Special Operations Executive Analysis

The Special Operations Executive, or the SOE, was a British intelligence agency that was formed shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1940 (CITE). One of the main intentions of getting formed was to tackle the most powerful regimes in history, Hitler’s German empire (CITE). The SOE was formed in July 1940 from an order by Churchill, the prime minister at the time, and was formed from three smaller organizations: Section D – a branch of the Secret Intelligence Service handling in sabotage, EH – part of the Foreign Office department which dealt in propaganda, and the MI(R), a branch of the War Office (CITE). The SOE was established to “set Europe ablaze”, a famous phrase by Churchill, by means of “sabotage and subversion, and “denotate” popular resistance against Axis rule”; however, as World War II was coming to a close, many of the staff members had to embrace “a whole raft of different activities, from sabotage and subversion, to political warfare” …show more content…
They were involved in a lot of “irregular political warfare”, some of which was that the SOE’s reputation largely relied on the military contribution to their allies – in training, equipping, and “mobilizing European movements against German domination during the last years of war” (CITE). Politics were integral to the new form of warfare; however, politics did not give irregular warfare its distinctive complexion, in a sense, it gave it it’s irresistible force (CITE). The SOE’s difficulties with the exiled governments were an inevitable by-product of them building up secret armies, saboteurs and gents in parts of Europe where their activities would be of greatest value to Britain’s military effort. Essentially, politics encroached onto the SOE’s activities and took over. Unfortunately, the SOE officially dissolved in 1946 after the year had ended and in the final years of the Cold War