Gladiators Of World War II

Special Operations Executive (1x7)

Air date: Jan 19, 2002

In July 1940, when Axis forces occupied Western Europe, the Special Operations Executive was set up by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to set Europe ablaze. SOE deployed secret agents to support resistance movements in Occupied Europe and worked with them to prepare for Liberation. Although they worked far from the battlefields, the men and women of the SOE were among the bravest Gladiators of World War II. From an anonymous building in Londons Baker Street, agents were provided with cover stories, false identity cards, ration books and clandestine weapons like exploding cigarettes and itching powder for German underwear. Young men and women were sent alone into enemy occupied territory, knowing that they could be shot as spies if captured. This program examines SOEs most successful raid on the Norsk-Hydro plant in Telemark, Norway, and its most disastrous episode Englandspiel in Holland. Former agents tell remarkable stories of bravery and sacrifice in the face of capture, torture and death as they operated under the very noses of the enemy.