Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles.

This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization’s activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities.

SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first.

This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.

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Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles.

This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization’s activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities.

SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first.

This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.

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Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War

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Overview

This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles.

This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization’s activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities.

SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first.

This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781134175246
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 01/11/2013
Series: Studies in Intelligence
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Edited by Seaman, Mark

Table of Contents

Introduction 1.‘A New Instrument of War’: The Origins of the Special Operations Executive 2. Weapons and Equipment of the Special Operations Executive 3. SOE and Sea Communications 4. Churchill and SOE 5. Poland and SOE 6. SOE and Milorg – ‘Thieves on the Same Market’ 7. SOE in the Low Countries 8. SOE in Italy 9. Resistance from Abroad: Anglo-Soviet Efforts to Co-Ordinate Yugoslav Resistance, 1941-1942 10. SOE in Romania 11. SOE in Afghanistan 12. Don Stott’s ‘Adventures’ in Athens, October-November 1943 13. SOE and the Neutrals 14. SOE in Albania – The ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Re-Assessed 15. SOE and Denmark 16. Hitler’s Irish Hideout: A Case Study of SOE’s Black Propaganda Battles 17. ‘Of Historical Interest Only’ – The Origins and Vicissitudes of the SOE

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