Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

FORCE RESEARCH UNIT• 193

Burma(run by R. E. Forester and later Ritchie Gardiner),Siam(run

by A. C. Ponton), Malaya (Patrick Goodfellow), and FrenchIndo-

china(Franc ̧ois de Langlade) and an Anglo-Dutch section headed by

Frits Mollinger.

FORCE 137.Cover name forSpecial Operations Executive’s Far
East headquarters in Melbourne following the loss of Singapore, led
by Major G. Egerton Mott.

FORCE 139.Cover name for theSpecial Operations Executivesec-
tion headed by Henry Thelfall in Monopoli that ran operations into
Poland and Czechoslovakia during 1944.

FORCE 266.Cover name forSpecial Operations Executive’s Yugo-
slav andAlbaniansubsections at Bari in 1944, headed by Captain
Watrous and John Eyre, later designated Force 299.

FORCE 333.Cover name for theSpecial Operations Executivesec-
tion located at Torre di Mare in 1944, responsible for logistical sup-
port toAlbaniaandYugoslavia, commanded by Brigadier Miles.

FORCE RESEARCH UNIT (FRU).The cover name of a British mili-
tary intelligence organization in Northern Ireland responsible for the
recruitment of sources within loyalist and republican paramilitary
groups during the 1970s and 1980s. Subdivided into three detach-
ments, often called the ‘‘Dets’’—at Belfast (South), Londonderry
(North), and Enniskillen (West)—the FRU assigned code numbers to
individual agents, the first two digits of which indicated the particular
unit handling the source. Largely staffed by noncommissioned offi-
cers, the FRU proved very successful at penetrating its targets and
exploiting intelligence, but fell victim to allegations of collusion with
terrorists, especially following the murder of a Belfast solicitor, Pat
Finucane, and the conviction of an FRU agent, Brian Nelson, on
charges of conspiracy to murder. At the time of Nelson’s recruitment,
the FRU was commanded by Colonel Gordon Kerr, of the Gordon
Highlanders, and an independent investigation was conducted by a
team of mainland detectives led by (Sir) John Stevens. In 2003 Ste-
vens completed his inquiry, which had lasted more than 10 years,