The full story of Aston House in the Second World War has never been told before. Its activities were top secret and as important to the war effort as Bletchley Park, but in a different way. Situated near Stevenage, Aston House was one of many British country houses requisitioned during the Second World War by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Known as Station 12, its task was to design and supply special weapons and explosive devices for sabotage operations against the enemy. The scientific and military personnel at Station 12 invented, made and supplied 'toys' such as plastic explosives, limpet mines, pressure switches, tree spigots, incendiary bombs, incendiary liquids and arrows, and a variety of time fuses for the Resistance, Commandos, Special Boat Service and SAS. In the grounds of Aston House were magazines for the explosives and sheds in which to handle them, large storehouses for incendiaries and all the rest of the 'toys', and workshops for experimentation and manufacture. Station 12 designed and made up special explosive charges tailored for specific tasks or operations, including such famous special operations as the Bruneval and St-Nazaire raids, the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, and the attack on the Telemark heavy water plant in Norway.

Aston Station 12: Soe's Secret Centre

History

FOOT, M.R.D.

Turner, Des

Military

Sutton Pub Ltd

<p>Briggens House, near Harlow in Essex, was one of the most important of the establishments requisitioned by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Its mission was to accomplish Winston Churchill’s directive to ‘set Europe ablaze’, and, initially, the house was used as a finishing school for the Cichociemni , elite Polish saboteurs, to prepare to parachute into Nazi-occupied Poland. In need of false identity documents to avoid the arrest, interrogation and execution of its agents, SOE gradually built up a printing department on site and Station 14 became the organisation’s False Document Section.<br />
This is the true story of the house and its highly skilled wartime personnel, including British officers, Polish agents and the women of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. For the resident staff it was a relatively safe posting, but tension built as the Poles, fighting their own battle for Polish independence, competed for scarce resources in wartime Britain.<br />
SOE historian Des Turner uses first-hand accounts, memoirs and official records to reveal long-forgotten stories of tragedy, humour and frustration, giving long-overdue credit to the men and women of Briggens House who were prevented by the Secrets Act from ever speaking about their wartime work.</p>

The Secrets of Station 14: Briggens House, SOE’s Forgery and Polish Elite Agent Training Station

Europe

The History Press

The full story of Aston House in the Second World War has never been told before. Its activities were top secret and as important to the Allied war effort as those of Bletchley Park, but in a different way. Situated near Stevenage, Aston House was one of many British country houses requisitioned during the Second World War by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Born out of Bletchley Park, where it began life as SIS Section "D" (for Destruction), Station 12's scientific and military personnel invented, made and supplied "toys" for the Resistance, Commandos, Special Boat Service, and SAS. Included in their deadly arsenal were plastic explosives, limpet mines, pressure switches, tree spigots, incendiary bombs, incendiary liquids and arrows, and a variety of time fuses. They worked on the tools for famous operations, such as the St. Nazaire and Bruneval Raids and the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. They truly were the boffins who set Europe ablaze.

SOE's Secret Weapons Centre: Station 12

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