posting to an Officer Cadet Training Unit in Catterick Garrison in March 1940. He was then posted to an artillery regiment based in Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, and served for fourteen months across southern Scotland. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 7 September 1940. Considering the job of an artillery officer boring, Baker accepted in October 1941 a posting to be a Staff Captain in Military Intelligence based at the War Office. He hoped that the new appointment would make it more likely that he could obtain an overseas posting. After four months he applied for a transfer, although it took a further six months to persuade his superiors to let him leave. Phantom He was assigned to the GHQ Liaison Regiment (known as Phantom), a mysterious unit established by Major-General George Frederick Hopkinson, commander of the 1st Airborne Division. Phantom was renowned for the unusual selection of brilliance, nobility and idiosyncrasy, wit, achievements and even criminality exhibited by its officers. Following training and exercises in Britain, Baker was assigned in June 1943 to the Phantom unit in North Africa at camp Bugeaud in Bône, Algeria. The unit consisted of three squadrons (E, K and H) and the Assault Detachment under the command of Major Mervyn Sydney Bobus Vernon (1912–1991) of the Grenadier Guards. Baker joined E squadron, which was headed by Major Hugh Fraser. E squadron was supposed to have followed the Assault Detachment (led by Christopher Mayhew) into Sicily, but the invasion turned out to be much easier than anticipated. At the end of August, E squadron was ordered to Bizerta to be ready to take part in the invasion of Italy. The squadron's role was to carry out long-range reconnaissance, which it did initially from Taranto. Baker, with a small team, drove an unarmoured and lightly armed jeep up to a hundred miles from the forward base to discover the location of German troops. Late in 1943, the squadron withdrew to Trani, where Baker developed abdominal pains; he was flown back to Britain before Christmas, and was given four weeks' sick leave before being passed as fit for sedentary duty only. He was then recruited by MI9, and was offered and accepted the command of a small reconnaissance and intelligence unit which was part of Intelligence School 9 (Western European Area). I.S.9 (W.E.A.) was a small executive branch formed by Airey Neave and Jimmy Langley (after the