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The Lost Women Spies S01E03 (2025) [Full Movie] [Must See]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.
02:12The Allied invasion of Europe, to recapture France from the Nazis, has begun.
02:17The 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.
02:49In 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.
03:46Incredibly 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.
04:27What the hell are they playing at?
04:32Send a reply.
04:34Sorry to see your nerves are shot, and 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.
10:12Violet is at the moment.
10:14But no further information on Violet has come through.
10:19The Germans have gone away.
10:27The Germans have gone away.
10:31in Normandy and prepare to push out deeper into the country F section is a hive of activity
10:44organizing weapons drops ammunitions explosives for the French resistance to stop the Germans
10:50being able to defend themselves against the Allied attack Buck a message from callsign Bursa the
11:01Scholar Circuit are requesting a supply drop to the Jura region Bursa is Vera's agent Yvonne Bazden
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
11:36weapons and 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
12:46headquarters at F section messages from the circuits flood in targets are being hit the resistance are
12:54taking the fight to the Germans across the country but that's tinged with uncertainty what about the
13:06agents how many have survived how many have the Germans managed to capture then F section finally
13:16receives the report they've been waiting for they've been waiting for what what is it
13:34is with two resistance men and they're driving to meet other SOE leaders but what they don't know is the
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
15:54okay
16:05you
16:16you
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, the 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.
18:01And 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.
18:23Vera 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.
19:15And this was Vera's responsibility.
19:17She's the one who's sent them to France in the first place.
19:22With Paris liberated, the human toll of this decision comes into focus.
19:30Of 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, a man turns up and
20:05he's angry.
20:06He's furious.
20:09Marcel Rousset, an F section agent with the code name Leopold, demands to see anyone in the British Secret Service.
20:26He had been captured by the Gestapo, and in fact it was even his radio that was used by the
20:32Gestapo to send the taunting signals to SOE headquarters on D-Day.
20:40Hello, I'm Nancy.
20:41How can I help?
20:43He is angry.
20:45He'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. He might know who has survived.
21:09So, Buckmaster...
21:11Rousset says how stupid everyone at F section had been, particularly Buckmaster and Vera, and how they had risked agents'
21:21lives.
21:21I would love, I would love to meet him based away.
21:24The SD, Sicherheitsdienst, forced him to relay radio messages back to London, and he quite deliberately totally follows SOE protocol,
21:34which is that he doesn't include special code words as a warning to SOE, but they just ignored this
21:42and 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, Sittal, who was 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.
23:26Had he given up every piece of information? What had he told them?
23:31Can you imagine how awful it was for Vera?
23:33Just 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, he manages to communicate with an SOE agent in the cell
24:00next 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.
24:22Nor was the police.
24:23Vera 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.
24:50This 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?
25:01Could those women have been her agents? Could 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.
25:23He knocks out a guard.
25:25And makes his escape.
25:49Vera haunts the F-Section operations room.
25:54Vera haunts the F-Section operations room.
26:00A man's in the U.Section operations room.
26:02Then, a report comes in from a member of Yvonne Basden's SOE circuit.
26:11After Yvonne and her colleagues had hidden all the equipment that had come in on this daylight parachute drop,
26:16They 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.
26:36Do 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 and they're
26:59just going to do a cursory search.
27:25There is literally nobody in sight. They can't find anybody.
27:29So 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 as they are hiding,
27:43holding their breath, not moving, because they have to be totally quiet.
27:48And then the plumbing makes a noise.
27:57Hello? Is anybody in there?
28:08I heard something. Keep searching.
28:47In London, Vera scours Allied intelligence reports, searching for any clues to her agent's whereabouts.
29:12One of her agents, Mary Herbert, astonishingly, has survived hiding in a farmhouse in France.
29:20It 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 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.
30:05And where they could be rescued from, once the Allies are victorious.
30:12In October, British officials investigate 84 Avenue Foch.
30:20The Nazis' former intelligence headquarters in Paris 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 honour.
31:37But I was informed during the last few days before the departure of the Germans
31:41that several people had been taken downstairs into the courtyard and shot.
31:49It's a tragic revelation.
31:53Were her agents executed in this group?
31:57She has to track down Kiefer.
32:00He must know where Vera's agents are.
32:04He must know what's happened to them.
32:13In 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.
32:36But now, the tone of these letters has to change.
32:42From all the reports of Noor's training, everybody was saying that she wasn't ready.
32:47But 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.
33:14But I am afraid now your daughter 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.
33:37Because they were not protected by the Geneva Convention, and that meant the Nazis could do whatever they liked with
33:44them.
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.
34:11Except through me.
34:23By January 1945, the Allies are making steady gains, and Nazi Germany is on its knees.
34:42But many agents are still missing.
34:47Despite combing through any and all intelligence documents, Vera's investigation finds no trace of them.
34:57She now lobbies inside SOE.
35:03What 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.
35:18At the height of F-section operations, Vera is Buckmaster's right-hand man.
35:23She's right in the centre of all of the major decisions.
35:26But once F-section is over and Buckmaster is gone, it becomes incredibly difficult to convince anybody
35:32that her plight within SOE is worth pursuing.
35:37Particularly, John Senter, the head of SOE's security division, and a commander in the Royal Navy.
35:46Atkins.
35:47Yes, sir.
35:49A memo of yours just came across my desk.
35:53Yes, 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, the Soviet Army?
36:16Yes, sir.
36:17So that once those forces begin liberating POW camps, they will have a register of all of our missing agents.
36:27Atkins.
36:28You do understand what we do here.
36:31The work we did during the war.
36:34Yes, sir.
36:35But...
36:36Then you'll also understand the meaning of secret.
36:39As in the term secret agent.
36:43Sir, if I may...
36:44Flight Officer Atkins.
36:47Let 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 on a register for our enemies to see?
37:17Sir, the Germans are spent.
37:20This is our best chance of finding our agents, women agents, alive.
37:31Consider your request denied on 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.
37:54Vera is stymied from trying to find her agents.
37:57All she can do is just pick up on intelligence reports to find out what's happened to these agents.
38:03Because unless she finds out, who will?
38:10In March 1945, Vera receives a report by French investigators searching Fren prison in Paris.
38:20This is the Gestapo prison where people were held when they were not being interrogated and tortured.
38:26And it indicates something really quite disturbing for Vera.
38:31Next to the name of one of the prisoners is N and N.
38:36This means Nacht und Nebel, or night and fog.
38:40The Nacht und Nebel order was decreed by Hitler that people who have been involved in espionage or resistance
38:48are to him so despicable that they have to be punished in an extraordinary way.
38:55Not only will they be captured, interrogated, tortured and then killed,
39:00but they're supposed to disappear without a trace.
39:03They will disappear as into night and fog.
39:07Time is running out to find her missing women alive.
39:20By April 1945, Germany is in total collapse.
39:27The Foreign Office, now they want to release the SOE agents' names.
39:32Vera is allowed to issue the names of her agents
39:36so that people liberating these prisoner of war camps can find them.
39:42If they are found, there is now a register for their return to Britain.
39:48If they survived.
40:06On the 30th of April 1945, with Berlin all but captured by the Red Army,
40:15Hitler commits suicide.
40:23By the 8th of May, the Allies accept Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender.
40:31The war in Europe is over.
40:48Amid the celebrations in London, Vera gets news that gives her hope her agents survived.
40:57On the 20th of May, 1945, Yvonne Bazden, captured and missing, turns up at Euston Station in London.
41:11Miss Atkinson, how did you get here?
41:30Where are we going?
41:49From Euston Station, Vera takes Yvonne Bazden back to her family home in Brockwood Park in London.
41:56No part of the moment,ya OK.
42:06Please, come here.
42:07If on...
42:17Please. Come here.
42:20Come here.
42:25Please.
42:26Come here.
42:36You look weak.
42:41Let me make you something to eat.
43:06What happened after you were captured?
43:09Did you see anyone else?
43:11Other agents?
43:18Yvonne, I need you to think.
43:29After I was caught, they sent me east to a prison, to a place called Saarbrocken.
43:44There I started seeing some familiar faces, agents I'd been in training with.
43:54I saw...
43:57They've got the hold of Baker Street.
44:02I didn't talk to them.
44:04I...
44:07I 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.
44:18That was my cover.
44:20So I...
44:21I had to keep my distance.
44:23I...
44:24I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an agent.
44:31It was my only hope of getting out alive.
44:39And then they moved us all to a camp north of Berlin.
44:49Who went with you?
44:54I remember Violette.
44:57A couple of others from... from F section.
45:02Violette Szabo.
45:06Violette Szabo.
45:07Yes...
45:10Violette and... and the others.
45:12We were all there.
45:13We were all sent to RavensbrĆ¼ck concentration camp.
45:18It was a camp just for women.
45:25RavensbrĆ¼ck...
45:27A women's only concentration camp.
45:34Yes.
45:38At this time, very little is widely known about concentration camps.
45:43Very few people have heard about them.
45:45The idea of there being one just for women, I mean, it's completely horrifying.
45:52One day, Violet.
45:56And the others just, uh, just disappeared.
46:06I never saw them again.
46:13Then, um, the Russians came and liberated us.
46:17The 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 use them.
46:31While horrific that Vera finds out her agents went to RavensbrĆ¼ck, the female concentration camp,
46:37she can place them somewhere, and she knows where they were.
46:57I'll leave you with.
46:59You have a lot to catch up on.
47:09Vera was incredibly happy to find Yvonne.
47:12It might be possible she's able to trace all of her missing agents.
47:19But had they survived, and where were they all now?
47:29Because they found the boats in, like, in the world who has been meeting in the ŃŃŠ½ŠŗŠ°Ń
?
47:31You have to say about how big we are, and I was going to go and see them.
47:31That's the end of the crash.
47:31Yeah.
47:39Than the McDonald's is on boil.
47:42Is this time for the parents?
47:42We're buying something else.
47:43We're selling something else.
47:49How are you?
47:52We'll be buying something else.
48:11Transcription by CastingWords
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