Editing Special Operations Executive (section)

===Production and trials===
The establishments connected with experimentation and production of equipment were mainly concentrated in and around [[Hertfordshire]] and were designated by roman numbers.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|p=13}} The main weapons and devices research establishments were [[The Firs, Whitchurch|The Firs]], the home of MD1, formerly MIR(C), near [[Aylesbury]] in Buckinghamshire (although this was not formally part of SOE), and [[Station IX]] at [[The Frythe]], a country house (and former private hotel) outside [[Welwyn Garden City]] where, under the cover name of ISRB (Inter Services Research Bureau), SOE developed radios, weapons, explosive devices and [[booby trap]]s.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|p=15}}

Section D originally had a research station at [[Bletchley Park]], which also held the [[Government Communications Headquarters|Government Code and Cipher School]], until in November 1940 it was decided that it was unwise to conduct codebreaking and explosives experiments on the same site.{{sfn|Turner|2011|pp=40–42}}{{sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|page=14}} The establishment moved to Aston House near [[Stevenage]] in Hertfordshire and was renamed [[Station XII]]. It originally conducted research and development but from 1941 it became a production, storage and distribution centre for devices already developed.{{Sfn|Turner|2011|p=22}}

Station XV, at the [[Thatched Barn]] near [[Borehamwood]], was devoted to [[camouflage]], which usually meant equipping agents with authentic local clothing and personal effects.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|p=96}} Various sub-stations in London were also involved in this task.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|p=97}} Station XV and other camouflage sections also devised methods of hiding weapons, explosives or radios in innocuous-seeming items.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|p=299-300}}

Agents also needed identity papers, ration cards, currency and so on. Station XIV, at [[Briggens House]] near [[Roydon, Essex|Roydon]] in Essex, was originally the home of STS38, a training facility for Polish saboteurs,{{Sfn|Turner|2017}} who set up their own forgery section. As the work expanded, it became the central forgery department for SOE and the Poles eventually moved out on 1 April 1942. The technicians at Station XIV included a number of ex-convicts.{{Sfn|Boyce|Everett|2003|pp=97–98}}