SOE (Special Operations Executive)

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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    I can recomend the book "We die alone" by David Howarth about the dramatic escape of SOE agent Jan Baalsrud.

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    https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=we+die+alone


    Jan Baalsrud's story was filmed in 1957. The movie "Ni liv" ("Nine lives") was nominated for the Oscars that year.

    From "Ni liv"
    6418537187_724e650ab0.jpg


    A new movie version about the escape is being filmed now by director Harald Zwarts (One night at McCool's, Agent Cody Banks, Karate Kid)
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Is the cave being made into an historical attraction ?
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,458MI6 Agent
    No wonder they were known as the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare! Ungentlemanly but vital.
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    :(|)
    Is the cave being made into an historical attraction ?

    Yes, it has. Another simmular cabin/hide is the "Fieldfare cabin". Jocahim Rønneberg (commander of the Heavy Water sabotage mission) and two other SOE lived for a winter in this remote and hidden cabin. Rønneberg restored it about 25 years ago, and I saw him at that time. I reccognized him as we met on a path in those mountains. I recognized him (and I think he understood that), but I was too in awe to talk to him. Here are some images from Fieldfare:

    Look near the shoreline for the cabin:
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    The cabin is not only open to the public - you can use it as a cabin!
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    Joachim Rønneberg around the time he restored Fieldfare cabin:
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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    I forgot to mention there are some new photos on the page before this too, from post 150 onwards. :)
  • SOEBuyerSOEBuyer Posts: 2MI6 Agent
    Hi - This is an incredible collection. If you are willing to sell any items please contact me immediately. CHeers
  • SOEBuyerSOEBuyer Posts: 2MI6 Agent
    What is the pin those norweigan SOE folks are wearing in their berets?
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    edited October 2018
    I have written earlier about Company Linge (Norwegian Independent Company No 1)
    This was the Norwegian branch of SOE that did what the organisation "normaly" did. But there was another Norwegian SOE unit:
    Norwegian Naval Independent Unit (NNIP), later re-named Royal Norwegian Naval Special Unit (RNNSU).
    To Norwegians the are much better know as the "Shetland Gang" or "The Shetland Bus" because their base was on those islands.
    Quite a few Norwegians fled accross the North Sea in small motorized fishing vessels to Shetland and Scotland. Many of them were resistance fighters with expert knowledge about the Norwegian coastline and boatmanship. The SOE needed this knowledge to transport agents, weapons and other equipment to Norway and refugees back to the UK. The members of the Shetland Gang did get some agent traning, but they were second to none from the start in the most important skills: To "bus" the fishing boats accross the North Sea and navigating the coastline safely. There was very little extra equipment needed, but the fishing vessels had machine guns hidden in barrels on deck.

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    The weather was a more dangerous foe than the Germans. Crossings had to be done in the winter or in bad weather to avoid detection. The unit lost ten boats and a total of 44 men and most of them drowned. The boats had no military distinctions and the crew were dressed as fishermen.

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    In 1943 the Germans had strengthend their control of the Norwegian coast. It was decided that the camouflage of using civilian boats was not a big enough advantage, they needed speed, seaworthyness and firepower. Three submarine chasers were given to the unit. After this no boats were lost.

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    In total the Shetland Bus made more than 200 missions to occupied Norway. 380 tons of equipment was transported to the resistance and 190 agents were sent into enemy territory by this route. Drops from the air didn't reach this volume until late 1944.

    My grandfather had an encounter with one of the Shetland Bus submarine chasers. One night he and the rest of the crew of a fishing boat (much like the ones used by the Shetland gang) were on were going home from a fishing trip. Then they heard a roar from a powerfull engine, but they couldn't see the source. Suddenly the dark shadow of a larger and much faster boat went past just in front of them. The boat had no lights, so my grandfather knew what they had just seen. The next day they heard about a sabotage attack against a factory in the area.

    In 1954 a movie was made about the unit titled "Shetlandsgjengen". The title was changed to "Suicide Mission" in for international release. Most of the cast were Shetland Bus veterans, including a captain with 54 missions under his belt.

    shetlandsgjengen-aka-suicide-mission-us-lobbycard-1954-us-release-E5NN3R.jpg
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    A scene from "Suicide mission". Everyone in this scene play themselves. The skipper is Leif Larsen. "Shetland-Larsen" is the most highly decorated naval officer in WWII. To quote Jeremy Clarkson: " ...in the world." No British naval officer got as many British medals during WWII as he did.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76l4wG4s0Fo


    shetlandslarsen.jpg


    War Cross with two Swords
    St. Olav's Medal With Oak Branch
    Norwegian War Medal with three stars
    Participation (in World War II) Medal
    King Haakon VII's 70th anniversary Medal
    Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
    Distinguished Service Medal and Bar
    Distinguished Service Cross
    Distinguished Service Order
    Participation in the Winter War Medal
    Medal of Freedom (US)
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    edited August 2016
    Not really SOE, but here are some rare photos of WWII combat divers:


    German frogman captured by US soldier
    Frogman-Captured.jpg


    German frogmen training:
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    Soviet frogmen:
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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    These days a new biography is published about the SOE agent Erling Lorentzen. He was born in Oslo in 1923 and he is still very much alive.

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    When Norway was invaded he was just 17, but he quickly joined the resistance. He ran messages for a resistance leader accross the border to Sweden, but after some time he escaped to the UK. There he joined the Norwegian branch of the SOE, called Company Linge.
    After training in Scotland he returned to Norway and commanded several hundred guerillas there. He also ordered an assassination. On several occations he posted letters to pro-German Norwegians to warn them to stay silient. The letters contained an empty shell from a gun. This is the only known photo of him from the war, just after the war ended.

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    Straight after the war he was unwisely commanded to be a bodyguard for the two teenage daughters of the king. Erling and princess Astrid kept writing letters while he studied at Harvard, and as the first non-royal for 600 years he married into the Norwegian Royal family in 1953.

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    They later moved to Brazil where he became a very successful business man. His wife died in 2012, but Erling (now 93) is now in a new relationship :D
    Last year he did a parachute jump with the FSK (Army special forces unit). Here is the video:
    https://juliapgelardi.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/asker9.jpg
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,458MI6 Agent
    Very interesting I always enjoy your posts on this thread, there is some exceptional men.
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Agreed, always interesting -{
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • UnderwaterBattle007UnderwaterBattle007 Posts: 284MI6 Agent
    edited February 2017
    Great article in the Daily Mail about the SOE and some of their "James Bond gadgets"

    For some reason the link doesn't work.

    A simple search in google

    "Revealed: The lethal arsenal of James Bond-style hidden weapons deployed in WWII to allow spies to overpower guards if captured"

    Should find the article.
    FRWl, CR, OHMSS, TSWLM, SF, GF, TLD, LTK, TND, FYEO, OP,TWINE, GE, LALD, TB, SPECTRE, DN, YOLT, TMWTGG, QOS, MR, DAF, DAD, AVTAK, NTTD.

    "Do you expect me to talk? "No Mister Bond I expect you to die"
  • Magnus20001117Magnus20001117 Posts: 1MI6 Agent
    Hi. i know im ;late doing this, but i own one of thise pocket knives, exactly like the second picture, minus the tyre slashing blade. any idea of its value?
    mil-patt_jackknife.jpg
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,535MI6 Agent
    Is there a makers mark or is it sterile?
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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    edited October 2018
    I'm really looking forward to the movie "The Twelft Man". It stars Johnathan Rhys Meyer as the regional Gestapo commander and a Norwegian rapper (really :)) ) as the SOE agent he's chasing. It's a true story. You can read it in David Howarth's "We die alone" and an Oscar nominated movie was made in 1957.

    Here is the story in brief: Jan Ballsrud was one of 12 SOE agents sent to northern Norway well above the arctic circle to train, organise and equip resistance fighters there. They were snitched on and eleven of them were killed as the boat was about to put them on land.

    Still photo from the 1957 movie "Nine lives". The fishing vessel used by the agents in the foreground,
    the attacking German naval vessel behind it.

    hbO6JaFA_V--aAy4f8zaJ811yQx1p64mKGF5rYD8XkVsuYSs2zEvh6YWZAJJZMScuVKN=w720

    The Germans belived Baalsrud must had drowned after trying to escape swiming in the freezing fjord, but the Gestapo commander insisted on finding the twelft man dead or alive.

    Historiskebilder.jpg


    What followed was an epic chase going through a landscape both stanning and extremely challenging, making the natural condition an even greater danger than the large Nazi forces chasing him. The local population, including Sami reindeer herders, helped Baalsrud in his escape to Sweden knowing full well the danger they put themselves and their families in.

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    The real Jan Baalsrud:

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    Here is the new trailer of "The Twelft Man". The Reindeer herd scenes are shot at the shooting ranges I used during my military service. Even if your Norwegian and German might be a little bit rusty you can follow the story.

    http://www.filmweb.no/filmnytt/article1324898.ece
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
  • DrydenDryden UKPosts: 131MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I'm really looking forward to the movie "The Twelft Man". It stars Johnathan Rhys Meyer as the regional Gestapo commander and a Norwegian rapper (really :)) ) as the SOE agent he's chasing. It's a true story. You can read it in David Howarth's "We die alone" and an Oscar nominated movie was made in 1957.

    Here is the story in brief: Jan Ballsrud was one of 12 SOE agents sent to northern Norway well above the arctic circle to train, organise and equip resistance fighters there. They were snitched on and eleven of them were killed as the boat was about to put them on land.

    Still photo from the 1957 movie "Nine lives". The fishing vessel used by the agents in the foreground,
    the attacking German naval vessel behind it.

    hbO6JaFA_V--aAy4f8zaJ811yQx1p64mKGF5rYD8XkVsuYSs2zEvh6YWZAJJZMScuVKN=w720

    The Germans belived Baalsrud must had drowned after trying to escape swiming in the freezing fjord, but the Gestapo commander insisted on finding the twelft man dead or alive.

    Historiskebilder.jpg


    What followed was an epic chase going through a landscape both stanning and extremely challinging, making the natural condition an even greater danger than the large Nazi forces chasing him. The local population, including Sami reindeer herders, helped Baalsrud in his escape to Sweden knowing full well the danger they put themselves and their families in.

    sp0bd2da.jpg

    p4jM4.png



    The real Jan Baalsrud:

    image006.jpg


    Here is the new trailer of "The Twelft Man". The Reindeer herd scenes are shot at the shooting ranges I used during my military service. Even if your Norwegian and German might be a little bit rusty you can follow the story.

    http://www.filmweb.no/filmnytt/article1324898.ece

    Looks really good.

    Unfortunately my schoolboy German let me down so I found a trailer on YouTube with English subtitles

    https://youtu.be/qJ-b-bv7WlM
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    The sabotage of the heavy water production on Vemork is known by many. But the factory was able to produce a smaller amount of heavy water after the exlosion. The Germans decided to move the heavy water produced after the sabotage to Germany in February 1944 - but why?
    The first leg of the journey would be by train, at first by ferry across Lake Tinn.
    Two SOE agents and two members of the local resistance with the assistance of a few factory employes were given the task of stopping the shipment. A bomb was placed in the hull of D/F (Steam ferry) "Hydro" and the ferry sank mid lake on the 20th February.
    18 people drowned, 14 of them were civilian Norwegians.

    National Geographic has "drained" Lake Tinn using CGI. Here is a short video that might be of interest:

    https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/tungtvannsferja-ble-senket-i-1944-slik-ser-den-ut-i-dag/70066889


    D/F Hydro and the sister ferry D/F "Ammonia". Ammonioa still exists and is the only steam railway ferry still functioning in the world. The ferry is sometimes still used asa a target in sabotage training of special forces units.



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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    edited October 2018
    Not really SOE history, but it is about special operations in WWII




    A photo of a Alamo Scouts patrol. They were an army reconnaissance unit in the Pasific theatre. Over 700 soldiers were trained at the Alamo Scouts Training Centre, but only 138 served in the unit. They never lost a man on their 110 missions behind enemy lines in New Guinea and the Philippines. The unit was really the long range reconnaissance unit of the 6th Army, but they also served as General Krueger's bodyguards. They were ordered to kill the general if he was about to be captured by the Japanese.
    It's also worth mentioning that they weren't parachute trained.



    Alamoscouts_losnegros_feb1944.jpg


    Scouts were allowed to select their own combat weapons, and most chose the Garand carbine. The Thompson submachine gun and the Garand M1 rifle were also popular. All Scouts also carried a Colt 0.45 automatic pistol and combat knives. Scouts were also trained in the use of all types of grenades and in unconventional uses of weapons. Experiments with silencers were unsatisfactory due to degradation of accuracy, and the Scouts relied on knives at short range and rifle marksmanship at longer range.

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    Screening included a test in which the prospective Scout was interviewed by an officer who had a number of objects on his desk, such as a watch, a packet of cigarettes, a button, or other small, ordinary objects. The interviewing officer made no reference to these objects during the interview, but after the prospective Scout was out of sight of the desk, he was stopped and asked to describe the objects on the desk, from memory, as thoroughly as possible. Those who could not recall enough detail were rejected for training. A second test consisted of putting a group of prospective Scouts in a tent with decks of cards and other games and telling them to relax and enjoy themselves before beginning training the next day. The men were surreptitiously observed to weed out bullies and others who were not good team players. A third test consisted of an invitation to the men to take some free swimming time in what turned out to be a 28' (8.5m) deep swimming area. Those men who were unable to remain in the water for the full alloted time were rejected for inadequate swimming ability. The men who passed the screening tests came from a wide variety of backgrounds, from fastidious former lawyers to convicted criminals. An unusually large number were native Americans, including nine of the 38 men in the first class

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    The crossbows were made by OSS (Office of Strategic Services). The "rifle" crossbow was judged too noisy to reload, but the "pistol" crossbow was actually used on one mission in August 1944, where it put a bolt clear through an unlucky Japanese sentry.

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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    Joachim Rønneberg, the leader of the 1943 Vemork sabotage mission died tonight. Rønneberg was 99 years old and the last surving member of the mission to make sure Hitler's Germany never got the heavy water to build an atom bomb.

    Joachim Rønneberg was born into a family that was once the richest family in the coastal town of Ålesund. He fled to Britain in 1941 in a small motorized fishing boat. He joined Company Linge, the largest of the two Norwegian Special Operation Executive Executive units. Because of his fairly good English he was used as an interpreter in the demolitions training course. Soon he started instructing and became so proficient at demolition he feared he would never be sent to occupied Norway on a mission. I became an unofficial representative of the Norwegian agents because of his Language skills and Natural leadership. For the same reasons (and because he was an exelent skiier) he was chosen to pick and lead the Vemork mission two years later. He planned the mission together with a couple of others and also picked the weapons and equipment. Some kit he bought from civilian sources and some was specially made from his instructions.


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    I won't tell the whole story here, but the Vemork mission is considered one of the most sucessful and important sabotage mission in the entire war. Here is the wikipedia link if you wish to know more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage


    Joachim Rønneberg was sent back to occupied Norway once more, that was in 1944. He and two other SOE agents were parachuted into the Romsdal region to prepare railway sabotage to stop German troop movements to continental Europe after the D-day landings. This was Operation Fieldfare. He helped the pilots toward the right area because of his local knowledge and flew only a couple of miles from here. In spite of his best efforts they were not dropped on the mountain platou they were intended to land, but in a narrow valley. He landed on a steep mountain side and had to quick release his parachute to avoid getting pulled off. The three agents set up a camouflaged cabin in the Tafjord mountains. While they waited for the order to start blowing up railroad bridges they never got re-suppiles because of some blunder. They stole food from nearby cabins, but still lost weight. When they were finally ordered into action one mission failed because the weather was so cold the fuses snapped in two when they tried to use them. Another bridge was blown up successfully.

    In the summer of 1990 he reconstructed the Fieldfare cabin. I saw him there on a mountain path, but I was too in awe to approach him, talk to him and thank him. I have regretted this ever since.

    Can you spot the Fieldfare Cabin?

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    Joachim Rønneberg rebuilding the cabin:

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    After he war he worked in local radio and TV as a journailst. He also visited schools and other venues to talk about his experiences. His last public appearance was this fall at the opening of the Måløy Raid Museum.

    At Vemork a few years ago together with a conscript special forces soldier.

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    Thank you, Joachim Rønneberg.

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  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,535MI6 Agent
    Absolute Respect. And on an absolutely auspicious day. 21 Oct.

    He will be remembered.
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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    I found this give-part TV documentary very interesting. Some modern people with mixed bacground try to tackle the SOE selection and training. Especially the selection was calsified after the war, so none of the biographies I've read says much about this.

    Episode one:
    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Secret+Agent+Selection%3a+WW2&&view=detail&mid=BB48E09FFBF84B31015ABB48E09FFBF84B31015A&&FORM=VRDGAR
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,535MI6 Agent
    I watched that when it was first aired. Interesting, but watered down to suit ‘modern’ audiences sensibilities 8-)
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  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,331MI6 Agent
    I guess so, but it's still the most detailed information I've seen about SOE basic training.

    I read something touching in the newspaper. Joachim Rønneberg was a keen skiier and also loved hiking in the mountains. When he celebrated his 95th birthday someone saw him looking out of the window at the mountains he loved so much. "I guess I'll have to stay here from now on …" he said with sorrow in his voice.
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