Station 43 served as a finishing school for operatives, with courses lasting 4-6 weeks. Agents arrived having already completed paramilitary fitness courses and parachute training. At Audley End they were trained in underground warfare and briefing. This was the final stage of training before agents were parachuted into occupied Poland.
In total 316 SOE agents parachuted into Poland and the majority of them trained at Audley End. These brave men, and one extraordinary woman, were known as Cichociemni – the Silent Unseen. 103 were killed in combat with the Germans or executed by the Gestapo. A further nine were killed by the communists in Poland after the war, and many others were forced to flee their homeland, some of them settling in Britain.
Station 43 at Audley End remained active until December 1944.
