Tag: Alan Malcher SOE
Book Announcement: Special Operations Executive.
Book announcement.
I am pleased to announce my following books are being published by Pen and Sword (Military publications) and pre-orders are now available.
Volume 1. SOE French Section: Organisation, Training and Operations, 1940-43
In 1940, with France overrun and Britain threatened with invasion, Churchill ordered the formation of a new organization to carry the war to the Germans and ‘set Europe ablaze’. This was the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose French Section sent agents into occupied France to hinder the German war effort and help organize resistance to the invader. Despite a life expectancy of six weeks, these brave men and women did their duty in the most perilous circumstances, usually dropped in the middle of nowhere by brave pilots flying by moonlight and hoping the Gestapo were not waiting for them. Many were captured, tortured and either executed or incarcerated in dreadful conditions but many achieved valuable results. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including testimonies of agents who served in France and senior staff officers based at F Section’s HQ in London, Alan Malcher describes the founding and organization of the SOE, and specifically its French Section. The rigorous training regime, which included knife-fighting, sabotage and explosives handling, is described and, of course, the daring operations themselves. His thorough research corrects many inaccuracies included in earlier accounts and perpetuated by later historians to give the most accurate account of the SOE in France and their contribution to the war effort during the darkest days of the war.
Volume 2. SOE and D-Day: Operations in Support of Overlord and the Liberation of France, 1944-1945.
The SOE was formed in 1940 when Britain’s back was to the wall. Churchill ordered agents to be sent over the Channel to ‘set Europe ablaze’ by organizing local resistance, sabotaging factories and railways, and generally making life difficult for the German occupiers. This helped to maintain Allied morale while lowering that of the Germans and diverting their resources away from the battle front. By 1944 the Allies were ready to storm back into France and eject the Nazis for good and this was to prove the SOEs finest hour, helping to pave the way for the successful invasion by causing confusion behind German front lines, interrupting crucial communications and resupply and preventing or delaying the arrival of vital German reserves that might have turned the battle in the Germans’ favour. Alan Malcher draws on decades of research, including much first-hand testimony from SOE operatives, to narrate these significant events. He argues that the contribution of SOE and the Resistance units they supported to the success of the Allied invasion has been underestimated and corrects several inaccuracies and misconceptions. Furthermore, his own extensive experience of special operations and clandestine warfare allows him insights into the stresses and demands made of SOE agents, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice for final victory.
Other online and popular bookshops.
More information to be announced later.
Now The Truth Can be Told: School For Danger. (Public information film released in 1947)
The two main characters are Harry Ree and Jacqueline Nearne who served with the French Section of the Special Operations Executive.
See my YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AlanMalcher-MA
Alan Malcher Military Historian
See my YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AlanMalcher-MA
Al Sirios Canadian SOE agent in occupied France
A short introduction to my work as a military historian.
More on my YouTube channel Alan Malcher MA, military historian. – YouTube
Odette Churchill GC (aka Hallows, Sansom). A rare television interview (c1980) discussing her service with the Special Operations Executive.
Introduction
Odette Churchill was one of the first women agents serving with the Special Operations Executive to arrive in occupied France to raise and support resistance.
During this interview , Odette talks about being tortured by the Gestapo at their Paris headquarters, but left out the following.
After refusing to provide information about her wireless operator (Adolphe Rabinovitch), who was in hiding and refusing to reveal the identities of members of the resistance, she was burnt on her back with a red-hot poker. Each time she fainted from the pain, she was revived with buckets of cold water being thrown over her to allow the torture to continue.
After burning failed to break her, all her toenails were pulled out, and she still refused to cooperate. Odette Churchill not only survived Ravensbruck concentration camp, when American troops began advancing, the camp commandant, SS-Sturbnamnfuhrer Frits Suhren, surrendered to Odette, and she handed him to American soldiers. Suhren gave Odette his personal sidearm, a Walther PPK pistol which is now owned by the Imperial War Museum in London.
The Walther PPK belonging to Fritz Suhren now part of the Imperial War Museum collection.
Interview c1980
More on my YouTube channel Alan Malcher MA, military historian. – YouTube
The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.
The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans was formed in Fulham, London in 1948 and the charity is reliant on public donation, businesses and trusts. An amazing group of London taxi drivers volunteer their time and vehicles to transport veterans to events free of charge. More information will be found at the bottom of this page.
On 2 July 2024 it was a great privilege to be invited to the Taxi Charity annual fund raising dinner in Worthing, Sussex during which transport was provided by 100 London taxies. On the way to the venue in Worthing and on the way back the taxies stopped at the small village of South Holmwood near Dorking where villagers each year provide free refreshments and show their appreciation.
I spoke to may remarkable men and women including 99 year old Dorothy Barron who served with the WREN’s as a signaller during WW2.
Walter from the Royal Hospital Chelsea (Chelsea Pensioner) who I spoke to over dinner and a few pints.
Taxi Charity https://www.taxicharity.org/
On His Majesty’s Secret Service. A film by Cécile Coolen.
Ian Reed MBE Lég d’Hon, Cécile Coolen, Alan Malcher. At Institut français du Royaume-Uni. 31 May 2024.
I was honoured to receive an invitation from Héléne Duchéne Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom via Ian Reed MBE Lég d’Hon to a special viewing of On His Majesty’s Secret Service a film about SOE in occupied Europe by Cécile Coolen. It was also a pleasure meeting Cécile Coolen and others during the reception.
Cécile Coolen is a French film director and chief editor of over 100 films recognised at the Hollywood Film Festival, Emmy Awards, Prix Europa, New York Festival, and she specialises in archive documentaries particularly connected with wartime intelligence services.
“Cécile Coolen has a clear understanding of the subject and the ability to present the story of our collaborative intelligence activities, an issue which is still inadequately understood” (Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE, former Chief of SIS/MI6)
“Her wealth of professional experience, combined with knowledge of the intelligence world shines through in this film, giving this story the dimension and impact it deserves.” (Alain Juillet, former Chief of DGSE – French Intelligence Service)
David Sibree: SOE Operation Scullion ll
British born David Sibree returned to England on 5 December 1942 from North Africa where he was serving since 1937 with the French Foreign Legion and wanted to join a commando unit but because he spoke fluent French his details were sent to SOE.
A few days before the start of his agent training and selection (20 April 1943) Sibree was arrested by the police after a drunken fight in London which meant his temperament made him unsuitable to be an agent (long-term undercover missions) but considered useful for what SOE called coup-de-main missions. These were missions of short duration similar to commando raids after which they were extracted from the country.
Operation SCULLION ll arrived in France on the night of 16/17 August 1943 to sabotage the Les Telots oil refinery near Autun after a previous operation called SCULLION l had failed. Apart from David Sibree, the team consisted on eight other British operatives, four French, one American, one Canadian and an agent named George Demand had landed four days earlier to prepare the ground. The team damaged the refinery with explosives but there are differing views of how effective the operation was.
According to documents, after the raid only two members of the team, Captain Dormer and Sergeant Birch, escaped to England . The others were captured and known to have been in Frésnes Prison as late as November 1943 before being deported to Flossenburg Concentration Camp in Germany.
Sometime in 1944 all were executed over a period of time, it is believed two were shot and the others were hanged.
Alan Malcher