Operation Autonomous
Although captured by the Romanian Gendarmerie soon after being dropped into the country, the mission proved vital in maintaining contact between the Western Allies and both the Antonescu government and the opposition led by Iuliu Maniu.
The role of this section was to sabotage oil shipments from Romania to Germany and to attempt to form a resistance movement by maintaining contacts with pro-British political actors such as Iuliu Maniu.
The SOE representative until February 1941, when Romania severed its diplomatic relations with Britain, was Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain an engineer who previously worked for the Unirea Oil Company.
The team consisting of Captain Thomas Charles David Russell of the Scots Guards and radioman Nicolae Țurcanu was dropped into Yugoslavia on the night of 15/16 June and made its way to Romania with the help of the Serb Chetniks.
[4] Under the code name "Reginald", Țurcanu operated the radio set from the house of Ion Pitulescu, a member of the National Peasants' Party in Vârciorova, while the latter went to Bucharest to make contact with Maniu.
[4] After this event, the "Reginald" radio was used one more time on 26 August, when a request for an Allied air raid against the Germans in Otopeni and Băneasa was sent to Cairo by Georgescu and Țurcanu.
[5][6] Although "Ranji" succeeded in delivering the radio equipment and operator through which contact was kept with Maniu and Georgescu, a second SOE mission to Romania was also in the works since the spring of 1943.
Led directly by Lieutenant Colonel de Chastelain, together with Ivor Porter, a former English lecturer at the University of Bucharest, and Captain Silviu Mețianu, a Romanian sabotage expert recruited by the SOE in London, preparations began in November 1943.
Flying in a Liberator bomber of an RAF squadron from Tocra in Libya, no signals were spotted in the drop zone so the aircraft had to turn back, managing to reach Brindisi in Italy due to fuel shortage.
Churchill promptly sent a message to Marshal Ion Antonescu warning him that should the British prisoners fall into German hands he would be held personally responsible.
After reaching Bucharest, de Chastelain and Porter informed Antonescu of the British attitude towards Romania and also advised him through generals Tobescu and Vasiliu that he should send authorized envoys to negotiate armistice terms with the three Allies.
On the opposition side, Maniu instead sent Constantin Vișoianu together with Alexandru Racotta, Radu Hurmuzescu, and Max Auschnitt to Cairo on a mission to continue the peace negotiations.
