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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
CORPS OF INTELLIGENCE POLICE SAILS TO FRANCE
On 12 October 1917, the first group of Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP) personnel departed New York for France aboard the USS Powhatan. The newly established organization proved woefully unprepared for the intelligence requirements of World War I.
The CIP was established on 13 August 1917 and authorized fifty non-commissioned officers for immediate service in France in support of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) [see This Week in MI History #2 13 August 1917]. Many issues plagued the new organization. First, agents would need to be detailed from existing military services and could not be directly enlisted as intelligence personnel, and most services were unwilling to part with qualified men. Additionally, the role of the CIP was not clearly defined, and it often found itself at odds with the military attaché service and military police for authority in intelligence work. Likewise, confusion over intelligence duties often led to CIP agents performing “many tasks which had no connection with military intelligence and seriously interfered with the execution of their primary mission.”
The first group of CIP agents assembled at Fort Jay, Governor’s Island, New York, in early October 1917. The primary consideration for recruitment, when other avenues failed to achieve the authorized fifty men, was an ability to speak French. A history of the Counter Intelligence Corps (the successor of the CIP) noted the result of such recruitment was “a miniature French Foreign Legion” where “any kind of French went—Cajun, Canadian, or French with any foreign accent.” As the organization’s first commander, 1st Lt. Royden Williamson described them: “One was mentally unbalanced. One was a French deserter. One was suspected of German sympathies; several were just morons.” In a separate letter, Williamson expounded:
"[They were] a delegation of ‘Cajuns’ from Louisiana, a sprinkling of French Canadians, a number of Europeans, a coterie of Harvard men; and their professional antecedents ran the gamut of occupations. If there were any ‘Secret Service’ men among [the unit]…well, I didn’t meet them. And I knew each and everyone [sic] of them."
One agent was later investigated by the War Department for suspected communist affiliations and was left behind when the group deployed to France. Lieutenant Williamson himself received only thirty days of intelligence training with the War Department’s Military Intelligence Section prior to taking command of the CIP. In New York, the organization’s training and activities were typical of an infantry unit, with CIP agents performing daily calisthenics, close order drills, infantry tactics training, camp policing, and receiving instruction in interior guard duties.
On 12 October 1917, the group of CIP agents boarded the USS Powhatan bound for St. Nazaire, France. Upon arrival thirteen days later, two-thirds of the group were assigned to AEF General Headquarters in Chaumont while the other third were ordered elsewhere in France. While Williamson worked to fix this problem, several of his agents were arrested at port by U.S. Marines performing port security duties in St. Nazaire. Additionally, several foreign-born CIP agents were arrested for evading conscription with their native countries’ forces.
Finally, on 6 December 1917, Williamson and his agents reported to Maj. (later Col.) Aristides Moreno, then-chief of the G-2-B counterespionage section of the AEF [see This Week in MI History #244 6 July 1919]. The Army realized quickly it needed more CIP personnel and those agents had to be properly trained for the intelligence work required during the war. Once the organization was settled in France in early 1918, ten agents were selected to attend intelligence training at Le Havre with British intelligence officers. By November 1918, the CIP had developed its own training program in France and employed more than 400 agents. Despite the inauspicious beginnings of its first official deployment, during ten months of war operations, the CIP investigated 3,706 cases and neutralized 229 suspected enemy agents: 3 convicted of espionage, 107 interned, and 119 expelled from the war zone.
| Date Taken: | 10.04.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.04.2024 15:48 |
| Story ID: | 482574 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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