Download or read book The Special Operations Executive in Norway 1940 1945 written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1940 and 1945, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) carried out sabotage and organised resistance across occupied Europe. There have, however, only been a small number of scholarly studies of SOE?s activities, and no specific examination of its involvement in occupied Norway. This thesis, therefore, is the first multi-archival, international, and academic analysis of its policy and operations in this country and the influences that shaped them. The proposition is that it was the changing contribution of both SOE and Norway within the wider strategic context in Europe that was the predominant factor behind its plans for this theatre, and other factors, although material, were of secondary importance. These included SOE?s relationship with the Norwegian government-in-exile and the resistant movements that emerged in response to the occupation, especially Milorg, which set out to form an underground army within the country. As well as collaboration with the other clandestine organisations and regular armed forces that had a military involvement in Norway. Through an examination of these contextual influences this work argues that between 1940 and 1945, in step with its original strategic role, SOE?s policy for Norway consisted of a short-term objective, which through activities such as sabotage was to help undermine German fighting strength, and a long-term objective of forming a secret army. These aims could not, however, be achieved or implemented without the co-operation of the Norwegian military authorities and Milorg, who provided most of the manpower, and the assistance of the other military agencies that often operated alongside SOE. From the beginning, therefore, SOE deliberately set out to work with all these parties, but always on the basis that any joint activity was undertaken in accordance with British and Allied interests. This meant that SOE?s operations in Norway were ultimately the result of a blend of influences. It was, however, this country?s subordinate and peripheral position in relation to the main thrust of Allied strategy in Europe that was the crucial factor. The constructive relationship that the organisation eventually had with the Norwegian authorities and Milorg was also important because it meant that SOE both received the support it required and managed to ensure Allied control over special operations in this theatre. It was, therefore, a relationship that was beneficial and rather than undermining SOE?s plans, it underpinned them and guaranteed they remained in step with strategic and military requirements.
Download or read book Special Operations in Norway written by Ian Herrington and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Between 1940 and 1945, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) carried out sabotage and organised resistance across occupied Europe. Over 5 years, SOE sent over 500 agents into Norway to carry out a range of operations from sabotage and assassination to attempts to organise an underground guerrilla army. This book is the first multi-archival, international academic analysis of SOE's policy and operations in Norway and the influences that shaped them, challenging previous interpretations of the relationship between this organisation and both the Norwegian authorities and the Milorg resistance movement."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Download or read book SOE written by Michael Richard Daniell Foot and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984.
Download or read book Special Operations in Norway written by Ian Herrington and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1940 and 1945, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) carried out sabotage and organised resistance across occupied Europe. Over 5 years, SOE sent over 500 agents into Norway to carry out a range of operations from sabotage and assassination to attempts to organise an underground guerrilla army. This book is the first multi-archival, international academic analysis of SOE's policy and operations in Norway and the influences that shaped them, challenging previous interpretations of the relationship between this organisation and both the Norwegian authorities and the Milorg resistance movement.
Download or read book Secret Alliances written by Tony Insall and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Europe, 1940. Nazi forces sweep across the continent, with A British invasion likely only weeks away. Never before has a resistance movement been so crucial to the war effort. In this definitive appraisal of Anglo-Norwegian cooperation in the Second World War, Tony Insall reveals how some of the most striking successes of the Norwegian resistance were the reports produced by the heroic SIS agents living in the country's desolate wilderness. Their coast-watching intelligence highlighted the movements of the German fleet and led to counter-strikes which sank many enemy ships – most notably the Tirpitz in November 1944. Using previously unpublished archival material from London, Oslo and Moscow, Insall explores how SIS and SOE worked effectively with their Norwegian counterparts to produce some of the most remarkable achievements of the Second World War.
Download or read book Undercover written by Patrick Howarth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-21 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1980, is an invaluable assessment of SOE’s contribution to the Allied victory. From both first-hand knowledge (Howarth served with SOE for 4 years) and in-depth research, this book traces the development of the organisation and its successes and failures. By bringing to life some of the outstanding men and women who served in SOE, this book pays tribute to their bravery and examines their role in fomenting and supporting clandestine resistance against the Nazi regime.
Download or read book The Secret History of SOE written by William MacKenzie and published by St Ermins. This book was released on 2002 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of World War II, the Cabinet Office commissioned an eminent academic, Professor William Mackenzie, to undertake a comprehensive secret history of Special Operations Executive. Given access to both personnel and the surviving wartime files, Mackenzie's report was a reference document to be used by intelligence agencies in a future conflict, its audience the very elite of Whitehall insiders. Now, this highly classified account has been made available. Never before have SOE's operations across the world been described in such detail and with total authority. Mackenzie's document explores numerous controversies and reveals dozens of previously undisclosed episodes from Britain's secret war against the Axis. Who were the agents parachuted in Germany? What became of schemes designed to protect Gibraltar from a Spanish invasion? When did SOE decide to collaborate with the NKVD and infiltrate Soviet spies into Eastern Europe? These and other wartime mysteries are packed into one of the most controversial documents of our time.
Download or read book S O E written by M. R. D. Foot and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014 with total page 356 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 established in July 1940 and encouraged by Churchill to âe~set Europe ablazeâe(tm). Recruited from remarkably diverse callings, the men and women who were members of this most secret agency lived in great and constant danger. Their job âe" as saboteurs, informers, partisans, couriers or secret agents âe" was to support and stimulate resistance behind enemy lines; their credentials fortitude, courage, immense patience and a devotion to freedom. In this classic study M.R.D. Foot, sheds light on the heroism of individual SOE agents across the world and provides us with a spellbinding account of the Executiveâe(tm)s crucial wartime work. With an introduction by David Stafford.
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 German Northern Theater of Operations 1940 1945 Illustrated Edition written by Earl Ziemke and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Includes 23 maps and 31 illustrations] This volume describes two campaigns that the Germans conducted in their Northern Theater of Operations. The first they launched, on 9 April 1940, against Denmark and Norway. The second they conducted out of Finland in partnership with the Finns against the Soviet Union. The latter campaign began on 22 June 1941 and ended in the winter of 1944-45 after the Finnish Government had sued for peace. The scene of these campaigns by the end of 1941 stretched from the North Sea to the Arctic Ocean and from Bergen on the west coast of Norway, to Petrozavodsk, the former capital of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. It faced east into the Soviet Union on a 700-mile-long front, and west on a 1,300-mile sea frontier. Hitler regarded this theater as the keystone of his empire, and, after 1941, maintained in it two armies totaling over a half million men. In spite of its vast area and the effort and worry which Hitler lavished on it, the Northern Theater throughout most of the war constituted something of a military backwater. The major operations which took place in the theater were overshadowed by events on other fronts, and public attention focused on the theaters in which the strategically decisive operations were expected to take place. Remoteness, German security measures, and the Russians’ well-known penchant for secrecy combined to keep information concerning the Northern Theater down to a mere trickle, much of that inaccurate. Since the war, through official and private publications, a great deal more has become known. The present volume is based in the main on the greatest remaining source of unexploited information, the captured German military and naval records. In addition a number of the participants on the German side have very generously contributed from their personal knowledge and experience.
Download or read book Special Operations in WWII written by James Stejskal and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brief history of secret British and American World War II organizations, their training, tools, successes, and their legacy. Winston Churchill famously instructed the head of the Special Operations Executive to “Set Europe ablaze!” Agents of both the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services underwent rigorous training before making their way, undetected, into occupied Europe to do just that. Working alone or in small cells, often cooperating with local resistance groups, agents undertook missions behind enemy lines involving sabotage, subversion, organizing resistance groups and intelligence-gathering. SOE’s first notable success was the destruction of a power station in France, stopping work at a vital U-boat base. Later operations included the assassination of Himmler’s deputy Reinhard Heyrich and ending the Nazi atomic bomb program by destroying the heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway. OSS operatives established anti-Nazi resistance groups across Europe, and managed to smuggle operatives into Nazi Germany, including running one of the war’s most important spies, German diplomat Fritz Kolbe. All missions were incredibly dangerous and many agents were captured, tortured, and ultimately killed—the life expectancy of an SOE wireless operator in occupied France was just six weeks. In this short history, historian James Stejskal examines why these agencies were established, the training regime and ingenious tools developed to enable agents to undertake their missions, their operational successes, and their legacy.
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:
Download or read book Special Operations Executive written by Mark Seaman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles. This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization’s activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities. SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first. This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.
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 Special Operations in Norway written by Ian Herrington and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1940 and 1945, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) carried out sabotage and organised resistance across occupied Europe. Over 5 years, SOE sent over 500 agents into Norway to carry out a range of operations from sabotage and assassination to attempts to organise an underground guerrilla army. This book is the first multi-archival, international academic analysis of SOE's policy and operations in Norway and the influences that shaped them, challenging previous interpretations of the relationship between this organisation and both the Norwegian authorities and the Milorg resistance movement.
Download or read book SECRET ALLIANCES written by TONY. INSALL and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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.
