Editing Special Operations Executive (section)

===Poland===
[[File:Polish Members of the Special Operations Executive, 1942-1944, view 1 - Audley End House - Essex, England - DSC09486.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial to Polish Members of the Special Operations Executive, 1942–1944, at [[Audley End House]]]]

SOE did not need to instigate Polish resistance, because unlike the [[Vichy French]] the Poles overwhelmingly refused to [[collaborate]] with the [[Nazi]]s. Early in the war the Poles established the [[Home Army]], led by a clandestine resistance government known as the [[Polish Secret State]]. Nevertheless, many members of SOE were Polish and the Polish resistance cooperated with them extensively.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

SOE assisted the [[Polish government in exile]] with training facilities and logistical support for its 605 special forces operatives known as the [[Cichociemni]], or ''"The Dark and Silent"''. Members of the unit, which was based in [[Audley End House]], Essex, were rigorously trained before being parachuted into [[occupied Poland]]. Because of the distance involved in air travel to Poland, customised aircraft with extra fuel capacity were used in Polish operations such as [[Operation Wildhorn III]]. [[Sue Ryder]], a war-time member of the [[First Aid Nursing Yeomanry]], who worked with the Poles in Britain, later chose the title [[Baroness Ryder of Warsaw]] in honour of these operations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Who We Work With - Poland |url=https://www.lrwmt.org.uk/who-we-work-with/poland/ |website=Lady Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust }}</ref>

[[Secret Intelligence Service]] member [[Krystyna Skarbek]] (''nom de guerre'' Christine Granville) ran several operations in Poland, and Hungary (with [[Andrzej Kowerski]]), from 1939-1941, in [[Egypt]] 1941-1944, and France with SOE F (for French) Section in 1944. Having served in the Polish resistance [[Home Army]] since 1939, [[Elżbieta Zawacka]] reached Britain in May 1943, and became the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces, the [[Cichociemni]] or 'Silent Unseen', therefore also the only woman in SOE P (for Polish) Section. Zawacka, like [[Jan Nowak-Jezioranski]] reached Britain through [[Gibraltar]] on an established courier route out of [[occupied Europe]]. [[Maciej Kalenkiewicz]] was parachuted into [[occupied Poland]], only to be killed by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]]. A Polish agent was integral to SOE's [[Operation Foxley]], the plan to assassinate [[Hitler]].

Thanks to co-operation between SOE and the [[Home Army]], the Poles were able to deliver the first Allied intelligence on the [[Holocaust]] to London in June 1942.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206317.pdf |title=Grojanowski Report |publisher=Yad Vashem |access-date=2017-08-24 |archive-date=14 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114152925/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206317.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Witold Pilecki]] of the Polish Home Army designed a joint operation with SOE to liberate [[Auschwitz]], but the British rejected it as infeasible. Joint Anglo-Polish operations provided London with vital intelligence on the [[V-2 rocket]], German troops movements on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], and the [[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens]].

[[RAF]] 'Special Duties Flights' were sent to Poland to assist the [[Warsaw uprising]] against the Nazis. The rebellion was defeated with a loss of 200,000 casualties (mostly German executions of Polish civilians) after the nearby [[Red Army]] refused military assistance to the [[Polish Home Army]]. RAF Special Duties Flights were refused landing rights at Soviet-held airfields near Warsaw, even when requiring emergency landings after battle damage. These flights were also attacked by Soviet fighters, despite the [[USSR]]'s officially [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] status.{{Sfn|Orpen|1984|p=}}{{page needed|date=August 2017}}