Unfinished Business

Abstract

The Security Section had faced its greatest challenges in the months preceding Overlord, both in terms of general security issues — issuing reminders warning against ‘Careless Talk’ — and the strict control of operational security through Bayswater, while simultaneously dealing with the fallout from the Nordpol affair and the ambiguity surrounding Dericourt. Following Overlord, the Section remained under considerable pressure, clearing an increasing volume of returning agents through Bayswater and tying up numerous loose ends. Such unfinished business included efforts to discover the fate of missing agents and further exploration of prior security questions through the interrogation of captured German personnel, in conjunction with MI5. Such tasks were conducted as staff numbers dwindled, as SOE moved towards its own dissolution in January 1946.