Special Operations Executive
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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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 Hugh Dalton, 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 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 (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.
See also
- Information Research Department
- British military history of World War II
- Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
- CIA's Special Activities Division
- Cichociemni
- Edmund Charaszkiewicz
- Escape and evasion lines (World War II)
- Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine
- John Dolphin CBE
- MI5
- Resistance during World War II
- Rovetta massacre
- Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force
- Z Special Unit
- Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits
- Operation Braddock
- Timeline of SOE's Prosper Network
