SOE French Section: Organization, Training and Operations, 1940-43

In 1940, with France overrun and Britain threatened with invasion, Churchill ordered the formation of a new organization to carry the war to the Germans and 'set Europe ablaze'. This was the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose French Section sent agents into occupied France to hinder the German war effort and help organize resistance to the invader. Despite a life expectancy of six weeks, these brave men and women did their duty in the most perilous circumstances, usually dropped in the middle of nowhere by brave pilots flying by moonlight and hoping the Gestapo were not waiting for them. Many were captured, tortured and either executed or incarcerated in dreadful conditions but many achieved valuable results.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, including testimonies of agents who served in France and senior staff officers based at F Section's HQ in London, Alan Malcher describes the founding and organization of the SOE, and specifically its French Section. The rigorous training regime, which included knife-fighting, sabotage and explosives handling, is described and, of course, the daring operations themselves. His thorough research corrects many inaccuracies included in earlier accounts and perpetuated by later historians to give the most accurate account of the SOE in France and their contribution to the war effort during the darkest days of the war.