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.

Numbered stations

SOE operated several "stations" located in country houses and elsewhere. These were given numbers, such as:

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• Station VI - Bride Hall, the weapons acquisition section.
• Station IX - The Frythe estate near Welwyn Garden City, which began as a wireless research unit (Special Signals), then became a weapons development & production centre, then a research and development station. Now a factory belonging to Smithkline Beecham. http://www.timelapse.dk/Welrod/uk/SoeStationIX.htm
• Station X - Bletchley Park, a radio station, now more famous for its subsequent use as a code breaking centre. The radio station moved to Aston House when code breaking activities took over.
• Station XI - Aston House near Stevenage, a research and development station.
• Station XII - also at Aston House, the radio station that started at Bletchley Park.
• Station XIV - Briggens, near Roydon, Essex, contained the forgery section.
• Station XV - Thatched Barn - on the Barnet bypass at Borehamwood, Hertfordshire - camouflage section, for development of booby traps.
• Station XVA - Kensington, London - prototypes.
• Station XVB - A training centre for agents and Demonstration Room for briefing officials, at the Natural History Museum in London. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre/live/presentations/181103PaulClark.html
• Station XVC - photographic and make-up section.
• Station 53a - Grendon Hall in Grendon Underwood, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire - cryptology centre. Now a prison.
• Station 53b - Poundon, Buckinghamshire, near Bicester. - radio listening and transmission station.
• Station 53c - Poundon, Buckinghamshire, near Bicester. - Training American forces in SOE communications techniques. 53b and 53c were physically separate establishments but close to each other. Some of the 53b staff were transferred when 53c opened.

Others, whose code numbers are unknown, included:

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• Gaynes Hall near St Neots in Cambridgeshire - Norwegian section.
• The Firs - Whitchurch, near Aylesbury - explosives testing.
• Arisaig, Inverness-shire - finishing school http://www.btinternet.com/~m.a.christie/facts.htm
• Henley-on-Themes - quartermaster
• Bellasis, at Box Hill, outside Dorking
• Brickendonbury Manor - sabotage