About the Author Philip Warner (1914-2000) enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals after graduating from St Catherine's, Cambridge in 1939. He fought in Malaya and spent 1,100 days as 'a guest of the Emperor' in Changi and on the Railway of Death, an experience he never discussed. He was a legendary figure to generations of cadets during his thirty years as a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Yet he will arguably be best remembered for his contribution of more than 2,000 obituaries of prominent army figures to The Daily Telegraph. Read more
J**N
Phantom – the story of a little-known intelligence force in World War II
Phantom was a specialized force that served the British army in World War II. Its official title was “GHQ Liaison Regiment.” Phantom also assisted American forces on the western front after D-day. Its contribution was vital, but hard to measure, and knowledge of Phantom has all but disappeared from war accounts.What did Phantom do? It was an intelligence unit, but its main role was to keep the high command informed about its own forces – the location of units, how well or poorly combat was going, and the state of morale. Phantom often provided the “bomb-line" maps that defined the front lines for Allied air forces. Phantom’s role was treated with understandable suspicion by front-line commanders. Phantom members were typically junior officers, well-educated and often well-versed in multiple languages. It was their job to ferret out information through any method available, talking with civilian witnesses, front-line soldiers, platoon commanders, and anybody else who might have useful information, then report it back to the high command. One of Phantom’s most useful roles was probably during the disaster of May 1940. With other means of intelligence breaking down, and poor communications between the BEF’s General Gort and his Belgian and French counterparts, it was Phantom that helped Gort and the British high command to understand the seriousness of the situation. Phantom played a helpful role behind the partly successful counter-attack at Arras, as well as the Dunkirk evacuation.Later in the war, Phantom served in Sicily and Italy, and with Allied forces on the western front. During the Battle of the Bulge, Phantom patrols worked with First U.S. Army to keep it apprised of the rapidly-deteriorating situation on its front.The author, the late Philip Warner, wrote fluid, readable prose, but at times his writing falls back into dull recitation of already well-known facts, and his works sometimes include some careless inaccuracies. Paradoxically, however, he also sometimes managed to peer behind the scenes, digging out first-hand accounts with insights I have not found elsewhere (his biography of Auchinleck has the same strengths and flaws). This title is only for those interested in arcane aspects of WWII intelligence work, but within that narrow field it gets four stars.
M**Y
Four Stars
Excellent account of regiment of which relatively few are aware.Happy to recommend
