SOE

The Special Operations Executive is the British unconventional warfare organisation that operates the Hedgehog team in North Africa. Pendleton arranges the Hedgehog connection and is himself sympathetic to the SOE's mandate, arguing that nothing is more unconventional than the material he has been studying and that the SOE's research could therefore be directly relevant. Captain Aldridge introduces himself to H-Cell as SOE, and the unit's desert survival competence — living off the land and scavenging German supplies — reflects the organisation's ethos of self-sufficiency behind enemy lines.