It is widely known as Camp X- but it had several other names including for example STS-103 (special training school) and Project J.
What is was though, was a training school for spies.
A new documentary by Yap Films of Toronto, is called simply Camp X, Robin Bicknell is a producer and director at Yap Films.
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Silent killing, how to plant bombs to blow up railways and bridges, secret codes, hiding in plain sight, weapons use, all of this and much more was taught at Camp-X
Created in Canada, it taught those who founded the CIA, had close ties to Britains Special Operations Executive (SOE) and MI-6, and inadvertently was connected to the Soviet spy system
Camp X was a military installation of low, innocuous buildings. It was built on a large scrub piece of farmland, in a then sparsely populated area along the shore of Lake Ontario in Whitby, about 45 minutes by car from the major urban centre of Toronto.
It was a good place to practice a variety of skills such as blowing up railway lines, firearms, parachute drops, hand to hand combat, and so on, all away from prying eyes and ears.
It was also a highly sophisticated communications interception and transmitting operation.
During the war, it trained about 500 agents, approximately half of which were sent behind enemy lines in Europe and Asia to cause damage and disruption, and/or spread disinformation, while also gathering information useful to the Allied war effort.
The documentary, Camp-X, uses recreations of scenes along with actual recemt archeological digging at the site to recover artefacts, and interviews with former “agents” and people associated with the spy school.
Camp X airs tonight on Canadian TV on the History Channel, with a rebroadcast tomorrow and subsequent broadcasts.
Internationally it is expected to be presented at various film festivals
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