OSS Headquarters London
One of my important destinations while in London this month was Grosvenor Square, in the exclusive Mayfair district of the city. This is where during World War II most of the Americans who weren’t just passing through (and many of those who were!) could be found.
Of course in the past sixty-five-plus years much has changed. The U.S. Embassy at that time was at 1 Grosvenor Square, the office of our Ambassador to Britain, John Gilbert Winant. That building presently houses the Canadian Embassy. Currently the Embassy of the United States, newly built in 1960, is right across the Square. Plans are underway that it will be relocated again from Mayfair to Nine Elms, Battersea, on the south bank of the River Thames.
What I wanted to find most of all was the address for the main OSS headquarters. The address I was looking for was 70 Grosvenor Square but the numbers on the Square didn’t go that high. The doorman at the Canadian Embassy confirmed that they went no higher than 50. He suggested I try Grosvenor Street or Grosvenor Hill.
70 Grosvenor St. in Mayfair, London. Just east of Grosvenor Square Garden. You can barely read the "70" to the left of the door.
My son and I walked up Grosvenor Street until we found a #70. I took a picture but still wasn’t sure because it was not right with all the other buildings that were ”important” at the time.
When we got back to our room and I did a little digging in my documents, I discovered that yes, we were right to look for #70 (or 72) Grosvenor Street. Likely, the addresses were combined during the war. In an article at the CIA website, I read that the London office was located at 72 Grosvenor Street. In William Casey’s book, The Secret War Against Hitler, page 22, Casey wrote that (David) “Bruce gave me an office in his command suite at 70 Grosvenor Street which houses the OSS European headquarters. The five-story brick office building was smack in the middle of the war-time American compound in London. It was halfway down the street from the U.S. Embassy … Our headquarters was bland, grey, non-descript.”
Casey was right. #70 has a new door of course but it is definitely a blah, compared to so many of the other Mayfair addresses on the street.
Very fitting for its purpose, planning for and putting into place the intelligence efforts of wartime Europe.
Unpretentious but “heavily guarded inside the front door.”
I used to drink the odd pint of beer with LtCol William (Bill) Casey (CO, OSS London) at the Special Forces Club (at No 8 near Hans Cres & Harrods) whenever we were there at the same time – he lived in the US, I live in the north west of Engand.
For some years my pal and I used to go there for the first Thursday in the month – an excuse for a get together. My chum, (Sgt) Bill Pickering who’s in Portugal right now on a 3 weeks holiday was with N0 1 Special Force SOE, (CO was Col Douglas Dodds-Parker) out of Algiers, later they moved to Monopoli. This was when he was dropped into the Piermonte Region (lower alps) with Lt Col Max Salvadori – who later became a professor at one of the US universities, could be Smith Uni.. I forget which… although he was born and bred in Italy.
You should read Bill’s book, “Bandits of Cisterna” – it relates his adventures playing ducks and drakes with the local German soldiers and the local Senorita’s – well, he was 20 years old and jolly good looking.
You should be able to find a clean used copy on Amazon for a few dollars (I’m in it too
Pity you didn’t know about the SOE Club, I feel sure they would have invited you in for a cup of tea had you eplained your connection , we’ve had many OSS , CIA and others as members over the years.
Another friend was Grp Capt Ken Batchelor, RAF no longer around sad to say… a lovely man and a true English gentleman (like Douglas DP above). He flew Halifax heavies on bombing runs – and B24′s on special ops for a time. He was the RAF officer totally responsible for the statue of Bomber Harris in the City. Harris initiated the thousand bomber raids over Germany – Dresden being one of them.
All the best with your book
John Styals
John, I am honored that you have commented here. I will certainly order the book and will look for you in it! And yes, it would have been the ultimate coup to have had tea at the SOE Club! I thank you so much for your encouragement! Pat