1642: Charles I sends soldiers to arrest members of parliament, precipitating England's slide into civil war.
1944: Operation Carpetbagger - the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe - begins.
1967: Donald Campbell is killed trying to break his own water speed record in Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water.
Recruiting and training
In the dark days that followed the fall of France a new volunteer fighting force was hastily improvised to wage a secret war against Hitler's armies. This force was called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and their mission was sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines.
Sabotage meant blowing up trains, bridges and factories whilst subversion meant fostering revolt or guerrilla warfare in all enemy and enemy-occupied countries. On July 16, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed a civilian, Hugh Dalton, to be SOE's political master and then promptly ordered him to 'set Europe ablaze!'
Bold words indeed from Churchill considering that SOE only had a few agents in the field and no effective wireless communications.
In mansions that stretched from the Highlands to the New Forest agents were taught how to kill with their bare hands...
In November 1940, as the Luftwaffe pounded Central London, SOE set-up its first headquarters in two family flats off Baker Street. From this unlikely venue SOE began to recruit men and women to fill their ranks.
Senior staff in SOE were invariably ex-public school and Oxbridge, but the agents came from all walks and included a former chef, an electrician, several journalists and the daughter of a Brixton motor-car dealer.
At the same time SOE's new head of training and operations, Colonel Colin Gubbins, began to requisition properties across the country to act as agent training bases. In mansions that stretched from the Highlands to the New Forest agents were taught how to kill with their bare hands; how to disguise themselves; how to derail a train; and even how to get out of a pair of handcuffs with a piece of thin wire and a diary pencil.
If an agent survived these tests and a gruelling parachute course they were ready to go.
Behind enemy lines
SOE agents destroyed the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb programme © SOE's first headline success came in June 1941 when agents blew up the Pessac power station in France with a few well-placed explosive charges. The precision blast crippled work at a vital U-boat base in Bordeaux, and brought the all-electric railways in this region to an abrupt halt.
News of this triumph reverberated throughout Whitehall and put SOE firmly on the map - proving that you did not need a squadron of bombers to disrupt the German war machine.
This operation led to hundreds more in Europe and in the Far East against the Japanese.
Czechoslovakia 1942 - an SOE hit squad assassinated Himmler's deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, with a grenade.
Greece 1942 - SOE agents blew up the Gorgopotamos rail bridge, which carried vital supplies for Rommel's desert army.
Norway 1943 - SOE agents destroyed the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb programme.
Often SOE operations resulted in reprisals against the local population. After the killing of Heydrich, the SS exterminated 5,000 men women and children in two villages near Prague.
To avoid retribution, SOE carried out 'invisible sabotage', which left no trace and implicated nobody. One example is the sending of a supply train, loaded with tanks, to the wrong destination - using only a forged document.
1944: Operation Carpetbagger - the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe - begins.
1967: Donald Campbell is killed trying to break his own water speed record in Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water.
Recruiting and training
In the dark days that followed the fall of France a new volunteer fighting force was hastily improvised to wage a secret war against Hitler's armies. This force was called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and their mission was sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines.
Sabotage meant blowing up trains, bridges and factories whilst subversion meant fostering revolt or guerrilla warfare in all enemy and enemy-occupied countries. On July 16, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed a civilian, Hugh Dalton, to be SOE's political master and then promptly ordered him to 'set Europe ablaze!'
Bold words indeed from Churchill considering that SOE only had a few agents in the field and no effective wireless communications.
In mansions that stretched from the Highlands to the New Forest agents were taught how to kill with their bare hands...
In November 1940, as the Luftwaffe pounded Central London, SOE set-up its first headquarters in two family flats off Baker Street. From this unlikely venue SOE began to recruit men and women to fill their ranks.
Senior staff in SOE were invariably ex-public school and Oxbridge, but the agents came from all walks and included a former chef, an electrician, several journalists and the daughter of a Brixton motor-car dealer.
At the same time SOE's new head of training and operations, Colonel Colin Gubbins, began to requisition properties across the country to act as agent training bases. In mansions that stretched from the Highlands to the New Forest agents were taught how to kill with their bare hands; how to disguise themselves; how to derail a train; and even how to get out of a pair of handcuffs with a piece of thin wire and a diary pencil.
If an agent survived these tests and a gruelling parachute course they were ready to go.
Behind enemy lines
SOE agents destroyed the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb programme © SOE's first headline success came in June 1941 when agents blew up the Pessac power station in France with a few well-placed explosive charges. The precision blast crippled work at a vital U-boat base in Bordeaux, and brought the all-electric railways in this region to an abrupt halt.
News of this triumph reverberated throughout Whitehall and put SOE firmly on the map - proving that you did not need a squadron of bombers to disrupt the German war machine.
This operation led to hundreds more in Europe and in the Far East against the Japanese.
Czechoslovakia 1942 - an SOE hit squad assassinated Himmler's deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, with a grenade.
Greece 1942 - SOE agents blew up the Gorgopotamos rail bridge, which carried vital supplies for Rommel's desert army.
Norway 1943 - SOE agents destroyed the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb programme.
Often SOE operations resulted in reprisals against the local population. After the killing of Heydrich, the SS exterminated 5,000 men women and children in two villages near Prague.
To avoid retribution, SOE carried out 'invisible sabotage', which left no trace and implicated nobody. One example is the sending of a supply train, loaded with tanks, to the wrong destination - using only a forged document.