Description: 8x6 inch letter on official House of Commons paper, signed by Fitzroy Maclean Major-General Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, 1st Baronet, KT, CBE (11 March 1911 – 15 June 1996) was a Scottish soldier, writer and politician. He was a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) from 1941 to 1974 and was one of only two men who during the Second World War enlisted in the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier, the other being future fellow Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert campaign, where he specialised in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans while commanding the Maclean Mission there. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond. When war broke out in 1939 Maclean was prevented from joining the military because of his position as a diplomat. He was 2nd Secretary in the Foreign Office. Therefore, he resigned from the Diplomatic Service "to go into politics". After tendering his resignation he immediately took a taxi to the nearest recruiting office and enlisted as a Private in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. He was soon promoted to lance corporal and was commissioned in 1941. In that year he became the Conservative MP for Lancaster. In North Africa in 1942, he distinguished himself in the early actions of the newly formed Special Air Service (SAS), where, with Ralph A. Bagnold, he developed ways of driving vehicles over the Libyan sand "seas". Maclean was a brilliant practitioner in the T. E. Lawrence brand of fighting, and he reported directly to Winston Churchill in Cairo. A letter of introduction from David Stirling said of him at the end of this period: "He has done well on our raids. Don't be taken in by his rather pompous manner or his slow way of speaking - he is OK." Later that year he transferred to the Middle East as part of the Persia and Iraq Command. He was "allotted a platoon of Seaforth Highlanders and instructed to kidnap" General Fazlollah Zahedi, the commander of the Persian forces in the Isfahan area. Maclean captured him and smuggled him out by plane to internment in Palestine. This incident soon led Hitler's government to withdraw support from its network in Persia. Churchill chose him to lead a liaison mission (Macmis) to central Yugoslavia in 1943. Josip Broz Tito and his Partisans were emerging as a major obstacle to German control of the Balkans. Little was known at the time about Tito: some suspected this was an acronym for a committee or that he might in fact be a young woman. Maclean got to know Tito well, and later produced two biographies of him. Maclean's relationship with Tito's Partisans was not always easy, partly because they were Communist, while he came from an upper class Scottish background, and had witnessed Stalinism in action. As Churchill personally told him, Maclean's mission was not to concern himself with how Yugoslavia was to be run after the war, but "simply to find out who was killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more." In the late summer of 1944, together with Tito, he planned and implemented Operation Ratweek. It was a major Allied bombing campaign in collaboration with the local Partisan troops in order to prevent German troops retreating back and reinforcing those in central and western Europe, thus prolonging the war WE ARE UACC REGISTERED DEALERS NUMBER RD209 NOTE! We have noticed a few sellers putting the letters "UACC" in their item titles but failing to provide either a dealer or member number. You should view this practise or anything similarly vague with the utmost caution, any reputable dealer will provide this information on their listings directly without having to be asked. We are UACC Registered Dealer RD209 We do NOT sell pre-printed signed items. Everything we sell is hand signed and authentic Visit our store!Buyautographs Shipping Flat items are packaged in board backed envelopes with 'Please Do Not Bend' printed to the front. Items larger than 8x12 inches are usually sent in a sturdy tube. We are very happy to combine postage for multiple purchases. About Us We are UACC Registered Dealer RD209. We continue to hold a large number of 'Private Signings' with Stars of TV & Film, Concorde Pilots, WWII Veterans, Celebrities and so on, in order to guarantee authenticity. _gsrx_vers_1649 (GS 9.7.2 (1649))
Price: 175 GBP
Location: Ashford, Kent
End Time: 2024-12-03T07:45:03.000Z
Shipping Cost: 20 GBP
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Return policy details: Returns accepted within 14 days of purchase.
Country Of Manufacture: United Kingdom
