doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Continuous Lean - Purdey

I have no doubt certain commercial buildings were used for SOE matters , but the logistics of security clearances for Purdey employees, their families, suppliers, even the mail delivery , not to mention the general public walking in and out of the shop just does not make sence. Everyone knew there was going to be an invasion somewhere at some time.Nor does it make sence that Smith was the only person named , and with Staff, logistics , including supplies and maps ,etc, would have made that location a big target as well as a potential security leak. I believe that the long room had no meaningful " part " in the D-day invasion and a more credible statement would be that Gen.Smith visited the location , perhaps several times , WHILE he was in London planning the D-day invasion. Obviously, I stand corrected if there is supporting information to clarify.

The fellow who did the planning for Overlord was British Gen. Frederick E Morgan. He'd started the job in 1943 as Chief Of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (designate) i.e. some bloke who was supposed to be George Marshall, but turned out to be Ike. Given his staff of 320 officers and 600 other ranks the Long Room must have been quite crowded!

Link here ... including the three principal locations in London. Fred Morgan

The plan was in already in place and had been approved, when Ike and his own COS Bedell Smith arrived at Bushey House and COSSAC was absorbed into SHAEF. Montgomery as Allied Land Commander accepted all the details with the exception of the numbers of troops to be involved on the first landings, and the width of the coastline to be attacked. In essence he beefed up the airborne attacks and put a lot more divisions ashore on five beaches instead of Morgan's three.

I'm fairly certain Churchill's underground range was established well before the war; he conducted all his criminological and ballistic work down there, including bullet matching by photomicrograph. He did indeed train a lot of the James Bonds of the time using the instinctive pointing method devised by the Shanghai police.

As a by the by it is said that when Lord Haw Haw heard that Churchill was teaching The Home Guard how to shoot descending parachute troops up the arse with Ross rifles, he protested that this was no way to treat brave men!

Eug

Interesting that the article mentions that all the Royals up to The Queen and Prince Charles have Purdeys. Seems the current gunmakers (or their luxury owners) with British royal warrants may have priced themselves into a quandary. Can one imagine the public outcry in the media if Prince William or Harry took delivery of a +$150k double? Or even worse, USED it against....birds or animals (with names and families and houses and personally sponsored tax free charities, which speak English and have wonderful parties at night after the zoo or park is closed, as all children are taught!)