Post by Diarist on Oct 19, 2015 15:46:34 GMT 1
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)
In the immediate post-war years under Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming and throughout most of the 1920s, the SIS was focused on Communism, in particular, Russian Bolshevism. Examples include a thwarted operation to overthrow the Bolshevik government in 1918 by SIS agents Sidney George Reilly and Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, as well as more orthodox espionage efforts within early Soviet Russia headed by Captain George Hill.
Smith-Cumming died suddenly at his home on 14 June 1923, shortly before he was due to retire, and was replaced as C by Admiral Sir Hugh "Quex" Sinclair.
Sinclair created the following sections:
. A central foreign counter-espionage Circulating Section, Section V, to liaise with the Security Service to collate counter-espionage reports from overseas stations.
. An economic intelligence section, Section VII, to deal with trade, industrial and contraband.
. A clandestine radio communications organisation, Section VIII, to communicate with operatives and agents overseas.
. Section N to exploit the contents of foreign diplomatic bags
. Section D to conduct political covert actions and paramilitary operations in time of war.
With the emergence of Germany as a threat following the ascendance of the Nazis, in the early 1930s attention was shifted in that direction. In May 1935 Combined Operations Headquarters was formed under Admiral Roger Keyes and Section D was incorporated into the new organization. Mussolini's Italy became the priority mission but the extra personnel available will ensure that Nazi Germany will not lose attention.
Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS)
GC&CS was officially formed on 1 November 1919, and produced its first decrypt on 19 October. By 1922, the main focus of GC&CS was on diplomatic traffic, with "no service traffic ever worth circulating" and so, at the initiative of Lord Curzon, it was transferred from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office. GC&CS came under the supervision of Hugh Sinclair, who by 1923 was both the Chief of SIS and Director of GC&CS. In 1925, both organisations were co-located on different floors of Broadway Buildings, opposite St. James's Park. Messages decrypted by GC&CS are distributed in blue-jacketed files that are known as "BJs".
On 19 Jul 1935 GC&GS was transferred to the Ministry of Defence and is located at Bletchley Park.
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Headquarters#Government_Code_and_Cypher_School_.28GC.26CS.29