PF CARD
FILE:
NAME: Willmott, Leonard Richard Douglas.
BORN: 23-06-1921, London, England.
EDUCATION:
OCCUPATION:
ARRIVED IN ENGLAND: N.A.
ORGANISATION: JEDBURGH.
TRAINED AS: WT Operator.
TO THE FIELD: 17-09-1944.
MISSION: EDWARD
DROPPED AT:
NEAR: Groesbeek, Gelderland.
DROPPED WITH: team Edward: J.R. Billingsley & McCord-Sollenberger & R. Mills & J. Staal
OVERRUN:
PLACE:
RETURNED TO ENGLAND:
AFTER MISSION REPORT:
ARRESTED: N.A.
PRISONS: N.A.
DIED: 24-05-1993.
PLACE:
ALIAS:
NAMES IN THE FIELD:
RADIOPLANS:
CRYSTALS:
SET: B2
PREFIX:
CUTOUT:
WITH ORGANIZATION:
CONTACTS:
SAFEHOUSES:
TX LOCATIONS:
WT-OPERATOR(S): N.A.
SOURCES:
REMARKS: Married April 1944, Constance Crossland. Emigrated to New Zealand and later Australia.
Willmott joined the Royal Signals as a boy apprentice on 1 July 1936, at age 15. During his time in training, he became a respected and highly skilled signaller and participated in the off-duty construction of a wireless transmitter. It is probable that in 1938, as his time as a "boy" signaller approached its end, he was "talent-spotted" for extra training which would lead to more than routine service.
Instead of the routine posting to a GPO telegraph office (to provide experience), Willmott was called to interviews at the War Office in London; this was an exceptional experience for a seventeen-year-old boy soldier. It was followed by vehicle training in London and, in early January 1939, in Paris. In March he was sent for parachute training at Reading, a rudimentary process at the time. (Willmott was paired with another trainee, an intelligence officer called Templer, later Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer.) In late July, he was sent to Crieff in Scotland for a brief course (the house where this took place had been taken over by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and became known as the "auld Spook House"), equipped in London and then sent to Germany via Harwich in mid-August, carrying a wireless transmitter in three cases.
Poland
While waiting for orders near Munich, his destination was abruptly changed to the British Embassy in Warsaw, in Poland. On 1 September, the German invasion of Poland had started and Willmott's journey to Warsaw became disrupted and difficult, he was often on foot and foraging for food.[8] By the time he arrived, the embassy had closed and the staff had evacuated. He was given shelter by a local family and soon handed over to what became the Polish resistance; in the next few months he was either in hiding and participated in several sabotage and demolition operations. Willmott remained with the resistance until April 1940 before travelling with two other British men (probably SIS agents) through Germany, Belgium and France to neutral Spain, and returning to Britain on a destroyer, in July. While passing through Germany he had posed as an American and obtained help from an English-speaking German officer.
RELEASED: N.A.
COMPLETE: NO
© Weggum
w.mugge@home.nl
Datum: 22-12-2020
NAME: Willmott, Leonard Richard Douglas.
BORN: 23-06-1921, London, England.
EDUCATION:
OCCUPATION:
ARRIVED IN ENGLAND: N.A.
ORGANISATION: JEDBURGH.
TRAINED AS: WT Operator.
TO THE FIELD: 17-09-1944.
MISSION: EDWARD
DROPPED AT:
NEAR: Groesbeek, Gelderland.
DROPPED WITH: team Edward: J.R. Billingsley & McCord-Sollenberger & R. Mills & J. Staal
OVERRUN:
PLACE:
RETURNED TO ENGLAND:
AFTER MISSION REPORT:
ARRESTED: N.A.
PRISONS: N.A.
DIED: 24-05-1993.
PLACE:
ALIAS:
NAMES IN THE FIELD:
RADIOPLANS:
CRYSTALS:
SET: B2
PREFIX:
CUTOUT:
WITH ORGANIZATION:
CONTACTS:
SAFEHOUSES:
TX LOCATIONS:
WT-OPERATOR(S): N.A.
SOURCES:
REMARKS: Married April 1944, Constance Crossland. Emigrated to New Zealand and later Australia.
Willmott joined the Royal Signals as a boy apprentice on 1 July 1936, at age 15. During his time in training, he became a respected and highly skilled signaller and participated in the off-duty construction of a wireless transmitter. It is probable that in 1938, as his time as a "boy" signaller approached its end, he was "talent-spotted" for extra training which would lead to more than routine service.
Instead of the routine posting to a GPO telegraph office (to provide experience), Willmott was called to interviews at the War Office in London; this was an exceptional experience for a seventeen-year-old boy soldier. It was followed by vehicle training in London and, in early January 1939, in Paris. In March he was sent for parachute training at Reading, a rudimentary process at the time. (Willmott was paired with another trainee, an intelligence officer called Templer, later Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer.) In late July, he was sent to Crieff in Scotland for a brief course (the house where this took place had been taken over by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and became known as the "auld Spook House"), equipped in London and then sent to Germany via Harwich in mid-August, carrying a wireless transmitter in three cases.
Poland
While waiting for orders near Munich, his destination was abruptly changed to the British Embassy in Warsaw, in Poland. On 1 September, the German invasion of Poland had started and Willmott's journey to Warsaw became disrupted and difficult, he was often on foot and foraging for food.[8] By the time he arrived, the embassy had closed and the staff had evacuated. He was given shelter by a local family and soon handed over to what became the Polish resistance; in the next few months he was either in hiding and participated in several sabotage and demolition operations. Willmott remained with the resistance until April 1940 before travelling with two other British men (probably SIS agents) through Germany, Belgium and France to neutral Spain, and returning to Britain on a destroyer, in July. While passing through Germany he had posed as an American and obtained help from an English-speaking German officer.
RELEASED: N.A.
COMPLETE: NO
© Weggum
w.mugge@home.nl
Datum: 22-12-2020
