The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) [3] to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for …

Apr 23, 2024 · Descriptions of 23,973 personnel files from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) between 1941 and 1945 are available in the National Archives Catalog. To search for an individual's name in the OSS personnel files: Scroll down to the "Includes" field and click on the link for "Search within this Series."

In 1942, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) became the first independent US intelligence agency. It only lasted for three years and three months but it became the basis for the modern Central Intelligence Agency.

Feb 3, 2021 · The OSS established more than 40 overseas offices during World War II, extending from Casablanca to Shanghai, and from Stockholm to Pretoria. After the OSS was terminated on September 20, 1945, by Executive Order; most records were eventually transferred to two agencies of the Federal government.

Here are ten activities of the OSS and its agents during the Second World War. Virginia Hall receiving her Distinguished Service Cross from General William Donovan for her activities during the war. CIA. Before Virginia Hall joined the OSS she worked for the British SOE in France.

At the end of WWII, the OSS evaluated its wartime operations. For more than three years, the organization had been involved in combat and intelligence collection worldwide. At its peak in December 1944, OSS employed 13,000 personnel, 7,500 of whom served overseas.

The OSS employed nearly 13,000 men and women at its peak and operated for a little more than three years, from 1942 to 1945. In that short time, it helped shorten the war and save lives in Europe, North Africa, and Asia. It left a legacy of daring and innovation that has influenced American military and intelligence thinking since World War II.

The National Archives will open more than 35,000 official personnel files of men and women who served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which was the U.S. wartime intelligence agency during World War II.

Established: Under the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) by Presidential military order, June 13, 1942. Predecessor Agencies: Office of the Coordinator of Information (OCOI, 1941-42) Functions: Conducted overt and covert intelligence procurement activities in …

The origins of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) lay in the dark early days of World War II in Europe. Employing a new, highly mobile form of warfare called Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), Nazi Germany had quickly and brutally conquered Poland in 1939, then Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and finally France by the middle of 1940.