Fitzroy Maclean

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On 21st May 1942, as night was falling across the Libyan desert, a British army vehicle was racing towards the Italian-occupied port of Benghazi. Disguised as a German staff car, it carried six British soldiers from the newly-formed Special Air Service brigade. One of them was Fitzroy Maclean; another was the brigade’s founder, David Stirling. Their mission was straightforward. They were to enter the town under cover of darkness and inspect the harbour, which at that point was being used as the principal supply port for Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps. If opportunity allowed, they were to blow up any German supply ships. Then, having evaded capture, they were to slip away and rejoin the men and vehicles of the Long-Range Desert Group in time for breakfast. In North Africa in 1942, he distinguished himself in the early actions of the newly formed Special Air Service (SAS), where, with Ralph A. Bagnold, he developed ways of driving vehicles over the Libyan sand "seas". Maclean was a brilliant practitioner in the T. E. Lawrence brand of fighting, and he reported directly to Winston Churchill in Cairo. A letter of introduction from David Stirling said of him at the end of this period: "He has done well on our raids. Don't be taken in by his rather pompous manner or his slow way of speaking - he is OK." [6] Persia and Iraq [ edit ]

The first challenge Maclean faced was getting into military service at all. His Foreign Office job was a reserved occupation, so he was not allowed to enlist. The only way around this was to go into politics, and on this stated ground Maclean tendered his resignation in 1941 to Alexander Cadogan, an FO mandarin. Maclean immediately enlisted, taking a taxi from Sir Alexander's office to a nearby recruiting station, where he joined the Cameron Highlanders, his father's regiment, as a private. Later, his erstwhile employers discovered that his resignation had been merely a ruse or legal fiction along the lines of taking the Chiltern Hundreds. Maclean was thus forced to run for office and, despite his self-confessed inexperience, was chosen as a Conservative candidate, and eventually elected MP. Prime Minister Winston Churchill jocularly accused him of using "the Mother of Parliaments as a public convenience". [2] Benghazi and the desert retreat [ edit ] By the end of the year, the war had developed in such a way that the new SAS detachment would not be needed in Persia. General Wilson was being transferred to Middle East Command, and Maclean extracted a promise that the newly trained troops would go with him, as their style of commando raids were ideal for southern and eastern Europe. Frustrated by the abandoning of plans for an assault on Crete, Maclean went to see Reginald Leeper, "an old friend from Foreign Office days, and now His Majesty's Ambassador to the Greek Government then in exile in Cairo". Leeper put in a word for him, and very soon Maclean was told to go to London to get his instructions directly from the prime minister. Churchill told him to parachute into Jugoslavia (now spelled Yugoslavia) as head of a military mission accredited to Josip Broz Tito (a shadowy figure at that point) or whoever was in charge of the Partisans, the Communist-led resistance movement. Mihajlovic's royalist Cetniks (now spelled Chetniks), which the Allies had been supporting, did not appear to be fighting the Germans very hard, and indeed were said to be collaborating with the enemy. Maclean famously paraphrased Churchill: "My task was simply to help find out who was killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more." The prime minister saw Maclean as "a daring Ambassador-leader to these hardy and hunted guerillas". During my numerous visits and stays on Korčula, an island where a portion of my maternal family still lives, I’ve always been perplexed that most tour companies don’t mention the island’s connection to the man who inspired the character of Bond, and who lived right here in their midst. To the best of my knowledge the Maclean house, known as the Palazzo Boschi and located immediately next door to the Cathedral of St. Mark in Korčula’s main square, doesn’t bear any sort of historic plaque, nor is there any reference made of Maclean as the inspiration for Fleming’s later portrayal of Bond in the local tourist offices. Let’s hope that will change with the release of the next Bond installment (slated to hit theatres in 2020). Svoja sećanja iz Drugog svetskog rata sa područja bivše Jugoslavije objavio je u knjizi Rat na Balkanu. [6] Napisao je i nekoliko djela o Titu. Posljednja knjiga o jugoslovenskom lideru, „Ilustrovana biografija predsjednika Tita”, objavljena godinu dana poslije Titove smrti. Once on Vis, Tito was able to conduct the movement while extending the co-operation with the Allies. Shortly afterwards he was invited to Naples to meet with the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean General Maitland Wilson and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Naples Conference was a success, the two leaders got on well and Churchill was "generous in his praise for Tito's leadership and in his recognition of the Partisans' contribution to the Allied cause". He also insisted that there could be no political recognition of the Partisan regime unless they came to some kind of arrangement with King Peter II, and warned Tito against a Soviet-style collectivisation of agriculture. After the ten-day sojourn, the group returned to Vis to manage political and military events ahead. [60]He was Grand President of the Clan Gillean Association, honorary president of the Mull and Iona Association, vice-president and formerly president of the Highland Society of London. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant for Argyllshire in 1932. [3] Heraldry [ edit ] Coat of arms of Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 10th Baronet Finding a sentry guarding a barbed-wire fence, their creativity was tested again.‘We’ve just met with a motor accident,’ explained Maclean politely.‘And this,’ he added, nodding towards their large bundles, ‘is our luggage. Could you direct us to a hotel?’ Apologetically, the sentry replied that all the hotels were closed because of the recent bombing. He hoped that they would find somewhere to sleep, and wished them good night. Moving on with a word of thanks, Maclean’s party began to look for somewhere to get through the wire.

Once on the island, Maclean met the local partisan representatives as well as a Franciscan friar, who was the chairman of the local council, and who somewhat surprisingly greeted him with a clenched fist salute. After a short rest, the group was taken on a drive around the island. They met the locals, inspected partisan detachments, the hospital and printworks even being "pelted with flowers by some nuns". Maclean noticed that, in contrast to the mainland, the Roman Catholic clergy in Korčula seem to be the "leading lights in the Partisan Movement". [27] Maclean, who was a Conservative MP at the time and had no liking for communists, was relieved. He left for Cairo to prepare the mission. [4] On 28 Jul 1943, Churchill wrote to the Foreign Secretary that he wanted "a daring Ambassador-leader with these hardy and hunted guerrillas", making Maclean an ideal candidate. [5] Maclean's team flew to Italy and crossed the Adriatic in a motor-torpedo-boat passing by two British Navy Hunt Class destroyers, and realising the higher attention that the area was now receiving. They arrived at Vela Luka on the island of Korčula and off-loaded the arms and ammunition that they brought with them. By now, the Germans have taken over the neighbouring Pelješac peninsula and started exchanging of shell-fire across a narrow strait that separated them. It became obvious that Korčula could not be held for much longer, and that the preparation for the evacuation onto the island of Vis, the farthest away from the mainland, should start. Once on Vis, Maclean and the team inspected the island and realised that its main valley would make an ideal airfield. [44] Having an ability to base or refuel there would extend the Allied air-power range across the whole of Adriatic and deep into Yugoslavia. However, they needed to garrison the island, and while the partisans offered one brigade, another one had to be found from the Allied 15th Army Group still fighting in central Italy. Maclean and R Churchill returned to Bari to consider their options. [45] Jedno sam odmah uočio — Titovu spremnost da bilo koje pitanje svestrano razmotri i, ako je potrebno, da na licu mesta donese odluku. Izgledao je sasvim siguran u sebe; čovek koji odlučuje, a ne potčinjeni. Naići na ovakvu uverenost i nezavisnost u komunista, predstavljalo je za mene novo iskustvo. [7]Lehmann-haupt, Christopher (14 February 1983). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 3 September 2016. Tito je reagovao podjednako oštro na sve ono što bi se, u najširem mogućem smislu, moglo smatrati kao omalovažavanje nacionalnog dostojanstva Jugoslavije. Ovaj nacionalni ponos, palo mi je u oči, bila je neočekivana odlika čoveka za kojeg se činilo da će kao komunist biti na prvom mestu veran jednoj stranoj sili, Sovjetskom Savezu. [8] Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert campaign, where he specialised in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans while commanding the Maclean Mission there. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond. [2] Early life [ edit ] Sir Fitzroy and his men spirited the general away past unsuspecting Persian troops and a British plane eventually flew him to what was then Palestine. Ended Feud With Campbells". The New York Times. 23 November 1936. Fought in Crimean War Colonel Sir Fitzroy Donald MacLean would have celebrated his fifty-third anniversary as chief of the Clan MacLean in December. ...

A sinister part was being played in all this by a certain General Zahidi," who was thought to be in cahoots with tribal leaders and in touch with German agents in the hills, Sir Fitzroy recalled. He wangled his way into the general's house and in his book tells what happened next: Graduate of Eton and subsequently King's College, University of Cambridge. Joined the Diplomatic Service in 1932. Posted to Paris from 1933-1937 and then the British Embassy to Moscow from 1937-1941. First, Maclean was always a fervent anti-Communist and man of the Right. But he was a realist, unable to deny the evidence of his senses for ideological reasons, and he had a clear, military, non-political mandate from Churchill. Secondly, Tito would have prevailed in Yugoslavia with or without British aid, but the British connection was all- important psychologically when Tito broke with Stalin in 1948 to pursue an independent, non-aligned, "Third Way" style of Communism. Thirdly, Mihailovic and the Chetniks were the military arm of Greater Serb nationalism. Events since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1989 have tarnished the credibility of Serb nationalism. It is ironic that it took the horrors of the Yugoslav civil war before the claque of anti-Maclean tongues was finally silenced. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been formed in 1922, after the Russian Revolution had brutally disposed of the Tsar and his family. The Communist party, led by Vladimir Lenin, took control of the government, and shortly after Lenin’s death a new dictator, Joseph Stalin, set about making the Soviet Union a superpower. Stalin’s policies were horrifying. The ‘Great Purge’ resulted in the execution of around 600,000 people, and many more were sent to labour camps or succumbed to famine. For Soviet citizens, even minor transgressions from Communist ideology were punishable by death. In Moscow, foreign embassy officials were tolerated, even respected, but their movements were closely monitored and it was considered dangerous to socialise with them. In this photo essay, Ted Leeming explores current forestry policy, practices and management in the UK & Scotland in 2023.

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Eastern Approaches is Maclean's classic, gripping account of the sybaritic delights of diplomatic life, the thrill of remote travel in the then-forbidden zones of Central Asia, and the violence and adventure of world-changing tours in North Africa and Yugoslavia. Maclean is the original British action hero and this is blistering reading. In 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, Maclean and his wife delivered medical supplies to the island of Korčula, with a substantial contribution from the people of Rothesay and Bute. [24] [27] Death [ edit ] Brigadier Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, 1st Baronet, KT , CBE (11 March 1911 – 15 June 1996) was a British Army officer, writer and politician. He was a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) from 1941 to 1974 and was one of only two men who during the Second World War enlisted in the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier, the other being future fellow Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Adrian O′Sullivan (2015). Espionage and Counterintelligence in Occupied Persia (Iran): The Success of the Allied Secret Services, 1941-45. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.120–131. ISBN 978-1-137-55556-4.