The SOE was one of the most innovative British creations of the Second World War. Its mission was to export resistance, subversion, and sabotage to occupied Europe and beyond, disrupting the German war effort and building a Secret Army which would one day come out of the shadows and help throw off the Nazi yoke. Potential agents were put through intensive paramilitary and parachute training, then taught how to live clandestinely behind enemy lines, to operate radios and write in secret codes. They lived in constant fear of arrest, and of treachery and betrayal by collaborators.

This fully illustrated book looks at the men and women who made up the SOE, the rigorous training to which they were subjected, and explores their lives during and after the war.