This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
In July 1940, Europe was at war.
EXPLOSIONS
Nazi forces stood ready at Calais,
just 20 miles from British shores.
With invasion seeming inevitable,
Winston Churchill created a new secret army.
They were called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE.
Now, a group of 21st-century people are taking on a training programme
which has spent 60 years under lock and key.
Would you be able to kill?
I'm going to sound like a terrible person, but I think yes.
GUNFIRE
By undergoing the same assessments as the 1940s trainees,
they'll find out how ordinary men and women
became deadly weapons of war...
GUNSHOTS
..revealing the secrets of one of the most remarkable organisations
in British history.
This is an extraordinary project about extraordinary times,
extraordinary training and extraordinary people.
Ladies, gents, if you can, please, let's get ourselves off the bus.
Having made it through a rigorous selection process...
GUNSHOTS Get down!
..and been trained in guerrilla warfare...
Lots of aggression.
..survival skills...
This is the biggest challenge for me.
..and spy craft...
Just one slip of the tongue and your cover's blown.
..now the six remaining students face their final test.
Your mission begins now.
So the clock is ticking.
EXPLOSION
And they'll find out more about the real agents...
Bonjour. Alastair.
..who waged a secret war.
How are you, Rob? Hello, Fred.
To be able to meet a real SOE is awesome
and I don't use that word very often.
As the students enjoy one last breakfast in uniform,
the instructors are preparing to put them through the final stage
of their training.
By early 1944, the war was well into its fourth year.
Millions had already lost their lives in what would become
the deadliest conflict in human history.
But the tide had turned against the Nazi empire.
They'd suffered heavy losses in the east
and the Allies were making plans to break back into Europe.
By now, SOE had trained thousands of agents,
many of whom were attacking the enemy regime
in over 20 countries.
With D-Day on the horizon,
SOE was preparing to support the invasion in any way they could.
Of the 14 civilians who started selection and training,
three men and three women have stayed the course.
Well, good morning.
The six of you have now successfully completed the core SOE syllabus,
but your training is not over yet.
At this stage, SOE agents would have been tested on all of the training
that they'd received in one comprehensive package.
They called it the final scheme.
For many students, SOE's final scheme was the last big test
they faced before being deployed on real missions.
Sent undercover into towns,
they were given a dummy mission,
such as stealing plans from a factory
or planting fake explosives at busy railway junctions,
all in a bid to see if they could put what they'd learned
in training into practice.
The situation,
the Allied invasion of France, D-Day, is rapidly approaching.
For their final scheme,
the grounds of the finishing school will double as occupied France.
And I wish you the best of luck.
They'll be using the French identities given to them
during training and, just like their 1940s counterparts,
they'll be expected to maintain their cover at all times.
I imagine the final scheme is going to be a really difficult mission.
We're going to have to think tactically
and on our feet and very quickly.
So the only way that we're going to succeed
is if we are all completely and utterly focused
right from the start.
They'll be split into two groups.
Both have different objectives
but will rely on each other to succeed.
Will Beresford Davies, Lizzie Jeffreys and Magda Thomas
will make up the Sabotage Team.
Their primary objective is to blow up a telephone exchange,
testing their intelligence gathering skills and explosives knowledge.
I'm not sure what to expect, because we've learned so much,
so probably we'll have to use all the skills we...we acquired.
I'm not sure if there will be weapons.
We just have to...
..rely on what you've learned but also rely on our intuition.
The rest - Debbey Clitheroe, Rob Copsey and Alastair Stanley
form the Wireless Team.
They have to communicate with HQ to arrange the explosives
for the telephone exchange attack,
testing their skills in Morse code and fieldcraft.
They'll use any remaining explosives to blow up a tree
that will block a key road.
Overall, the mission will test the coordination, sabotage
and communication skills required of agents on the ground.
There's a lot of scope for things to go wrong,
and this final stage seems like it's all or nothing, really.
Agents arriving in France would often be dropped
in the middle of nowhere
and expected to find their way to a prearranged location.
To mirror these conditions,
the teams are being dropped deep in the grounds of the school
to test their navigation skills.
They'll be observed throughout by instructors Nicky Moffat
and Mike Rennie.
Thank you.
Your mission begins now.
You've done this in training and you can do this now here
on the final scheme. Good luck. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am.
OK, right, so, first thing, figure out where we are. Yeah.
Rob Copsey will lead the Wireless Team.
There's a crossroads here in the grounds of the house.
It would be unusual for someone to be looking at a map to see where they're at.
Their first objective is to navigate to a safe house two miles away
to stash their radio equipment.
You're going to go on ahead, signals as we discussed,
and Magda and I will form a sort of group behind.
We're going to look like civilians rather than people creeping about.
All right? Everyone OK? Let's do this. Let's crack on. After you.
Will Beresford Davies has been made leader of the Sabotage Team.
They need to find their way back to the main house
and find plans of the telephone exchange they're targeting.
But before they can begin, the priority for both groups
is to establish their location and agree a cover story...
Hiding in plain sight, remember?
..which could be tested at any time by instructors posing as the enemy.
The fact that they've decided to stroll as if civilians down a track
is maybe a good idea.
The garb they're in, trying to hide in the woods and through fields
and things might have actually been a bit more conspicuous.
To move around the French countryside
without arousing suspicion,
SOE agent Pearl Witherington claimed to be a travelling cosmetics rep.
Agent Brian Stonehouse used his peacetime career
as a professional artist as his own cover story in France.
He hid his wireless set inside a box of paints.
Rob Copsey has opted for the cover of amateur naturalist...
..although they've yet to move away from their drop point.
Do you think we're possibly on this bridle path? We passed the timber yard.
I thought they were a little bit slow initially, discussing issues,
standing very much in plain sight in the middle of a road.
We came this way and we went this way.
I think we know from the river where we are.
They've got a good cover story, which is that they're bird-watchers.
Alphonse, can you hear the birds?
It's useful to have something like that,
but I think they look a bit odd, frankly.
Let's get the compass out.
Can I use this?
Not very conspicuous. We need to hurry up.
Maybe I should step out and you maybe having just a little...
..relieving yourself.
Both teams have a button compass and a silk map of the grounds.
We go down here and we're going to come over a stream...
SOE agents used these because they could be easily hidden
in the lining of their clothes.
We need to get to that safe house as quickly as we can.
I might follow on a little behind you guys.
They've got the choice of moving down the roads and tracks
or moving slightly more covertly, away from the roads and tracks.
What they've chosen to do is to move in a slightly furtive way,
in plain sight...
..down a road.
If they're going to walk down this track,
they might as well walk down, the three of them together, chatting,
looking around along the way
and actually move a lot quicker than they're doing now.
They look suspicious.
On the other side of the estate,
Will's team are already back in view of the main house.
Now they need to get past the guards.
Someone there? Someone in uniform.
The nature of SOE's missions meant that agents couldn't always avoid
contact with the enemy.
Do you see anyone moving or not? Where that car is.
Often, they had to work right under the Nazis' noses.
Agent Michael Trotobas was tasked with sabotaging
a locomotive works in northern France.
By impersonating a Gestapo officer,
he convinced the guards that he needed to search the area
and secretly planted explosives,
causing significant damage.
Leaving Magda to keep watch, Will and Lizzie make their approach.
Their instructions are to sneak into an office
and steal plans that detail the location of their target -
a telephone exchange.
But there's an unexpected hitch.
The office is occupied.
This team was told that there'd be nobody in the office.
This is a typical SOE tactic.
Just to keep them on their toes.
Will's team face a choice...
..neutralise the clerk and risk raising the alarm...
..or wait it out.
Rob's Wireless Team are finally approaching the safe house.
It's clear. Let's go.
A signal such as an upturned plant pot would be used
to let agents know if a property was safe to enter.
Safe houses could be any unused building, but flats, farms
and even doctors' surgeries were offered up
by brave and willing locals...
..where stranded Allied airmen, Resistance fighters
and secret agents were afforded sanctuary and help.
Those who sheltered people did so at enormous personal risk.
If discovered, properties could be destroyed
and those involved arrested or executed.
Rob's Wireless Team now have to focus on their next objective...
It's twenty to five.
Right, we've got to crack on because you've got to send your message at seven.
..sending a coded message to HQ at 1900 hours
requesting explosives, but first,
they need confirmation that the other team are ready to proceed.
We need to get to the stables now, don't we? We do.
To get the drop point.
A message confirming that Will's team have the plans
to the telephone exchange is due to be left in a prearranged location,
known as a dead drop. I thought we were going to set up the radio.
I think you guys can do that. I can go and do that. An encryption.
Yeah. Just going to...
The plan is for me to leave the safe house.
So I'm now going to be at risk.
I'm looking for a message from the other team,
and hopefully that will confirm that they are ready.
1900 we need to send the message, so you've got to be back.
As well as being a highly trained athlete,
maths graduate Alastair was the standout student in Morse training.
He's already preparing the message they expect to send at 1900 hours.
Message begins. "Both teams in position,
"request explosives drop for both missions." Message ends.
We're a bit time constrained to send the message.
Yeah. Got about two hours. Yeah.
You need to come back as fast as possible. Yeah.
See you soon, Marianne. Bonjour. Alphonse. Stay safe.
They've lost some time, but for Will's Sabotage Team,
patience has paid off.
The office is now unoccupied and they can try to steal
the plans to the telephone exchange.
But they need to work fast,
securing the plans and getting their message to the others
in time for the 1900 transmission.
During training, Lizzie has excelled in almost every discipline,
including lock picking.
Be aware of your time.
She spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get the lock picked,
and when things aren't going the way that you expect them to,
you need to step back and re-plan
and come up with an alternative course of action.
Which one are you doing?
After almost half an hour, Will takes over.
Very nice.
Whilst Rob makes his way to the dead drop...
I think we have to go in those woods there. Yeah.
..Debbey and Alastair are looking for a safe place
to transmit their message from.
The enemy could trace wireless broadcasts,
so they've opted for the nearby countryside
rather than compromise the safe house.
This area looks very good. I can barely see through the trees that way, so it's very unlikely...
SOE networks relied heavily on their wireless operators.
As D-Day approached, they would provide a crucial link,
enabling coordinated action.
What's the risk inherent in what you're doing now?
Getting caught... Yeah. ..with the equipment.
Sending the message without being spotted is crucial.
If we're spotted, they'll take the antenna and the equipment
and that's it, mission's failed.
5:30pm.
Former paratrooper Rob has reached the location where the message
from the Sabotage Team should be hidden.
I'm looking for something that's different. A log, hopefully, with a message within it.
A dead drop was a prearranged place to leave a message,
made more covert by SOE's ingenious gadgets, like modified corks,
fake keys and hollow logs.
But these were more than just spy toys.
Dead drops kept SOE operatives apart, which kept them safe.
By limiting face-to-face meetings,
SOE agents were less likely to compromise each other
if captured and tortured.
Nothing inside it.
So, I'm going to have to wait.
Without confirmation from the others, there's little Rob can do.
This is the thing, this is the thing the agents would be up against -
their own mind.
Their own mind, because they're going to be thinking, time,
the message has got to be sent at 1900.
I don't have a watch now. I had to leave it with them
because they need to know when to send it.
So I had two hours, if that, to get down here, find it,
understand the message and get back.
So the clock is ticking.
Back at the safe house, concerns are growing.
Any sign from Joseph? No sign from Joseph yet.
Erm...
Debbey and Alastair have found a safe location to broadcast from.
And 17 groups of five.
And have their message ready to send.
The question is, second-in-command...
How do we leave it? Do we wait for him, because I was hoping,
40 minutes is about the right amount of time
to get out there and get set up. Ideally, we want to leave about now.
All too aware that the other team are waiting for them...
..Will Beresford Davies has resorted to Plan B.
OK, a bit of urgency, Miss Jeffreys, come on. You haven't got time.
It's a gamble, but having abandoned stealth,
they quickly find the telephone exchange plans.
Now they need to let Rob's team know they have their target.
But time is running out.
I think we have to assume that something's gone wrong. OK.
He's either gone down hiding or he's been captured.
What if he's not back by 1900 hours? If he's not back by 1900 hours,
we're going to have to send the message and get the drop zone for the explosives.
What message are you going to send?
The same message or shall I quickly write one?
I'm just trying to think.
Plans going awry on a final scheme provided instructors with useful
insight into how students might react to problems in the field.
Will, Lizzie and Magda finally arrive at the dead drop.
SHORT WHISTLE
To avoid compromising the other team, Rob stays out of sight.
Rob has the message confirming that the other team
have the plans but, still over a mile away, he has to hope
that Debbey and Alastair have decided to press ahead.
They're now the only ones who can keep the mission alive.
So, do you want to set up the radio and I'll get the aerial?
Yeah, definitely.
Tune the frequency. 5.2 to 5.9. 5.3 to 5.5.
OK. OK, let's have a listen.
A month ago, Alastair didn't know any Morse.
Yeah, perfect. Yeah? Right, OK. Sending.
Now, the whole scheme will fail if he can't send the message accurately
and on time.
BEEPING
At HQ, Lieutenant Colonel Weale is waiting for the message.
Last letter.
Transmission complete. OK.
Thank you.
Well, the message we got was, message begins.
"Only team J in position. Request explosives drop for both missions."
Message ends.
A few wrong letters there.
We've got a V for a U,
we've had to move things around a little bit to make it make sense,
but, nevertheless, it's all there.
Quick, quick, quick!
They've sent their message and are now expecting a reply
at the scheduled time of 1930.
Ten past. 1910.
Incoming wireless transmissions couldn't be traced by the enemy
so they return to the relative security of the safe house.
Please let him be there, please let him be there.
Start setting up. I'll have a look.
Nothing? No.
Gutted.
Really gutted. I was expecting him to be sat there going...
You're taking over? Yeah, I'm taking over now.
He could have been taken.
We've just got to forget about him, just for now.
We've got to get on with this.
Would it be better if I stood on the box and held it higher?
Surrounded by buildings,
they need to get the aerial up high for it to work.
OK, transmission received.
Erm, yeah, didn't get all of it.
They have the time that the explosives will be dropped
but only half the coordinates.
70, four, five...
Location...
This could have been location.
As darkness falls,
Will's team need to find somewhere to shelter for the night.
You all right? Yes, cosy.
That's one word for it!
The mission hasn't exactly gone to plan so far.
We got stuck with an unpickable lock and I just...I kicked the door in.
Not a very subtle SOE tactic!
I think we need to be a lot more careful.
That was...that was not great.
Not being able to pick the lock is a failure on my part, which I'm kicking myself about,
because my one job was to pick the lock and I couldn't.
So I'm definitely getting a sense of how hard these missions really
must have been for the SOE agents.
Oh, my God.
Get in here. How are you? What happened? Oh, my God, what happened?
I've been waiting for ages. Did you get the message? I got the message.
We got the message back, about the parachute drop site.
Yeah. 45 east, but latitude was unintelligible.
70 lies here. Yeah. 45 in.
It could really be anywhere in a corridor along here, couldn't it?
In reality.
Let's hope we get lucky.
Awesome.
The final scheme gave students a taste
of what it was like to operate in the field...
..away from the support of a training school.
Can I just bite it? Yeah, just, like, bite it like a sandwich, why not?
Are you a vegetarian? I'm a vegan.
I decided when I started this that I wouldn't be fussy,
I wouldn't stick to my vegan diet because you couldn't in wartime.
This is not meat. It's not meat?
No, I don't believe that any part of this ever walked around and mooed.
This is the food they would eat and they would often
probably be not in such a comfortable position as we are,
because we have a lot of blankets.
Magda Thomas had relatives in the Polish Resistance.
Probably they would just have their coats to cover themselves.
It must have been tough.
It's probably not an unrealistic situation an SOE agent
would have been in, where they were right next to the enemy
and, at any moment, you know that the enemy could find you.
And no-one's coming to help you.
You haven't got your buddies to look out for you.
An impressive kind of courage to do that.
Tomorrow, they'll be expected to put all of their training into practice,
executing their most complex mission to date.
It's 6:30am.
Explosives were often parachuted in to agents,
so Rob's team set off to find their drop zone.
But with only half the coordinates, it's a wide search area.
Will's team also depend on their success.
They need some of the explosives
in order to take out the telephone exchange.
Because we've got no breakfast this morning. You sure?
Let's go. Watch out for the...
AEROPLANE FLIES OVERHEAD
They're going to drop it, they're going to drop it.
Keep an eye out. Can we see?
Rob's team are searching the grounds,
but even with the right coordinates, the accuracy of a supply drop
was never guaranteed and containers frequently went off course.
If the plane comes around, we're coming into the area now.
In Poland alone,
around a third of all material parachuted in
failed to reach the Resistance.
As the anticipated Allied invasion drew nearer,
SOE stepped up its efforts to supply and coordinate
Resistance activities.
You know what, I think we see it.
Let's be quick.
Before and after D-Day,
they dropped arms and explosives into France
on an unprecedented scale.
In total, around 10,000 tonnes of supplies
were dropped into France by SOE.
OK, OK, explosives.
We need to go, we need to go.
SOE protocol was to bury or conceal the parachute
and move away from the drop zone as quickly as possible.
Before meeting up with Will's Sabotage Team
in order to give them explosives,
Debbey turns to their next objective.
I'm looking for a tree
that we can blow up.
Using trees to block roads was a popular SOE tactic,
intended to harass and delay the enemy.
For the students,
it will be the greatest test of their sabotage skills to date.
It's got to be around quite a tight bend, so they can't see it.
One downed tree might lead to a few minutes' frustration
for a German tank division.
Dozens every mile could mean major delays.
It's a dead tree, so it would look natural that it's fallen,
because it's died, but the height of it is my worry.
It's so tall, it's going to land in those trees
and we may not be able to get it all the way down to the ground.
It's not easy to blow up a tree.
The plan for D-Day was that SOE and the Resistance
would create obstructions like this on a massive scale.
SOE HQ in London knew which German divisions were likely to be called
as reinforcements when the Allies reached Normandy.
Holding them back was key to establishing a foothold
in northern France,
from which the fight to reclaim Europe could begin.
We are two civilians having a walk in the country,
so let's just act normal, OK? OK. Let's go for it.
Do you want to lead the way?
Having found the explosives, Rob and Alastair must leave a message
at the dead drop to arrange a rendezvous with the other team.
Let's see if we can find that pheasant, Alphonse, shall we?
They're really fighting the clock now. It's 9:20.
They need to get these demolitions in place really quickly
and they haven't even got to the dead drop yet to inform team two.
Where are you, pheasant?
I think the issue with Copsey is he's talking too much.
He's gone that way.
He keeps talking about his cover story.
Actually, he only needs to deploy his cover story when he's met someone.
They could be moving with a much greater sense of purpose.
Right, guys, you're wasting too much time now on movement.
You need to get there quickly.
Team two are likely to be sitting around waiting for you.
They can do nothing... Under the jacket.
..until you connect with them and they connect with their explosives.
Waiting for news at the dead drop are Will's Sabotage Team.
"Got goods. Meet at safe house."
At the moment we don't have a safe house,
so I don't know where that is.
It says T? T1, yeah.
T1. Or TY? It's TY.
TY...? Timber yard.
It's got to be timber yard. Timber yard.
That's the only TY on the map, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, we better get moving, because we're running out of time.
Will, Lizzie and Magda are on their way to the rendezvous
to collect their explosives.
But during the final scheme,
instructors were keen to remind students of the importance
of a solid cover story.
Stop there.
I'm a French policeman.
Papers.
What's your name? Elodie Julien.
Date of birth? 22nd of November, 1918.
Where were you born? Chateauroux.
Your name? Jacqueline Armand. Where were you born? In Rotterdam.
And your name? Stephan Doux.
Where are you going to?
Erm...we're actually...
Well, I've lost my dog.
You've lost your dog? Yes, I'm visiting my uncle here.
So this gentleman kindly...
..agreed to help me. Where have you come from?
I've come from Orleans. I was on holiday from my course in Paris,
my law course, and...
Where are you staying in Orleans? At the hotel by the gare.
OK.
What's in your bag?
My hat.
So, where are you heading to now? Erm...
We thought we'd head round towards... I think there's a large house there,
there's a chance the dog might have gone there. OK.
Right.
Generally speaking, they were OK. They remembered their cover stories.
We did well there. We just need to keep calm.
Jeffreys, she's a little taciturn,
and that's the kind of thing that causes suspicion amongst security
officials, if they stop somebody and they don't seem to want to talk.
But we know that's Jeffreys' character.
I think we keep searching for the dog until we're certain he's gone
and, hopefully, in the course of that, we'll find the others.
Thomas was pretty good. She managed to convey a certain amount of emotion about losing her dog.
Coco! Coco!
There was a little bit of backstory there.
She looked convincing, she sounded about right,
so I was happy with that.
Beresford Davies spoke reasonably well.
Do you have family in the Resistance?
When we were giving that cover story to the policeman,
I had... I think my great-grandfather,
he had to try and switch suitcases because he was carrying two of them
on a train and one was full of guns and the other one wasn't.
Will's great-grandfather operated near St-Etienne,
tracking German troop movements and plotting ambushes.
I do have a greater understanding, just because of all the tiny details he'd have to remember -
those things that would give you away.
By the spring of 1944,
the Allies were growing in confidence
and the German army was on the back foot.
Everyone in France knew D-Day was coming.
The question was - when?
Agents in the field had to hold their nerve
and wait for word from Britain.
They, alongside thousands of Resistance fighters,
were poised for action.
Will's team finally make it to the safe house.
One, two, three, four, five, six. Bickford fuse, just to get it done quickly. Yeah.
Make sure I've got matches on me.
OK.
Oh, Stephan. Welcome.
Coco. HE WHISTLES
Bonjour, Stephan.
Jacqueline.
The teams need to divide the explosives.
They have just two hours left to complete their mission.
OK, let me tell you what we've got at the moment.
We've prepped, we've prepped, we've got...
This is all the cortex at the moment.
Half must blow up the telephone exchange,
the rest will fell a tree to block a key road.
We've got one large charge ready for you
and there's still another stick ready to go.
But working with explosives is so dangerous
that the ones the students will handle are dummy charges.
So now we listen for the proceed signal. Proceed signal.
Before they can carry out their orders,
they need to listen to the radio for a hidden signal,
known as an action message.
We don't want to miss this.
What's the message you're waiting for?
"Les poireaux sont longs et frises." Hm?
The leeks are long and curly.
Radio Londres was a BBC French-language service
broadcast to occupied Europe during the war.
SOE's first wireless operator in France, Georges Begue,
had the idea of using it to send coded messages
to agents on the ground.
The station identified itself using a short excerpt
from Beethoven's 5th,
the first four notes of which were Morse for the letter V for victory.
Ici Londres.
La mouche bourdonne et fait la navette.
Le disons deux fois.
Les poireaux sont longs et frises.
That's it. That's it.
On the night of 5th June, hours before D-Day,
Radio Londres broadcast more than 100 unique action messages
to waiting SOE networks.
This would be the zenith of SOE's work in France.
The organisation had started from scratch in 1940
in a makeshift office.
Now, four years later, all across France,
networks were poised for unified action.
Rob's team's orders are typical of those issued to agents at the time:
"Use explosives to bring down a tree and block a key road."
This is really nerve-racking.
Extremely nerve-racking.
This is the most important part of the mission now.
Debbey is a drama teacher with no military training,
but throughout the process she's defied expectations
and performed well.
I'm feeling how the SOE agents must have felt.
How scary... Every tree branch that clicks, you're like...
You are on your own
and you realised how lonely and important it was
for you to be able to do all the skills we've learned.
It's... Everything's coming together.
Yeah, start chopping. There's a groove here. Yeah, yeah.
We need to be quick.
While Rob's team prep the tree,
the others take on their main objective -
destroying the telephone exchange.
Right, let's be really careful.
Stay in cover. When you're not moving, stay low.
But first they need to make a plan
and decide what to do about the guard.
There's a sentry.
Can we get past to that next building without him seeing us?
Yeah.
We know the position of one sentry but we haven't seen past him.
Go round the back?
It's one thing to read about attacks and so on that they did,
and hiding out, but you don't really understand it until you actually go and have a go.
You need to get really low here, OK?
Then you realise that they would have been stressed out
and tired and hungry,
but you can feel that you've got the weight of a gun in your pocket.
You know you're going to have to also start potentially blowing up and killing people.
Lizzie, I want you to run at him
when he's facing the other way and stopped.
You're going to run at him, try and take him out quietly.
If he turns round even a little bit and it looks like he's going to see us, you shoot him straight away.
And, Lizzie, you get the hell out of the way. Yeah.
Safety tab off? Safety tab off. Give it a smack. Let's go.
It's taken Rob's team eight minutes to rig the tree.
For safety, experts replace the dummy explosives with live charges.
On the 6th of June 1944,
the Allied invasion of France finally began.
It was the largest amphibious assault in military history.
Around 7,000 ships, supported by over 11,000 aircraft,
landed over 150,000 British, American and Canadian troops
along a 50-mile stretch of coast.
This signalled the start of intensive and coordinated sabotage
by SOE on a grand scale.
While Lizzie makes her approach...
EXPLOSION
..Rob's team's blast blocks the road.
Well done. Come on.
With Lizzie having successfully snuck up on the guard...
..they complete their mission.
And make their escape.
Let's go.
In the days after D-Day,
SOE led disruption of German reinforcements by attacking roads,
railways and communication lines.
On the night of D-Day,
the French Resistance carried out 950 disruptions
to the railway alone.
Travelling north by road was equally arduous for the Germans,
as Resistance fighters carried out coordinated ambushes
on their convoys.
The 2nd SS Panzer Division, based in Toulouse,
should have reached Normandy in three days.
Instead, it took 16.
One estimate is that a total of eight German divisions
were kept from ever reaching the Allied invasion fronts after D-Day.
Well done. Well done. Well done, guys. Well done.
Training is over.
That was a really great experience.
It's a relief to finish.
Well, we think we've finished.
Mission accomplished. Yes, sir!
In we go. Thank you, sir.
The purpose of this project really was to resurrect the SOE syllabus,
but I think the last few weeks will have changed all of these students
quite considerably, particularly Jeffreys,
who was almost mouse-like when she arrived.
What has changed above all is probably my self-confidence.
Apparently, there was something in me that would have been passable
for the SOE training,
and given how astonishing the SOE agents were,
if I have even the slightest bit of me
is similar to what they were like, then yeah, OK,
maybe I can do something.
When they walked in on day one,
I think that many people, and perhaps us included,
would not have thought at that point
that they were going to be likely SOE agents.
People that have seen it through to the end here
are those who've got real strength of character.
It's going to be really sad going home.
I don't feel like I'm the same person any more.
On paper, I am the most unlikely candidate.
I'm a grandmother.
I think there's lots of women out there that have gone through
so much in their lives and, like me, probably would never,
ever imagine that they could do something like this,
and they probably can.
We've had our training. Are we 100% prepared?
No, we make mistakes, as they did then, and they were just...
..not polished diamonds, they were just rough diamonds, as you say.
After completing this training, I don't feel prepared to be SOE agent,
but I think I could be.
They were just people who learned some skills
and wanted to do something for their country,
for their countries, for Europe.
What this process reaffirms for me,
inside every single individual
is probably more than they ever imagined...
..and that through training and guidance,
seemingly ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
To try and replicate what Resistance fighters like my ancestors
might have been going through, it makes the words on the pages
of the history book... it brings them alive.
It's a very special kind of bravery to stand completely alone.
Magda's great-aunt worked for the Polish Resistance
until her arrest in May 1941.
The day of her execution, she wrote a letter to her family.
"My beloved parents and siblings, my hour has come.
"Today, on the 3rd of May 1943,
"I have to part with the world.
"I ask you all just one thing.
"Be now as strong as I am.
"It will bring me relief.
"Thank you for everything you did for me.
"Do not be sad, but pray for me and I will go away calmly.
"Forgive me if I was a cause of concerns,
"God will repay you for that.
"When I will stand in front of him, I will pray for you as well.
"Live happily, Irena Piwarska."
So, I'm really proud of my auntie.
That she had such dignity.
Because, you know, we women are strong
and we can go through many things.
Congratulations on reaching the end of your final scheme
and, indeed, of the training course as a whole.
Well done, you've all passed.
It's worth remembering that SOE candidates at this stage
still had a choice as to whether they went into the field or not.
They were all volunteers and they could withdraw at any time,
so they did have a choice,
and I wonder how many of you think you would have chosen to go on.
What we've seen in all of you is the spark
that you probably would have succeeded, so very well done.
Congratulations. Congratulations. Very, very impressive performance.
Thank you. Well done.
By the end of the war, SOE had recruited,
trained and equipped over 9,000 agents.
We've managed it, we've made it, we've got to the finish line,
but for the agents training, that was the beginning
of what could be months and years of never being able to relax, really,
and always having one eye behind you.
When I go home, I'm going to spend pretty much every day
thinking about this place.
But I know that I've had the honour of experiencing the SOE training
and I'm fortunate that I'm going home afterwards.
Within a year of the war ending, SOE was wound down,
its surviving agents bound by the Official Secrets Act
not to divulge their wartime activities.
On their return, some went back to ordinary life.
Others found they could not.
Virginia Hall, employed by SOE in France,
went on to work for the fledgling CIA.
Colin Gubbins, at one time the head of SOE
and the person behind its training programme,
went on to run a carpet manufacturer.
Odette Sansom survived interrogation and imprisonment
before returning to her life as a housewife.
More than 70 years on from the end of the war,
just a handful of agents are still alive.
Having completed their training and returned to their normal lives,
a few of the students are getting the chance to meet some.
To be able to meet a real SOE is going to be awesome
and I don't use that word very often.
Hi, Rob, come in. Hello, Fred.
Amazing to meet you. Yeah, come in. Thank you.
92-year-old Fred Bailey signed up to the Royal Armoured Corps.
In 1943, he saw a notice inviting volunteers for special duties.
Well, of course, the training was 24/7.
I mean, you could...
..be raked out in the middle of the night to go on an exercise.
Yeah.
Or, erm...
..a mock interrogation.
You were never free of the training. There was always something going on.
After months of training,
he was parachuted into France after D-Day
as part of a three-man unit known as a Jedburgh team -
uniformed agents sent in to assist the French Resistance.
They were supposed to drop us at 800 feet
and they wouldn't come down that low.
They dropped us at 1,800 feet. Oh, right.
Which seemed to take forever to come down. Yes.
And, of course, you're at risk the whole time you're coming down.
But anyway, I eventually landed in a disused brick yard.
I just sort of got the parachute off
and just tucking my Colt .45 out
and I could see somebody looming up in the darkness.
I didn't know who he was,
but anyway, turned out to be a Frenchman.
I offered a handshake but he insisted on kissing me.
Right.
Having landed in the South of France,
one of Fred's jobs was to hamper German troop movements.
We were in an old bus full of explosives and weapons
and we came round a corner
and there was a German tank in the middle of the road.
He was obviously lost.
A young maquisard jumped on the tank
and pushed a grenade through the driver's visor.
The lieutenant had a map in the sleeve of his jacket... Oh, OK.
..which disclosed the route of retreat,
and so I was able to arrange an air strike on this road
and, yeah, we did a lot of damage.
Will and Alastair have come to Paris to meet Marcel Jaurant-Singer.
Bonjour, Marcel. Bonjour.
Alastair. How are you? Very good, thank you.
At the age of 22, Marcel crossed the Pyrenees
before travelling to Scotland to be trained by SOE.
He then returned to France,
going on to lead a 300-strong Resistance group.
Did you feel as though the training was enough,
that you were ready when you arrived in France?
I was transformed.
I was much stronger as I came back than when I left.
I used my training, certainly.
No question. It was necessary.
And what sort of work did your group do?
I was for a time active as a saboteur.
There was in the train station
a train of high explosives.
Bombed the train.
Everything exploded
and the explosion was so terrible,
we saw wheels of the train
500 metres on the other side of the Somme.
Unlike Fred and Marcel,
many hundreds of agents did not survive the war.
Debbey Clitheroe is following in the footsteps of Vera Atkins.
As F Section's intelligence officer,
Atkins had seen many agents off on their missions at the airfield
and after the war was determined to discover the fate
of those who hadn't returned from France.
In 1946,
Vera Atkins' quest led her inevitably
to Nazi concentration camps.
No-one knows exactly how many SOE agents died in these places.
What is certain is that hundreds died on operations
or were killed in captivity.
The findings of Atkins' search were often horrific,
but the fate of four women in particular,
Sonia Olschanezky, Vera Leigh,
Andree Borrel and Diana Rowden stood out.
Atkins' mission led her to Natzweiler-Struthof in France.
A fraction of the size of camps like Auschwitz or Dachau,
Natzweiler-Struthof was hidden in the Vosges Mountains,
built on the site of a ski resort.
There were 17 barracks.
Wow, 17.
For 3,000 men.
But at the end of the war, in '44, there were 6,000.
Wow.
It was the camp where all the deportees
from the category "Nacht und Nebel" -
Night and Fog - had to be sent.
Specifically designed to deal with political prisoners,
Resistance fighters and SOE agents,
people imprisoned by the Night and Fog Decree
were identified by an NN marked on their clothing.
This category was created by the Nazis
in December 1941
in order to kill Resistance fighters
in the occupied countries,
but they had to die without traces.
Nobody are to know what happened to them,
and they couldn't become heroes for the population.
From the witness accounts,
Vera Atkins pieced together the women's final hours.
After arriving at Natzweiler, they were kept in jail cells...
..before the camp's doctor injected the women with poison.
Their bodies were then placed in the crematorium
and reduced to ash.
Obviously, a lot of people died here,
but the four female SOE agents
that they tried so hard to just disappear,
those names will come home with me.
They'll not disappear.
Vera Leigh, Sonia Olschanezky...
..Diana Rowden and Andree Borrel.
Though its impact is not easy to quantify,
it has been said that SOE's contribution
shortened the war against Germany by as much as six months.
During the darkness of Nazi occupation,
SOE's agents brought hope and inspired resistance
until liberation was finally achieved.
To be able to speak with you and actually hear from you
what it was like, thank you for telling us those things.
I am very old.
I said I have the chance
to live longer than most people,
so I have the duty to help make known what my friends have done.