THE TRAINING OF SECRET AGENTS BY THE SOE

For the first time in French, a complete presentation of the selection and training, in the various clandestine schools, of Allied secret agents during the Second World War.

Throughout those war years, secret agents from across occupied Europe were trained in the utmost secrecy by the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

One should recall the famous words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1940, for barely having been appointed, he set out to: "set Europe ablaze!" or, as it was put in French, "mettre en feu l'Europe!" To that end, he created a new ultra-secret organisation: the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Hundreds of agents, men and women, trained in schools in England, Canada, but also in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, were parachuted into countries occupied by the Nazis and the Japanese to carry out intelligence missions, acts of sabotage and the elimination of enemies.

Table of contents

Fighting Germany by every means available. Training. The Student Assessment Board (SAB). Paramilitary training. Final agent training: the Finishing Schools. Training at STS 17, the sabotage and counter-sabotage school. Propaganda training. The Holding Schools and Operational Training Schools. Training of reception committees. Various training programmes. The selection and training of instructing officers assigned to the STS. Specialised technical training. Schools outside England. Return to Europe. An incredible success. Appendices.

The author 

Franck Lambert, passionate about military history and the Second World War in particular, spent years working at the heart of the secret services' archives, where he uncovered a remarkable number of extraordinary biographies of men and women who did not hesitate to sacrifice themselves so that France could regain its freedom. Franck Lambert also published "Les saboteurs de la France combattante" with Éditions Sophia Histoire & Collections.