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"The
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on
22 July 1940 under Hugh Dalton
Minister of Economic Warfare (a British government position which existed during WW2), from the
amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. The Minister of Economic Warfare was in charge of the
Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare. The purpose of the SOE was to conduct
espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in
occupied Europe (and later, also in
occupied Southeast Asia)
against the Axis powers, and to
local resistance movements.
The organisation was formed from the merger of three existing secret departments, which had been formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Immediately after Germany
annexed Austria (the
Anschluss) in March 1938, the
Foreign Office created a
propaganda organisation known as Department EH (after
Electra House, its headquarters), run by Canadian newspaper
magnate Sir
Campbell Stuart. Later that month, the
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6) formed a section known as
Section D, under Major Lawrence Grand
RE, to investigate the use of sabotage, propaganda, and other irregular means to weaken an enemy. In the autumn of 1938, the
War Office expanded an existing research department known as GS (R) and appointed Major J. C. Holland RE as its head to conduct research into
guerrilla warfare. GS (R) was renamed
MI(R) in early 1939.
These three departments worked with few resources until the outbreak of war. There was much overlap between their activities. Section D and EH duplicated much of each other's work. On the other hand, the heads of Section D and MI(R) knew each other and shared information. They agreed to a rough division of their activities; MI(R) researched irregular operations that could be undertaken by regular uniformed troops, while Section D dealt with truly undercover work.
During the early months of the war, Section D was based first at
St Ermin's Hotel in Westminster and then the
Metropole Hotel near Trafalgar Square. The
Section attempted unsuccessfully to sabotage deliveries of vital strategic materials to Germany from neutral countries by mining the
Iron Gate on the
River Danube. MI(R) meanwhile produced pamphlets and technical handbooks for guerrilla leaders. MI(R) was also involved in the formation of the
Independent Companies, autonomous units intended to carry out sabotage and guerrilla operations behind enemy lines in the
Norwegian Campaign, and the secret
Auxiliary Units,
stay-behind commando units based on the Home Guard which would operate on the flanks and to the rear of German lines in the event of an
Axis invasion of Britain during
Operation Sea Lion, Germany's planned invasion. Prior to Nazi invasion of Russia, invasion of Britain remained possible.
Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it sometimes referred to as the
"Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as
"Churchill's Secret Army" or the
"Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the
"Joint Technical Board" or the
"Inter-Service Research Bureau", or f
ictitious branches of the Air Ministry,
Admiralty or
War Office.
Major General Sir Colin McVean Gubbins,
KCMG,
DSO,
MC (2 July 1896 – 11 February 1976) was the prime mover of the
Special Operations Executive (SOE) in WW2.
Gubbins was also responsible for setting up the secret
Auxiliary Units, a commando force based around the Home Guard, to operate on the flanks and to the rear of German lines if the
United Kingdom were invaded during
Operation Sea Lion, Germany's planned invasion.
SOE operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed with Britain's principal Allies (the Soviet Union and the United States). It also
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 just over 13,000 people, about
3,200 of whom were women.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Executive .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Gubbins .
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a wartime intelligence agency of the United States during World War II, and a predecessor of the modern Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of
propaganda, subversion, and
post-war planning
Prior to the formation of the OSS, the various departments of the executive branch, including the State, Treasury, Navy, and War Departments conducted American intelligence activities on an ad hoc basis, with no overall direction, coordination, or control. The US Army and US Navy had separate code-breaking departments: Signal Intelligence Service and OP-20-G. (A previous code-breaking operation of the State Department, the MI-8, run by Herbert Yardley, had been shut down in 1929 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson, deeming it an inappropriate function for the diplomatic arm, because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail".) The FBI was responsible for domestic security and anti-espionage operations.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about American intelligence deficiencies. On the suggestion of William Stephenson, the senior British intelligence officer in the western hemisphere, Roosevelt requested that William J. Donovan draft a plan for an intelligence service based on the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Special Operations Executive (SOE). After submitting his work, "Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information,"
Colonel Donovan was appointed "coordinator of information" on July 11, 1941, heading the new organization known as the office of the
Coordinator of Information (COI). Thereafter the organization was developed with British assistance; Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers and the existing US agencies were skeptical if not hostile. Until some months after Pearl Harbor, the bulk of OSS intelligence came from the UK.
British Security Coordination (BSC) trained the
first OSS agents in
Canada (Camp X - STS 103), until training stations were set up in the
US with guidance from
BSC instructors, who also provided information on how the
SOE was arranged and managed. The British immediately made available their short-wave broadcasting capabilities to Europe, Africa, and the Far East and provided equipment for agents until American production was established.
The
Office of Strategic Services was
established by a Presidential military order issued by
President Roosevelt on
June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct special operations not assigned to other agencies. During the war, the OSS supplied policymakers with facts and estimates, but the OSS never had jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence activities. The FBI was left responsible for intelligence work in Latin America, and the Army and Navy continued to develop and rely on their own sources of intelligence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services .
