Secret War

Secret war has always been controversial. War in the shadows is often so obscure that the armies, battles and even the victories and defeats are secret. Secret War reveals the clandestine world of espionage, covert operations and the work of Britain’s Special Forces.

From the development of M15 and M16 before the First World War to Cold War intelligence-gathering and the contemporary use of highly-trained elite forces, the exhibition examines the facts behind the secrecy and why the need for secret agencies remains a subject of continued debate today.

There are two dramatic audio-visual presentations: The Benina Raid, a daring SAS and Long Range Desert Group attack on a German airfield in North Africa (1942) and a reconstruction of Operation ‘Nimrod’, the SAS operation to release hostages held in the Iranian Embassy in London (1980).

Collections in Context

The Cold War
The democratic United States and the Communist Soviet Union were ideologically opposed 'superpowers', and each had their own alliances...

Atomic Age
Although many view the atomic age positively, others such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament view atomic technology as a threat to the world’s future...

 

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Learning Resources

Cold War and the Iron Curtain
By 1948, every Eastern European state had communist regimes imposed upon them by the Soviets...

Cold War Espionage
Although East and West did not come into open conflict during the Cold War, behind the scenes there was an ongoing covert battle to gather intelligence on the ‘enemy’...

See more Secret War Learning Resources