EVANS, Maj Patrick Hutchinson (1913-1994)

Manuscript diaries, detailing his SOE training in Haifa, Palestine, Cairo, Egypt, his service as an instructor at the Allied Military Mission Commando School at Pendalophos, British relations with allied Greek partisan units, and SOE harassment and demolition activity prior to and during the German withdrawal from the Greek peninsula, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled by Evans as commander of the Vitsi sub-area, relating to intelligence, reconnaissance and demolition missions alongside Greek Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) units, the pro-German infiltration of West Macedonia, and the conduct of Operation NOAH'S ARK; papers relating to SOE commando missions, including notes detailing weapons, ammunition and supplies used; lists of allied Polish, Czech and French participants in the Allied Military Mission, autumn 1943; papers relating to the construction of the SOE airfield at Grevena, 1944; list compiled by Evans concerning hostile Armenian, Italian, German and Greek forces, 1944; notes detailing the nominal roll of partisan forces in the Vitsi sub-area, 1944; papers relating to SOE and ELAS border assaults into Yugoslavia and Albania, 1944; papers detailing the splintering of relations between British and Greek forces in Greece, 1944; booklets of deciphered signals messages received and issued by the Vitsi sub-area station, relating to the movement of German forces and Yugoslavian partisans, under the command of Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), and the execution of Operation NOAH'S ARK, 1944; correspondence with Lt Col Arthur Edmonds, Officer Commanding Area 1, West Macedonia, Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprire Hammond, Officer Commanding Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, and allied British, American and Greek soldiers, 1944; policy and procedure papers, including his official secrecy declaration, 1944; papers relating to SOE technical training, finances and supplies; papers, in Greek, relating to combined operations between the Allied Military Mission and ELAS 9 Div, including command and control agreements and messages from Gen Karayannis, commander ELAS 9 Div, relating to German movements in the Vitsi sub-area; official report, in Greek, from the Greek government, detailing the history of Greek partisan forces in Greece, 1940-1944; Greek propaganda leaflets and newspapers relating to Greek partisan activity in West Macedonia, and Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) and ELAS power struggles, 1944; German divisional daily order concerning the psychological state of German occupation troops; personal correspondence from German 1 Mountain Div soldiers; papers relating to the proposed publication of an account of Evans's career in the SOE; papers relating to the publication of Hammond's article, 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993.

Born in 1913; served in 50 Royal Tank Regiment, [1941-1942]; completed Special Operations Executive (SOE) training at Haifa, Palestine, and at General Headquarters, Middle East, Cairo, Egypt, 1943; volunteered for service in SOE Force 133, West Macedonia, Greece, 1943-1944; Lieutenant, 1943; Captain, 1944; Major, [1945]; served in Royal Artillery Regt, 1946-1947; died 1994.

Arranged in the following sections: diaries and notebooks covering his military career; reports relating to SOE operations in West Macedonia, 1943-1944; papers relating to signals and wireless/telegraphy traffic between SOE Allied Military Mission Headquarters and sub-stations; correspondence between Evans and allied operatives; papers relating to the Vitsi sub-area, under the command of Evans; papers, in Greek, relating to Greek partisan activity; captured German papers and propaganda; papers relating to the post-war publication of books and articles on SOE operations.

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Placed in the Centre by Professor (late Lt Col) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprire Hammond on behalf of Evans in 1993.

Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and detailed catalogue available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

The Public Record Office, Kew, holds a substantial collection of material relating to SOE operations, most notably Political Warfare Executive correspondence (Ref: FO 898/25-28); papers relating to SOE activities, Middle East, Cairo, 1940-42 (Ref: FO 898/113-114); Quarterly Reports of Special Operations Executive, Oct 1943-Dec 1945 (Ref: PREM 3/408/1); Confidential Papers of Col William J Donovan, 1940-41 (Ref: PREM 4/25/5); and, Special Operations Executive: Balkan Files (Ref: HS 5).

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives holds several collections relating to SOE operations in the Balkans, most notably the papers of Lt Col Count J A Dobrski (Ref: GB 99 KCLMA Dobrski); Brig Godfrey Pennington Hobbs; Brig Edmund Charles Wolf Myers; Maj Philip Frederick Nind (Ref: GB 99 KCLMA Nind); Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead; and, Col (Hon) Christopher Montague Woodhouse.

The collection was consulted by Professor (late Lt Col) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprire Hammond for the publication of 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993, and The Allied Military Mission and the Resistance in West Macedonia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, 1993).