Camp Intelligence Officer
and
Interpreter

Captain Edward "Ted" Lees
25 years old
Bari Italy 1946

The above photo and the information below
were graciously provided by Captain Lees' daughter.

My father was born Erhard Wilhelm Wolf SAAR in 1921 in the then-German city of STETTIN [ now Szczecin, Poland], where his father was stationed as a regular soldier.
His mother was from Stettin originally.
However,when my father was a toddler his parents divorced and my father went to live with his grandparents and his father in the centre of Berlin.
His grandfather was a master tailor and had a flourishing business in Berlin.
My father lived there until 1934 when, as a 13 year old, he was sent out of Germany by his family.
The situation was becoming increasingly dangerous - since not only were the family jewish, but my grandfather was a known anti-Nazi activist in the Communist party and he was being persecuted for his political activities.
My father travelled alone to England - under the protection of the Quakers, who brought many children and adults out of Germany in the 1930's. He travelled by sea, via the Hook of Holland and Harwich and eventually ended up in Manchester with a jewish family who fostered him for a while.
I'm not quite sure of what happened over the next few years, other than he went to a grammar school in Manchester and retained very fond memories of his time with this foster family. He kept in touch with them for many years afterwards.
Eventually, I can only surmise that he had to leave school at 15 or 16 and went into one of the only types of training that "enemy aliens" were allowed to do in the late 1930s i.e. horticulural and agricultural training.
From 1938 until 1940 he worked for the Cooperative Wholesale society in Cheshire as a trainee.
Some time in the late 1930s my father changed his name to Edward LEES - taking the name of a family he was lodging with in Cheshire at the time. I guess it was not helpful to retain a German name at that time in the UK !!
In 1940 he was, like so many others in his position, interned for 6weeks - in the Liverpool area I think. On release he joined the Pioneer Corps - at that time the only Corps open to "enemy aliens".
However, in 1943 he was transferred to the Royal Fusiliers from which, in November 1943 he was recruited to S.O.E. [ Special Operations Executive ]
After extensive SOE para-military and parachute training he was commissioned in early 1944 as a Lieutenant, and later to the rank of Captain.
During his years in SOE he was parachuted in to the Dolomites in Northern Italy where he worked with the local partisans on a variety of sabotage missions. His speciality was setting explosives and he was nicknamed "il Dynamitard' by the Italiens.
He remained in Italy doing this work until the end of the war.
In 1945 he was posted to Special Camp 11 as an intelligence officer and interpreter, holding the rank of Captain in the regular Army.

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Over recent years more information has come to light and consequently, with the utmost respect to Captain Lees' daughter for providing me with the initial information originally, I have written the below account which fills in, adds to and corrects any information:

Name: Erhard Wilhelm Wolf SAAR
Date Of Birth: 12th June 1921
Place of Birth: Stettin, Germany.
As per the below in the "Conditional Landing" document, dated 12th June 1934,
- Erhard landed on his 13th birthday in Great Britain via the S.S Amsterdam.
- He was placed in the initial care of Miss Dorothy Haines who was to take him to an address in Welwyn Garden City.
- The document suggests that Erhard's father is already living in Great Britain.

12th June 1934, on his 13th birthday, Erhard Saar (Edward "Ted" Lees) arrives in Great Britain

However, a letter dated 24th August 1934 says that Erhard's father is being held in a concentration camp and Erhard is now living with a family in Manchester. The letter asks for his current 4 month stay in Great Britain to be extended.

24th August 1934

In 1936 Erhard was attended Manchester Grammar School which, after a further request to the Home Office, permitted the extension of his permit to remain in the UK until 1936 - this was after various other extensions, requested by the Society of Friends Germany Emergency Committee on behalf of Mr and Mrs Lees, the family with whom Erhard was now living.

6th Sptember 1939, Erhard was finally granted the right to remain in the UK until 31 August 1940 – as it turned out, three days before the British declaration of war on Germany. By this time, he was training in horticulture and employed as a glasshouse hand at the Co-operative Wholesale Society and was referred to as an "Alien", a person from an enemy country.

6th September 1939 - Erhard Saar is granted permission to remain in Great Britain until 31st August 1940

However. this was "short lived" and with the outbreak of war, "Aliens" (people from enemy countries) were considered a potential risk to Britain's security and interned. These people had to attend a tribunal to see whether they could be considered exempt from internment and, on the 27th October 1939, Erhard was considered exempt because his status was classed to be a refugee. (No living family in Germany and opposed to the Nazi regime).

27th October 1939 - Erhard Saar is exempted from internment

Unfortunately for Erhard this decision changed in the summer of 1940. A decision was made that all enemy "aliens" should be interned and Erhard was therefore interned for 6 weeks in Liverpool with people of a similar age (19 years). However, when he was given the option of joining non-combatant (fighting) corps, rather than internment, Erhard gladly took the opportunity to join the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps on the 23rd September 1940.


Erhard Saar makes the decision to adopt the surname of the family he was staying with and now uses the name Edward (Ted) Lees.

Name: Edward Lees
Service Number: 13803191
Age: 23 years
23rd September 1940 - Edward joins the 253 Company Auxilary Mililtary Pioneer Corps.

After a long period of extensive training, Edward joined the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and underwent extensive Special Training School before being recruited to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE) 27th February 1943 - The SOE would carry out covert operations behind enemy lines.

Edward's SOE training record

Note that Edward is now married to Mabel Yvonne Holbrook, lists his religion as Church of England (rather than Jewish) and lists his guardians (Lees) as his next of kin (other than wife)

In the June of 1944 Edward's SOE suitability is recognised:

Note: Edward now gets a new service number (325150)

Note Edward's cover name was Edward Chaney !

His promotions as:

13th August 1944 - 2nd Lieutenant 325150
13th February 1945 - W/S/Lt - War Substative Lieutenant (This was a temporary acting rank that became "substantive" for the duration of the war)

24th June 1945 Edward was posted to Camp 96 a German Working Camp in Staffordshire as an interpreter

Whilst the exact date that Edward joined Island Farm Special Camp 11 is unknown, it is suspected to have been around January 1946 because this is when the high ranking German officers initially arrived at the camp. However, Edward became a captain and worked for several years as the interpreter / interviewer of the high ranking officers held from 1946 - 1948.

Capt Ted Lees (Back row far right)
March 1946


Capt Ted Lees (nearest camera on right)	Capt. Gasson (furthest, facing camera)

Captain Edward Lees greeting GFM. Gerd Von Rundstedt on Bridgend Railway Station on his return from Nuremburg.

5th July 1946


Lt. Hartmann, Lt. Tyler, Capt. Gasson, Lt. Campbell, Capt. Ted Lees	Gasson was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)

1946 - Edward applies for British citizenship and incredulously, in the information entered above, we can read that Edward's father had been forced into the German army and was now a pow in Camp 80 in Lincolnshire.

Edward Lees' daughter continues her father's recollection...

My father remained in the army until just before I was born in Bridgend in 1948.
By that time he had met and married my mother - who lived in Cefn Cribwr.
He was naturalized as a British subject in 1946.
He then joined Glamorgan Fire Service and stayed with them until his retirement in 1977 - ending his career as a senior staff officer.
He was the official german interpreter for Glamorgan County Council in the 1950s and 1960s and was often released from his Fire Service duties in order to interpret for German civic dignitaries visiting their counterparts in the County.
He also retained his reserve commission as Captain until well into his fifties.
My father was a very quiet man who didn't talk much about his early childhood - probably it being too painful since he lost all his family in the War.
He didn't ever blow his own trumpet about his work in SOE. It is only since his death, and many of the documants on SOE now being made public, that I have come to realise just what a dangerous war my father had and how lucky he was to survive it. Most SOE agents didn't.
My father did talk a little more about his time in Special Camp 11 and, surprisingly, he had a good deal of respect for the older, regular senior officers like von Runstedt and Voss. I know, from the letters and cards I have from some of those officers - sent to my father - that he always treated them with dignity and respect. The officers he hated were the former SS officers who were out and out Nazis and would always be so - in my father's view.
My father never wanted to return to Berlin. His old childhood home was, in any case,in the former East Berlin and he would not have been allowed in. In any case, he didn't want to go and, of course, by the time the Wall came down, my father had died.
My mother died prematurely in 1978 and my father re-married briefly in the early 1980s but died of a sudden heart attack in 1985 - at the early age of 64.
It is only since his death that I have done a great deal of research in order to recover my father's and his family's history.


Actual photograph of: Capt Ted Lees War medals. Left to Right: 1939 - 1945 Star A military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom on 8 July 1943 for award to British and Commonwealth forces for service in the Second World War. The Italy Star The Italy Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to British Commonwealth forces who served in the Italian Campaign from 1943 to 1945, during the Second World War. 1939 - 1945 Defence Medal The Defence Medal was awarded for non-operational service in the Armed Forces, the Home Guard, the Civil Defence Service and other approved civilian services during the period from 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945 (2 September 1945 for those serving in certain specified territories in the Far East and the Pacific),[4] with an earlier end date for members of organisations that stood-down before May 1945. 1939 - 1945 War Medal The War Medal 1939 - 1945 is a campaign medal which was instituted by the United Kingdom on 16 August 1945, for award to subjects of the British Commonwealth who had served full-time in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945.	Intelligence Corps	Parachute Wings

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