Special Operations Executive

was the director of Electra House.]] SOE was formed from the amalgamation of three existing secret departments, which had been formed, or expanded from purely theoretical research bodies, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.

, memorial plaques behind the Prison Block marking the spot where the ashes of the executed Englandspiel SOE agents are buried]] ]] Section N of SOE ran operations in the Netherlands. They committed some of SOE's worst blunders in security, which allowed the Germans to capture many agents and much sabotage material, in what the Germans called the 'Englandspiel'. SOE ignored the absence of security checks in radio transmissions and other warnings that the Germans were running the supposed resistance networks. A total of 50 agents were caught by the Germans and brought to Camp Haaren in the South of the Netherlands. Five captured men managed to escape from the camp. Two of them, Pieter…

Since the end of the war, SOE has appeared in many films, comics, books, and television. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peggy Carter was recommended to SOE by her brother Michael, where she starts her career as a field agent. SOE is portrayed in the movie Allied. British science-fiction author Charles Stross' book series The Laundry Files takes place within the Q-division of SOE (known as the eponymous Laundry), which has remained in operation since WWII, due to their mission to save the world from occult threats. Portraying a heavily fictionalized version of Operation Postmaster, a Guy Ritchie-directed film called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare starring Henry Cavill as Gus…