The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.
The Renault FT was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret. The Renault FT's configuration became and remains the standard tank layout. Consequently, some armoured warfare historians have called the Renault FT the world's first modern tank.
The Troupes coloniales or Armée coloniale, commonly called La Coloniale, were the colonial troops of the French colonial empire from 1900 until 1961. From 1822 to 1900 these troops were designated Troupes de marine, and in 1961 they readopted this name. They were recruited from mainland France or from the French settler and indigenous populations of the empire. This force played a substantial role in the conquest of the empire, in World War I, World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.
The Musée national de la Marine is a maritime museum located in the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It has annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort, and Toulon. The permanent collection originates in a collection that dates back to Louis XV of France.
The Musée de l'Armée is a national military museum of France located at Les Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is served by Paris Métro stations Invalides, Varenne and La Tour-Maubourg
The Musée de l'Homme is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. It is the descendant of the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, founded in 1878. The Musée de l'Homme is a research center under the authority of various ministries, and it groups several entities from the CNRS. The Musée de l'Homme is one of the seven departments of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The Musée de l'Homme occupies most of the Passy wing of the Palais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement. The vast majority of its collection was transferred to the Quai Branly museum.
Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud was a French photographer and military officer.
Orchard Court is an apartment block situated on the eastern side of Portman Square in London. Apartment number six was used by F section of the Special Operations Executive as an office for briefing agents during the Second World War.
The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History is a military museum that occupies the two northernmost halls of the historic complex in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in Brussels, Belgium. The park is set on the continuation of the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat, which starts at the end of Brussels Park before the Royal Palace.
Georges-Émile Lebacq was a Belgian painter.
Station IX was a secret British Special Operations Executive factory making special weapons and equipment during World War II.
Weapons of Honour are ceremonial weapons awarded for service or assistance to France.
The Donnington Historic Weapons Collection is a collection of weapons accumulated by MoD Donnington in Shropshire, England, over a long period of time. It is now housed at the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex, England.
Captain Peter Miles Riggal served with the Lincolnshire Regiment and was an expert in the use of explosives. He was recruited by SOE and worked as an instructor. Later in the war he was attached to Force 136 in the Far East, and instructed agents who were to be dropped into Japan to destroy key targets during the planned invasion of Japan. Their skills were not put into use as the war with Japan was ended by the use of the atom bomb.
The Secret Army was a faction within the Belgian Resistance active during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Founded in August 1940 as the Belgian Legion, the Secret Army changed its name on a number of occasions during its existence, adopting its final appellation in June 1944. It was the largest resistance group active in the country.
The Lebanese Arab Army – LAA (Arabic: جيش لبنان العربي transliteration Jayish Lubnan al-Arabi), also known as the Arab Army of Lebanon (AAL), Arab Lebanese Army or Armée du Liban Arabe (ALA) in French, was a predominantly Muslim splinter faction of the Lebanese Army that came to play a key role in the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
Gustave Léon Niox was a French général, Governor of Les Invalides, director of the Musée de l'Armée, and a military historian.
Fernand Sabatté was a French painter and sculptor who is best known for his architectural painting and portrait work, as well as salvaging church monuments and bombed out churches in the zone rouge during World War I.
Alfred Touny was a French soldier, lawyer and businessman who became one of the leaders of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45). He was arrested by the Gestapo towards the end of the war and shot.
