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The Activities Of The Churchill’s Secret Army
By OnTopic | August 7, 2010
Although it was technically created in July 1940, the SOE (Special Operations Executive) had been created in 1938 with the merger of three current, top secret departments following Germany annexed Austria. Churchill’s Secret Army was ordered to “Set Europe Ablaze”.
SOE agents were sent to various Nazi occupied territories to at the same time cause havoc behind German lines and additionally try to locate local resistance groups they would work with as the point for invasion was here. Theatres of Operation included France, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Abyssinia and the Far East.
As operatives had to operate deep in Nazi occupied nations and they were chosen from various social class and background. The primary qualification was that the would-be agent had exhaustive expertise of the place they would operate in and could pass as a local of that country. Thus, operatives holding dual nationality were highly sought after.
The legendary airplane used by the SOE in France was the Westland Lysander. It was a little airplane which meant it was lots more difficult to observe and was sturdy enough to land on temporary landing strips. It was used to ferry agents to and from the United Kingdom in addition to lifting people who had to be interviewed in London. Pilots who had been shot down were also typically returned to the United Kingdom by Lysander.
Among the SOE numbers were also female operatives and more or less 30% of the female operatives delivered into France from Section F, did not return. The nature of operations in each country differed. For instance, in Poland, there was very little need to encourage the locals as there was already general hatred of the Nazis. This was in comparison to areas such as Vichy France which collaborated with the Nazis and the hazard of SOE operatives being doubled crossed was substantially increased.
For the duration of World War II, the SOE had utilised close to 13,000 people who directly helped or provided somewhere in the region of 1 million operatives.
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