Tony Donaldson
TAKE-IN …. https://youtu.be/A-U2MD-dxXs?
This is an excellent 8 part series on the SOE in WW2, at least the last 5 programs.
Ep 4 focuses on the Dutch section which was betrayed. The SS caught the first SOE agents parachuting into Holland, and forced them to continue sending messages to England asking for more agents, weapons and explosives. The SS were sending the messages, and each new batch was caught. SOE agents were supposed to include a mistake in their messages if they were caught and in enemy hands. SOE in London received message from their agents in Holland without the agreed mistakes which should have alerted them that their agents were in enemy hands, but the SOE Dutch section in London ignored that and kept sending more agents and weapons. The SS caught them all and were running them.
Violette Szabo,1921-1945
It has never been explained why SOE London did not follow the rules, leading to speculation of a double agent in London, or total incompetence. Many agents lost their lives because of it. Many ended up in a concentration camp.
Ep 5 is on Yugoslavia, run by Force 133 in Cairo which was a shambles, rotten to its core. The SOE story in Yugoslavia is a complex one. SOE worked with Mihailovic’s Serbian ‘Chetniks, but Churchill wanted to support the King, while others in SOE were arming the partisans to fight the Nazis, which caused major problems, leading to the resignation of Hambro, then head of SOE. SOE tried to sabotage their WW2 mission to Yugoslavia for political reasons.
Ep 6 on the Greeks is very good with Eddie Myers and his team destroying a crucial viaduct in a well executed operation working with Greek resistance.
Ep 8 focuses on SOE in Asia, especially Malaya and features some figures I know well. Some photos of STS101 in Singapore, and interviews with its head Lt. Col. Jim Gavin, and life in the jungle stand out here. It is a good episode.
The episodes here are:
4 – Englandspiel
5 – The Sword and The Shield
6 – Greek Entanglement
7 – Italian Victory
8 – Arms and the Dragon
I couldn’t find Episodes 1 to 3 yet. They may include the Norwegian section, and the story of the destruction of the Nazi’s heavy water production in Norway.
A FURTHER NOTE From Donaldson
Keep in mind, my notes are ‘rough notes’ rather than well-composed; the films themselves are more important. Almost 5 hours well spent. …. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzQfBkMTbTKzHkrMwZvNfQLlSqKg?projector=1
NB: The highlights are impositions from the hand of The Editor, Thuppahi; so too the pictorials
