Special Operations Executive

British organization for special operations · SOE

Established 1940 · ANTHROPOID training 1941

Britain’s Special Operations Executive was established in 1940 for clandestine action against occupation, particularly supporting resistance networks and sabotage. Its schools and technical facilities helped prepare Czechoslovak parachute teams, including ANTHROPOID. Czechoslovak military intelligence defined its own operation and selected the soldiers; RAF No. 138 Squadron transported them to the Protectorate.

A network of secret schools and facilities

SOE used requisitioned properties as schools and technical centres. Training schools carried STS designations and experimental facilities Station numbers; one location could serve both roles. Training prepared people for occupied Europe, where weapons, explosives, communications, fieldcraft and cooperation with local groups mattered.

ANTHROPOID’s British preparation

Kubiš and Gabčík completed several training stages. They worked with explosives at Brickendonbury and finished practical deployment skills at Bellasis. The British stations provided facilities; operational planning and selection belonged to the Czechoslovak Defence Ministry’s Second Department (MNO).

From school to deployment

Training was distinct from the flight to the Protectorate. Seven soldiers from three teams travelled from Bellasis to Tangmere on 28 December 1941, then a Halifax of RAF No. 138 Squadron carried them to occupied Czechoslovakia. The operation brought together a Czechoslovak plan, British schools and an air unit.

Explore further

• Brickendonbury

  SOE training and experimental facility

• Bellasis

  the Czechoslovak pair’s final training station

• Tangmere

  airfield for the subsequent RAF flight

• Czechoslovak Defence Ministry Intelligence Department, London

  the Czechoslovak partner preparing the parachute operation