From Fitzroy's Private Diary (Extract 96)

I didn’t like the auxies, but I saw the point. I’m not entirely sure if I was meant to see the paperwork, but it came across my desk, by one means or another. The auxies, or auxiliary units (to give them their full name) was where men were trained to wreak destruction on the enemy in the event of a German invasion. There was no expectation of survival. Their mission was to disrupt and defy for as long and as comprehensibly as possible, until they were caught, tortured, executed, or died in the course of performing their duties. Many of the volunteers, none of them conscripts, were prisoners, or men who had somehow been disbarred from fighting. The convicts had heard the rumours of men being shot in their cells, so volunteering as an auxie was a life-extending proposition for them (in the face of invasion.) I don’t know if I would have trusted any of the bunch, but perhaps some of them wanted to do their duty. The others, men with flat feet, or bad eyesight, or some other minor impediment, were simply courageous and determined to play their part. The training was tough and effective.

Considering what little we had in 1940, they were well equipped. They had hideouts built by our engineers, and stashes of stocks the army could ill-afford to spare, but at that point in time we didn’t think it was a matter of if, but rather when, the invasion would come.  

That was before the Battle of Britain. We had no chance of winning that, but we did. Against all odds. Young men, barely out of school, defended our coasts in remarkably agile, but fragile, machines. It still confounds me that we beat off the invasion.

All good. But then, with the auxies more or less disbanded, someone came up with the idea - and yes, I know who it damn well was - to try something similar, yet different, in the occupied zones. It was complete madness.  Ungentlemanly madness.

The SOE, or Special Operations Executive, was to be made up of swiftly trained civilians who could be dropped behind enemy lines in France, or further afield, and tasked with disrupting the enemy. Where to start with the problems arising?

Firstly, we already had well trained agents in the field, with years of experience, who were doing good work. Shipping in a load of amateurs put them at risk. My biggest issue with all of this is how can you expect anyone, no matter how brave, to become an agent in the field? You can’t, of course. What they were, whether they realised it or not, were terrorists. Not at all unlike the original auxiliary units, but less well trained and less well equipped. Their intervention would see thousands of local civilians executed for any small victory of sabotage. Not that the SOE trainees were told this. They were being sold of dream of patriotism and launched like chicks from the nest.

I expect that the SOE will have some success. It’s an outrageous enough effort to garner some results. I also expect that most of their agents with be, at best, regarded as enemy spies, and shot. At worst they will be tortured for weeks, for intelligence they do not have, and will die desperate, alone and in utter despair.

It’s all very well for people like me who’ve trained for that end and accepted it.  While we resist it for as long as possible, we know what our likely exit from this world will be. Schoolteachers, accountants, and physical fitness enthusiasts, have no idea what to expect. How could they?

I think it unconscionable to thrust civilians into the darkest areas of espionage. I expect the attrition of the department will force its closure within six months.