Editing Roald Dahl (section)

==Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer==
After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in [[Uxbridge]]. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=163|ref=none}} In late March 1942, while in London, he met the [[Under-Secretary of State for Air]], Major [[Harold Balfour]], at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the [[Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.|British Embassy in Washington, D.C.]] Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the {{MS|Batory}} from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train to [[Montreal]].{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=165|ref=none}}

Coming from war-starved Britain (in what was a wartime period of [[rationing in the United Kingdom]]), Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|pp=163–165|ref=none}} Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the US capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]]. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on "a most ungodly unimportant job".{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|pp=166–167|ref=none}} He later explained, "I'd just come from the war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America."{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=167|ref=none}}

Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador, [[Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Lord Halifax]], with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as "a courtly English gentleman". Dahl socialised with Charles E. Marsh, a Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia.<!-- Also at this time he joined the [[British Security Coordination]], that covertly sought to influence US policy to favor Great Britain. -->{{sfn|Dahl|2013b}}<ref name=Dietsch_2013 /> As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].{{sfn|Conant|2008|p=3}}

At this time Dahl met the noted British novelist [[C. S. Forester]], who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|British Ministry of Information]] and was writing propaganda for the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] cause, mainly for American consumption.{{sfn|Head|2006|p=269}} ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.<ref name="BBC Studios 2016" /> In reality a number of changes were made to the original manuscript before publication.<ref>Sturrock (2010) p.169.</ref> He originally titled the article as "A Piece of Cake" but the magazine changed it to "Shot Down Over Libya" to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published on 1 August 1942 issue of the ''Post''. Dahl was promoted to [[flight lieutenant]] (war-substantive) in August 1942.<ref name=LG35971 /> Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as [[Ian Fleming]] (who later published the popular ''James Bond'' series) and [[David Ogilvy (businessman)|David Ogilvy]], promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the "[[America First Committee|America First]]" movement.{{sfn|Conant|2008|p=3}}

This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster [[William Stephenson]], known by the codename "Intrepid."{{sfn|Schoeck|2006|p=221}} During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]]. As Dahl later said: "My job was to try to help Winston to get on with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR]], and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind."<ref name="BBC Studios 2016">The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl. BBC Studios. 2016.</ref> Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as [[British Security Coordination]], which was part of [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]].<ref name=Dietsch_2013/> Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—"I got booted out by the big boys", he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to [[Wing Commander (rank)|wing commander]] rank.{{sfn|MacDonald|2001|p=249}} Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation; he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.{{sfn|MacDonald|2001|p=243}}

Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank of [[squadron leader]].<ref name=LG37681sup /> His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a [[flying ace]], has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It is possible that he shot down more aircraft, for example on 20 April 1941 when the Germans lost several aircraft.{{sfn|Shores|Williams|2008|p=206}}