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In the midst of the Second World War, Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organisation on a mission to sabotage the enemy. Instructed to “set Europe ablaze”, the SOE, nicknamed the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, got to work creating a covert team of secret agents. The resourceful men and women recruited by the SOE risked their lives behind enemy lines committing acts of sabotage, resistance and espionage. Displaying phenomenal bravery, SOE agents worked in a world with no rules, doing whatever they could to help civilians in occupied countries, assist local resistance fighters and make sure downed Allied airmen managed to evade capture. Every act they committed came with a high risk of discovery and potentially execution. Setting Europe Ablaze: The SOE Sourcebook gives you all the tools you need to GM or play in an SOE campaign. With no rigid military ranks or limiting rules to follow, the SOE offers the perfect opportunity to play an RPG set in the Second World War where almost anything can happen. This user-friendly sourcebook is system-neutral, so you are free to use whatever rules you and your players prefer.
From the award-winning historian, war reporter, and author Damien Lewis (Zero Six Bravo, Judy) comes the incredible true story of the top-secret "butcher-and-bolt" black ops units Prime Minister Winston Churchill assigned the task of stopping the unstoppable German war machine. Criminals, rogues, and survivalists, the brutal tactics and grit of these "deniables" would define a military unit the likes of which the world had never seen. When France fell to the Nazis in spring 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army--alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans. The very first of these "butcher-and-bolt" units--the innocuously named Maid Honour Force--was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill's special operations--a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa. Though few of these early desperadoes survived WWII, they took part in a series of fascinating, daring missions that changed the course of the war. It was the first stirrings of the modern special-ops team, and all of the men involved would be declared war heroes when it was all over. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare focuses on a dozen of these extraordinary men, weaving their stories of brotherhood, comradely, and elite soldiering into a gripping narrative yarn, from the earliest missions to Anders Lassen's tragic death, just weeks before the end of the war.
As the European revolution failed to materialize, Lenin decreed, Let us turn our faces towards Asia. The East will help us to conquer the West.'
A history of the British intelligence group’s operations in France during the Second World War. During the summer of 1940, as Britain was fighting alone for its survival, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, instructed the newly formed and clandestine Special Operations Executive to “set Europe ablaze.” From that moment on the S.O.E. took its own war to Nazi-occupied Europe by conducting a mix of espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance missions, with its F Section dedicated to aiding the liberation of France. The risks and dangers of being associated with the S.O.E were obvious, and the consequences of being caught could only be imagined by those who volunteered. Yet the volunteers still came, from all walks of life, and each a specialist in their own field. Amongst those recruited were Gus March-Phillipps, who led the Small Scale Raiding Force, Peter Churchill, who survived by convincing his captors he was related to the British Prime Minister, Tommy Yeo-Thomas, known to the Gestapo as the White Rabbit, and the legendary Newton “Twins” who waged their own private war against the Nazis simply to get personal revenge. As F Section grew in numbers, it turned to recruiting women and from its ranks came some of the bravest to have operated in occupied Europe. These included women such as Odette Sansom, Vera Leigh, Noor Inayat Khan, Violette Szabo and Nancy Wake. Then, as the Allies invaded Europe in 1944, the S.O.E. inserted small elite teams, known as Jedburghs, deep behind enemy lines to link up with the French resistance and to coordinate more widespread and overt acts of sabotage to prevent the German reinforcement of Normandy. Peter Jacobs describes the extraordinary contribution to the Allied war effort made by the S.O.E. in France and tells the gripping story of the men and women who so bravely operated behind enemy lines, many of whom were betrayed and did not live to tell the tale. It pays tribute to the extreme courage and bravery of the individuals who did exactly what Churchill asked of them; they set France ablaze. Praise for Setting France Ablaze “Overall this is a useful examination of SOE’s operations in France, and a tribute to the courage of so many of the agents who attempted to carry out Churchill’s instructions to ‘set Europe ablaze.” —History of War “A very readable account of the SOE and what went on during the war, from the early days of setting up the operation. . . . This book is filled with the stories of agents being inserted into France from the early stages following the German invasion. . . . A very interesting, and thought-provoking account of SOE operatives, and also a way of remembering the many who never came home.” —Military Modelling Online
'Let us turn our faces towards Asia', exhorted Lenin when the long-awaited revolution in Europe failed to materialize. 'The East will help us conquer the West.' Peter Hopkirk's book tells for the first time the story of the Bolshevik attempt to set the East ablaze with the heady new gospel of Marxism. Lenin's dream was to liberate the whole of Asia, but his starting point was British India. A shadowy undeclared war followed. Among the players in this new Great Game were British spies, Communist revolutionaries, Muslim visionaries and Chinese warlords - as well as a White Russian baron who roasted his Bolshevik captives alive. Here is an extraordinary tale of intrigue and treachery, barbarism and civil war, whose violent repercussions continue to be felt in Central Asia today.
Winston Churchill formed the Special Operations Executive in 1940 to take the fight to the enemy through subversion and sabotage. But there was a group of men whose job was to keep SOE secure, to give secret agents the skills that might just keep them alive, deep in enemy territory. Some became agents themselves. This book tells their stories.
Madagascar provided the stunning backdrop for one of the strangest conflicts of the Second World War — when Britain went head to head against one of its closest allies. When British forces landed on the island in 1942, the enemy they faced wasn’t German, Japanese or even Italian, this time the opposing forces were French. Concerned that Japan might use Madagascar as a strategic base to disrupt the supply line to India, Britain was keen to take control of the island. However, the Vichy forces were keen to defend the French colony and prevent it becoming part of the British Empire. A Strange Campaign: The Battle for Madagascar gives a detailed account of this fascinating but little-known period of military history. Even at the time, the conflict was a controversial one, pitting two colonial empires against each other. However, it was also ground-breaking as it was the first time Allied forces had staged a major amphibious invasion. The lessons learned on the shores of Madagascar would prove to be invaluable two years later during the D-day landings in Normandy. Military historian Russell Phillips examines the tactics used in the battle for Madagascar which included secret agents, dummy paratroopers and attempted bribery. But just how did the British finally break down months of resistance by the French? And how did a tug-of-war over an island in the middle of the Indian ocean influence the rest of the Second World War? Russell Phillips gives us a well-researched, enlightening, and skillfully detailed account of a little-known but clearly pivotal WWII operation that’s suited for both curious laypersons and serious researchers. — Steve Anderson, author of the Kaspar Brothers series and other WWII-era novels Though it was a world war it is easy to overlook some corners of the conflict. Madagascar was strategically important and controlled by Vichy France. Phillips has done an excellent job drawing out the story of the British-led invasion of the island. — Angus Wallace, host of the WW2 Podcast