What Would Your WWII Spy Job Have Been?

About This Quiz

The intelligence services in World War II did most of their work in the shadows. While some groups like the Bletchley Park codebreakers who hacked the Nazis' Enigma code are now recognized and lauded for their contributions, many other groups go unrecognized. There are those like Dr. Ho Feng Shan, a Chinese diplomat in Berlin who defied his orders and illegally issued thousands of visas to help Jews flee the Nazis. Other diplomats blackmailed and bribed highly placed Nazi and Japanese sources to get intelligence on what the Axis intended to do before they did it.

World War II spies also included groups like MI6 and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The latter's operation to blow up a Nazi heavy water plant in Norway is probably the main reason that the Nazis had no way to get the atomic bomb before the Allies did. The SOE also pulled off Operation Rubble, which destroyed many ships, as well as organizing resistance groups across Europe's occupied nations.  Brave MI6 and SOE agents went behind enemy lines to steal secrets, derail operations, and blow up key targets. They also trained the OSS, precursor of the CIA, in the dark arts of espionage and sabotage, and OSS enjoyed plenty of their own intelligence triumphs.

Like the Bletchley codebreakers, SOE's forces were about one-third women, meaning that serving in the intelligence services was a great way for a female patriot to fight the Nazi threat. SOE also welcomed career criminals, people with disabilities, and all sort of folks that the regular military wouldn't touch. These people made a huge difference in the morale and resources of occupied peoples, and in some places, changed the course of battles - and in the case of Bletchley, the war itself. Where would you belong among them?