British World War II espionage and sabotage organisation
Special Operations Executive
Active
22 July 1940 – 15 January 1946
Country
United Kingdom
Type
Special forces[1]
Role
Espionage
Irregular warfare (especially sabotage and raiding operations)
Special reconnaissance
Size
Approximately 13,000 employees
Nickname(s)
"The Baker Street Irregulars" "Churchill's Secret Army" "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare"
Commanders
Notable commanders
Frank Nelson Charles Jocelyn Hambro Colin Gubbins
Military unit
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements during World War II.
SOE personnel operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis powers, except where demarcation lines were agreed upon with Britain's principal Allies, the United States and the Soviet Union. SOE 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.[2]
The organisation was dissolved in 1946. A memorial to those who served in SOE was unveiled in 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by the Queen Mother, and in 2009 on the Albert Embankment in London.[3] The Valençay SOE Memorial honours 104 SOE agents who lost their lives while working in France. The Tempsford Memorial was unveiled in 2013 by the Prince of Wales in Church End, Tempsford, Bedfordshire, close to the site of the former RAF Tempsford.
^"Special Operations Executive". National Army Museum. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
^Foot 2000, p. 62.
^"Bust: Violette Szabo & SOE". London Remembers. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
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