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Mission Improbable: A Salute to the Royal Air Force Women of Special Operations Executive in Wartime France

By Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Air Commodore Henry Probert

Bletchley Park: The Secret Archives

By Sinclair McKay, Bletchley Park

Message: <blockquote data-quote="vic.currier@gmail.com" data-source="post: 51585" data-attributes="member: 36842">William Harding Jackson (1901-1971)Col. William Harding "Bill" Jackson (US Army Air Forces serial number 0900440) was born 25Mar1901 in the Belle Meade Plantation Mansion, Nashville, Tennessee, the only child of William Harding Jackson (1874-1903) and Anne Davis Richardson (1877-1954).  At age 10 he attended the Fay School and St. Mark's in Southborough, Massachusetts;  graduated Princeton University (BA, 1924);  graduated Harvard University School of Law (LLB, 1928);  became a law associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (2-years) then moved to Beekman, Bogue & Clark.  1930 joined Carter, Ledyard & Milburn at No. 2 Wall Street, NYC where he became a full partner and the hiring partner in 1934 through 1947;  Jackson enlisted voluntarily in the US Army-Air Force 06Mar1942 at the urging of his close friend Col. Tommy Hitchcock the world famous champion polo player and former pilot with the WW-I French Lafayette Escadrille;  he attended 2nd class ever graduated from US Army-Air Forces Combat Intelligence School at Harrisburg, PA (May-Jun3, 1942);  assigned USA-AF Air Intelligence HQ 1st Bomber Command at 90 Church Street, NYC, NY (as Assistant A-2 Intelligence) which became the USAAF Anti-Submarine Command;  Promoted to Major in 1942;  Promoted to Lt. Col. 01Jan1943 and reassigned as Adjutant General for the new European Wing-Air Transport Command (EWATC) with HQ at No. 1 Great Cumberland Place, London; with dual-undercover assignment as ULTRA SCIU Chief of Secret Intelligence ETO-USA;  Reassigned 27Mar1943 to the U.S. Embassy (London) with undercover title "Assistant Military Attaché for Air" while retaining title OSS Chief of Secret Intelligence working in close coordination with RAF Air Vice Marshal, Sir John Slessor while reporting to David Bruce, General George C. Marshall, General Hap Arnold and Secretary of War, Henry Stimson;  Reassigned 22Jan1944 as Assistant G-2 Intelligence HQ ETO-USA-London for Gen. Jake Devers;  January 1944 briefed Gen. Eisenhower on V-1 and V-2 rocket development at Pennemunde, Germany.  Reassigned 27Feb1944 by General Eisenhower as Chief of G-2 Intelligence Branch at 1st US Army Group (FUSAG) to conduct intelligence and counter-espionage for "Operation Bodyguard" D-Day deception plan in close coordination with Brig. Gen. Thomas J. "T.J." Betts SHAEF Deputy G-2 and Maj. Gen. Kenneth W.D. Strong SHAEF G-2 for Gen. Eisenhower;  June 1944 following D-Day invasion of France FUSAG became 12th Army Group where Jackson remained Chief of the Intelligence Branch with General Bradley's forward EAGLE-TAC HQ at Verdun, then Luxembourg where (during the middle of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest) on 01Jan1945, Colonel Jackson was promoted to Deputy G-2 Intelligence for all armies in 12th Army Group working in close coordination with Brig. Gen. Edwin L. Sibert (12th AG G-2), Allen Welsh Dulles (OSS X-2 Mission Chief - Berne) and James Jesus Angleton (OSS X-2 Mission Chief - Caserta) and Jackson's old college chum, J. Russell "Russ" Forgan (OSS London);  involved in capture/interrogation of Herr Franz von Papen, former Vice-Chancellor of Nazi Germany about the Nazis National Redoubt and the discovery of the Nazi treasures found at the Merkers, Germany underground mine;  prior to that, on 15Feb1945 Jackson was assigned by Secretary Stimson and OSS General Donovan "...for the specific purpose of writing a report on the British Intelligence System (MI-5 and MI-6)";  post-war served President Truman as the second Deputy Director of Central Intelligence at the new CIA (Oct1950 - Aug1951) during the Korean crisis;  served Eisenhower as Special Assistant to the President-Psychological Warfare and as National Security Advisor in 1956;  retired to Tucson, Arizona where he helped Ludwell Lee Montague write the second official history of the CIA;  Jackson died 27Sept1971 in Tucson and was finally interred at his home in Nashville (Mt. Olivet Cemetery).</blockquote>

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