Special Operations, Executive
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under
Minister of Economic Warfare The Minister of Economic Warfare was a British government position which existed during the Second World War. The minister was in charge of the Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare. See also * Blockade of Germany (193 ...
Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1 ...
, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the " Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry,
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...
or War Office. SOE operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed upon with Britain's principal
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
(the United States and the Soviet Union). It also made use of neutral territory on occasion or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis. The organisation directly employed or controlled more than 13,000 people, about 3,200 of whom were women. After the war, the organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946. The official memorial to all those who served in the SOE during the Second World War was unveiled on 13 February 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...
. A further memorial to SOE's agents was unveiled in October 2009 on the Albert Embankment in London. The Valençay SOE Memorial honours 104 SOE agents who lost their lives while working in France. The Tempsford Memorial was unveiled on 3 December 2013 by Charles, Prince of Wales, in Church End, Tempsford in Bedfordshire, close to the site of former
RAF Tempsford RAF Tempsford is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Sandy, Bedfordshire, Sandy, Bedfordshire, England and south of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. As part of the Royal Air Force Special Duty Service, the airfield wa ...
.


History


Origins

The organisation was formed from the merger of three existing secret departments, which had been formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Immediately after Germany annexed Austria (the '' Anschluss'') in March 1938, the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
created a propaganda organisation known as Department EH (after Electra House, its headquarters), run by Canadian newspaper
magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
Sir
Campbell Stuart Sir Campbell Arthur Stuart (5 July 1885 – 14 September 1972) was a Canadian newspaper magnate. He ran propaganda operations for the British during both World Wars. Early life In 1885 Campbell Arthur Stuart was born in Montreal, Canada to st ...
. Later that month, the
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
(SIS, also known as MI6) formed a section known as Section D (the "D" apparently standing for "Destruction") under Major Lawrence Grand, to investigate the use of sabotage, propaganda, and other irregular means to weaken an enemy. In the autumn of the same year, the War Office expanded an existing research department known as GS (R) and appointed Major J. C. Holland as its head to conduct research into
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
. GS (R) was renamed MI(R) in early 1939. These three departments worked with few resources until the outbreak of war. There was much overlap between their activities. Section D and EH duplicated much of each other's work. On the other hand, the heads of Section D and MI(R) knew each other and shared information. They agreed to a rough division of their activities; MI(R) researched irregular operations that could be undertaken by regular uniformed troops, while Section D dealt with truly undercover work. During the early months of the war, Section D was based first at
St Ermin's Hotel St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park Underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of ...
in Westminster and then the Metropole Hotel near Trafalgar Square. The Section attempted unsuccessfully to sabotage deliveries of vital
strategic material Strategic material is any sort of raw material that is important to an individual's or organization's strategic plan and supply chain management. Lack of supply of strategic materials may leave an organization or government vulnerable to disru ...
s to Germany from neutral countries by mining the Iron Gate on the River Danube. MI(R) meanwhile produced pamphlets and technical handbooks for guerrilla leaders. MI(R) was also involved in the formation of the
Independent Companies A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
, autonomous units intended to carry out sabotage and guerrilla operations behind enemy lines in the Norwegian Campaign, and the
Auxiliary Units The Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially-trained, highly-secret quasi military units created by the British government during the Second World War with the aim of using irregular warfare in response to a possible invasion of the U ...
, stay-behind commando units based on the Home Guard which would act in the event of an Axis invasion of Britain, as seemed possible in the early years of the war.


Formation

On 13 June 1940, at the instigation of newly appointed Prime Minister
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
,
Lord Hankey Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey, (1 April 1877 – 26 January 1963) was a British civil servant who gained prominence as the first Cabinet Secretary and later made the rare transition from the civil service to ministerial office. ...
(who held the Cabinet post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) persuaded Section D and MI(R) that their operations should be coordinated. On 1 July, a Cabinet level meeting arranged the formation of a single sabotage organisation. On 16 July,
Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1 ...
, the
Minister of Economic Warfare The Minister of Economic Warfare was a British government position which existed during the Second World War. The minister was in charge of the Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare. See also * Blockade of Germany (193 ...
, was appointed to take political responsibility for the new organisation, which was formally created on 22 July 1940. Dalton recorded in his diary that on that day the War Cabinet agreed to his new duties and that Churchill had told him, "And now go and set Europe ablaze." Dalton used the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
as a model for the organisation. Sir Frank Nelson was nominated by SIS to be director of the new organisation, and a senior
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, Gladwyn Jebb, transferred from the Foreign Office to it, with the title of Chief Executive Officer. Campbell Stuart left the organisation, and the flamboyant Major Grand was returned to the regular army. At his own request, Major Holland also left to take up a regular appointment in the
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
. (Both Grand and Holland eventually attained the rank of major-general.) However, Holland's former deputy at MI(R), Brigadier
Colin Gubbins Major-General Sir Colin McVean Gubbins (2 July 1896 – 11 February 1976) was the prime mover of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War. Gubbins was also responsible for setting up the secret Auxiliary Units, a commando ...
, returned from command of the Auxiliary Units to be Director of Operations of SOE. One department of MI(R), MI R(C), which was involved in the development of weapons for irregular warfare, was not formally integrated into SOE but became an independent body codenamed MD1. Directed by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Millis Jefferis, it was located at The Firs in
Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire Whitchurch is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. The village is on the A413 road about north of Aylesbury and south of Winslow. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 932. Toponym T ...
and nicknamed "Churchill's Toyshop" from the Prime Minister's close interest in it and his enthusiastic support.


Leadership

The director of SOE was usually referred to by the initials "CD". Nelson, the first director to be appointed, was a former head of a trading firm in India, a
back bench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
Conservative Member of Parliament and Consul in Basel, Switzerland, where he had also been engaged in undercover intelligence work. In February 1942 Dalton was removed as the political head of SOE (possibly because he was using the SOE's phone tapping facility to listen to conversations of fellow
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
ministers, or possibly because he was viewed as too “communistically inclined” and a threat to SIS). He became
President of the Board of Trade The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. This is a committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th centu ...
and was replaced as Minister of Economic Warfare by
Lord Selborne Earl of Selborne, in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1882 for the lawyer and Liberal politician Roundell Palmer, 1st Baron Selborne, along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Wol ...
. Selborne in turn retired Nelson, who had suffered ill health as a result of his hard work, and appointed Sir Charles Hambro, head of Hambros Bank, to replace him. He also transferred Jebb back to the Foreign Office. Hambro had been a close friend of Churchill before the war and had won the Military Cross in the First World War. He retained several other interests, for example remaining chairman of Hambros and a director of the
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
. Some of his subordinates and associates expressed reservations that these interests distracted him from his duties as director. Selborne and Hambro nevertheless cooperated closely until August 1943, when they fell out over the question of whether SOE should remain a separate body or co-ordinate its operations with those of the British Army in several theatres of war. Hambro felt that any loss of autonomy would cause a number of problems for SOE in the future. At the same time, Hambro was found to have failed to pass on vital information to Selborne. He was dismissed as director, and became head of a
raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...
s purchasing commission in Washington, D.C., which was involved in the exchange of nuclear information. As part of the subsequent closer ties between the
Imperial General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board. Prior to 1964, the title was Chief of the Imperial G ...
and SOE (although SOE had no representation on the
Chiefs of Staff Committee The Chiefs of Staff Committee (CSC) is composed of the most senior military personnel in the British Armed Forces who advise on operational military matters and the preparation and conduct of military operations. The committee consists of the Ch ...
), Hambro's replacement as director from September 1943 was Gubbins, who had been promoted to Major-general. Gubbins had wide experience of commando and clandestine operations and had played a major part in MI(R)'s and SOE's early operations. He also put into practice many of the lessons he learned from the IRA during the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
.


Organisation


Headquarters

The organisation of SOE continually evolved and changed during the war. Initially, it consisted of three broad departments: SO1 (formerly Department EH, which dealt with propaganda); SO2 (formerly Section D, operations); and SO3 (formerly MI R, research). SO3 was quickly overloaded with paperwork and was merged into SO2. In August 1941, following quarrels between the Ministry of Economic Warfare and the Ministry of Information over their relative responsibilities, SO1 was removed from SOE and became an independent organisation, the Political Warfare Executive. Thereafter, a single, broad "Operations" department controlled the Sections operating into enemy and sometimes neutral territory, and the selection and training of agents. Sections, usually referred to by code letters or groups of letters, were assigned to a single country. Some enemy-occupied countries had two or more sections assigned to deal with politically disparate resistance movements. (France had no less than six). For security purposes, each section had its own headquarters and training establishments. This strict compartmentalisation was so effective that in mid-1942 five governments in exile jointly suggested that a single sabotage organisation be created, and were startled to learn that SOE had been in existence for two years. Four departments and some smaller groups were controlled by the director of scientific research, Professor
Dudley Maurice Newitt Dudley Maurice Newitt FRS (28 April 1894 – 14 March 1980) was a British chemical engineer who was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1962 in recognition of his 'distinguished contributions to chemical engineering'. Newitt was born in London and s ...
, and were concerned with the development or acquisition and production of special equipment. A few other sections were involved with finance, security, economic research and administration, although SOE had no central registry or filing system. When Gubbins was appointed director, he formalised some of the administrative practices which had grown in an ''ad hoc'' fashion and appointed an establishment officer to oversee the manpower and other requirements of the various departments. The main controlling body of SOE was its council, consisting of around fifteen heads of departments or sections. About half of the council were from the armed forces (although some were specialists who were only commissioned after the outbreak of war), the rest were various
civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, lawyers, or business or industrial experts. Most of the members of the council, and the senior officers and functionaries of SOE generally, were recruited by word of mouth among public school alumni and
Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to de ...
graduates, although this did not notably affect SOE's political complexion.


Subsidiary branches

Several subsidiary SOE headquarters and stations were set up to manage operations which were too distant for London to control directly. SOE's operations in the Middle East and Balkans were controlled from a headquarters in Cairo, which was notorious for poor security, infighting and conflicts with other agencies. It finally became known in April 1944 as Special Operations (Mediterranean), or SO(M). Shortly after the
Allied landings in North Africa Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – 16 November 1942) was an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while all ...
, a station codenamed ''"Massingham"'' was established near
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
in late 1942, which operated into
Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...
. Following the Allied invasion of Italy, personnel from "Massingham" established forward stations in
Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...
and near Naples. A subsidiary headquarters initially known as "Force 133" was later set up in
Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
in
Southern Italy Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
, under the Cairo headquarters, to control operations in the Balkans and
Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
. An SOE station, which was first called the ''India Mission'', and was subsequently known as ''GS I(k)'' was set up in India late in 1940. It subsequently moved to
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
so as to be closer to the headquarters of the Allied South East Asia Command and became known as
Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...
. A ''Singapore Mission'' was set up at the same time as the India Mission but was unable to overcome official opposition to its attempts to form resistance movements in
Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
before the Japanese overran Singapore. Force 136 took over its surviving staff and operations. New York City also had a branch office, formally titled
British Security Coordination British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Its purpose was to investigate ...
, and headed by the Canadian businessman Sir William Stephenson. This office, located at Room 3603, 630
Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
, Rockefeller Center, coordinated the work of SOE, SIS and MI5 with the American FBI and
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
.


Aims

As with its leadership and organisation, the aims and objectives of SOE changed throughout the war, although they revolved around sabotaging and subverting the Axis war machines through indirect methods. SOE occasionally carried out operations with direct military objectives, such as Operation Harling, originally designed to cut one of the Axis supply lines to their troops fighting in North Africa. They also carried out some high-profile operations aimed mainly at the morale both of the Axis and occupied nations, such as Operation Anthropoid, the assassination in Prague of Reinhard Heydrich. In general also, SOE's objectives were to foment mutual hatred between the population of Axis-occupied countries and the occupiers, and to force the Axis to expend manpower and resources on maintaining their control of subjugated populations. Dalton's early enthusiasm for fomenting widespread strikes, civil disobedience and nuisance sabotage in Axis-occupied areas had to be curbed. Thereafter, there were two main aims, often mutually incompatible; sabotage of the Axis war effort, and the creation of secret armies which would rise up to assist the liberation of their countries when Allied troops arrived or were about to do so. It was recognised that acts of sabotage would bring about reprisals and increased Axis security measures which would hamper the creation of underground armies. As the tide of war turned in the Allies' favour, these underground armies became more important.


Relationships

At the government level, SOE's relationships with the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
were often difficult. On several occasions, various governments in exile protested at operations taking place without their knowledge or approval, provoking Axis
reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extremel ...
s against civilian populations, or complained about SOE's support for movements opposed to the exiled governments. SOE's activities also threatened relationships with neutral countries. SOE nevertheless generally adhered to the rule, ''"No bangs without Foreign Office approval."'' Early attempts at bureaucratic control of Jefferis's MIR(c) by the
Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...
were eventually foiled by Churchill's intervention. Thereafter, the Ministry co-operated, though at arm's length, with Dudley Newitt's various supply and development departments. The Treasury were accommodating from the start and were often prepared to turn a blind eye to some of SOE's questionable activities. With other military headquarters and commands, SOE cooperated fairly well with Combined Operations Headquarters during the middle years of the war, usually on technical matters as SOE's equipment was readily adopted by commandos and other raiders. This support was lost when Vice Admiral
Louis Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...
left Combined Operations, though by this time SOE had its own transport and had no need to rely on Combined Operations for resources. On the other hand, the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...
objected to SOE developing its own underwater vessels, and the duplication of effort this involved. The Royal Air Force, and in particular
RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
under "Bomber" Harris were usually reluctant to allocate aircraft to SOE. Towards the end of the war, as Allied forces began to liberate territories occupied by the Axis and in which SOE had established resistance forces, SOE also liaised with and to some extent came under the control of the Allied theatre commands. Relationships with
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
in north-west Europe (whose commander was General Dwight D. Eisenhower) and South East Asia Command (whose commander was Admiral Louis Mountbatten, already well known to SOE) were generally excellent. However, there were difficulties with the Commanders in Chief in the Mediterranean, partly because of the complaints over impropriety at SOE's Cairo headquarters during 1941 and partly because both the supreme command in the Mediterranean and SOE's establishments were split in 1942 and 1943, leading to divisions of responsibility and authority. There was tension between SOE and SIS, which the Foreign Office controlled. Stewart Menzies, the chief of SIS, was aggrieved to lose control of Section D. Where SIS preferred placid conditions in which it could gather intelligence and work through influential persons or authorities, SOE was intended to create unrest and turbulence, and often backed anti-establishment organisations, such as the
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
s, in several countries. At one stage, SIS actively hindered SOE's attempts to infiltrate agents into enemy-occupied France. Even before the United States joined the war, the head of the newly formed Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI),
William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
, had received technical information from SOE and had arranged for some members of his organisation to undergo training at a
camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
run by SOE in Oshawa in Canada. In early 1942, Donovan's organisation became the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
. SOE and OSS worked out respective areas of operation: OSS's exclusive sphere included China (including Manchuria), Korea and Australia, the Atlantic islands and Finland. SOE retained India, the Middle East and East Africa, and the Balkans. While the two services both worked in Western Europe, it was expected that SOE would be the leading partner. In the middle of the war, the relations between SOE and OSS were not often smooth. They established a joint headquarters in
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
but the officers of the two organisations working there refused to share information with each other. In the Balkans, and Yugoslavia especially, SOE and OSS several times worked at cross-purposes, reflecting their governments' differing (and changing) attitudes to the Partisans and
Chetniks The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
. However, in 1944 SOE and OSS successfully pooled their personnel and resources to mount Operation Jedburgh, providing large scale support to the French Resistance following the Normandy landings. SOE had some nominal contact with the Soviet NKVD, but this was limited to a single liaison officer at each other's headquarters.


Locations


Baker Street

After working from temporary offices in Central London, the headquarters of SOE was moved on 31 October 1940 into
64 Baker Street 64 Baker Street is a commercial property in central London. It was the address of the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive. History The building was completed in the first half of the 20th century and, after becoming part of the Gover ...
(hence the nickname ''"the Baker Street Irregulars"''). Ultimately, SOE occupied much of the western side of Baker Street. "Baker Street" became the euphemistic way of referring to SOE. The precise nature of the buildings remained concealed; it had no entry in the telephone directories, and correspondence to external bodies bore service addresses; MO1 (SP) (a War Office branch), NID(Q) (Admiralty), AI10 (Air Ministry), or other fictitious bodies or civilian companies. SOE maintained a large number of training, research and development or administrative centres. It was a joke that ''"SOE"'' stood for ''"Stately 'omes of England"'', after the large number of country houses and estates it requisitioned and used.


Production and trials

The establishments connected with experimentation and production of equipment were mainly concentrated in and around
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
and were designated by roman numbers. The main weapons and devices research establishments were The Firs, the home of MD1, formerly MIR(C), near
Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...
in Buckinghamshire (although this was not formally part of SOE), and
Station IX Station IX (formerly known as the Inter-Services Research Bureau) was a secret British Special Operations Executive factory making special weapons and equipment during World War II. The small Welbike paratrooper's motorcycle and the Welrod assass ...
at
The Frythe ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, a country house (and former private hotel) outside Welwyn Garden City where, under the cover name of ISRB (Inter Services Research Bureau), SOE developed radios, weapons, explosive devices and
booby trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
s. Section D originally had a research station at Bletchley Park, which also held the Government Code and Cipher School, until in November 1940 it was decided that it was unwise to conduct codebreaking and explosives experiments on the same site. The establishment moved to Aston House near
Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...
in Hertfordshire and was renamed
Station XII Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
. It originally conducted research and development but from 1941 it became a production, storage and distribution centre for devices already developed. Station XV, at the
Thatched Barn The Thatched Barn was a two-storey mock-Tudor hotel built in the 1930s on the Barnet by-pass in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. It was bought by holiday camp founder, Billy Butlin, before being requisitioned as Station XV by the Special Opera ...
near Borehamwood, was devoted to camouflage, which usually meant equipping agents with authentic local clothing and personal effects. Various sub-stations in London were also involved in this task. Station XV and other camouflage sections also devised methods of hiding weapons, explosives or radios in innocuous-seeming items. Agents also needed identity papers, ration cards, currency and so on. Station XIV, at
Briggens House Briggens House is a Grade II listed 18th-century house and parklands near the village of Roydon, Essex, England. It has a number of features from the garden designer Charles Bridgeman from 1720. There are also some remains of the pleasure garden ...
near Roydon in Essex, was originally the home of STS38, a training facility for Polish saboteurs, ) who set up their own forgery section. As the work expanded, it became the central forgery department for SOE and the Poles eventually moved out on 1 April 1942. The technicians at Station XIV included a number of ex-convicts.


Training and operations

The training establishments, and properties used by country sections, were designated by Arabic numbers and were widely distributed. The initial training centres of the SOE were at country houses such as Wanborough Manor,
Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
. Agents destined to serve in the field underwent commando training at Arisaig in Scotland, where they were taught armed and unarmed combat skills by
William E. Fairbairn Lieutenant-Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn (; 28 February 1885 – 20 June 1960) was a British Royal Marine and police officer. He developed hand-to-hand combat methods for the Shanghai Police during the interwar period, as well as for the all ...
and
Eric A. Sykes Major Eric Anthony Sykes (5 February 1883 – 12 May 1945), born Eric Anthony Schwabe, was a soldier and firearms expert. He is most famous for his work with William E. Fairbairn in the development of the eponymous Fairbairn–Sykes fighting kni ...
, former Inspectors in the Shanghai Municipal Police. Those who passed this course received
parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
training by STS 51 and 51a situated near Altrincham, Cheshire with the assistance of No.1 Parachute Training School RAF, at RAF Ringway (which later became
Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...
). They then attended courses in security and
Tradecraft Tradecraft, within the intelligence community, refers to the techniques, methods and technologies used in modern espionage (spying) and generally, as part of the activity of intelligence assessment. This includes general topics or techniques ( ...
at Group B schools around Beaulieu in Hampshire. Finally, depending on their intended role, they received specialist training in skills such as
demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
techniques or
Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
telegraphy at various country houses in England. SOE's Cairo branch established a commando and parachute training school numbered STS 102 at
Ramat David Ramat David ( he, רָמַת דָּוִד, ''lit.'' David Heights) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley near Ramat David Airbase, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population ...
near Haifa. This school trained agents who joined SOE from among the armed forces stationed in the Middle East, and also members of the
Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
and Greek Sacred Squadron. A commando training centre similar to Arisaig and run by Fairbairn was later set up at
Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...
, for Canadian members of SOE and members of the newly created American organisation, the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
.


Agents

A variety of people from all classes and pre-war occupations served SOE in the field. The backgrounds of agents in F Section, for example, ranged from aristocrats such as Polish-born Countess Krystyna Skarbek, and
Noor Inayat Khan Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944), also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British resistance agent in France in World War II who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of S ...
, the daughter of an Indian Sufi leader, to working-class people such as
Violette Szabo Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC (née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission i ...
and Michael Trotobas, with some even reputedly from the criminal underworld. Some of them were recruited by word of mouth among the acquaintances of SOE's officers, others responded to routine trawls of the armed forces for people with unusual languages or other specialised skills. In most cases, the primary quality required of an agent was a deep knowledge of the country in which he or she was to operate, and especially its language, if the agent was to pass as a native of the country. Dual nationality was often a prized attribute. This was particularly so of France. In other cases, especially in the Balkans, a lesser degree of fluency was required as the resistance groups concerned were already in open rebellion and a clandestine existence was unnecessary. A flair for diplomacy combined with a taste for rough soldiering was more necessary. Some regular army officers proved adept as envoys, although others (such as the former diplomat Fitzroy Maclean or the classicist Christopher Woodhouse) were commissioned only during wartime. Several of SOE's agents were from the
Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine The Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine were a group of 250 Jewish men and women from Mandate Palestine who volunteered for operations run by British organisations MI9 and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) which involved parachuting int ...
, many of whom were already Émigrés from Nazi or other oppressive or anti-semitic regimes in Europe. Thirty-two of them served as agents in the field, seven of whom were captured and executed. Exiled or escaped members of the armed forces of some occupied countries were obvious sources of agents. This was particularly true of Norway and the Netherlands. In other cases (such as Frenchmen owing loyalty to
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
and especially the Poles), the agents' first loyalty was to their leaders or governments in exile, and they treated SOE only as a means to an end. This could occasionally lead to mistrust and strained relations in Britain. The organisation was prepared to ignore almost any contemporary social convention in its fight against the Axis. It employed known homosexuals, people with criminal records (some of whom taught skills such as picking locks) or bad conduct records in the armed forces, Communists and anti-British nationalists. Some of these might have been considered a security risk, but no known case exists of an SOE agent wholeheartedly going over to the enemy. The Frenchman,
Henri Déricourt Henri Déricourt (2 September 1909 − 21 November 1962), code named Gilbert and Claude, was a French agent in 1943 and 1944 for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was ...
, is widely regarded as a traitor, but he was exonerated by a war crimes court, and some have claimed he was acting under secret orders from SOE or MI6. SOE was also far ahead of contemporary attitudes in its use of women in armed combat. Although women were first considered only as couriers in the field or as wireless operators or administrative staff in Britain, those sent into the field were trained to use weapons and in unarmed combat. Most were commissioned into either the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) or the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Women often assumed leadership roles in the field.
Pearl Witherington Cecile Pearl Witherington Cornioley, (24 June 1914 – 24 February 2008), code names Marie and Pauline, was an agent in France for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. The purpose of ...
became the organiser (leader) of a highly successful resistance network in France. Early in the war, American
Virginia Hall Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre, (April 6, 1906 – July 8, 1982), code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of St ...
functioned as the unofficial nerve center of several SOE networks in Vichy France. Many women agents such as Odette Hallowes or
Violette Szabo Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC (née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission i ...
were decorated for bravery, posthumously in Szabo's case. Of SOE's 41 (or 39 in some estimates) female agents serving in Section F (France) sixteen did not survive with twelve killed or executed in Nazi concentration camps.


Communications


Radio

Most of the resistance networks which SOE formed or liaised with were controlled by radio directly from Britain or one of SOE's subsidiary headquarters. All resistance circuits contained at least one wireless operator, and all drops or landings were arranged by radio, except for some early exploratory missions sent "blind" into enemy-occupied territory. At first, SOE's radio traffic went through the SIS-controlled radio station at Bletchley Park. From 1 June 1942 SOE used its own transmitting and receiving stations at
Grendon Underwood Grendon Underwood is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England, near the border with Oxfordshire. The village sits between Woodham and Edgcott, near the Roman road Akeman Street (now part of the A41), and around north-west o ...
in
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
and
Poundon Poundon is a hamlet and a civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located near the Oxfordshire border, about four miles northeast of Bicester, three miles southwest of Steeple Claydon. The hamlet name is Anglo ...
nearby, as the location and topography were suitable. Teleprinters linked the radio stations with SOE's HQ in Baker Street. Operators in the Balkans worked to radio stations in Cairo. SOE was highly dependent upon the security of radio transmissions, involving three factors: the physical qualities and capabilities of the radio sets, the security of the transmission procedures and the provision of proper
cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...
s. SOE's first radios were supplied by SIS. They were large, clumsy and required large amounts of power. SOE acquired a few, much more suitable, sets from the Poles in exile, but eventually designed and manufactured their own, such as the
Paraset The Paraset was a small, low-power, thermionic valve, CW-only radio transmitter- receiver supplied to the resistance groups in France, Belgium and the Netherlands during World War II. History The Paraset was one of the first successful miniatu ...
, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel F. W. Nicholls of the
Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...
who had served with Gubbins between the wars. The A Mk III, with its batteries and accessories, weighed only , and could fit into a small attache case, although the B Mk II, otherwise known as the B2, which weighed , was required to work over ranges greater than about . Operating procedures were insecure at first. Operators were forced to transmit verbose messages on fixed frequencies and at fixed times and intervals. This allowed German direction finding teams time to triangulate their positions. After several operators were captured or killed, procedures were made more flexible and secure. The SOE wireless operators were also known as "The Pianists". As with their first radio sets, SOE's first ciphers were inherited from SIS.
Leo Marks Leopold Samuel Marks, (24 September 1920 – 15 January 2001) was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. During the Second World War he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special ...
, SOE's chief cryptographer, was responsible for the development of better codes to replace the insecure
poem code The poem code is a simple, and insecure, cryptographic method which was used during World War II by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) to communicate with their agents in Nazi-occupied Europe. The method works by the sender and rece ...
s. Eventually, SOE settled on single use ciphers, printed on silk. Unlike paper, which would be given away by rustling, silk would not be detected by a casual search if it was concealed in the lining of clothing.


BBC

The BBC also played its part in communications with agents or groups in the field. During the war, it broadcast to almost all Axis-occupied countries, and was avidly listened to, even at risk of arrest. The BBC included various "personal messages" in its broadcasts, which could include lines of poetry or apparently nonsensical items. They could be used to announce the safe arrival of an agent or message in London for example, or could be instructions to carry out operations on a given date. These were used for example to mobilise the resistance groups in the hours before
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
.


Other methods

In the field, agents could sometimes make use of the postal services, though these were slow, not always reliable and letters were almost certain to be opened and read by the Axis security services. In training, agents were taught to use a variety of easily available substances to make invisible ink, though most of these could be detected by a cursory examination, or to hide coded messages in apparently innocent letters. The telephone services were even more certain to be intercepted and listened to by the enemy, and could be used only with great care. The most secure method of communication in the field was by courier. In the earlier part of the war, most women sent as agents in the field were employed as couriers, on the assumption that they would be less likely to be suspected of illicit activities.


Equipment


Weapons

Although SOE used some suppressed weapons such as the De Lisle carbine and the
Welrod The Welrod is a British bolt action, Magazine (firearms), magazine fed, suppressor, suppressed pistol devised during the Second World War by Major Hugh Reeves at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX). Station IX, being based near ...
(specifically developed for SOE at Station IX), it took the view that weapons issued to resisters should not require extensive training in their use, or need careful maintenance. The crude and cheap Sten was a favourite. For issue to large forces such as the Yugoslav Partisans, SOE used captured German or Italian weapons. These were available in large quantities after the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns and the surrender of Italy, and the partisans could acquire ammunition for these weapons (and the Sten) from enemy sources. SOE also adhered to the principle that resistance fighters would be handicapped rather than helped by heavy equipment such as mortars or
anti-tank guns Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first devel ...
. These were awkward to transport, almost impossible to conceal and required skilled and highly trained operators. Later in the war however, when resistance groups staged open rebellions against enemy occupation, some heavy weapons were dispatched, for example to the Maquis du Vercors. Weapons such as the British Army's standard Bren light machine gun were also supplied in such cases. Most SOE agents received training on captured enemy weapons before being sent into enemy-occupied territory. Ordinary SOE agents were also armed with handguns acquired abroad, such as, from 1941, a variety of US pistols, and a large quantity of the Spanish Llama
.38 ACP The .38 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as the .38 Auto or 9x23mmSR, is a semi-rimmed pistol cartridge that was introduced at the turn of the 20th century for the John Browning-designed Colt M1900. It was first used in Colt's Model ...
in 1944. Such was SOE's demand for weapons, a consignment of 8,000
Ballester–Molina The Ballester–Molina is a pistol designed and built by the Argentine company ''Hispano Argentina Fábrica de Automóviles SA'' (HAFDASA). From 1938 to 1940 it bore the name Ballester–Rigaud. History The Ballester–Molina was designed to of ...
.45 calibre weapons was purchased from Argentina, apparently with the mediation of the US. SOE agents were issued with the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife also issued to Commandos. For specialised operations or use in extreme circumstances, SOE issued small fighting knives which could be concealed in the heel of a hard leather shoe or behind a coat lapel. Given the likely fate of agents captured by the Gestapo, SOE also disguised suicide pills as coat buttons.


Sabotage

SOE developed a wide range of explosive devices for sabotage, such as
limpet mine A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver m ...
s, shaped charges and time fuses, which were also widely used by commando units. Most of these devices were designed and produced at The Firs. The
Time Pencil A pencil detonator or time pencil is a time fuze designed to be connected to a detonator or short length of safety fuse. They are about the same size and shape as a pencil, hence the name. They were introduced during World War II and developed at ...
, invented by Commander A.J.G. Langley, the first commandant of Station XII at Aston was used to give a saboteur time to escape after setting a charge and was far simpler to carry and use than lighted fuses or electrical detonators. It relied on crushing an internal vial of acid which then corroded a retaining wire, which sometimes made it inaccurate in cold or hot conditions. Later the L-Delay, which instead allowed a lead retaining wire to "creep" until it broke and was less affected by the temperature, was introduced. SOE pioneered the use of plastic explosive. (The term "plastique" comes from plastic explosive packaged by SOE and originally destined for France but taken to the United States instead.) Plastic explosive could be shaped and cut to perform almost any demolition task. It was also inert and required a powerful detonator to cause it to explode, and was therefore safe to transport and store. It was used in everything from
car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
s, to exploding rats designed to destroy coal-fired boilers. Other, more subtle sabotage methods included
lubricant A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...
s laced with grinding materials, intended for introduction into vehicle oil systems,
railway wagon A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
axle box A bogie or railroad truck holds the wheel sets of a rail vehicle. Axlebox An ''axle box'', also known as a ''journal box'' in North America, is the mechanical subassembly on each end of the axles under a railway wagon, coach or locomotive; ...
es, etc., incendiaries disguised as innocuous objects, explosive material concealed in coal piles to destroy locomotives, and land mines disguised as cow or elephant dung. On the other hand, some sabotage methods were extremely simple but effective, such as using sledgehammers to crack cast-iron mountings for machinery.


Submarines

Station IX developed several miniature submersible craft. The Welman submarine and '' Sleeping Beauty'' were offensive weapons, intended to place explosive charges on or adjacent to enemy vessels at anchor. The Welman was used once or twice in action, but without success. The
Welfreighter The Welfreighter was a Second World War British midget submarine developed by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for the purpose of landing and supplying agents behind enemy lines. It only saw action once and was not particularly successful ...
was intended to deliver stores to beaches or inlets, but it too was unsuccessful. A sea trials unit was set up in West Wales at
Goodwick Goodwick (; cy, Wdig) is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, immediately west of its twin town of Fishguard. Fishguard and Goodwick form a community that wraps around Fishguard Bay. As well as the two towns, it consists of Dyffryn, Stop-and ...
, by Fishguard (station IXa) where these craft were tested. In late 1944 craft were dispatched to Australia to the Allied Intelligence Bureau (SRD), for tropical testing.


Other

SOE also revived some medieval devices, such as the caltrop, which could be used to burst the tyres of vehicles or injure foot soldiers and crossbows powered by multiple rubber bands to shoot incendiary bolts. There were two types, known as ''"Big Joe"'' and ''"Lil Joe"'' respectively. They had tubular alloy skeleton stocks and were designed to be collapsible for ease of concealment. An important section of SOE was Operational Research, which worked mostly from Station IX but also called on the facilities of Station XII and HQ. It operated through the User Trials Section and later the Air Supply Research Section and was formally established in August 1943. The section had the responsibility both for issuing formal requirements and specifications to the relevant development and production sections, and for testing prototypes of the devices under field conditions. It ensured that operational requirements were properly assessed, trials conducted, and quality monitored. Over the period from 1 November 1943 to 1 November 1944, the section tested 78 devices. Some of these were weapons such as the
Sleeve gun A sleeve ( ang, slīef, a word allied to ''slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, acro ...
or fuses or adhesion devices to be used in sabotage, others were utility objects such as waterproof containers for stores to be dropped by parachute, or night glasses (lightweight binoculars with plastic lenses). Of the devices tested, 47% were accepted for use with little or no modification, 31% were accepted only after considerable modification and the remaining 22% were rejected. Before SOE's research and development procedures were formalised in 1943, a variety of more or less useful devices were developed. Some of the more imaginative devices invented by SOE included exploding pens with enough explosive power to blast a hole in the bearer's body, or guns concealed in tobacco pipes, though there is no record of any of these being used in action. Station IX developed a miniature folding motorbike (the '' Welbike'') for use by parachutists, though this was noisy and conspicuous, used scarce petrol and was of little use on rough ground.


Transport

The continent of Europe was largely closed to normal travel. Although it was possible in some cases to cross frontiers from neutral countries such as Spain or Sweden, it was slow and there were problems over violating these countries' neutrality. SOE had to rely largely on its own air or sea transport for movement of people, arms and equipment.


Air

SOE had mostly to rely on the RAF for its planes. It was engaged in disputes with the RAF from its early days. In January 1941, an intended ambush (
Operation Savanna Operation Savanna (or Operation Savannah) was the first insertion of Special Operations Executive, SOE trained Free French paratroops into German-occupied France during World War II. This SOE mission, requested by the Air Ministry, was to ambu ...
) against the aircrew of a German "pathfinder" air group near Vannes in Brittany was thwarted when Air Vice Marshal
Charles Portal Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, (21 May 1893 – 22 April 1971) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as a bomber pilot in the First World War, and rose to become fi ...
, the Chief of the Air Staff, objected on moral grounds to parachuting what he regarded as assassins, although Portal's objections were later overcome and ''Savanna'' was mounted, unsuccessfully. From 1942, when Air Marshal
Arthur Harris Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet, (13 April 1892 – 5 April 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press and often within the RAF as "Butch" Harris, was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) ...
(''"Bomber Harris"'') became the Commander-in-Chief of
RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
, he consistently resisted the diversion of the most capable types of bombers to SOE purposes. SOE's first aircraft were two Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys belonging to 419 Flight RAF, which was formed in September 1940. In 1941, the flight was expanded to become
No. 138 Squadron RAF No. 138 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the Royal Air Force that served in a variety of roles during its career, last disbanded in 1962. It was the first 'V-bomber' squadron of the RAF, flying the Vickers Valiant between 1955 and 1962. History ...
. In February 1942, they were joined by
No. 161 Squadron RAF No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron was a highly secretive unit of the Royal Air Force, performing missions as part of the Royal Air Force Special Duties Service. It was tasked with missions of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Secr ...
. 161 Squadron flew agent insertions and pick-ups, while 138 Squadron delivered arms and stores by parachute. "C" flight from No. 138 Squadron later became No. 1368 Flight of the
Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...
, which joined No. 624 Squadron flying Halifaxes in the Mediterranean. By the later stages of the war several United States Army Air Forces squadrons were operating Douglas C-47 Skytrains in the Mediterranean, although by this time their operations had passed from SOE proper to the "Balkan Air Terminal Service". Three Special Duties squadrons operated in the Far East using a variety of aircraft, including the very long-range
Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...
.


RAF Tempsford

Nos. 161 and 138 Squadrons were based at
RAF Tempsford RAF Tempsford is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Sandy, Bedfordshire, Sandy, Bedfordshire, England and south of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. As part of the Royal Air Force Special Duty Service, the airfield wa ...
in Bedfordshire though No. 161 Squadron often moved forward to RAF Tangmere, close to the coast in West Sussex, to shorten their flights. The airfield at Tempsford became the RAF's most secret base. (Tempsford had been rejected for Bomber Command's purposes by Harris in March 1942, as it frequently became waterlogged.) RAF Tempsford was designed to look like an ordinary working farm. The SOE used Tangmere Cottage, opposite the main entrance to the base. SOE agents were lodged in a local hotel before being ferried to farm buildings, the "Gibraltar Farm" within the airfield's perimeter track. After final briefings and checks at the farm, the agents were issued firearms in the barn, and then boarded a waiting aircraft. The squadrons' first task was to take agents to France who could select suitable fields for their aircraft. Most of these agents were French expatriates, some of whom had been pilots in the French Armée de l'Air. Once the agent was in place and had selected a number of potential fields, 161 Squadron delivered SOE agents, wireless equipment and operators and weapons, and flew French political leaders, resistance leaders or their family members, and downed allied airmen to Britain. Between them, the two squadrons transported 101 agents to, and recovered 128 agents, diplomats and airmen from occupied France.


161 Squadron operations

161 Squadron's principal aircraft was the Westland Lysander. It handled very well at low speed and could land from touch down to turn around in only . It had a range of and could carry one to three passengers in the rear cockpit and stores in a pannier underneath the fuselage. It was flown by a single pilot, who also had to navigate, so missions had to be flown on clear nights with a full or near full moon. Bad weather often thwarted missions, German night fighters were also a hazard, and pilots could never know when landing whether they would be greeted by the resistance or the Gestapo.Orchard, Adrian ''Group Captain Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard DSO**, DFC 1915 – 1944'' February 2006 The procedure once a Lysander reached its destination in France was described by Squadron Leader Hugh Verity. Once the aircraft reached the airfield the agent on the ground would signal the aircraft by flashing a prearranged code letter in
Morse Morse may refer to: People * Morse (surname) * Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada * Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Geography Antarctica * Cape Morse, Wilkes Land * Mount Morse, Churchi ...
. The aircraft would respond by blinking back the appropriate code response letter. The agent and his men would then mark the field by lighting the three landing lights, which were flashlights attached to poles. The "A" lamp was at the base of the landing ground. 150 metres beyond it and into the wind was the "B" light, and 50 metres to the right of "B" was the "C" light. The three lights formed an inverted "L", with the "B" and "C" lights upwind from "A". With the code passed the pilot would land the aircraft. He then would taxi back to the "A" lamp, where the passengers would clamber down the fixed ladder to the ground, often while the pilot was making a slow U-turn. Before leaving the last passenger would hand off the luggage and then take aboard the outgoing luggage before climbing down the ladder as well. Then the outgoing passengers would climb aboard and the aircraft would take off. The whole exchange might take as little as 3 minutes. The Lockheed Hudson had a range greater and could carry more passengers (ten or more), but required landing strips more than double the length of those needed for the Lysander (350 yards vs. 150 yards). It carried a navigator, to ease the load on the pilot, and could also be fitted with navigational equipment such as the "Rebecca" homing transceiver of the
Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar The Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar was a short-range radio navigation system used for the dropping of airborne forces and their supplies. It consisted of two parts, the Rebecca airborne transceiver and antenna system, and the Eureka ground-base ...
system. The Hudson's use with 161 Squadron was developed by
Charles Pickard Group Captain Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard, (16 May 1915 – 18 February 1944) was an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He served as a pilot and commander, and was the first officer of the RAF to be awarded the DSO thr ...
and Hugh Verity. Pickard determined that the Hudson's stall speed was actually some 20 mph slower than its manual stated. Before it was first used on 13 January 1943, 161 Squadron had to send two Lysander aircraft in what they termed "a double" if larger parties needed to be picked up.


138 Squadron and other Special Duties units operations

No. 138 Squadron's primary mission was the delivery of equipment, and occasionally agents, by parachute. It flew a variety of bomber-type aircraft, often modified with extra fuel tanks and flame-suppressing exhaust shrouds: the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley until November 1942, the Handley Page Halifax and later the
Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during t ...
. The Stirling could carry a very large load (18 containers) but the aircraft with the longest range was the Halifax, which when based in Italy could reach drop zones as far away as eastern Poland. Stores were usually parachuted in cylindrical containers. The "C" type was long, and when fully loaded could weigh up to . The "H" type was the same size overall but could be broken down into five smaller sections. This made it easier to carry and conceal but it could not be loaded with longer loads such as rifles. Some inert stores such as boots and blankets were "free-dropped" i.e. simply thrown out of the aircraft bundled together without a parachute, often to the hazard of any receiving committee on the ground.


Locating and homing equipment

Some devices used by SOE were designed specifically to guide aircraft to landing strips and dropping zones. Such sites could be marked by an agent on the ground with bonfires or bicycle lamps, but this required good visibility, as the pilot or navigator of a plane had not only to spot the ground signals, but also to navigate by visible landmarks to correct dead reckoning. Many landings or drops were thwarted by bad weather. To overcome these problems, SOE and Allied airborne forces used the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar, which enabled a Hudson or larger aircraft to home in on a point on the ground even in thick weather. It was however difficult for agents or resistance fighters to carry or conceal the ground-based "Eureka" transponder equipment. SOE also developed the
S-Phone The S-Phone system was a UHF duplex radiotelephone system developed during World War II for use by Special Operations Executive agents working behind enemy lines to communicate with friendly aircraft and coordinate landings and the dropping of ...
, which allowed a pilot or radio operator aboard an aircraft to communicate by voice with the "reception committee". Sound quality was good enough for voices to be recognisable, so that a mission could be aborted in case of any doubts of an agent's identity.


Sea

SOE also experienced difficulties with the Royal Navy, who were usually unwilling to allow SOE to use its submarines or motor torpedo boats to deliver agents or equipment. Submarines were regarded as too valuable to risk within range of enemy coastal defences. They could also carry only small numbers of agents, in great discomfort, and could disembark stores only in small dinghies or canoes, which made it difficult to land large quantities of equipment. SOE nevertheless used them in the Indian Ocean where the distances made it impracticable to use any smaller craft. The vessels used by SOE during the early part of the war were clandestine craft such as fishing boats or
caiques Caique ( or ) refers to a group of four species of parrots in the genus ''Pionites'' endemic to the Amazon Basin in South America. Name The term "caique" is primarily used in aviculture, with ornithologists typically referring to them as the " ...
. They could pass muster as innocent local craft and carry large quantities of stores. They also had the advantage of being largely outside Admiralty control. However, SOE's first small craft organisation, which was set up in the Helford estuary in Cornwall, suffered from obstruction from SIS, which had a similar private navy nearby. Eventually, in spring 1943, the Admiralty created a Deputy Director of Operations (Irregular), to superintend all such private navies. This officer turned out to be the former commander of SIS's craft in the Helford estuary, but his successor in charge of SIS's Helford base cooperated much better with SOE's flotilla. While SIS and SOE (and
MI9 MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a highly secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it had two principal tasks: (1) assisting in the escape of Allied prisoners of war (P ...
) landed and embarked several dozen agents, refugees and Allied aircrew, it was impossible to transport large quantities of arms and equipment inland from beaches in heavily patrolled coastal areas, until France was almost liberated. After the German occupation of Norway, many Norwegian merchant seamen and fishermen made their way to Britain. SOE recruited several to maintain communications to Norway, using fishing boats from a base in the
Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...
. The service became so reliable that it became known as the Shetland Bus. One of its boats and crews launched a daring but unsuccessful attack ("Operation Title") against the German battleship Tirpitz. A similar organisation ran missions to occupied Denmark (and neutral Sweden) from the east coast of Britain. The "Shetland Bus" was unable to operate only during the very long hours of daylight in the Arctic summer, because of the risk that the slow fishing boats would be attacked by patrolling German aircraft. Late in the war, the unit acquired three fast
Submarine chaser A submarine chaser or subchaser is a small naval vessel that is specifically intended for anti-submarine warfare. Many of the American submarine chasers used in World War I found their way to Allied nations by way of Lend-Lease in World War II. ...
s for such missions. About the same time, SOE also acquired MTBs and
Motor Gun Boat The motor gun boat (MGB) was a small, high-speed British military vessel of the Second World War, which was armed with a mix of guns, in contrast to the physically similar motor torpedo boat (MTB), whose main offensive weapon were torpedoes. ...
s for the Helford flotilla. SOE also used
felucca A felucca ( ar, فلوكة, falawaka, possibly originally from Greek , ) is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean—including around Malta and Tunisia—in Egypt and Sudan (particularly along the Nile and in protect ...
s to maintain communications between
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, and southern France and
Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
, and some caïques in the Aegean.


Operations


France

In France, most agents were directed by two London-based country sections. F Section was under SOE control, while RF Section was linked to
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
's Free French Government in exile. Most native French agents served in RF. Two smaller sections also existed: EU/P Section, which dealt with the Polish community in France, and the DF Section which was responsible for establishing escape routes. During the latter part of 1942 another section known as AMF was established in
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, to operate into
Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...
. On 5 May 1941 Georges Bégué (1911–1993), a radio operator, became the first SOE agent parachuted into German-occupied France. The American,
Virginia Hall Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre, (April 6, 1906 – July 8, 1982), code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of St ...
, who arrived by boat in August 1941, was the first woman to serve for a lengthy period in France.
Andrée Borrel Andrée Raymonde Borrel (18 November 1919 – 6 July 1944), code named Denise, was a French woman who served in the French Resistance and as an agent for Britain's clandestine Special Operations Executive in World War II. The purpose of SOE was ...
(1919–1944) and
Lise de Baissac Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac MBE CdeG (11 May 1905 – 29 March 2004), code names ''Odile'' and ''Marguerite,'' was a Mauritian agent in the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World ...
(1905–2004) became the first women parachuted into France on 24 September 1942. A typical team of a network consisted of an organiser (leader), a radio operator, and a courier. Agents performed a variety of functions including arms and sabotage instructors, couriers, liaison officers and radio operators. Between Bégué's first drop in May 1941 and August 1944, more than 400 F Section agents were sent into occupied France. RF sent about the same number of agents; AMF sent 600 (although not all of these belonged to SOE). EU/P and DF sent a few dozen agents each. Some networks were compromised, with the loss of many agents. In particular agents continued to be sent to the "Prosper" network headed by
Francis Suttill Francis Alfred Suttill DSO (born, France, 17 March 1910 – executed, c. 23 March 1945), code name Prosper, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in World War II. Suttill was the creato ...
for months after it was controlled by the Germans and most of its agents had been captured. The head of F Section, Maurice Buckmaster was blamed by many as he failed to see signs that the network was compromised. To support the Allied invasion of France on D Day in June 1944, SOE and OSS supplemented their agents by air-dropping three-man parties of uniformed military personnel into France as part of Operation Jedburgh. They were to work with the French Resistance to co-ordinate widespread overt (as opposed to clandestine) acts of resistance. 100 men were eventually dropped, with 6,000 tons of military stores (4,000 tons had been dropped during the years before D-Day). At the same time, all the various sections operating in France (except EU/P) were nominally placed under a London-based HQ titled État-major des Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (EMFFI). It took many weeks for a full assessment of the contributions of SOE and the Jedburgh teams to the Allied landings in Normandy, but when it came it vindicated Gubbins' belief that carefully planned sabotage could cripple a modern army. General Eisenhower's staff at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force said that the Jedburghs had "succeeded in imposing more or less serious delays on all the division moved to Normandy". This had prevented Hitler from striking back in the crucial opening hours of Operation Overlord. The most "outstanding example was the delay to the
2nd SS Panzer Division The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich (german: 2. SS-Panzerdivision "Das Reich") or SS Division Das Reich was an elite division of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, formed from the regiments of the ''SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (SS-VT ...
”, Eisenhower's staff said, and added a very personal endorsement, agreeing that the work carried out under Gubbins' leadership played a "very considerable part in our complete and final victory". Many agents were captured, killed in action, executed, or died in German concentration camps. More than one-third of 41 female agents of Section F did not survive the war; the death toll for more than 400 male agents was one-fourth and the toll of thousands of French people helping SOE agents and networks was about one-fifth. Of 119 SOE agents captured by the Germans and deported to concentration camps in Germany, only 23 men and three women survived.


Poland

SOE did not need to instigate Polish resistance, because unlike the
Vichy French Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
the Poles overwhelmingly refused to collaborate with the Nazis. Early in the war the Poles established the Polish Home Army, led by a clandestine resistance government known as the Polish Secret State. Nevertheless, many members of SOE were Polish and the SOE and the Polish resistance cooperated extensively. SOE assisted the
Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
with training facilities and logistical support for its 605 special forces operatives known as the Cichociemni, or ''"The Dark and Silent"''. Members of the unit, which was based in
Audley End House Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is sti ...
, Essex, were rigorously trained before being parachuted into occupied Poland. Because of the distance involved in air travel to Poland, customised aircraft with extra fuel capacity were used in Polish operations such as
Operation Wildhorn III Operation Most III (Polish for ''Bridge III'') or Operation Wildhorn III (in British documents) was a World War II operation in which Poland's ''Armia Krajowa'' provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket. Backgro ...
. Sue Ryder chose the title
Baroness Ryder of Warsaw Margaret Susan Cheshire, Baroness Ryder of Warsaw, Lady Cheshire, (''née'' Ryder; 3 July 1924 – 2 November 2000), best known as Sue Ryder, was a British volunteer with Special Operations Executive in the Second World War, and a member ...
in honour of these operations.
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
member Krystyna Skarbek (''nom de guerre'' Christine Granville) was a founder member of SOE and helped establish a cell of Polish spies in Central Europe. She ran several operations in Poland, Egypt, Hungary (with
Andrzej Kowerski Andrzej Kowerski (; 18 May 1912 in Łabunie, Zamość County, Lublin Province, eastern Poland – 8 December 1988 in Munich) was a Polish Army officer and SOE agent during World War II. From 1941 he used the ''nom de guerre'' Andrew Kennedy. ...
) and France, often using the staunchly anti-Nazi Polish expatriate community as a secure international network. Non-official cover agents
Elzbieta Zawacka Elżbieta or Elžbieta may refer to: * Elżbieta, Lublin Voivodeship, a village in eastern Poland * Elżbieta-Kolonia, a village in eastern Poland * Elżbieta, a Polish given name equivalent to Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: Peo ...
and
Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...
perfected the
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...
courier route out of occupied Europe.
Maciej Kalenkiewicz Maciej Kalenkiewicz (; 1906–1944; nom de guerre Kotwicz) was a Polish engineer and lieutenant colonel of the Polish Army. During World War II was a soldier of Henryk Dobrzański's military unit, member of cichociemni, officer of the Home Army, ...
was parachuted into occupied Poland, only to be killed by the
Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...
. A Polish agent was integral to SOE's
Operation Foxley During World War II, Operation Foxley was a 1944 plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler, conceived by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Although detailed preparations were made, no attempt was made to carry out the plan. Prior plans One ...
, the plan to assassinate Hitler. Thanks to co-operation between SOE and the Polish Home Army, the Poles were able to deliver the first Allied intelligence on the Holocaust to London in June 1942. Witold Pilecki of the Polish Home Army designed a joint operation with SOE to liberate
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, but the British rejected it as infeasible. Joint Anglo-Polish operations provided London with vital intelligence on the V-2 rocket, German troops movements on the Eastern Front, and the
Soviet repressions of Polish citizens The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. RAF 'Special Duties Flights' were sent to Poland to assist the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis. The rebellion was defeated with a loss of 200,000 casualties (mostly German executions of Polish civilians) after the nearby Red Army refused military assistance to the Polish Home Army. RAF Special Duties Flights were refused landing rights at Soviet-held airfields near Warsaw, even when requiring emergency landings after battle damage. These flights were also attacked by Soviet fighters, despite the USSR's officially
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
status.


Germany

Due to the dangers and lack of friendly population few operations were conducted in Germany itself. The German and Austrian section of SOE was run by Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Thornley for most of the war, and was mainly involved with black propaganda and administrative sabotage in collaboration with the German section of the Political Warfare Executive. After
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
, the section was re-organised and enlarged with Major General Gerald Templer heading the Directorate, with Thornley as his deputy. Several major operations were planned, including
Operation Foxley During World War II, Operation Foxley was a 1944 plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler, conceived by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Although detailed preparations were made, no attempt was made to carry out the plan. Prior plans One ...
, a plan to assassinate Hitler, and
Operation Periwig Operation Periwig was a secret service operation planned and carried out by the British people, British Special Operations Executive (SOE) from November 1944 onwards during the Second World War. The aim was to disrupt the Nazi Germany, Nazi regim ...
, an ingenious plan to simulate the existence of a large-scale anti-Nazi resistance movement within Germany. ''Foxley'' was never carried out but ''Periwig'' went ahead despite restrictions placed on it by SIS and SHAEF. Several German
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...
were trained as agents, briefed to make contact with the anti-Nazi resistance and to conduct sabotage. They were then parachuted into Germany in the hope that they would either hand themselves in to the '' Gestapo'' or be captured by them, and reveal their supposed mission. Fake coded wireless transmissions were broadcast to Germany and various pieces of agent paraphernalia such as code books and wireless receivers were allowed to fall into the hands of the German authorities. In Austria a resistance group formed around Kaplan Heinrich Maier. The Maier group was informed very early about the mass murder of Jews through its contacts with the Semperit factory near Auschwitz. SOE was in contact with this resistance group through its colleague G. E. R. Gedye in 1943, but was not convinced of the reliability of the contact and did not cooperate due to security concerns.


The Netherlands

Section N of SOE ran operations in the Netherlands. They committed some of SOE's worst blunders in security, which allowed the Germans to capture many agents and much sabotage material, in what the Germans called the '
Englandspiel Englandspiel (''England Game''), or Operation North Pole (german: Unternehmen Nordpol), was a successful counterintelligence operation of the (German military intelligence) from 1942 to 1944 during World War II. German forces captured Allied r ...
'. SOE ignored the absence of security checks in radio transmissions, and other warnings that the Germans were running the supposed resistance networks. A total of 50 agents were caught by the Germans and brought to Camp Haaren in the South of the Netherlands. Five captured men managed to escape from the camp. Two of them, Pieter Dourlein and Ben Ubbink, escaped on 29 August 1943 and found their way to Switzerland. There, the Netherlands Embassy sent messages over their controlled sets to England that SOE Netherlands was compromised. SOE set up new elaborate networks, which continued to operate until the Netherlands were liberated at the end of the war. In September 1944, as allied military forces were advancing into the Netherlands, the remaining captured SOE agents were taken by the Germans from Camp Haaren to Mauthausen concentration camp and executed. From September 1944 to April 1945, eight Jedburgh teams were also active in the Netherlands. The first team, code named "Dudley" was parachuted into the east of the Netherlands one week before
Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allies of World War II, Allied military operation during the World War II, Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a Salient (military), salient into G ...
. The next four teams were attached to the Airborne forces that carried out Market Garden. After the failure of Market Garden, one Jedburgh team trained (former) resistance men in the liberated South of the Netherlands. In April 1945 the last two Dutch Jedburgh teams became operational. One team code named "Gambling", was a combined Jedburgh/
Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
(SAS) group that was dropped into the centre of the Netherlands to assist the Allied advance. The last team was parachuted into the Northern Netherlands as part of SAS operation "Amherst". Despite the fact that operating in the flat and densely populated Netherlands was very difficult for the Jedburghs, the teams were quite successful.


Belgium

Section T established some effective networks in Belgium, in part orchestrated by fashion designer Hardy Amies, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Amies adapted names of fashion accessories for use as code words, while managing some of the most murderous and ruthless agents in the field. The rapid liberation of the country by Allied forces in September 1944 provided the resistance with little time to stage an uprising. They did assist the Allies to bypass German rearguards, and enabled the Allies to capture the vital Port of Antwerp intact. After Brussels was liberated, Amies outraged his superiors by setting up a '' Vogue'' photo-shoot in Belgium. In 1946, he was knighted in Belgium for his service with SOE, being named an officer of the Order of the Crown.


Italy

As both an enemy country, and supposedly a monolithic fascist state with no organised opposition which SOE could use, SOE made little effort in Italy before mid-1943, when Mussolini's government collapsed and Allied forces already occupied Sicily. Two years earlier, in April 1941, in a mission codenamed "Yak", Peter Fleming had attempted to recruit agents from among the many thousands of Italian
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...
captured in the Western Desert Campaign. He recruited none. Attempts to search among Italian immigrants in the United States, Britain and Canada for agents to be sent to Italy had similarly poor results. During the first three years of war, the most important "episode" of the collaboration between SOE and Italian anti-fascism was a project of an anti-fascist uprising in Sardinia, which the SOE supported at some stage but did not receive approval from the Foreign Office. In the aftermath of the Italian collapse, SOE (in Italy renamed No. 1 Special Force) helped build a large resistance organisation in the cities of
Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
, and in the Alps. Italian partisans harassed German forces in Italy throughout the autumn and winter of 1944, and in the
Spring 1945 offensive in Italy The spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allied attack during the Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack into the Lombard Plain by the 15th Allied Army Group started on 6 ...
they captured Genoa and other cities unaided by Allied forces. SOE helped the Italian Resistance send British missions to the partisan formations and supply war material to the bands of patriots, a supply made without political prejudices, and which also helped the Communist formations (
Brigate Garibaldi The ''Brigate Garibaldi'' or Garibaldi Brigades were partisan units aligned with the Italian Communist Party active in the armed resistance against both German and Italian fascist forces during World War II. The Brigades were mostly made up of ...
). Late in 1943, SOE established a base at
Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
in
Southern Italy Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
, from which they operated their networks and agents in the Balkans. This organisation had the codename ''"Force 133"''. This later became ''"Force 266"'', reserving 133 for operations run from Cairo rather than the heel of Italy. Flights from Brindisi were run to the Balkans and Poland, particularly once control had been wrested from SOE's Cairo headquarters and was exercised directly by Gubbins. SOE established a new packing station for the parachute containers close to Brindisi Air base, along the lines of those created at Saffron Walden. This was ME 54, a factory employing hundreds, the American (OSS) side of which was known as "Paradise Camp".


Yugoslavia

1941, SOE helped considerably in anti-Axis propaganda and in preparing the
Yugoslav coup d'état The Yugoslav coup d'état took place on 27 March 1941 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when the regency led by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was overthrown and King Peter II fully assumed monarchical powers. The coup was planned and conducted ...
which overthrew the pro-Axis regent, Prince Paul. After the pro-British coup succeeded, the Axis
Invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
ensued. In the aftermath of the German invasion and the Yugoslav capitulation, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia fragmented. Croatia had a substantial pro-Axis movement, the Ustaše. In Croatia and the remainder of Yugoslavia, two resistance movements formed: the royalist
Chetniks The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
under
Draža Mihailović Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetniks, Chetnik Detachments ...
, and the Communist Partisans under
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
. Mihailović was the first to attempt to contact the Allies, and SOE despatched a party on 20 September 1941 under Major "Marko" Hudson. Hudson also encountered Tito's forces. Notable members of this party included actor
Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
. Through the royalist government in exile, SOE at first supported the Chetniks. Eventually, however, due to reports that the Chetniks were less effective and even collaborating with German and Italian forces on occasion, British support was redirected to the Partisans, even before the Tehran Conference in 1943. Although relations were often touchy throughout the war, it can be argued that SOE's unstinting support was a factor in Yugoslavia's maintaining a neutral stance during the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. However, accounts vary dramatically between all historical works on the ''"Chetnik controversy"''.


Hungary

SOE was unable to establish links or contacts in Hungary before the regime of Miklós Horthy aligned itself with the Axis Powers. Distance and lack of such contacts prevented any effort being made by SOE until the Hungarians themselves dispatched a diplomat (László Veress) in a clandestine attempt to contact the Western Allies. SOE facilitated his return, with some radio sets. Before the Allied governments could agree terms, Hungary was placed under German military occupation and Veress was forced to flee the country. Two missions subsequently dropped "blind" i.e. without prior arrangement for a reception party, failed. So too did an attempt by
Basil Davidson Basil Risbridger Davidson (9 November 1914 – 9 July 2010) was a British journalist and historian who wrote more than 30 books on African history and politics. According to two modern writers, "Davidson, a campaigning journalist whose fir ...
to incite a partisan movement in Hungary, after he made his way there from northeastern Yugoslavia.


Greece

Greece was overrun by the Axis after a desperate defence lasting several months. In the aftermath, SIS and another intelligence organisation, SIME, discouraged attempts at sabotage or resistance as this might imperil relations with Turkey, although SOE maintained contacts with resistance groups in Crete. When an agent, "Odysseus", a former tobacco-smuggler, attempted to contact potential resistance groups in Greece, he reported that no group was prepared to co-operate with the monarchist government in exile in Cairo. In late 1942, at the army's instigation, SOE mounted its first operation, codenamed Operation Harling, into Greece in an attempt to disrupt the railway which was being used to move materials to the
German Panzer Army Africa As the number of German troops committed to the North African Campaign of World War II grew from the initial commitment of a small corps, the Germans developed a more elaborate command structure and placed the enlarged ''Afrika Korps'', with I ...
. A party under Colonel (later Brigadier) Eddie Myers, assisted by Christopher Woodhouse, was parachuted into Greece and discovered two guerrilla groups operating in the mountains: the pro-Communist ELAS and the republican EDES. On 25 November 1942, Myers's party blew up one of the spans of the railway viaduct at Gorgopotamos, supported by 150 Greek partisans from these two organisations who engaged Italians guarding the viaduct. This cut the railway linking Thessaloniki with Athens and Piraeus. Relations between the resistance groups and the British soured. When the British needed once again to disrupt the railway across Greece as part of the deception operations preceding Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, the resistance groups refused to take part, rightly fearing German reprisals against civilians. Instead, a six-man commando party from the British and New Zealand armies, led by New Zealander Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Edward Barnes, a civil engineer, carried out the destruction of the Asopos viaduct on 21 June 1943. Two attempts by Mike Cumberlege to make the Corinth Canal unnavigable ended in failure. EDES received most aid from SOE, but ELAS secured many weapons when Italy collapsed and Italian military forces in Greece dissolved. ELAS and EDES fought a vicious civil war in 1943 until SOE brokered an uneasy armistice (the
Plaka Pláka ( el, Πλάκα) is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Plaka is built on top of the residentia ...
agreement). A lesser known, but important function of the SOE in Greece was to inform the Cairo headquarters of the movement of the German military aircraft that were serviced and repaired at the two former Greek military aircraft facilities in and around Athens. Eventually, the British Army occupied Athens and Piraeus in the aftermath of the German withdrawal, and fought a street-by-street battle to drive ELAS from these cities and impose an interim government under
Archbishop Damaskinos Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou ( el, Αρχιεπίσκοπος Δαμασκηνός Παπανδρέου), born Dimitrios Papandreou ( el, Δημήτριος Παπανδρέου; 3 March 1891 – 20 May 1949) was the archbishop of Athens ...
. SOE's last act was to evacuate several hundred disarmed EDES fighters to
Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
, preventing their massacre by ELAS. Several resistance groups and Allied stay-behind parties operated in Crete after the Germans occupied the island in the Battle of Crete. SOE's operations involved figures such as Patrick Leigh Fermor, John Lewis, Harry Rudolph Fox Burr, Tom Dunbabin, Sandy Rendel, John Houseman, Xan Fielding and Bill Stanley Moss. Some of the most famous moments included the abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe led by Leigh Fermor and Moss – subsequently portrayed in the film ''
Ill Met by Moonlight ''Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe'' is a non-fiction partly-autobiographical book written by W. Stanley Moss, a British soldier, writer and traveller. It describes an operation in Crete during the Second World War to captu ...
'', and the sabotage of Damasta led by Moss.


Albania

Albania had been under Italian influence since 1923, and was occupied by the Italian Army in 1939. In 1943, a small liaison party entered Albania from northwestern Greece. SOE agents who entered Albania then or later included Julian Amery, Anthony Quayle, David Smiley and Neil "Billy" McLean. They discovered another internecine war between the Communist partisans under
Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha ( , ; 16 October 190811 April 1985) was an Albanian communist politician who was the authoritarian ruler of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 unt ...
, and the republican Balli Kombëtar. As the latter had collaborated with the Italian occupiers, Hoxha gained Allied support. SOE's envoy to Albania, Brigadier Edmund "Trotsky" Davies, was captured by the Germans early in 1944. Some SOE officers warned that Hoxha's aim was primacy after the war, rather than fighting Germans. They were ignored, but Albania was never a major factor in the effort against the Germans.


Czechoslovakia

SOE sent many missions into the Czech areas of the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and later into Slovakia. The most famous mission was Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS- Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. From 1942 to 1943 the
Czechoslovaks Czechoslovaks ( cs, Čechoslováci; sk, Československá národnosť) is a designation that was originally designed to refer to a united Czech and Slovak people. It has been used in two connotations, the first in an ethnic or supra-ethnic connotati ...
had their own Special Training School (STS) at Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire. In 1944, SOE sent men to support the Slovak National uprising.


Norway

In March 1941 a group performing commando raids in Norway, Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1) was organised under leadership of Captain Martin Linge. Their initial raid in 1941 was Operation Archery, the best known raid was probably the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. Communication lines with London were gradually improved so that by 1945, 64 radio operators were spread throughout Norway.


Denmark

The Danish resistance assisted SOE in its activities in neutral Sweden. For example, SOE was able to obtain several shiploads of vital ball-bearings which had been interned in Swedish ports. The
Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...
also pioneered several secure communications methods; for example, a burst transmitter/receiver which transcribed
Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
onto or from a paper tape faster than a human operator could handle.


Romania

In 1943 an SOE delegation was parachuted into Romania to instigate resistance against the Nazi occupation at "any cost" (
Operation Autonomous Operation Autonomous was a clandestine operation carried out on the territory of Romania by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up by Winston Churchill for the duration of World War II to assist local Resistance movements. Participants In 1 ...
). The delegation, including Colonel Gardyne de Chastelain, Captain Silviu Meţianu and
Ivor Porter Ivor Forsyth Porter Order of St. Michael and St. George, CMG, Order of the British Empire, OBE (12 November 1913 – 29 May 2012) was a British Ambassador and author. Education Porter was brought up in the Lake District and educated at Parkvie ...
, was captured by the
Romanian Gendarmerie The ''Jandarmeria Română'' () is the national Gendarmerie force of Romania, tasked with high-risk and specialized law enforcement duties. It is one of the two main police forces in Romania (the other being the Romanian Police - a civilian for ...
and held until the night of King Michael's Coup on 23 August 1944.


Abyssinia

Abyssinia was the scene of some of SOE's earliest and most successful efforts. SOE organised a force of Ethiopian irregulars under Orde Charles Wingate in support of the exiled Emperor Haile Selassie. This force (named Gideon Force by Wingate) caused heavy casualties to the Italian occupation forces, and contributed to the successful British campaign there. Wingate was to use his experience to create the Chindits in Burma.


West Africa

The neutral Spanish island of
Fernando Po Fernando Po may refer to: *Fernando Po (island) in Equatorial Guinea, now called ''Bioko'' *Fernão do Pó, Portuguese explorer *Fernando Pó, village in Palmela, Portugal * Fernando Pó halt, railway halt in Palmela, Portugal Portugal, offic ...
was the scene of
Operation Postmaster Operation Postmaster was a British special operation conducted on the Spanish island of Fernando Po, now known as Bioko, off West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, during the Second World War. The mission was carried out by the Small Scale Raiding F ...
, one of SOE's most successful exploits. The large Italian merchant vessel '' Duchessa d'Aosta'' and the German tug ''Likomba'' had taken refuge in the harbour of Santa Isabel. On 14 January 1942, while the ships' officers were attending a party ashore thrown by an SOE agent, commandos and SOE personnel led by
Gus March-Phillipps Gustavus Henry March-Phillipps, (1908 – 12 September 1942; sometimes spelled "March-Phillips") was the founder of the British Army's No. 62 Commando, the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), a precursor of the Special Air Service (SAS). In the ...
boarded the two vessels, cut the anchor cables and towed them out to sea, where they later rendezvoused with Royal Navy ships. Several neutral authorities and observers were impressed by the British display of ruthlessness.


Southeast Asia

As early as 1940, SOE was preparing plans for operations in Southeast Asia. As in Europe, after initial Allied military disasters, SOE built up indigenous resistance organisations and guerrilla armies in enemy ( Japanese) occupied territory. SOE also launched ''"Operation Remorse"'' (1944–45), which was ultimately aimed at protecting the economic and political status of Hong Kong. Force 136 engaged in covert trading of goods and currencies in China. Its agents proved remarkably successful, raising £77m through their activities, which were used to provide assistance for Allied prisoners of war and, more controversially, to buy influence locally to facilitate a smooth return to pre-war conditions.


Dissolution

In late 1944, as it became clear that the war would soon be over, Lord Selborne advocated keeping SOE or a similar body in being, and that it would report to the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
.
Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promo ...
, the
Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
, insisted that his ministry, already responsible for the SIS, should control SOE or its successors. The Joint Intelligence Committee, which had a broad co-ordinating role over Britain's intelligence services and operations, took the view that SOE was a more effective organisation than the SIS but that it was unwise to split the responsibility for espionage and more direct action between separate ministries, or to perform special operations outside the ultimate control of the Chiefs of Staff. The debate continued for several months until on 22 May 1945, Selborne wrote: Churchill took no immediate decision, and after he lost the
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
on 5 July 1945, the matter was dealt with by the Labour Prime Minister,
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
. Selborne told Attlee that SOE still possessed a worldwide network of clandestine radio networks and sympathisers. Attlee replied that he had no wish to own a British
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
, and closed Selborne's network down at 48 hours' notice. SOE was dissolved officially on 15 January 1946. Some of its senior staff moved easily into financial services in the City of London, although some of them had not lost their undercover mentality and did little for the City's name. Most of SOE's other personnel reverted to their peacetime occupations or regular service in the armed forces, but 280 of them were taken into the ''"Special Operations Branch"'' of MI6. Some of these had served as agents in the field, but MI6 was most interested in SOE's training and research staff. Sir Stewart Menzies, the head of MI6 (who was generally known simply as "C") soon decided that a separate Special Operations branch was unsound, and merged it into the general body of MI6. Gubbins, the last director, was not given further employment by the Army, but he later founded the Special Forces Club for former members of SOE and similar organisations.


Wartime commentaries on SOE

Although the wartime British government considered the activities of the SOE to be lawful, the German invaders, as in World War I and the War of 1870, argued that those engaging in resistance (local resistance fighters and the agents of foreign governments who supported them) were "bandits" and "terrorists", maintaining that all '' Francs-tireurs'' (and said agents) were engaging in an illegal form of warfare, and, as such, had no legal rights. A view expressed by
Fritz Sauckel Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician, ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Thuringia from 1927 and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (''Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 unti ...
, the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, making him the man in charge of bringing workers to the factories in Germany for forced labour, who demanded the flight of young French men to the countryside be stopped and called the ''
maquis Maquis may refer to: Resistance groups * Maquis (World War II), predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance * Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fought against Francoist Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War * The network ...
'' "terrorists", "bandits" and "criminals" for their opposition to lawful authority.


Later analysis and commentaries

The mode of warfare encouraged and promoted by SOE is considered by several modern commentators to have established the modern model that many alleged terrorist organisations emulate. Two opposed views were quoted by Tony Geraghty in ''The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence''.
M. R. D. Foot Michael Richard Daniell Foot, (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and former British Army intelligence officer with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. Biography The ...
, who wrote several official histories of SOE wrote, The British military historian John Keegan wrote, Keegan also questioned the effectiveness of SOE. He wrote, Another, later view, on the moral contribution of SOE, was expressed by the writer Max Hastings,


In popular culture

Since the end of the war, the SOE has appeared in many films, comics, books, and television. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peggy Carter was recommended to the SOE by her brother Micheal, where she starts her career as a field agent.


See also

* Information Research Department *
British military history of World War II The military history of the United Kingdom in World War II covers the Second World War against the Axis powers, starting on 3 September 1939 with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France, followed by the UK's Dominions and Cr ...
* Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action *
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
's Special Activities Division * Cichociemni * Edmund Charaszkiewicz * Escape and evasion lines (World War II) *
Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine The Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine were a group of 250 Jewish men and women from Mandate Palestine who volunteered for operations run by British organisations MI9 and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) which involved parachuting int ...
* John Dolphin CBE * MI5 * Resistance during World War II *
Rovetta massacre The Rovetta massacre is the name given to the summary execution of 43 Italian soldiers that took place in Rovetta on the night of 27–28 April 1945. The soldiers were of the 1ª Divisione d'Assalto "M" della Legione Tagliamento, part of the N ...
*
Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force In late February 1945, when the defeat of Germany appeared imminent, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) was provided with a mandate for dispatching troops whose mission would be to secure the safety of Allied Prisoners of ...
* Z Special Unit * '' Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits'' *
Operation Braddock Operation Braddock was a secret service measure planned and carried out by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) from 1943 onwards during the Second World War. The aim was to create confusion, fears, insecurity and demoralisation in enem ...
*
Timeline of SOE's Prosper Network The Prosper Network, also called the Physician Network, was the most important network in France of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1943. SOE was a secret British organization in World War II. The objectives of SOE were to conduct espio ...


Notes


References

Official publications/academic histories * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * First-hand accounts by those who served with SOE * * * * * * * * * * Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. ''The 11th Day''. Archangel Films, 2006. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Biographies/popular books by outsiders * * : ''Gives tangential account of SOE's operations in the Mediterranean and its quarrels with other intelligence agencies'' * * * * * * * : Tells the story of John Renshaw Starr * * * * * * * * Reissued by The History Press, 2012. * : ''In association with a three part BBC TV series, Ray Mears followed the route taken in 1943 along with some present day members of the Royal Marines and the Norwegian Army.'' * * : ''Tells the story of
Violette Szabo Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC (née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission i ...
(a film of the same name was based on the book).'' * * * * * * * * * * Commentaries * * *
"Notes on S.O.E., 1941 TO 1943"
written by a member of the Belgian Section, Major G.T.R. Thompson, in 1963

* ttp://nigelperrin.com/soeagents.htm Profiles of Special Operations Executive Agents in Franceat Nigel Perrin's site
Colin Gubbins, Leo Marks and the SOE

Dudley Maurice Newitt. Director of Scientific Research. SOE.


External links


The Violette Szabo Museum

The Special Operations Executive
- British Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Imperial War Museum (London)

Special_Operations_Executive
- Imperial War Museum
"Mission Scapula" Special Operations Executive in the Far East.

Target near Glasnacardoch Lodge STS22a




near
Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

The 11th Day
film about SOE & Crete Resistance, and Patrick Leigh Fermor
Para-Military Training in Arisaig, Scotland During World War 2
Land, Sea & Islands Centre
SOE: An Amateur Outfit?

Secret Army Exhibition at Beaulieu

SOE
''Special Forces Roll Of Honour'' {{Authority control 1940 establishments in the United Kingdom 1946 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Covert organizations Saboteurs Ministry of Economic Warfare World War II resistance movements British intelligence services of World War II Government agencies established in 1940 Government agencies disestablished in 1946