A British espionage and sabotage organisation of the Second World War, active from 1940 to 1946.
Crypto Museum also gives its nickname, “Churchill's Secret Army”.1
The International Spy Museum describes the SOE (Special Operations Executive) as Britain's Second World War sabotage and subversion organisation. According to a CIA article, British strategists in 1940–1941 looked for ways to weaken Germany from within and entrusted the SOE with the “subversion” of Nazi rule in the occupied countries; from 1942 the SOE worked with the American OSS, including on the Jedburgh teams.2,3
Sources
- Crypto Museum, Glossary of covert expressions
- International Spy Museum (Washington, DC), Language of Espionage (glossary)
- CIA, Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Legend of the Jedburghs, 17.12.2015
Checked: 4 November 2026