William Frank Thompson ( born William Frank Thompson ; August 17, 1920 , Darjeeling - June 10, 1944 , Litakovo ) - British soldier and officer, major of the British army, liaison officer between the Office of Special Operations and the Bulgarian partisans . Brother of the British historian Edward Thompson .
William Frank Thompson | |
---|---|
English William Frank Thompson | |
Nickname | Lawrence of Bulgaria ( English Lawrence of Bulgaria ) [1] |
Date of Birth | August 17, 1920 |
Place of Birth | Darjeeling , British India |
Date of death | June 10, 1944 (23 years old) |
Place of death | Litakovo , Third Bulgarian Kingdom |
Affiliation | Great Britain Bulgaria |
Type of army | intelligence, special forces ( Office of Special Operations ) |
Years of service | 1939-1944 |
Rank | major |
Commanded | Military mission "Clerighis" ( English Claridges ) |
Battles / wars | The Second World War
|
Biography
Born August 17, 1920 in the city of Darjeeling (British India) in a family of missionaries. Studied at Winchester College and New Oxford College. The younger brother is Edward Palmer Thompson, an English historian, socialist, organizer of many anti-war campaigns [2] . He entered the University of Oxford at the Department of Linguistics, in 1939 he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain under the influence of Iris Murdoch . After the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he expressed disapproval of the policy of neutrality of the British Communists and joined the British Army as a volunteer. During his life, Frank traveled to North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Serbia, and Bulgaria as a soldier. He was recruited into the Office of Special Operations, performing various secret missions of the British intelligence services. He called George Dimitrov his ideal.
On January 25, 1944, along with three colleagues, Major Thompson was parachuted to establish a connection between the British command and the partisans led by Slavcho Trynsky. The landing was made in the territory of the Macedonia region near the town of Dobro Pole as part of the British military mission "Mulligatouni" ( English Mulligatawny ). The mission was commanded by Major Mostin Davis . After his death, a special British mission, Claridges , consisting of Major Frank Thompson, Sergeant Kenneth Scott, Sergeant John Walker and Sergeant Nick Merwin, began its work. It was assumed that the commandos would establish a mobile radio station to keep in touch with Cairo and Bari , but the station failed. Fortunately, in May 1944, soldiers who were part of the 2nd Sofia People's Liberation Brigade were able to contact the command of the Office of Special Operations in Cairo [3] .
On May 23, 1944, the Bulgarian partisans clashed with government forces near Batulia. Almost all of the partisan forces in the Marina area were destroyed. Thompson was wounded and captured by the Bulgarian gendarmes. He was tortured, but they did not achieve anything from the captured British and on the night of June 10, 1944 they shot Frank along with the partisans Lazar Atanasov and Hristo Gurbinov [4] [5] .
Memory
- In honor of Frank Thompson after the war, the Bulgarian government named the village , combining the villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarev-Stragi, Malak-Babul, Babul and Zavoy. The initiator was Slavcho Trynsky , who received the rank of General of the Bulgarian Army. A bust was installed in the center of the village.
- In the village of Litakovo, Frank Thompson is named after the street.
- In the 1970s, Frank Thompson’s remains were reburied in the Kaleto area, along with 72 dead partisans from the Chavdar partisan Brigade and the 2nd Sofia People’s Liberation Brigade . Among the buried were Canadian officer Nick Moreau, Russian Red Army soldier Ivan, Serb Radovich and Armenian Armin “Sasha” Razgladnyan [6] .
- Edward Thompson dedicated two books to his brother, "There is a Spirit in Europe: In Memory of Frank Thompson" ( Eng. There is a Spirit in Europe: A Memoir of Frank Thompson , written with the assistance of his mother) and "Beyond: The Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944" ( Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944 ). Both were published in 1996 [2] [7] [7] [8] .
Notes
- ↑ A major, a martyr, a train station
- ↑ 1 2 Rattenbury, A., 1997. Convenient Death of a Hero. Review of Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944 by Thompson, EP London Review of Books [Online] vol. 19 no. 9 pp. 12-13. Available from http://www.lrb.co.uk/v19/n09/arnold-rattenbury/convenient-death-of-a-hero [Accessed March 2, 2011].
- ↑ Koteva A., Kotev K., The British are unrecognized in Bulgaria, S., 2003, p. 138-141
- ↑ Dochev D., Monarchofascism to the cross of the People’s Democratic Party of 1941-1944, S., 1983, p.148
- ↑ Frank Thompson's grave in Litakovo on YouTube
- ↑ Best Practices (Bulgarian)
- ↑ 1 2 Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944 by EP Thompson. Merlin / Stanford, 120 pp, £ 12.95, December 1996, ISBN 0-85036-457-4
- ↑ Brisby, Liliana . The ups and downs of Major Thompson (29 Mar 1997).
Thompson Proceedings
- Tompson, E., Beyond the Frontier: The Politics of a Failed Mission. Bulgaria 1944, Stanford University Press, Ca., 1997
- Tompson F., Selected poems. Trent ediktions, Nottingham Trent Editions, 2003
Literature
In English
- Conradi, Peter J. A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson. - 2012. - ISBN 978-1-408802-43-4 .
- Thompson, EP Beyond the frontier: the politics of a failed mission, Bulgaria 1944. - Woodbridge, Suffolk : Merlin Press, 1997 .-- ISBN 0-85036-457-4 .
- Kristen R. Ghodsee, “ Who was Frank Thompson ?” Vagabond Magazine , No. 85, November 2013
In Bulgarian
- Transki S., Gurova S., Frank Thompson, Military Publishing House, 1980
- Znepolsk M., Yes, you know, DTM Publishing House, 2012
In Russian
- B. Krupatkin. Singing the Black Sea waves. Tales and stories. Essay "Bulgarian Village Major Thompson." Sverdlovsk, Central Ural Book Publishing House, 1976.
Links
- Ivanov, Dimitri . For Frank and Trimata Commandos (Bulgarian) , SEGA (November 8, 2005). Archived February 2, 2013. Date of treatment August 23, 2008.
- Major Thompson - a bridge for good health cooperation between the Svoge community and the British embassy (Bulgarian) . Community Svoge. Date of treatment August 23, 2008.
- CWGC entry
- Stowers Johnson: "Agents extraordinary"