TOWNSEND BROWN / ENGLISH CONNECTIONS

[twigsnapper]

Victoria,

When Dr. Brown was a young man he became an avid motorcylist.

Though I don't think he ever mentioned that too much in front of Linda because he also knew from experience how very dangerous they were.

He once told me about chasing rabbits across the California desert on an old Indian Motorcycle. This was before many thought of that kind of cross country activity. "It was an adventure" he said with a smile," that didn't end well." He carried for a long time his motorcycle license that he was proud to point out ... said was "good until revoked".

So his enjoyment of things "wind in the hair" was not confined to convertibles. Twigsnapper

[grinder]

Yup ..... I don't know what the tower is all about but you want to bet he rode a bike there? The gloves, The jacket ... probably construction boots ... a real Brando on the loose and I suddenly have even MORE admiration for the man. grinder

[Paul S.]

Once I got started reading, with your inspiration, about Stephenson I learned that he apparently was insrumental in starting a camp for "spies" and covert communications somewhere in Canada just before the war and after our entrance into it. From what I read it sounds to me entirely possible that is where this picture might have been taken.

Close, but cigar (or Dairy Queen).

Funny that you should mention that operation in Canada. It was called "Camp X," and, yes, it was the training installation for the operatives of British Security Coordination (BSC), the operation that Stephenson set up before the war.

There is a website dedicated to "Camp X"

http://webhome.idirect.com/~lhodgson/campx.htm

But the photo of Dr. Brown seems to go better in the 1950s frame rather than ... ten or fifteen years earlier.

Lynn Hodgson, who operates the Camp-X website, is the one who identified that tower as "definitely England... MI5, 1950s." He seems pretty knowledgeable on that period, so I think his assessment is pretty reliable.

All I can guess is that tower looks like the pictures I have seen of the straight tube like system they had going at Camp X

Actally, when I see that tower it reminds me of one of Robert Goddard's early rockets, but of course that's not what it is. The legs are a bit of a give-away in that regard.

I wonder who else called Stephenson "Mr. X" or Pau, did you just recently pick that for his chapter name, before he was identified. ?

"Mr. X" was how the character was introduced to me, too. I didn't make that one up. Fact stranger than fiction?

(Which by the way ..... I will never be able to say "quadratic equations" without thinking of those two lovers in Florida. Just let people wonder why the smile plays across my lips.)

To tell you the truth, Until I found that expression in my notes, I don't think I've spoken of "quadratic equations" had even occurred to me since high-school....

--PS

[Victoria Steele]

Hey Paul ....... Yes, I thought that it was the fifties too, just from the rolled up jeans. Cool that you have spoken to the curator at the old Camp X.

So then, what you are saying is that Doctor Brown may have been working for the BSC? Uh ..... I am trying to figure out how he could have been doing that and still be in the Navy .... but it did say that the US sent a selection of "prospective spies" to Canada. Would he have been one of them? See, I am doing my homework too!

For some reason I just can't imagine Dr. Brown in that kind of life. Mr. Twigsnapper completely, but I don't know about Dr. Brown. You have said that you believed that he was not into the "darker" side of that business. But how can you be that? and stay alive? I don't know much about intelligence gathering, obviously so I'll have to trust others to tell me whether he fit the bill.

Still reeling over that chapter. Boy am I going to have questions! Victoria

[Mark Culpepper]

Paul,

Just happened to read again where the Webmaster for CampX in Canada had rather definitively identified an MI5 tower in England in the fifties. Would Mr. Twigsnapper be able to identify it for you ? Has anyone else stepped forward with comments. Its such a great picture of Dr. Brown. And Linda didn't know where that shot was taken? Just very mysterious. Like, right! What else is new. Mark C

[Mark Culpepper]

Mr. Twigsnapper,

You have been very helpful in supplying some background information for all of us and I wonder if you could continue doing that.

You know that I am an avid World War II historian, but I must confess, I know very little about the "special forces section" of that history. What did they call themselves then? Can you tell us anything at all? You might have noted from my earlier poostings that my father was in the OSS, but I know very little about his activities and actually didn't know anything about his activities in that area.

Can you give me an idea of the kinds of experiences he might have had? We discovered later that he had worked with two other men during the war and somehow was involved in "infiltrating" enemy territory in the last years before the war ended. Can I ask that ?... Is that question general enough to keep from zeroing down on your particular experiences? Your first hand comment on what he might have gone through would mean alot to me, since I suffered from never getting to really know him.

If it seems out of context for the life of Townsend Brown I ask everyones patience. Please Mr. Twigsnapper, can you help. I feel like a little kid in asking you this. Do you understand? Mark C.

[Mark Culpepper]

Mark C.

Yes, I understand.

Your father reported to a place called "Milton Hall" outside Peterborough.
He received martial arts training, explosives work, close combat knife training. He was issued a special knife to be carried in a holster under his arm. (The men who designed the knife earlier in Shanghai would have been his instructors....... Major Fairbairn and Captain Eric Sykes.)

Did your father leave his knife behind? They are collector items I understand now. He would have had one of the better ones made by John Wilkinson. If he was fortuneate and I think he was .... he got one of the first 300.

Sykes would have been his instructor in night fighting and what he called "instinctive firing" which meant that you didn't bother to aim ... you trusted your body to aim ...... useful at night when aiming wouldn't have done you that much good. Major Fairbairn was a judo expert, and knew karate also, (which was relatively rare in those days, decades before all the Chuck Norris movies got so popular)

In about 1941 he accompanied Major Fairbairn to New York City and spent some time at the British Security Coordination office. If that doesn't sound at all familiar yet .... the BSC was Stephensons outfit.

He was a member of what was called a "Jedburgh Team" back then. Sort of a mixed cookie bag, one of each .... a Brit, a Frenchman and somebody from the Americas .... usually from the OSS. After their training they "dissappeared" behind enemy lines.

He would have gone through extensive training in England and when he wasn't out there roaming around the rosegardens and boxwoods of Milton Hall in the pitch dark, he would have been blowing stumps for effect. When he wasn't sleeping other than that, he was practicing morse code. your Dad was never able to sleep well after his training. And I have to admit, I don't either.

Wish I could tell you more. Twigsnapper

[Mark Culpepper]

Mr. Twigsnapper. How did you do that? And how do you know so much? How did you know about the knife? Mark C

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Mark C.

Regarding Mr. Twigsnappers abilities. As Paul has said before, these folks don't normally "prove themselves to anybody". But in your case it is obvious to me that Mr. Twigsnapper has decided to make an exception. I would guess by now you have recieved other proof besides what happened with your post. No explanations available. Just enjoy the information. Elizabeth

[Victoria Steele]

Hey guys, you too Paul , bobbing around with all those bright colored fish. Oh Boy am I jealous? Now theres a really silly question.

And we miss you! But we are having this really fascinating discussion here and it looks like your " Mr. Twigsnapper" has let us know a little more about what things were like during the war years. I realize that you haven't gotten to that part of the story ..... but oddly .... I think some of your readers already have! So enjoy, we are just sort of getting a head start on you I think. That'll teach you to go enjoy yourself. <g>

So, Mr. Twigsnapper? Do we need a separate post for this information? If I build it? Will others fill it? Isn't that the way magical stuff happens? so yes. I should do that. But what to call it? Where is this discussion going?

Mark C. Somehow I don't quite know even what to say to you after watching the last exchange from you and Mr. Twigsnapper. I read your first request of him and noticed one thing particularly. (I have a trait of noticing things.)

You had said to him that you "suffered through not knowing your father". And that was so touching I think that you actually were the key that prompted him to answer you more fully? Mr. Twigsnapper? Am I right? And if I am, is this a door that will remain open for just a little bit, and if that is true than I sort of owe it to Paul to put my foot in the door, don't I ?

So as soon as I can figure what to call it. Another post is going up. Victoria

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Everybody,

Doesn't it at all strike you all that Dr. Brown seems to be definitely the "odd man out" in this strange sort of "James Bondian scenario" I agree with Victoria and looking at that picture in Paris in 1956. Of the two of them there, (Dr. Brown and Mr. Twigsnapper)
..... I would expect Mr. T. to be the one most dangerous. And he has said before that he was Dr. Browns "armed escort" ... which means that Dr. Brown was probably being true to the nature I expect of him . I don't think he could be exactly that sort of "secret agent"that the others were .... besides .... with Mr. Twigsnapper right there, I don't believe he had a whole lot to worry about, as far as his own personal security. Still, that doesn't answer the question , What was Dr. Brown doing in that time which would warrent that kind of "protection".

Its one of the questions at the top of my list this week. Now that I am getting a better look at the men around him, maybe its time to look again at what Dr. Brown was ACTUALLY doing, and thats tough because he just left hints ..... nothing solid that can be reached by us. Anybody got any wild observations or conjections? I am open to talking about anything. What do YOU THINK might have been going on? Elizabeth

[Paul S.]

Somehow I don't quite know even what to say to you after watching the last exchange from you and Mr. Twigsnapper. I read your first request of him and noticed one thing particularly. (I have a trait of noticing things.)

You had said to him that you "suffered through not knowing your father". And that was so touching I think that you actually were the key that prompted him to answer you more fully?

Precisely, Victoria.

On some level, this whole undertaing is about... sons and daughters knowing their fathers.

Maybe Elizabeth will steer you all to "The Sea Bright Bridge."

--PS

[Trickfox]

Twigsnapper/Brown pair-up

This scenario resembles the movie windtalkers with Nicolas Cage who plays the role of a guard escort to an Navajos Indian Code Talker used in WW2.

Allthough unfortunately it was implied in the movie that the escort should kill the "code talker" rather than let him fall into enemy hands. Such is the realm of drama, and it makes for a good movie plot.

My speculation on this, -however controversial it may become in the future ,-is that Dr. Brown was probably one scientist in a very small group of secret communication technology specialists (probably the only one at first).

Once readers finally begin to understand what the technology issues are REALLY about, they will see that Dr. Brown was responsible for securing communication channels for submarines travelling deep under the ocean.

Traditional Electromagnetic Radio (a-la Tesla/Marconi) would have been all but useless because a submarine must use ELF (extra-low Frequency) to communicate electromagnetic signal data. This is both loud and difficult to hide from the enemy. (Its a great C3I bait strategy however).

Supposing everyone, -that Dr. Brown had allready established a unique new method of sending "information" (not electromagnetic signals) but some other basic physical and mathematical principle to transfer "information" from; -say "the Pentagon" to some U.S. submarine off the coast of Germany.

Such a revolutionary new science would have to have been kept completely secret to be effective in the wartime communications. Anyone with the knowledge of the technology would have been a "National Asset" and would have been guarded and escorted by the best and most intelligent secret agents in the world. That's why Sir William Stephenson himself would have been invoved at the onset of the project. (smile my friends you deserve it)

So there you have it, An eccentric happy-go-lucky free thinking genius is paired up with a handsome highly intelligent furtive character and they travel around the world taking care of business.

Sounds like a perfect set up for a disinformation virus like the "Philadelphia Cheese Experiment" or something that smells moore like Sh*t. Next thing they'll be telling us is that "Extraterrestrials love Ice Cream"!

I mean, is there anyone out there who really believes all that pile of bovine scatology about Aliens Living Underground and secret Government deals? It's a little too much like a movie isn't it.

Boy I'm glad I understand my own reality because I sure have trouble sharing my reality with many people who claim supernatural powers.

It's like a wise person once told me. I'm not god but my Dog thinks I am.

Well I'm an Idiot, and my cat is darned sure of it.

Trickfox

[Trickfox]

"The Sea Bright Bridge."

--PS

OK Paul I never paid attention to your poetry till now. Never mind that it was probably written somewhere here and on several websites. I did not pay attention.

I never read poetry because I suppose I have allways wanted to shake a person's hand before wanting to hear poetry from their minds. On some occasions like this, -an indirect message reaches me even faster and my mind seeks the link theory.

This whole website is about this very method of learning. I just found out about Paul's poetry because he told us about it in a "subtle fashion".
I just googled his "three little words" and found him in a parallel universe.
Now I feel like I have finally shaken Paul's hand...... because I just read his poetry.

Now I understand why Paul writes this book
It's poetry disguised as history

Raymond

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Trickfox, I am convinced that there is a special force working in all of this because I see its reflection when I read your words. That and you make me smile!!!!!

And Paul, another country heard from? Rest well, you have boats to build remember. Elizabeth