OPERATION: FALLEN REICH

The Central Library

To govern and supervise the actions of the different companies and put all the gathered clues together a special authority called The Central Library was founded. The previously mentioned Lord Cunningham was appointed director and Chief Librarian — which turned into just Chief after the first week.

Together with a staff mainly consisting of scientists Lord Cunningham tried to govern the activities of the companies and form an overview of the situation. The Central Library was also tasked to lay out a long term strategic plan for the Operation, although this was missing during the first years of the war. Fortunately Lord Cunningham was an authoritarian person who could keep the rambunctious organisation of the O:FR together with a common goal.

Reliability before competence

The first task of The Central Library was to quickly recruit more agents. Initially reliability was more important than competence and the most unlikely people were recruited Ñ everything from distant relatives to childhood friends, gardeners and nannies.

Pretty soon it was obvious that people with insight and experience of the occult was needed and so a number of scientists, priests, druids, witches and other that had the paranormal sense were recruited. In a last wave of recruits different kinds of thugs were picked to give the companies some kind of chance for survial of the sort of secret missions that were on the agenda.

There were no lack of complications when a gardener, a witch, a professor of linguistics, an ex hitman and a psycotic fighter pilot from the first world war suddenly had to perform advanced and peculiar missions together. This was the day to day activities of Operation: Fallen Reich.

The Need for Training

The skills and knowledge of the new agents was truly impressive, but there was a great need for specific training in subjects as language, myths, self defense, surveillance and sabotage. A mandatory two week course was established to provide agents with the basic skills necessary for duty but also to sort out the people unfit for service in the Operation.

As each company was independent these two week courses became a reflection of the odd ideas that circulated in each group. For instance the Rambouillet Owners Guild had a course in pure commando style with extensive elements of riding and the Wales Christian Brass Orchestra focused on theology, fencing and the performance of brass instruments.

Later on in the Operation, directives from The Central Library dictated the companies to refine their two week course even more and let recruits serve additional two weeks at another company to share the knowledge.

Expansion and Secrecy

Initially everything went according to plan. The companies had little understanding of their own actions and even less insight into the other companies. This was all about to change due to the catastrophic events in Istanbul in the summer of 1939.

Three groups from different companies showed up in town at the same time with the same objective to claim the extremly well protected sword of King David from the Topkapi Palace. The bloody farce of a resolution involved a deadly gunfight half way into the palace between the agents of Oxford's Reserve Post Office and Circus Radii-Dali. The survivors was instantly picked up by the Turkish secret police and meet an unfortunate and agonishing end. Meanwhile agents of Kings Cross Badminton Club stylishly replaced the sword with a copy. After this event it was necessary to give the companies more information about each other and company specific activities.

[Later additions] During the progression of the war the number of companies increased as the old units grew. Gradually it even became more common to transfer members between companies and create special units from hand picked members of different companies.

The Backside of Independence

The make the entire project of O:FR possible funding from the government was minimal and hidden in other intelligence expenses. The different commanders paid from their own pocket and thus created for them sels a lot of independence — making each company basically autonomous. This helped keeping missions secret but also made the different companies more diverse and pretty soon the commanders started competing.

The six original company commanders were rather odd characters to begin with and they all managed to leave a strong personal mark on their agents and operations. The veteran agents got more and more eccentric as the war dragged on and strange event lefts unforgettable scars in their minds.