Editing Christopher Lee (section)

== Military service ==
When the [[Second World War]] broke out in 1939, Lee had enrolled in a military academy and [[Foreign support of Finland in the Winter War|volunteered to fight]] for the [[Finnish Army]] against the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Winter War]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=59}} He and other British volunteers were kept away from the actual fighting, but they were issued with winter gear and were posted on guard duty a safe distance from the border. After two weeks in Finland, they returned home.<ref name="yle" />{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=60}} In a later interview, Lee said he knew how to shoot but not how to ski and that he probably would not be alive if he had been allowed to go to the front line.<ref name="yle">{{cite web |last=Orjala |first=Anne |url=https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-8068724 |title=Christopher Leen tavannut elokuvapomo: Hänellä oli erityinen suhde Suomeen |language=fi |trans-title=Christopher Lee met the film boss: He had a special relationship with Finland |work=[[YLE]] |date=11 June 2015 |access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ikola |first=Vilma |url=https://www.is.fi/hs-helsinki/art-2000006597579.html |title=Sotakuvien seasta paljastui yllättävä löytö: Keskellä talvisodan koettelemaa Helsinkiä seisoo mies, joka saattaa olla näyttelijäsuuruus Christopher Lee |language=fi |trans-title=A surprising discovery was revealed among the war photos: In the middle of Helsinki, which was hit by the Winter War, stands a man who may be the actor Christopher Lee |work=[[Ilta-Sanomat]] |date=11 August 2020 |access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turunsanomat.fi/treffi/?ts=1,3:1013:0:0,4:13:0:1:2002-05-15,104:13:106811,1:0:0:0:0:0: |title=Fantasian hyvä paha mies |language=fi |trans-title=A good bad man in fantasy |publisher=Turun Sanomat |date=15 May 2002 |access-date=27 August 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930203154/http://www.turunsanomat.fi/treffi/?ts=1,3:1013:0:0,4:13:0:1:2002-05-15,104:13:106811,1:0:0:0:0:0: |archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref> Lee returned to work at United States Lines and found his work more satisfying, feeling that he was contributing. In early 1940, he joined [[Beecham Group|Beecham's]], at first as an office clerk, then as a switchboard operator.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=62–63}} When Beecham's moved out of London, he joined the [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=64}} In the winter, his father fell ill with [[Classification of pneumonia|bilateral pneumonia]] and died on 12 March 1941. Realising that he had no inclination to follow his father into the Army, Lee decided to join up while he still had some choice of service, and volunteered for the [[Royal Air Force]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=65}}

Lee reported to [[RAF Uxbridge]] for training and was then posted to the Initial Training Wing at [[Paignton]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=67–68}} After he had passed his exams in [[Liverpool]], the [[British Commonwealth Air Training Plan]] meant that he travelled on the ''[[MV Reina del Pacifico|Reina del Pacifico]]'' to South Africa, then to his posting at Hillside, at [[Bulawayo]] in [[Southern Rhodesia]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=70–71}} Training with [[de Havilland Tiger Moth]]s, Lee took his penultimate training session before his first solo flight, during which he began to suffer from headaches and blurred vision. The medical officer hesitantly diagnosed a failure of his [[optic nerve]], and he was told he would never be allowed to fly again.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=72–73}} Lee was devastated, and the death of a fellow trainee from his former school, Summer Fields, only made him more despondent. His appeals were fruitless, and he was left with nothing to do.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=73}} He was moved around to different flying stations before being posted to Southern Rhodesia's capital, [[Harare|Salisbury]], in December 1941.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=74}} He then visited the [[Mazowe Dam]], [[Marondera|Marandellas]], the [[Hwange National Park|Wankie Game Reserve]] and the ruins of [[Great Zimbabwe]]. Thinking he should "do something constructive for my keep", he applied to join [[RAF Intelligence]]. His superiors praised his initiative, and he was seconded into the [[British South Africa Police]] and was posted as a warder at Salisbury Prison.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=75}} He was then promoted to [[leading aircraftman]]. Leaving South Africa, he sailed from [[Durban]] to [[Suez]] on the ''[[SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1937)|Nieuw Amsterdam]]''.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=77}}

After "killing time" at RAF Kasfareet near the [[Great Bitter Lake]] in the [[Suez Canal]] Zone in 1942, he resumed intelligence work in the city of [[Ismaïlia]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=77–79}} He was then attached to [[No. 205 Group RAF]] before being commissioned <!--with the rank of [[pilot officer]] -->at the end of January 1943,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36044 |date=4 June 1943 |pages=2619–2620 |supp=y}}</ref> and attached to [[No. 260 Squadron RAF]] as an intelligence officer.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=81}} As the [[North African Campaign]] progressed, the squadron "leapfrogged" between Egyptian airstrips, from [[RAF El Daba]] to [[Maaten Bagush]] and on to [[Mersa Matruh]]; they lent air support to the ground forces and bombed strategic targets. Lee, "broadly speaking, was expected to know everything."{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=84}} The Allied advance continued into Libya, through [[Tobruk]] and [[Benghazi]] to the [[Marble Arch (Libya)|Marble Arch]] and then through [[El Agheila]], [[Khoms, Libya|Khoms]] and [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], with the squadron averaging five missions a day.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=85–86}} As the advance continued into Tunisia, with the [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces digging themselves in at the [[Mareth Line]], Lee was almost killed when the squadron's airfield was bombed.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=86}} After [[Battle of the Mareth Line|breaking through the Mareth Line]], the squadron made their final base in [[Kairouan]];{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=88}} following the Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943, the squadron moved to [[Zuwarah]] in Libya in preparation for the [[Allied invasion of Sicily]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=91}} They then moved to [[Crown Colony of Malta|Malta]], and, after its capture by the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|British Eighth Army]], the Sicilian town of [[Pachino]], before making a permanent base in Agnone Bagni.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=93–94}} At the end of July 1943, Lee received his second promotion of the year, this time to [[flying officer]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36131 |date=10 August 1943 |pages=3636–3637 |supp=y}}</ref> After the Sicilian campaign was over, Lee came down with malaria for the sixth time in under a year, and was flown to a hospital in [[Carthage (municipality)|Carthage]] for treatment. When he returned, the squadron was restless, frustrated with a lack of news about the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] and the Soviet Union in general, and with no mail from home and no alcohol. Unrest spread and threatened to turn into mutiny. Lee, by now an expert on Russia, talked them into resuming their duties, which much impressed his commanding officer.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=96–97}}
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[[File:Christopher Lee 1944.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Flying Officer C. F. C. Lee in Vatican City, 1944, soon after the [[Liberation of Rome]] ]] probably needs an NFUR-->

After the [[Allied invasion of Italy]], the squadron was based in [[Foggia]] and [[Termoli]] during the winter of 1943, where Lee was then seconded to the Army during an officers' swap scheme.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=98}} During most of the [[Battle of Monte Cassino]] he was attached to the [[Gurkha]]s of the [[8th Infantry Division (India)|8th Indian Infantry Division]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=99–100}} While spending some time on leave in [[Naples]], Lee climbed [[Mount Vesuvius]], which [[Mount Vesuvius#Eruptions in the 20th century|erupted three days later]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=100–101}} During the final assault on Monte Cassino, the squadron was based in San Angelo, and Lee was nearly killed when one of the planes crashed on takeoff, and he tripped over one of its live bombs.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=101}} After the battle, the squadron moved to airfields just outside Rome, and Lee visited the city, where he met his mother's cousin, [[Nicolò Carandini]], who had fought in the [[Italian resistance movement]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=102}} In November 1944, Lee was promoted to [[flight lieutenant]] and left the squadron in [[Iesi]] to take up a posting at Air Force HQ.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=104–105}} Lee took part in forward planning and liaison, in preparation for a potential assault into the rumoured German [[Alpine Fortress]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} After the war ended, Lee was invited to go hunting near Vienna and was then billeted in [[Pörtschach am Wörthersee]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=106–107}} For the final few months of his service, Lee, who spoke fluent French, Italian and German, among other languages, was seconded to the [[Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}} Here, he was tasked with helping to track down Nazi war criminals.<ref name=timesinterview /> Of his time with the organisation, Lee said: "We were given dossiers of what they'd done and told to find them, interrogate them as much as we could and hand them over to the appropriate authority".<ref name=timesinterview /> He completed his service with the RAF in 1946 with the rank of flight lieutenant.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}}

Lee said that during the war he was attached to special forces, but declined to give details.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=99}}<ref name="telegraphinterview" /> Lee's stepfather served as a captain in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]], but it is unlikely he had any influence over Lee's military career. Lee saw his stepfather for the last time on a bus in London in 1940, after he was divorced from Lee's mother, and Lee did not speak to him.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=61}}