SOE -Special Operations Executive

[cookie]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the...ng-lines.thtml

[scotrace]

Cookie,this piece looks great and I will read it after I get more coffee later.
Could you please, in linking, just add a jot about what the article is about, etc.? I think many members are reluctant to click a blind link, no matter how reputable the sharer.

[H.Johnson]

I think that MRD Foot's seminal book in the SOE was discussed in some depth in another thread some time ago.

As the Spectator article suggests, some historians have questioned the effectiveness of SOE and its contribution to the war effort. I few years ago I sadly lost a friend who had briefly served with Foot in training SOE agents. He was himself initially doubtful about what the agents would be able to achieve, but told me that he became more convinced the more he had to do with the agents. A brave man himself (hew was awarded the MM) he admired their bravery.

[BellyTank]

The 1944 abduction of General Kreipe, the commander of the occupation forces on Crete springs to mind. Kreipe was kidnapped in his car, by SOE operatives, marched inland, over the mountains and down to the south coast, where he was sent by boat to British HQ, in Egypt. The walk from one side of Crete to the other took something like 18 days- a long and arduous journey, especially with a wounded German General and much of the occupying German soldiers hunting them. The SOE operatives, William Stanley Moss and Paddy Leigh Fermor were aided all the way by local Cretan operatives.

Good work.




B
T

[mikepara]

I met Michael Foot at the SF Club and he was a really nice bloke. His latest book is a good read but be aware it isn't all SOE cloak & dagger stuff (if that's what your after!).