Editing Special Operations Executive (section)

===Sabotage===
[[File:Audience in demolition class. Milton Hall, England, circa 1944., 1943 - 1944 - NARA - 540063.tif|thumb|left|Audience in demolition class, [[Milton Hall]], {{Circa|1944}}]]

SOE developed a wide range of explosive devices for sabotage, such as [[limpet mine]]s, shaped charges and time fuses, which were also widely used by commando units. Most of these devices were designed and produced at The Firs.{{Sfn|Milton|2016|p=80}} The [[Pencil detonator|Time Pencil]], invented by Commander A.J.G. Langley, the first commandant of Station XII at Aston{{Sfn|Turner|2011|p=17-19}} was used to give a saboteur time to escape after setting a charge and was far simpler to carry and use than lighted fuses or electrical detonators. It relied on crushing an internal vial of acid which then corroded a retaining wire, which sometimes made it inaccurate in cold or hot conditions. Later the L-Delay, which instead allowed a lead retaining wire to "creep" until it broke and was less affected by the temperature, was introduced.

SOE pioneered the use of [[plastic explosive]]. (The term "plastique" comes from plastic explosive packaged by SOE and originally destined for France but taken to the United States instead.) Plastic explosive could be shaped and cut to perform almost any demolition task. It was also inert and required a powerful detonator to cause it to explode, and was therefore safe to transport and store. It was used in everything from [[car bomb]]s, to exploding rats designed to destroy coal-fired boilers.<ref>{{cite news | first=Richard | last=Norton-Taylor | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontaylor | title=How exploding rats went down a bomb and helped British boffins win the Second World War | newspaper=The Guardian | date=28 October 1999 | access-date=2017-08-23 | location=London | archive-date=1 June 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601141448/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontaylor | url-status=live }}</ref>

Other, more subtle sabotage methods included [[lubricant]]s laced with grinding materials, intended for introduction into vehicle oil systems, [[railway wagon]] [[axle box]]es, etc., incendiaries disguised as innocuous objects,{{Sfn|Foot|2004|pp=82–83}} [[Coal torpedo|explosive material concealed in coal piles]] to destroy locomotives, and land mines disguised as cow or elephant dung. On the other hand, some sabotage methods were extremely simple but effective, such as using sledgehammers to crack cast-iron mountings for machinery.