Section D

Before the Second World War, Britain’s intelligence gathering depended primarily on the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), Foreign Office agents operating abroad, and the Military Intelligence Directorate (MI) of the War Office. However, the growing threat posed by Adolf Hitler, the Sudeten Crisis, and the increasing likelihood of war prompted the formation of a new, independent organization. Many officers were educated at Rugby School and Oxbridge. Section D formed partnerships with Catholic, Jewish, and socialist networks, including Hans Ebeling’s Catholic group, Josef Hirschberg’s Jewish trade campaigns, and members of the exiled Social Democratic Party. Mutual distrust persisted, however, as Section D worried about being exploited by impoverished exile groups seeking funds. Immanuel Birnbaum, for example, a German Social Democrat of Jewish descent, betrayed the Scandinavian Bureau of Section D to the Nazi SD, and the Bureau's leaders who didn't escape were imprisoned or killed. While Section D officers served on a voluntary basis, technical personnel assigned to the organization’s research and supply facility at Aston House were posted there directly by the War Office. In 1940, attention shifted toward fostering layered networks of resistance in territories on the verge of German occupation. This strategy was extended to Britain itself with the formation of a civilian guerrilla organization called the Home Defence Scheme, intended to complement existing SIS resistance plans. The War Office, however, viewed Section D’s move into domestic operations with alarm. While it supported the use of irregular fighters abroad, it strongly opposed the idea of civilian guerrillas operating within Britain. In response, the War Office established the Auxiliary Units to provide organized support for regular forces in the event of invasion. == The Cruising Club and the inception of the Shetland Bus ==

Section D operated a large section in Scandinavia. In 1938, it began recruiting from the ranks of the Royal Navy, and especially from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). In 1939, Frank George Griffith Carr, an accomplished yachtsman and recently recruited member of Section D seconded from the RNVR, created a small reconnaissance group known as the Cruising Club with S. August Courtauld and Gerard Holdsworth. Their mission was to survey the coasts of Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium to identify potential landing sites for agents, sabotage equipment, and propaganda material. From this early maritime intelligence work, Frank Carr went on to establish seaborne smuggling routes into occupied Norway, which formed the direct genesis of the Shetland Bus, the clandestine boat service linking Shetland with the Norwegian resistance. Supporting this development were refugee Norwegian seamen who escaped to Shetland after the German invasion of Norway in 1940. Mons Storemark, who fled Norway on 9 May 1940 as skipper of the Wailet, brought six refugees to Shetland and soon took part in Section D’s first and second Norwegian expeditions as pilot and skipper. Other early participants included Rubin Langmoe, a Norwegian naval reservist who joined the first Section D expedition with Karl Kronberg, and Otto Ferdinand Aksdal, who escaped from Norway with Olav Leirvåg and also took part in these initial missions. On the Shetland side, John Scott Ratter, a local grocer and fisherman on the island of Yell, served as Section D’s contact with Norwegian smuggling vessels and maintained a secret explosives store near Whale Firth. His cooperation linked local resources with the emerging network of Norwegian operatives. == Closure and merger into SOE ==

oversaw the final processes of the merger of Section D into the SOE. By the time Section D was absorbed into the newly created Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940, it employed around 300 paid officers, though its real reach was far greater. Much of its activity depended on agents recruited from allied and dissident foreign groups, particularly Austrian and German exiles. The section operated in more than twenty European countries, concentrating its efforts in the Balkans and in nations that remained neutral during the early stages of the war. The Special Operations Executive was established on 22 July 1940. Initially, SOE functioned as a coordinating body for Section D, MI(R), and Electra House, but only on 16 August did it assume direct control. Structurally, Section D was divided into overlapping sub-sections with fluid personnel assignments, and many of its code identifiers—such as D/H1 or D/X1—were retained into SOE service. Because Section D often concealed British involvement, its operations were understated compared with SOE’s later exploits. Accounts of assassination are rare, limited to brief references such as the activities of Yugoslav officer Ante Anić, who helped sabotage German rail transport. When the countries in which Section D operated were occupied, clandestine warfare changed drastically. SOE inherited many of Section D’s missions but faced new moral and strategic challenges, including the devastating reprisals against civilians. Churchill’s order to “Set Europe Ablaze” ignored these consequences, leading to heavy losses with limited strategic effect. == In popular culture ==

• In Series 5 of Peaky Blinders, Section D is mentioned in connection with a car bombing. The narrative of the show moves the creation of Section D forward by a little over a decade. • The show Spooks (aired in the US as MI5), features as the main counterterrorism unit of MI5, an organization called Section D. This fictional narrative moves the historical absorption of SOE and Section D into MI5, instead of MI6. • In Series 3 of ''Foyle's War'', Section D is mentioned in the first episode as the former workplace of the character Giles Messenger. == References ==