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The Lost Women Spies S01E03 (2025) [Full Movie] [Latest Version]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.
02:35across France the French resistance supplied and coordinated by SOE launch into action
02:49in London F section monitor the sabotage activity there's palpable excitement Buckmaster and Vera are
03:01watching as these messages come in there's already been acts of sabotage trying to disrupt the train
03:07lines trying to disrupt communication lines blow up bridges blowing up telephone exchanges to try
03:13and disrupt the Germans as much as possible it's chaotic but it's exhilarating in the flurry of
03:23messages coming in from their agents they receive one that is unusual sir message from Paul sign
03:32Leopold Leopold Leopold is the native he was arrested in 43 thank you for the large delivery of weapons
03:44and ammunition incredibly grateful for the information on your plans and objectives signed the Gestapo
03:56the Gestapo it's not the only message F section received that day from the Nazis feared secret
04:06police Buck another thank you for the supply drop equipment gratefully received unfortunately some of
04:17your agents had to be shot others were more open to do what we asked the Gestapo what the hell
04:27are
04:28they playing yet send a reply sorry to see your nerves are shot and your resilience isn't as strong as
04:40as ours Buckmaster yes sir still SOE circuits and French resistance fighters continue their clandestine attacks against the Nazis
05:06and the Allied soldiers fight their way ashore but their position is precarious they need to firm up their
05:15hold of the beachhead and be ready for when German reinforcements hit back
05:30work at F section doesn't stop wireless messages of German targets being hit continue to stream in
05:42sabotage by those SOE networks was absolutely crucial during D-Day and the Germans were so angry at
05:52this success that an order went out to hunt down Vera's agents just days after D-Day F section received
06:04news on one of their agents recently parachuted into France
06:12Buck and that Sabo has been captured
06:17Violet is already a widow she's got a two-year-old daughter and the thought that
06:23Violet might not come back is just unthinkable
06:28where
06:31the report is brief
06:36does it say where she's being held
06:41just says captured nothing else
06:58in the Limousin region of France resistance fighters pull off an audacious mission
07:05they have kidnapped the commander of the second SS panzer division does right and of course the Nazis are
07:14furious about this they want their commander back and so they start to ramp up their control of the area
07:21they
07:21put in roadblocks trying to capture resistance members and they start to punish the resistance for what
07:28they've done the Nazis are out for revenge and choose the village of uradour sur glen to send a bloody
07:37message to the French people
07:44in London F section monitor 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
08:04news of the massacre reaches Buckmaster
08:07sir
08:09a report from France
08:10you need to read it now
08:11thank you
08:19Buck?
08:25what is it?
08:29the SS
08:33the resistance captured their commander
08:41they massacred a village
08:44what?
08:48over 600 dead
08:50women
08:53children
09:01I thought the Germans had honor that they acted like gentlemen
09:08I thought the Germans had honor that they acted like gentlemen
09:24the people hadzurâng
09:25really is shocking for Buckmaster
09:28that the Germans have sunk so low that they will massacre innocent women and children
09:35and where did this happen? Buck, where did this happen?
09:50A limousine.
09:54Limousine.
10:03Violette was operating out of Limousine before capture.
10:13But no further information on Violette has come through.
10:27In northern France, the Allies consolidate their foothold in Normandy.
10:33And prepare to push out deeper into the country.
10:41F section is a hive of activity, organising weapons drops,
10:46ammunitions, explosives for the French resistance
10:49to stop the Germans being able to defend themselves
10:52against the Allied attack.
10:58Buck, a message from callsign Bursa.
11:01The Scholar Circuit are requesting a supply drop to the Jura region.
11:06Bursa is Vera's agent, Yvonne Bazden.
11:10And she's been operating in France for about three months
11:13in the Jura region, which is to the east of France.
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
11:37and 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,
12:04they 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.
12:51Targets are being hit.
12:54The resistance are taking the fight to the Germans across the country.
13:00But that's tinged with uncertainty.
13:04What 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?
13:34Vialet 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.
14:09What?
14:09It was. It'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 in resistance.
14:26We can't be captured.
14:28Stop the car.
14:40We make for the woods.
14:42Try to lose them.
14:45We 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?
15:31No.
15:32It's my ankle.
15:33Can you walk on it?
15:34No.
15:35You go.
15:36I'll fan them off as long as I can.
15:39Go!
15:40Go!
15:42She's basically immobile at this point.
15:44So, she provides cover fire for the resistance men so that they can get away.
15:51Ah!
15:51Ah!
16:06Ah!
16:07Ah!
16:08Ah!
16:10Ah!
16:11Ah!
16:12Ah!
16:12Ah!
16:13Ah!
16:13Ah!
16:14Ah!
16:14Ah!
16:14Ah!
16:16Ah!
16:38The report ends.
16:41Excellent.
16:42Violet was held by the SS in the French City of Limoges.
16:48She's taken by his former state in France, but has since disappeared.
16:52As the Americans is now missing, she 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.
18:22Vera is tasked with making sense of them all.
18:26Goodbye, Miss Atkins.
18:28Sorry, a flight, Officer Atkins.
18:31Yes, 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.
19:14And 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.
20:06He's furious.
20:08Marcel Rousset, an F-Section agent with the codename 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?
20:26Now!
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?
20:42So I need a chance.
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.
21:06He 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 to meet him, basically.
21:24The SD, Sicherheitsdienst, force 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 and
21:43continue 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.
22:35Here, 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, Settle, who was the organizer of that circuit, and Norman, had given up everything about the Prosper circuit in
23:15Paris, in 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?
23:29What 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
24:00next to his.
24:02Rousset learns that a wireless operator with the codename Madeleine is also being held by the Nazis.
24:11Nour Inyat Khan goes under the codename Madeleine.
24:16Nour hadn't surfaced after the liberation of Paris.
24:22Vera assumed she'd been captured, but no further intel had been discovered.
24:31Rousset's report suggests that Nour 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 had been transferred to Germany.
24:57Where were they?
24:58Where have they gone?
25:00Could those women have been her agents?
25:03Could one of them have been Nour?
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.
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 that 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.
26:34They'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.
27:38One 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.
28:10Keep searching.
28:10I heard something.
28:47In London, Vera scours Allied intelligence reports, searching for any clues to her agent's
28:54whereabouts.
28:57Who survived?
28:58Where were they being held?
29:00And 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.
29:20It gives Vera hope that some of the other women might still be alive.
29:28But for those still missing, few details are known.
29:38She is worried about her agents, about the women she's sent into the field.
29:48She has to find out where they are.
29:55The work is all-encompassing, searching for any trace of where her agents were transported
30:03to in Germany, and 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
30:22in Paris.
30:27Some of her agents were held in captivity there by 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 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.
31:37But 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.
32:00She 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
32:19on what is known about them.
32:25Before Noor departed for France,
32:28Vera 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.
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 had put this young woman into the jaws of the Gestapo.
33:01Dear Mrs Inayat Khan,
33:03I 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.
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.
33:38Because 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.
33:48Because once it is revealed in the public that something has happened to 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,
34:06that you make no inquiries with regard to her.
34:10Except through me.
34:23By January 1945, the Allies are making steady gains.
34:30And Nazi Germany is on its knees.
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,
35:07is to give the names of her agents to the Allied troops,
35:10so that when they liberate camps and prisoners of war,
35:13they 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,
35:30it becomes incredibly difficult to convince anybody
35:32that her plight within SOE is worth pursuing.
35:37Particularly John Centre, the head of SOE's security division,
35:42and 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?
36:15Yes, sir.
36:17So that once those forces begin liberating POW camps,
36:21they will have a register of all of our missing agents.
36:26Atkins.
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?
37:13On a register.
37:15For our enemies to see.
37:17Sir, the Germans are spent.
37:20This is our best chance of finding our agents.
37:24Women 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.
37:56All 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.
38:35This means Nacht und Nebel, or night and fog.
38:39The 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 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 so that people liberating these prisoner of war camps can
39:40find 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.
40:18Hitler commits suicide.
40:24By the 8th of May, the Allies accept Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender.
40:30The war in Europe is over.
40:36The war in Europe is over.
40:48The 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?
41:15Come on.
41:32Where are we going?
41:34I'm taking you home.
41:36I'm taking you home.
41:36Your father is waiting.
41:37My father.
41:49From Euston Station, Vera takes Yvonne Bazden back to her family home in Brockwood Park in London.
42:13Yvonne Bazden.
42:18Please, come here.
42:36You look, um, weak.
42:41Let me make you something to eat.
43:06What happened after you were captured?
43:09Did you see anyone else?
43:10Other agents?
43:16Uh...
43:17Yvonne, I need you to think.
43:27Um, after I was caught, they sent me, uh, east to a, uh, to a prison, to a place called
43:39Saarbrocken.
43:41Um, there, there, I started seeing some, some familiar faces, agents, I'd been in training with.
43:53Um, I saw, uh, I saw, uh, I saw, uh, they've got the hold of Baker Street.
43:59It's my family here.
44:02I, uh, I, uh, I...
44:07I...
44:07I...
44:07I kept my distance.
44:09But you see, I told the Germans after they caught me that I was just an ordinary French
44:14girl. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was my cover. So I had to keep
44:22my distance. I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an agent. It was my only hope of
44:32getting out alive. Then they moved us all to a camp north of Berlin. Who went with you?
44:54I remember Violette. A couple of others from F Section.
45:02Violette Szabo.
45:09Yes. Violette and the others, we were all sent to RavensbrĂĽck concentration camp. It was a camp
45:19just for women. RavensbrĂĽck. A women's only concentration camp.
45:34Yes.
45:38At this time, very little is widely known about concentration camps. Very few people have heard
45:44about them. The idea of there being one just for women, I mean, it's completely horrifying.
45:51One day, Violette and the others just, just disappeared.
46:06I never saw them again.
46:13Then the Russians came and liberated us. The Red Cross took me to Malmo in Sweden in a bus.
46:21The RAF flew me to Scotland. I found a train to use them.
46:31While horrific that Vera finds out her agents went to RavensbrĂĽck, the female concentration camp,
46:37she can place them somewhere. She can place them somewhere and she knows where they were.
46:54Thank you. I'll leave you with. You have a lot to catch up on.
47:09Vera was incredibly happy to find Yvonne. It might be possible she's able to trace
47:14all of her missing agents.
47:19But had they survived? And where were they all now?
47:52The Red Cross
48:10Transcription by CastingWords
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