Operation Autonomous
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Operation Autonomous was a clandestine operation carried out on the territory of Romania by the Allied Secret Services during the Second World War, in 1943.
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[edit] Participants
In 1943, three secret agents were parachuted into Romanian territory:
- Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain, experienced Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer, who was the operation's commander.
- Ivor Porter, who later wrote a book about the operation.
- Captain Silviu Meţianu, of Romanian origin, who had previously emigrated to Great Britain.
[edit] Operation aims and outcome
The aim of the operation was two-fold:
- To contact the political parties in Romania (especially Iuliu Maniu) and persuade them to sign an armistice with the Allied powers, and thereby shorten the duration of the war, or
- In case of capture by the Antonescu authorities, to convince them that an Allied landing in the Balkans is imminent, and therefore contribute to re-deployment of Axis forces to the East.
All three agents were immediately captured and arrested by the Romanian gendarmerie near the village of Plosca, in Teleorman county, around Christmas 1943. They were treated as prisoners of war, and brought to Bucharest, where they stayed until 1944. Shortly after Romania entered the war against the Axis,in August 1944, they were released and left Bucharest for Ankara.
[edit] Aftermath
After the start of the Cold War, Soviet authorities alleged that de Chastelain was keeping contacts with Iuliu Maniu, the leader of the National Peasants' Party; the latter had opposed both Antonescu's regime and the Soviet occupation of Romania. During Maniu's trial for treason in 1947, the Minister of the Interior, Teohari Georgescu, was handed a report which indicated Maniu's alleged contacts with de Chastelain as proof that the politician was a British spy.
Reportedly, Cpt. Meţianu visited Romania at least once during the Cold War.
A book giving an account of the SOE Operation in Romania was written by one member of the team, Ivor Porter, later a British Ambassador (Operation Autonomous: With SOE in Wartime Rumania, Chatto and Windus, 1989).
