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- SOE stands for Special Operations Executive
- SOE created on the 1st July 1940 by the Cabinet
- Originally came from parts of three different organisations; the War Office, Foreign Office and the SIS (MI6)
- Coordinated by the Foreign Office and the Chiefs of Staff > needed to be carful so British foreign policy would not be impacted and harmed
- Located at Baker St > makes meeting with other government departments easierEnter bullet point
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- Well organised > SOE divided into country sections so each team could understand the politics of each country they want to intervene in > training scheme got more professional over time so their staff would be more prepared in occupied territories > specialised paramilitary training > small teams of four with each having a very important role > SOE was well organised so it knew what they were dealing with each country and effectively dealt with the small teams by making each one have an important role so they could be more effective and already had professional training
- SOE dealing with German counter-intelligence so they could not be caught > used codenames, fake passports and ID cards, fake identities and constantly moving location so they could not be found > harder for the German intelligence to know what is going on or raise suspicion > extremely beneficial as the Germans would not know so the SOE operation can move smoothly
- SOE dealing with German counter-intelligence when they got caught > resistance to interrogation through training from MI5 > so officers could remain silent if captured > downside is the tough treatment from the Nazi's > officers got killed > tortured
- SOE helped the local resistance > improved the resistance movement > through the small teams > had a person to teach the locals how to sabotage
- SOE had a psychological impact > outsiders wanting to help the locals against the occupiers can be moral boosting > cannot be measured > however > there were other motivations > France motivated by German decisions and Communists already motivated by their ideology and worked with their party instead > Communists made coordination difficult > limited SOE activity
- Example of local resistance working: Abyssinia > a combo of SOE, the locals and the regular army > a success > Italy was defeated an left the country > SOE did not do it on its own tho > SOE did teach 1,800 locals > local figure head was also important to the success
- Example of local resistance working > Czechoslovakia > killed Heydrick > important Nazi figure > in charge of Nazi organisations and architecture of the Holocaust > 2 SOE trainees assassinated him > were betrayed
- Example of local resistance working > France > resistance helped the D-Day landing the night before > sabotaging 950 railways in Northern France so the German army could not advance so quickly
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- Tensions with the SIS > competing with its resources and undermining its work in a number of countries > created resistance in an areas and drew in German intelligence which resulted in some MI6 members getting arrested instead of the SOE officers that were being looked for > was the reason why SOE got abolished at the end of the war
- Resentment from the RAF > told to give the SOE resources so they could be helped > RAF did not want to divert their resources > did not want the possiblity of losing their pilots or planes > + SOE suffered a lot of failed parachute landings > a lot of people killed / harmed > makes it pointless to waste a mission on something that fails > loss of fuel, time, resources and man power
- SOE was entirely reliant on local resistance > if there was none then the SOE was useless > needed an already established resistance
- SOE reliant on the politics of the country > France was very complicated > National Council of Resistance took 3yrs to get to that coordination > major turning points helped by the Germans wanting all French adults to basically become slaves resulting in many people joining the resistance > France split into two and Southern France allowed the resistance to work more easily > so SOE was extremely reliant on the politics within the country and had to work with what it got > it could have been very different if it weren't for these factors
- German intelligence effective at dealing with resistance networks and the SOE > Germans were able to intecept wireless messages within 30 mins > resulting SOE officer messages being less than 5 mins and had disciplined training on it however some broke the rules and costed the British > also messages would be given to a courier to go to Spain, Switzerland or out to see > could make the intel be worthless when they get to the location > ** manged to intercept SOE message about D-Day and warned the German high command but they ignored it > SOE got lucky there
- Example of the SOE's biggest failure was in the Netherlands > officers did not follow communication discipline > resulted in the Germans tricking SOE HQ for 3 yrs
- Example of the SOE's failure in Czechoslovakia > the death of Heydrick resulted in the Nazi's eliminating two towns they thought had links to the assassins > showed the locals what happened if they betray them > SOE activity limited > was it the morally right choice to kill Heydrick and let innocents die
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- Got an Albanian dictator into power > hindsight > SOE did not do long term thinking > helped Communists who would be Britain's nex enemy > the essay only focuses on WW2 > but SOE actions did have consequences for after WW2
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