BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE 1940-45 a survey of the Special Operations Executive

by David Stafford

THE ESSENTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE’S VITAL WORK DURING WORLD WAR TWO.

‘A masterly account of SOE’s two wars, that fought in Europe from Norway to Greece and that fought in Whitehall . . . [it] deserves to be read and digested as a significant contribution to our overall understanding of British strategy during the Second World War.’ D. C. Watt, Daily Telegraph

June 1940. British forces have been driven from the continent by Germany and almost all of Europe is under Nazi occupation. Britain fears an invasion and fifth-column activity is rife.

How could Britain hope to win the war?

In July 1940, the War Cabinet set up the Special Operations Executive. Its aim was to mobilise the potential resistance in occupied Europe by fostering and supporting sabotage and subversion.

But this was no simple task.

At first, SOE struggled to survive against the hostility and scepticism of more established British bodies including the Foreign Office, the regular services, and the Secret Intelligence Service. It had to build the necessary underground networks in Europe from scratch and depended heavily on the willingness and the ability of Europeans to actively resist the Nazis. SOE was also constantly threatened by German attempts to penetrate or destroy its networks.

As SOE overcame these obstacles, it proved that its existence was integral to Britain’s strategic war aims and necessary to achieve victory.

Britain and European Resistance 1940–45 is the first general survey of SOE operations in Europe to have been written using the wartime documents now available. David Stafford has produced a comprehensive study of Britain’s direct physical links with resistance in occupied Europe, which is set firmly in the wider strategic and diplomatic context of the war.

It is essential reading for anyone who enjoys World War Two histories or twentieth century and military history.

PRAISE FOR DAVID

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘For me, and I would suggest for anyone at all interested in WWII, this is a must read. I will read it again.’ John

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A really fascinating read. Interesting to note that at times the country was in a very precarious situation.’ PW

Genres: History

426 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

David Stafford is a writer, broadcaster and occasional musician born in Birmingham, England. David began his career in fringe and community theatre in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, he collaborated and toured with Alexei Sayle, which resulted in two series for Capital Radio, two films for TV ('Itch and Didn't You Kill My Brother?), a book, Great Bus Journeys of the World, and various songs and recordings including Doctor Marten’s Boots. At the same time he was a presenter on the Channel 4 consumer programme 4 What It’s Worth and contributed to many arts programmes and documentaries including The Media Show (Channel 4) and extensively to The Late Show (BBC2). His TV plays include Dread Poets Society (BBC2) co-written with the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, My Little Grey Home In The West and Catherine. For ten years he wrote a weekly column for the Saturday Guardian, eventually called Staffordshire Bull. During the 1990s, he presented Tracks for BBC2, Going Places for BBC Radio 4 and was a regular panellist on Radio 4’s literary parody game Booked. David frequently stood in for John Peel as the presenter of Home Truths (BBC Radio 4). After Peel’s death, he became first one of the pool of presenters and later sole presenter of the programme. For the past five years he has taught a screenwriting course at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, and I would suggest for anyone at all interested in WWII, this is a must read.
I will read it again, much has not sunken in: my failing not the book’s. There is so much to consider; and for me most of the detail was far outside any considerations I had made from reading other works; the research behind this must be phenomenal.
‘We will set Europe ablaze with flames of revolt,’ Churchill said, and championed the formation of the SOE.
I’ll not detail here the torture SOE was made to endure within the halls of power; it has to be read. Its survival as an organisation hung by a thread on several occasions, much of its pain caused by those without the slightest military experience, in their resentments and biases.
I’ve been until now a little perplexed at why SOE was disbanded so soon after the war: here we are given the nuts and bolts.
I am not suggesting that concerns for the consequences of our ‘ungentlemanly warfare’ should have been ignored; but ... ‘SOE appeared to the Foreign Office and Chiefs of Staff as an unruly sixth-form schoolboy unable to keeps his grubby fingers off the tablecloth ....’
What I found most revealing was that as earlyall, we do have to consider those consequences in a post-war Europe. Production shortages as a result of labour revolts is all well and good (a strong arm in economic warfare), but those union types might get to realise the power they can wield.’
Hang-on, there is a war to win, does not minimising the loss of life come first?
SOE survived the war and the mud-slinging: a subject I became engrossed with.
We’re told that in 1944 the foreign office stated: ‘our vital security interests are threats to UK from attack by long-distance aircraft and, still more, domination of Europe by a single Great Power’ (a traditional British foreign policy objective). With Philby being snuggled up with the ‘right
chaps’, then we can guarantee that Joe Stalin was aware of this policy objective as I’m sure Adolf was.
Bismarck stated (the details of which I’ve forgot - I’ll need to get the books out again and I can’t be bothered): ‘Germany’s objective is hegemony of Europe’. The difference being that we never took to the trenches in order to achieve that goal.
I’m nowhere near as well-read as I would want, but .... in any post-war discussions with the other ‘Single Great European Power’, it seems to me that we were hog-tied before the off. I thoroughly recommend this book
and it now sits alongside:
Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century.
Resistance in Europe: 1939-45.
Rebuilding Europe: Western Europe, America and Post-War Reconstruction.
Albanian Assignment: The Memoir of an SOE Agent in World War Two.