Author: Belinda CurwenUnited Kingdom, Great Britain | c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2) | Photographs: collections | 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 | Second World War | Material culture | Espionage & secret servicesPublished on 17th July 2025 by The History Press Ltd in the United Kingdom.Hardback | 400 pages, 159 Illustrations, colour 234mm x 156mm | 0g By the summer of 1940, as France fell and war raged across Europe, the invasion of Britain – once unthinkable – seemed all but inevitable. It would take fresh thinking and bold moves to turn the tide of the war: a challenge that Churchill and his Cabinet would be set to conquer in no small part due to their formation of a ‘fifth column’. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was soon born, its purpose to hamstring the enemy from the shadows. Agents drawn from diverse professions and countries were trained in subversion and espionage before being dropped behind enemy lines to mobilise resistance and disrupt the occupying forces. From local operations in France and wider Europe, SOE’s missions would spread worldwide to pave the way for D-Day and help halt the Axis war machine in its tracks. SOE in 100 Objects picks up the clues they left behind – a button compass in Greece, a silk map in Burma – and follows their trail across land and sea, from moonlight flights to high-risk missions and, ultimately, hard-won liberation.
