6 replies to this topic

[Squall67584]

First off, let me say that this site is wonderful, and I'm glad that I stumbled upon it recently. As I've always enjoyed watching the Bond films, I must say that I find the Fleming novels to be far superior in both story line and believability since Bond gets hurt in nearly all of them. While I was reading through them, I took little notes of certain things, one of which was the different Stations that were located abroad for the Service. In all, I've been able to identify 9 stations that I've made notes on, which I'll list below and if one of them is incorrect, please correct me! If there's any that I've missed, please add on!

Station B: West Berlin
Station C: Carribean
Station F: France
Station H: Hong Kong
Station J: (There's a bit of confusion on this for my part, in YOLT they says it's Japan, though it's been closed, then it's open at the end of the novel again, and the Letter is used to represent a Jamaican station in The Man With the Golden Gun. Not sure which one it's supposed to be)
Station M: Munich
Station T: Turkey
Station W: (I'm not clear on what this is supposed to be, though it's mentioned by Chief of Staff in TMWGG as a place where Bond would have reported if he was coming out of Russia)
Station Z: Zurich

The Man With the Golden Gun is the most confusing book when it comes to these stations since it mentions a Station J, then it has a new head, Alec Hill, who is reported as the Head of Station C at the end of the novel. I haven't read any of the continuation novels, and I doubt I will, so I don't know if they've added any stations in those.

Edited by Squall67584, 05 July 2007 - 04:10 PM.

[MHazard]

In one of the Titan Bond comics colllections, there is an introduction that lists all the Stations mentioned in the novels (I'm at work so I can't refer to it now). My recollection is that there is some inconsistency as some letters are used for more than one station or change (like "C" for Carribean and "J" for Jamaica). Wouldn't the reference to station W in TMWGG be West Berlin, the logical place for Bond to report if he was leaving the Soviet Union. I've just been reading Andrew Lycett's Fleming biography and unfortunately Fleming was a very sick man at the time he wrote his last book and his proofing skills left something to be desired at this stage in his life which may explain the inconsistent station letters.

By the way, I also think the Fleming novels are far superior to the films although I quite enjoy the films.

[Squall67584]

Station W could mean West Berlin, I'm not sure if Station B is mentioned in Octopussy/Living Daylights since I'm only 20 something pages into that one. What made me think that B was West Berlin was Chief of Staff's words at the begining of chapter 2 in TMWGG. "And the last entry is West Germany, day before yesterday. Why didn't he report to Station B or W? Both those Heads of Station arefriends of his, particularly 016 in Berlin." Something else, on a side note, are there only 26 stations in the world? I guess there could be since the Pacific is America's "backyard".

[OmarB]

Had to jump in here. From John Griswold's book "Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies For Ian Fleming's James Bond Series."

Station A - British Secret Service's espionage station having links to the CIA.
Station B - Berlin, Germany
Station C - Caribbean
Station D - Pertaining to visas and passports of foreign workers in Britain
Station F - France
Station H - Hong Kong
Station I - Italy
Station J - Jamaica. Prior to 1951 Station J was used for Japan.
Station M - Munich, Germany
Station P - Poland
Station R - Rome, Italy
Station s - Soviet Union
Station T - Turkey
Station V - Vienna, Austria
Station W - West Germany
Station W.B. - West Germany (yes, the book says there are 2 stations there)
Station Z - Zurich, Switzerland

You are welcome.

[Squall67584]

Oh Cool! Having a station in both Munich and West Germany seems odd, or maybe the Munich station later became the West German station. I always thought it was odd that they would have a Station for that country, then a station in a city in that country, like I and then R.

[Vauxhall]

This serves as a very good overview to the stations mentioned in the novels.

On a similar topic, all of the above seem to be abbreviations of the name of the station, so I've always wondered how Rio de Janeiro became Station VH in the movie MOONRAKER?!

[Secretan]

Griswold's list seems to be complete, but I think he guessed at some names, such as W being West Germany. W and B (as noted above) are both mentioned in TMWtGG and not revealed. I also don't believe there is a Station S. There is a SECTION S in London(per CR), but no STATION S in the Soviet Union. I also disagree with his conclusion that Station J changed from Japan to Jamaica. It's possible that Station J in Japan closed down (as YOLT suggests), but it seems unlikely that a new station would be opened in Jamaica with one already elsewhere in the Caribbean. If anyone can cite book and chapter where all these are mentioned, so that I can see them for myself , it would be much appreciated. I have an incomplete list myself, and didn't realzie that there would be contradictory information until it was too late.
Oh, and Station Z being Zurich suggests that when a letter is already in use, the letter of the city is then used.