SEAC

At eight the next morning, Johnnie put her on what looked like an old-fashioned toy choo-choo train, known as the SEAC Special, which the Americans affectionately called the “Toonerville Trolley.”

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

At eight the next morning, Johnnie put her on what looked like an old-fashioned toy choo-choo train, known as the SEAC Special, which the Americans affectionately called the “Toonerville Trolley.”

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

Paul was in the midst of designing and building an elaborate war room for SEAC but was so swamped with presentation work—such things as operational phase charts, diagrams and military models for the OSS, and, for Mountbatten, a large decorative map of his command—that he was way behind schedule.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

Echoing his frustration, Cora DuBois, the head of Research and Analysis and the most senior OSS woman in Ceylon, fired off a cable to her chief in Washington on August 24 complaining about being “poorly staffed,” adding pointedly, “It may be an impertinence to tell you that SEAC is the largest unexploited colonial region in the Far East and therefore a potential bone of contention between us and colonial powers in the future.”

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

On a dais erected in the shadow of the huge gold-leafed Shwedagon Pagoda, a Buddhist temple whose glistening spires dominated the skyline of Rangoon, Mountbatten delivered a formal address that was read out simultaneously throughout the whole of the SEAC command, lauding all the troops who had fought in Southeast Asia.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

The following day, she was asked to brief General Slim, commander of the Allied land forces in SEAC, upon whom Christison clearly wanted to impress the strength of the nationalist movement and urgency of the situation.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

Meanwhile Lieutenant General W. J. Slim and the British Fourteenth Army, together with combined SEAC forces, pulled off a series of daring maneuvers, recapturing Meiktila, Ramree, and then Mandalay.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

Jane was hardly the only one increasingly skeptical about the prospect of an effective OSS show in SEAC.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

The new SEAC commanders, however, saw no reason to let a little mud and malaria get in their way, and as a result it had been an unusually busy autumn in their corner of the war.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

All OSS personnel in SEAC had been warned to be on guard against any interagency deception.

A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011