Adam Leong Kok Wey - Killing the Enemy: Assassination Operations During World War II

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Adam Leong Kok Wey completed his PhD in Special Operations and Military History at the University of Reading. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the National Defence University of Malaysia and an expert on the history of assassinations and military strategy.

KILLING THE
ENEMY

Assassination Operations During
World War II

A DAM L EONG K OK W EY

Published in 2015 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2015 Adam Leong Kok Wey

The right of Adam Leong Kok Wey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

ISBN: 978 1 78453 072 3

eISBN: 978 0 85772 970 5

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

This book is dedicated to Effa, Emylin and Evelyn

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has a unique journey. It started as a thesis studying the effectiveness of Special Operations and later ended as a study of Special Operations conducting leadership decapitation operations in the strategic setting of World War II. Along the way, as I dug deeper into archival resources and memoirs, I started to feel myself returning to the dramatic and nostalgic scenes of action, something R.G. Collingwood would acknowledge as reenactment. What I experienced the dangers, the excitement, the horrors and most importantly the triumph of the human spirit need to be reiterated again. I hope that this book can humbly, retell these stories of the ultimate triumph of the free human spirit against oppression. The sacrifices made by these actors in my book, need to be reiterated again, to remind us all that, ultimately, good always triumphs over evil. For this, I thank my editor, Tomasz Hoskins for his faith in my work, production editor Allison Walker and I.B.Tauris for their support in making this book available.

This book will not have materialised without the generous support from a host of different organisations and individuals. Firstly, I would like to thank the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM), for granting me a generous scholarship and study leave to pursue my doctoral research at the University of Reading. The then and current Vice Chancellor of NDUM, Jeneral Tan Sri Dato' Seri Panglima Hj Zulkifli Bin Hj Zainal Abidin, Professor Dr. Tengku Mohd Bin Tengku Sembok, Lieutenant-Colonel (rtd) Ahmad Ghazali Bin Abu Hassan, Dr Tang Siew Mun, Associate Professor Dr Radziah Binti Abdul Rahim, and Associate Professor Daruis Bin Lidin, requires special mention for their strong support for my initial research application and career at NDUM.

Many thanks to my doctoral supervisors, Dr Geoffrey Sloan and Professor Beatrice Heuser, for their excellent guidance and advice. I would like to acknowledge the critical reviews and comments of my examiners, Professor Colin S. Gray and Dr Alastair Finlan, that helped me bring the original manuscript to its final form. My appreciation is also extended to faculty members at the Department of Politics, Economics and International Relations, University of Reading, namely Professor Alan Cromartie, Dr Patrick Porter, Dr C. Dale Walton, Dr Jonathan Golub and Dr Alan Renwick.

My deep appreciation to the anonymous librarians and staff at The National Archives, Kew Gardens; Imperial War Museum; Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London; United States Air Force Historical Research Agency; and University of Reading Library, who had rendered their kind assistance and courtesy during my search for materials for my doctoral project.

A host of friends and staff at the University of Reading's Graduate School at Old Whiteknights House also contributed in keeping me sane and humoured during my tense research years. There are too many to list here but I am sure you know who you are.

None of this would have been possible without the help of my family and loved ones. I would like to thank my late mother and father, brother and sister, and my in-laws for their support and care in ensuring that I succeed in my life.

My greatest gratitude belongs to my beloved wife, Effa, for being a most patient, loving and understanding life partner. This book would not have been ready without your time and effort in ensuring that our two lovely daughters, Emylin and Evelyn, are well taken care of. This book is dedicated to the three of you.

As the author of this book I am solely responsible for any errors or inaccuracies and for a book not better than this one.

Adam Leong Kok Wey
Kuala Lumpur

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The mere mention of Special Operations or leadership decapitation operations in World War II will conjure up images of secretive and high dramatics of commandos in action with a degree of romantic adventurism infused. Although numerous books have been written on the practice of Special Operations during World War II, none have specifically studied the effectiveness of Special Operations conducting leadership decapitation operations in that particular war.

Four main case studies from World War II, namely the killing of Reinhard Heydrich; the capture of Major General Heinrich Kreipe; the killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; and the attempt to kill or capture General Erwin Rommel, have been used to understand and explain the strategic effectiveness of such operations. This book asserts that Special Operations conducting leadership decapitation operations during World War II yielded strategic effects in raising morale in desperate situations. These strategic effects had important consequences benefitting the political strategy of the belligerents engaged in such operations. In addition it is asserted that Special Operations provided a strong demonstration of the political will to fight in an economical manner. Special Operations were also found to be tactically effective in conducting such operations, but success hinged on a good understanding of how to use Special Operations with excellent support from intelligence.

Strategic theories related to leadership decapitation are discussed and used as a foundation to understand how leadership decapitation achieves its intended result. A general theoretical background is necessary to set the foundation in understanding how leadership decapitation works and how it can be achieved. Although there are no implicit strategic theories solely on leadership decapitation, strategic paralysis theories that have linkages with leadership decapitation are critically examined as a foundation to understand how leadership decapitation could achieve its intended result.

This book is conceptually influenced by Alastair Finlan's proposal of using Special Forces to conduct a third way of warfare in which opposing political leaders and institutions become the explicit aim of all military efforts from the outset of a campaign. Finlan proposed the targeting and killing of the enemy's leaders by Special Forces as a third form of warfare apart from the dual strategies of attrition or annihilation. He posited that killing off or disenabling the enemy's leadership would erode the intelligence and talent of the enemy's political leadership and supreme command. This would potentially disrupt both the political and strategic direction of the enemy in a conflict and facilitate a quicker end to war and avoid bloody battles. This book, however, analyses the effectiveness of this strategy in a broader context, not just limited to the targeting of enemy political leaders but also important enemy military commanders.

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