536 • TANGYE, DEREK
would be stockpiled and a ‘‘secret army’’ recruited, followed by a
coordinated and disciplined general insurrection after the Allied in-
vasion. This ambitious plan was never fully realized, partly because
of political infighting andthe paranoiac suspicion and jealousy which existed between Lepage and
his staff on the one hand and Marissal and the Deuxie`me Direction on the
other.... The internecine struggle, though understandable up to a point,
was deplorable.In spite of the internal conflict, the difficulties experienced by T Sec-
tion were mainly due to German penetration of its networks. As well
as running a large number of Belgian collaborators, the Germans also
exploited the few links that existed between the compromised Dutch
networks and the Belgian escape lines. In one lengthy undercover op-
eration in spring 1942, theAbwehractually took control of theSe-
cret Intelligence Service’s circuits, infiltrating their own surrogates
into key positions, and rounded up all the related resistance groups,
including an extensive one run by Major van Serveyt. During the
course of the war, 250 agents were dispatched to Belgium, of whom
105 were arrested. Only 45 of those taken into German custody sur-
vived the experience.TANGYE, DEREK.An Old Harrovian journalist, Derek Tangye is
best known for his stories about his idyllic life on a flower farm in
Cornwall, but at the beginning of the war he was appointed to the
intelligence section of the War Office in charge of assessing the Chi-
nese order of battle. Tangye’s somewhat esoteric appointment oc-
curred as a result of a report he had written following his travels
across the Far East. Shortly before the war broke out, he had enlisted
in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry but his career as a private
soldier was to be brief. He was summoned to Whitehall to take
charge of an inadequate card index of military units in the Pacific,
and then went on an intelligence course at Swanage where, among
others, he met an old friend, the novelistAlec Waugh, who was des-
tined for the Middle East.
Instead of returning to the War Office, Tangye was offered a job
withMI5and was posted to Newcastle as an assistant to the local
regional security liaison officer. A month later, Tangye was placed