165
administration of regional security out of all proportion to the numeric
strength of their war establishment. Equally striking is the versatility they
evidenced with the sheer range of duties they performed, from the large-
scale closure of borders, interdiction of enemy espionage, and prevention
of smuggling operations to such detailed small-scale investigations as
those into wanted individuals, the failure of railway personnel to lubricate
axle bearings, or the theft of screwdrivers from railway workshops.^42
Notes
- For more about Wordsworth, see Geoffrey Household, Against the Wind
(London: Michael Joseph, 1958), 121; Nick Van der Bijl, Sharing the
Secret: A History of the Intelligence Corps 1940–2010 (Barnsley: Pen &
Sword Military, 2013), 43–5. - In November 1941, John Glubb prepared an amusing, but informative,
series of lectures for British security officers to deliver to men serving in
Ninth Army, including one on the duties of the FSS, which I found in his
private papers. See Sir John Glubb Collection, GB165-0118, Middle East
Centre Archive, St Antony’s College (Oxford) [MECA]. See also Private
papers of Raymond Maunsell, 4829, Documents Collection, Imperial War
Museum [IWM]. - Judge, ‘Field Security Sections’, 1. Household, educated at Clifton and
Oxford, would later become a prolific novelist. His war memoir, Against
the Wind, is highly readable. - Ibid.; Household, Against the Wind, 179–86.
- I(b) Monthly Summary: June 1941, CICI Iraq c/o Air HQ Iraq, 1 July
1941, AIR 29/2510, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey [TNA]. - I(b) Summary, Defence Security Office, CICI Iraq, 16–30 September
1941, AIR 29/2510, TNA. - Household, Against the Wind, 182–3.
- Two of the suspects were Taurus Express conductors: Mahmud Tosun and
Ibrahim beg al-Wandawi. Dayton to Penrose and Crawford, 2 February
1944, Record Group 226, Entry 215, Box 7, National Archives and
Records Administration, College Park, MD [NARA]. - This was dangerous work. For security reasons, NCOs on train duties
always wore civilian clothes and never acknowledged each other. Judge,
‘Field Security Sections’, 5. - I(b) Summary, Defence Security Office, CICI Iraq, 1–15 October 1941,
AIR 29/2510, TNA. - A CEV sergeant would board the train at Meydan Ekbez, the Syrian fron-
tier station (see Fig. 7.1), and would use the passports he collected to com-
BORDER SECURITY AND BOOTS ON THE GROUND