Op JB

Op JB (book)
A compelling first-person narrative account of how a young spook played a key role in "Operation James Bond" - which allowed Martin Bormann to escape from Berlin at the end of WWII.

Op JB is a book written by John Ainsworth-Davis under the psuedonym 'Christopher Creighton'. It recounts his experience leading Operation James Bond, a top secret mission ordered by Desmond Morton, to recover the huge Nazi fortune salted in Switzerland away by Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary. Ainsworth-Davis recounts that the operation was personally approved by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, King George VI and US President Franklin Roosevelt, and was led by Ian Fleming and himself. OpJb became a bestseller in France and Germany. However, the publisher never reprinted further editions and it was never published in the USA.

Veracity

The publishers' preface states that "in the end, readers will have to make their own judgements about what they believe. What is not in doubt is that this book is a thrilling story from a remarkable man". Ainsworth-Davis' account, alleges that Martin Bormann was successfully rescued from Berlin, taken back to UK and died in Paraguay in 1959. Published 50 years after the fact, his account is detailed and compelling but lacks supporting references. It include copies of two single page, typewritten letters:

1. A poorly photocopied 1954 letter from Winston Churchill instructing him to say nothing about the operation until Churchill is dead.
2. A 1963 letter by Ian Fleming confirming the basic account.

Corroboration

Canadian Journalist and spook Milton Shulman reportedly advised John Ainsworth Davis on Op JB and put an account of this collaboration in his autobiography, Marilyn, Hitler & Me.

Appendix

Op JB has one appendix which deals with an unrelated event. In it, Ainsworth-Davis describes how he destroyed the Dutch submarine K-XVII with all hands after they stumbled across the Japanese fleet heading for Hawaii.

Corporate media reception

The Independent wrote in 1996 "A rattling good yarn? Certainly. Believable? Hardly. The author has done his best to match his story with what has been published, but not enough. The recent row over the Anglo-Swiss negotiations on German funds in Swiss banks, provoked by American declassification, came too late for him. He is unaware too of the remarkable detective work by the American writer, Lynn H. Nicholas, on the fate of the Nazi war loot."

Investigation of Bormann's remains

In 1996 The OpJB book became a bestseller in Germany, which unsettled the German government so much that in 1997 the German prosecutor^[Who?] called for a thorough forensics and DNA investigation on the remains of Martin Bormann.

The forensic results came back after the legal medical team matched blood from a Bormann relative, the match was positive. A confirmation of the remains being those of Bormann was released to the world’s press, along with the statement that the official narrative was correct:- Martin Bormann had indeed died in 1945, at the Berlin site where his remains were found in 1972.

Criticism

On the publication of the 1998 Bormann DNA report, and statements given to the media, London’s Daily Express newspaper called the Bormann report a ‘’whitewash’’ perpetrated by the Brandt government. Later the Stewart Steven foreign editor of the Daily Express was sacked for publishing the ‘’whitewash’’ article.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

Criticism from: Nigel West aka Rupert Allason /spy writer/Spook

At the time of publication in 1996, OpJB author John Ainsworth-Davis, was passed off as a charlatan and 'fantasist. It has also been claimed that Christopher Creighton aka John Ainsworth-Davis not only invented the stories within OpJB, but was never even in the Royal Navy, let alone the NID. (Naval Intelligence Division). In 2013 Nigel West wrote to Christopher Creighton's close confidante, investigative journalist Laurence de Mello to continue the character assassination.

My connection with 'Creighton' is simply that I was employed by one of his sponsors (Milton Schulman) to investigate his claims (OpJB) and establish his true identity. I did both. He is a charlatan but I suspect he probably believes his own fantasies. Alas, I cannot account for others, such as Lady Mountbatten who, you say, have appeared to give him some credence. (Nigel West in an email to investigative Journalist Laurence de Mello in 2012)

de mello believes this is a interesting comment from West on John Ainsworth-Davis and Schulman; considering Schulman was not only a sponsor and firm supporter of OPJB the book, and apart from his glittering career as a London film and theatre critic, Shulman was a highly trained, former military intelligence officer and authority on the Wehrmacht. We need to ask, who is Nigel West exactly? and who is he working for? Wikipedia tells us Nigel West AKA Rupert Allason is an author, former politician and military historian. Yet what would qualify a historian and 'spy' writer to be 'lecturing' the intelligence communities including the KGB in Moscow and the CIA at their headquarters in Langley? What could West possibly be teaching some of the best and most lethal Intel agents in the world? even without knowing the full answer to that, it's obvious that whoever West is being employed by, it is by those that have an agenda with the CIA. OPJB can not be on their 'allow to publish' list.

OPJB the book, a reader comments;

if you actually read West's "Counterfeit Spies" you'll notice he complains about the FICTIONAL elements of the FICTIONAL novel 'The Paladin` (Christopher Creighton & Brian Garfield) while documenting FACTS like that Creighton is indeed who he says he is (spy and Commando)--to include a statement by BSC Director Sir William Stephenson (The Man Called Intrepid). reader comment on OPJB

References

This is a page stub. Please add to it.