EVANS, Maj Patrick Hutchinson (1913-1994)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Evans
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: EVANS, Maj Patrick Hutchinson (1913-1994)
Date(s)	: Created 1943-1944, 1991-1993
Level of description	: individual file and item
Extent	: 3 boxes or 0.03 cubic metres
Name of creator(s)	:
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in 1913; served in 50 Royal Tank Regiment, [1941-1942]; completed Special Operations Executive (SOE) training at Haifa, Palestine, and at General Headquarters, Middle East, Cairo, Egypt, 1943; volunteered for service in SOE Force 133, West Macedonia, Greece, 1943-1944; Lieutenant, 1943; Captain, 1944; Major, [1945]; served in Royal Artillery Regt, 1946-1947; died 1994.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Manuscript diaries, detailing his SOE training in Haifa, Palestine, Cairo, Egypt, his service as an instructor at the Allied Military Mission Commando School at Pendalophos, British relations with allied Greek partisan units, and SOE harassment and demolition activity prior to and during the German withdrawal from the Greek peninsula, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled byEvans as commander of the Vitsi sub-area, relating to intelligence, reconnaissance and demolition missions alongside Greek Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) units, the pro-German infiltration of West Macedonia, and the conduct of Operation NOAH'S ARK; papers relating to SOE commando missions, including notes detailing weapons, ammunition and supplies used; lists of alliedPolish, Czech and French participants in the Allied Military Mission, autumn 1943; papers relating to the construction of the SOE airfield at Grevena, 1944; list compiled by Evans concerning hostile Armenian, Italian, German and Greek forces, 1944; notes detailing the nominal roll of partisan forces in the Vitsi sub-area, 1944; papers relating to SOE and ELAS border assaults into Yugoslavia and Albania, 1944; papers detailing the splintering of relations between British and Greek forces in Greece, 1944; booklets of deciphered signals messages received and issued by the Vitsi sub-area station, relating to the movement of German forces and Yugoslavian partisans, under the command of Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), and the execution of Operation NOAH'S ARK, 1944; correspondence with Lt ColArthur Edmonds, Officer Commanding Area 1, West Macedonia, Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Officer Commanding Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, and allied British, American and Greek soldiers, 1944; policy and procedure papers, including his official secrecy declaration, 1944; papers relating to SOE technical training, finances and supplies; papers, in Greek, relating to combined operations between the Allied Military Mission and ELAS 9 Div, including command and control agreements and messages from Gen Karayannis, commander ELAS 9 Div, relating to German movements in the Vitsi sub-area; official report, in Greek, from theGreek government, detailing the history of Greek partisan forces in Greece, 1940-1944; Greek propaganda leaflets and newspapers relating to Greek partisan activity in West Macedonia, and Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) and ELAS power struggles, 1944; German divisional daily order concerning the psychological state of German occupation troops; personal correspondence from German 1 Mountain Div soldiers; papers relating to the proposed publication of an account of Evans's career in the SOE; papers relating to the publication of Hammond's article, 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, Greek and German

System of arrangement:

Arranged in the following sections: diaries and notebooks covering his military career; reports relating to SOE operations in West Macedonia, 1943-1944; papers relating to signals and wireless/telegraphy traffic between SOE Allied Military Mission Headquarters and sub-stations; correspondence between Evans and allied operatives; papers relating to the Vitsi sub-area, under the command of Evans; papers, in Greek, relating to Greek partisan activity; captured German papers and propaganda; papersrelating to the post-war publication of books and articles on SOE operations.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

Finding aids:

Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm,and detailed catalogue available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Placed in the Centre by Professor (late Lt Col) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond on behalfof Evans in 1993.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives holds several collections relating to SOE operations inthe Balkans, most notably the papers of Lt Col Count J A Dobrski (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Dobrski); Brig Godfrey Pennington Hobbs; Brig Edmund Charles Wolf Myers; Maj Philip Frederick Nind (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Nind); Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead; and, Col (Hon) Christopher Montague Woodhouse. The Public Record Office, Kew, holds a substantial collection of material relating to SOE operations, most notably Political Warfare Executive correspondence (Ref: FO 898/25-28); papers relating to SOE activities, Middle East, Cairo, 1940-42 (Ref: FO 898/113-114); Quarterly Reports of Special Operations Executive, Oct 1943-Dec 1945 (Ref: PREM 3/408/1); Confidential Papersof Col William J Donovan, 1940-41 (Ref: PREM 4/25/5); and, Special Operations Executive: Balkan Files (Ref: HS 5).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

The collection was consulted by Professor (late Lt Col) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond for the publication of 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993, and The Allied Military Mission and the Resistance in West Macedonia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, 1993).

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jun 1999