Post by Diarist on Dec 22, 2016 4:49:58 GMT 1
General Gort took care of our Spanish guest so at TRADOC I showed COL O'Connor around. I showed him my notes about Palestine and anything relevant to the 5th Armoured Division. I then took him to our planning room where all the material from the recent FTX were still displayed. I gave him an account of the exercise itself and he had many questions especially about the very flexible organization of Blue forces. I left him in the Armour Section while I went to John Gort's office hoping to find LTC Juan Rodriguez there which was the case.
"I was just about to start looking for you, Bob."
"I was giving COL O'Connor a thorough briefing for his next assignment." The telephone rang and while John was talking Juan gave me a piece of paper with the name and phone number of General Franco's adjutant. "He speaks fluent English and is looking forward to hearing from you."
John handed the phone to me. "It's Edward."
"Hallo, Edward. Any good news?" I listened for a minute then asked, "have you told Winston? Good. All you need to do now is organize transportation for the guests. Preferably in coordination with Downing Street and/or Chequers. They have their contacts. Good work." John Gort was giving me a questioning look. "A Hawker demonstration for our guests tomorrow. A sales pitch."
"An excellent idea. You can have Colonel Rodriguez and I'll meet you at the hotel shortly." I was just about to close his office door behind me when he signalled that I come back in. "Why is SOE interested in Spain?"
"Two reasons. The situation in Spain is very much like France prior to Mussolini's demise. The left wing parties are joining together and if there's an election soon they could win and Spain could join COMINTERN. On France's southern border! Moscow has a finger in the pie too. Second, Wilhelm Canaris speaks fluent Spanish."
"I understand. See you later."
The three of us, (Juan Rodriguez, Richard O'Connor and myself), walked to my house where we picked up Sally and Celeste Rodriguez. I made a quick phone call to Madrid and arranged to contact COL Rosa again on Monday morning. At the hotel I was surprised to see Louis and George there. George was officially saying farewell to COL van Voorhis and although he is second highest ranking officer of the U.S. delegation LTC Haisley will head the mission at TRADOC after Daniel van Voorhis travels home. After dinner we drove Juan and Celeste to the Spanish Embassy while Richard travelled with Louis and George to London.
"I was just about to start looking for you, Bob."
"I was giving COL O'Connor a thorough briefing for his next assignment." The telephone rang and while John was talking Juan gave me a piece of paper with the name and phone number of General Franco's adjutant. "He speaks fluent English and is looking forward to hearing from you."
John handed the phone to me. "It's Edward."
"Hallo, Edward. Any good news?" I listened for a minute then asked, "have you told Winston? Good. All you need to do now is organize transportation for the guests. Preferably in coordination with Downing Street and/or Chequers. They have their contacts. Good work." John Gort was giving me a questioning look. "A Hawker demonstration for our guests tomorrow. A sales pitch."
"An excellent idea. You can have Colonel Rodriguez and I'll meet you at the hotel shortly." I was just about to close his office door behind me when he signalled that I come back in. "Why is SOE interested in Spain?"
"Two reasons. The situation in Spain is very much like France prior to Mussolini's demise. The left wing parties are joining together and if there's an election soon they could win and Spain could join COMINTERN. On France's southern border! Moscow has a finger in the pie too. Second, Wilhelm Canaris speaks fluent Spanish."
"I understand. See you later."
The three of us, (Juan Rodriguez, Richard O'Connor and myself), walked to my house where we picked up Sally and Celeste Rodriguez. I made a quick phone call to Madrid and arranged to contact COL Rosa again on Monday morning. At the hotel I was surprised to see Louis and George there. George was officially saying farewell to COL van Voorhis and although he is second highest ranking officer of the U.S. delegation LTC Haisley will head the mission at TRADOC after Daniel van Voorhis travels home. After dinner we drove Juan and Celeste to the Spanish Embassy while Richard travelled with Louis and George to London.