government, along with all written instructions and remaining components. Most, if not all of these, may have been destroyed. NARRATOR: When France surrenders there are still boats traveling between Casablanca and Britain. But not many, and the war in the Atlantic is heating up. They initially went to live in Harrow and then moved to Blanche's family home in Leeds, Charles having been offered a position with Avro, an aircraft factory at Yeadon nearby. Shaving brushes and, hairbrushes hiding useful objects in the handle such as maps printed on handkerchiefs and silk tissue. Smoking pipes and dominoes also carried maps within them.

CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Around his person, I learned, were some more of my creations. A minute surgical saw secreted into the lining of his clothes, more than a match for the bars on many prison cell windows. A miniaturized map of France printed on a silk handkerchief also hidden in the lining. We used silk to minimize rustling, and because you can fold it all you like without tearing. NARRATOR: Fleming’s plan was to refurbish one of these Nazi bombers and train a crew of British commandos to fly it.It was at an Open Brethren meeting in Leeds when Charles was giving a talk on his experiences in Morocco, that the director of the Ministry of Supplies (MOS) in Leeds, G. Ritchie Rice, was in the audience as well as Sir George Oliver, Director General of MOS in London. A meeting was immediately set up with Ritchie Rice and after much discussion Charles was offered a job with the MOS in Leeds. It’s unknown how many are left in the world, due to the fact they were carried in one of the UK’s most recognisable aircraft during World War Two. I’m actually thrilled that there is another pencil in circulation." CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Fleming was determined to get his hands on German codebooks. And at that time, a number of German bombers had been captured more or less intact after crash landing in Britain. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Then, Nazi air-sea rescue would no doubt be scrambled to rescue the bomber crew. Once they reached the crew, Fleming’s commandos would throw off their disguises, assassinate their rescuers and steal the German codebooks. My job was to provide disguises. Quite an intriguing challenge, as it happens, from a textile point of view.