22 • ASCENSION
World War II. Jebsen was responsible for handling adouble agent
namedtricyclebut was arrested by the Gestapo in April 1944 and
later executed at Oranienberg concentration camp.ASCENSION. Secret Intelligence Service(SIS) code name for an in-
genious UHF communications device developed atWhaddon Hall
during World War II by the technicians of SIS’sSection VIII.as-
censionenabled agents on the ground to use a voice channel to a
low-flying aircraft circling in the vicinity.
ASHANTI CAMPAIGN.The first war to be fought with a formal in-
telligence division was a punitive expedition in 1895. The Ashantis
of West Africa had defeated the British commissioner in 1892 and
since then had used his skull as a ceremonial drinking vessel. The
tribe was so feared that native troops would not approach even the
body of a dead Ashanti, so General Sir Garnet Wolseley led a force
of three regular battalions, drawn from the Rifle Brigade, the Royal
Welsh Fusiliers, and the Black Watch, with the dashing Captain Re-
dvers Buller acting as the head of intelligence. Buller received a com-
prehensive briefing from Major Charles Wilson of the new
Intelligence Branch, then only six months in existence, and suc-
ceeded in recruiting a 250-strong Corps of Scouts, which located
King Coffee Kalkali and his army. By interrogating prisoners, de-
ploying reconnaissance patrols, and watching the enemy, Buller’s
unit laid the foundations for a significant victory at Kumasi in early
February 1875, conclusively demonstrating the value of an intelli-
gence branch. Among those serving with Buller was CaptainHenry
Brackenbury, later the firstdirector of military intelligence.
ASPIDISTRA.Code name of a huge 700-kilowatt radio transmitter lo-
cated in a bunker deep in the Ashdown Forest at Crowborough, near
King’s Standing in Sussex, used to broadcast to Europe during World
War II. Purchased from the Radio Corporation of America byBritish
Security Coordinationwith the personal approval of the prime min-
ister for more than £110,000,aspidistrawas the world’s most pow-
erful radio and used an antenna strung between three specially
constructed 115-foot masts. Its signals carriedCalais-Senderpro-
grams, recorded by the Political Warfare Executive, intended to de-