The other day I started watching a show on Netflix called ‘Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits’. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the Special Operations Executive (SOE). For those not in the know, it was a special group that operated behind enemy lines, helping resistance groups and fighting the enemy. This series follows fourteen people as they attempt to make their way through the training regimen the SOE used during World War 2. Interspersed with their narrative are all sorts of interesting tidbits about the SOE and some of the missions they were tasked with, including background on several notable agents. A couple of the contestants (not sure if that is the correct term here, perhaps volunteers would be better) had ancestors that worked with either the SOE or the resistance. In one case, a Polish woman had a relative who was executed by the Nazi's for her part in the Polish resistance. There are, of course, a number of nods to the ‘modern’ interpretation of the training, the volunteers work with dummy explosives for example, and have safety gear that wasn’t present back in the forties, but otherwise all the training is done in period uniform with actual equipment used by these brave men and women. Overall a most interesting show for anyone with interest in this sort of history, I highly recommend it.
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AuthorPaul Bennett, Writer of Epic Fantasy Adventures. Archives
May 2024
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