Download or read book The Special Operations Executive SOE in Burma written by Richard Duckett and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mountains and jungles of occupied Burma during World War II, British special forces launched a series of secret operations, assisted by parts of the Burmese population. The men of the SOE, trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, worked in the jungle, deep behind enemy lines, to frustrate the puppet Burmese government of Ba Maw and continue the fight against Hirohito's Japan in a theatre starved of resources. Here, Richard Duckett uses newly declassified documents from the National Archives to reveal for the first time the extent of British special forces' involvement - from the 1941 operations until beyond Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Duckett argues convincingly that `Operation Character' and `Operation Billet' - large SOE missions launched in support of General Slim's XIV Army offensive to liberate Burma - rank among the most militarily significant of the SOE's secret missions. Featuring a wealth of photographs and accompanying material never before published, including direct testimony recorded by veterans of the campaign and maps from the SOE files, The SOE in Burma tells a compelling story of courage and struggle in during World War II
Download or read book SOE s Ultimate Deception written by Fredric Boyce and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the closing months of the Second World War, General Eisenhower exhorted the Western Allied forces to redouble their efforts to break the German will to resist. In considering this appeal, General Gubbins, whose Special Operations Executive was making a significant contribution to the liberation of occupied territory, was faced with a fundamental difficulty in the case of Germany. Although opposition to Nazism was present in some areas, it was neither organised nor pro-Allied. Then someone had the idea of creating an entirely fictional German resistance movement and 'selling it' to the Nazi security authorities. From January until April 1945, SOE rained propaganda leaflets on the hapless population fleeing the ruins of their cities and the oncoming Allied ground forces; they broadcast messages to the 'resistance'; they planted the most scandalous lies about eminent Nazis; and at the end they even dropped four agents on fictitious missions. This imaginative response to Ike's exhortation and the sheer audacity of the operation itself demand to be told to a wider audience.
Download or read book The SOE s Brothers of Vengeance written by Peter Jacobs and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: December 1941. After setting up one of the first resistance organisations in Vichy France and escaping over the Pyrenees into Spain, brothers Henry and Alfred Newton received devastating news. SS Avoceta, carrying their parents, wives and children to the safety of Britain, had been torpedoed by a German U-boat. All of their family were dead. From that moment on, the Newton brothers were consumed by revenge. Recruited by SOE, and known to everyone simply as the Twins, they returned to France and waged their own personal war against the Nazis. For nine months they lived on the edge before they were betrayed, and the net finally closed. They were caught by the Gestapo and tortured at the hands of the Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie, before being taken to the dreaded Buchenwald concentration camp. In The SOE's Brothers of Vengeance, acclaimed historian Peter Jacobs reveals the full story of Henry and Alfred Newton. Drawing on personal archives and new research, theirs is a dramatic tale of courage steeped in vengeance – and of the bonds of brotherhood in the face of hell on earth.
Download or read book Ian Fleming and SOE s Operation POSTMASTER written by Brian Lett and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2012-09-19 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the force of “licensed to kill” secret agents who became the basis for the James Bond spy series. Brigadier Colin Gubbins was M. The Special Operations Executive was his Secret Service. Professor Dudley Newitt was Q. Capt. Gus March-Phillips commanded “Maid of Honor Force,” the team of “James Bonds” who, in a daring operation, sailed a ship to West Africa and stole three enemy ships from a neutral Spanish port on the volcanic island of Fernando Po. Ian Fleming worked closely with M to oil the wheels that made the operation possible, and prepared the cover story, in which the British government lied in order to conceal British responsibility for the raid. M’s agents prepared the ground on Fernando Po, even enmeshing the governor in a honey trap. March-Phillips and his team carried out the raid successfully in January 1942, despite much opposition from the local regular Army and Navy commanders, and in the face of overwhelming odds. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden told Fleming’s lies on the international stage, denying any British complicity in the operation. As a result, a secrecy embargo enveloped Operation POSTMASTER until recently. This gripping book proves beyond doubt that this thrilling operation, and the men who carried it out, were the inspiration for Fleming’s fictional 007.
Download or read book SOE s Balls of Steel written by Sophie Jackson and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1940 the Nazis hoped to cripple the British war effort by blockading Swedish cargo ships containing ball bearings, steel and tools vital for making arms and equipment. In desperation the newly formed SOE was asked to rescue these badly needed supplies and a daring escapade was dreamt, which involved sneaking in under the Germans' noses to steal the ships.It was a dangerous mission and the 147 men involved knew there was a high chance they would not come home. The terrifying operation to rescue cargoes of ball bearings in clunky transport ships, while trying to outrun the Luftwaffe and German navy, had never been attempted before. It was a success that was never repeated.Making use of newly released files from the National Archives, Sophie Jackson tells the story of a forgotten adventure that saved Britain and her troops from certain defeat, all because of brave men willing to sacrifice their lives for millions of small balls of steel.
Download or read book Operation EBENSBURG SOE s Austrian Bonzos and the rescue of looted European art written by Bernard O'Connor and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-04-16 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some captured German and Austrian personnel were brought to Britain as prisoners of war. Those who were identified as anti-Nazi were 'turned' and, codenamed 'Bonzos', were trained in paramilitary and clandestine warfare to be sent back into occupied Europe on top secret missions. The British Special Operations Executive arranged the infiltration of four Austrians, Albrecht Gaiswinkler, Joseph Grafl, Karl Standhartinger and Karl Lzicar, into the Salzkammergut area of northwestern Austria. This book tells the story of Operation EBENSBURG, their mission to kidnap or assassinate Joseph Goebbels, the Reich's Minister of Propaganda, to organise resistance groups before the arrival of American forces and to protect the looted works of art hidden in the Altaussee salt mine.
Download or read book Mission France written by Kate Vigurs and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full story of the thirty-nine female SOE agents who went undercover in France Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. But while some are widely known—Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan—others have had their stories largely overlooked. Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all thirty-nine female agents. Tracing their journeys from early recruitment to work undertaken in the field, to evasion from, or capture by, the Gestapo, Vigurs shows just how greatly missions varied. Some agents were more adept at parachuting. Some agents’ missions lasted for years, others’ less than a few hours. Some survived, others were murdered. By placing the women in the context of their work with the SOE and the wider war, this history reveals the true extent of the differences in their abilities and attitudes while underlining how they nonetheless shared a common mission and, ultimately, deserve recognition.
Download or read book SOE The Scientific Secrets written by Fredric Boyce and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Special Operations Executive (SOE) seems to spring a never-ending run of surprises, and here are some more. This book explores the mysterious world of the tools SOE used for their missions of subversion and sabotage. An often grim reality is confronted that is more akin with the world of James Bond and Q's workshop than previously believed. Written by two scientists, one of whom served in the SOE and one who was tasked with clearing up after it was disbanded; their insider knowledge presents a clear account of the way in which SOE's inventors worked. From high explosive technology to chemical and biological devices; from the techniques of air supply to incendiarism; from camouflage to underwater warfare; and from radio communications to weaponry. SOE: The Scientific Secrets is a revelation about the tools that allowed the murky world of spying and spies to operate during wartime.
Download or read book SOE in Denmark written by and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a small number of clandestine activities against the German occupation of Denmark in 1940, a sophisticated resistance movement developed which by 1944, with the support of Special Operations Executive, had become a highly effective intelligence gathering and sabotage organisation. Denmark is composed of a mainland and more than 500 islands, a fifth of which are inhabited, and the countryside is devoid of any inaccessible or mountainous region. Together this made communication between resistance cells difficult and meant that there were no natural bases from which guerrilla operations could be mounted. Nevertheless, thanks to supply drops of explosives, weapons and ammunition arranged by SOE, the Danes harassed the Germans and raised the moral of the Danish people in the latter, and most brutal, stages of the war. This largely forgotten story of SOE and its agents in Denmark, the latter facing extremely hazardous conditions, was written immediately after the war by a SOE staff member and read and validated by the Director of SOE, Major General Colin Gubbins. A very large number of documents were burned at SOE’s London headquarters in Baker Street when the organisation was wound down in 1946 making this history of the Danish Section an invaluable and irreplaceable study. SOE in Denmark was written at a time when SOE was still largely unknown to the general public and its operations a closely guarded secret. It was expected that its activities would never be officially acknowledged and the study of its actions in Denmark was compiled with the aim of provide a lasting record of its achievement. Within its pages we read of the dangers the agents faced, the logistical mountains they had to overcome, and the successes achieved in the face of a ruthless enemy. Completed with unique photographs from the Danish archives, SOE in Denmark is an essential addition to the SOE literature.
Download or read book SOE written by Michael Richard Daniell Foot and published by Random House. This book was released on 1999 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SOE, the Special Operations Executive, was a small, tough British secret service, a dirty tricks department, set up in July 1940. Recruited from remarkably diverse callings, the men and women who were members of this most secret agency in the Second World War lived in great and constant danger. Their job was to support and stimulate resistance behind enemy lines; their credentials fortitude, courage, immense patience and a devotion to freedom. The activity of the SOE was world-wide. Abyssinian tribesmen, French farmers, exiled Russian grandees, coolies, smugglers, printers, policemen, telephonists, tycoons, prostitutes, rubber workers, railwaymen, peasants from the Pyranees to the Balkans, even the regent of Siam - all had a part to play as saboteurs, informers, partisans or secret agents. In this engrossing and illuminating study, the eminent Second World War historian, M.R.D. Foot, sheds light on the heroism of individual SOE agents across the world and provides us with the definitive account of the Executive's crucial wartime work. With an introduction by David Stafford.
Download or read book SOE s Mastermind written by Brian Lett and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-09-30 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first complete biography of Britain’s WWII spymaster presents an intimate look at his life and career, as well as an insider’s look at the SOE. Major General Sir Colin Gubbins was the driving force behind Britain’s Special Operations Executive, the secret military organization established by Winston Churchill in 1940. First as its Operations and Training Director, and then its Commander, Gubbins orchestrated every aspect of the SOE’s worldwide covert operations. Though Gubbins made enormous contributions to Allied victory, his life and work have remained shrouded in secrecy until now. With copious research and unprecedented access to family archives, biographer Brian Lett reveals the war hero’s early experiences in the Great War, as well as in Russia, Ireland, Poland, and as Head of British Resistance. The result is a fascinating biography that reveals as much about SOEs extraordinary activities as it does about the man who inspired and commanded them.
Download or read book Security and Special Operations written by C. Murphy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-10-10 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers the first comprehensive history of the Security Section of the Special Operations Executive and its relationship with MI5 during the Second World War. The book makes extensive use of recently declassified files in order to examine the development of liaison between the two organizations.
Download or read book SOE in Czechoslovakia written by F.E. Keary and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2022-09-21 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The majority of the successful SOE operations in Europe took place in countries occupied by the Germans after the outbreak of war in 1939, Hitler’s forces being regarded as foreign invaders. In Czechoslovakia it was different. The country, which had large numbers of ethnic Germans living within its borders, had been occupied since 1938, allowing the Germans to establish a strong hold on the country which limited the opportunities for subversive action by resistance movements. Nevertheless, resist the Czechs did, despite the Germans conducting savage and indiscriminate reprisals. It was against this background that SOE attempted to infiltrate its agents into Czechoslovakia in 1941, their role being to help in co-ordinating and expanding the resistance movement and to establish communications with the Czech authorities in the UK. Successful actions were admittedly few before 1942 when one of the most successful SOE-backed operations resulted in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the highest-ranking Nazi to be killed by any resistance group. The huge wave of reprisals against the civilian population which followed severely hampered SOE activities in the immediate aftermath. Another factor which limited SOE’s ability to infiltrate Czechoslovakia and to supply the resistance was the distance and difficulty experienced by the RAF in flying to the region. During the short nights of summer, no flights could be attempted. This changed in September 1943 when sorties were able to be conducted from Italy, and by 1944 the scale of operations increased both in frequency and scale. More than 300 Czechs were trained by SOE and, in conjunction with local resistance groups, those that managed to infiltrate back into their homeland, kept the occupying forces constantly on the alert, ensuring that Germany’s eastern flank was never entirely secure. This is the first full, official account of SOE in Czechoslovakia, compiled by SOE headquarters staff who had direct access to all the organisation’s records, many of which were destroyed after the war.
Download or read book SOE Manual How to be an Agent in Occupied Europe written by Special Operations Executive and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The actual course given to all secret agents in SOE before working behind enemy lines. It includes everything you needed to know to go undercover – from documents, cover stories and how to live off the land to how to get through an interrogation.
Download or read book How to Be a Spy written by and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2004-04 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, training in the black arts of covert operation was vital preparation for the 'ungentlemanly warfare' waged by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) against Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan. Reproduced here is the most comprehensive training syllabus used at SOE's Special Training Schools (STSs) showing how agents learnt to wreak maximum destruction in occupied Europe and beyond. The training took place in country houses and other secluded locations ranging from the Highlands of Scotland to Singapore and Canada. An array of unconventional skills are covered - from burglary, close combat and silent killing through to propaganda, surveillance and disguise - giving insight into the workings of one of World War II's most intriguing organizations. Denis Rigden's introduction sets the documents in its historical context and includes stories of how these lessons were put into practice on actual wartime missions.
Download or read book Clandestine Warfare written by James D. Ladd and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the weapons and equipment used by the British SOE and the American OSS.
Download or read book SOE in France written by Michael Richard Daniell Foot and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: