The first of eight stories about the Special Operations Executive.
Narrated by Michael Bryant
In the desperate summer of 1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill dreamed of striking back at Hitler's all-conquering armies. Dunkirk had been a humiliation; Paris had fallen: the swastika flew from the Arctic ocean to the Bay of Biscay.
Conventional counter-attack was impossible but a strike from within might just work - sabotage, subversion, and a rising tide of resistance. The idea appealed to Churchill's romantic spirit. He gave Hugh Dalton, his Minister of Economic Warfare, one of the most secret jobs of World War II: he must form a new organisation - the Special Operations Executive.
SOE must infiltrate secret agents into occupied Europe. Where could they find such courageous people? How should they train and equip them? How could SOE breach Hitler's fortress and obey Churchill's command to 'set Europe ablaze'?
Film cameraman EUGENE CARR
Film editor CHRISTOPHER WOOLLEY
Series producer DOMINIC FLESSATI
Written and produced by CHRISTOPHER RILEY
FEATURE: page 17