9 replies to this topic

[Jacques Nexus]

As Fleming buffs know, Fleming was the Personal Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence during WW2. He knew a lot about the secret world, and sure as hell must have known about the British S.O.E., which stands for "SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE" (which incidently turns up in the FINAL ASSIGNMENT script), an organisation, alongside the American O.S.S., responsible for co-ordinating Nazi resistance and sabotage operations on continental Europe. Now you can see where the "SPECIAL EXECUTIVE" part of SPECTRE's name comes from.

As far as the full name itself is concerned, I have in front of me a cutting from a British film magazine which may shed some light on this question. Unfortunately the cutting doesn't have the name of the magazine on it (it may have been Empire, from memory), but it was part of one of those large Bond movie retrospectives that are trotted out for every new Bond (this one for TND). This section deals with the history of the casting for Bond in DR NO. Here's a small extract:
"...Niven was Fleming's preferred choice- being a long-time friend and wartime contemporary who also worked in the Secret Services for an organisation called PHANTOM...".
Well...Niven was Fleming's friend alright...he even gave Niven's name a run in his YOLT novel...but what about this PHANTOM organisation ?. On the net I can't find anything on it, however I did find a reference to it on a David Niven forum:

"On Mon, 14 Dec 1998, Daniel Ross wrote:
And what of David Niven who returned to his Regt- Royal Scots ?- and later became a Lt Col in "Phantom" ?".

Unfortunately, the respondent answered the first part of the question but omitted the last.

If anybody can shed any more light on this PHANTOM organisation, please drop a line here.

[Jacques Nexus]

Blue Eyes (24 Aug, 2001 12:57 p.m.):
Would anyone be willing to help look into it further? It would make a fantastic article!

I'll try and keep digging on this. Either way I won't let this topic disappear. This PHANTOM could be a coincidence...but somehow I doubt it. There's another angle to consider in this, and that is...Kevin McClory. Did he have any input in the creation of SPECTRE ?. Most of us think he didn't but perhaps one man can help us...that man is Raymond Benson. As a Fleming expert he knows a lot about the history of SPECTRE and didn't he testify on EON's behalf during the last McClory law suit ?. Perhaps CB.NET can contact Benson and get his opinion on this topic ?.

[Blue Eyes]

Would anyone be willing to help look into it further? It would make a fantastic article!

[Blue Eyes]

Well we definetly could! But I'd like to get a fair bit of bank info before we contact Raymond Benson. That way we know the right questions to ask!

[Blue Eyes]

I found this on the net. I'm not sure if it's related but it's a possibility.

Phantom Regiment
British signals unit which, as No.3 British Air Mission, transmitted information during the early months of the war about the front-line position of Belgian, British and French troops to the commander of British air units in France. Its initial purpose was to prevent Allied aircraft bombing friendly ground forces. After it was joined by Lt-Colonel G.F. Hopkinson, whose task it was to liaise with the Belgians, it expanded, and during the fighting which preceded the fall of France its highly mobile patrols were able to obtain up-to-date battlefield intelligence which was transmitted direct to Army HQ. It proved a great success and as GHQ Liaison Regiment (Phantom) and later as the Signals Reporting Regiment, operated with forward units in all the Allied campaigns in north-west Europe and in the Western Desert campaigns. Its F Squadron was attached to the SAS.

Phantom's system of obtaining battlefield intelligence proved unsuitable in the Western Desert. Instead, the J Service was formed in 1941. This intercepted the radio communications of friendly forward formation as well as those of the enemy, and relevant intelligence was immediately passed to the operations staff at army HQ. J Service layer fought in the north African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns and was amalgamated with Phantom in 1945. Its US equivalent was the Signals Information and Monitoring unit.

[Jacques Nexus]

Thanks Blue Eyes for the extract on the "PHANTOM REGIMENT". If this is the PHANTOM we're looking for, Fleming would have known about this particular mob. Still, we need to find some text somewhere discussing Niven's direct involvement...till then, the question will remain unresolved. You know, in many books on Fleming there's always info on what his plots, character names, titles, etc were based on, but never any info I can recall about SPECTRE...very strange.

[Blue Eyes]

I guess we'll have to start with researching David Niven.

[zencat]

This is VERY interesting info Nexus. I've never heard of this, but it could very well be Fleming's inspiration for SPECTRE.

PHANTOM is a great name for a villainous organization, or even a villain's name.

Are you reading this Mr. Benson?

[Blue Eyes]

You could always e-mail it to him

It's a fascinating back story. I wonder how we'd go about researching it?

[White Persian]

Nice bit of detective work, Nexus.