The Actions of the Churchill’s Secret Army

Even though it was officially formed in July 1940, the SOE (Special Operations Executive) had been created in 1938 with the combination of 3 active, top secret departments immediately following Germany annexed Austria. Churchill’s Secret Army was instructed to “Set Europe Ablaze”.

SOE operatives were despatched to many Nazi occupied nations to at the same time cause mayhem behind German lines and in addition try to uncover local resistance groups they would certainly work with once the time for invasion arrived. Theatres of Operation involved France, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Abyssinia and the Far East.

As agents had to operate deep in occupied territory and they were chosen from many social group and background. The primary qualification was that the probable agent had meticulous awareness of the country they would function in and able to pass as a native of that country. Accordingly, those with dual nationality were highly coveted.

The famous aircraft utilised by the Special Operations Executives in France was the Westland Lysander. It was a small plane which meant it was significantly more challenging to see and was sturdy enough to land on make shift landing strips. It was used to transport agents to and from the United Kingdom together with picking up people who had to be debriefed in London. Airmen who had been shot down were also occasionally brought back to the UK by Lysander.

Amongst the Special Operations Executive numbers were a number of female operatives and roughly 30% of the female operatives dropped into France from Section F, did not survive. The sorts of operations in each country differed. For example, in Poland, there was hardly any need to encourage the locals as there was already widespread hate of the Germans. This was in comparison to regions like as Vichy France where some locals collaborated with the Germans and the risk of SOE operatives being betrayed was enormously increased.

During World War II, the SOE had made use of approximately 13,000 people who directly helped or provided somewhere in the region of 1 million operatives.