SOE relations with the "allied war effort"

[Chris Allen]

A recent drama series named Foyle's War makes several references to the
Special Operations Executive which was responsible for inserting
undercover agents into France, to assist the resistance agianst Nazi
occupation. A recurring topic through out the series is SOE's fight to
survive the "slurs and attacks" by other parts of the allied war effort.
It alleges some other "allied parties" would have been happy to close
down the SOE. Consequently the SOE became so secretive that some senior
members felt compelled to lie and cover up some very serious flaws in
their work.

Was the SOE really thretened in this way?

This series is a set of fictional "who done its" and these alleged
threats certanly make good drama for a "who done it", but were they true?

FWIW, I've seen at least 1 other series of suspense drama, set in the
early 50's, that hints at the same problem for the SOE.

[Michael Emrys]

Post by Chris Allen
Was the SOE really thretened in this way?

According to some accounts I have read, the SOE (especially in France
and the Netherlands) had serious security issues, was penetrated by
German intelligence and lost many agents. Part of the friction that
arose with other agencies, such as MI6, was that this was suspected
early on and SOE did little or nothing to address the situation which
compromised or threatened to compromise operations by those agencies.
You might want to take a look at _A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the
Missing Agents of WWII_.

Michael

[Don Phillipson]

Post by Chris Allen
A recent drama series named Foyle's War makes several references to the
Special Operations Executive which was responsible for inserting undercover
agents into France, to assist the resistance agianst Nazi occupation. A
recurring topic through out the series is SOE's fight to survive the "slurs
and attacks" by other parts of the allied war effort. It alleges some other
"allied parties" would have been happy to close down the SOE. Consequently
the SOE became so secretive that some senior members felt compelled to lie
and cover up some very serious flaws in their work.
Was the SOE really threatened in this way?

Yes, because it answered at the top to a different government
department (Economic Warfare, not the War Office). At lower
levels SOE and its rivals collaborated fairly well, the main
British military link with the exiled allied governments in London
(most of which tried to keep up their own spy agencies) but:
1: SOE's mission was always ambiguous, viz. both
sabotage and espionage. The historic military tradition is to
keep these functions separate, as likely to spoil each other.
2: Staffed by civilian volunteers and military misfits, SOE's
discipline and security methods were slack, probable causes
of such disastrous losses as the Prosper network in France
(Gestapo) and the Dutch Resistance (Abwehr.)

SOE had by 1945 too many martyrs and had run out of
political backing, hence was hastily wound up while MI5 and
MI6 were reorganized for Cold War purposes. Dozens of
histories and memoirs were published in later years, most
highly romanticized, few citing reliable records (destroyed?)

[Rich Rostrom]

Post by Chris Allen
Was the SOE really thretened in this way?

Oh yes. There were constant "turf wars"
between various intelligence outfits.

SOE was a new organization of people
from outside the established agencies.
Many of these "gifted amateurs" had
inflated ideas about what _they_ could
accomplish and were contemptuous of the
"hidebound regulars".

The "regulars" in their turn didn't want
their field of operations trampled by a
lot of ignorant fools.

There was some truth on both sides. Some
of the career spooks were time-serving
paper-shufflers; some of the SOE were
were in over their heads and didn't know it.

There was a similar issue in the U.S.
between Army Intelligence ("G-2") and
the new Office of Strategic Services. The
latter was sometimes referred to as
"Donovan's gang of amateur playboys".