The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Maj. Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan - Jan 19th, 2004

http://www.angelfire.com/oz/1spy/Donovan.html#OSS ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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Maj. Gen. William Joseph
"Wild Bill" Donovan
(1883 - 1959)

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William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan was the stuff of heroic legend. For forty years he was a preeminent figure in the American establishment, having distinguished himself in two world wars. In World War I, he led the valiant soldiers of the old "Fighting 69th" New York Irish brigade (165th Infantry). That force's record in France was astounding in that it fought and was victorious in more battles than any other unit of the American Expeditionary Army under General John Pershing. And it lost more than two thirds of its men achieving that record.

Colonel Donovan in St. Mihiel, France,
September 1918

At war's end, Donovan wandered weeping through the empty billets of his lost generation of soldiers, then murmured to his brother Vincent: "When I think of all the boys I have left behind me who died out of loyalty to me… it's too much." That same loyalty would be demonstrated by those who served Donovan in World War II when he headed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Donovan, who participated in the heavy hand-to-hand action, was severely wounded and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he and what was left of the old 69th returned from France and marched down the streets of New York, he was lionized before the world, as was his regimental chaplain, the unforgettable and equally heroic Father Francis Duffy whose battle-garbed statue still stands in New York City's Times Square.

Donovan was born in Buffalo, New York on January 1, 1883. His middle-class family could not afford to send him to college so Donovan worked his way through Columbia University, earning a law degree in 1907. He operated a successful law firm and organized a regiment of cavalry in Buffalo as part of the National Guard. Donovan rose to the rank of captain. He married Ruth Rumsey in 1914.


Col. Donovan and Father Duffy of the Fighting 69th

Donovan's reputation as a fair-minded, intelligent lawyer, one who could accomplish difficult tasks with seeming ease, brought him to the attention of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1916. The Foundation asked him to travel to Europe, without compensation, in setting up war relief supplies and medical attention for the displaced persons of Poland. He accepted with alacrity. When arriving in England, however, Donovan was informed by British naval authorities that Germany's blockade of the seas would prevent the Rockefeller supplies from getting to Poland. Donovan then joined the Belgium Relief organization, headed by future president, Herbert Clark Hoover, to feed ten million starving refugees in Belgium

This was Donovan's first introduction to espionage. Before going behind the German lines to bring food to the starving displaced Belgians—American was neutral in 1916—Donovan met in London with a Canadian officer working for British intelligence, William Samuel Stephenson, who would later be known under the code name "Intrepid." It was this meeting, one which Donovan denied to his dying day but was evident in Stephenson's biography and Donovan's correspondence, which started Donovan on the road to being a spy.

He received some brief espionage training in London before going to Belgium and it is believed that while Donovan was working to aid refugees, he also gathered information on German supplies, troop reserves and other important military information. This he managed to pass to the British before their great offensive which resulted in the devastating battle of the Somme where the British lost 420,000 men in killed, wounded and missing—60,000 on the first day of the offensive—the "flower of British manhood," as it was later stated.



It was alleged that without Donovan's information, the British might have lost considerably more men. It was Stephenson, assigned to Washington, D.C. in 1940, who would put forth the strongest recommendation that Donovan head America's first full-fledged intelligence agency, the OSS. Just as the Somme offensive took place, Donovan was suddenly recalled to the U.S., his old cavalry unit activated and ordered to join General Pershing in an Expeditionary mission into Mexico in pursuit of the bandit Pancho Villa who had raided the small town of Columbus, New Mexico.

Villa had lead a force of 1,500 Mexicans on the raid, in search of cash and supplies to fuel his revolution in northern Mexico. He had attacked the U.S. Army camp of the 13th Cavalry, killing nine U.S. citizens and eight troopers. The cavalry had pursued Villa, killing fifty of his men inside the U.S. and seventy more inside Mexico. Now, Pershing was to lead a full-scale punitive invasion of Mexico in an undeclared war against Pancho Villa.

Donovan put his cavalry through severe training at McAllen, Texas. He got his men up one hour before any other unit and ordered them to sleep one hour after all other units were in bed. He double-drilled them, forced them to hike and march on greater distances than any other commander would expect. He was unpopular which he knew but he was unconcerned. He had been in northern France and seen the rigors of deadly warfare. He also knew that America would eventually become involved and he wanted his troops trained as well as they could be, to be as tough as the veteran front-line Germans. This he achieved.

The "Border Days," as Donovan later referred to this experience, proved to be some of the happiest of his life. He loved the rough and tumble life, the banjo campfire parties, eating carrot stews on the mesas under the stars. The discipline of his troops was superb and he had never been in better physical condition. After six months of unsuccessfully chasing the will-of-the-wisp Villa, Donovan and his unit were withdrawn from Mexico, one of the last U.S. forces to return from the expedition.



No sooner did he return than Donovan, commissioned a major, was named to head the 69th New York Irish battalion, which became the 165th Infantry in the Rainbow Division. Again, Donovan proved to be a severe taskmaster in training his tough New Yorkers. They were boated to France and went into action for the first time on February 18, 1918 at Luneville. One of Donovan's men was Joyce Kilmer, who had worked for the New York Times and was considered one of the finest American poets of the day. Donovan promoted Kilmer to the rank of sergeant and made him his intelligence clerk.

Donovan instructed Kilmer to keep a running daily log of everything heard and seen along his front. Dutifully, Kilmer described unusual smoke formations, noises of digging (underground tunnels for German sappers laying mines), rockets exploding from the German lines, their colors and configurations, artillery fire and the type of shells used, the sound of German patrol dogs. All of this seemingly trivial information was extremely useful to American military intelligence. By studying such information, the Americans could determine how the Germans were reinforcing their trenches, laying mines (which meant a defensive posture instead of mounting an offensive), different colored rockets and flares which would signal forthcoming artillery barrages. Kilmer would be killed, a loss deeply felt by Donovan, as were those of all of his men.

Following an eight-day epic battle that resulted in an American victory, Donovan and only one half of his regiment survived. For this action Donovan was to receive the Distinguished Service Cross and, subsequently, the Congressional Medal of Honor. A few days after this battle, regimental chaplain Father Duffy, overheard three of Donovan's doughboys arguing in a trench as to the worthiness of their commander. Said one: "Well, I'll say this—Wild Bill is a son-of-a-bitch, but he's a game one!"



By the time the doughboys returned from France, Donovan, along with Sergeant Alvin C. York, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and General John Pershing, were the four great heroes of World War I. Although there were many who wanted Donovan to run for the presidency in 1920, he refused any chance at political office and went into private law practice in Buffalo, N.Y. In 1920, Donovan was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Buffalo district. His main chore was enforcing the unpopular Prohibition law. He eagerly prosecuted dozens of rumrunners and sent them to federal prison.

In 1925, Donovan became Assistant U.S. Attorney General under his Columbia University mentor Harlan Fiske Stone. One of his chores was to help clean up the Department of Justice and its Bureau of Investigation, which had been corrupted by the Teapot Dome crooks in the administration of President Warren G. Harding. One of Donovan's first jobs was to review the work and background of J. Edgar Hoover, who had been temporarily named to head the Bureau of Investigation, after William J. Burns had been removed from that office.

The Bureau, its name having been changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), had, under Harding's regime, been corrupted by several agents working for Burns, men like Gaston Bullock Means, an agent whose job with the Bureau in the early 1920s, consisted of blackmail, bribery and other dirty deeds on behalf of the venal Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and his cronies. Hoover cleaned his own house, purging the Bureau of these boondogglers. In turn, Donovan studied Hoover's background and new procedures and then gave him the approval that led to Hoover's permanent appointment.



J. Edgar Hoover, who was to become the all-powerful director of the FBI, had very little contact with Donovan. The two never became friends and were never seen together throughout their long careers in Washington. Not until Donovan's appointment to head the newly formed OSS in 1940 did J. Edgar Hoover again significantly appear in Donovan's life, and he came not as an old friend but a wily, vicious antagonist.

Donovan served the Justice Department until 1929, when he returned to private practice, successfully arguing many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He ran as a Republican against Herbert Lehman for the governorship of New York in 1932, and was soundly beaten. Again, Donovan returned to private practice, becoming one of the most successful appeals lawyers in the country. He prospered but suffered a great tragedy in 1940 when his 22-year-old daughter Patricia, a student at George Washington University, was killed when her car overturned in a rainstorm. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, an honor given to her as the daughter of a Medal of Honor winner.

Donovan had doted on his daughter, his only child, and her death caused his hair to turn white almost overnight. William Samuel Stephenson called Donovan two-month's after the death of his daughter, while he was in New York City, having just arrived from London. He was one of the leading British intelligence figures of the day and operated under the code name "Intrepid". His job was to convince President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to aid England in its war against Germany and he asked Donovan to help. Through Donovan's friend, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, President Roosevelt approved of a clandestine trip Donovan was to make to England.

With government credentials and a letter of credit for $10,000. Donovan flew to war-torn England. There he met with King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the British chiefs of staff and the war cabinet. He also conferred with British spymaster, Colonel Stewart Menzies, chief of Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).



Menzies confided to Donovan innumerable secrets, including the details of its most secret operations, the British code and cipher service that operated under the name of Ultra. This was extraordinary for the usually close-mouthed Menzies but he had been obviously instructed to cooperate in every way with Donovan in the hopes that Donovan would do his utmost to urge FDR to aid England. Even more extraordinary was the fact that England's top secrets were imparted to a private citizen on a temporary state visit.

Donovan returned to the U.S. to report to President Roosevelt that England would continue its fight against Hitler but that it desperately needed the tools of war, particularly destroyers, having lost many such warships in its sea battles for control of Norwegian waters. A short time later FDR responded by establishing his so-called "Lend-Lease" deal with England, giving that country fifty old American destroyers on the absurd condition that, after having used them, England would return these warships to the U.S.

Oddly, the British intelligence system had vastly overrated Donovan's political standing in Washington. In a secret memorandum, Sir Alexander Cadogan, undersecretary of state for England, sent a note to the British foreign secretary which described Donovan as a man who could turn the tide for England. According to Cadogan, Stephenson had convinced Menzies that Donovan had "Knox in his pocket." and that if Churchill would be completely frank with Donovan in future talks then Donovan "would contribute very largely to our obtaining all that we want of the United States."



Donovan did return to England to meet with Churchill who candidly outlined his plan for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Then the SIS conducted a VIP tour for Donovan of the British war stations from North Africa to the Middle East. During this tour, Donovan visited many heads of state, acting unofficially for FDR, attempting to persuade neutral countries from joining the Axis Powers. All through this period, Donovan, with the urging of his British intelligence friends, formulated a plan to create a new super-intelligence agency for America, one which would collect, collate and evaluate all military intelligence. The agency would be organized similar to England's SIS.

[Darksheare]

I have no idea myself.
The props would have to be contra-rotating, otherwise it'd fly crooked.
Beyond that my knowledge dwindles to zip.
Aeronaut has all kinds of info goodies, as does PHilDragoo and others.

[Professional Engineer]

I got to see a TR-1 shortly before I got out in 91. From a standing atart, it got off the runway in about 600 feet. The pilot kept it at 10ft AGL for a bit, dropped the pogo sticks, then went UP in about a 80 degree climb until the plane was out of sight. Very cool to see.

[SAMWolf]

Oops. Forgot about that, guess I'll have to move again.

[SAMWolf]

Ah yeas! Good old inter-service rivalry. unfortuantely in the case of the FBI/CIA it could only hurt

[SAMWolf]

Vought XF5U "Flying Pancake"

The brainchild of Charles H. Zimmerman, the F5U was intended to perform well as a fighter plane while being able to remain in flight at extremely low airspeed, making it easier to operate from carriers. The F5U's unusual appearance owed to a very low aspect ratio wing without a fuselage, which resulted in something looking like a flying saucer. This shape, combined with powerful engines driving large propellers, could plow through the air at low speed (40 mph!), since the whole airframe is immersed in the prop wash. As a result, short takeoff and landing (STOL) performance was possible. At the other end of the performance envelope, the low aspect ratio and lack of fuselage would decrease drag, maintaining a high maximum speed. Maneuverability at all speeds would be improved by a small reduction in wing loading compared to conventional fighters, combined with a more compact shape and prop wash going over all control surfaces.

In 1941, Vought began building a low-power, full-scale demonstrator of wood and fabric construction, the V-173 (Bu. No. 02987), first flown on November 23, 1942, by Vought test pilot Boone T. Guyton. Other than test pilots Guyton and Richard Burroughs, the V-173 was also flown by Charles Lindbergh. In some 200 test flights, the V-173 proved Zimmerman right, having a low stall speed, relatively high maximum speed considering the powerplants, and being impossible to stall or put into a spin.

Based on the success of the V-173, the Navy ordered two XF5U-1 prototypes (Bu. Nos. 33958/33959) in 1944. The airframes were completed in August, 1945. An interesting innovation as the use of "metalite" for the skin, a sandwich of balsa between two layers of aluminum. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 1947 that the special articulated propellers were delivered. Tethered tests were performed in Connecticut, but plans to flight test the F5U's at Edwards AFB (delivering them via the Panama Canal) were canceled in 1948, the Navy having lost interest in propeller-driven fighters.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Johnny. I'm old enough to remember Gary Powers, first I became aware of th U-2

[SAMWolf]

You're welcome Ex-snook. I forgot how long his one was. Very interesting man and some of the exploits of the OSS sound like a bad spy novel.

[Darksheare]

Always hurts when there's FBI/CIA (Feeber vs Snoop) rivalry.
Especially loved how said rivalry hampered catching several Soviet agents during the 50's and 60's.
It's bad enough that I wanted to tell them, "C'mon guys, you're an embarrassment. Besides, you're making the bad guys look well behaved."
That same rivalry still exists, and still hampers things.
*ugh*

It'd be the same if the Army didn't support the Marines during an op, and indeed pursued their own sometimes parrallel sometiems at odds objectives.

[ex-snook]

exploits of the OSS sound like a bad spy novel. "

How did OSS differ from CIC [counter intelligence corps]?? I remember a CIC guy doing interrogation of a German prisoner. No big deal if you don't have a lead. thanks.

[colorado tanker]

Well, Snippy, some of us around here appreciate you. :)

Nice thread. Wild Bill was an amazing man. He gave so much to his country; it's a shame he lost his daughter so early in life. Quite a compliment for Ike to call him a hero; high praise indeed.

[SAMWolf]

The OSS was into the spy gadets, helping the resistance, parachuting agents behind lines, some sabotage and things like that.

[SAMWolf]

Hi CT. We just like teasing what's her name. :-)

[SAMWolf]

The theory and practice of the Liberator pistol was this:

First, you approach a German sentry with your little pistol hidden in your coat pocket and, with Academy-award sincerity, ask him for a light for your cigarette (or the time the train leaves for Warsaw, or if he wants to buy some non-army-issue food or a half- hour with your "sister"). When he smiles and casts a nervous glance down the street to see where his Sergeant is at, you blow his brains out with your first and only shot, then take his rifle and ammunition. Your next few minutes are occupied with "getting out of Dodge," for such critters generally go around in packs. After that (assuming you evade your late benefactor's friends) you keep the rifle and hand your little pistol to a fellow Home Army fighter so they can go get their own rifle.

Or maybe you then use your rifle to get a submachine gun from the Sergeant when he comes running. Perhaps you get very lucky and pickup a light machine gun, two boxes of ammunition and a haversack of hand grenades. With two of the grenades and the expenditure of a half-a-box of ammunition at a hasty roadblock the next night, you and your friends get a truck full of arms and ammunition. (Some of the cargo is sticky with "Nazi" blood, but you don't mind terribly.)

Pretty soon you've got the best armed little Home Army unit in your part of Poland, all from that cheap little pistol and the guts to use it. (One wonders if the current political elite's opposition to so-called "Saturday Night Specials" doesn't come from some adopted racial memory of previous failed tyrants. Even cheap little pistols are a threat to oppressive regimes.)

[PAR35]

From 5 November 1944 to 17 February 1946, Washington, as a vital unit of the fast carrier striking forces, supported raids on Okinawa, in the Ryukyus; Formosa; Luzon; Camranh Bay, French Indochina; Saigon, French Indochina; Hong Kong; Canton; Hainan Island; Nansei Shoto; and the heart of the enemy homeland-Tokyo itself.

Being picky about a typo.

Lookouts in the destroyer Wilson (DD-408) spotted Wilcox' body in the water, face down, some distance away, but could not pick it up.

Interesting that they spotted the Admiral in the water, but "couldn't" pick him up.

[w_over_w]

Evening Grace Snip & Sam~

Excellent read . . . some real "cloak and dagger" stuff. Would stories like this be a precursor to why the respective intelligence agencies don't work together?

[SAMWolf]

Evening w_over_w

Can there be anything worse than competeing beauracracies?

[WaterDragon]

What a shame the flying pancake was never used. Its slow speed and reluctance to stall sounds just like the Cessna 150s I took flying lessons in. One of them, for some reason, could not be put into a stall.

[WaterDragon]

I love cloak and dagger stories. There's some great ones out there, the authors having done very good research for them.

[SAMWolf]

I can imagine everyone thinking flying saucers where invading.

[SAMWolf]

Sweet, sentimental, and sultry, their voices inspired the troops and kept the home fires burning in England, France, and America. We've combined the recordings of three sublime songbirds into a memorable collection. Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose features the title track "Mon Legionnaire" and 20 more. Vera Lynn's Sincerely Yours includes "We'll Meet Again," "The White Cliffs of Dover," and 20 more. Jo Stafford's G.I. Jo Sings the Hits includes "Embraceable You," "I'll Be Seeing You," and 21 more. 3 hours on 3 CDs. Simon says: On October 1, 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) sent Odette and Simone, two 29-year-old women, behind enemy lines, where they captured seven German soldiers. Odette and Simone couldn’t carry a tune, but the OSS didn’t mind.