Training SOE Saboteurs in World War Two

Preliminary school

There was a four-stage plan in the training of prospective agents of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). At Preliminary school the agents' character and potential were assessed, without revealing to them what SOE did. Those candidates not deemed suitable were soon sent to the 'cooler', where they were encouraged to forget the little they had learned about SOE, while those who passed the preliminary stage were sent to paramilitary schools, known as the group A schools. These were based mainly in Scotland, where the courses were as gruelling as the terrain.

The trainee agents then learned about parachuting at Ringway, Manchester, and finally their spy craft techniques were polished up at the SOE's own finishing schools for spies, the group B schools, based at Beaulieu in the New Forest. Not until all these stages had been successfully completed would the agents be sent to a holding flat or residence, where they awaited their final briefing before being dropped into 'the field'.

The Preliminary schools syllabus included physical training, weapons handling, unarmed combat, elementary demolitions, map reading, field craft and basic signalling (use of radio communications). Agents who fell at this initial hurdle would be sent to the 'cooler' at Inverlair, in Invernesshire.

In June 1943 SOE introduced a more streamlined method for the initial selection of students. In place of the Preliminary schools, it set up a Student's Assessment Board (SAB) at Cranleigh, Surrey. The assessors gave the students a wide variety of tests over a four-day period, the SOE setting much store on the psychological make up of its agents.

Paramilitary training

Man wearing an SOE parachutist suit - these were nicknamed 'striptease suits'  © The paramilitary schools were based at ten shooting lodges in the Arisaig and Morar areas of Invernesshire, with the SOE staff headquarters in Scotland based at Arisaig House. The courses lasted at first for three weeks but were later increased to five weeks. They included physical training, silent killing, weapons handling, demolition, map reading, compass work, field craft, elementary Morse, and raid tactics.

The agents being trained came from a range of nationalities, and each group was housed in separate schools, as security protocol dictated that they should not mix. This policy was applied right up to the final briefing.

The training began with a hard slog over the unwelcoming terrain of Invernesshire. Both men and women had to complete the course, and they would be equally tired, aching and covered in cuts and bruises having crawled on their bellies and trekked up mountains.

Their weapons training and unarmed combat equipped agents for close combat only. William Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes - two ex-Shanghai municipal police officers - taught unarmed combat, or silent killing. The pair gave their name to the FS fighting knife - a small knife used mainly by the Commandos - and their Fairbairn Fighting System was subsequently taught to members of the FBI and CIA.

Weapons training introduced the students to the Colt .45 and .38, and to the Sten gun, which was considered unreliable by some. The students were taught to fire by 'pointing' the gun, tucking their firing arm into their hip, rather than by the more orthodox method of taking aim, and they always fired two shots to be certain of their target. This system was known as the Double Tap system and it was specific to SOE agents. One of the props used to help the students with target practice was a life-sized figure on a winch, set to come at the agents at speed.

Demolition and explosives training was essential, as sabotage was high on SOE's remit. Using dummy explosives, rail sabotage was carried out with the cooperation of the West Highland Line, who also supplied the school with a train. Students were taught how to lay dummy charges and fog signals, then walk away and hide.

Specialist subjects

When undergoing parachute training at Ringway, students did at least two jumps, one from a plane and one from a static balloon. They were all equipped with a little spade attached to their leg, for the purpose of burying their parachute and SOE jump suit after they had landed. In the 'field' they had to jump from altitudes as low as 300-400 feet, and would hit the ground within 10-15 seconds. The plane's pilot was compelled to drop them at such low altitudes in order to avoid enemy radar detection.

Beaulieu formed part of the group B agent training schools. It was based in the New Forest on Lord Montague's estate, where eventually there were eleven schools. Within each school, there were five departments covering topics such as agent technique, clandestine life, personal security, communication in the field, how to maintain a cover story and how to act under police surveillance.

There were also specialist subjects, such as burglary and picking of locks. One department dealt with the recognition of enemy forces, while others dealt with the dissemination of white overt propaganda and black covert propaganda, and with codes and the use of invisible inks.

One famed instructor was 'Killer' Green, who had learned his skills from master figures of the underworld. One of the first lessons that the agents learned was that you didn't pick a lock - instead you manipulated or pushed the lock back, using a protractor. Taking impressions of keys was also a simple matter. For this, agents would carry a matchbox full of Plasticine, which could take an impression of a key. It was easy then to make a copy.

'Finishing school' techniques

Photographs showing the results of disguise  © Part of an agent's cover involved the use of quick disguises. Instructor Peter Folis was an actor who specialised in this. His mantra was, 'When thinking disguises don't think false beards, instead make small changes to your appearance; wear glasses; part your hair differently; take a different gait'. He also demonstrated how to use scars as a disguise, using Culloden - a wax-like substance that dried quickly.

The SOE had a list of plastic surgeons who could alter the features of agents who had had their cover blown. Files at the Public Record Office have photos of such agents in 'before' and 'after' poses. And there is a record of a Jewish agent who underwent radical facial surgery to make him look more German, so that he could parachute back into the Reich and wreak even more havoc than he had before.

All SOE agents were furnished with their own cover story, and the background fabric for these 'lives' came from a variety of sources, ranging from military intelligence to the BBC. The information might be about something as prosaic as how sugar rationing worked in France - the sort of minutiae that was critical to the agents' survival in the field. A story went the rounds of one agent who went to a café and asked for a café noir - this was a mistake, because a café noir was the only kind available, milk being rationed, and his 'cover' was blown.

An agent's progress at Beaulieu would be tested in 'schemes' lasting 48 or 72-hours. These tested the agents' ability in making contact with a 'cut out' (intermediate); tailing someone in a city; losing someone who was following him or her. Longer schemes involved making contact with a supposed resistance member. The student was given a secret number to call in the course of the project should he or she run up against the local police, who would then receive an explanation from SOE about the agent's true identity. The instructors used to think more of the students who brazened out their cover in the local police station, than of those who quickly resorted to the emergency number.

The final briefing, and drop

Ernst Van Maurik was assigned to the Air Liaison Section in September 1941; he would accompany the outgoing agents to the airfield, and welcome back those who returned. He would travel around the holding flats, showing the agents their dropping points on a map, and sorting out their equipment. It was his job to tell the agents about SOE's two sets of pills: Benzedrine kept you awake, when necessary, and the 'L' tablet, which came in a little rubber cover, was a suicide pill. If the agent bit down on it, he would be dead in 15 seconds.

As the plane approached the target area for the drop, the agent would be given a hot toddy with a liberal amount of rum in it. As soon as the dispatcher got a call from the pilot on the intercom, he would open a hole in the floor of the fuselage, and hitch the static line of the agent's parachute onto a hook in the plane. He would go to great trouble to show the agent that he was well attached. When the red light came on, the agent would sit, legs dangling over the edge of the hole, looking steadfastly at the red light waiting for it to turn green:

When the parachute opened, agents reported they had a feeling of euphoria:

Find out more

Books

SOE Syllabus: Lessons in Ungentlemanly Warfare - World War II (Secret History Files) by Denis Rigden (Public Record Office, 2001)

The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War by Marcus Binney (Hodder & Stoughton General, 2002)

Gubbins and SOE by Peter Wilkinson and Joan Bright-Astley (Pen & Sword Books with Leo Cooper, 1997)

From Cloak to Dagger: An SOE Agent in Italy 1943-1945 by Charles Macintosh (William Kimber, 1985)

Sabotage and Subversion: Stories from the Files of the OSS and SOE by Ian Dear (Cassell Military, 1996)

SOE: The Special Operations Executive by MRD Foot (Pimlico, 1999)

The German Penetration of SOE: France 1941-1944 by Jean Overton Fuller (George Mann Books, 1996)

Undercover Operator: An SOE Agent's Experiences in France and the Far East by Sydney Hudson (Pen & Sword Books / Leo Cooper, 2003)

Bravest of the Brave: The True Story of Wing Commander Tommy Yeo-Thomas - SOE Secret Agent Codename: the White Rabbit by Mark Seaman (Michael O'Mara, 1999)

The Secret History of SOE: Special Operations Executive 1940-1945 by William MacKenzie (St Ermin's Press, 2002)

SOE in the Low Countries by MRD Foot (St Ermin's Press, 2001)

Sabotage and Subversion: The SOE and OSS at War by Ian Dear (Cassell Military)

About the author

Bernie Ross was the Assistant Producer on the BBC programme 'Killing Hitler', and has worked on a wide range of television programmes.