Special Op’s

Scroll down for Vera Atkins SOE, Dr. John MaCrae, Airey Neave, Isobel Grant-Bailey, 299 Squadron, 624 Squadron, Peter Baker, Hugh Macare, UNPFK, Escape Lines, Maurice Budd, John Sehmer, David Finlayson, 138 & 161 Squadrons.

This is the first garden in the Grove, which brings together the men and women of the Special Operations Executive, RAF special duties squadrons, those who helped evaders and those escaping to return to carry on the fight for freedom. There is much more of course……

Squadron Leader Vera Atkins and the women of the French Section of the Special Operations Executive.

Vera Atkins – Special Operations Executive

  • Memorial Text
  • Vera Atkins – Special Operations Executive – 1908-2000
  • During WW2 Romanian born Vera Atkins became an intelligence officer reporting to Colin Gubbins the head of SOE.
  • Her main responsibility was to the agents and in particular the women sent into France as couriers, radio operators and to help train the resistance.
  • After the war she went back into Europe to find out what happened to the women who did not return. They are all honoured on this memorial seat.
  • Memorial Text
  • Madeleine Bayard – Age 32 – Lost when HMS Fidelity was torpedoed off the Azores December 1942.
  • Yolande Beekman – Age 32 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Code-name “Mariette” – Executed at Dachau September 1944
  • Denise Bloch – Age 29 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Code-name Ambroise – Executed at Ravensbruck February 1945
  • Andree Borrel – Age 24 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Code-name “Denise” – Executed at Natweiler July 1944
  • Muriel Byck – Age 25 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Code-name “Michelle” – Died of Meningitis in France May 1944
  • Vera Atkins and the Women of the Special Operations Executive Memorial
  • Memorial Text
  • Madeleine Damerment – Age 26 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Code-name “Solange” – Executed at Dachau September 1944
  • Noor Inyat Khan – Age 30 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Code-name “Madeleine” – Executed at Dachau September 1944
  • Cecily Lefort – Age 40 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Code-name “Alice” – Executed at Ravensbruck February 1945
  • Vera Leigh – Age 41 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Code-name “Simone” – Executed at Natzweiler July 1944
  • Sonia Olschanezky – Age 20 – Recruited in France
  • Code-name “Tania” – Executed at Natzweiler July 1944
  • Vera Atkins and the Women of the Special Operations Executive Memorial
  • Memorial Text
  • Eliane Plewman – Age 27 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Codename “Gaby” – Executed at Dachau September 1944
  • Lillian Rolfe – Age 30 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Codename “Nadine” – Executed at Ravensbruck February 1945
  • Diana Rowden – Age 29 – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
  • Codename “Paulette” – Executed at Natzweiler July 1944
  • Yvonne Rudellat – Age 48 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Codename “Jacqueline” – Died of Typhus at Belsen April 1945
  • Violette Szabo – Age 23 – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
  • Codename “Louise” – Executed at Ravensbruck February 1945
  • Vera Atkins and the Women of the Special Operations Executive Memorial.
  • Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill
  • “And now go and set Europe ablaze”.
  • Famous words from Sir Winston Churchill on the formation of the Special Operations Executive in July 1940.
  • Known at the “Baker Street Irregulars” after their HQ in Westminster. They were a secret service tasked with supporting resistance in all enemy occupied countries.
  • The SOE agents acted as couriers and radio operators, supplied forces with weapons, equipment and training to carry out sabotage, raiding, gathering intelligence and the creation of secret armies.
  • SOE was disbanded in January 1946.
  • The Hexagram
  • The hexagram, or a 6-pointed star, is a common shape used in many religions and cultures around the world.
  • This design was chosen to encompass the Pine tree grown from a seed found in a cone from Natzweiler Concentration Camp by Annette Colton and planted by her in 2008.
  • This memorial was dedicated in September 2011.
The pine tree was grown from a seed found in a cone at Natzweiler Concentration Camp by Annette Colton in 2005 and planted in 2008.

Dr John McCrae WW1

The Dr. John McCrae Tree Seat with the immortal poem. “In Flanders Fields” is set on a piece of giant Sequoia with a covering of Golden Heart Ivy.

Memorial Text

Written 3rd May 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae at his dressing station next to Essex Farm Cemetery on the road from Boezinge to Ypres.

“In Flanders Fields”

  • In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
  • Between the crosses row on row
  • That mark our place; and in the sky
  • The larks still bravely singing, fly
  • Scarce heard above the guns below.
  • We are the dead
  • Short days ago
  • We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
  • Loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields
  • Take up our quarrel with the foe
  • To you with failing hands we throw
  • The torch, be your to hold it high
  • If ye break faith with us who die
  • We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
  • In Flanders Fields

Airey Neave DSO OBE MC TD MP

  • Memorial Text
  • Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave DSO, OBE, MC, TD & MP
  • 23rd January 1916 to 30th March 1979
  • As a soldier Airey Neave was, in 1942 the first British Prisoner of War to escape from Colditz Castle, the prison fortress in Germany. He escaped dressed as a German Officer, and after many adventures returned to England to continue the fight.
  • As an escaper himself, he joined MI9, with his codename SATURDAY, to help others to escape. In partnership with the underground resistance in Holland, Belgium and France he organised the repatriation of many Allied aircrew, soldiers and sailors from enemy occupied France.
  • He will be especially remembered for his organisation of escape routes for Airborne Forces trapped behind enemy lines following the battle of Arnhem in 1944.
  • As a politician Airey Neave was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Abingdon from 1953 to 1979.
  • In 1975 he masterminded the election of Margaret Thatcher to the leadership of the Conservative Party. His service as shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland led to his assassination within the precincts of the Houses of Parliament on 30th March 1979.
  • His career, both in the military service and in politics, was notable for his constant courage, for his ability to assess risk and act decisively, and for a determined and uncompromising approach to tyranny.
  • He is remembered here by his family and friends.
  • Further Information
  • Garden 1 – Special Operations – Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove – Amelanchia-grandiflora “Ballerina Tree” – 2017.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airey_Neave
  • Airey Neave Trust
  • https://www.alistairlexden.org.uk/news/airey-neave-personal-and-historical-elections-forty-years-after-his-murder

Isobel Grant Bailey Special Operations Executive

www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/279202
Isobel served with the Special Operations Executive but her records are embargoed until 2025 at the National Archives.
Auxiliary Territorial Service A.T.S.

299 Special Duties Squadron RAF

The 299 Squadron (Y-Worry) is set on a piece of stone from Hereford that cost just £18 in 2008. All the crew survived WW2.
  • Memorial Text
  • X9-Y (Worry!)
  • 299 Squadron Royal Air Force
  • Special Operations Service
  • To the aircrew of Short Stirling MKIV – callsign ‘X9-Y’ (Worry!)
  • This crew were together from 1943 until the end of hostilities in Europe.
  • During that time they flew 3 supply missions to Arnhem for Operation Garden and towed gliders for Operation Varsity, the Rhine Crossing.
  • They were also on Special Operations duties with solo flights to Auxerre, Bergerac, the Hague, Brussels, Rotterdam, Utrecht, the Sogue Fjord, Copenhagan and Eindhoven.
  • The crew were among the first British to land in Oslo, Norway at the end of hostilities and were also involved in the repatriation of POW’s as the Allies advanced on Germany.
  • F/O Bert Horan Australian
  • W/O Jack Fry
  • W/O Basil Jaggard
  • W/O Reg Lowmanbaker
  • W/O Maurice Davis
  • W/O Gus Tyers
  • Memorial competed in 2006
  • Further Information
  • 299 Squadron RAF
  • 299 War Memories
  • 299 Operational Records

624 Special Duties Squadrons RAF

624 Squadron RAF. This memorial and the original website were orchestrated by Ron McKeon who is remembered in the Sun Room.

Captain Peter Baker MI9

Peter Baker spent an eventful war mostly behind enemy lines helping Allied soldiers escape and leading resistance forces before he was captured in Holland.
  • Memorial Text
  • Captain Peter Arthur David Baker
  • 1921-1966
  • Royal Artillery, Intelligence Corps, Phantom GHQ Liaison Regiment, MI9/IS9
  • Military Cross, Croix de Guerre, Savoy Cross, Madaglio D’Oro
  • For valour in service behind enemy lines in Italy, France and Holland
  • Peter Baker enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1939 and elected to serve in the ranks for 8 months before taking up an Officer’s Commission. He was promoted to Captain whilst attached to the Intelligence Corps in Oxford during 1942.
  • He was then posted as Intelligence Officer, GHQ Liaison Regiment- known as Phantom – a secret front-line battle assessment, cipher and signalling organisation.
  • In July 1943 he was based in Algeria before landing in Taranto, Italy for operations penetrating 100 miles behind enemy lines.
  • In 1944 he was posted to IS9, a secret organisation tasked to reorganise resistance groups and escape routes for shot-down aircrew in France and Belgium, after the Normandy landings.
  • In August 1944 he went 60 miles behind enemy lines with the French Resistance to the Foret of Freteval to facilitate the rescue of over 150 aircrew and army evaders who had been hidden in the forest by the Comete network sustained by the local French Resistance.
  • In September 1944, whilst working with the Dutch Resistance he sent London Photostat details of the German V2 Rocket and their Atomic Bomb plants.
  • In October 1944 he canoed across the River Waal near Tiel to take command of the Underground and organize escape lines for trapped Airborne Forces from the failed ‘Market Garden’ landings at Arnhem.
  • He was captured when the safe house he was in was betrayed. He managed to conceal his secret operational role but following an escape attempt he was severely treated. On release in April 1945 he weighed just 7 stone.
  • A man of outstanding bravery and infectious energy.
  • Remembered by his daughter Penelope. 5th August 2017.
  • Further Information
  • Garden 1 – Special Operations – Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove – Ash tree, Fraxinus Jasopidea.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Baker_(British_politician)
  • https://ww2escapelines.co.uk/article/captain-peter-baker/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MI9

Hugh Macare – Dutch Special Operations Executive

United Nations Partisan Forces Korea

www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/279211
Remembering Lt. L Adams Acton – Major W E Anderson – Sgt. C H Lane – Sgt. D M Sharp – Sgt. J N Wells and Fusilier G Mills.
  • Memorial Text.
  • United Nations Partisan Forces Korea
  • On the 25th June 1950, some 75,000 soldiers of the North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th Parallel (Border Line) and invaded the Republic of South Korea to the South.
  • Western Allies were soon involved in a war fighting the spread of Communism in Asia and as part of this war men from the United Nations Partisan Forces operated behind enemy lines at great risk.
  • These miscellaneous groups worked deep inside North Korea to gather intelligence, conduct raids and sabotage, rescue Prisoners of War and Allied Air Crew that had been shot down.
  • They were specifically tasked to recruit and lead guerilla armies and create confusion in the enemy’s rear. This they did with a great deal of success, even when the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army joined the conflict on the side of the North Korean Communists.
  • The war eventually ended on 27th July 1953 with tremendous losses on all sides and to the civilian population. This memorial honours all who served and especially: –
  • Lieutenant L. S. Adams- Acton MC MiD – Operational Team Leader – Executed after escaping POW Camp 2 – Royal Northumberland Fusiliers/attached to Special Air Service.
  • Sergeant C. H Lane – Special Air Service – Intelligence Sergeant.
  • Sergeant D. M. Sharp BEM – Honour Medal (Republic of Korea) – Army commendation medal for valour (USA) – Royal Northumberland Fusiliers – Tactical Intelligence Liaison Officer.
  • Sergeant J. N. Wells – Bronze Star (USA) – Intelligence Corps – Intelligence Sergeant.
  • Fusilier G Mills – Royal Northumberland Fusiliers – Radio Operator – Killed in Action.
  • Further Information
  • Garden 1 – Special Operations – Cherry Tree, Prunus Autumnalis.
  • https://arsof-history.org/articles/v8n2_facets_of_army_page_1.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8240th_Army_Unit
  • http://www.korean-war.com/specops.html
  • https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1071117.pdf
  • https://www.army.mil/article/268487/army_special_operations_in_the_forgotten_war_commemorating_the_70th_anniversary_of_the_korean_armistice

The Escape Lines Home Run Memorial

The Escape Lines Memorial Society – Home Run Memorial Stone. This stone came from a quarry near the Pyrenees in France where those escaping were hidden before being led over the border into Spain and then onto Gibraltar.
www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/279212
The Granite “Home Run” tablet set into the Stone. During WWII a secret service department was established to bring back Allied servicemen from behind enemy lines. This was known as Military Intelligence 9 (MI9).
  • Memorial Text
  • Escape Lines Home Run Memorial Stone
  • During WW2, a network of escape lines were formed across the continent of Europe, in order to assist allied personnel and other fugitives, who found themselves trapped in occupied country, behind enemy lines.
  • The ‘helpers’ of these lines worked selflessly as guides and couriers for the ‘evaders’. If captured the ‘helpers’ faced torture, incarceration in concentration camps, and death; the escapers or evaders caught with them would be sent to Prisoner of War Camps. For each evader returned to Great Britain, many ‘helpers’ sacrificed their lives of freedom.
  • This memorial rock was hewn from a quarry in the High Pyrannees, which is owned by a family of former mountain guides and donated as a memorial to all who travelled the Escape Lines of WW2.
  • Further Information
  • We Remember – WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society.

Major Maurice Budd MC

Maurice Budd led successful patrols by infiltrating Japanese lines in Burma to send back to the Allies information about enemy forces preparing in invade India.
  • Memorial Text
  • Major Maurice A. J. Budd MC
  • 1917-1945 Age 28
  • Royal Sussex Regiment. Attached V Force Burma 1945
  • Major Maurice Budd’s mission with V Force was to establish an intelligence gathering Operation behind Japanese lines in the Arakan district of Burma 1945.
  • The Japanese had just started their invasion of India and were eventually defeated at Kohima and Imphal.
  • During the period16th February to 15th May 1945, Maurice operated continuously with clandestine small patrols providing a constant flow of information regarding enemy concentrations and movements.
  • The enemy were aware of his presence behind their lines and were hunting him. He remained and completed his task and then succeeded in withdrawing his patrol without loss.
  • The award of the Military Cross was announced in the London Gazette on 17th January 1946. Maurice did not live to receive the award as he died in a road traffic accident in November 1945.
  • He is remembered here by his sister Pauline and extended family.
  • “Honi soit qui mal y pense” – “Shame on him who thinks evil upon it” – Motto of the order of the Garter

Major John Sehmer MBE

  • Memorial Text
  • Major John Sehmer MBE
  • 1913-1945 – Royal Tank Regiment – Force 133 Special Operations Executive.
  • Yugoslavia – John Sehmer was recruited into the Special Operations (SOE) in January 1943. In April 1943 he was in charge of the SOE Mission to the Royal Serbian Army in Yugoslavia.
  • Czechoslovakia – He was withdrawn in May 1944 in preparation for “Operation Windproof” and parachuted into Czechoslovakia during September 1944.
  • Slovakia – Subsequently he was instructed to become head of the British Mission to the Slovak National Uprising. He was captured by the enemy just after Christmas 1944.
  • Austria – After capture he was interned in Mauthausen concentration camp and executed in January 1945.
  • This Whitebeam tree is planted in his honour for unstinting work helping three countries fight the enemy behind their lines during World War 2.
  • Remembered here by his son Jamie and family. June 6th 2015.
  • Further Information
  • https://www.specialforcesroh.com/index.php?threads/sehmer-john.4151/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abwehrgruppe_218
  • https://codenames.info/operation/amsterdam-ii/

David Finlayson Special Operations Executive

  • Memorial Text
  • In memory of 306891 Lieutenant David Haughton Finlayson Aged 20.
  • Special Operations Executive
  • … — .
  • French Section
  • David; alias Guillaume was dropped into enemy occupied France on the 3rd March 1944 as part of “Operation Liontamer”.
  • His role as a Wireless Radio Operator was vital to the operations success.
  • He was captured on landing due to German Intelligence Agents who had infiltrated the Resistance Circuit who were to help him.
  • After interrogation at Fresnes Prison in Paris he was sent to Gross Rosen concentration camp and executed between 1st August and 30th September 1944.
  • Remembered here by his sister and brother Lillian Mary Smith and Frances John Finlayson. 1st August 2008.
  • Further Information
  • https://alanmalcher.com/2023/11/03/soe-david-finlayson-soe-resistance-alan-malcher-soe/
  • https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Finlayson
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SOE_agents

No 138 and No 161 Squadrons Royal Air Force

  • Memorial Text
  • In Proud Memory of No 138 and No 161 (Special Duties) Squadrons.
  • Royal Air Force Tempsford 1942-1945
  • The Nazi occupation of much of Western Europe in early 1940 posed many challenges for the British Secret Services.
  • A high priority was to find an effective means of infiltrating and exfiltrating agents and later, reliable methods for supplying the growing resistance movements with arms and ammunition.
  • The work fell outside of the normal duties of RAF Squadrons so in March 1942 RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire became the base for No 138 and No 161 Squadrons.
  • Flying mainly by the light of the full moon, these two squadrons operated throughout the length and breadth of Western Europe, delivering agents and supplies.
  • Without the agents, the secret services would have been hamstrung and without the supplies, the resistance movements would have been unable to participate in the armed struggle.
  • The nature of the work undertaken by these squadrons is reflected in their motto’s – FOR FREEDOM & LIBERATE.
  • By the end of the war the squadrons had, between them lost in excess of 600 men.
  • Special then, Special now, Special Always.
  • Garden 1 – Special Operations – Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove – 2016.
  • Further Information
  • 138 Squadron RAF
  • 138 War Memories
  • 138 Operational Records
  • 161 Squadron RAF
  • 161 War Memories
  • 161 Operational Records
  • RAF Tempsford

Page Updated 9th April 2024.

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A place for Remembrance, Commemoration, Education and Quiet Contemplation in Harmony with Nature. 2003-2023. This Grove has been created since 20th March 2003 by Mike Colton. The Grove is funded independently of the National Memorial Arboretum and all gardening and maintenance work is carried out by unpaid volunteers. If you would like to donate please contact Mike Colton on 07929-118598 or by e-mail: – mikecolton@hotmail.com. Alternatively we accept kind donations via our Go Fund Me site: – https://gofund.me/56dccf6d. All help is welcome. Regards, Mike Colton, Founder Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove 2003.