IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Dobrski
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: DOBRSKI, Lt Col Count Julian A (fl 1939-1953) alias Lt Col Julian Antony Dolbey
Date(s): 1939-1945, 1949-1950, 1953
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 6 boxes or 0.06 cubic metres
Name of creator(s): Dobrski | Julian A | fl 1939-1953 | Lt Col | Count | Special Operations Executive Officer | alias Lt Col Julian Antony Dolbey
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born [1901]; educated in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland; BSc, University of Lyons, France; served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1940-1945, mainly based at Headquarters of Force 133 at Cairo, Egypt, during World War Two, under the name of Maj and later Lt Col Julian Antony Dolbey; worked for Lyons Silks Ltd, French Silhouettes and Arnold Securities, all associated companies of the French textile group Maison J Bourdelin.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers principally relating to operations of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Italy, Greece, the Aegean and the Balkans, 1941-1945, including: SOE training manuals, and various SOE memoranda relating to the 'Rhine mine', poisons, inland waterways, and the 'New Zionists', 1941-1944; memoranda and directives on SOE infiltration of Italy and the recruitment of Italian agents, the production of propaganda for use in Italy, transcripts of subversive propaganda broadcasts to the Italian people via Radio Jerusalem, letters from Stefano Terra, regarding the activities of the anti-fascist group Giustizia e Libertŕ, 1940-1943; diary of Capt R Guy Turrall during his SOE sabotage mission to Crete, 1941-1942; papers concerning SOE Operations BASILIC and ERRATIC (infiltration of Scarpanto and Rhodes), 1943; papers concerning propaganda operations in conjunction with the Political Warfare Executive, particularly Operations KREIPE and KRIMSCHILD, May 1944, to demoralize German troops on Crete; reports, 1943-1945, relating to SOE activities on Crete, including reports on the kidnapping by SOE of German Maj Gen Heinrich Kreipe; appreciations of SOE activities in Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, 1943; correspondence of Headquarters Force 133 (SOE Cairo, Egypt) in regard to promotion, welfare, training, transfers and postings of personnel, including confidential reports on individual staff, 1944-1945; diary of Maj John Mulgan, British Liaison Officer in Greece, 1944; correspondence relating to the winding up of SOE organisation in Greece, 1944-1945; various other papers, comprising correspondence with Anne René Pleven, 1939-1941, on the German bombing of London and the reaction of the French people to German occupation and the Vichy government; report on René Pleven, French Minister of Defence, concerning Pleven's attitude to the French political situation, policy towards Indo-China and the French High Command, 1949; papers relating to the reorganisation of Lyons Silks Ltd, French Silhouettes and Arnold Securities, 1949-1950; newspaper article on German penetration of the SOE network in the Netherlands, 1942-1944, dated 1953.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: Mainly English, some French, Greek and Italian.
System of arrangement:
Arranged in the following sections: training and instruction of SOE personnel and various SOE memoranda, 1940-1944; SOE operations in Italy, 1940-1943; SOE operations in Greece, the Aegean and the Balkans, and correspondence of Headquarters, Force 133, 1941-1946; various papers of Dobrski, 1939-1953.
Conditions governing access:
The files of confidential letters relating to personnel matters of Force 133 (nos 27-30) are closed for 75 years in line with the policy of the Public Record Office. The remainder of the collection is 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.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Detailed catalogue available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre by the family in 1989, 1995 and 2000, via the 2nd Earl Jellicoe.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives holds several collections relating to SOE operations in Greece and the Balkans, most notably the papers of Capt Patrick Hutchinson Evans (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Evans); Brig Edmund Charles Wolf Myers (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Myers); Maj Philip Frederick Nind (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Nind); Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Prentice); and Col (Hon) Christopher Montague Woodhouse (Ref: GB99 KCLMA 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 SOE, Oct 1943-Dec 1945 (Ref: PREM 3/408/1); Confidential Papers of Col William J Donovan, 1940-41 (Ref: PREM 4/25/5); SOE: Balkan Files (Ref: HS 5); SOE Headquarters section histories and war diaries, and files relating to SOE organisations and operations in Europe, the Far East, North and South America (HS 7).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Robert Baxter, with information provided by Lord Jellicoe and Countess Dobrski.
Date(s) of descriptions: Nov 1999, revised Jan 2001