WW2 agents 'failed the honey trap test'

Kyt · Jan 13, 2009

WW2 agents 'failed the honey trap test' at country house training centre - Telegraph

Second World War trainee secret agents were tested for their resilience to the 'honey trap' at a Surrey manor house, according to a new analysis of the role Britain's country properties played during the war.

But few succeeded in keeping their secrets to themselves when plied with alcohol and seduced by pretty women at Wanborough Manor near Guildford, according to the architectural historian Marcus Binney.

Writing in the latest edition of Country Life magazine, Binney said tests of recruits for Sir Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive at the Elizabethan house on Surrey's Hog's Back ridge only proved how fallible most of them were.

The manor was one of scores of country houses across Britain commandeered by the military and put to use in the war effort.

Binney, an expert on the issue, wrote: "Churchill's Special Operations Executive, which trained secret agents, took over more than 70 country houses and Highland deerstalking lodges, and was jokingly known as Stately 'Omes of England.

"Elizabethan Wanborough Manor on the Hog's Back near Guildford was one of the houses where trainee agents were plied with drink to see if they would talk when light-headed.

"Alas, the glamorous girls employed to extract details of missions were so successful that the tests were abandoned as ever more brave, painstakingly trained young men succumbed."

Other country houses taken over for military means included Inverailort near Fort William, where commandos were sent for training.

Another was Cowbridge House on the banks of the River Avon near Malmesbury, Wilts, where parts of the Marconi-Ekco radios that were vital to the radar used in the Battle of Britain were made.

"So secret was the work that the 1,000 employees based at Cowbridge had no idea what they were making", according to Binney.

The most famous was Bletchley Park, Bucks, where the Enigma codes were broken.

Sadly, for all the role they played in housing some of the most crucial development in the war, the buildings were often poorly treated.

Binney wrote: "Dozens of houses were so roughly treated that the owners never returned."

"Horror stories" abound of staircases ripped up for firewood and Van Dyck paintings used as dartboards.

The subsequent dismantling of many country house collections in the post-war years led Binney to help stage the exhibition The Destruction of the Country House at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1974. It has been credited with helping revive interest in Britain's country houses.
Click to expand...

Gage · Jan 15, 2009

One good book by above author.

The Women Who Lived for Danger: Marcus Binney: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Log in or Sign up

WW2 agents 'failed the honey trap test'

Kyt Άρης

Gage New Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

WW2 agents 'failed the honey trap test'

Thread Tools

Kyt Άρης

Gage New Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches