Preliminary school
There was a four-stage plan in the training of prospective agents of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). At Preliminary school the agents' character and potential were assessed, without revealing to them what SOE did. Those candidates not deemed suitable were soon sent to the 'cooler', where they were encouraged to forget the little they had learned about SOE, while those who passed the preliminary stage were sent to paramilitary schools, known as the group A schools. These were based mainly in Scotland, where the courses were as gruelling as the terrain.
'At Preliminary school the agents' character and potential were assessed, without revealing to them what SOE did.'
The trainee agents then learned about parachuting at Ringway, Manchester, and finally their spy craft techniques were polished up at the SOE's own finishing schools for spies, the group B schools, based at Beaulieu in the New Forest. Not until all these stages had been successfully completed would the agents be sent to a holding flat or residence, where they awaited their final briefing before being dropped into 'the field'.
The Preliminary schools syllabus included physical training, weapons handling, unarmed combat, elementary demolitions, map reading, field craft and basic signalling (use of radio communications). Agents who fell at this initial hurdle would be sent to the 'cooler' at Inverlair, in Invernesshire.
In June 1943 SOE introduced a more streamlined method for the initial selection of students. In place of the Preliminary schools, it set up a Student's Assessment Board (SAB) at Cranleigh, Surrey. The assessors gave the students a wide variety of tests over a four-day period, the SOE setting much store on the psychological make up of its agents.
Published: 2003-03-28
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