Ian Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 - August 12, 1964) served during World War II as personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey, coordinating intelligence operations under the cover of Commander, RNVR. He organized and partly commanded 30 Assault Unit, a Royal Marines commando intelligence unit whose mission was to seize enemy intelligence materials in advance of conventional forces. He is identified as a figure in the British Security Coordination (BSC) network and wrote the foreword to H. Montgomery Hyde's 1963 account of BSC operations, "Room 3603."¹

Naval Intelligence

Fleming joined British Naval Intelligence in 1939 as personal assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, who headed the Naval Intelligence Division. His role was administrative and operational rather than covert fieldwork: he prepared briefing documents, coordinated intelligence dissemination, and acted as Godfrey's liaison with other intelligence services including the nascent OSS. He accompanied Godfrey on a 1941 trip to Washington that included meetings with J. Edgar Hoover and discussions about the potential creation of an American intelligence service - discussions that paralleled William Stephenson's efforts to establish the Office of Strategic Services.¹

30 Assault Unit (30AU, also called 30 Commando) was formed in 1942 under Fleming's conceptual direction. The unit was tasked with capturing intact enemy signals equipment, codebooks, and intelligence files ahead of advancing Allied forces, a mission modeled on German intelligence assault units. 30AU operated in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany.¹

BSC and the Intelligence Network

Fleming is identified in the BSC network through his relationship with Roald Dahl and other BSC figures. He wrote the foreword to H. Montgomery Hyde's "Room 3603" (1963), the first serious public account of BSC operations, in which he described William Stephenson as "one of the great secret agents of the last war." Fleming's own account of Stephenson in the foreword: "James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is ... William Stephenson."¹

James Bond and Intelligence Realism

The James Bond character, first appearing in "Casino Royale" (1953), drew on Fleming's wartime intelligence experience and on actual figures from the BSC and Naval Intelligence milieu. The operational tradecraft in the novels - brush passes, cover identities, government proprietaries - was more technically accurate than critics of the character's implausible action sequences recognized. Fleming described Stephenson as one of the inspirations for James Bond's "M," the head of the Secret Intelligence Service. The character of M is generally understood to composite several figures including Godfrey and Stephenson.¹