Abstract
Abstract The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was created in July 1940, bringing together three existing bodies that had been developed to deal with covert operations: Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6); MI (R), a research unit at the War Office; and Electra House, a propaganda unit within the Foreign Office. Under the Minister of Economic Warfare (initially Dr. Hugh Dalton, later Lord Selborne), SOE's role was to encourage and develop resistance movements throughout Axis‐occupied Europe, both to prepare to support eventual Allied landings and, in the meantime, to carry out specific, targeted acts of sabotage that would hinder the Axis war effort. SOE's reach also extended beyond Europe, with a mission in Algiers and regional headquarters in Cairo and New Delhi (where SOE was known as Force 136). SOE was divided into geographical “country” sections that took responsibility for operations in a given area. These were supported by a number of ancillary sections that dealt with such matters as false documents and special devices.
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