V and history special edition: the SOE manual

In a previous post we looked at members of the French Resistance and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Without the leadership of SOE resistance efforts in Europe would have been unfocused and uncoordinated.

I’ve already talked about what a parallel this was for the exceedingly cool and commanding Ham Tyler. And I’ve talked about how these methods informed the OSS which eventually became the CIA. In this special edition of V and history I look at the methods taught by the SOE to see which are employed by our favourite resistance fighters and fifth columnists. To do this I am consulting the SOE manual, which has been published in Canada and the US under the charming title How to be a Spy but can also be picked up in the UK at TNA gift shop for nine quid under the title Special Operations Executive Manual: How to Be an Agent in Occupied Europe

Potential SOE agents underwent several weeks of training usually in locations in the country houses. New recruits were put through their paces and observed closely to ensure they were temperamentally suitable for the role. Recruits could be eliminated from the training programme at any time. In this case they would simply be pulled aside and told their service was no longer required. For those who had progressed far enough through the programme to discover the true nature of the work they were going to do, this often meant they would also have to live in isolation from family and friends for several weeks until the information they learned was no longer relevant.

SOE training included organisation, physical fitness, radio operation skills, various aspect of spy craft and weapons handling. SOE drew candidates from all walks of life, not just the military. People with skills such as burglary and forgery, or medical knowledge were highly valuable. That makes people like Elias, Julie and Maggie very desirable as operatives. Women too were valued because they were easily underestimated making someone like Ruby the perfect spy.

Let’s dive in then and see how our friends compare with the SOE manual. Is Ham right and do they need his help or are they doing fine without him?

Organisation of Cells

For many types of subversive activity – e.g. propaganda, passive resistance, etc. – and with all large organisations, it is necessary to organise on the basis of cells; this strengthens security.

SOE manual

Let’s just say that Juliet Parrish nails it when she talks about the organisation of the Resistance on the basis of cells. In fact it is as if she is reading directly from the SOE manual.

One of the most important functions of a cell is to recruit other cells. Best method is for one member of each cell to have duty of recruiting a man outside who will organise another cell.

However there is a bit of an issue with recommended size of cells. The manual recommends keeping cells down to a number of about six to eight people but clearly there are lot more than this in the Resistance HQ

Mike Donovan has a point. Just look how many people there are there in that underground tunnel? The number of people with Elias alone is one cell. They are sitting ducks in that HQ.

There is another vital piece of advice that the Resistance kind of messes up.

Cell members names are need to know only. And Juliet should not be casually mentioning the names of members of the Fifth Column in front of everyone including enemy captives (!) If every member of the Resistance knows this intelligence each one of these people is a potential source that could blow a vital operative’s cover. Big no-no. At the very least operatives and double-agents should have code names and ideally a single handler. Their existence is not for general conversation. And as for inviting random people along to the party? Nope.

Well, even Tyler makes mistakes sometimes. (Or doesn’t really care about Martin’s security.)

Recruitment

The success of the organisation is going to depend on the quality and work of the individual members, therefore it is impossible to over-estimate the importance of picking the right people. No good rushing the job, every single potential helper must be carefully studied and the question of security considered before any approach is made.

There are multiple scenes of recruitment in V but the most fascinating is the back and forth between Mike and Martin.

Martin takes his time to sum up Mike Donovan as a potential recruit.

• Go slow
• Maintain the initiative (and be wary of volunteers!)
• Man should be recruited for the job (don’t recruit someone until you have a purpose for them)

Now, depending on what you believe about whether Martin left this key for Mike to find on purpose you might think Martin started recruiting Mike early based on his “Love of Adventure”.

The manual recommends you try to find an argument that is most appealing to your potential recruit.

Sum up your quarry and judge what motive is most likely to appeal to him:

• Patriotism
• Religious or Political Motives
• Need
• Hatred of Germans
• Love of Adventure
• Personal Sympathy
• Greed
• Sex
• Self-Importance
• Snobbery
• Fear

If you don’t buy that the key was an overture, Martin is certainly recruiting Mike on the mothership. Mike’s capture most likely forced the Fifth Column’s hand. They either had to recruit him or let him go to the cool store for god knows how long. This recruitment is based on “Need” by providing Mike with means to escape.

But then, Mike turns the tables on Martin and recruits him back! Mike appeals to Martin on the basis of “Politics” and also “Personal Sympathy” which seems to win the day.

(Interesting that the manual recommends using arguments of “Personal Sympathy” when recruiting women, as if men never feel compassion! This seems to be a huge motivator for many characters human and reptilian.)

However. The prize for top recruiter from the grave has got to go to Abraham Bernstein. This leans on something powerful that the SOE manual never thought of: parental guilt!

That letter is unbelievable though. You’d have to have a heart of stone to say no after that.

Security

When it comes to security nobody brings their A-game quite as well as Ruby Engels. Taking a look through the manual there are so many things that Ruby gets right. No wonder Ham Tyler takes an immediate shine to her.

Be inconspicuous. Avoid all limelight by being an “average” citizen in appearance (height, clothes) and conduct (drink, women)

To be fair it’s pretty hard for, say, Mike Donovan to be inconspicuous. He’s well over six foot and built like Zeus. Plus he’s the most wanted man in America and had his face painted all over every news outlet.

In some cases an ostensible lawful existence is impossible. Then you must live underground. Be inconspicuous. Avoid officials. Vary your appearance, habits, haunts, routes, etc. Produce one story or another as occasion demands

Blending in for Mike is always going to be a challenge. The good news is that something as small as a change of clothes when out in a crowd can be enough to allow one to slip away unnoticed.

A simple straightforward change of clothes, provided that every detail is in character, will do wonders to alter your appearance, E.g from your rough gardening clothes to your best lounge suit. the types of clothes one can think ought to change the appearance are endless.

As opposed to Mike, no one pays much attention to elderly women. It’s said of women that once they enter middle-age they become invisible. No longer subjects of the male gaze, post-menopausal women fade into the background which is why no one sees that Ruby is responsible for this:

Well Officer Randy sees this, but we’ve already established that Randy is pretty special.

It’s also a genius move to have Ruby work as a cleaner in Visitor’s Earth HQ. It turns out that Ruby is an actress, so she is able to amp up the dithery old lady routine again keeping her cover story not too far removed from the truth.

Your cover should be based, as far as possible on the facts of your own life or that of the person whom you are impersonating. Do not introduce places or events which you do not know nor refer to knowledge which you have not. (Do not claim to know of engineering if you do not.)

Again not so great for Mike when he is running around in a Visitor uniform pretending to be a reptilian alien. He only has to open his mouth to be discovered.

Not much can be done about that. Not yet anyway.

If I’m honest while this is a great coup pulling this off and the iconography is brilliant, Julie does kind of blow it by not telling people that there is hope if people join the resistance at the end of her speech. Wasted opportunity there.

Again the A-game goes to our elderly players. Abraham Bernstein has a simple and effective message borrowed from Winston Churchill himself. V for Victory.

Captivity

Being captured by the enemy was an ever-present threat for SOE operatives and all recruits were taught how best to keep their cool when caught. The advice is not to despair if you are caught:

If you are arrested by the Gestapo, do not assume that all is lost; the Gestapo’s reputation has been built up on ruthlessness and terrorism, not intelligence. They will always pretend to know more than they do and may even make a good guess, but remember that it is a guess; otherwise they would not be interrogating

Juliet Parrish does manage to keep her cool when captured by Diana. Though she can’t help having a dig at Daniel. The SOE was realistic about its agents getting broken by interrogators and torturers. Operatives were instructed to try to hold out for at least 48 hours to give the rest of their network time to go into hiding. Juliet does this with great success in the conversion chamber.

Donovan on the other hand….

Do not be clever or abusive. Create an impression of being an averagely stupid, honest citizen, trying his best to answer questions intelligently. Interrogators are not impressed by tears or heroics.

Donovan really blows it with the truth serum there! Not a good time to antagonise the enemy even if she is ruthless and there’s no appealing to her “humanity”. And he throws away a major opportunity to stall for time because he can’t resist the urge to be a smart arse.

Poor Robin might have benefited from the following knowledge as well.

Beware of mirrors in your cell. Observers stationed behind cell-wall can observe your actions through “two-way” mirror

Always assume you are being watched! And beware of fellow prisoners as they are likely to be confederates. (Poor Robin is subjected to this method also in V The Series: The Hero not that I’m admitting that the weekly series exists or anything.)

Finally, all SOE operatives were issued cyanide pills before being air-dropped into Europe in case of capture. Each agent was given tips and tools for concealment of their pills, and it was up to them to know when to take them. These were obviously tools of last resort. The Fifth Column handing Donovan a pill at the last minute is a bit poor to be honest.

Special mention: Parachuting

There are numerous elements of practical training in the SOE manual, radio operations, weapons training, explosives, survival skills, but there is one in particular I wanted to call out.

I’ll be honest. When I first watched Final Battle and saw Mike and Martin parachute out of the mothership I thought it was completely dumb. And it is. Where the hell are they supposed to land? The mothership is several miles wide but LA is even wider! However, I am willing to give some dispensation for this now I realise how central paratrooping was to the SOE. Parachuting was the main method of transporting agents into occupied Europe and would have been one of the first training programmes agents were put through.

SOE cadets would have done this in their first week.

If you had a fear of heights you had to learn to master it. If you couldn’t, you would have been deemed unsuitable. Mike would have been out on his ass if he pulled this crap in the SOE. That is if he hadn’t already been weeded out for being a dangerous maverick anyway. He’s lucky he has such a good friend to encourage him.

So was Ham right? Did they need his help. I’d say yes and no. Ham brought a degree of professionalism to the resistance that was sorely needed.

But for bunch of civilians I think the Resistance got it right just often enough.