The SOE in Helford story has used a wide variety of sources:
National Archives
Many of the original SOE records have been destroyed but we are fortunate in being able to reconstruct the history for surviving papers, especially the Logbook HS8-830
- ADM 334-29 Notes on small boats and canoes
- DEFE 2-202 Operation Felicitate
- DEFE 2-904 Operation Sliderule
- DEFE 2-905 Surf Landing and Operation Planimeter
- HS 7-25 War Diaries
- HS 7-25 Operation Felicitate
- HS 7-25 Operation Marie Louise
- HS 7-26 Naval Operations
- HS 8-771 Special Operations Executive
- HS 8-772 Constance Base General
- HS 8-773 Constance Base Crews
- HS 8-777 SOE Operations after D Day
- HS 8-779 Special Operations Executive
- HS 8-780 Helford Base Closure
- HS 8-830 Constance Base Logbook
- WO 208-3317 Evasion Reports
Other Primary
First-hand memories are few and far between but we acknowledge, in particular, the assistance of members of the Warington Smyth family. In addition:
- The Short History of the SOE Naval Base at Helford River by Lt Cdr Bevil Warington Smyth, stored in the archives at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall
- Michael Pollard’s personal account of his career in the second World War – A Stage in my Education
- Pip Jarvis’s recollections of his time in Helford (from a now defunct website)
- Tom Long’s personal accounts of his time in Helford (unpublished)
Secondary
Many of these draw on the first book: Secret Flotillas
The SOE Base is mentioned in a wide variety of books:
- Secret Flotillas – Clandestine Sea Lines to France & French North Africa 1940-1944 (HMSO) by Brooks Richards. This is probably the most authoritive as Brooks Richards served in both Helford and the Mediterranean
- SOE in France (Routledge) by MRD Foot is also comprehensive but deals more with activities in France
- A Dangerous Enterprise – Secret War at Sea (Barbreck) by Tim Spicer is a more modern text which focuses on the 15th MGB Flotilla
- South West Secret Agents – True Stories of the West Country at War (History Press) by Laura Quigley
- Untold Stories of Small Boats at War – Coastal Force Veterans Remember (Pentland Press) edited by Harold PIckles
- Behind the Lines – The Oral history of Special Operations in World War II (Secker and Warburg) by Russell Miller
- The Shelburne Escape Line (Pen & Sword) by Reanne Hemingway-Douglass & Don Douglass
- Cornwall at War (Halsgrove) by Peter Hancock
- Operation Cornwall by Viv Acton and Derek Carter
Finally, there is novel set in Helford during the War, The Secret Shore by local author Liz Fenwick.