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Stay-behind Organisations in Europe
The Cold War started immediately at the end of WWII and would last until the
fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. During this period of great tension between
East and West, most European countries developed an underground army of
secretly trained agents that would stay-behind in the event of an invasion
by the Russians. The task of the stay-behind organisations was to pass important
information to the government(s) in exile and to carry out sabotage activities.
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This secret stay-behind organisation is often
called Gladio
after the Italian variant of this underground army. The actual name of the
operation varies between countries. For example: in Switzerland it was
called Projekt-26
whilst in The Netherlands they went under the name O&I
(Operatiën en Inlichtingen: Operations and Intelligence).
In many countries the organisation was renamed several times over the years.
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Stay-behind radios on this website
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For communication between the agents and their government (in exile),
but also between agents themselves, it was necessary to have radio
equipment that could be used for long-distance communication. The equipment
had to be small so that it could easily be hidden. In many cases the equipment
was stored for many years in secret storage facilities (caches), often
undergound.
In the early years, morse code (CW)
was used as the main operating mode,
and operators had to be trained in that 'language'. Furthermore, the operator
needed in-depth technical knowledge of antennas and the (complex) operation
of the receivers and transmitters of the era. It will not come as a surprise
that many operators were in fact radio amateurs (hams). Rumour has it that,
in the 1970s, the Russians assembled longs lists of European radio hams that
would be eliminated in case western Europe was invaded.
Between the start of the Cold War and the early 1980s, each European country
developed its own stay-behind operation, each using a wide variety of radio
equipment. In fact it is often not clear when a radio set was used for the
the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS), for espionage activities,
for Special Forces (SF), or for use by stay-behind armies. Some of the popular
radio sets are listed on this page, but other spy sets
may have been used for stay-behind purposes as well.
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Because of the wide variety of (incompatible) radios, and because of the
increasing danger of using Radio Amateurs as operators, the ACC
(Allied Clandestine Committee) that was attached to NATO headquarters SHAPE
in Mons (Belgium), decided in the late 1970s to order the development
of a pan-European system for communication between
all stay-behind organisations in Europe.
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This included some non-NATO countries as well [1].
It was also decided that the equipment should no longer use
morse codes
but digital data signals, protected by serious cryptography. The equipment had
to be fully automatic, so that it could be operated by a non-technical user.
The project was given the codename HARPOON and in late 1980, the order
was granted to AEG Telefunken in Ulm (Germany). In 1985 the highly adaptive
HF radio set was ready for use and the Field Station became known as the
FS-5000
[6].
The complete system was designated SY-5000.
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The system was capable of sending digitally encrypted messages over
distances of more than 6000 km in under one second.
In 1989 the Dutch stay-behind branch
(called O&I) was the first to
have fully automated radio traffic handling via their base station NEBAS [6].
By March 1991, all FS-5000 sets had been delivered,
just before the various organisations were dismantled.
 More about the FS-5000 (Harpoon)
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Cooperating NATO countries
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The following NATO countries took part in
the pan-European stay-behind network [3]:
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- Belgium
- Denmark
- Germany (West)
- France
- Greece
- United Kingdom
- Iceland
- Italy
- Canada
- Luxemburg
- Norway
- Portugal
- Spain
- Netherlands
- Turkey
- United States
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Cooperating neutral countries
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The following non-NATO countries took part in the pan-European stay-behind
network [3]:
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- Sweden
- Finland
- Austria
- Switzerland
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Gladio in The Netherlands
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In the Netherlands a secret stay-behind organisation was formed just after
WWII had ended. For many years, this organisation was known as O&I
(Operatiën en Inlichtingen: Operations and Intelligence).
Although its name was changed a number of times, it is
often called Gladio by the public.
O&I was operational from 1946 right until the end in 1992 when it
was dismantled by the Dutch Government. During this time, the network
consisted of 100 to 200 agents that were trained in a variety of skills
and were able to operate a range of clandestine radio sets.
According to several investigations, the Netherlands was the only
country that had a completely automonous stay-behind organisation.
It was not controlled by NATO, MI6 or the CIA.
More about the Dutch stay behind organisation O&I
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- Leo A. Müller, Das Erben des Kalten Krieges
1991. 156 pages. ISBN: 3-499-12993-0
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- Dr. D. Engelen, De Nederlandse stay behind-organisatie in de koude oorlog 1945-1992
Ministerie van Algemene Zaken, Ministerie van Defensie & Rijksarchiefdienst/PIVOT
The Netherlands, National Archives, Institutional Investigation, 2005. (Dutch)
- Danielle Ganser, The British Secret service in Neutral Switzerland;
An Unfinished Debate on NATO's Cold War Stay-behind Armies.
Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 20, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 553-580.
- Daniele Ganser, NATO's secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe
ISBN 978-071465607-6, 2005.
- Geschiedenis van de Sectie Algemene Zaken, Hoofdstuk VI, Consolidatie
History of the Section General Affairs, Chapter 6, Consolidation. (Dutch)
Describing the period May 1970 - December 1981.
Dutch National Archives. Top Secret.
Partly declassified and released in 2007 under the FOI Act.
- Geschiedenis van de Sectie Algemene Zaken, Hoofdstuk VII, Voortgang
History of the Section General Affairs, Chapter 7, Progress. (Dutch)
Describing the period December 1981 - May 1987.
Dutch National Archives. Top Secret.
Partly declassified and released in 2007 under the FOI Act.
- Geschiedenis van de Sectie Algemene Zaken, Hoofdstuk VIII,
Van Stroomlijning tot Ofheffing
History of the Section General Affairs, Chapter 8,
From Streamlining to Dissolution. (Dutch)
Describing the period May 1987 - January 1994.
Dutch National Archives. Top Secret.
Partly declassified and released in 2007 under the FOI Act.
- Telefunken Racoms, History
Timeline -> 1985, SY5000 adaptive HF system to NATO special services.
Telefunken website. Retrieved May 2009.
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Wednesday, 30 April 2014 - 22:50 CET
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