Most Secret War

by R.V. Jones

Churchill was now convinced, and he said that he would like to see all future information but that it might compromise our source if we continued to use the German code name. So he told us that in future all teleprints on the subject should be headed ‘Operation Smith’. His instructions were carried out, with the surprising result that the War Office appeared to lose all interest in information coming from Bletchley regarding the invasion. After some time, the reason was found. It turned out that the War Office had its own Operation Smith, which was indeed concerned with the invasion. It was the code name for the movement from one of its minor administrative branches from its current headquarters in somewhere like Stroud or Tetbury to some place further north if the Germans should have invaded and posed a threat to south Gloucestershire. The result was that when the Bletchley teleprints were received in the War Office, duly headed according to the Prime Minister’s instruction, they were immediately sent to the Colonel in Gloucestershire, who no doubt impressed by the service that the War Office was providing but realizing that the material was too secret for general circulation, locked them in his safe and told nobody.