Essay On Camp X

Camp-X, a WWII spy training facility located in Whitby, Ontario, was a key part of the allied forces efforts in the war. “In fact, it was a finely tuned machine turning highly qualified recruits into fully trained secret service agents of all ethnic backgrounds, readied and made available to the SOE (Special Operations Executive) on a moment’s notice.” Although it was a highly secretive undertaking during and after WWII information finally started to be made available over the last 20 years. This essay will outline the role Camp-X played in the war, how spies for many allied countries were trained, and why it was an important location for British and American forces. Camp-X was a paramilitary training installation run by Sir William Stephenson

Had the attack on Pearl Harbour been executed six months earlier, there would never have been a Camp-X. The Camp was designed for the sole purpose of linking Britain and the United States. Until the attack on Pearl Harbour, the United States was forbidden by an act of Congress to get involved with the war. The camp opened on December 5, 1941, one day before the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The leaders of the camp soon realized the impact of Camp-X. More agents and different training programs were requested daily from London and New York. Not only were they faced with training agents who were going to go behind enemy lines on missions, but now they had been asked to train instructors as well. To make training trainers easier, Lieutenant Colonel R. M. Brooker, a British SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) officer, established a successful program of weekend courses for OSS (Office of Strategic Services)

The location was ideal for allied forces, training techniques were meticulously designed and spies who came here were put through rigorous training. It was placed in a remote area on the shores of Lake Ontario, only thirty miles straight across the lake from the United States. It was ideal for sending and receiving radio signals from Europe, South America, and between London and the British Security Co-ordination headquarters in New York. The placement also put the Camp just eight kilometers from Defense Industries Ltd., which was in the town of Ajax. At that time, DIL was the largest armaments manufacturing facility in North