SOE: Churchill's Secret Agents

by Terry Crowdy

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was one of the most innovative British creations of the Second World War. Its mission was to export resistance, subversion, and sabotage to occupied Europe and beyond, disrupting the German war effort and building a Secret Army which would work in the shadows to help defeat the Nazis. Potential agents were put through intensive paramilitary and parachute training, then taught how to live clandestinely behind enemy lines, to operate radios and write in secret codes. They lived in constant fear of arrest, and of betrayal by treacherous collaborators. This book uses rare images from the collections of The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum to illustrate the lives of the men and women who made up the SOE, their rigorous training, the clever gadgets they used, and their lives behind enemy lines.

64 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2015

About the author

Terry Crowdy was born in London in 1970. Initially a re-enactor, his interest in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars led to writing for specialist magazines, and then to book authorship.