Mike Cumberlege
Mike Cumberlege | |
---|---|
Born | Second World War | 26 October 1905
Awards | Distinguished Service Order & Bar Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve War Cross (Greece) |
Relations | Rear Admiral Claude Cumberlege (father) |
Other work | Intelligence officer Special Operations Executive agent |
Early life
Cumberlege was born into a naval family, the son of
War service
In 1940 Cumberlege was called up for active service. For the first six months of that year he was attached to a British anti-smuggling and intelligence naval unit based in Marseilles. After the
Cumberlege was tasked with undertaking covert and disruptive action in Greece during and after the
After the
Operation Locksmith
On 7 January 1943, Cumberlege and his SOE team of Sergeant Major James C. Steele, Sergeant Thomas E. Handley (radio operator) and Czech Corporal Jan Kotrba embarked on Operation Locksmith. It was at Beirut they boarded the Greek submarine Papanicolis. The operation was a fresh attempt to block the Corinth Canal, applying the lessons which had been learnt from the failed 1941 attempt. Cumberlege was centrally involved in the planning process, and led the mission. Cumberlege's superiors, however, rejected inserting a Greek-speaking man.[8] On 5 March, having travelled to the canal and set up a hideout, the team placed their explosives in the canal. The explosives floated in the water and failed to detonate, and ten days later SOE HQ in Cairo concluded that the mission had failed.[9]
On 19 March, Cumberlege, still at his hideout, reported that he was aware that Italian secret police were searching for his party. In early April, the Abwehr had intercepted signals from a clandestine radio operating in the Hydra area and three patrol boats were sent to triangulate the position. A German patrol was put ashore in the Tselevinia area and Cumberlege's hideout was discovered.[10] Cumberlege and his group managed to escape, but most of their communications equipment was captured. Three days later the group received a message ostensibly from SOE Cairo that a British submarine was coming to rescue it. On the night of 30 April, the group was captured by German forces who had lured them into a trap using the captured communications equipment.
Prisoner of war
Cumberlege and his colleagues were taken to Averoff Prison in
Cumberlege was awarded a posthumous Bar to his DSO in 1946 for the second attempt to attack the canal.[13] He had also been awarded the Greek War Cross.
Personal life
Cumberlege married a Canadian, Nancy Wooler, in 1936. Together they had one son, Marcus, a poet, who was born in Antibes, France, and died in 2019 at the age of 80 in Bruges, Belgium. He was survived by a daughter, Eunice.[14] In 1947, Nancy married Lt.-Col. Lennox John Livingstone-Learmonth, M.C., D.S.O.
Cumberlege is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial and on the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp memorial plaque for British and Commonwealth forces. He was additionally honoured with a division at Britannia Royal Naval College named after him, which functions to train Royal Naval Reserve officer cadets throughout their stay at the college during the Accelerated Officers Programme.
A biography of Cumberlege was published in 2018 – The Extraordinary Life of Mike Cumberlege SOE – written by Robin Knight and published by Fonthill Media.
References
- ^ 'Cumberlege, Claude Michael Bulstrode' in Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine at unithistories.com, retrieved 1 February 2016
- ^ 'Cumberlege, Claude Michael Bulstrode' in Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine at unithistories.com, retrieved 1 February 2016
- ^ Royal Navy Research Archive "In Search of Mike Cumberlege". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ^ Royal Navy Research Archive "In Search of Mike Cumberlege". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ISBN 978 1 47382 756 1
- ^ 'Cumberlege, Claude Michael Bulstrode' in Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine at unithistories.com, retrieved 1 February 2016
- ^ Royal Navy Research Archive "In Search of Mike Cumberlege". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ISBN 978 1 47382 756 1
- ^ Royal Navy Research Archive "In Search of Mike Cumberlege". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ISBN 978 1 47382 756 1
- ISBN 978 1 47382 756 1
- ^ Royal Navy Research Archive "In Search of Mike Cumberlege". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ^ 'Cumberlege, Claude Michael Bulstrode' in Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine at unithistories.com, retrieved 1 February 2016
- ^ Weston, John (14 January 2019). "Marcus Cumberlege obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2022.