376 • MONTGOMERY, WILLIAM
he considered it defeatist, but mainly because he thought the Chinese
in Malaya would turn against the British, as they eventually did. In
his autobiography, Montgomery, who died in May 1989, revealed his
distant kinship withKim Philbyand the embarrassment this caused
him whenHarold Wilson’s security adviser,George Wigg, started
to investigate how many of Philby’s relatives were still on SIS’s pay-
roll.MONTGOMERY, WILLIAM.A graduate of the Westminster Pres-
byterian College, Cambridge, the Reverend William Montgomery, at
age 43, translated Albert Schweitzer’sQuest of the Historical Jesus.
In World War I he was recruited intoRoom 40A, theDiplomatic
Section of the Admiralty’s cryptographic unit. Working under
George Young, Montgomery collaborated withNigel de Greyto
solve the German Foreign Ministry cipher used in January 1917 to
encode the text of the notoriousZimmermann Telegram. After the
war, Montgomery remained in theGovernment Code and Cipher
School.
MOON SQUADRONS.TheRoyal Air ForceSpecial Duties units
that conducted clandestine operations during World War II on behalf
of theSecret Intelligence ServiceandSpecial Operations Execu-
tivewere known as ‘‘moon squadrons’’ because their flights were
largely restricted to periods of the full moon. The original moon
squadron was 419 Flight based at North Weald, equipped with four
Lysanders. In October 1940 419 Flight was transferred to RAF Strad-
ishall in Suffolk. Later 138 (Special Duties) Squadron combined with
the King’s Flight to form 161 (Special Duties) Squadron, flying
Whitley bombers for parachute drops and based at Tempsford in
Bedfordshire.
MOOREHEAD, ALAN.A distinguished Australian war correspon-
dent, Alan Moorehead was the author ofThe Traitors, an account of
the cases of Klaus Fuchs,Allan Nunn May, andBruno Pontecorvo.
Unusually, Moorehead was given considerable assistance byMI5,
andJim Skardonwas instructed by the director-general,Sir Percy
Sillitoe, to show him extracts from MI5’s files. Moorehead accepted
the documents he was shown uncritically and relied upon them for