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The Lost Women Spies S01E03 (2025) [Full Movie] [Recommended]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.
02:17They're killed onto the U.S.
02:34Woo!
02:35Woo!
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 buckmaster and vera are watching as these messages come in
03:03there's already been acts of sabotage trying to disrupt the train lines trying to disrupt
03:08communication lines blow up bridges blowing up telephone exchanges to try and disrupt the
03:14Germans as much as possible it's chaotic but it's exhilarating in the flurry of messages coming
03:24in from their agents they receive one that is unusual sir message from Paul sign Leopold Leopold
03:37Leopold is inactive he was arrested in 43
03:42thank you for the large delivery of weapons and ammunition incredibly grateful for the
03:47information on your plans and objectives
03:52signed the gestapo
04:00it's not the only message f-section received that day from the nazis feared secret police
04:11another thank you for the supply drop equipment gratefully received unfortunately some of your
04:18agents had to be shot others were more open to do what we asked the gestapo what the hell are
04:28they
04:28playing at send a reply sorry to see your nerves are shot and your resilience isn't as strong as ours
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 they 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 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 the
05:52this 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 sabo has been captured
06:17violette is already a widow she's got a two-year-old daughter
06:21and 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
06:41just says captured
06:43nothing else
06:58in the limousine region of france resistance fighters pull off an audacious mission
07:05they have kidnapped the commander of the second ss panzer division
07:10that's right
07:12and of course the nazis are furious about this they want their commander back
07:17and so they start to ramp up their control of the area they put in roadblocks
07:23trying to capture resistance members and they start to punish the resistance for what they've done
07:30the nazis are out for revenge and choose the village of uradour sur glen to send a bloody message to
07:38the 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 a 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
08:52children
09:01i thought the germans had honor
09:03that they acted like gentlemen
09:08look
09:12i never thought they'd do something like this
09:22the news of the massacre at orador sur glen
09:25really is shocking for buckmaster
09:28that the germans have sunk so low
09:30that they'll massacre innocent women and children
09:35where did this happen
09:39buck where did this happen
09:50limousine
09:53limousine
09:55limousine
10:09limousine
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
10:37and prepare to push out deeper into the country
11:02the scholar circuit are requesting a supply drop to the juror region
11:10and she's been operating in france for about three months in the juror region which is to the east of
11:15france
11:16authorize the drop
11:20on 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
11:35canisters full of weapons and explosives and arms and equipment needed by the
11:43resistance
11:44it's the largest daylight parachute drop of the war
11:48hidden at the drop zone
11:49is 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
12:07but Yvonne was so excited when this happened and she said as every one of those parachutes opened hope was
12:14attached to them
12:21after a frantic two days on the ground
12:25Yvonne and her team are exhausted
12:28with 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 the resistance are taking the fight to the Germans across the country
13:00but that's tinged with uncertainty
13:04what about the agents how many have survived how 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?
13:26Eva, what is it?
13:37they'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 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
14:15if they search the car they'll find our weapons we have british weapons
14:19if they search the car they'll know we're resistance
14:26we can't be captured stop the car
14:40we make for the woods try to lose them
14:45we go now move
15:10as violette's escaping she twists her ankle it was already damaged from the parachute
15:16drop she'd done during training as an soe agent
15:46are you hit
15:49so that they can get away
15:54so
16:05so
16:10so
16:14so
16:18so
16:22so
16:23so
16:26so
16:27so
16:27so
16:30so
16:30so
16:31so
16:38so
16:47so
16:55so
16:56so
17:01so
17:05so
17:06so
17:08so
17:08so
17:11so
17:11so
17:11so
17:24so
17:25so
17:39so
17:40so
17:44so
17:59so
17:59so
17:59so
17:59so
17:59so
18:00so
18:03that's
18:04so
18:05so
18:06so
18:09so
18:17so
18:18so
18:20so
18:20so
18:27so
18:28so
18:29so
18:35so
18:36so
18:36so
18:36so
18:37so
18:43so
18:45so
18:53so
18:56so
18:57so
18:57so
18:57so
18:57so
18:58so
18:58so
19:00so
19:00I understood that the casualty numbers would be quite high,
19:04particularly 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,
19:23the human toll of this decision comes into focus.
19:29Of the more than 400 SOE agents dispatched to France,
19:34118 are missing, 16 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.
20:06He's furious.
20:09Marcel Rousset, an F Section agent with the code name Leopold,
20:15demands to see anyone in the British Secret Service.
20:22I'm sorry to interrupt,
20:23but do you think you could fetch someone from SOE for me?
20:26Now!
20:27He had been captured by the Gestapo,
20:29and in fact it was even his radio that was used by the Gestapo
20:33to send the taunting signals to SOE headquarters on D-Day.
20:40Hello, I'm Nancy. How can I help?
20:42Sorry any chance.
20:43I am...
20:43He is angry.
20:45He's absolutely furious at mistakes that SOE has made,
20:50that so many agents have been captured.
20:53Please take a seat here, sir.
20:56An SOE officer sits down with Rousset
20:59for 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.
21:10So, Buckmaster...
21:11Rousset says how stupid everyone at F Section had been,
21:16particularly Buckmaster and Vera,
21:18and how they had risked agents' lives.
21:23The SD, Sicherheitsdienst,
21:26forced 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
21:37as a warning to SOE,
21:40but they just ignored this
21:42and continued to accept the messages
21:45that came from his radio as genuine.
21:49His interrogation report is explosive
21:53and provides Vera with important leads
21:57to the whereabouts of her missing agents.
22:06at F Section,
22:08Vera receives Rousset's interrogation report.
22:16After his arrest,
22:17he's taken to the SD headquarters in Paris,
22:21at 84 Avenue Foch.
22:27The SD is the SS intelligence agency
22:31and worked hand-in-hand with the Gestapo.
22:36Here, Rousset is confronted with Prosper's wireless operator,
22:40Gilbert Norman, codenamed Butcher.
22:45It was Norman who told the Germans
22:47that Rousset was SOE, wireless operator, Leopold.
22:54And he also tells Rousset
22:56that the Gestapo know everything about SOE
23:00and their activities.
23:06So Suttel, who was the organiser of that circuit,
23:10and Norman had given up everything
23:12about the Prosper circuit in Paris
23:16in order to try and save his life
23:19and 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?
23:33Just finding out that they could have revealed so much
23:37that every time Vera sent a woman over,
23:40she was just basically feeding them straight
23:43into the German prisons.
23:46In the Gestapo's cells,
23:48Rousset is held in solitary confinement.
23:53But by tapping on the wall in Morse code,
23:56he manages to communicate with an SOE agent
24:00in the cell next to his.
24:02Rousset learns that a wireless operator
24:05with the codename Madeleine
24:07is also being held by the Nazis.
24:09Nor Inyat Khan goes under the codename Madeleine.
24:16Nor hadn't surfaced after the liberation of Paris.
24:22Vera assumed she'd been captured,
24:24but no further intel had been discovered.
24:31Rousset's report suggests that Nor had been in the Gestapo's prison in Paris.
24:39His 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
24:55have been transferred to Germany.
24:57Where were they?
24:58Where have they gone?
25:01Could those women have been her agents?
25:03Could one of them have been Nor?
25:05Or.
25:07Frustratingly, Rousset's intel now dries up.
25:12He remains in the Gestapo's prison,
25:14working as a cleaner until two days after D-Day.
25:20Noticing a gate unlocked,
25:23he 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 spies.
26:01Then, a report comes in,
26:04from a member of Yvonne Bazden'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.
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,
26:54they 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.
27:28So they leave.
27:29But 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,
27:45because 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.
28:13I heard something.
28:25Keep searching.
28:26You're taking the point.
28:28You're taking the point.
28:35This shooting goal?
28:47In London, Vera scours allied intelligence reports,
28:51searching for any clues to her agent's 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
29:18hiding 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.
30:06And where they could be rescued from once the Allies are victorious.
30:12In October, British officials investigate 84 Avenue Foch,
30:19the Nazis' 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,
30:44where Kiefer had an office.
30:52Hans Kiefer was the head of the SD in Paris
30:55during the German occupation.
31:00He's the man who convinced Gilbert Norman
31:02to reveal everything he knew about SOE operations.
31:08Hans Kiefer would have been personally in charge
31:11of the SOE agents who were held at that prison.
31:15Kiefer would have to have known,
31:17first of all, who was held in his prison
31:20and what happened to them.
31:25The report continues.
31:28I found a moving inscription from men and women
31:32who knew they had lost everything except their honour.
31:37But I was informed during the last few days
31:40before the departure of the Germans
31:41that several people had been taken downstairs
31:44into 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
32:16of 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
32:30periodic 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,
32:45everybody was saying that she wasn't ready,
32:46but Paris needed a wireless operator.
32:50And immediately, she'd put this young woman
32:53into the jaws of the Gestapo.
33:01Dear Mrs. Inayat Khan,
33:03I am extremely sorry to have to inform you
33:06that we have recently lost touch with your daughter.
33:09Due to the confused state of affairs in France,
33:12we were not unduly worried,
33:14but I am afraid now your daughter
33:15must be considered as missing.
33:19Although there is every reason to believe
33:21that she will eventually be notified to us
33:23as a prisoner of war.
33:26Just the idea of writing letters to the family,
33:29that's heartbreaking.
33:30But Vera's got other issues
33:32that she has to worry about.
33:33The British government was never very happy
33:35about sending women combatants overseas
33:38because they were not protected
33:39by the Geneva Convention.
33:40And that meant the Nazis could do
33:42whatever they liked with them.
33:45She also has fear about her own future
33:48because once it is revealed in the public
33:50that something has happened to these women,
33:52she's also fearful about the consequences for her
33:55as the person who sent them out.
34:02I would impress upon you
34:04in the interests of your daughter's safety
34:06that you make no inquiries with regard to her,
34:11except through me.
34:23By January 1945,
34:26the Allies are making steady gains
34:30and Nazi Germany is on its knees.
34:42But many agents are still missing.
34:47Despite combing through any
34:49and all intelligence documents,
34:51Vera's investigation finds no trace of them.
34:56She now lobbies inside SOE.
35:04What Vera wants to do
35:05as the Allies are moving through Germany
35:07is to give the names of her agents
35:09to the Allied troops
35:10so that when they liberate camps
35:12and prisoners of war,
35:13they can see if any of her agents
35:15are prisoners.
35:16They can rescue them.
35:18At the height of F-section operations,
35:21Vera is Buckmaster's right-hand man.
35:23She's right in the centre
35:24of all of the major decisions.
35:26But once F-section is over
35:28and Buckmaster is gone,
35:30it becomes incredibly difficult
35:31to convince anybody
35:32that her plight within SOE
35:35is worth pursuing.
35:37Particularly,
35:38John Centre,
35:39the head of SOE's security division
35:42and a commander in the Royal Navy.
35:46Atkins?
35:47Yes, sir.
35:49A memo of yours
35:50just came across my desk.
35:53Yes, sir.
35:56A memo suggesting
35:59that we give out the names of our agents,
36:05publish their names
36:07for the Red Cross,
36:09the American Army,
36:12the Soviet Army.
36:16Yes, sir.
36:17So that once those forces
36:19begin liberating POW camps,
36:21they will have a register
36:22of all of our missing agents.
36:27Atkins,
36:28you do understand
36:29what we do here.
36:31The work we did during the war.
36:34Yes, sir.
36:35But...
36:36Then you'll also understand
36:37the meaning of secret.
36:39As in the term
36:40secret agent.
36:43Sir, if I may...
36:44Flight Officer Atkins!
36:47Let me remind you,
36:48you are addressing
36:49a commander in the Royal Navy.
36:52Sir.
36:58The war is not yet over.
37:02How long do you think
37:03it would be
37:03before the Germans
37:05also got to see
37:06those names?
37:09Why should we advertise
37:10who our agents are
37:13on a register
37:14for our enemies to see?
37:17Sir, the Germans are spent.
37:20This is our best chance
37:22of finding our agents,
37:24women agents,
37:25alive.
37:31Consider your request denied
37:34on security grounds.
37:36He's wanting to find out
37:38where were the security leaks
37:40in SOE.
37:40He's not interested
37:42in the fate
37:43of the missing agents.
37:47Stick with the welfare work.
37:54Vera is stymied
37:55from trying to find her agents.
37:56All she can do
37:57is just pick up
37:58on intelligence reports
37:59to find out
38:00what's happened
38:01to these agents
38:02because unless she finds out,
38:05who will?
38:10In March 1945,
38:12Vera receives a report
38:14by French investigators
38:16searching Fren prison
38:18in Paris.
38:20This is the Gestapo prison
38:22where people were held
38:23when they were not
38:24being interrogated
38:25and tortured.
38:26And it indicates
38:28something really
38:28quite disturbing
38:29for Vera.
38:31Next to the name
38:32of one of the prisoners
38:34is N and N.
38:36This means
38:36Nacht und Nebel
38:38or Night and Fog.
38:39The Nacht und Nebel
38:41order was decreed
38:43by Hitler
38:44that people
38:45who have been involved
38:45in espionage
38:47or resistance
38:48are to him
38:50so despicable
38:51that they have
38:52to be punished
38:53in an extraordinary way.
38:55Not only will they be
38:57captured,
38:57interrogated,
38:58tortured
38:59and then killed,
39:00but they're supposed
39:01to 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
39:11alive.
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
39:34to issue the names
39:35of her agents
39:36so that people
39:37liberating these
39:38prisoner of war camps
39:39can find them.
39:42If they are found,
39:43there is now a register
39:45for their return
39:46to Britain
39:48if they survived.
40:06On the 30th of April 1945,
40:09with Berlin all but captured
40:11by the Red Army.
40:15Hitler commits suicide.
40:23By the 8th of May,
40:25the Allies accept
40:27Nazi Germany's
40:28unconditional surrender.
40:31The war in Europe
40:33is over.
40:49Amid the celebrations
40:50in London,
40:51Vera gets news
40:52that gives her hope
40:53her agents survived.
40:57On the 20th of May,
40:591945,
41:01Yvonne Basden,
41:02captured and missing,
41:04turns up at Euston Station
41:06in London.
41:08The war in Europe
41:11The war in Europe
41:11Miss Atkins,
41:13how did you get here?
41:32Where are we going?
41:34I'm taking you home.
41:36Your father is waiting.
41:37My father?
41:39My father?
41:41My father?
41:49Yvonne Basden,
41:50From Euston Station,
41:51Vera takes Yvonne Basden
41:53back to her family home
41:55in Brockwood Park
41:56in London.
42:07Yvonne.
42:07Yvonne.
42:08And I'm taking you home.
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?
43:11Other agents?
43:17Uh...
43:18Yvonne, I need you to think.
43:27Um, after I was caught, uh, they sent me, uh, east to a, uh, to a prison, to a place
43:39called
43:39Saarbrocken, um, that there I started seeing some, some familiar faces, agents, I'd been
43:52in training with.
43:53Um, I saw, uh, they've got the hold of Baker Street, I didn't talk to them, I, I, I kept
44:07my distance.
44:09You see, uh, I told the Germans after they caught me that I was just an ordinary French
44:14girl.
44:16Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, that was my cover.
44:20Uh, so I, I had to keep my distance, I, I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an
44:28agent.
44:32Uh, 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, a, a couple of others from, from F section.
45:03Violette Szabo?
45:06Yes.
45:08Um, Violette and, and the others, we were all, uh, we were all sent to, um, um, RavensbrĆ¼ck,
45:15a concentration camp.
45:18It, it was a camp just for women.
45:24RavensbrĆ¼ck.
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.
46:21The RAF flew me to Scotland.
46:25I found a train to Houston.
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 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?
47:35Well...
47:52I should go over here.
47:53I'll be right down.
48:11Transcription by CastingWords
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