COHEN, KENNETH• 101head of station in Gibraltar, where he was a witness to the air acci-
dent that killed General Sikorski. By the end of the war, Codrington
was back in London as a liaison officer with the French Deuxie`me
Bureau. After the war he rejoined London Films and later began a
new career as a garden designer. He died in April 1991.COHEN, KENNETH.Born on 15 March 1900, Kenneth Cohen was
the son of a barrister and was educated at Eastbourne College before
joining the Royal Navy as a ‘‘special entry’’ cadet in 1918. He subse-
quently served on HMSIron Dukeand became an expert on torpe-
does before he transferred in 1935 to theSecret Intelligence Service
(SIS). Soon after joining SIS, Cohen was placed in charge of the
London headquarters of a European network, known simply as Z or
theZ Organisation, which operated under commercial cover in par-
allel to the more overt SIS structure that depended on a string of
Passport Control Officesattached to diplomatic premises abroad.
Masquerading as ‘‘Kenneth Crane’’ and designated ‘‘Z-3,’’ Cohen
worked through a front company, Menoline Limited, in Maple Street
and an office in Bush House to recruit sources, including several dis-
tinguished foreign correspondents of British newspapers in France,
Holland, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. Upon the outbreak
of war, Z’s assets were amalgamated into SIS’s main organization,
and Cohen was attached to the French country section known as A4,
becoming head of the Vichy French country section, designated P1,
in May 1940. His task was to recruit sources from within the unoccu-
pied zone of France. One of his successes was Jacques Bridou, who
was parachuted into France in March 1941 to establish thealliance
network, based in Pau and Marseilles, and later headed by the formi-
dableMarie-Madeleine Fourcade.
In the summer of 1943, in anticipation of an invasion of Europe,
Cohen was selected to take charge ofbrissex, the British compo-
nent of a large scheme codenamedsussexto parachute 60 two-man
Allied intelligence teams behind enemy lines. This huge paramilitary
enterprise was intended to disrupt Nazi communications and logistics
immediately afterD-Day, and then liaise with local resistance orga-
nizations until reached by the Allies. The role played by Cohen re-
quired considerable tact and diplomacy because the American
volunteers were inexperienced and the French intransigent.