SOE in Czechoslovakia: Czech Section in WW2

This is the first full, official account of SOE in Czechoslovakia, compiled by SOE headquarters staff who had direct access to all the organization’s records, many of which were destroyed after the war. 

The majority of the successful SOE operations in Europe took place in countries occupied by the Germans after the outbreak of war in 1939, Hitler’s forces being regarded as foreign invaders. In Czechoslovakia it was different. The country, which had large numbers of ethnic Germans living within its borders, had been occupied since 1938, allowing the Germans to establish a strong hold on the country which limited the opportunities for subversive action by resistance movements.

Nevertheless, resist the Czechs did, despite the Germans conducting savage and indiscriminate reprisals. More than 300 Czechs were trained by SOE and, in conjunction with local resistance groups, those that managed to infiltrate back into their homeland, kept the occupying forces constantly on the alert, ensuring that Germany’s eastern flank was never entirely secure.