The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organization. Officially constituted on 22 July 1940 under the Minister of Economic Warfare from three pre-existing secret organiszations. The purpose of the SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to support local resistance movements.
The Special Operations Executive and its branch operating in Hungary is described in the novel The Wallenberg Dossier.
The SOE was a weel kept secret, it’s members named the “Baker Street Irregulars”, after the location of its headquarters in London. It was also named Churchill’s Secret Army or the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The organization used names that would not reveal its real function, such as “Joint Technical Board” or the “Inter-Service Research Bureau”, or other fantasy offices of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office.
SOE operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis forces, as well as neutral countries when useful. The organization summed up more than 13,000 people, 3,200 of whom were women.
After the war, the organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946.