RSSThe Actions of the Churchill’s Secret Army
Apr 30
While it was technically created in July 1940, the SOE (Special Operations Executive) had come together in 1938 with the combination of three current, top secret sections shortly after Germany annexed Austria. Churchill’s Secret Army was instructed to “Set Europe Ablaze”.
SOE operatives were directed to various Nazi occupied countries to simultaneously cause destruction behind German lines and in addition start to locate local resistance groups they would likely work with once the occasion for invasion came. Theatres of Operation involved France, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Abyssinia and the Far East.
As operatives operated deep in occupied countries and they were chosen from several social class and background. The most important requirement was that the prospective agent had comprehensive expertise of the nation they would work in and could pass as a local of that country. That is why, operatives in possession of dual nationality were highly desirable.
The renowned plane utilised by the SOE in France was the Westland Lysander. It was a small airplane which made it a great deal more challenging to observe and was sturdy enough to land on makeshift landing strips. It was used to ferry agents to and from the Britain along with collecting men and women who needed to be interviewed in London. Pilots who had been shot down were also typically brought back to the Britain by Lysander.
Amid the SOE group were also female agents and around 30% of the female operatives delivered into France from Section F, did not survive. The types of operations in each region were wide ranging. For example, in Poland, there was limited need to stir up the local population as there was already common hatred of the Nazis. This was in comparison to areas such as Vichy France where some locals worked with with the Germans and the probability of SOE operatives being betrayed was considerably increased.
For the duration of World War II, the SOE had made use of around 13,000 people who directly supported or provided somewhere in the region of 1 million operatives.
The SOE played a important role in World War II primarily in Europe but in other parts of the world too.
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