Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), often called "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of spies, was a World War II organisation initiated by Winston Churchill and Hugh Dalton in July 1940 as a mechanism for conducting warfare by means other than direct military engagement. Originally designated as 'Section D' of MI6, the mission of the SOE was to encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines and to serve as a focal point for the formation of a vestigial resistance movement in Britain itself (the Auxiliary Units) in the possible event of an Axis invasion. Known also as Churchill's Secret Army and charged by him to "set Europe ablaze" (A mission also given to Churchill's other brainchild, the Commandos), the existence of the SOE was not made available to the public at large until many years after the cessation of hostilities.

Agents

Amongst SOE's agents can be numbered:

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• Jack Agazarian (1916-1945)
• France Antelme (1900-1945)
• Guy D'Artois
• Lisé de Baissac
• Alcide Beauregard
• Yolande Beekman (1911-1944)
• Georges Bégué (1911-1993)
• Robert Benoist (1895-1944)
• Muriel Byck
• Gustave "Guy" Biéler (1904-1944)
• Emanuel Bierer (1884-ukn)
• Helen Anna Agate Thormann-Bierer (1885-ukn)
• Pierre Brossolette (1903-1944)
• Denise Bloch (1915-1945)
• Andrée Borrel (1919-1944)
• Tony Brooks
• Sonya Butt
• Robert Bennett Byerly
• Francis Cammaerts (1916- )
• William John Chalk (1899-ukn)
• Robert Arthur Chapman (1901-ukn)
• Peter Churchill (1909-1972)
• Adolphus Richard Cooper (1899-ukn)
• Yvonne Cormeau (1909-1998)
• Madeleine Damerment (1917-1944)
• Major Jim Davies
• Francois Adolphe Deniset
• Henri Dericourt (1909-1962)
• Sir Derek Dodson
• Gustave Duclos
• Albrecht Gaiswinkler (1905-1979)
• Emile Garry (1909-1944)
• Haim Gerson
• Christine Granville, General Motors (1915-1952) (real name Krystyna Skarbek)
• Virginia Hall (1906-1982)
• Marcel Homet (1897-ukn)
• Desmond Hubble (1910-1944)
• Max Hymans (1900-1961)
• Peter Johnsen
• Noor Inyat Khan (1914-1944)
• Andrzej Kowerski
• James Larose
• Cecily Lefort (1900-1945)
• Vera Leigh (1903-1944)
• Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915- )
• John Kenneth Macalister (1914-1944)
• Eileen Nearne
• Alfred Newton
• Henry Newton
• Gilbert Norman (1914-1944)
• Sonia Olschanezky (1923-1944)
• Harry Peulevé (1916-1963)
• Frank Pickersgill (1915-1944)
• Eliane Plewman (1917-1944)
• Sir Anthony Quayle (1913-1989)
• Alex Rabinovich
• Harry Rée (1914-1991)
• Chaviva Reik (1914-1944)
• Lilian Rolfe (1914-1945)
• Diana Rowden (1915-1944)
• Yvonne Rudelatt (1895-1945)
• Roméo Sabourin (1923-1944)
• Odette Sansom-Hallowes, GC (1912-1995)
• Krystyna Skarbek (aka Christine Granville), General Motors (1915-1952)
• Einar Skinnarland (1918-2002)
• Maurice Southgate
• Arthur Staggs (1912- )
• George Reginald Starr (1904-1980)
• John Renshaw Starr
• Brian Stonehouse (1918-1998)
• Francis Suttil (1910-1945)
• Violette Szabo (1921-1945)
• Hannah Szenes (1921-1944)
• Jacques Taschereau
• Paul-Émile Thibeault
• F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas (1902-1964)
• Pierre de Vomécourt
• Nancy Wake (1912- )
• Peter Wand-Tetley
• William Grover-Williams (1903-1945)
• Jean-Pierre Wimille (1908-1949)
• Pearl Witherington (1914- )
• John Young
• Arthur Christie (1921-2003)