The real spies who inspired ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’

When Italian and German merchants were invited to a party in the port city of Santa Isabel in Spanish Guinea in 1942, they never suspected an elaborate ruse. But as they clinked glasses, a group of top-secret British spies was preparing to steal their ships—suspected of running arms for the Axis powers during World War II.

Known as Operation Postmaster, the brash mission sparked an international incident and proved the power of the Special Operations Executive, a top-secret British organization devoted to sowing sabotage and mayhem. It’s also the subject of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a comedy directed by Guy Ritchie that delves into the sillier side of the SOE’s very serious aims.

But what was the SOE, and why do its deeds still resound today? Here’s more about the “ungentlemanly” agency that helped spawn James Bond and other spy movies—and helped the Allies win the Second World War.

What was the real Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?

The Special Operations Executive was born out of the desperation of the early days of World War II. By 1940, Germany had taken over most of Europe, and the British anticipated the need for undercover sabotage and guerrilla warfare throughout Europe. That year, British prime minister Winston Churchill prompted the creation of an organization that would do just that, famously telling its agents to “set Europe ablaze.”

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The Special Operations Executive, as it was called, was sprawling and so secret that even Britain’s allies—European governments in exile in London—had no idea it existed.

The Special Operations Executive’s overarching goal was sabotage and propaganda operations against Axis powers. But it is perhaps best known for its attempt to create and enable secret armies of local resistance groups in occupied countries, assisted by trained agents—some British, some refugees from Europe—who parachuted into Europe, established contacts within resistance groups, and provided them with weapons, money, and manpower.

About 13,000 SOE agents led initiatives such as establishing radio communications between occupied countries and the Allies, destroying arms factories, and helping the Allies plan for the invasion of Normandy in 1944. It also prepared a coup in Yugoslavia, intercepted weapons shipments, stole ships, and performed many other feats of top-secret bravery.

So what made them so ‘ungentlemanly’?

The work was extremely dangerous: SOE wireless officers, for example, had a life expectancy of six weeks after parachuting into Europe, and 44 percent of its female officers were captured in France. Agents faced potential torture, execution, or incarceration in a concentration camp, and life in the field could be risky and lonely.

To help its officers, the organization developed special weapons and equipment, like sneakers designed to leave false footprints, radios that looked like suitcases, guns with silencers, firearms that could be hidden in a sleeve, and a variety of innovative explosives. The SOE also provided operators with false papers, new identities, and other support.

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Eventually, the top-secret group earned the nickname the “ministry of ungentlemanly warfare,” a term coined by Churchill. The nickname referred to its “irregular” conduct as a black-ops organization—one that relied on secrecy, cunning, and even killing in its attempt to dislodge Hitler’s hold on Europe.

The SOE’s tactics weren’t always deadly: Agents also did things like sprinkling itching powder into German uniforms. They attempted to confuse and demoralize their enemies, slow down arms production, and encourage resistance workers. Their tactics—and their license to kill if necessary—were so “irregular” and complex that they inspired Ian Fleming, himself a naval intelligence officer who liaised with the SOE, to write the James Bond series.

Why was the Special Operations Executive controversial?

But the agency wasn’t infallible: In the Netherlands, for example, it was infiltrated by Nazi spies. Despite attempts to warn the SOE, officials ignored the evidence until it was too late, sending 53 agents straight into German custody and losing about $2 million in the process, a fiasco known as one of the greatest blunders of the war.

Their efforts often pitted Great Britain against its allies—and even British leaders against one another. After Operation Postmaster, for example, neutral Spain was furious that the British had stolen merchants’ ships from its territory, and the incident caused uproar among British military and political leaders who had not been informed about the mission.

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The SOE’s efforts also often backfired. For example, in 1942, Czech resistance workers trained by SOE operatives managed to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most powerful members of the Nazi Party and an architect of the “Final Solution” in progress across German-controlled territories.

The assassination was a triumph but resulted in brutal reprisals by the Nazis. Seeking revenge, they executed hundreds of people, razed an entire Czech town, Lidice, and named one of their most notorious annihilation programs, responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Jews, in Heydrich’s honor.

What is the legacy of the Special Operations Executive?

But the SOE’s secrecy ultimately meant that its brave officers were underrecognized after it disbanded in 1946, and many of its successes and failures were unknown to the public until decades later. The covert organization’s records were only declassified beginning in the 1990s, and many of its agents, especially women, were never publicly recognized for their work.

The SOE may have failed in its goal of instigating a mass uprising against Hitler and the Nazis across Europe. But its secretive activities undoubtedly contributed to the Allied victory during World War II—a victory that eventually did restore Europe to freedom. Today, the secretive group is credited with sparking modern black ops and largely succeeding despite its “irregular” tactics.