Editing Special Operations Executive (section)

==Agents==
{{See also|List of SOE agents|List of SOE F Section networks and agents|List of Female SOE Agents|SOE F Section Codenames & Aliases}}
A variety of people from all classes and pre-war occupations served SOE in the field. The backgrounds of agents in F Section, for example, ranged from aristocrats such as Polish-born Countess [[Krystyna Skarbek]], and [[Noor Inayat Khan]], the daughter of an Indian Sufi leader, to working-class people such as [[Violette Szabo]] and [[Michael Trotobas]], with some even reputedly from the criminal underworld. Some of them were recruited by word of mouth among the acquaintances of SOE's officers, others responded to routine trawls of the armed forces for people with unusual languages or other specialised skills.{{sfn|Foot|2004|pp=46,60}}

In most cases, the primary quality required of an agent was a deep knowledge of the country in which he or she was to operate, and especially its language, if the agent was to pass as a native of the country. [[Dual nationality]] was often a prized attribute. This was particularly so of France. In other cases, especially in the Balkans, a lesser degree of fluency was required as the resistance groups concerned were already in open rebellion and a clandestine existence was unnecessary. A flair for diplomacy combined with a taste for rough soldiering was more necessary. Some regular army officers proved adept as envoys, and others (such as the former diplomat [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|Fitzroy Maclean]] or the classicist [[Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington|Christopher Woodhouse]]) were commissioned only during wartime.

Several of SOE's agents were from the [[Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine]], some of whom were [[émigré]]s from countries in Europe. Thirty-two of them served as agents in the field, seven of whom were captured and executed.<ref>{{cite web |author1=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |author1-link=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |title=Jewish Parachutists from Palestine |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-parachutists-from-palestine |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-date=15 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615171439/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005440 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Exiled or escaped members of the armed forces of some occupied countries were obvious sources of agents. This was particularly true of Norway and the Netherlands. In other cases (such as Frenchmen owing loyalty to [[Charles de Gaulle]] and especially the Poles), the agents' first loyalty was to their leaders or governments in exile, and they treated SOE only as a means to an end. This could occasionally lead to mistrust and strained relations in Britain.

The organisation was prepared to ignore almost any contemporary social convention in its fight against the Axis. It employed known homosexuals,{{Sfn|Foot|2004|p=169}} people with [[criminal record]]s (some of whom taught skills such as picking locks),{{Sfn|Foot|2004|pp=57, 71}} those with bad conduct records in the armed forces, Communists, and anti-British nationalists. Some of them might have been considered a security risk, but no known case exists of an SOE agent wholeheartedly going over to the enemy. The Frenchman, [[Henri Déricourt]], is widely regarded as a traitor, but he was exonerated by a war crimes court, and some have claimed he was acting under secret orders from SOE or MI6.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

SOE was also far ahead of contemporary attitudes in its use of women in armed combat. Although women were first considered only as couriers in the field, or as wireless operators or administrative staff in Britain, those sent into the field were trained in the use of weapons and in unarmed combat. Most were commissioned into either the [[First Aid Nursing Yeomanry]] (FANY) or the [[Women's Auxiliary Air Force]].{{Sfn|Foot|2004|pp=60–62}} Women often assumed leadership roles in the field. [[Pearl Witherington]] became the organiser (leader) of a highly successful resistance network in France.<ref>{{cite book| last=Olson| first=Lynne| year=2017| title=Last Hope Island| location=New York| publisher=Random House| pages=272, 344}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Rossiter| first=Margaret L.| year=1986| title=Women in the Resistance| location=New York| publisher=Praeger| page=181}}</ref> Early in the war, American [[Virginia Hall]] functioned as the unofficial nerve center of several SOE networks in [[Vichy France]].<ref>{{cite journal| last=Gralley| first=Craig R.| year=2017| title=A Climb to Freedom: A Personal Journey in Virginia Hall's Steps| journal=Studies in Intelligence| volume=61| issue =  1| pages=2–3| url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-61-no-1/virginia-halls-steps.htm| access-date=24 January 2020}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Many women agents such as [[Odette Hallowes]] or [[Violette Szabo]] were decorated for bravery, posthumously in Szabo's case. Of SOE's 41 (or 39 in some estimates) female agents serving in Section F (France) sixteen did not survive with twelve killed or executed in Nazi concentration camps.<ref>Foot, M. R. D. (1966), ''SOE in France'', London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 122, 465–469</ref>