WW2 100: Budleigh’s Bond Connection

How the real-life ‘M’ of Ian Fleming’s novels planned a survival strategy with local resident Murray Levick during WW2.  

 

The poster that I designed for the 2011-12 exhibition

Fairlynch Museum’s 2011-12 exhibition,  entitled  ‘Survival!’, featured the extraordinary experiences of Antarctic explorer Murray Levick.

This remarkable Budleigh resident’s expertise proved vital during WW2. When he was well into his sixties he came out of retirement to work on the same secret operation as James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

 

Levick skins a penguin on board the Terra Nova, part of Robert Falcon Scott’s last Antarctic expedition of 1910-13. Photo by Herbert Ponting (Ponting Collection: Reference P2005/5/911); Wikipedia

More than 20 years ago after his polar experience, Murray Levick’s reputation as an expert in survival in hostile environments was such that at the outbreak of war he was asked by the Government to instruct commandos in the art of survival. He was still extremely fit for his age.  A story is told of how he would demonstrate his physical fitness by cartwheeling down a staircase in front of trainees.

In Antarctica he had tried the experiment of living for a week on seal meat and nothing else. The notes that he now made in wartime formed the basis of a memorandum published by the Naval Intelligence Division ‘for the use of agents and escapees who may find themselves at large on the Continent without food.’

 

The document, entitled Living off the Land, stressed the need for a radical approach in order to survive. ‘Men should be impressed with the importance of forgetting old prejudices when they are faced with the necessity of eating anything they can get hold of,’ he wrote, 

Animal food that he recommended included rats and mice, all birds, frogs, snails, dogs and cats, grass snakes, lizards, hedgehogs, eels and horse meat.

 

Levick in the 1940s, back in naval uniform. Image credit: Mike Wilson

The question of which wild vegetables to eat was, he wrote, ‘a more serious subject’ because of the importance of recognising the chief edible plants, as opposed to those in which ‘food material is enclosed in cellulose, which our digestion cannot dissolve.’

Detailed advice followed on the various methods of preparing stinging nettles, clover, bracken fern, sow thistle, dandelion, arrowhead, mushrooms, corn, hips and haws, and surprisingly,yew berries, described as ‘wholesome food’ although the foliage is recognised as poisonous, and the seeds within the berries are in fact extremely toxic.

 

This copy of Levick’s official notebook in which he wrote his instructions for survival on wild food was one of the exhibits in the 2011-12 exhibition. He recommended such plants as bracken fern, blackthorn and sow thistle, using French names for them to help British agents and escaped PoWs who might find themselves in occupied  France

 

Above: Robin Harford leads a party of food foragers along the River Otter near Budleigh

East Devon is a popular place for food foragers, attracting environmentalists like Chris Holland, former Otterton resident and founder of Wholeland (details here) and Robin Harford who started his foraging school in 2008 while based at Northmostown, near Newton Poppleford, and has a website here

Both were fascinated to learn of Murray Levick’s pioneering role in food foraging. ‘From a research point of view his notebooks could be invaluable for uncovering the forgotten historical record of the edible landscape,’ commented Robin.

The Rock of Gibraltar  Image credit: Bengt Nyman 

Murray Levick’s real claim to fame in WW2 was his involvement in the highly classified British military plan known as Operation Tracer.

Map of Operation Tracer, also known as Stay Behind Cave, in Gibraltar. At the time that the site was constructed, it was known as Braithwaite's Cave.

Image credit: Jim Crone - DiscoverGibraltar.com

In 1941, Royal Naval Intelligence decided to establish a covert observation post at Gibraltar that would remain operational even if the base was captured by the enemy. It was intended that, from the secret observation post, the movements of enemy vessels in the Straits and Bay of Gibraltar would be reported back to the UK.   

The complex included an observation slit overlooking the Bay of Gibraltar (2 cm wide) and a larger opening over the Mediterranean Sea. Royal Naval Intelligence selected six men, including two physicians, for the operation and it was understood that they would remain sealed within the cave complex for about a year or longer with provisions for a seven-year stay assembled in the complex.

The view to the Bay of Gibraltar from the secret post, showing the 2 cm-wide gap which would have allowed British observers to spy on the German Navy

© Moshi Anahory

Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey CB (1888-1970). His biographer Patrick Beesley published Very Special Admiral’ in 1980

The mastermind of Operation Tracer was Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, pictured above.  Known as an intellectual who acted ‘ruthlessly, relentlessly and remorselessly’,  he has been cited as the inspiration for the fictional M, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service in the James Bond novels.

Ian Fleming (1908-64), better known as the author of the James Bond novels. Casino Royale was his first, published in 1953. Image of Ian Fleming: Wikipedia

James Bond’s creator, Commander Ian Fleming, was involved in Operation Tracer through his role in Operation Golden Eye. This was an Allied plan to monitor Spain after a possible alliance between Francisco Franco and the Axis powers, and to undertake sabotage operations. 

Levick in naval uniform during WW2. Image credit: Mike Wilson

It was Levick who recruited the two physicians for Operation Tracer. He made recommendations on psychological vetting of personnel, as well as diet, clothing, exercise, and leisure activity.  He also advised on ventilation and sanitation of the cave, including how to handle dead bodies. He drew up reports with recommendations for the operation and attended meetings held by the Director of Naval Intelligence at Curzon Street in London. 

The cave complex entrance

© Moshi Anahory

He also compiled a comprehensive list of provisions to be assembled within the cave in the Upper Rock. Director Godfrey and his consultants agreed with Levick's recommendation for a rehearsal, although Romney Marsh in England was chosen, rather than Scotland. In addition, Levick lived with the Tracer team during the rehearsal period.

In the event Operation Tracer was never activated once the risk of Gibraltar falling into enemy hands became increasingly low.

You can read more about the fascinating Operation Tracer at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tracer

And you can read more about this impressive former Budleigh resident on this blog:

With Dr Murray Levick at Gallipoli
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/09/budleighs-murray-levick-hero-of.html

Murray Levick: Caring for the War Wounded
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2011/02/local-heros-fairlynch-exhibition-will.html

Murray Levick: Champion of the Disabled 
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2011/02/hero-of-budleighs-heritage.html

Murray Levick: The man who helped thousands to fill the gap
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2011/04/man-who-helped-thousands-to-fill-gap.html

You can access other posts on this blog by going to the Blog Archive (under the ‘About Me’ section), and clicking on the appropriate heading.