- 1 day ago
The Lost Women Spies S01E03 Vertical Drama
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:03In the Second World War, British spy agency, the SOE, send more and more female agents behind enemy lines.
00:21With 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.
00:40But 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.
01:04We can't be captured.
01:09Hide what you can, then hide yourself.
01:13We go now. Move.
01:16Halt!
01:29You go. I'll send them off as long as I can.
01:33Go! Go!
01:35Go!
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.
02:36Across 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,
03:08trying to disrupt communication lines, blow up bridges, blowing up telephone exchanges,
03:13to try and disrupt the Germans as much as possible.
03:18It's chaotic, but it's exhilarating.
03:22In the flurry of messages coming in from their agents, they receive one that is unusual.
03:29Sir, message from callsign Leopold.
03:34Leopold?
03:37Leopold is the native. 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.
04:37And your resilience isn't as strong as ours.
04:41Buckmaster.
04:42Yes, sir.
04:55Still, 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.
06:10Fuck.
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?
06:32The 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.
07:12And, of course, the Nazis are furious about this.
07:15They want their commander back.
07:17And so they start to ramp up their control of the area.
07:21They've put in roadblocks, trying to capture resistance members.
07:26And they start to punish the resistance for what they've done.
07:30The Nazis are out for revenge and choose the village of Ourador-sur-Glane to send a bloody message to
07:38the 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.
07:57They'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?
08:28The SS.
08:33The Resistance captured their commander.
08:41They massacred a village.
08:44What?
08:48Over 600 dead.
08:51Women.
08:53Children.
09:01I thought the Germans had honour.
09:03That 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?
09:45Um...
09:51Limousin.
09:54Limousin.
10:03Violet was operating out of the blimousin.
10:06Before capture.
10:13But no further information on Violet has come through.
10:27In Northern France, the Allies consolidate their foothold in Normandy.
10:33And prepare to push out deeper into the country.
10:39Yes.
10:41F section is a hive of activity.
10:45Organising weapons drops, ammunitions, explosives for the French Resistance to stop the Germans being able to defend themselves against the
10:53Allied attack.
10:58Buck.
10:59Buck, a message from callsign Bursa.
11:01The Scholar Circuit are requesting a supply drop to the Jura region.
11:07Bursa is Vera's agent, Yvonne Bayston.
11:10And she's been operating in France for about three months in the Jura region, which is to the east of
11:15France.
11:17Authorise the drop.
11:20On the 25th of June 1944, 32 flying fortresses were flown over by the RAF.
11:29And they released 440 parachutes.
11:33And attached to those parachutes were canisters full of weapons and explosives and arms and equipment needed by the resistance.
11:44It's the largest daylight parachute drop of the war.
11:48Hidden at the drop zone is Yvonne, with a team of resistance fighters.
11:55It took 48 hours for those canisters to be emptied and for the equipment to be stored.
12:01Meaning that every minute and every hour that went by, they were more and more at risk of being caught.
12:08But Yvonne was so excited when this happened.
12:11And she said, as every one of those parachutes opened, hope was attached to them.
12:21After a frantic two days on the ground, Yvonne and her team are exhausted.
12:29With 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.
12:52Targets are being hit.
12:53But the resistance are taking the fight to the Germans across the country.
13:00But that's tinged with uncertainty.
13:05What about the agents?
13:07How many have survived?
13:09How many have the Germans managed to capture?
13:13Then, F section finally receives the report they've been waiting for.
13:21Eva, what is it?
13:34Bialet is with two resistance men and they're driving to meet other SOE leaders.
13:40But what they don't know is the resistance have caught one of the SS commanders of the 2nd Panzer Division.
13:47And the Germans are frantic to get him back.
13:50They start mounting roadblocks and they start searching people, asking everybody for their papers.
13:55Where were they when this happened?
14:00No.
14:01What?
14:03I thought you said this road was clear.
14:07It was.
14:08What?
14:09It was.
14:10It's a new checkpoint.
14:12They can't search us.
14:13I know.
14:14They can't search us.
14:15If they search the car, they'll find our weapons.
14:17We have British weapons.
14:19If they search the car, they'll know we're resistance.
14:26We can't be captured.
14:28Stop the car.
14:40We make for the woods.
14:42Try to lose them.
14:44We go now.
14:46Move.
14:49Halt!
15:11As Violet's escaping, she twists her ankle.
15:14It was already damaged from the parachute drop she'd done during training as an SOE agent.
15:30Are you hit?
15:32No.
15:32It's my ankle.
15:33Can you walk on it?
15:34No.
15:35You go.
15:36I'll send them off as long as I can.
15:39Go.
15:40Go!
15:42She's basically immobile at this point.
15:45So she provides cover fire for the resistance management.
15:47So she provides cover fire for the resistance management.
15:49So that they can get away.
16:38The report ends.
16:42Violet 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.
18:02And 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.
18:23Vera is tasked with making sense of them all.
18:27Goodbye, Miss Atkins.
18:28Sorry, a flight, Officer Atkins.
18:32Yes, goodbye.
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.
18:54But 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.
19:21With 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, a man turns up and
20:05he's angry.
20:07He's furious.
20:09Marcel Rousset, an F Section agent with the code name Leopold, demands 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? Now!
20:27He 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. How can I help?
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. He might know who has survived.
21:11Rousset says how stupid everyone at F Section had been, particularly Buckmaster and Vera, and how they had risked agents'
21:21lives.
21:23The SD, Sicherheitsdienst, forced him to relay radio messages back to London.
21:30And he quite deliberately, totally follows SOE protocol, which is that he doesn't include special code words as a warning
21:38to 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.
22:06At 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.
22:36Here, 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.
23:07So, Settel, who was the organizer of that circuit, and Norman, had given up everything about the Prosper's 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?
23:34Just 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, he manages to communicate with an SOE agent in the cell
24:01next to his.
24:02Rousset learns that a wireless operator with the codename Madeleine is also being held by the Nazis.
24:11Nor Inyat Khan goes under the codename 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.
24:50This is news to Vera.
24:52She wasn't aware that any female prisoners had 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?
25:05Or.
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
25:49vera haunts the f-section operations room waiting 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 that had come in on this daylight
26:16parachute drop they headed back to their headquarters
26:22but soon after they arrive everything changes
26:29the germans they're coming what we spotted a patrol of german soldiers they're heading for us
26:35do we have time to move no hide 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
26:59they're just going to do a cursory search
27:25there is literally nobody in sight they can't find anybody so they leave but they just leave behind
27:31one person he'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 and then the plumbing makes a noise
27:57the
27:58hello is there anybody in there
28:08i heard something keep searching
28:46in london vera scours allied intelligence reports
28:52searching 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
29:07some agents are surfacing after the liberation of paris
29:13one of her agents
29:14one 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 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
30:18the nazi's former intelligence headquarters in paris
30:27some of her agents were held in captivity there
30:32by piecing together what happened there
30:35maybe 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
31:04about 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
31:29i found a moving inscription from men and women who knew they had lost everything except their honor
31:37but i was informed during the last few days before the departure of the germans
31:41that several people have been taken downstairs into the courtyard
31:45and shot
31:49it's a tragic revelation were her agents executed in this group
31:58she has to track down kiefer he must know where vera's agents are he must know what's happened to them
32:13in the meantime she has the agonizing task of updating the families of the missing agents
32:20on what is known about them
32:25before noor departed for france vera had promised to send her mother periodic good news letters
32:33which she had
32:37but now the tone of these letters has to change from all the reports of nor's training everybody was
32:45saying that she wasn't ready but paris needed a wireless operator and immediately she'd put this
32:52the message that she was the best young woman into the jaws of the gestapo
33:01dear mrs inayat khan
33:04i am extremely sorry to have to inform you that we have recently lost touch with your daughter
33:09due to the confused state of affairs in france we were not unduly worried
33:13but 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 but vera's got other
33:31issues that she has to worry about the british government was never very happy
33:35about sending women combatants overseas because they were not protected by the geneva convention
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
33:51has happened to these women she'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
34:08with regard to her except through me
34:24by january 1945 the allies are making steady gains
34:30and nazi germany is on its knees
34:42and that's what's happening to her as well as the allies are moving through germany
34:43but many agents are still missing
34:47despite combing through any and all intelligence documents
34:51vera's investigation finds no trace of them
34:57she 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 so that when they liberate camps and prisoners of war they can see if any of
35:15her
35:15agents are prisoners they can rescue them at the height of f section operations vera is
35:21buck master's right-hand man she's right in the center of all of the major decisions but once f section
35:27is
35:28over and buck master is gone it becomes incredibly difficult to convince anybody that her plight within
35:34soe is worth pursuing particularly john center the head of soe's security division and a commander in the royal navy
35:46atkins
35:48yes 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
36:12soviet army
36:16yes 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
36:30what we do here
36:32the 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
37:13on a register
37:14on a register
37:15for 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
37:34on 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 all she can do is just pick up on intelligence reports
37:59to find out what's happened to these agents because unless she finds out who will
38:10in march 1945 vera receives a report by french investigators searching friend prison in paris
38:20this is the gestapo prison where people were held when they were not being interrogated and
38:26tortured and it indicates something really quite disturbing for vera
38:31next to the name of one of the prisoners is n and n this means nacht und nebel or night
38:39and fog
38:40the nacht und nebel order was decreed by hitler that people who have been involved in espionage
38:47or resistance are 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 but they're supposed to disappear
39:02without a trace they will disappear as into night and fog time is running out to find her missing women
39:11alive
39:20by april 1945 germany is in total collapse
39:27the foreign office now they want to release the soe agents names vera is allowed to issue the names of
39:36her agents so 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 if they survived
40:06on the 30th of april 1945 with berlin all but captured by the red army
40:15Hitler commits suicide
40:24by the 8th of may the allies accept nazi germany's unconditional surrender the war in europe is over
40:49Amid 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.
41:12Miss Atkinson, how did you get here?
41:32Where are we going?
41:34I'm taking you home. Your father is waiting.
41:37My father.
41:49From Euston Station, Vera takes Yvonne Bazden back to her family home in Brockwood Park in London.
42:06Yvonne Bazden.
42:18Please, come here.
42:37You look, um, 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?
43:14Uh, Yvonne, I need you to think.
43:27Um, after I was caught, they sent me east to a prison, to a place called Saarbrocken.
43:42Um, there, there I started seeing some, some familiar faces, agents I'd been in training
43:52with.
43:54I saw, uh, they've got the hold of Baker Street.
44:02I didn't talk to them.
44:04I, 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.
44:18That was my cover.
44:20So I, I had to keep my distance.
44:23I, I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an agent.
44:32It was my only hope of getting out alive.
44:38Uh, 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.
44:56I remember Violette.
44:57A, a couple of others from, from F section.
45:03Violette Zabeau.
45:06Yes.
45:08Um, Violette and, and the others, we were all, uh, we were all sent to, um, um, Ravensbrück.
45:16Concentration camp.
45:17It, it 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.
45:43Very 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, Violette and the others just, um, just disappeared.
46:06I never saw them again.
46:13And then, um, the Russians came and liberated us.
46:17The Red Cross, uh, took me to Malmo in Sweden in a bus.
46:22The RAF flew me to Scotland.
46:25I found a train to use them.
46:32While horrific that Vera finds out her agents went to Ravensbrück, the female concentration camp,
46:37She can place them somewhere, and she knows where they were.
46:57I'll leave you both.
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?
47:21And where were they all now?
47:23That's why I was like, wow.
47:26You're doing a lot of work.
47:27You're doing it, man.
47:35You're doing it, man.
47:36Oh, my God.
47:51And then, of course, try and see your spirit.
47:51Yeah, it's good, man.
47:53And now, you're looking for your spirit.
47:53I'm looking for your spirit.