SOE

  • The phrase “our man in New York” most commonly refers to William Stephenson, the Canadian-born MI6 officer who led a covert British intelligence operation in the United States aimed at shaping public opinion and encouraging American entry into the Second World War. His remarkable work is the focus of Henry Hemming’s critically acclaimed 2019 non-fiction

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  • When I visited Dachau in June,2023, I decided I would not take pictures of the gas chamber. To me, it felt wrong. However, I don’t judge people who have taken photographs in the past, like the one above. The gas chamber in Dachau was not used for mass murder. According to one eye witness account,

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  • Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of Indian royalty and a British special agent, is remembered for her extraordinary bravery during World War II. Born in 1914 in Moscow to an Indian Sufi mystic father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and an American mother, Noor was raised in a spiritual and intellectual household. Her early life was marked

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  • Operation Postmaster: A Daring Special Operations Executive Mission in World War II Introduction Operation Postmaster was a covert military operation conducted during World War II by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). It was a meticulously planned and highly successful mission that took place in January 1942, targeting enemy-controlled shipping in Spanish-controlled Fernando Po (now

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  • Englandspiel Tragedy

    The Englandspiel was a counter-espionage operation set up by the Germans that lasted from March 1942 to April 1944. Secret agents of the SOE who had been dropped over the Netherlands were often arrested immediately upon landing and forced to maintain radio contact with England. Despite hidden warnings in their broadcast messages, British intelligence continued

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  • This is one of those amazing stories of resilience and perseverance. Odette Sansom, aka Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code name Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom’s clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. She was born on 28 April 1912 in Amiens, France. She met an Englishman, Roy

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  • You have to give it to the Brits, they don’t give up. Regardless how dire the outlook they will come up with daring stuff to overcome their struggle. As it was the case in June 1941. They appear to be fighting the Germans on their own, Heavily outnumbered they had to come up with innovative

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  • I have to confess that the title is actually deceiving, because this blog is not about James Bond as such but more about 007’s creator, Ian Fleming, and some of his WWII efforts. Looking at some of the operations it appears that his inspiration for James Bond may have partially come from himself. In May

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