A Croydon author has revealed what he says is proof James Bond author Ian Fleming based one of his books on his own war time experiences as a spy.
Sean Longden discovered the unknown link between the plot of Moonraker and Mr Fleming’s work in the top secret World War Two unit called Target Force, while he was on holiday.
Established military historian Mr Longden, from Thornton Heath, researched the unit for his new book T-Force – The Race for Nazi War Secrets, which has just been published.
During his research, he noticed the striking similarities between the unit’s real life activities and Ian Flemming’s Moonraker.
Mr Longden said: “I was sitting on the beach in Greece when I suddenly realised just how much of Moonraker – which is about a villain who acquires nuclear rocket technology – was based on Fleming’s experiences with Target Force.
"It has been known for some time that Fleming carried out intelligence work during the war, which could have influenced his novels, but I think it took my work on T-Force to reveal just how close the links are.”
Mr Fleming set up and worked with Target Force whose job was to bring Nazi scientists to Britain before they were captured by the advancing Russians.
Mr Longden said: “Fleming was sitting at the heart of the scientific intelligence community and it helped him in his work for the Admiralty as well as with his Bond novels.
“After this research there is no doubt in my mind he plundered his recollections of the top secret files that passed across his desk for much of the material in Moonraker.”
In Ian Flemming’s book, the villain Drax works on the Moonraker rocket project for the British, which is similar to Operation Backfire – a British project to test German V2 rockets.
Target Force was involved in Backfire by recovering missiles.
In Moonraker, one of Drax’s key henchmen is a Dr Walter.
In real life, Dr Hellmuth Walter ran the Walterwerke factory in Kiel, Germany, a city visited by Target Force in 1945.
The factory was responsible for the design of the engines used in V1 and V2 rockets, which fell particularly heavily on Croydon during World War Two.
In the book, 50 German scientists – described as “more or less all the guided-missile experts the Russians didn’t get” – work on the Moonraker project.
During the war Target Force extracted Nazi rocket scientists from the Soviet zone and Dr Walter assisted in this.
The fictional Drax had worked for steel company Rheinmetall-Borsig.
This was a real German company and had been one of Target Force’s primary targets.
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