Editing Peter Fleming (writer) (section)

==Second World War==
Just before war was declared, Fleming, then a reserve officer in the [[Grenadier Guards]], was recruited by the War Office research section investigating the potential of irregular warfare (MIR).  His initial task was to develop ideas to assist the Chinese guerrillas fighting the Japanese.  He served in the Norwegian campaign with the prototype commando units – Independent Companies – but in May 1940 he was tasked with research into the potential use of the new [[Local Defence Volunteers]] (later the Home Guard) as guerrilla troops.  His ideas were first incorporated into General Thorne's XII Corps Observation Unit, forerunner of the GHQ [[Auxiliary Units]].  Fleming recruited his brother, Richard, then serving in the [[Faroe Islands]], to provide a core of [[Lovat Scouts|Lovat Scout]] instructors to his teams of LDV volunteers.<ref>Alan Ogden. ''Master of Deception: The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming'' (2019)</ref>

Meanwhile, Fleming wrote a speculative novel called ''The Flying Visit'' in which he imagined [[Adolf Hitler]] flying to Britain to propose peace with that nation, only to have the United Kingdom let him return in light of the awkward diplomatic quandary he placed the British government in. It proved bizarrely prescient in 1941 when Hitler's Deputy, [[Rudolf Hess]], did that exact excursion into Britain and Britain found their new high ranked Nazi prisoner cumbersome for their foreign and propaganda policies.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Neidel |first1=Indy |title=Rudolf Hess – Nazi Pacifist, Traitor or Madman? |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpAAdFFU8WA&t |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/EpAAdFFU8WA| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|website=World War II |date=12 May 2020 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=13 May 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

When [[Colin Gubbins]] was appointed to head the new [[Auxiliary Units]], he incorporated many of Peter's ideas, which aimed to create secret commando teams of Home Guard in the coastal districts most liable to the risk of invasion. Their role was to launch sabotage raids on the flanks and rear of any invading army, in support of regular troops, but they were never intended as a post-occupation 'resistance' force, having a life expectancy of only two weeks.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Fighting Nazi Occupation: british Resistance 1939–1945|last = Atkin|first = Malcolm|publisher = Pen and Sword|year = 2015|isbn = 978-1-47383-377-7|location = Barnsley|pages = 24, 26, 31,–2, 56–61, 66, 72, 76–7, 87, 172, 181}}</ref>

Fleming later served in Greece, but his principal service, from 1942 to the end of the war, was as head of D Division,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.coleshillhouse.com/captain-peter-fleming.php|title=Captain Peter Fleming|publisher=coleshillhouse.com|access-date=3 May 2017}}</ref> in charge of [[military deception]] operations in Southeast Asia, based in [[New Delhi]], India. He was scheduled to take part in the second Chindit operation, but this was cut short by the premature crash landing of a defective glider. The episode is described in an appendix Fleming contributed to Michael Calvert's book on the operation.<ref>Calvert, M. Prisoners of Hope, Pen and Sword 1995, {{ISBN|978-0850524925}}</ref>

Fleming was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] in the [[1945 Birthday Honours]] and in 1948 he was awarded the [[Order of the Cloud and Banner|Order of the Cloud and Banner with Special Rosette]] by the [[Republic of China]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37119 |date=8 June 1945 |page=2943 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38288 |date=11 May 1948 |page=2921 |supp=y}}</ref>