Capt. John Gordon Coates' SOE service
Creators: name: Project Team, Their Finest Hour
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: Prior to the war, John Gordon Coates (born 1918) studied modern languages, German and French, beginning in 1937 at Downing College, Cambridge. While there, he developed a high level of German fluency. In 1939, he registered as a conscientious objector, a determination which was accepted by the tribunal. In 1940, John signed on to an ambulance company in Kent where he saw a British wing commander fall from his destroyed aircraft, dying as a result of a parachute malfunction. After this experience, John decided to join the war, signing on to work in intelligence in 1941. John met Colonel Peter Murphy on a train and Peter then introduced John to Lord Louis Mountbatten. According to John, Col. Murphy was homosexual, and Mountbatten was a socialist. The entire Mountbatten family was left-wing, Lord Milford was a member of the Communist Party. Peter Murphy was also a member of the Communist Party. John's family were socialists, supporters of the Independent Labour Party and supporters of William Morris. Peter thought John was fit for the Special Operations Executive, and this was why he introduced John to Mountbatten. John Joined the Number 10 Inter-Allied Commando. He was based in Harlech, Wales. This secret group was tasked with organising Anti-Nazi resistance in Europe. They trained escaped Europeans who fled Nazi-occupied territories, John was trained for this in Scotland before training others in Wales. From September 1943-September 1944, he was based in Italy where he put his German skills to use. He then commanded the SOE's Operation Dibbler and was parachuted into Hungary on 13th September in the aim of opening a front in Hungary against the Nazis. After this, he was captured and nearly killed whilst being tortured with electric shocks in a German prison. Eventually, escaped on 13th December 1944. At this time, the Germans were continuing major operations against Hungarian Jews, sending mass transports to extermination camps. Concurrently, the Soviets began attacking Budapest and John was only saved from being killed by Soviet troops after his escape because of his knowledge of Russian. He was able to convince them he was British and, on their side, and he was rescued. John remained in intelligence after the war's end, when he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for his actions in Hungary. From 1945-46 he worked in Germany with the SOE's Military Establishment on the Rhine (ME-42) capturing Nazi war criminals to be tried in Nuremberg. After this he joined the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).In 1946, John married Norma Stuart Bishop who had been born in Cardiff on 10th March 1921. She had joined the RAF in 1939 and by the end of the war she was in charge of RAF Matlaske in Norfolk. With the RAF's prohibition on married women in the service, she left in 1946. They moved to London where their son Robin was born in 1948.