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The Lost Women Spies S01E03 (2025) [Full Movie] [Full Series]Full EP - Full
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00:03In the Second World War, British spy agency, the SOE, send more and more female agents behind enemy lines.
00:20With D-Day on the horizon, these women, handpicked by spymaster Vera Atkins,
00:27make daring attacks against Hitler's troops from deep inside Nazi-occupied France.
00:41But, as the Allies push towards Paris,
00:46the Gestapo brutally cracks down.
00:50Unfortunately, some of your agents had to be shot.
00:57What the hell are they playing at?
00:59One by one, Vera's women disappear.
01:03We can't be captured.
01:08Hide what you can, then hide yourself.
01:13We go now. Move!
01:15Halt!
01:29You go. I'll send them off as long as I can. Go! Go!
01:39But, with France liberated, and the Nazis defeated, many are still missing.
01:47Vera's mission was to send these women to war.
01:52Now, she'll do whatever it takes to find them and bring them home.
02:11The Allied invasion of Europe to recapture France from the Nazis has begun.
02:36Across France, the French resistance, supplied and coordinated by SOE, launch into action.
02:45Across France, the French resistance, supplied and coordinated by SOE, launch into action.
02:49In London, F-Section monitor the sabotage activity.
02:56There's palpable excitement.
02:59Buckmaster and Vera are watching as these messages come in.
03:04There's already been acts of sabotage, trying to disrupt the train lines, trying to disrupt communication lines, blow up bridges,
03:11blowing up telephone exchanges, to try and disrupt the Germans as much as possible.
03:18It's chaotic, but it's exhilarating.
03:21In the flurry of messages coming in from their agents, they receive one that is unusual.
03:29Sir, message from Paul's sign Leopold.
03:34Leopold?
03:37Leopold is inactive. He was arrested in 43.
03:42Thank you for the large delivery of weapons and ammunition.
03:45Incredibly grateful for the information on your plans and objectives.
03:52Signed the Gestapo.
03:56The Gestapo?
04:00It's not the only message F-Section received that day from the Nazis' feared secret police.
04:09Buck?
04:10Another.
04:12Thank you for the supply drop. Equipment gratefully received.
04:16Unfortunately, some of your agents had to be shot.
04:21Others were more open to do what we asked.
04:24The Gestapo.
04:26What the hell are they playing at?
04:31Send a reply.
04:34Sorry to see your nerves are shot.
04:37And your resilience isn't as strong as ours.
04:41Buckmaster.
04:42Yes, sir.
04:54Still, SOE circuits and French resistance fighters continue their clandestine attacks against the Nazis.
05:06And the Allied soldiers fight their way ashore.
05:10But their position is precarious.
05:13They need to firm up their hold of the beachhead.
05:18And be ready for when German reinforcements hit back.
05:30Work at F-Section doesn't stop.
05:35Wireless messages of German targets being hit continue to stream in.
05:42Sabotage by those SOE networks was absolutely crucial during D-Day.
05:49And the Germans were so angry at this success that an order went out to hunt down Vera's agents.
06:00Just days after D-Day, F-Section received news on one of their agents, recently parachuted into France.
06:10Buck.
06:13Violette Sabot has been captured.
06:17Violette is already a widow.
06:19She's got a two-year-old daughter.
06:22And the thought that Violette might not come back is just unthinkable.
06:28Where?
06:31The report is brief.
06:36Does it say where she's being held?
06:41It just says captured.
06:43Nothing else.
06:58In the Limousin region of France, resistance fighters pull off an audacious mission.
07:05They have kidnapped the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich.
07:11And of course the Nazis are furious about this.
07:15They want their commander back.
07:18And so they start to ramp up their control of the area.
07:21They put in road blocks.
07:23Trying to capture resistance members.
07:26And they start to punish the resistance for what they've done.
07:30The Nazis are out for revenge.
07:33And choose the village of Ourador-sur-Glane to send a bloody message to the French people.
07:44In London, F-Section monitors sabotage attacks across France.
07:50They've hit another fuel depot.
07:53Good.
07:54Their tanks are thirsty beasts.
07:56They'll be running on fumes by the time they reach Normandy.
07:59If they may get that far.
08:03But soon, news of the massacre reaches Buckmaster.
08:08Sir, a report from France.
08:10You need to read it now.
08:19Buck?
08:25What is it?
08:29The SS.
08:33The resistance captured their commander.
08:42They massacred a village.
08:45What?
08:49Over 600 dead.
08:51Women.
08:54Children.
09:01I thought the Germans had honor.
09:04That they acted like gentlemen.
09:08Buck.
09:12I never thought they'd do something like this.
09:22The news of the massacre at Ourador-sur-Glane really is shocking for Buckmaster.
09:28That the Germans have sunk so low that they'll massacre innocent women and children.
09:35Where did this happen?
09:39Buck, where did this happen?
09:41Buck, where did this happen?
09:51Limousin.
09:53Limousin.
10:03Violet was operating out of the limousin.
10:06Before capture.
10:13The Germans.
10:14But no further information on Violet has come through.
10:19The Germans.
10:27in northern France the Allies consolidate their foothold in Normandy and prepare to
10:35push out deeper into the country F section is a hive of activity organizing weapons
10:46drops ammunitions explosives for the French resistance to stop the Germans being able
10:51to defend themselves against the Allied attack but a message from callsign Bursa the scholar
11:02circuit are requesting a supply drop to the Jura region Bursa is Vera's agent everyone based on
11:10and she's been operating in France for about three months in the Jura region which is to the east of
11:15France authorize the drop on the 25th of June 1944 32 flying fortresses were flown over by the RAF
11:29and they released 440 parachutes and attached to those parachutes were canisters full of weapons
11:36and explosives and arms and equipment needed by the resistance
11:44it's the largest daylight parachute drop of the war hidden at the drop zone is Yvonne with a team of
11:52resistance fighters it took 48 hours for those canisters to be emptied and for the equipment to
12:00be stored meaning that every minute and every hour that went by they were more and more at risk of
12:06being caught but Yvonne was so excited when this happened and she said as every one of those
12:12parachutes opened hope was attached to them after a frantic two days on the ground Yvonne and her team
12:26are exhausted with the last container collected they leave the drop zone and head back to their headquarters
12:46at F section messages from the circuits flood in targets are being hit the resistance are taking
12:55the fight to the Germans across the country but that's tinged with uncertainty what about the agents how many
13:08have survived how many have the Germans managed to capture then F section finally receives the report
13:17they've been waiting for what they've been waiting for what is it
13:33BLA is with two resistance men and they're driving to meet other SOE leaders but what they don't know is
13:42the
13:43resistance of course one of the SS commanders of the second panzer division and the Germans are frantic
13:49to get him back they start mounting roadblocks and they start searching people asking everybody for
13:55their papers where were they when this happened
14:01no what I thought you said this road was clear
14:07it was what it was it's a new checkpoint they can't search us I know they can't search us if
14:15they
14:15search the car they'll find our weapons we have British weapons if they search the car they'll know
14:20the resistance we can't be captured stop the car
14:40we make for the woods try to lose them we go now move
15:10as Violet's escaping she twists her ankle it was already damaged from the parachute drop she'd done
15:17during training as an SOE agent
15:30are you hit no it's my ankle can you walk on it no you go I'll send them off as
15:37long as I can go go
15:42she's basically immobile at this point so she provides cover fire for the resistance men so that they can get
15:49away
15:50shits
15:51oh
15:58a
16:00that's it
16:08so
16:18loved
16:38The report ends.
16:42Violette was held by the SS in the French city of Limoges,
16:48but has since disappeared.
16:52She is one of many agents now missing.
17:06Since D-Day, Allied forces have made steady gains against the Germans.
17:14Two months after the Normandy landings,
17:17the Nazis are forced to abandon the French capital.
17:26The liberation of Paris was the moment everybody had been waiting for.
17:31The relief of finally being able to be in the city and not be under German occupation just must have
17:37been phenomenal.
17:39With the Allies pushing deeper into France, what's left of SOE's circuits begin to lose their importance.
17:50Boddington is travelling, he's lecturing to Allied forces on the conditions in France.
17:57Buckmaster himself has set up in the Hotel Cecil in Paris.
18:02And he will then very quickly start a tour of the surviving circuits.
18:08At F section, work begins to slow down and staff start to leave.
18:16But disturbing reports are coming in about the fate of SOE's agents.
18:22Vera is tasked with making sense of them all.
18:37But Vera, no longer a civilian and now commissioned in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, stays in London.
18:50Paris is back in Allied hands, but the victory came at a huge cost to SOE's agents.
18:59It was understood that the casualty numbers would be quite high, particularly surrounding the D-Day landings.
19:09Many more female agents had been sent out in 1944 than before, and this was Vera's responsibility.
19:17She's the one who's sent them to France in the first place.
19:21With Paris liberated, the human toll of this decision comes into focus.
19:29Of the more than 400 SOE agents dispatched to France, 118 are missing.
19:3716 of them are Vera's women.
19:58After the liberation at the hotel where F section have set up a new office,
20:03a man turns up and he's angry, he's furious.
20:09Marcel Rousset, an F section agent with the code name Leopold,
20:14demands to see anyone in the British Secret Service.
20:22I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you think you could fetch someone from SOE for me?
20:25Now!
20:27He had been captured by the Gestapo, and in fact it was even his radio that was used by the
20:32Gestapo
20:33to send the taunting signals to SOE headquarters on D-Day.
20:40Hello, I'm Nancy. How can I help?
20:42That's why you need jobs. I am...
20:43He is angry. He's absolutely furious at mistakes that SOE has made, that so many agents have been captured.
20:53Please take a seat here, sir.
20:56An SOE officer sits down with Rousset for a debriefing on his time in captivity.
21:02He might know who has actually been arrested by the Gestapo.
21:06He might know who has survived.
21:11Rousset says how stupid everyone at F section had been,
21:16particularly Buckmaster and Vera, and how they had risked agents' lives.
21:23The SD, Sicherheitsdienst, forced him to relay radio messages back to London.
21:29And he quite deliberately, totally follows SOE protocol,
21:34which is that he doesn't include special code words as a warning to SOE,
21:40but they just ignored this and continued to accept the messages that came from his radio as genuine.
21:49His interrogation report is explosive and provides Vera with important leads to the whereabouts of her missing agents.
22:07At F section, Vera receives Rousset's interrogation report.
22:15After his arrest, he's taken to the SD headquarters in Paris at 84 Avenue Foch.
22:27The SD is the SS intelligence agency and worked hand in hand with the Gestapo.
22:35Here, Rousset is confronted with Prosper's wireless operator, Gilbert Norman, codenamed Butcher.
22:45It was Norman who told the Germans that Rousset was SOE, wireless operator, Leopold.
22:54And he also tells Rousset that the Gestapo know everything about SOE and their activities.
23:06So, Suttel, who is the organiser of that circuit, and Norman, had given up everything about the Prosper circuit in
23:15Paris,
23:16in order to try and save his life and maybe other agents' lives as well.
23:22Rousset is advised to do the same.
23:27Had he given up every piece of information? What had he told them?
23:31Can you imagine how awful it was for Vera?
23:34Just finding out that they could have revealed so much that every time Vera sent a woman over,
23:40she was just basically feeding them straight into the German prisons.
23:46In the Gestapo's cells, Rousset is held in solitary confinement.
23:53But, by tapping on the wall in Morse code,
23:56he manages to communicate with an SOE agent in the cell next to his.
24:02Rousset learns that a wireless operator with the code name Madeleine is also being held by the Nazis.
24:11Nor Inyat Khan goes under the code name Madeleine.
24:16Nor hadn't surfaced after the liberation of Paris.
24:22Vera assumed she'd been captured.
24:25But no further intel had been discovered.
24:31Rousset's report suggests that Nor had been in the Gestapo's prison in Paris.
24:40His report continues.
24:43From Paris, the women prisoners were then transferred to Germany.
24:49This is news to Vera.
24:52She wasn't aware that any female prisoners have been transferred to Germany.
24:57Where were they? Where have they gone?
25:00Could those women have been her agents?
25:03Could one of them have been Nor?
25:07Frustratingly, Rousset's intel now dries up.
25:12He remains in the Gestapo's prison, working as a cleaner until two days after D-Day.
25:20Noticing a gate unlocked, he knocks out a guard and makes his escape.
25:26who properties were to discover the
25:49Vera haunts the F-Section operations room.
25:54waiting for any news on her missing women's spies.
26:01Then a report comes in from a member of Yvonne Basden's SOE circuit.
26:11After Yvonne and her colleagues had hidden all the equipment
26:14that had come in on this daylight parachute drop,
26:17they headed back to their headquarters.
26:22But soon after they arrive, everything changes.
26:29The Germans, they're coming.
26:31What?
26:32We spotted a patrol of German soldiers. They're heading for us.
26:35Do we have time to move?
26:37No.
26:39Hide what you can, then hide yourself.
26:53The Germans who arrived, they just heard a tip-off that this building might be of some interest,
26:58and they're just going to do a cursory search.
27:25There is literally nobody in sight.
27:27They can't find anybody, so they leave, but they just leave behind one person.
27:33He's effectively watching it just in case something happens or somebody arrives.
27:37One can only imagine what would be going through the minds of Yvonne and her team
27:42as they are hiding, holding their breath, not moving, because they have to be totally quiet.
27:47And then the plumbing makes a noise.
27:57Hello?
27:59Is anybody in there?
28:08I heard something. Keep searching.
28:10I heard something.
28:13Oh, my God.
28:47In London, Vera scours Allied intelligence reports, searching for any clues to her agents' whereabouts.
28:57Who survived? Where were they being held? And where were they now?
29:03She has cause for optimism.
29:06Some agents are surfacing after the liberation of Paris.
29:13One of her agents, Mary Herbert, astonishingly has survived hiding in a farmhouse in France.
29:21It gives Vera hope that some of the other women might still be alive.
29:28But for those still missing, few details are known.
29:34F-section operations are all but wound down.
29:38But Vera remains.
29:43She is worried about her agents, about the women she's sent into the field.
29:49She has to find out where they are.
29:55The work is all-encompassing.
29:59Searching for any trace of where her agents were transported to in Germany.
30:06And where they could be rescued from once the Allies are victorious.
30:12In October, British officials investigate 84 Avenue Foch, the Nazis' former intelligence headquarters in Paris.
30:27Some of her agents were held in captivity there.
30:32By piecing together what happened there, maybe she'll get some information about her lost agents.
30:40I visited the torture chamber at Avenue Foch, where Kiefer had an office.
30:52Hans Kiefer was the head of the SD in Paris during the German occupation.
31:00He's the man who convinced Gilbert Norman to reveal everything he knew about SOE operations.
31:08Hans Kiefer would have been personally in charge of the SOE agents who were held at that prison.
31:15Kiefer would have to have known, first of all, who was held in his prison and what happened to them.
31:25The report continues.
31:28I found a moving inscription from men and women who knew they had lost everything except their honor.
31:36But I was informed during the last few days before the departure of the Germans that several people had been
31:43taken downstairs into the courtyard and shot.
31:49It's a tragic revelation.
31:52Were her agents executed in this group?
32:12In the meantime, she has the agonising task of updating the families of the missing agents on what is known
32:21about them.
32:25Before Noor departed for France, Vera had promised to send her mother periodic good news letters, which she had.
32:41From all the reports of Noor's training, everybody was saying that she wasn't ready, but Paris needed a wireless operator.
32:50And immediately she'd put this young woman into the jaws of the Gestapo.
33:01Dear Mrs. Inayat Khan, I am extremely sorry to have to inform you that we have recently lost touch with
33:08your daughter.
33:09Due to the confused state of affairs in France, we were not unduly worried, but I am afraid now your
33:15daughter must be considered as missing.
33:19Although there is every reason to believe that she will eventually be notified to us as a prisoner of war.
33:26Just the idea of writing letters to the family, that's heartbreaking.
33:30But Vera's got other issues that she has to worry about.
33:33The British government was never very happy about sending women combatants overseas because they were not protected by the Geneva
33:40Convention.
33:40And that meant the Nazis could do whatever they liked with them.
33:45She also has fear about her own future because once it is revealed in the public that something has happened
33:51to these women,
33:52she's also fearful about the consequences for her as the person who sent them out.
34:02I would impress upon you, in the interests of your daughter's safety, that you make no inquiries with regard to
34:09her, except through me.
34:23She would suspect that she's seen as a man who died in the 19th century, but she would have died
34:24in the 19th century.
34:24By January 1945, the Allies are making steady gains,
34:29the Allies are making steady gains,
34:30and Nazi Germany is on its knees.
34:42but many agents are still missing despite combing through any and all intelligence documents
34:51Vera's investigation finds no trace of them she now lobbies inside SOE
35:04what Vera wants to do as the Allies are moving through Germany is to give the names of her agents
35:09to the Allied troops
35:10so that when they liberate camps and prisoners of war they can see if any of her agents are prisoners
35:16they can rescue them at the height of F section operations Vera is Buckmaster's right-hand man
35:22she's right in the center of all of the major decisions but once F section is over and Buckmaster is
35:29gone
35:29it becomes incredibly difficult to convince anybody that her plight within SOE is worth pursuing
35:37particularly John Center the head of SOE's security division and a commander in the Royal Navy
35:47atkins yes sir a memo of yours just came across my desk yes sir
35:56a memo suggesting that we give out the names of our agents
36:05publish their names for the Red Cross the American army
36:12the Soviet army
36:15yes sir so that once those forces begin liberating POW camps they will have a register of all of our
36:22missing agents
36:27Atkins
36:28you do understand what we do here the work we did during the war
36:33yes sir but then you'll also understand the meaning of secret as in the term secret agent
36:43sir if I may
36:44flight officer Atkins
36:46let me remind you you are addressing a commander in the Royal Navy
36:52sir
36:58the war is not yet over
37:02how long do you think it would be before the Germans also got to see those names
37:09why should we advertise who our agents are
37:12on a register
37:14for our enemies to see
37:16sir
37:17the Germans are spent
37:20this is our best chance of finding our agents
37:23women agents
37:25alive
37:31consider your request denied
37:33on security grounds
37:36he's wanting to find out where were the security leaks in SOE
37:40he's not interested in the fate of the missing agents
37:47stick with the welfare work
37:53Vera is stymied from trying to find her agents
37:56all she can do is just pick up on intelligence reports
37:59to find out what's happened to these agents
38:02because unless she finds out who will
38:10in March 1945
38:12Vera receives a report
38:14by French investigators
38:16searching friend prison
38:18in Paris
38:20this is the Gestapo prison where people were held
38:23when they were not being interrogated and tortured
38:26and it indicates something really quite disturbing for Vera
38:30next to the name of one of the prisoners is N and N
38:35this means Nacht und Nebel
38:38or night and fog
38:39the Nacht und Nebel order was decreed by Hitler
38:43that people who have been involved in espionage
38:47or resistance
38:48are to him so despicable
38:51that they have to be punished in an extraordinary way
38:55not only will they be captured
38:57interrogated
38:58tortured
38:59and then killed
39:00but they're supposed to disappear
39:02without a trace
39:03they will disappear
39:04as into night and fog
39:07time is running out
39:09to find her missing women alive
39:20by April 1945
39:23Germany is in total collapse
39:27the foreign office
39:28now they want to release
39:30the SOE agents names
39:32Vera is allowed to issue the names of her agents
39:36so that people liberating these prisoner of war camps
39:39can find them
39:42if they are found
39:43there is now a register for their return to Britain
39:48if they survived
40:06on the 30th of April 1945
40:09with Berlin all but captured by the Red Army
40:15Hitler commits suicide
40:23by the 8th of May
40:25the Allies accept Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender
40:30the war in Europe is over
40:48amid the celebrations in London
40:51Vera gets news
40:52that gives her hope
40:54her agents survived
40:57on the 20th of May 1945
41:00Yvonne Bazden
41:02captured and missing
41:03turns up at Euston Station
41:06in London
41:12Miss Atkins
41:13how did you get
41:14here?
41:16here
41:31where are we going?
41:34I'm taking you home
41:35your father is waiting
41:36my father
41:49from Euston Station
41:51Vera takes
41:52Yvonne Bazden
41:53back to her family home
41:55in Brockwood Park
41:56in London
42:06Yvonne
42:07Yvonne
42:17Yvonne
42:18please come here
42:36you look um weak let me make you something to eat
43:05what happened after you were captured did you see anyone else other agents
43:19Yvonne I need you to think
43:28after I was caught they sent me east to a to a prison to a place called Saarbrocken
43:43um that there I started seeing some some familiar faces agents I'd been in training with I saw
43:57they've got the hold of Baker Street I didn't talk to them I I I kept my distance
44:09you see I told the Germans after they caught me that I was just an ordinary French girl
44:16caught in the wrong place at the wrong time that was my cover
44:20so I I had to keep my distance I I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an agent
44:31it was my only hope of getting out alive
44:38her uh then then then they moved us um all to a camp uh north of Berlin
44:49who went with you
44:54I remember Violette
44:57a couple of others from from F section
45:03Violette Sabo
45:10Violette and and the others we were all uh we were all sent to um um Ravensbrück concentration camp
45:17it was a camp just for women
45:24Ravensbrück
45:27a women's only concentration camp
45:34yes
45:38at this time very little is widely known about concentration camps
45:42very few people have heard about them
45:44the idea of there being one just for women
45:47I mean it it's completely horrifying
45:52one day
45:55Violette
45:55and the others just
46:00just disappeared
46:06I never saw them again
46:13then um the Russians came and liberated us
46:16the Red Cross uh took me to Malmo in Sweden in a bus
46:21the RAF flew me to Scotland
46:25I found a train to Houston
46:31while horrific that Vera finds out her agents went to Ravensbrück
46:35the female concentration camp
46:37she can place them somewhere and she knows where they were
46:54thank you
46:57I'll leave you with
46:59you have a lot to catch up on
47:09Vera was incredibly happy to find Yvonne
47:11it might be possible she's able to trace all of her missing agents
47:19but had they survived
47:21and where were they all now
47:23and she's a big four-footed man
47:53and she has a lot of police
48:11Transcription by CastingWords
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