Military Intelligence (Research)
Military Intelligence , abbreviated as MI, originally known as General Staff , or GS, was a section of the British War Office established in 1936 under the Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff. MI was designed to be effectively the British "clearing house for bright ideas," and a think tank for government research into the forms of irregular and guerrilla warfare which might be advantageous for the British Armed Forces, but over the course of its existence, it evolved from its simple research function, and became itself a paramilitary organization. For the majority of its known declassified existence, MI was directed by Jo Holland. MI effectively created the doctrine of future British special operations, especially through the course of mid-1940. Alongside its research and operations in guerrilla warfare, Holland and MI also spent a great deal of time generating ideas for inventions and gadgets to be deployed into the field. To this end, MI created and oversaw the initial operations of MIR, the unit which became known as Churchill's Toyshop, responsible for the development of weapons and equipment intended for use by guerrillas operating behind enemy lines.
Because MI was not organized as a "unit," the officers serving here were not issued distinctive regimental badges, regimental caps or ties. If officers transferred in from other units, they retained their original caps and badges. Those officers that were recruited directly into MI were initially badged into the General Service Corps, and as of July 1940, were badged into the Intelligence Corps.
History
Origins
During the First World War, the War Office had created the Dunsterforce, which was effectively a special forces operation comprising a thousand men. The areas of Palestine, British Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East were occupied by dozens of battles involving irregular warfare. The exploits of T. E. Lawrence became extremely well known by the members of the British military who both worked on operations with him, and studied his tactics and maneuvers afterwards. One such man who is known to have worked alongside Lawrence on an operation in Palestine was John Charles Francis Holland, or Jo Holland. Holland won several medals for his service in the Middle East.During the war, and shortly afterward, the British Empire had to contend with uprisings in the British Raj, with many different internal forces of vying for independence through either violent or nonviolent means. 1918 had marked the return to India of Mahatma Gandhi, but the next year also saw Britain occupied with the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and several other battles in disparate areas of the Indian Frontier, to include especially the North-West Frontier and the North-East Frontier. On the Indian Frontier, the British worked with the Gurkhas and other units to counter Indian independence forces in the field. One man who had been working on the frontiers of India around this time was Laurence Grand, who was performing guerrilla operations of his own in the region. Holland also served on the Frontier around this time.
Another organization that existed during the war was a brief-existing section of MI called MI, which collected intelligence inside of Soviet Russia and the Far East. Little is known about this earlier iteration of MI, other than that it was decommissioned at the end of the war.
In the 1920's, the Irish War of Independence, and the following Irish Civil War, had proved a series of successive events leading to one of the British Empire's largest territorial defeats in centuries. That war for Irish independence had been won primarily by what were called irregular forces, practicing irregular and guerrilla warfare. Specifically deployed to Ireland during the War of Independence – what the British at the time referred to as "The Troubles in Ireland" – was Jo Holland. On one particular evening, he was sitting in a pub on what might have either been a secret mission for MI, or a rage-filled revenge quest against the man who had killed his friend. After getting into a shootout and getting shot in the chest, Holland, known as Jo, limped out of the pub and into the street just in time to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. After that moment, Holland became fascinated with the technical skill of the Irish Republican Army, noting that they had made a science of guerrilla warfare.
Establishment as General Staff (Research)
Little is known about the operations of the section of the Imperial General Staff dedicated to research and education, which was established in 1936. Its operations were kept entirely secret for two years, and the name of the Chief of this section in 1936 is not currently known. Whatever historical documents there are, and even books by historians, currently reference only one unnamed man as "the former director," or "the incumbent," and a secretarial typist working in this section. Certain historians suggest that GS was created within the War Office by Sir Ronald Adam. Functioning as an internal research unit, GS enabled promising young officers to spend a year studying contemporary subjects of direct relevance to the modern army and to prepare reports for a variety of departments.However, much more is known about the activities of GS beginning in 1938, when Jo Holland was appointed to head GS due to his prior experiences in guerrilla warfare. Having suffered a temporary breakdown in health – he had developed a duodenal ulcer – Holland was assigned this less active post through the influence of senior connections, which allowed him to pursue independent study. He had his choice of subjects to study, and it was his decision to focus the efforts of GS on guerrilla warfare. Drawing up packes on lessons learned from recent conflicts in China and Spain, he focused his research on the potential role of guerrilla warfare in future conflicts. His investigations centered on light equipment, mobility, and unconventional tactics, subjects of clear importance given Britain’s own experiences in the South African War, where a quarter of a million troops were required to suppress a much smaller Boer commando force, and in Ireland, where a few thousand irregulars had frustrated a far larger British presence. Holland became a leading advocate for developing irregular warfare capabilities, a view shared by the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence, Beaumont Nesbitt. Despite their efforts, both men met resistance from the conservative Directorate of Military Operations, which adhered closely to established regulations and procedures, even under the joint leadership of Pownall as Director of Military Operations and Intelligence.
He was then tasked with investigating any means that Britain and its Empire might use to support resistance movements
Holland's first office hire was for a secretarial typist, who proved to him to be extremely invaluable. Her name was Joan Bright Astley, and she would go on to become one of the war's most important women, as well as the prototype for the character Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond series.
GS(R) combines with Section D to become Scheme D
While Jo Holland was running GS, his childhood friend, Laurence Grand, had been running a unit within the Secret Intelligence Service called the Section for Destruction. A plan called "Scheme D" emerged in March 1939 when Colonel Grand took a plan for Europe-wide sabotage and subversion to Stewart Menzies of SIS, within days of Germany’s occupation of Prague. The proposal moved quickly through senior channels: it reached the War Office and was debated at a Foreign Office meeting on 23 March attended by top ministers and military figures. From the outset it was treated as an actionable strategy rather than a mere concept.Section D and GS were effectively merged into a singular organization. SIS agreed to help fund an expanded GS, the War Office authorized Section D to plan civilian undercover operations, and a military irregular-warfare arm was developed in parallel to conduct uniformed missions. A new sub-unit was created to manage activities by soldiers operating in uniform and to coordinate military missions with Section D’s covert work.
The architects drew a clear distinction between covert and overt irregular work: Section D’s operatives would work undercover and, if captured, would receive no public acknowledgement; GS's military irregular force would operate under uniform, follow conventional military planning, and be covered by the usual legal protections. The aim was to cover the full spectrum of irregular activity while preserving a degree of separation between espionage-style sabotage and organized military resistance. The Foreign Office was uneasy about the diplomatic and moral consequences, senior military attitudes at the War Office were sometimes cautious or dismissive, and personal rivalries complicated coordination. Those institutional tensions slowed and blurred implementation, so the ambitious aims of Scheme D outpaced how smoothly it could be executed in practice.
In early April 1939, shortly after the establishment of Scheme D, Holland submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff and presented his findings again on 13 April, referring informally to his work as “D/M.” The War Office soon expressed concern that one of its sections appeared subordinate to the SIS. During a high-level meeting on 27 June between Holland and senior officers—including the DCIGS, the Directors of Military Operations and Intelligence, and the Deputy Directors of both departments, it was decided to retain the original title of GS.