In Peter Dixon's new book on the wartime relationship between the Intelligence Corps and SOE, he's very kindly written the following under the heading of Other Resources for Further Research:
"... the reader who wishes to look further into SOE cannot do better than starting with two excellent websites. The first is Nigel Perrin's site (www.nigelperrin.com) which lists and comments on over 100 books and two dozen DVDs on the subject, most with links to purchase. "The second is the Secret WW2 Learning Network, an educational charity that aims to create greater public awareness of the contributions and experiences of the men and women who took part during the Second World War in Allied special operations, intelligence gathering and resistance - principally, but not exclusively in Britain and France. (www.secret-ww2.net)"
Guardians of Churchill's Secret Army: Men of the Intelligence Corps in the Special Operations Executive (Cloudshill Press) In July 1940, a desperately weakened Britain licks her wounds after the humiliating retreat from Dunkirk. How can the fight be taken to the enemy? New Prime Minister Winston Churchill forms the Special Operations Executive, telling its leader to 'set Europe ablaze' through subversion and sabotage. But how can this most secret of agencies be kept secure? This book tells the mostly unknown human stories of the men who were brought into SOE, straight from Intelligence Corps training, to do just that. They were junior in rank, but far from ordinary people. They were Australian, Anglo-French, Canadian, Scandinavian, East European and British. They had been schoolteachers, journalists, artists, ship brokers and racehorse trainers. Each spoke several languages. The subjects of this book stood alongside courageous agents in training: encouraged them, assessed their character, and tried to teach them the caution and suspicion that might just keep them alive, deep in enemy territory. But they did much more. Many became agents themselves and displayed great bravery. All played a crucial role in the global effort to undermine the enemy. We find them not only in the Baker Street Headquarters of SOE, but also in night parachute drops, in paramilitary training in the remotest depths of Scotland and in undercover agent training in isolated English country houses. We follow them to occupied France, to Malaya and Thailand under threat of Japanese invasion, to Italy and Germany as they play their part in the collapse of the Axis regimes. As we do so, we find a world of heroism and personal commitment so different from our own experience that it is scarcely believable.
Peter Dixon also notes that -
"Regarding the Intelligence Corps, the website of the Military Intelligence Museum at Chicksands, Bedfordshire is worth a visit (www.militaryintelligencemuseum.org), and a physical visit to the Museum and Archives can be arranged."
Plus ... there happen to be three very positive testimonials on the book's back cover, from Dr Rod Bailey, Col Nick Fox OBE, and this Charity's Paul McCue ...
Guardians of Churchill's Secret Army:
Men of the Intelligence Corps in the Special Operations Executive by Peter Dixon
Nigel Perrin's excellent SOE book pages can be reached by clicking HERE