Antelope Hotel Poole

In August 1941, Colonel Colin Gubbins, head of SOE operations, arrived at the Antelope Hotel to meet with Major Gus March‑Phillipps and his small band of raiders, known as the Maid Honor Force. Over a meal in the hotel’s dining room, Gubbins bid farewell to the men as they prepared for what would become Operation Postmaster—a bold plan to seize Axis ships from the neutral Spanish island of Fernando Po (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea).

The Antelope’s role was not operational in the sense of training or equipping agents, but it served as a discreet and practical rendezvous point. Its proximity to Poole Harbour, which had become a centre for covert maritime operations, made it an ideal staging ground.

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Source

• Text: TracesofWar
• Photos: Steve Daniels
• LETT, B.G., Ian Fleming and SOE's Operation POSTMASTER, Pen & Sword Military, 2012.