120 • CRESLOW MANOR
After his retirement, Cradock wrote a history of the JIC,Know Your
Enemy, and his memoirs, concentrating on his role in China and the
transfer of sovereignty overHong Kongto the People’s Republic of
China.CRESLOW MANOR.A powerful radio transmitter built in 1944 at
Creslow Manor in Buckinghamshire providedWhaddon Hallwith
an additional link overseas. After World War II, it remained in opera-
tion for theDiplomatic Wireless Serviceuntil 1993.
CRETE.The first British clandestine mission to Crete in World War
II was a jointSecret Intelligence Service(SIS)/Special Operations
Executive(SOE) operation that landed from HMSThunderboltin
October 1941. It was led by Jack Smith-Hughes, a barrister in peace-
time who had only recently been evacuated from the island. Formerly
in charge of the RASC field bakery in Canea, Smith-Hughes had
been captured and placed in a camp at Galatas from which he quickly
escaped with a group of friends. Together they formed a band of ir-
regulars and had lived with Cretan sympathizers until being collected
from the Preveli coast by a British submarine in August 1941. On his
mission, to reestablish contact with the Cretans who had helped him
and his companions, Smith-Hughes was accompanied by anInter-
Services Liaison Departmentwireless operator, Ralph Stockbridge,
aRoyal Corps of Signalsnoncommissioned officer and Cambridge
graduate who had also successfully evaded the enemy before being
evacuated to Egypt. They were followed in October byMonty
Woodhouse.
Upon his return toCairoafter 10 weeks in the field, Smith-Hughes
was placed in charge of SOE’s Cretan subsection. Although nomi-
nally under the command ofJohn Stevens(and later Tony Simonds),
‘‘the Greek office and the Cretan office were completely independent
of one another’’ and were respectively designated B6 and B5.
A sea route to Crete was maintained by ‘‘Skipper’’ Pool, a former
Section Dmember and ex–merchant navy officer who had pre-
viously managed the local Imperial Airways seaplane terminal.
Equipped with two caı ̈ques, theEscampadorand theHedgehog,
manned by Michael Cumberlege and John Campbell, SOE initiated
and maintained a regular link from Mersa Matruh, near Alexandria,