'In the darkness of Nazi occupation the Special Operations Executive fanned the flames of hope and kept alive the flag of freedom. For this alone it deserves remembering.' In 1940, with Adolf Hitler already in command of Europe and planning the invasion of Britain, Winston Churchill appointed a new top-secret organisation to get behind enemy lines, spark revolt and undermine Hitler's Europe from within. This organisation is what history now knows as the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. With a brief from Winston Churchill to 'set Europe ablaze', the agency was given the dangerous task of co-ordinating subversion and sabotage against the enemy by all means necessary - using disguise, deception, bribery, explosives, guerrilla warfare and even assassination - something that had never been attempted before on such a scale.