Ten Things You May Not Know About James Bond's Employers

With the filming of the latest Bond movie beginning today, we've decided to uncover a few facts about the British Secret Service which may surprise you.
Created by Ian Fleming in 1952, Bond has been helping out MI6 (one branch of British intelligence) for almost 60 years now, but the agency itself has a rather lesser known history.
Understandably, the organization gives little away about itself, unwilling to say even how many people work for it. However, last year it did allow a book to be published detailing its early history from 1909 to 1949.
Some very interesting nuggets emerged.
1909 witnessed the birth of MI5 and MI6
Five years before the first world war, German spies attempted to uncover secrets about Britain's militarization plans.
The answer to stopping those pesky Germans? MI5 and MI6, of course! And so was born Britain's Secret Service Bureau which, at this time, was a joint effort from the country's War Office and Navy.
According to the organization, the new Bureau was successful in uncovering no fewer than 20 German spies before the war. While one half of the new agency sought to combat an espionage threat from abroad another looked to gather intelligence about Britain's potential enemies from abroad.
And so the two parts of the UK's Secret Service were born...MI5 and MI6.
Benito Mussolini was hired by MI5 in 1917
Yes, indeed, the founder of the Axis of Evil was given a start to his career by MI5.
Benito Mussolini worked as an agent for Britain in 1917, charged with helping to keep Italy onside during the war.
By the middle of the next decade Mussolini was a fascist dictator of his country.
"James Bond" really did exist
The Telegraph reported last year that a former naval chief, Commander Wilfred Dunderdale, worked for MI6 and identified with several episodes in Ian Fleming's novels.
Dunderdale and Fleming were reportedly acquaintances and the former admitted in later life that some of the episodes in Fleming's work were more than a little familiar to him.
Indeed, the book released last year entitled "MI6, the History of the Secret Intelligence Service" revealed that while stationed in France in the 1930s and 1940s, Dunderdale had a passion for fast cars and beautiful women. However, the paper also reported that Dunderdale lacked Bond's trademark good looks.
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See Also:
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- These Are The Ten Most Powerful People In Europe Right Now
- Check Out The UK's Ambitious Plan For The World's Biggest Airport
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/n6dkuIf16xM/james-bond-mi6-mi5-skyfall-2011-11
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