• as regards information :

• to start by making sure of the effective existence of a Resistance, and contacting its members; if need be, to cause the creation of groups of resistance;
• to maintain the contact, after it was established;
• to provide to resistant the means necessary to carry out the fight against the enemy: the framing (organization in networks, direction of the networks, methods of clandestine fight, designation of the missions, protection and escape from resistant in danger), the material (to be started with the weapons, the ammunition and the explosives, but also clothing, food, etc) and money.

Techniques used for the operations

• Transport. It is a question of conveying and of depositing (dropping) in the occupied countries the agents and the materials (containers, weapons and ammunition, documents, money, etc) and of recovering (pick up) and of repatriating in England of the agents at the end of the mission or danger, of the soldiers, resistant, the personalities (for example: colonel Passy, Jean Moulin, of Lattre de Tassigny, François Mitterrand).
• maritime Operations . During the first months of its activity, the SOE has like choice only the sea route, within the limits imposed by Admiralty: small fishing boats Breton, motor torpedo boats, felouques Mediterranean, underwater, armed boats of goods, etc allow individual unloadings or collectings for sections F and RF, or of the escapes, either for the line VAR of section DF (the line ends in a crossing from the northern coast of Brittany), or for section EU/P (felouques with Polish crews), of Gibraltar at the Corsica, North Africa Riviera in Corsica in France or Italy.
• air Operations . In fact the RAF ensures air transports on behalf of the SOE, as for all the British special services. The number of planes placed at the disposal evolves/moves during time. Towards France, the figures are the following: 5 in 1940; 27 in November 1942; 36 in spring 1944. At the beginning, there is only the flotilla N° 138, but then, the RAF provides a second flotilla, N° 161. Then, N° 161 deals of the landings and, when that is possible, with some parachutings. N° 161 which has its base with Tempsford, has an auxiliary ground later in Tangmere, more close to the English Channel, which makes it possible to ensure of the missions more the south.
• Parachuting . This method is used during all the war for the routing of the weapons and in the first times for that of the agents. The flight takes place of night, by clear sky and in period of full moon, in order to facilitate navigation at sight. When the agent does not have committee of reception on the ground, one speaks about parachuting to the blind man (blind). The first parachuted agent in this way is Georges Bégué, in the night of the 5 May 6th, 1941, ten months after the formation of the SOE.
• Landing . To improve the effectiveness (precision and safety) compared to parachuting, the SOE makes land planes behind the enemy lines. The flights are also organized of night. But moreover, of resistant informed by coded message transmitted by the BBC form a committee of reception: this one prepares a luminous beaconing on the ground (in L) to indicate to the pilot the place and the direction of the landing; it accelerates the transfers; it takes delivery of the new arrivals; it helps the plane with redécoller and it erases the traces on the ground. This method is especially used in northern France zone, with famous the Westland Lysander (see the image opposite). It is in the night of the 4 September 5th, 1941 that first agent SOE with being conveyed in this way, Gerard Morel, lands close to Chateauroux, Lysander being controlled by Nesbitt-Dufort.

• encrypted Radio transmissions . The radio operator operator, called pianist, has of a portable device and a quartz (whose frequency is specific for him) provided by the SOE, with which it transmits information in Morse, after them to have encrypted so that the SOE is alone to include/understand them. He works under permanent risk: he must work long enough to pass all the messages necessary, but he must also avoid being made locate by the enemy, who uses radiogoniometric cars or proceeds to selective power cuts.
• Plays radio operator . With the first degree, this technique consists in turning over enemy radio operator operators stopped in Great Britain for espionage, and dictating the messages to them to be emitted, untrue but that the enemy believes authentic. In the psychological fight consisted the use of such methods of misinformation by the SOE and the enemy, it is allowed that " the rampart of mensonges" built by the British effectively contributed to mislead the Germans, in particular on key strategic elements such as the place and the date of the unloading. This element of British superiority supplements that obtained by the secret organization Ultra, by which the British read with opened book, without the Germans suspecting it, their secret military messages coded by the machines Enigma.
• Sending by the BBC of coded personal messages . It is on October 20th, 1941 that the first message with the address of Georges Bégué is diffused by the BBC: by hearing “Gabrielle sends its friendships to you”, it knows that it will have to take delivery of a parachuting.
• faked Apparatuses and explosives . Special devices developed and manufactured by the SOE allow the agents and resistant to camouflage the dangerous objects (transformed into current objects) or to perpetrate the planned sabotages or attacks:

• Construction of false identities : realization of false paper (indentity cards, ration cards, certificates, birth certificates etc); repair of mercury amalgams according to a composition conforms to the techniques of the country; clothes industry of clothing according to the style of the country, the fashion of the moment; preparation of false individual stories; etc
• Soles out of rubber in the shape of feet, that the agent attaches under its shoes, making believe that the prints are those of inhabitants of the area going barefeet.
• abrasive Greases : undesirable additives make seize up the engines, the mechanisms of engines, etc
• foldable miniature Motocyclettes (Welbike), being able to line up in a standard container C, usable by the parachutists.
• Sinkable (Welman).
• Pills of potassium cyanide (pill “L”), allowing an agent to commit suicide in the ultimate situations.

Examples of operations

Operations of the SOE, which was very many and often underground, the article evokes some, which the public knows well thanks to the books and with the films which reported them or were inspired some. Are in particular to put at the credit of the SOE: destruction of 90 French factories of war, the discovery of the secret base of experimentation of the rockets V2 de Peenemünde (finally bombarded), delay inflicted with the German atomic bomb by the destruction of the Norwegian heavy water stock, etc

Profile and preparation of the agents

Required qualities

• Political . The opposition solved to the powers of the Axis is naturally essential. Exiled or escaped members of the armed forces of certain occupied countries are obvious sources of agents. It is particularly true of Norway and the Netherlands. In other cases (such as honest French towards Charles de Gaulle and in particular the Poles), the honesty of the agents is exerted initially towards their leaders or their government in exile, and they regard the SOE as a means of arriving at their ends. Sometimes that could create mistrust and tighten the relations with Great Britain.
• Knowledge of the country and the language . In the majority of the cases, quality first required is a deep knowledge of the country where the agent will operate, in manner that it acts in all circumstances like a true national and that there is not no possible doubt on the artificial identity which the SOE manufactured to him. To start, a current practice of the language is required, if the agent must pass for a native of this country. The dual nationality is often an appreciated attribute, particularly in the case of France. In other countries, in particular in Balkans, a less degree of practice of the language can be appropriate, because the groups of resistance concerned are already in open rebellion and do not have to live there clandestinely.
• Taste for the military action . This taste is as well in certain officers of the regular army as at others which know action only that of the time of the war.
• Character . To have steel nerves. To know with the need to count only on oneself. To have the team spirit. To have the spirit of decision and real qualities of diplomat and negotiator. To resist brutal interrogations. To know to live in clandestinity, while having integrated thoroughly an identity and a personal history manufactured of all parts by the SOE, and to remember it in the least detail (distorts family, former professors, fictitious birthplaces, etc) without risk to cut itself. To be able to live from the permanent point of view to be stopped and tortured, to only die and without recognition, or with the prospect to be suspected of treason, without possibility of denial. All these qualities were located, then tested and developed in schools of special drive of the SOE in which the majority of the recruited agents passed.

Indifferent criteria

• the respect of the social conventions of the time is not taken into account. In its combat against the Axis, the SOE is unaware of these conventions. There can employ without problem of people who have already police records or unfavourable reports/ratios of the army, known Communists, the homosexual ones, nationalists anti-British, etc Although some of them constitute a risk, it is practically no known case of an agent SOE which passed to the enemy without reserves.

• the social origin is not taken into account. Recruitment covers all the social classes: old aristocracy, middle-class, working origin (it is the case of the majority of the agents of the section F). Some even, says one, would come from the underworld.
• the sex is not taken into account. At the beginning, the women are confined in the nonoperational tasks, as it is the case in the other secret services or the armies. As from April 1942, after some derogatory examples, under the impulse of Hake Gubbins, the SOE recruits women, by integrating them in a military service of transport, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) before their final assignment. Some will shine there by their character (energy, enthusiasm, endurance, meticulousness). Moreover, it is easier to them to change physical aspect, not to wake up the suspicions and to avoid controls.
• the trade is not taken into account. Although the taste for the military action is an important criterion, people of all trades served the SOE on the ground.
• nationality is not taken into account. However, in the particular case of France, the criterion of the language mentioned above conduit with an important representation of Canadian and Mauritians.

Preparation of the agents

Leaves the networks

The networks of the SOE were often infiltrated by the enemy, then turned over or destroyed. The phenomenon is massive in the Netherlands, where the totality of networks SOE finish controlled by the Germans; it is also important in France or in other countries. But the assessment of the action of the SOE is very positive and the operations which it carried out, in particular those which aimed at deluding the enemy on the key elements with planning with the unloading, weighed very heavy in the control of the war, in complement of the military efforts themselves. Certain agents and certain networks could be deliberately sacrificed to achieve this major goal.

The SOE and the enemy

Three German organizations intervene in the fight against the SOE:

• the Abwehr : intelligence services of Wehrmacht, directed by the Admiral Wilhelm Canaries. Abwehr is especially active at the beginning of the war;

• the SD : S icherheits' of ienst, security services of the Nazi party, whose office of against-espionage abroad (Amt VI - external SD ) is directed by Walter Schellenberg;
• the Gestapo : Ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei = Secret police of state, directed by Heinrich Müller.

The two quoted last are gathered since 1939 with the center a single organization, RSHA, capped by Heinrich Himmler, and directed by Reinhard Heydrich, then by Ernst Kaltenbrunner as from June 1942. In the fight against the SOE, they intervene gradually and see their role increasing, and finally absorb Abwehr in spring 1944.

Organization

General headquarter

The general headquarter of the SOE is located at London. Antennas are created in the neutral or allied capitals: Madrid, Lisbon, Bern, Stockholm, Cairo, Delhi, Calcutta (Force 136), etc

Fastening

• With its creation, the SOE is attached to the Minister for the economic war. The successive ministers are: Sir Hugh Dalton until February 22nd, 1942, then Roundell Micrometer caliper, 3rd Count de Selborne.

• on October 5th, 1943, the COSSAC (Chief off Staff to Supreme Allied To order) decides to exert an operational control on the activities of the SOE/SO for a better coordination between the actions of guerilla and military operations for the North-West of Europe.
• on July 1st, 1944, after the unloading in Normandy, the sections acting as France are attached operationally to the Staff of the French Forces of the Interior, the EMFFI, directed by the French General Kœnig.

Relations of the SOE

Relations of the SOE and MI6

There are several reasons structural of strong competition between the SOE and the MI6:

• the two organizations act on the same ground: occupied countries.
• According to the traditional distinction, the mission of the SOE Of putting fire at Europe in fact a service action , whereas MID the 6 is an intelligence service.
• the action (of the SOE) has as a result to draw the attention of the enemy, whereas the information (MID 6) requires the most possible discretion.
• the SOE and MID the 6 are rival as regards recruitment. In fact it is difficult for the SOE to recruit massively, as well on the British ground as in the occupied countries, of the executives and the agents of the same professional level as their colleagues of the MI6 or their German equivalents of the Abwehr, the intelligence service of the Wehrmacht.

Relations of the SOE and MI5

The recruitment of the personnel and the agents is done independently from MID the 6. On the other hand, a close cooperation is established with MID 5 the, in charge one of against-espionage on the British territory, to filter the agents had a presentiment of on their arrival in Great Britain or their returns of missions.

Relations between the SOE and free France

See interior Resistance française#Les British secret services and the Office off Strategic Services

History of the SOE

Creation of the SOE

Starting event

June 6th, 1940, the fall of Dunkirk mark rout of the British army at the sides of the French Army. This day, Churchill understands that the regular troops will not be able to regain a footing on the continent before a long time. It sends a note to the general Hastings Lionel Ismay, to military executive secretary of the British cabinet of war and defense committee imperial: “We must put ourselves in the head that all the ports on other side of the Chanel and that all the areas which extend between these ports are an enemy territory. Companies against this territory must be prepared with troops especially trained to flush out game and to spread terror along these shores. I count on the committee of the chiefs of staff to propose appropriate measures with vigorous and bold offensive, carried out without respite against all the coast occupied by the Germans. ”

The decision

• On the British ground . In preparation for a probable German unloading, he entrusts to Colin Gubbins the organization of special units which would be in charge of operations of guerilla against the invader. The need for such units will be erased after Hitler gives up invading Great Britain, on October 12th, 1940.
• In the occupied countries . July 19th, it sends a new note to the Ismay general ordering “the immediate constitution of an organization having for task to coordinate any action by way of subversion and sabotage beyond the seas against the enemy”. Thus it creates Special the Operations Executive (SOE), which will be charged to help - and with the need to cause - the resistance movements: the SOE will have to send clandestine agents as a civilian (i.e. spies), to organize networks and groups of resistance, and to provide the means of perpetrating sabotages, attacks or of making information. The need for the SOE will disappear only with the victory against Germany. July 21st, Churchill specifies with Anthony Eden, Minister for the War: “… The new organization will depend on the ministry for the economic War. ”

Mission of the SOE

Churchill summarized in Hugh Dalton the mission of the SOE by these words Set Europe ablaze i.e. Mettre fire at Europe . It was a question of creating a permanent environment of insecurity for the German troops and of obstructing their operations as much as possible.

Choice of organization

In a way of the economic situation, mid 1940, the situation is the following one: MID the 6 has its own service internal action, created in 1938, the service D; in the same way, there exists an intelligence service within the ministry for the armies, War office, the SEMI one. However the mission of the SOE implies action, but also information. Also, the two ministries dispute the supervision of the SOE. But Churchill gives finally reason to a third small drainage canal, Sir Hugh Dalton , a member of the Labor Party, Minister for the economic war, which convinces it that the action to be carried out in enemy territory is connected more with social subversion that with information or military operations. The SOE has finally as a partial trusteeship Hugh Dalton, below which Churchill places one of his/her friends of childhood, a banker of the name of Hambro.

Organization of the SOE

The organization of the SOE includes/understands:

• the general headquarter,
• antennas, created in the neutral or allied capitals,
• Sections, responsible for the action in the foreign countries (finally without limiting itself to Europe)
• the Stations, located in British territory, which are divided into:
• experimental Stations
• Schools of special drive (STS, Special training schools).

The General headquarter of the SOE

the SOE is formed by the meeting of three secret departments, which provide him its initial leaders and its means:

• SO1 comes from the department EH in charge of propaganda at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, directed by Sir Campbell Stuart. Later, in September 1941, this section will be detached from the SOE to form the PWE (Political Warfare Executive, is Direction of the Political War).
• SO2 comes from the section D , a sub-section of the Intelligence Service (IS, or MI6) created in 1938, service action, acting more particularly in Balkans, directed by Major Lawrence Grand with George Taylor like assistant, and whose HQ is installed in The Frythe . At the end of 1941, after the suppression SO3 and the again one ratachement of SO1, SO2 represents the totality of the SOE.
• SO3 comes from MIR (Military Intelligence, Research), a department of the Ministry for the War (War Office), in charge of the planning of the subversive actions and sabotage, directed by the Major John C. Holland, with the lieutenant-colonel Colin Gubbins for assistant; January 17th, 1941, SO3 is removed and its principal elements attached to SO2.

Leader

• Sir Frank Nelson is named with the head of the SOE. For health reasons, it is replaced by Charles Hambro in April 1942.
• Disapproving the regrouping of the activities of the SOE and the army under the same authority, in August 1943, Hambro resigns. It is replaced by its assistant, the Major General Colin Gubbins, which takes itself for assistant R.H. Barry.

Local

• At the beginning, the SOE settles with the Saint Hermin Hotel, Caxton Street, in London.
• With the autumn 1940, the SOE settles 62-64 Baker Street, then extends to the 84 in old buildings from the stores Marks and Spencer , by leaving the 62-64 to its French section (section F). To the 84, the only sign of the presence of official services is the plate indicating Inter Services Research Office . Later, the SOE will occupy also Norgeby House, to the 83. The name of Baker Street, which is that of the street where Conan Doyle had placed the residence of Sherlock Holmes, will be worth with the agents of the SOE the nickname the Irregular ones of Baker street.

Sections of the SOE

The SOE includes/understands a certain number of regional sections (country sections) which coordinate the action of the networks in the various countries:

• France - Eight sections of the SOE are in connection with the geographical sector of France:
• Section F: French section of the SOE, without relation with free France. It is the most important section. It gave place to the formation of 95 networks.
• Section RF: section charged to work with gaullists (BCRA of colonel Passy).
• Section DF: section in charge of the installation of the dies of escape having to allow the return of the agents in England.
• Section EU/P: section in relation to the Polish networks of the north of France.
• Section Al: section being used as liaison office with the British ministry of the Air and in charge of the clandestine air links with the French territory.
• Section Storage-Packing , for the loadings of supply.
• MT Section: section which organizes the schools of special drive which form the agents with the secret and subversive war.
• section MFA: at the end of 1942, section based in Algiers which operates in the South of France; after collaboratehaving briefly collaborated with the giraudists, it puts at the service gaullists.
• Other countries
• Germany: Section X
• Italy: Section I
• Poland: Section MP
• Yugoslavia: Section Y
• Czechoslovakia: Section MY
• Norway: Section SN
• Sweden: Section S
• Belgium: Section T
• Netherlands: Section NR
• Spain: Section H
• Other sections: Greece, Albania, Denmark, Romania, Abyssinie, Southeast Asia.

Experimental Stations

For its research activities and development, the SOE used several “stations” génaralement located in country houses, identified by a number in Roman numerals. The list is presented by it in the article Liste of the establishments of the SOE.

Schools of special drive

For the drive of its agents, the SOE has several tens of schools of drive special (Special Schools Training, or STS) whose list is presented in the article Liste of the establishments of the SOE. The general headquarter of the drive of the SOE is located at Norgeby House, 83 Baker Street. It is directed by colonel J.S. Wilson. The schools of special drive of the SOE are divided into several categories. To present them, let us follow the sequence even of the programme of drive of an agent:

• preparatory Schools (preliminary schools). These schools are located in the Midlands and the south of England and are directed by colonel Roger de Wesslow. The future agents of the two sexes are distributed there by nationality, each Country section having his. The training course lasts four weeks, and makes it possible to test the character, the capacities physical and the aptitudes for particular tasks of the agent. Although formed by several instructors, the agent is followed by the same officer who observes it, notes it, the assistance and finally delivers its opinion on its orientation.
• Schools of hardening (roughning schools). These schools are located in Scotland, in Invernessshire: general headquarter with Arisaig House, remains family of Nicholson located close to Ailort Log; six other manors requisitioned in the neighborhoods. They are directed by two veterans of the First World War, the lieutenant-colonel Pat Anderson and major James Young. The trainee who was recognized suited at the end of his training course in preparatory school follows a new phase of drive there (instinctive shooting, dagger, techniques of demolition, telegraph Morse, etc) by cotoyant this time of the trainees of other nationalities.
• School of drive to the jump in parachute n° 1 of Ringway Airport. This school is located close to Manchester. It is directed by the wing to order Maurice Neuwham. It accommodates trainees of the SOE, commando-parachutists or combatants of the airborne troops, but those of the SOE are placed separately, in Dunham Lodge (Bowdon, close to Altrincham, in Cheshire).
• Schools of special completion (special finishing schools). These schools are located on the grounds of the Montagu family close to Beaulieu in Hampshire. They are directed by colonel Frank Spooner. The trainee is prepared individually with his future mission. He is presented to his future treating officer. He follows a general course on the techniques of safety: how to find a refuge, to organize connections, to break a spinning mill, to communicate in secrecy (figuring, inks invisible, camouflage of the documents), use of “letter-boxes”, processes of the contact, prevention against the methods of the police force, behavior at the time of the interrogations, etc). It is informed of the conditions and the practices of life of the country where it will go. At the end of the training course, it is subjected to a special exercise from three to five days intended to test its smartness: it receives an objective of sabotage (described in a summary file which it must entirely memorize); all his papers are withdrawn to him; him ten shillings are left; if it is made take by the police force and does not manage to escape or to be made release, it can use like ultimate recourse a by heart learned phone number, which protects it from the imprisonment for espionage but probably not from radiation from the SOE for incapacity.
• In addition to the four main categories above, there exist some other schools of special drive. The following table recapitulates the names, functions and addresses of the schools of special drive of the SOE, by arranging them in the order of their numbers:

Manpower of the SOE

The dissolution of the SOE

Memory

Recognition

Memorials honor the memory with the agents:

• the Mémorial of Valençay (Indre) honors the 104 agents with the section F died for France. Located close to the place of the first parachuting of an agent of the SOE in France, it was inaugurated on May 6th, 1991, at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of this parachuting.
• the Mémorial Brookwood (Surrey, England) honors 3475 men and women with the forces of the Commonwealth and the Empire died during the war and whose names cannot be recorded in a suitable way on the other memorials of the various theaters of war, which is the case of several agents of the SOE.

• with the Museum of the camp of Flossenbürg (Germany) inaugurated on July 22nd, 2007, of the agents: F.G. Mitchel, carried out in June 1944, Gustave (known as “Guy”) Biéler carried out on September 5th, 1944, Jack Agazarian, P.J. Amphlett, J.F. Amps, G.W.H. Demand, R. Dowlen, M.G.H. Fox, H.H. Graham, E.F. Levene, J.F.G. Mennesson, Rafferty STRIP CARTOONS, D.W. Sibrée, V.A. Soskice, J. Worms carried out on March 29th, 1945.

Remote regions

• Because of its nature of secret service, its agents were to respect Draconian requirements for discretion, which was opposed to the traceability of their actions.
• One estimates that approximately 13% of original papers were preserved destruction, intentional or accidental:
• the recordings were not preserved systematically. The SOE grew precipitately and by jolts, and for safety reasons, there no was centralized recording. Only an attempt to create central files was in hand at the end of the war.
• Certains recordings of the SOE was deliberately destroyed vis-a-vis in advance enemy. It is the case in Singapore in front of the Japanese advance.
• For reasons of storage and handling, one carried out a serious pruning at the end of the war.
• at the end of 1945, part of the files disappeared in a fire, perhaps accidental.
• the arrangement of remaining papers is sometimes the simple fact of the chance, and information can thus be at unexpected places.
• the opening to the public of the files of the SOE started tardily and remains very slow:
• June 1993: Burma, Siam, French Indo-China, Malaya, China, Japan, Afghanistan, India, Australia, Sumatra anglo Dutchwoman, papers organisational.
• June 1994: Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, etc).
• September 1994 : Africa and the Middle East (Aden and Red Sea, Abyssinie and Africa Eastern, North Africa, Africa Western, Arab countries, Cyprus, Egypt, Malta and Tunisia, the Middle East, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tangier, Turkey).
• March 1995: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Soviet Union.

• Certains major actors or was not expressed little on the subject, to start with Winston Churchill in its monumental Histoire of the Second world war .
• Certains agents pledged, during their recruitment, long-term nothing to reveal of their activities.
• In the same way certain “official” accounts of the operations of the SOE on the various theaters were tardily published, but that does not prevent that they raise sometimes questions by their errors or their silences:
• M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France , HMSO, 1966.
• Charles Cuickshank, SOE in the Far East , OUP, 1983
• SOE in Scandinavia , OUP, 1986.

The section F, principal French section

Organization of the section F

• With the head of the section F is named successively: Leslie Humphreys (August 1940), H.R. Marriott (December 1940), Maurice Buckmaster (beginning of the summer 1941). The name of this last is particularly known in France, because the networks of the section F are often called there networks Buckmaster or networks Buck .
• At the station of assistant, Nicholas Bodington, a graduate brilliance of 35 year old Cambridge, is named at the end of 1940. Press correspondent in Paris pre-war period, it collaborated at that time with the MI6 and preserves relations with his former owner Claude Dansey.
• the assistant of Buckmaster is Vera Atkins. She is regarded as the “heart of the section”.
• the person in charge of the operations of the section F is Gerry Morel (at the end of March 1942 - July 1944).
• the persons in charge of recruitment are Selwyn Jepson and Lewis Gielgud.
• the financial person in charge is Bourne Paterson.

Networks of the section F

• While forming or by approving a network, the SOE section F allots a code name to him. It is generally a name of trade in English, M (example ACTOR), or more rarely of plant or tree (example PRUNUS). This name is generally not known on the ground, its use being intended for the communications with London.
• At the time when an agent leaves for France, it also receives a personal code name, its " name of guerre" (field name) which is generally a French first name, “ P ”.

• the Liste of the networks of the section F of the SOE is the subject of a specific article.

The enemy

Abwehr

• Feldwebel Hugo Bleicher .

The SIPO-SD

• On the higher level of the SIPO-SD in France:
• S Gruppenführer Karl Oberg , supreme leader of the S and the police force, correspondent of Heinrich Himmler in France. It covers the ORPO (police force of order) and the SIPO-SD.
• S Standartenführer Helmut Knochen , chief of the SIPO-SD, correspondent of Reinhard Heydrich, then of Ernst Kaltenbrunner in France.
• On the level of the operations and the execution:
• S Strurmbannführer Karl Boemelburg , section head IV of the SIPO-SD in France. This section IV constitutes Gestapo itself, charged with " the research of the enemies of the régime" (Jews, opponents, Communists, resistant,…) and of repression. It takes gradually charges with them the tasks given up by Abwehr such as against-espionage.
• S Strurmbannführer Josef Kieffer,
• Josef Götz' , Radio section IVF,
• Josef Placke
• Ernst Vogt , interprets.

Operations of the section F

Some stages of the action

1941 .

* May. The first 3 agents SOE are parachuted in France:

** in the night from May 5th to 6th, between Valençay and Vatan (in the north of Chateauroux, in Indre): Georges Stammerer (pseudo Noble George), with for mission of coming into contact with max Hymans (former deputy of the district of Valençay, whose country house is with the surroundings). Stammerer transmits to London the acceptance of max Hymans to cooperate with London and to give his support for the foundation of local groups of resistance.

** in the night from May 10th to 11th, Pierre de Vomécourt , with the mission of constituting first network SOE in Lorraine (AUTOGIRO), with Georges Stammerer as radio operator operator.

** in the night from May 12th to 13rd, Roger Cottin .

* June. Reception of the first parachuting of weapons, ammunition and plastics, close to the village of Chabeau.

* June 22nd. Germany tackles the Soviet Union (Opération Barbarossa).

* September. In the night of the 6, six agents are parachuted of a Whitley bomber in the neighborhoods of Nickle silver-on-Hollow: Ben Cowburn, Victor Gerson, George Langelaan, Maurice of Puy, Michael Trotobas, Andre Bloch.

* December 7th. The Japanese attack the USA with Pearl Harbor. The following day, the USA enter in guerre.

* December. The Christmas Day, Pierre de Vomécourt is introduced to Mathilde Carré, said the She-cat , which collaborates in the network Interallié , is rested by officers Polish, but dismantled by a sergeant of Abwehr, Hugo Bleicher. Vomécourt requires of Mathilde to use for its transmissions the radios of the interallied network. However, the She-cat became the mistress of Bleicher which entirely controls its radios.

1942 .

* January 20th. De Gaulle, in a letter with Anthony Eden, requires that the section F pass under French command. The British refusent.

* April 25th. Finally, Pierre de Vomécourt is stopped by Bleicher, then dismantled AUTOGIRO. Pierre de Vomécourt will survive the war with Colditz. Georges Bégué flees in Spain and regains London, where he works with the staff of the Section F, in charge of the radio communications with the agents on the ground. One allots to him the invention of the system of personal messages diffused by the BBC.

* July 16th. Eleven prisoners, helped by Virginia Hall and Mrs Pierre-Bloch, escape from the camp of internment of Mauzac (the Dordogne): Georges Stammerer, Francis Garel, Claude Jumeau, George Langelaan, Jean Harivel, Philippe Liewer, Robert Lyon, Jean Pierre-Bloch, Raymond Rock, Michael Trotobas, Jack Beam.

* July 29th. Nicholas Bodington, number 2 of the section F in London, unloads close to Antibes accompanied by Henri Frager, a French agent of the SOE. It comes to contact a certain Andre Girard, known under the pseudonym of “ Carte ” and which was made known with an English agent while claiming to have behind him a network whose many members are ready to pass to the armed action. It is decided that ten men will go to England to follow a drive there. In fact, on August 31st, 1942, only two volunteers embark for England. Chart is partly a mythomaniac, but it really constituted a copiously provided address book which will be used as a basis of recruitment for the Prosper network. However, this address book is rich individuals that Carte does not even know. The southern zone is not yet occupied, and much of files of resistant potentials circulate freely. Abwehr also knew to benefit from this freedom.

* August 18th. Failure of the raid of Dieppe.

* September. After the unloading in North Africa, the operations of the section F will intensify: 60 parachutings of weapons in 1942,400 in 1943,200 in 1944. It appoints two officers to coordinate the whole of its networks in France:

** Francis Suttill in Northern zone (network Prosper - PHYSICIAN ). It will be parachuted the 1n.10.1942 close to Vendôme.

** Peter Churchill in Southern zone (network SPINDLE ).

* 24 September. Andree Borrel and Lise of Baissac is the first women of the SOE parachuted in occupied France.

* October 18th. Order secret Commando of Hitler.

* November 11th. Because of the successful unloading of Combined in North Africa (Torch operation of November 8th), the Germans invade the zone libre.

* November 18th. Gustave (known as “Guy”) Biéler, Canadian, chief of the network Such - MUSICIAN and Michael Trotobas, chief of the network Sylvestre - FARMER is parachuted in France.

1943 .

* February 16th. Introduction of STO by the Vichy government. Yielding to the German pressure, Vichy founds, under the name of Service of obligatory work the setting of the work world at the disposal of the occupant. In reaction, many “refractories” refusing to leave, prefer to evaporate in nature. Thus will develop the maquis.

* April. Network SPINDLE undergoes a reverse, by the arrest of Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom.

* June. Network ARCHDEACON falls through: Frank Pickersgill (C) and John Macalister (R), which must set up it, is stopped as of their arrival in France. That is transformed into an operation led by the Germans: Joseph Placke, an assistant of the radio operator section with 84 avenue Foch, is made pass for Pickersgill, while the operator radio operator Macalister, with his codes, is used to transmit false messages to London arranging of parachutings which finish with the hands of the Germans. This false operation will continue until May 1944, causing the capture of an instructor of sabotage and six other agents sent to join the network.

* At the end of June. Collapse of the network Prosper - PHYSICIAN, with arrest of its leaders and many agents.

* October. Arrest of Noor Inayat Khan.

* October 1943 in June 1944. Increasing activity.

1944 .

* February 14th: decree of Hitler ordering the dissolution of Abwehr and the transfer of its attributions to SD. .

* June 6th. Unloading in Normandy. Beginning of parachutings of the teams Jedburgh, formed and armed by the SOE. Networks SOE sow confusion among the Germans, dislocate transport of material and of reinforcements towards the face, destroy the phone lines, obliging the enemy to transmit his messages by radio, with posiibility of interception and decoding.

* July. Executions with the camp of Natzweiler-Struthof: Andree Borrel, Vera Leigh, Diana Rowden, Sonia Olschanesky.

* September. Executions: Gustave (known as “Guy”) Biéler (5 in Flossenbürg), Gilbert Norman (6, Mauthausen); Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan, and Eliane Plewman (11, in Dachau); John Macalister, Frank Pickersgill and Romeo Sabourin (the 14, in Buchenwald).

1945 .

* at the beginning of 1945. Executions with the camp of Ravensbrück: Violet Szabo and Lilian Rolfe (on February 5th), Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort.

* March 19th. Execution with the camp of Sachsenhausen: Francis Suttill.

* March 29th. Executions with the camp of Flossenbürg: Jack Agazarian, Amphlett, Amps, Demand, Dowlen, Fox, Graham, Levene, Menesson, Rafferty, Sibrée, Soskice, Worms.

Means implemented

• the total period of activity, May 1941 in September 1944. Are distinguished (1) the first 38 months, the first parachuting of Stammerer at the beginning of May 1941 at the end of June 1944; and (2) the last three months (third quarters 1944), during which the intensity of the action is in connection with the unloading in Normandy;
• missions on the basis of England and those via the Mediterranean.
• mission British the American RAF (for the SOE) and missions USAAF. Two escadrilles RAF carry out the air missions for the SOE: the 138e for parachutings, the 161e for the landings.

• Armament delivered out of containers: 197480 machine pistols, 20518 light machine guns, 127330 rifles, 57849 guns, 722271 grenades Millets, 113830 Gammons grenades, 594000 kilos of explosives, 1200 adhesive mines, 2440 bazookas, 285 mortars; various: knives, plates flamers of pocket, loads altimetric, pencil-lighters with delayed-action, detonators, cartridges,…

• Other materials delivered out of packages: transmitting sets, stations transmitter-receivers (bag), clothing, food, tobacco, boxs first aid of countryside, traps (faked pencils, laces of hollow shoes, current objects dissimulating of the explosives, cigarettes flamers, etc)
• Money provided to the agents on the ground: 402 franc million , breaking up into 317 million sent with the operations of the section F, 63 million raised by loans on the spot near friendly businessmen, and 22 million conveyed by the dies of section DF.

Leaves the agents of the section F

• stopped Agents: 1 out of 4 (to be compared with: 1 out of 2 in the Netherlands, 1 out of 3 in Belgium).
• killed Agents: 104 (91 men and 13 women). They are honoured with the memorial with Valençay.

Results obtained

• Resistant French armed by the agents with the SOE to carry out the actions of sabotage: 250000 .
• sabotaged Factories: 93 .
• the Eisenhower general estimated that the work of the SOE was equivalent to the reinforcement of five or six divisions .

Section RF

• the captain Eric Stake-Wicks, at the beginning,
• J.R.H. Hutchinson, starting from August 1942,
• Bickam Sweet-Escott, starting from the autumn 1943,
• L.H. Dismore.

• ARMADA
• CIRCUMFERENCE
• COCKLE
• COD
• CONE
• DASTARD

• FABULOUS
• INFANTRYMAN
• MAINMAST
• ORONTE
• OUTCLASS
• OVERCLOUD

• RIGHT-ANGLED PERIMETER
• PERITONEUM
• TORTURE
• TROMBONE

• missions RF: ARQUEBUS, ASYMPTOTE, MARIE-CLAIRE, SHRIMP.
• raids RF: BARTER, JOSÉPHINE, PILCHARD, SLING

Section DF

• EDOUARD
• GREYHOUND
• LOYOLA
• MANGO
• PIERRE-JACQUES
• SALLY
• STANISLAUS
• TROY
• VAR
• VIC

Section EU/P

• ADJUDICATE

• MONICA

The SOE in the other countries

Germany

Because of the dangers and hostility of the population, the SOE even carries out only few operations in Germany. The section Germany and Austria, led by the Lt-Collar. Ronald Thornley during most of the war, especially implies in the black Propagande and administrative sabotage, in collaboration with the German section of the Political Warfare Executive (PWE). After the D-day, the section is reorganized and increased, with at its head General Sir Gerald Templer and like assistant Thornley. Several major operations are planned, in particular Foxley, the plan to assassinate Hitler close to Berghof, and Periwig, a clever plan simulating the existence of resistance movements anti-nazi to large scales inside Germany. Foxley is not carried out, but Periwig continuous in spite of the restrictions imposed by MI6 and SHAEF. Several German prisoners of war are trained like agents in order to contact resistance anti-nazi and to carry out sabotages. They are then parachuted in Germany, with the hope which they go or which they are captured by Gestapo and reveal their supposed mission to him. False coded radio transmissions are diffused towards Germany; it is also admitted that various elements of the implements of the agents, like books of codes or radio operator receivers, fall between the hands from the German authorities.

Netherlands

Belgium

Italy

As Italy is an enemy country and, supposes one, a monolithic fascistic state without organized opposition usable, the SOE done there few efforts until semi-1943, date where the government of Mussolini crumbles and where the allied forces occupy already Sicily. The SOE seems not to have made any effort to recruit agents among the Italian prisoners of war.

In the continuations of Italian collapse, the SOE helps with the formation, in the towns of Italy of north and in the Alps, of a large organization of resistance which badgers the German forces in Italy during all the autumn and the winter 1944. And at the time of the final offensive of Combined in Italy, it takes Genoa and other cities without the assistance of the allied forces.

SOE establishes a base with Bari in Italy of the south, from which it directs its networks and its agents in Balkans. This organization has as a code name " Force 133".

Yugoslavia

Via the royalist government in exile, the SOE starts by helping Tchetniks. It becomes obvious that Tchetniks are less effective, and even as they cooperate with the Germans in certain areas against the Partisans. After the Conference of Teheran, the SOE reverses its support, in favor of the Partisans. In spite of delicate relations during the war, one can advance that the support without reserve of the SOE is a factor of the maintenance of Yugoslav neutrality during the Cold war.

Hungary

Greece

Unfortunately the relations between the groups of resistance and the British turn badly. EDES receives most of the assistance of the SOE, while ELAS puts in safety much weapons when Italy crumbles and that the Italian military forces in Greece are dissolved. In 1943, ELAS and EDES clash in a violent civil war, until the SOE negotiates a difficult armistice, the agreement of Plaka. Certain liaison officers of the SOE on the ground are carried out by undisciplined groups ELAS.

Finally, the British army occupies Athens and Pirée after the withdrawal of the Germans, and fights in the streets to drive out ELAS of these cities and to impose a temporary government, with the Damaskinos archbishop. The last action of the SOE consists in evacuating several hundreds of combatants disarmed of EDES towards Corfou, thus avoiding to them being massacred by ELAS.

Albania

Czechoslovakia

Norway

Denmark

Poland

Romania

Other operations in Europe

Abyssinie

South-East Asia

Internal bonds

• List of the agents of the SOE

Sources, references and notes

Bibliographical and filmographic references

• Henri Noguères, History of Resistance in France of 1940 to 1945 , Robert Laffont, 1976; ED. supplemented review and, Crémille & Famot, 1982.
• Dominique Venner, critical History of Resistance , Pygmalion/Gerard Watelet, 1995.
• Hugh Verity, We landed of night… Secret landings of the RAF in France 1940-44 , 1978; 5th ED. increased review and, Vario, 2004.
• Jean Deuve, the War of the magicians, allied intoxication 1939-1944 , Charles Corlet, 1995.
• Anthony Cave Brown, the secret War, the rampart of the lies , Pygmalion/Gerard Watelet, 1981.
• M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France, An Account off the Work off the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944 , London, Her Majesty' S stationery office, 1966. This book presents the official version British events.
• Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, the story off british agents in France (They only fought, the history of the British agents in France) , Odhams Close Limited, 1958. The author is the French section head (F).
• Professor William Mackenzie, Secret The History off SOE - Special Operations Executive 1940-1945 , BPR Publications, 2000. ISBN 0953615189.
• David Stafford, Secret Agent - The True Story off the Special Operations Executive , BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2000. ISBN 0563537345.
• Jean Overton Fuller, The Starr Affair . This book tells the history of John Renshaw Starr.
• Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide , 1998. Marks was the chief of the Codes with the SOE, and its book reports its combat to introduce a better encoding usable by the agents.
• Alain Guerin, Chronic of Resistance , Slow train, 2000, ISBN 2-7441-5190-4. (This work constitutes, supplemented, corrected a re-examined edition and increased Resistance: Illustrated chronicle (1930-1950) , Diderot Deliver-Club, 1972-1976)
• Arthur Christie, Mission Scapula SOE in the Far East , ISBN 0954701003. A true story of an agent sent on mission to Singapore right before the fall. With Freddy Spencer-Chapman.
• Robert and the shades , of Jean-Marie Barrère. Tell the French history resistant coming to assistance in the campaigns of Gers to secret agents enlisted in the SOE.
• the War from day to day. Resistance and collaboration; For or against the occupation Nazi , Edito-Service S.A., Geneva, 1981.
• Andre Courvoisier, the Heckler network, from Lyon to London, ED. France-empire, 1984.
• Janusz Piekalkiewicz, great successes of espionage , French edition: Beech and Paris-Match, 1971.

• William Stanley Moss, Ill puts by moonlight , 1950.
• Night Ambush , film (based on the book), 1957, with Dirk Bogarde (Major columns = 2}} {{Information of the Second world war}} {{British Intelligence services}} {{multi stringcourse|Gate information|gate Second world war}} [[Category: British intelligence service]] [[Category: Resistance during the Second world war]] [[Category: Special Operations Executive|*]] [[of: Special Operations Executive]] [[in: Special Operations Executive]] [[be: Special Operations Executive]] [[fi: Special Operations Executive]] [[nl: Special Operations Executive]] [[N: Special Operations Executive]] [[No: Special Operations Executive]] [[pl: Special Operations Executive]] [[Ru: Управлениеспециальныхопераций]] [[sv: Special Operations Executive

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