The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements during World War II.
Popski's Private Army, officially No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA, was a unit of British Special Forces set up in Cairo in October 1942 by Major Vladimir Peniakoff. Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. The squadron also served in Italy, and was disbanded in September 1945.
During World War II, resistance movements operated in German-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to as The Underground.
During World War II, Operation Saxifrage was a raid by four small Special Air Service teams who landed on the east coast of Italy on the night of 27 October 1943.
Operation Herring was the last World War II airborne combat drop in Europe.
Major Roy Alexander Farran was a British-Canadian soldier, politician, farmer, author and journalist. He was highly decorated for his exploits with the Special Air Service (SAS) during the Second World War. Farran became widely known after his court-martial on a charge of murdering an unarmed 17-year-old member of the Jewish underground militant group Lehi during his command of an undercover Palestine Police unit. After his brother was killed in a revenge attack, Farran emigrated to Canada where he forged a successful business and political career, holding a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1979 sitting with the Progressive Conservative caucus. He served as a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Peter Lougheed during that period.
The 75mm Pack Howitzer M1 was a pack howitzer artillery piece used by the United States. Designed to be moved across difficult terrain, gun and carriage could be broken down into several pieces to be carried by pack animals.
Operation Halyard, known in Serbian as Operation Air Bridge, was an Allied airlift operation behind Axis lines during World War II. In July 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) drew up plans to send a team to the Chetniks force led by General Draža Mihailović in the German-occupied Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia for the purpose of evacuating Allied airmen shot down over that area. This team, known as the Halyard team, was commanded by Lieutenant George Musulin, along with Master Sergeant Michael Rajacich, and Specialist Arthur Jibilian, the radio operator. The team was detailed to the United States Fifteenth Air Force and designated as the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit. It was the largest rescue operation of American airmen in history. According to historian Professor Jozo Tomasevich, a report submitted to the OSS showed that 417 Allied airmen who had been downed over occupied Yugoslavia were rescued by Mihailović's Chetniks, and airlifted out by the Fifteenth Air Force. According to Lt. Cmdr. Richard M. Kelly (OSS), a grand total of 432 U.S. and 80 Allied personnel were airlifted during the Halyard Mission. According to Robert Donia allied air operations over Partisan territory in Yugoslavia were strategically significant and extensive in scope. Evaders’ forms show that airmen landed on much of Yugoslavia from eastern Serbia to Slovenia and even on Bulgaria. Evacuees most frequently mentioned airstrips at Tičevo, Sanski Most and on the Croatian coastal island of Vis. Of the 2,364 flyers rescued from Yugoslavia, about 2,000 were extracted from Partisan territory and 350 from Chetnik controlled territory.
GHQ Liaison Regiment was a special reconnaissance unit of the British Army first formed in 1939 during the early stages of World War II. The regiment's headquarters were at The Richmond Hill Hotel in Richmond, Surrey ; its base was at Pembroke Lodge, a Georgian house in Richmond Park, London.
Operation Bulbasket was an operation by 'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service (SAS), behind the German lines in German occupied France, between June and August 1944. The operation was located to the east of Poitiers in the Vienne department of south west France; its objective was to block the Paris to Bordeaux railway line near Poitiers and to hamper German reinforcements heading towards the Normandy beachheads, especially the 2nd SS Panzer Division – Das Reich.
Operation Flipper was a British commando raid during the Second World War, mainly by men from No. 11 (Scottish) Commando. The operation included an attack on the headquarters of Erwin Rommel, the commander of Panzergruppe Afrika in North Africa. It was timed for the night of 17/18 November 1941, just before the start of Operation Crusader. The operation failed as Rommel had left the target house weeks earlier and all but two of the commandos who landed were killed or captured. One member of the Special Boat Section team, who had secured the beach for the commando party, also escaped.
In 1941 when the Axis invaded Yugoslavia, King Peter II formed a Government in exile in London, and in January 1942 the royalist Draža Mihailović became the Minister of War with British backing. But by June or July 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had decided to withdraw support from Mihailović and the Chetniks he led, and support the Partisans headed by Josip Broz Tito, even though this would result in "complete communist control of Serbia". The main reason for the change was not the reports by Fitzroy Maclean or William Deakin, or as later alleged the influence of James Klugmann in Special Operations Executive (SOE) headquarters in Cairo or even Randolph Churchill, but the evidence of Ultra decrypts from the Government Code and Cipher School in Bletchley Park that Tito's Partisans were a "much more effective and reliable ally in the war against Germany". Nor was it due to claims that the Chetniks were collaborating with the enemy, though there was some evidence from decrypts of collaboration with Italian and sometimes German forces.
Raymond Couraud, was a French soldier and gangster, who through his World War II military exploits became a highly decorated member of the French-section of the British Army's Special Air Service.
Count Manfred Beckett Czernin, was a Royal Air Force pilot and later an operative with the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War.
Operation Bullseye was the code-name of the first Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission to Yugoslavia since its occupation by the Axis forces. It was led by Capt D.T. Bill Hudson with the objective to discover what was happening in Yugoslavia and co-ordinate all forces of resistance there. The mission also included three Royal Yugoslav Army (RYA) officers from Montenegro: Maj Mirko Lalatović, Maj Zaharije Ostojić and Sgt Veljko Dragićević the wireless transmitter (W/T) operator. The group boarded the submarine HMS Triumph in Malta and reached Petrovac on the Montenegrin coast on 20th Sep 1941.
Operations Wallace and Hardy I were two British Special Air Service operations during the Second World War that took place from 27 July to 19 September 1944. Initially two sets of operations by 2nd Special Air Service, they were eventually amalgamated into one. Their objective was to disrupt German lines of communication, coordinate the activities of the French Resistance and prevent German reinforcements moving to the Normandy beachheads.
Operation Fungus was one of the two Special Operations Executive (SOE) exploratory missions to Yugoslav Partisans during the World War Two. Both Operation Fungus and the second mission, Operation Hoathley 1, flew out on the night of 20 Apr 1943 from Derna airfield. The missions' objective was to establish who the Partisans were, who their leader was, and whether and how they could be utilised to further the Allies' military ambitions. They also served as each other's backup, in case one failed to reach the Partisans or fell into enemy's hands.
Captain Arthur David Eyton-Jones was a British Army officer with the Special Air Service (SAS) during World War II, director of a tea company, landscape gardener and chaplain. He is best known for his involvement in Operation Tombola.
Michael Lees was a British soldier and member of the Special Operations Executive during World War II, who operated behind enemy lines supporting Italian and Yugoslavian partisan forces. The chief planner of Operation Tombola, an attack on the headquarters of the Wehrmacht's 14th Army near Reggio Emilia, made prematurely in contravention of orders from his superiors.
Furio Lauri was a Dalmatian Italian aviator, Italian Air Force officer and pilot during World War II, who was awarded several medals for his rescue missions. He fought on the fronts of Italy, Libya and Tunisia.
United Kingdom 
Italian partisans 
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