SOE’s Female Spies of Normandy Landings
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a volunteer organization set up to spy, scout, and sabotage the Nazis during the Normandy Landings.
Special Operations Executive
Orde Wingate and His Unorthodox Campaign Against the Japanese
Some portray Wingate as a visionary unconventional warrior; others as an unstable man. Regardless, he and his Chindits became the terror of the Japanese.
People and Events That Shaped D-Day: The Special Operations Executive (SOE)
In a war of secrecy, spies, and destruction, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) was on the leading edge.
The abduction of a Nazi general in Crete
The value of the operation was in the morale boost it generated, as a small contingent of men kidnapped a German general from a Nazi stronghold on Crete.
The White Mouse: Remembering Nancy Wake, covert ops operative
Nancy Wake was given the moniker, “the White Mouse” by the Germans during World War II, for her uncanny ability to escape out of any trap. However, the glamorous female agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was deadly; in one instance she killed an SS guard, taking him out with her bare hands to […]
A Spy and a Gentleman: John Ford, Oscar-winning Hollywood director
Most people remember John Ford as an iconic Hollywood film director and winner of multiple Oscars. Ford was known especially for his westerns for which he frequently used Monument Valley in the Arizona/Utah area as a backdrop. But during World War II, Ford went to work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner […]
OSS and Marine Colonel Peter J. Ortiz’s career reads like fiction
The OSS was an eclectic organization; General William Donovan wanted operators, he didn’t care about a soldier’s background or his political beliefs. The OSS wanted as Donovan said, “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” McGeorge Bundy said of the organization, “The OSS was a remarkable institution: half cops and robbers and half faculty meeting.” […]
SOE Agents Paved the Way For D-Day, Remembering Violette Szabo
The preparation for D-Day on the Allied side took a couple of years of meticulous planning, training, the massing of troops and then intense coordination with air, sea and land forces as well as coordinating the French resistance. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) was the driving force behind infiltrating agents into occupied France, setting […]
Modern Candidates Pass Selection For British WWII SOE
Have you ever wondered if you could pass the Selection and Assessment course standards for our World War II predecessors in the British Special Operations Executive? The SOE was the forerunner to the United States’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and it was that the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army Special Forces was […]
Yanks at Arnhem, Jedburgh Team Claude Was Part of British 1st Airborne
When we discuss the battle in Holland during Operation Market Garden, we naturally think about the paratroopers of the U.S. and Britain trying to secure five bridges at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem for the armor of the British XXX Corps to get into Germany and end the war early. Later they were trying to get […]
Operation Foxley, the Special Operations Executive mission to kill Hitler
The British Special Operations Executive, SOE, put together a plan, “Operation Foxley” which was to be an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. If the British had actually put the plan into action, historians believe that millions of lives could have been saved, the war shortened by many months and eased the suffering […]
Operation Foxley, The Special Operations Executive Mission to Kill Hitler
The British Special Operations Executive, SOE, put together a plan, “Operation Foxley” which was to be an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. If the British had actually put the plan into action, historians believe that millions of lives could have been saved, the war shortened by many months and eased the suffering […]
