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The Ian Fleming Files
THE IAN FLEMING
FILES
Operation
Armada
& Operation
Parsifal
Damian Stevenson
The
Ian Fleming Files Operation Armada and Operation Parsifal
Copyright:
Damian Stevenson
Published: June 1 2013
Kindle Edition
The right of Damian Stevenson to be identified as
author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
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Author’s
note
This
book is based on true events in Ian Fleming’s life. Some timelines, events,
places and names have been changed for dramatic purposes.
Cover art by
Anya Kelleye
Coming Soon
Operation Uncle Sam
SNEAK PREVIEW AT THE BACK OF
THIS BOOK
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
PREVIEW OF OPERATION UNCLE SAM
OPERATION ARMADA
The facts of Ian Fleming’s life
are well known. He was born in 1908 in Mayfair, London, one of the most
expensive and exclusive neighborhoods in one of the world’s most expensive and
exclusive cities. His paternal grandfather Robert Fleming pioneered investment
banking and the family was rich. Ian was expelled from Eton and later dismissed
from Sandhurst. He completed his education at the universities of Munich and
Geneva. Ian’s father Valentine Fleming was a Member of Parliament who died on
the battlefields of World War I. His mother, Lady Fleming, was a noted
socialite whose connections would help her son land jobs at Reuters and the
Naval Intelligence Department.
Ian had two younger brothers,
Michael (1913–1940) and Richard (1911–1977), and a younger maternal half-sister
born out of wedlock, cellist Amaryllis Fleming (1925–1999). His elder brother
Peter (1907-1971) was a war hero and successful travel writer whose fame was
far greater than Ian’s for most of their lives. Peter was married to Celia
Johnson (1908-82), the celebrated British star of
Brief Encounter
(1945).
Ian joined the NID in 1939 as a
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Special Branch where he was given the
codename ‘17F.’ He was hired as a secretary to Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey
(1888-1970) who liked the thirty-one year old’s ‘quicksilver’ mind and his
facilities with language. Ian was particularly skilled at German and French and
his early assignments at Admiralty House focused on propaganda broadcasts.
17F proved adept at intelligence
planning and the majority of his work from 1940 on was devoted to devising
schemes to sabotage the enemy. He was dispatched to France in June 1940 to
negotiate the purchase of France’s navy and he got more involved with a
tactical assault unit, The 30 or ‘Ian’s Red Indians,’ as the war progressed. He
rose from Lieutenant Commander to Commander, the same title he bestowed upon
007.
In 1952, Ian married Ann
Charteris and began writing
Casino Royale
based on his wartime
experiences and utilizing his first-hand specialized knowledge of Naval
Intelligence clandestine operations. There has been much speculation as to who
was the inspiration for Commander Bond and it is my hope that
The Ian
Fleming Files
books will put an end to this debate.
Casino Royale
was published
by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 13 April 1953 and was an instant
success, paving the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in
addition to two short story collections, followed by many ‘continuation’ Bond
novels by other authors. Fleming’s books were recognized as classic thrillers
by Fleming’s contemporaries Kingsley Amis, Raymond Chandler and John Betjeman.
Ian continued to write one 007
adventure every winter while on vacation in his Jamaican home Golden Eye. The
second Bond book was
Live and Let Die
and the last to appear was
Octopussy
and The Living Daylights
which was published posthumously in 1966, two
years after Ian Fleming’s untimely death. He died aged only 56 but he had lived
long enough to enjoy a decade of literary fame and to have had a taste of the
007 phenomenon with the huge successes of
Dr.No
(1962) and its follow up
From Russia With Love
(1964). But it’s unlikely he would have lived long
enough to see the full extent of the power of his creation to touch lives: in
2012
Skyfall
became one of the top ten movies of all time when it
grossed a billion dollars at the box office.
The James Bond franchise is one
of the longest continually-running film series in history, having been in
production from 1962 to the present. In that time Eon Productions – partnered
with UA, MGM and Sony - has produced 23 films, usually produced at Pinewood
Studios.
Six actors have portrayed 007 in
the Eon series: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton,
Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
As of March 2013, the series has
grossed just over US$6 billion, making it the second-highest-grossing film
series behind
Harry Potter
, and the single most successful adjusted for
inflation.
Thunderball
(1965) is one of the highest attended movies of
all time and
Skyfall
(2012) is in the exclusive billion dollar plus
club. The moviegoing world’s fascination with the cultivated lounge lizard
saving the world started with the low-budget
Dr.No
in 1962 and shows no
sign of stopping. Along the way there have been some howlers but even the
initially panned
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
(1969) has found its
audience in recent years and is now one of the most popular entries in the Bond
canon.
On the silver screen or the
written page, it is hard to think of a fictional character that has endured
longer in the popular imagination than Ian Fleming’s British secret agent James
Bond.
THE JAMES BOND BOOKS
Casino Royale
(1953)
Live and Let Die
(1954)
Moonraker
(1955)
Diamonds Are Forever
(1956)
From Russia With Love
(1957)
The Diamond Smugglers
(1957)
Dr. No
(1958)
Goldfinger
(1959)
For Your Eyes Only
(1960)
Thunderball
(1961)
The Spy Who Loved Me
(1962)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
(1963)
Thrilling Cities
(1963)
You Only Live Twice
(1964)
The Man with the Golden Gun
(1965)
Octopussy and The Living Daylights
(1966)
THE JAMES BOND MOVIES
Dr. No
(1962)
From Russia With Love
(1963)
Goldfinger
(1964)
Thunderball
(1965)
You Only Live Twice
(1967)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
(1969)
Diamonds Are Forever
(1971)
Live and Let Die
(1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun
(1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me
(1977)
Moonraker
(1979)
For Your Eyes Only
(1981)
Octopussy
(1983)
A View to a Kill
(1985)
The Living Daylights
(1987)
Licence to Kill
(1989)
GoldenEye
(1995)
Tomorrow Never Dies
(1997)
The World is Not Enough
(1999)
Die Another Day
(2002)
Casino Royale
(2006)
Quantum of Solace
(2008)
Skyfall
(2012)
Bond 24
(2016)
Bond 25
(2018)
*In 1954, CBS television produced
Casino Royale
as
a one hour episode of the anthology series
Climax! (Mystery Theatre)
. It
starred American Barry Nelson as 'Jimmy' Bond and Linda Christian as Valerie
Mathis. Technically Barry Nelson was the first Bond and Linda Christian the
first Bond girl. The show was forgotten about after its initial showing until
most of it was located in the 1980s by film historian Jim Schoenberger.
OPERATION ARMADA
One
It was a cool,
foggy morning on the banks of the river Thames. Sunlight burned through the
haze turning the opaque tendrils of vapor silvery and pearlescent. An almost
primordial stillness pervaded.