Good point Martin
By the way I was wondering when parachute was used first to insert agents in enemy territory and it was apparently during WWI. See
http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ma...ent-parachute/, that gives a British archive reference AIR 2/181 (sadly not digitalized apparently). From the title of the document, "Notes on the use of Parachutes for Dropping Agents", I am not sure if this use was discussed or really done.
A French site (
http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/...-grande-guerre) says that the first agent dropped by parachute in enemy territory was an Italian officer, Tenente Tandura, on the night of 9 to 10 August 1918.
Before the use of parachute, agents in WWI were brought by aircraft that landed in enemy territory, or even used small balloons.
If you're interested in special operations before the start of WWII, the French Special Service mounted an operation to steal one of the new Bf 110s of the Luftwaffe. A French agent managed to contact a German test pilot, who had been thrown out of the Luftwaffe, and on 10 May 1939 he took off with a Bf 110C he was asked to test engines on the ground, refuelled in a small airfield with the help of his brother and then took off for France with him. Sadly they hit ground in fog in Jura mountains and were killed. The French returned the bodies but kept the wreck of the Bf 110 despite German demands.