The Guy Liddell Diaries, Volume I: 1939-1942

MI5's Director of Counter-Espionage in World War II

Nigel West

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781134263448
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

This is the first volume of Nigel West's acclaimed presentation of these fascinating diaries from the heart of Britain's Second World War intelligence operations.

'No intelligence buff can be without this volume and anyone interested in British twentieth century history needs it too.'

M.R.D. Foot, The Spectator

'Regarded by historians as the most important military intelligence documents from the whole of the Second World War.'

Irish Independent

'[A] unique insight into the espionage secrets of the Second World War. Its historical importance is enhanced by the editing of Nigel West who, apart from decoding several obscure references to the secret war, persuaded the Security Service to break their rule of maintaining an agent's anonymity.'

BBC History Magazine

WALLFLOWERS is the codename given to one of the Security Service's most treasured possessions, the daily journal dictated from August 1939 to June 1945 by MI5's Director of Counter Espionage, Guy Liddell, to his secretary, Margo Huggins. The document was considered so highly classified that it was retained in the safe of successive Directors General, and special permission was required to read it.

No other member of the Security Service is known to have maintained a diary and the twelve volumes of this journal represent a unique record of the events and personalities of the period, a veritable tour d'horizon of the entire subject. As Director, B Division, Liddell supervised all the major pre-war and wartime espionage investigations, maintained a watch on suspected pro-Nazis and laid the foundations of the famous 'double cross system' of enemy double agents. He was unquestionably one of the most reclusive and remarkable men of his generation, and a legend within his own organization.

APPENDIX I

MI5 organisation

Director-General	Sir David Petrie
Deputy D-G	Jasper Harker
Legal Adviser	Jim Hale
Operations	Gilbert Lennox
A Division	Charles Butler
	Malcolm Cumming
	Reg Horrocks
B Division	Guy Liddell
	Dick White
	Malcolm Frost
B1(a)	T.A. Robertson
Special Agents
B1(b)	Herbert Hart
Special Research
B1(c)	Victor Rothschild
Sabotage
B1(d)	Ronnie Haylor
RVPS
B1(e)	Robin Stephens
Camp 020
B1(f)	Courtney Young
Japanese Espionage
B1(g)	Dick Brooman-White
Spanish Espionage
B1(h)	Cecil Liddell
Ireland
B1(k)	Mr Machell
Leakages
B2	Richman Stopford
Agents
B3	Malcolm Frost
Communications
B3 (a)	Malcolm Frost
Censorship
B3(b)	F.A. Sclater
Illicit Wireless
B3(c)	Fl-Lt. Walker
Light Signalling
B4	Jock Whyte
Country Sections
B4(a)	Jock Whyte
Espionage
B4(b)	Mr Craufurd
Industrial Espionage
B5	Len Burt
Investigations
B6	Harry Hunter
Watchers
PS	Derek Tangye
Press Section
C Division	Harry Allen
Examination of	Major Bacon
Credentials
D Division	Harry Allen
Travel Control	Colonel Norman
E Division	Theo Turner
Alien Control	Kenneth Younger
F Division	Roger Hollis
Subversion	Blanshard Stamp
F1	Colonel Alexander
Military Security
F2	Roger Hollis
Left-Wing
F2(a)	David Clarke
Communist Party
F2(b)
Comintern
F2(c)	Mr Pilkington
Russian Intelligence
F3	Francis Aiken-Sneath
Ring Wing
F4	Roger Fulford
Pacifists

APPENDIX II

Mode of arrival of German agents

A Illegal arrivals i.e. by other than recognised and approved channels

1 Surreptitious arrivals

(a)	by rowing boat ex-traw...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editor’s note
• Acknowledgments
• Personalities
• Executions
• British Intelligence establishments
• Glossary
• Introduction
• The Diaries, 1939–1942
• Appendix 1:MI5 organisation
• Appendix 2:Mode of arrival of German agents
• Index