The Scottish Command Depot only existed for 1 year at Nigg.
This solved two mysteries for me:
How was Lt. Col MacCabe able to move around so much. He most likely used the trains.
What is the possible date range for the when the Depot Sports Day occurred. Sports day only happened once at Nigg.
The Depot only existed at Nigg from February 1918 to Spring 1919. July 1918 is very likely the same date for the Depot. Lt. Col. MacCabe was at Nigg depot only in 1918.

 

Not a watch but this thread links to some historical clocks and has nice research, so I thought a cross-link was in order

https://omegaforums.net/threads/pic-heavy-the-curious-story-of-a-“reversed”-tunisian-minaret-clock.151235/

 

I guess we all know who this fictional character is. A few may know that below is assumed to be Ian Fleming's inspiration for Vesper.



Christie Granville (real name Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, OBE, GM) was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

She lived here when she was in London.



Unfortunately, it is also where she died. After having survived through the entire WW2 and accomplished many missions in true James Bond style.






These are her decorations.



Mulley recently wrote a biography on Granville.


The Spy Who Loved – Churchill called her his favourite spy, and Polish-born part Jewish Countess Krystyna Skarbek aka Christine Granville, was Britain’s first female special agent of the Second World War. Despite being arrested more than once, Krystyna used her guile to save not only her own life, but also those of many of her male colleagues in three different theatres of the war. But it was her service behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France that made her legendary among the special forces. Not only did she make the first contact between the French resistance and the Italian partisans on opposite sides of the Alps in preparation for D Day in the south, she also secured the defection of an entire German garrison on a strategic pass in the mountains. Awarded the OBE, the George Medal, and French Croix de Guerre, her tragic early death made the papers around the world, yet her real story was kept hidden. Clare was decorated with Poland’s national honour, the Bene Merito, for this inspiring biography. -- Mulley

Early Life
Granville’s father was Count Jerzy Skarbek, a Polish aristocrat, while her mother, Stefania Goldfeder, came from a Jewish banking background. After his death in 1930, the family moved to Warsaw when Christine took a job in a salesroom above a garage. Following a short-lived first marriage, Christine met a Polish diplomat, Count Jerzy Giżycki, on the ski slopes. They married in November 1938 and spent their time travelling and socialising.


Upon Poland being invaded, Christine and her husband travelled to London where she organised a meeting with George Taylor, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (M16). Christine proposed to travel to neutral Hungary, ski over the border into Poland and gather as much intelligence as possible, as well as volunteers to help.

Most famous operations
Granville is most famous for her mission to cross the snow-covered Polish border on skis in minus 30-degree weather and successfully smuggle microfilm containing plans of Hitler’s USSR invasion plans in her gloves.

On her very first mission to Budapest, in January 1941, she was arrested by the Gestapo with then lover, Andrzej Kowerski, a Polish army officer and agent. After two days’ interrogation, Christine bit her tongue to appear as if she was coughing up blood. A chest X-ray revealed lung scarring from the exhaust fumes from the garage where she had worked 15 years earlier, and she and Kowerski were immediately released as likely TB sufferers.

To aid in their escape, they were given British Passports and new names. It is here Krystyna became Christine Granville, the name she formally adopted after becoming a naturalised British subject in 1949.

Between 1939 and 1940, Christine made numerous journeys smuggling money, arms, and explosives in and intelligence out of Nazi-occupied Poland.








So here is the mystery that I have been off and on working on. Seems there was more to the Sokolow family and Christine, especially a mysterious 20 year old that seems to have been part of an Jewish underground operations.






There is plenty written about Ian Fleming and Christine Granville including his complete denial of any interactions with her. It is difficult to say what was going on there. Even more difficult is to understand what was the relationship of Christine Granville with the Sokolow family. There were apparently many occasions in which they met. Christine Granville apparently visited Florian Sokolow and even helped him with his journalism. The relationship with Zofia's son is for me the more potentially interesting relationship as I hope it has to do with the her or possibly the SOE involvement with the Jewish Underground.

View attachment 1493213






















Nahum Sokolow's Longines Pocket Watch that was inherited by Zofia Raczkowska:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/lon...edited-for-role-in-creation-of-israel.145482/

 

"After being convicted of her murder, Muldowney was hanged at HMP Pentonville on 30 September 1952."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystyna_Skarbek

After reading your posts Seiji I had to see whether sentence was carried out. It was.

 

Some interesting documentaries. For more about Granville:

Film by the author Culley. Strongly recommended viewing.
Never mind the watches, this is a really interesting person.

By associates who wanted true accounts into Granville known. Excellent and very complete background history.

Hard to believe British government just finished with Granville after her accomplishments.
Unable to find another job with Britain.

 

Unfortunately, Google Translation of this Polish source document doesn't seem to work well enough to fully understand what is written here, but it seems to be similar to the source Culley used.

 

Maybe less so when you look what happened to Alan Turing considering his war and peace time contributions.
There are even persistent rumours about his apparent suicide - maybe he knew too much…..

 

It appears that the Nahum Sokolow family was not only working politically for the establishment of Israel, but also Zofia, the daughter, and 20 year old grandson were possibly connected to the underground resistance in Palestine (Cairo?)
There is quite a bit of speculation they were supplying arms and campaigning for the support of the Zionist
cause. You can read below about the resistance preparations that were made for attempting to stop Rommel.
Zofia and son most likely had no reason to leave comfortable London for Cairo in front of the Afrika Korp other than to fight the Nazi and to bring in more Polish Jews into Palestine.

SOE, Krystyna, was there in Cairo, there is speculation to gather intelligence on the Zionist activities which apparently were causing the British government great concerns over the instability of the region. Somehow it seems the Sokolow family was more than casually involved. The Palestinians seemed to have viewed Rommel as an opportunity to kick out the British who let the Jewish people in.

 

I found a very interesting letter from "The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America"

This may provide some more details into what happened in Cairo that initially got Krystyna labeled a double agent "Mata Hari" and initially dismissed for over a year from the SOE section D. It is by now certainly clear that SOE was most likely watching the Sokolow family as well as other prominent Polish Jewish members, especially those that were in Cairo.

It also may lead us to more substantial information about the Polish Jewish Cairo organization that I believe the Sokolow's daughter and grandson were somehow involved in. Not sure if this helps identify the underground resistance, but it does seem to be discussing the same organization that was identified previously as the Jewish Commandos that attempted to take on Rommel.

 

All of this might seem irrelevant since the Sokolow Longines was originally owned by Nahum Sokolow from 1928.
However, Nahum Sokolow died in 1936.



The Jewish underground and SOE activities in Cairo were taking place during the late 1930s through 1942 as Jewish underground attempted challenge Rommel.

From the above books and below, we know that the main activities was occurring during 1942, which means the watch was now Zofia Racskowska's watch and might have been in Cairo during the time her son and Christine Granville were all in Cairo working with the Jewish underground resistance.




https://www.kedem-auctions.com/en/c...h-dedication-nahum-sokolow-lodz-zionists-1923

 

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddział_II_Sztabu_Generalnego_Wojska_Polskiego

 

Prisoner treatment by the Axis was brutal on both side of the world. Much is made about the brutality the Allied prisoners experienced in the Pacific, but tales like this illustrate the cruelty and inhuman conditions that prisoners suffered in Europe.

 

I sincerely apologize. After more checking of the "Three Musketeers", I found the real SOE and Krystyna connected Musketeers.
http://www.polandinexile.com/exile6e.htm

 

https://plus.dziennikpolski24.pl/ta...wieksza-konspiracja-w-europie/ar/c15-13101628

https://plus-dziennikpolski24-pl.tr...tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

 

True apologizes, after correctly spelling in Polish, I found the real paramilitary underground group.

Muszkieterów

After a while, the three "Rose" family musketeers just seemed inadequate, that post is now deleted.

After trying other spellings in Polish, I found the right spelling for the underground Witkowski Musketeers as you can see were the Muszkieterów

 

Not very interesting, but a watch I have kept for a while now. It is a Seikosha with an unverified story that it was captured on the island of Iwo Jima during WW2. Iwo Jima is probably one of the most famous images tied to the US Marine Corp. I don't think there is anyone born before the millennia that doesn't recognize this image. (Unfortunately, there are many millennials that don't recognize this image.)




The hands are not the original hands, but the rest of the watch is most likely as captured.


It is an Imperial Navy Pilots watch number 2806. The Imperial Army did not use this style watch.


What is a bit unusual about this karafu (military pocket watch) is that the movement and dial is from Longines.


Hattori Seiko made early chronographs using Longines and Minerva chronograph movements until they could
make Seikosha movements.

These details are not so interesting as I have two more just like this Longines Seikosha, but in much better condition.


I can't say I really know much about this watch. I got it from USN Commander William H Pierce Jr, Mongomery Alabama.


William Hubbell Pierce Sr. (father) is the one that took the watch from a soldier to pay for his rent just after the war in 1945.

The following appeared in a newspaper in Montgomery September 13, 1978.
















Until I saw this watch, I was not aware of the airfields on Iwo Jima. I have been mostly aware of the Marines landing on the beach and of the Imperial Army and Navy fighting from the tunnels on the island.


Such a small island, such a big battle.



Japanese planes wrecked on Iwo Jima.






Of course to the Marines the beaches looked like this.








And the receipt says paid $176 dollars for the watch in 1997.

 

After the focus on the Doolittle raid I thought this was very interesting. 2x B10 bombers from China raiding Japan in 1938. A 500 mile flight over water and then a return journey following a radio beacon. It looks to have been a total success / good navigation. A bit of history I was unaware of.
.

 

That's a bit too bad that this bit of history about the Chinese flight over Japan is not well known.