The first of eight programmes 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 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 had to form a new organisation - the Special Operations Executive.
SOE were to 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'?
Series producer DOMINIC FLESSATI Written and produced by CHRISTOPHER RILEYW