Embedded Files
What was Camp X?
What was Camp X?
Camp X was a confidential spy training school in rural Ontario. The school taught students valuable skill's for agents who would be in the field in foreign countries. Some of the subjects that were instructed included lock picking, radio operation, parachute preparation, along with many more. Originally designed as a “British site”, Camp X “was conducted with the clear cooperation of Canada” [1]. In fact, both countries utilized the facility “until, toward the end of the war, it was turned over for the exclusive use of Canada” [1].
The camp officially opened its doors in late 1941 and was under the direction of William Stephenson. Stephenson was a World War I veteran and is often credited as being “the brain behind “Camp X”” [2]. Stephenson made a deep impression on the approximately “550 students [who] passed through Camp X” including “Ian Fleming, later famous for writing the James Bond novels” [3,2]. It has been said that the character James Bond “was supposedly based on Stephenson and what Fleming learned from him” [2].
A variety of nationalities trained at the camp including Canadians, Yugoslavs, and Americans since “this was at a time when the United States had not yet entered the war, and such a facility, staffed by British trainers, could not be established on American soil” [3].
[1] “Cautious Beginnings : Canadian Foreign Intelligence, 1939-51,” 12, https://www.deslibris.ca/ID/422129.[2] “Canada Remembers Times - 2012 Edition - Page 3.” Veterans Affairs Canada, 23 Oct. 2014, http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/information-for/students/canada-remembers-times/2012/page3 [3]“Cautious Beginnings : Canadian Foreign Intelligence, 1939-51,” 68.
Source: Camp X Official Site
What was Hydra?
What was Hydra?
The system that connected the Allied forces during World War II was given the code name “Hydra”. This communications system allowed for a “flow of information from Allied outposts in Europe with command centers in the U.K. and America” [1]. This Telekrypton line was functional by the spring of 1942 and connected the Examination Unit to similar secret operations around the world [2].
Hydra relied on communication cables that were owned by Bell Telephone, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific. While the use of these resources was “very costly” at the time, apparently a “Bell representative” said that “the Camp had a higher priority than even the Prime Minister’s Office” [3]. The representative told the camp that if they ever needed anything to be fixed with the machine, "Bell would be there immediately!" [3].
Hydra was intended to secure Canada's position as “a communications hub” for the Allied forces [4]. The system was not necessarily meant to intercept enemy messages, but on occasion it would. As Ed Grabianowski explains “because of the way radio waves move through the atmosphere in different weather conditions, Hydra was sometimes used to intercept signals from the Axis powers that couldn't be picked up by receivers in the U.K." [1]. The intercepted messages would then be transferred to “places like Bletchley Park, a site for British code breakers, for decoding” [1].
[1] “How Camp X Worked.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018, science.howstuffworks.com/camp-x4.htm[2] “Cautious Beginnings : Canadian Foreign Intelligence, 1939-51,” 67, https://www.deslibris.ca/ID/422129.[3] “Camp-X ‘Hydra.’” Camp-X Official Site, www.camp-x.com/hydra.html. [4] “Cautious Beginnings : Canadian Foreign Intelligence, 1939-51,” 162.
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