“Set Europe ablaze,” ordered Prime Minister Winston Churchill after France fell in 1940 and fears of a Nazi invasion of Great Britain intensified. The answer was the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to help with resistance movements, conduct espionage, and sabotage in enemy-held territories. Guerilla tactics had been specifically denounced by the British Parliament as being unsportsmanlike; however, realism prevailed.

The American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created In 1942, was modeled after SOE. SOE agents came from all walks of life - public schools, old boys network, soldiers with commando training, ordinary civilians, even a princess: only SOE women agents were permitted a combat role during World War II.

Agents risked arrest, torture, and execution; they would neither be acknowledged nor saved by their government. What induced agents to take on this work? Were they affected by Nazi reprisals on the civilian population? Four sessions will explore: How SOE was created; its grueling training, survival techniques, and escape routes; its innovative weapons and exploits in occupied Europe and the Far East; some of the extraordinarily courageous men and women agents.

This course will combine lecture with class discussions.