Foot, M.R.D. "A Comparison of SOE and OSS." In British and American Approaches to Intelligence, ed. K.G. Robertson, 153-165. London: Macmillan, 1987. Foot, M.R.D. "A Comparison of SOE and OSS." In British and American Approaches to Intelligence, ed. K.G. Robertson, 153-165. London: Macmillan, 1987.
Foot, M.R.D. Memories of an SOE Historian. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2008.
Clark comment: Although Foot's memoirs are about the author himself, not SOE, they are being placed with the SOE materials because his work on that organization is sufficiently central to his life to make it into the title of those memoirs. Carr, Spectator, 28 Jan. 2009, says the author's "chapter on the world of the wartime secret services is illuminating and important, if densely written." However, "his accounts of his private life ... are not always compelling reading."
Foot, M.R.D. "Reflections on S.O.E.". Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society Memoirs & Proceedings 111 (1969): 87-96. [Capet]
Foot, M.R.D. "Research Note: The Dutch Affair." Intelligence and National Security 20, no. 2 (Jun. 2005): 341-343.
The author does his best to put an end to speculation that London, for its own purposes, betrayed the more than 40 agents that SOE dropped into the lap of the German security forces in the Netherlands in 1942-1943. Foot prepared the official history that encompasses this episode [SOE in the Low Countries (2001)], and he is adamant that incompetence, not perfidy, brought on this debacle.
Jo Wolters, "Remarks Concerning a Research Note on The Dutch Affair," Intelligence and National Security 21, no. 3 (Jun. 2006): 459-466, takes issue with Foot's (and the official) position. Wolters argues for "a 'purposeful policy' by some British authority, other than Dutch Section SOE, bearing on the deployment of Dutch agents like 'shock troops'.... Such a policy ... was [aimed at] keeping as many German troops as possible in the West in 1942 to relieve the Russian front."
Foot,
M.R.D. SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive 1940-46. London: BBC, 1984. London: Mandarin, 1990. [pb] The Special Operations Executive, 1940-1945. Frederick. MD: University Press of America, 1986.
With regard to the 1990 edition, Surveillant 1.2 says the work "describes ... how SOE was created and run, considers the kind of people who were involved and the tools they used, and assesses the impact." Pforzheimer calls the original edition a "lean, well written book."
Foot, M.R.D. SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940-1944. London: HMSO, 1968. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1984. 3d ed. London: Frank Cass, 2004. Des Anglais dans la Résistance: Le service secret d’action britannique SOE en France, 1940-1944. Paris : Tallandier, 2008.
Pforzheimer notes that the focus of this book is on the "work of the F Section -- SOE's independent French Section.... The author had access to some official SOE files..., as well as some contact with participants." For Constantinides, although this "official history" was written with a "formidable list of missing sources," including any reference to Ultra, it remains "an indispensable work on the subject."
To Bross, Studies 11.2 (Spring 1967), this work is "an interesting and authentic ... description of the origins of SOE,... and its relations with the Prime Minister [footnote omitted] and the military chiefs of staff." References to "American participation in SOE operations ... are reasonably accurate if not complete." The problem is that Foot conveys "an inadequate impression of the scale of the American contribution to the support of resistance in Europe." Nonetheless, "SOE in France makes interesting, if occasionally confusing and provocative, reading, and it will be a very useful reference for those concerned with World War II in Europe."
Foot, M.R.D.
1. SOE in the Low Countries. London: HMSO, 2001.
One of the World War II events that continues to draw speculation is SOE's disaster in the Netherlands in 1942-1943. Over 40 agents were dropped into the lap of the German security forces. Speculation that London betrayed those individuals for its own purposes refuses to go away. In a "Research Note: The Dutch Affair," Intelligence and National Security 20, no. 2 (Jun. 2005): 341-343, M.R.D. Foot does his best to put an end to such speculation. SOE in the Low Countries is the official history that encompasses this episode, and Foot is adamant that incompetence, not perfidy, brought on this debacle.
2. "SOE in the Low Countries." In Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War, ed. Mark Seaman, 83-90. London: Routledge, 2006.
Foot, M.R.D. "Special Operations/2." In The Fourth Dimension of Warfare, vol. 1: Intelligence, Subversion, Resistance, ed. Michael Elliott-Bateman, 35-47. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970.
Foot, M.R.D. "Was SOE Any Good?" Journal of Contemporary History 16, no. 1 (1981): 167-181.
Foot, M. R. D. "What Use Was SOE?" RUSI Journal 148 (Feb. 2003): 76-83.
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