Camp X: Secret Agent School...

[Warped9]

Monday evening at 9pm History channel in Canada is airing a two hour special, Camp X: Secret Agent School. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nA60QfPc6S4

This looks at the facility set up by the British and Canadians on the shores of Lake Ontario to train covert agents during WW2. Eventually the Americans also sent agents to be trained there and apparently modelled much of what they learned there in what would later be the CIA.

This is sadly a little known part of Canadian history partly because the facility was demolished in 1969. But agents learned everything they needed to know to fight including underwater demolitions and efficient methods of killing. William J. Donovan (head of the American OSS) is said to have been there as well as purportedly Ian Fleming (who was in British Naval Intelligence during the war). The facility was set up by Canadian Sir William Stevenson, otherwise known as the man called Intrepid, who also acted as liaison between the British and the U.S. who couldn't yet "officially" participate in the war.

I've read about Camp X before and I'm definitely interested to see this special feature.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/07/12/camp-x-has-rich-history-as-canadian-spy-school

 

[sojourner]

That Ian Fleming series on BBCA spent about 10 minutes at the camp in one of the episodes. Don't recall if they mentioned it by name other than "a training camp in Canada".

 

[Warped9]

There was an actual proper designation for the facility although I can't recall it at the moment, but it was sometimes referred to as Camp X. And if I recall correctly I think Fleming does make a vague reference to it in one of his Bond novels. Or maybe it was in John Pearson's book The Authorized Biography of Jame Bond. It's quite a good read.

 

[Warped9]

One of the reasons I find this sort of thing interesting is the fact that for a very long time it seems a lot of Canadians are not aware of Canada's military history and heritage. It's almost as if our educational system is embarrassed by it because they feel it doesn't play in with their preferred image of Canada as a peace keeper. I find that disgusting. Sometimes you have to fight to keep or restore the peace and there's nothing shameful in that. Particularly when the history shows Canada acquitting itself well in whatever theatre it engaged in.

I get a bit miffed when I see Canada's contributions played down or even ignored particularly when seeing dramatizations of American events. But then it's not Americans' responsibility to tell our stories.

An older film I enjoyed was The Devils Brigade which did show Canadians and Americans working equally side by side.

 

[wildstar]

Agreed, not only that, but I remember seeing a documentary about a POW camp in Canada (!) that held German soldiers. One escaped and made his way from the Toronto area through the Niagara Peninsula to the Falls. He held onto the bottom of a train going across the bridge to neutral USA. He was spotted, and the train backtracked across the bridge to Canada and he was apprehended. I mean, wow!

 

[Warped9]

My favourite part of this special was that covering William Fairbairn and his hand-to-hand combat training. Over the years as a cop in Shanghai he had developed his own fighting style he called Defendu. It was basically a no holds barred style fashioned to eliminate an opponent as brutally quick and effectively as possible. Fairbairn's motto was essentially fighting with no rules--kill or be killed. He also partnered in developing the Fairbairn-Sykes commando knife.