SOE in The Netherlands

An Official History

Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors, LLC

At 04.08 hours on the morning of 13 June 1944, two members of the Royal Observer Corps were on duty at their post on the top of a Martello tower on the seafront at Dymchurch in Kent. At that moment they spotted the approach of an object spurting red flames from its rear and making a noise like 'a Model-T-Ford going up a hill'. It was a development that they, and many others throughout the UK, had been anticipating for months. The first V1 flying bomb, an example of what Hitler had called his Vergeltungswaffen or Vengeance Weapons, to be released against Britain was rattling towards them. The two spotters on top of the tower may well have been aware that a new Battle of Britain had just begun.For years, key individuals in the UK had been aware of experiments by Germany to build long-range weapons. From leaked documents, reports from the French Resistance and the result of aerial photography a picture was gradually put together of an extensive program by the Nazis to build pilotless aircraft, the Fi 103 V1 flying bomb, and the V2, the A4 rocket, which could be directed at the United Kingdom. By 1943, enough information had been gathered for Britain and its American allies to act, and the first bombing raids were undertaken against the long-range weapons installations.From August 1943, every effort was undertaken by the RAF and the USAAF Eighth Air Force to destroy every site lined to the V-weapons. This book, written by the Air Ministry's Air Historical Branch is the official account of the measures undertaken by the Air defense of Great Britain, Fighter Command, Anti-Aircraft Command, Bomber Command and even the Balloon Command to defend the UK from what was potentially the greatest threat it had ever encountered.It was only through this multi-disciplinary approach that the actual effect of the V-weapons was contained to the level it was. Even so, the extent of the damage and deaths the flying bombs and rockets caused and the fear they generated, was considerable and had this coordinated approach not been undertaken the UK's resolve in the crucial months of the war might have been seriously challenged.This highly detailed, accurate and unbiased account is a valuable addition to the history of the Second World War. It demonstrates the difficulties the UK faced in identifying the nature of the highly secret German weapons and how, through an enormous combined effort, this threat was overcome.

Hitler's V-Weapons: The Battle Against the V-1 and V-2 in WWII

History

Europe

Frontline Books

Royal Observer Corps: The ‘Eyes and Ears’ of the RAF in WWII

The key roles played by the Royal Observer Corps in the Second World War have, all too often, been overshadowed by more glamourous arms of the defense forces. The teams in the Sector Stations, plotting the battles raging above, and the Spitfires and Hurricanes swooping upon the formations of enemy fighters and bombers, present easily-imagined and dramatic scenes. Yet between the radar stations, detecting the German aircraft approaching over the Channel, and the Sector Controls were the little sand-bagged posts of the Observer Corps that provided over-land tracking of the enemy formations.\nThe Royal Observer Corps (the ‘Royal’ prefix being approved in 1941) proved a vital link in the communication chain in the defense of the UK, particularly in the Battle of Britain, as it provided the only means of tracking enemy aircraft once they had crossed the coastline. The highly-skilled Observers were also able to identify and count the enemy aircraft, turning blips on a screen into actual types and numbers of German machines.\nEven after the threat from the Luftwaffe receded after the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, the ROC again came to the fore when the V1s opened a new reign of terror in 1944. Because these small, fast weapons were so hard to detect the RAF’s fighter controllers moved into the ROC’s operations rooms so that they could respond to the V-1 threat more rapidly.\nIn this official history of the ROC written shortly after the war, the corps’ operations throughout the conflict are set out in great detail. This includes a section on the last flight of Rudolf Hess, as well as one detailing the work of those who were selected for employment as Seaborne Observers on ships during the D-Day landings, where their specialist identification skills were used to prevent the all-too prevalent instances of ‘friendly fire’.

Air Ministry Personnel

Training Churchill's Secret Army: Special Operations Executive’s Training Section, 1940-1945

It was every British serviceman's duty, be he soldier, sailor or airman, to attempt to evade capture if stranded behind enemy lines or escape if captured. As there were potentially thousands of men who would find themselves cut off or captured during the Second World War, a branch of military intelligence, M.I.9, was set up in 1939 to instruct servicemen in evasion and escape techniques.Such was the success of M.I.9, and the determination and ingenuity of individuals and groups, about 35,000 Allied military personnel escaped PoW camps or evaded capture and made their way to Allied or neutral countries. How this highly secret unit was set up and organised, and how its great success was achieved, was documented by M.I.9 officers towards the end of the war - and is published here for the first time.The history includes details of the lectures given to troops on how to avoid capture if on the run in enemy occupied territory (more than 2,000 lectures were given, to over half-a-million men), and of secret equipment issued to them to help them escape, such as the well-know silk maps and small but comprehensive escape kits.When servicemen escaped and returned to the UK, they were interrogated by specially selected M.I.9 officers and their stories were used to show troops how they too could evade capture. These provide some of the most fascinating, and often funny, stories to come out of the Second World War. How, for example, one man had to cross a bridge over a canal in Holland where a German sentry was stood on the other side. As he considered his options a Dutch woman approached pushing her baby in a pram. The man explained that he was British and the lady handed him the pram and put her arm through his, and together they crossed the bridge and passed the sentry. On another occasion at a railway station, an evader attracted the attention of a German officer. A group of French women arrived, and the man rushed over to the group, embraced one of the women and asked them to speak to him in French. This they did, pretending he was their friend, and the officer turned away.Such stories helped show servicemen how to forge documents, how to travel through enemy-occupied countries without being detected, what disguises could be used that would not attract the attention of the enemy, and also provided lists of local people willing to help escapers - and this included Pope Pius XII, who actually had a private meeting with one of the escapers in the Vatican! The troops were also instructed how to write coded messages in letters to the UK from PoW camps. All this is revealed in this utterly fascinating book.

M.I.9: The Official History of the Secret Escape and Evasion Organisation

History, An Official

The majority of the successful SOE operations in Europe took place in countries occupied by the Germans after the outbreak of war in 1939, Hitler's forces being regarded as foreign invaders. In Czechoslovakia it was different. The country, which had large numbers of ethnic Germans living within its borders, had been occupied since 1938, allowing the Germans to establish a strong hold on the country which limited the opportunities for subversive action by resistance movements.Nevertheless, resist the Czechs did, despite the Germans conducting savage and indiscriminate reprisals. It was against this background that SOE attempted to infiltrate its agents into Czechoslovakia in 1941, their role being to help in coordinating and expanding the resistance movement and to establish communications with the Czech authorities in the UK. Successful actions were admittedly few before 1942 when one of the most successful SOE-backed operations resulted in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the highest-ranking Nazi to be killed by any resistance group. The huge wave of reprisals against the civilian population which followed severely hampered SOE activities in the immediate aftermath.Another factor which limited SOE's ability to infiltrate Czechoslovakia and to supply the resistance was the distance and difficulty experienced by the RAF in flying to the region. During the short nights of summer, no flights could be attempted. This changed in September 1943 when sorties were able to be conducted from Italy, and by 1944 the scale of operations increased both in frequency and scale.More than 300 Czechs were trained by SOE and, in conjunction with local resistance groups, those that managed to infiltrate back into their homeland, kept the occupying forces constantly on the alert, ensuring that Germany's eastern flank was never entirely secure.This is the first full, official account of SOE in Czechoslovakia, compiled by SOE headquarters staff who had direct access to all the organization's records, many of which were destroyed after the war.

SOE in Czechoslovakia: The Special Operations Executive’s Czech Section in WW2

Military

The key roles played by the Royal Observer Corps in the Second World War have, all too often, been overshadowed by more glamourous arms of the defense forces. The teams in the Sector Stations, plotting the battles raging above, and the Spitfires and Hurricanes swooping upon the formations of enemy fighters and bombers, present easily imagined and dramatic scenes. Yet between the radar stations, detecting the German aircraft approaching over the Channel, and the Sector Controls were the little sandbagged posts of the Observer Corps that provided overland tracking of the enemy formations. The Royal Observer Corps (the ‘Royal’ prefix being approved in 1941) proved a vital link in the communication chain in the defense of the UK, particularly in the Battle of Britain, as it provided the only means of tracking enemy aircraft once they had crossed the coastline. The highly skilled Observers were also able to identify and count the enemy aircraft, turning blips on a screen into actual types and numbers of German machines. Even after the threat from the Luftwaffe receded after the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, the ROC again came to the fore when the V1s opened a new reign of terror in 1944. Because these small, fast weapons were so hard to detect the RAF’s fighter controllers moved into the ROC’s operations rooms so that they could respond to the V-1 threat more rapidly. In this official history of the ROC written shortly after the war, the corps’ operations throughout the conflict are set out in great detail. This includes a section on the last flight of Rudolf Hess, as well as one detailing the work of those who were selected for employment as Seaborne Observers on ships during the D-Day landings, where their specialist identification skills were used to prevent the all-too prevalent instances of ‘friendly fire’. This history provides an account of the ROC which is just as important in understanding the operations of the corps as the Observers were in the defense of the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

At 04.08 hours on the morning of 13 June 1944, two members of the Royal Observer Corps were on duty at their post on the top of a Martello tower on the seafront at Dymchurch in Kent. At that moment they spotted the approach of an object spurting red flames from its rear and making a noise like 'a Model-T-Ford going up a hill'. It was a development that they, and many others throughout the UK, had been anticipating for months. The first V1 flying bomb, an example of what Hitler had called his Vergeltungswaffen or Vengeance Weapons, to be released against Britain was rattling towards them. The two spotters on top of the tower may well have been aware that a new Battle of Britain had just begun.For years, key individuals in the UK had been aware of experiments by Germany to build long-range weapons. From leaked documents, reports from the French Resistance and the result of aerial photography a picture was gradually put together of an extensive program by the Nazis to build pilotless aircraft, the Fi 103 V1 flying bomb, and the V2, the A4 rocket, which could be directed at the United Kingdom. By 1943, enough information had been gathered for Britain and its American allies to act, and the first bombing raids were undertaken against the long-range weapons installations.From August 1943, every effort was undertaken by the RAF and the USAAF Eighth Air Force to destroy every site lined to the V-weapons. This book, written by the Air Ministry's Air Historical Branch is the official account of the measures undertaken by the Air Defence of Great Britain, Fighter Command, Anti-Aircraft Command, Bomber Command and even the Balloon Command to defend the UK from what was potentially the greatest threat it had ever encountered.It was only through this multi-disciplinary approach that the actual effect of the V-weapons was contained to the level it was. Even so, the extent of the damage and deaths the flying bombs and rockets caused and the fear they generated, was considerable and had this coordinated approach not been undertaken the UK's resolve in the crucial months of the war might have been seriously challenged.This highly detailed, accurate and unbiased account is a valuable addition to the history of the Second World War. It demonstrates the difficulties the UK faced in identifying the nature of the highly secret German weapons and how, through an enormous combined effort, this threat was overcome.

Hitler's V-Weapons: An Official History of the Battle Against the V-1 and V-2 in WWII

Americas

The all-too frequently cited mantra that 'the bomber will always get through' had dominated Britain's strategic air policy in the decades preceding the Second World War. However, the experiences of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz indicated that aerial bombardments were not as effective at disabling a country's ability to fight as had been believed.This assessment was reinforced when the RAF's Bomber Command analyzed the results of their precision bombing efforts during the early years of the war. A growing body of evidence indicated that the great 'knockout' blow expected to be delivered from the air was a fantasy and that it would only be through a prolonged campaign of attrition that the enemy could be worn down to such a degree that morale, the means of production and the infrastructure of the enemy would be degraded to the point where its fighting ability was crippled.The result of this assessment was a change of policy from precision bombing of carefully identified key installations, to area bombing with the declared intent of striking at the homes of the German workers, the factories where they worked regardless of the nature of such establishments or of the civilian casualties that would be the inevitable consequence.In compiling this official analysis of the effectiveness of the RAF's strategic bombing campaign, the author was granted unrestricted access to Air Ministry, Cabinet and other relevant departmental documents that were maintained for internal government use, enabling him to gain a complete and unbiased assessment of the contribution made by Bomber Command to the defeat of Germany. The conclusion he draws fully justifies the decisions taken, by both Britain and the USA, to bomb the German people into surrender.

Bomber Command's War Against Germany: Planning the RAF's Bombing Offensive in WWII and its Contribution to the Allied Victory

Air World

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SOE in The Netherlands

Hitler's V-Weapons: The Battle Against the V-1 and V-2 in WWII

Royal Observer Corps: The ‘Eyes and Ears’ of the RAF in WWII

Training Churchill's Secret Army: Special Operations Executive’s Training Section, 1940-1945

M.I.9: The Official History of the Secret Escape and Evasion Organisation

SOE in Czechoslovakia: The Special Operations Executive’s Czech Section in WW2

Royal Observer Corps: The ‘Eyes and Ears’ of the RAF in WWII

Hitler's V-Weapons: An Official History of the Battle Against the V-1 and V-2 in WWII

Bomber Command's War Against Germany: Planning the RAF's Bombing Offensive in WWII and its Contribution to the Allied Victory