Camp X 348052 221691209 2008-06-25T17:23:39Z 86.3.205.99 '''Camp X''' was the unofficial name of a [[World War II|Second World War]] [[paramilitary]] and [[commando]] training installation, on the northwestern shore of [[Lake Ontario]] between [[whitby, Ontario|Whitby]] and [[Oshawa, Ontario|Oshawa]] in [[Ontario]], [[Canada]]. The area is known today as '''Intrepid Park''', after the code name for [[Sir William Stephenson]], founder of the [[Special Operations Executive]] and its successor, [[MI-6]]. == Overview == Camp X was established [[December 6]], [[1941]] by the [[British Security Coordination|BSC]]'s chief, [[Sir William Stephenson]], a Canadian from [[Winnipeg, Manitoba|Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]] and a close confidante of [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].<ref name="Book">{{cite book |title= Camp X |author= Eric Walters |coauthors= |year=2002 |publisher=Puffin Canada |location= |isbn= 0-14-131328-5|pages=229}}</ref> The camp was originally designed to link Britain and the United States at a time when the US was forbidden by the [[Neutrality Act]] to be directly involved in World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entrance into the war, Camp X opened for the purpose of training Allied agents from the [[Special Operations Executive]], [[FBI]], and American [[Office of Strategic Services]] to be dropped behind enemy lines as saboteurs and spies. Camp X was jointly operated by the [[British Security Coordination]] (BSC) and the Government of [[Canada]].<ref name="Book"/> The official names of the camp were many: S 25-1-1 by the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (RCMP), Project-J by the Canadian military, and STS-103 (Special Training School 103) by the SOE (Special Operations Executive), a branch of the British intelligence service [[MI-6]].<ref name="Book"/> Camp X trained over five hundred [[Allies|Allied]] units of which 273 of these graduated and moved on to London for further training. Many secret agents were trained here.<ref name="Book"/> The Camp X pupils were schooled in a wide variety of special techniques including silent killing, sabotage, partisan support & recruitment methods for resistance movements, demolition, map reading, skilled use of various weapons, and [[Morse code]]. == Hydra == One of the unique features of Camp X was Hydra, a highly sophisticated telecommunications centre.<ref name="Book"/> Given the name by the Camp X operators, Hydra was invaluable for both coding and decoding information in relative safety from the prying ears of German radio observers.<ref name="Book"/> The camp was an excellent location for the safe transfer of code due to the topography of the land; [[Lake Ontario]] made it an excellent site for picking up radio signals from the UK. Hydra also had direct access via land lines to [[Ottawa]], [[New York]] and [[Washington, DC|Washington]] for [[telegraph]] and [[telephone]] communications.<ref name="Book"/> == Postwar == Legend has it that the trainees included [[Ian Fleming]], later famous for his [[James Bond]] books, though there is evidence against this claim.<ref name="Book"/><ref>{{cite book | author = Chancellor, Henry | year = 2005 | title = James Bond: The Man and His World | publisher = John Murray | id = ISBN 0-7195-6815-3}}</ref> The character of James Bond was supposedly based on Sir William Stephenson and what Fleming learned from him.<ref name="Book"/> In the fall of [[1945]] Camp X was used by the RCMP as a secure location for interviewing [[Soviet]] embassy cypher-clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] who defected to Canada [[September 5]] and revealed an extensive Soviet espionage operation operating in the country. == References == * '' '''Inside ''Camp'' X ''' '' by Lynn Philip Hodgson, with a foreword by Secret Agent '''Andy Durovecz''' (2003) - ISBN 0-9687062-0-7 == Notes == {{reflist}} ==External links== * [http://www.campxhistoricalsociety.ca Camp X website] * [http://www.camp-x.com Camp-X Student's resource] * [http://webhome.idirect.com/~lhodgson/camp-x.htm Camp X Teachers' and Students' resource] * {{geolinks-start|43.8547|-78.8843}} [[Category:Military history of Canada during World War II]] [[Category:Locations in the history of espionage]] [[Category:World War II espionage]]