Den sociale ener. Rekruttering og vurdering af danske SOE-agenter i Storbritannien under 2. Verdenskrig

Resumé

The Social Individualist: Recruitment and Assessment of Danish SOE Agents in Britain during the Second World War

Drawing on recently declassified personal files, this study offers the first systematic analysis of how British officers evaluated the performance of the 53 agents parachuted into Denmark during the Second World War. While earlier scholarship has focused on operational activities in Denmark, the present study focuses on the agents’ training period in Britian and the criteria applied by the British SOE staff. British officers highlighted mental stability and, most importantly, the ability to collaborate effectively in groups. Prior military and maritime experience could be useful, but the officers thought it also caused overconfidence and poor group cohesion. The ideal agent was therefore not defined by technical expertise, rank or political and national sentiments, but by intelligence and sociability in combination with sound judgement and self-awareness. The article shows that British evaluations in some cases diverge from later Danish postwar perceptions of the agents, most notably the first chief organiser, Carl Johan Bruhn.