Donald Stott

Born in Auckland, Stott volunteered for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. Serving with an artillery unit, Stott took part in the Battle of Greece, and the subsequent Battle of Crete. Captured by the Germans on Crete, he successfully escaped from a prisoner of war camp after several months of internment. Making his way back to Egypt, he joined the Special Operations Executive in 1942 and was dispatched to Greece to support the local resistance efforts against the Germans. In 1944, he transferred to the Z Special Unit, which was based in Melbourne, Australia as part of the Services Reconnaissance Department. Appointed commander of Robin 1, a small team formed to collect intelligence in the Southwest Pacific, he disappeared, presumed drowned, on 20 March 1945 while leading his team on a reconnaissance mission to Balikpapan Bay, Indonesia.

The following month, Stott commenced intensive training at various bases around Australia, including receiving instructions in small boat handling and submarine insertion. In 1945, and by now promoted to major, he was appointed commander of Operation Robin 1 and tasked with conducting sabotage and intelligence missions in Southeast Borneo. A submarine, the USS Perch, transported Stott and his twelve-man team to Japanese occupied Balikpapan Bay. Arriving in the bay on 20 March 1945, Stott was to lead an initial party of four ashore in a pair of two-man folboats. This was to be followed by the remainder of his team two days later.

One of Stott's Greek contacts denounced him to the SOE headquarters in Cairo, charging that he was engaged in treasonous talks. Stott's talks with the Germans had a disastrous impact on Britain's relations with EAM, who believed that he was acting under orders of London. It was widely believed in Greece that when the unpopular King George II returned from exile, he would pardon all of the members of the Security Battalions to use them to fight against EAM. Stott's talks in Athens had also led to much hope in Germany that the alliance of the "Big Three" powers was falling apart and that soon Britain would be switching sides. In a speech on 20 April 1944 to mark Hitler's birthday, Walter Schimana, the Higher SS Police Chief of Greece, referred to the Stott mission as a sign that Germany would win the war against the Soviet Union allied with Britain. The British historian Mark Mazower wrote in 1993 that the official line of the British government is that Stott was a "rogue agent" acting without orders, but he also noted that Stott remained in radio contact with the SOE headquarters in Cairo during his talks with the Germans and that the unpopular commander of SOE in Cairo, Brigadier Keble, encouraged Stott in his negotiations. However, on 8 November 1943, SOE headquarters in Cairo sent Stott a message stating under no conditions were SOE agents to negotiate with the Germans, and ordering him to break off his talks immediately.

Stott was not allowed to return to Greece following his recent exploits in the country. Instead, after being offered a staff job which was declined, he opted to be seconded to the Australian equivalent of the SOE, the Services Reconnaissance Department, to undertake operations in the Far East. Stott briefly returned to New Zealand where he married Mary Snow in June 1944.

Stott, increasingly frustrated that he had yet to reach Greece, sought a new role at SOE and was give charge of the Greek Section in the organisation. With his fellow escapee, Bob Morton, he carried out some reconnaissance missions in North Africa and some islands off the coast of Greece, returning to Egypt each time. In March 1943, he, along with another SOE operative, Geoffrey Gordon-Creed, were parachuted into Greece. They were to join the British Military Mission that was then based in Greece and co-ordinate the Greek resistance efforts.

In June 1943, Stott, together with Gordon-Creed, destroyed the Asopos Viaduct. This was an important operation, as it resulted in the diversion of German troops destined for the frontlines to occupation duties in Greece. For his exploits, Stott was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO), after the commander of the British Military Mission in Greece, Brigadier Eddie Myers originally recommended Stott for a Victoria Cross (VC). Myers considered that the VC would have been awarded had a shot been fired during the Asopos mission. Remaining in Greece and continuing his sabotage operations, Stott received a head wound when blowing up a bridge and was forced seek medical help from acquaintances in Athens.

Matters came to a head in November 1943, when the mayor of Athens contacted Stott with back channel peace overtures from the Germans. While the approach was initially dismissed, Stott decided to explore the opportunity in order to collect useful intelligence on Germany's position in Greece. Stott met with key representatives of the Gestapo and, as negotiations became more protracted, Stott began to take them seriously. Stott's initial contacts were with Roman Loos, the Austrian policeman in charge of the Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police) operations in the Balkans, who passed on the message that Germany wanted to end the war with Britain to focus on the Soviet Union, which Loos argued was the common enemy of both Britain and the Reich. On the night of 4 November 1943, Stott, dressed in the uniform of a British Army officer, met with Loos and the diplomat Dr. Rudi Stärker on a deserted street in Athens that was screened by gunmen from one of the right-wing Greek groups backed by the Germans whom Stott had talking to. Stärker was a deputy of Hermann Neubacher of the Auswärtiges Amt, who played a key role in governing the Balkans. Stärker asserted to Stott that the Soviet Union was the enemy of "Western civilization", and therefore Britain should join forces with Germany to save the West. The meeting went well, and afterwards Loos declared that Stott could travel around Greece dressed in his officer's uniform. In message to the SOE headquarters in Cairo on 7 November 1943, Stott described meeting Loos, whom he called "Loss" and mistakenly called him "the Gestapo chief of the Balkans", saying that Loos had direct contact with his fellow Austrian Adolf Hitler.

The Germans allowed Stott to leave Athens for Cairo in late November 1943 with a message from Loos indicating a desire to explore the possibility of peace in Greece but this was promptly dismissed. Following a debriefing held in Cairo, Stott was awarded a bar to his DSO as a result of the useful intelligence he collected during the negotiations. Sir Reginald Leeper, an Australian who served as the British ambassador to the Greek government-in-exile and whose relations with the SOE had long been very difficult, demanded that Stott be banned from Greece permanently.

Following recuperation from his adventures in Greece, Stott was posted to Officer Training School (OTC). It was during his time at OTC that he was asked to conduct sabotage missions in Greece for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a request he gladly accepted. However, Stott, by now commissioned as an officer, initially began working for SOE at Bardia in Egypt, dealing with POWs who had escaped from Crete. In July 1942, he was part of the Post Occupational Force and, as the Allied situation in Egypt deteriorated, was tasked with the destruction of key facilities in the event German forces advance further.

In March 1941, Stott was shipped with the 2nd Echelon to Egypt to join up with the 1st Echelon of the 2nd Division, which had been in the country since February 1940, and then onto Greece to take part in the defence of Greece. The New Zealanders, together with other Allied forces, were forced to retreat to the island of Crete following the German intervention in Greece. He was wounded and captured during the subsequent Battle of Crete.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Stott enlisted in the New Zealand Military Forces in December 1939 and volunteered for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF). Posted to 5th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery, he was quickly promoted to sergeant. In 1940, he embarked with the 2nd Echelon of the 2nd Division, which had been formed from the personnel of the 2NZEF, for Egypt. However, during transit the ship on which he was traveling, the Aquitania, was diverted to England.

Major Donald John Stott, DSO & Bar (23 October 1914 – 20 March 1945) was a New Zealand soldier and military intelligence agent during the Second World War.

Born on 23 October 1914, Stott was the son of a butcher in Birkenhead in Auckland. Educated at Northcote Primary School and then at Takapuna Grammar School, Stott was a keen sportsman. Upon finishing his education, he was employed at the New Zealand Herald as a rotary machinist.