In the midst of World War II, America had not yet entered the fight, but President Roosevelt knew they had to help Britain get back into occupied territory, which would be achieved through highly trained secret agents. The only problem? America had no secret agents.
So, they created “Special Training School 103”, or “Camp X”: the first spy training school in North America, with British Intelligence to train them. But, because the they hadn’t officially entered the war, it couldn’t be on U.S. soil. So, the Allies placed the top secret facility on a remote site near Lake Ontario, yet only 30 miles straight across the lake from the U.S.; Not even the Prime Minister was told what was happening there.
Camp X also contained a massive decoding facility known as Hydra. Because decoding messages is only useful if it’s done immediately, the facility ran 24/7, with countless interpreters working 8 hour shifts. Later, they created ‘Rock X’: the first digital machine that could decode numerous messages at once, which gave the Allies a huge advantage.
Winnifred Davidson was just 20-years-old when she was picked up in an unmarked van and brought to Camp X. She was instructed “Don’t tell anyone where you are or what you’re doing here”. In an interview with Legion, she said “After arriving at Camp X, we had one week to learn Morse code and Murray code”.
Allied agents had to be trained to match the ruthlessness of the Nazis. So, Paul Dane wrote the “Camp X bible”, a training manual with overwhelming detail. It contained everything from how to kill with the thrust of a knife to how to be an average undetectable citizen when on a mission.
The intense program was designed to make or break future agents. Part of that meant real danger in their training. Recruits worked with live explosives so they would be truly prepared for the real danger that awaited them on their missions.
They were also forced to crawl through trenches while real bullets were fired over their heads. Students also had to stand behind a bulletproof glass wall while their trainers fired rounds of live ammunition from a machine gun, all so they would truly understand the stress of being shot at.
Students spent at least two hours a day in the camp’s lecture hall learning everything from Morse code to how to quickly alter their appearance. Some of the simpler disguise tips included:
-Put newspaper in your shoes to appear taller
-Fatten your face by stuffing cotton in your cheeks
-Darken your skin with a piece of rusty iron
-Discolour your teeth by rubbing iodine under your gums
There’s a story that Ian Fleming, the ‘James Bond’ author, went to Camp X, but failed a vital test to see if potential agents really have what it takes. Supposedly, Fleming was given a loaded gun and ordered to shoot a “dangerous enemy agent” in a mockup hotel room. The “enemy agent” is said to have been an instructor at Camp X, adept at avoiding point-blank gunfire, but Fleming was unable to go through with it and failed.
Pinterest Some of the secret weapons that were created for the new Allied spies included:
-Pistols disguised as smoking pipes and belt buckles
-Silk scarves printed with detailed maps of the country where the agent was going
-Violin cases filled with the materials to make a bomb
-Innocent looking baby carriages with a secret compartment used to conceal sabotage gear and a radio
-Necklaces that contained a deadly dose of cyanide in case agents were captured
riadnaRM/ Wikimedia At the end of training, the Allies had to be sure they could truly trust their new agents. So, they secretly tested them. Marie Chilver, or Agent Fifi, was one of many spies who would test new agents by seducing them. She would approach them during their mission, seduce them, and try to get secrets out of them. Any who divulged information were dropped from the program.
After the success of Camp X, OSS opened seven training camps in America, all modeled after the original and brining the manual with them. Camp X may have closed in 1969, but countless U.S. facilities are still open. We just don’t know anything about them.
