Special Operations Executive

The British sabotage and resistance support organization of 1940 to 1946

Overview

SOE was formed in 1940 on the instruction of Winston Churchill to set Europe ablaze. It armed resistance movements, blew up infrastructure, and parachuted agents, including women such as Odette Sansom and Violette Szabo, into occupied territory. Its networks harried German divisions in France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Asia. Dissolved in 1946, many of its officers joined the Secret Intelligence Service, and its unconventional warfare doctrine influenced postwar special forces. Its casualty rates among agents, especially in occupied France, were heavy.