510 • SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE (SOE).Special Operations
Executive began its short life headed bySir Frank Nelson,aSecret
Intelligence Service(SIS) officer and the former Conservative MP
for Stroud. In the 71 months of its existence, until it was officially
disbanded on 30 June 1946, it trained and equipped more than 9,000
agents and inserted them into enemy-occupied territory with varying
degrees of success. It operated on a global basis, running missions in
China, Malaya,East Africa, South America, and theMiddle East,
as well as 19 European countries. Among SOE’s most famous mis-
sions weregunnerside, to destroy the Nazi stocks of heavy water in
Norway, andanthropoid, to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich.
Initially SOE was an amalgam of two existing clandestine units:
the black propaganda staff known asElectra House, headed bySir
Campbell Stuart; and SIS’s sabotage branch,Section D, consisting
of 140 hastily recruited intelligence officers. Together they formed
the foundation of SOE, an ad hoc organization created to foment sub-
version across the world and, inWinston Churchill’s famous
phrase, ‘‘set Europe ablaze.’’ See also ALBANIA; AUTONOMOUS;
BAKER STREET; DANISH SECTION; DH; D/P; F SECTION;
GREECE; HUNGARY; JEDBURGH; MAD DOG; MARYLAND;
MASSINGHAM; MP; NETHERLANDS SECTION; NORWE-
GIAN SECTION; SIAM; SPECIAL TRAINING SCHOOLS; T
SECTION; VEMORK; WHEELWRIGHT.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE ADVISER.A Foreign Of-
fice post filled until 1978 byEdward Boxshall, a veteranSecret In-
telligence Service(SIS) officer who had headed the Bucharest
station between 1918 and 1939 and had served in SOE throughout
World War II as an expert on the Balkans. He was succeeded by
Christopher Woods,Gervase Cowell, and finally Duncan Stuart, the
last incumbent who supervised the transfer of the remainingSpecial
Operations Executiverecords from SIS to the National Archive.
SPECIAL SIGNALS UNITS (SSU).When World War II started,Sec-
tion VIIIof theSecret Intelligence Servicedesignated its radio
headquarters atWhaddon Hallas SSU 1 and the two mobile units
attached to the British Expeditionary Force in France as SSU 2. The
designations were changed toSpecial Communications Unitsat the