Practical Martial Arts Association

On September 20, 1945, President Truman issued an executive order terminating the OSS, effective 1 October.    In the few days remaining to the agency, General Donovan ordered Lt. Edwin J. Putzell to assist him in microfilming select documents from Donovan's safe files for his own action and personal use. Donovan and Putzell worked, under pressure of time, with a Kodak Recordak Camera to produce 131 rolls of 35mm microfilm from the records of the Donovan files. You can find the summary of the contents of those microfilms here - not only is it a good place to look for other reference material, the summary itself makes for fascinating reading and shows just how many pies the OSS was trying to stick its fingers in by 1945.

In  July 1941, President Roosevelt signed an order naming William J Donovan Coordinator of Information.  Donavan had been acting in an informal (amateurish) intelligence gathering role for FDR for some time. Donovan (the only person to have received all four of the United States' highest awards: The Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal) began to construct, with the help of the British, the infrastructure of an organisation that essentially combined the activities of MI6 & SOE - this included the infamous Camp-X, which was set up in Ontario (as the US was yet to join the war) with W E Fairbairn seconded from the British to teach his unsavory methods. The Office of Strategic Services was established by a Presidential military order issued by President Roosevelt on June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct special operations ...

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare follows the main players and big events connected with the SOE and adjoining agencies throughout the second world war.  This book is an absolute page-turner!  Daring raids, weird weapons, ridiculous politics and stone cold killers make up the riveting tale of guerillas and commandos during the second world war. I picked this book up due to my interest in W E Fairbairn.  There are some interesting tidbits on Fairbairn and Sykes, however, they are not the focus here - the book does however give real context to the need for their brand of training. It is probably fair to say the central character in the book is  Sir Colin McVean Gubbins , who was the 'prime mover' of the SOE during the war.  At the outset of the war, Gubbins wrote two manuals on guerilla warfare, and like many believed the invasion of Britain was coming and they would be reduced to fighting this style of war.  One of his first jobs was setti...