SOE resistance in WW2

Here is an extract from BBC History website:

SOE’s first headline success came in June 1941 when agents blew up the Pessac power station in France with a few well-placed explosive charges. The precision blast crippled work at a vital U-boat base in Bordeaux, and brought the all-electric railways in this region to an abrupt halt.

News of this triumph reverberated throughout Whitehall and put SOE firmly on the map – proving that you did not need a squadron of bombers to disrupt the German war machine.

This operation led to hundreds more in Europe and in the Far East against the Japanese.

• Czechoslovakia 1942 – an SOE hit squad assassinated Himmler’s deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, with a grenade.

• Greece 1942 – SOE agents blew up the Gorgopotamos rail bridge, which carried vital supplies for Rommel’s desert army.

• Norway 1943 – SOE agents destroyed the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb programme.

Often SOE operations resulted in reprisals against the local population. After the killing of Heydrich, the SS exterminated 5,000 men women and children in two villages near Prague.

To avoid retribution, SOE carried out ‘invisible sabotage’, which left no trace and implicated nobody. One example is the sending of a supply train, loaded with tanks, to the wrong destination – using only a forged document.

The reason I have chosen to publish this on my blog is that I often have a look at the soldiers that fought in the front line. I feel that it is important to recognize the work that the resistances did to assist the Allies.

To continue reading about the SOE, click here