12 • ALLEN
though written, have yet to be published. All have a common theme
of mismanagement at SOE headquarters in Cairo and Bari, and they
display great affection for the guerrilla bands with whom they lived
and fought.
After the war, SIS misinterpreted the loyalty expressed by some
former comrades-in-arms and employed some former members of
SOE’s Albanian subsection to subvert Hoxha. Hare, Hibberdine,
Smiley, Kemp, Amery, Anthony Northrop, andDayrell Oakley-Hill
all played active parts in mounting an ill-fated clandestine offensive
against Tirana in 1949. Blame for the debacle has often been attrib-
uted toKim Philby’s duplicity, but the reality is that SIS’s postwar
planners underestimated the determination of the Albanians to de-
fend themselves, and even a despotic government, from external in-
terference. The first three missions sent into Albania by SIS overland
from Greece or across the Adriatic suffered only minimal casualties,
and it was not until theCentral Intelligence Agency(CIA) em-
barked upon large-scale airdrops, employing e ́migre ́s trained at a
major camp in Germany, that the Communists inflicted a really
heavy toll on the infiltrators. Most were captured and then subjected
to show trials in Tirana that ended in executions or long terms of
imprisonment. The prospects of those that completed their missions
and tried to leave the country were not much better. Both the Yugo-
slav and Greek authorities were hostile to the scheme and refused to
cooperate with SIS or the CIA. The whole project was finally aban-
doned late in 1951, leaving Albania to Hoxha, who ensured that it
remained a political and economic backwater for the next half-cen-
tury.ALLEN. MI5code name for Arthur Lakey, a detective sergeant until
his dismissal from Scotland Yard in August 1919 during the police
strike. Formerly a Royal Navy rating for 11 years, Lakey joined the
Metropolitan Policein November 1911. Later he was employed by
the Vigilant Detective Agency, which was run by other former police
strikers, and supplied information toMI5about the Soviet espionage
network run in London byWilliam Ewerunder the news agency
cover ofFederated Press of America(FPA). The FPA was closed
in November 1927 andallenwas given a redundancy payment.