Secrecy, Sabotage, and Aiding the Resistance: How Anglo-American Cooperation Shaped World War II

In the summer of 1940, Britain and its empire appeared to stand alone against the onslaught of Nazi Germany. The opportunity to fight back using conventional forces had, for the time being, disappeared. Instead, a new front in the war opened up—one of secrecy, sabotage, and resistance. This new front encompassed a huge variety of different clandestine activities and a number of different agencies. 

One of these was the Special Operations Executive (SOE), authorised by the War Cabinet in July 1940, and exhorted by Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze”. In late 1941, this became a joint Anglo-American effort. SOE and its American counterpart, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), worked closely together, sharing information and jointly training recruits. Documents in this collection cover activities in Africa, East and South Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East, and even inside the USA itself.

This collection, drawn from The National Archives (UK), covers intelligence-gathering on “hostile” elements at home and abroad; guidance and training for agents in the field; the diplomacy of Anglo-American cooperation; support for prisoners-of-war; and reports on Axis industrial output and weapons production. Taken together, these documents offer an invaluable insight into how the British and Americans worked together to fight the “secret war” between 1939 and 1945.