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Secret War 1 Season 2011

Season 1
4.4 out of 5 stars (20) IMDb 7.8/10

Secret War goes inside Churchill's secret army, to a dangerous WWII world of secret agents. It tells the story of the Special Operations Executive agents and others who went behind enemy lines to conduct intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and assassination

Starring:
Alisdair Simpson (Narrator)

Available to watch on supported devices.

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Season 1

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1. The Special Interrogation Group

In 1942, the British army was locked in a deadly struggle in the North African desert with Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. Few were as motivated as 40 or so German-speaking Jews of the Special Interrogation Group.

TV-NR Runtime: 51 minutes Release date: April 18, 2011
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2. Hardy Amies: Operation

A celebrated postwar fashion designer and style icon, Hardy Amies was one of the most unlikely spymasters of World War II.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: April 19, 2011
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3. The Mafia Connection

As Britain held out against the Nazis in Europe, the United States was desperate to keep supply lines open to its ally across the Atlantic. To do so, it needed help from an expert on the New York City docks: mobster Charles Luciano.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: April 20, 2011
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4. Double Agent TRICYCLE

While pretending to spy for the Germans during the war, a young Yugoslav offered his services to the British. Agent Tricycle also gathered intelligence about Japan's plans that the FBI tragically dismissed.

TV-NR Runtime: 51 minutes Release date: April 21, 2011
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5. The Banker, the Norwegians, and the Bomb

Hitler knew that if he could win the race to develop a nuclear bomb, he could still win the war. Churchill's SOE turned to a small group of highly trained Norwegian agents and a successful London financier to make sure that he didn't.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: April 22, 2011
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6. The English Scholar and the Fight for Greece

One SOE agent was an Oxford academic most interested in Greece's classical past. In the end, his work among local partisans not only helped liberate Greece from Axis occupation--it also sowed the seeds of the Greek civil war.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: June 23, 2011
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7. The Dutch Disaster

SOE missions in Holland during WWII were the most disastrous in British intelligence. Why did London continue to drop agents there only for them to be arrested by the Nazis? Was German counterintelligence that good--or was something more sinister afoot?

TV-NR Runtime: 50 minutes Release date: June 21, 2011
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8. The SAS Italian Job

With the Allied advance in northern Italy stalled in late 1944 the SOE prepared an attack on German military headquarters in the region. When London called the plans off at the last minute, leaders had to decide whether to comply with the order or defy it

TV-NR Runtime: 51 minutes Release date: June 22, 2011
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9. The Spymistress and the French Fiasco

For much of WWII, the SOE waged a successful secret war in occupied France. But the woman at the heart of it all also presided over a series of bungled operations that delivered agents straight into the hands of the Gestapo.

TV-NR Runtime: 51 minutes Release date: June 20, 2011
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10. The French Triple Agent

How did the Nazis penetrate the French Resistance? Why were so many British agents captured after landing in France? Part of the answer may lie with an agent who worked with the Germans and the British--and may also have reported to a third party.

TV-NR Runtime: 52 minutes Release date: June 24, 2011
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11. Christine Granville: Polish Spy

Beautiful, charismatic, and cunning, Winston Churchill's favorite spy was a Polish woman who seemed to thrive on adrenaline and beating the odds. For five years she did just that, risking her life to bring back information crucial to the Allied Victory.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: June 27, 2011
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12. Agent Garbo

A Spanish civilian spying for Germany was actually an intrepid enemy of fascism. Decorated by Germany and Britain alike, he ran an imaginary network of spies and produced fake intelligence that reached the desk of the Führer himself.

TV-NR Runtime: 51 minutes Release date: June 28, 2011
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13. The Aristocrat and the Balkan Communist

On Churchill's orders, an SOE agent parachuted into German-occupied Yugoslavia in 1943 to cut a deal with communist partisans who had an agenda far beyond defeating the Nazis. The prime minister realized the dangers of cooperating with the communists.

TV-NR Runtime: 49 minutes Release date: June 29, 2011
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Product Details

Genres Military & War, Documentary
Director Nick Aarons, Martin J.O. Hughes
Starring Alisdair Simpson (Narrator)
Season year 2011
Network Acorn Media
Purchase rights Stream instantly and download to 2 locations Details
Format Amazon Video (streaming online video and digital download)

Other Formats

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

By Harold Wolf TOP 50 REVIEWER on February 27, 2012
Format: DVD
Arguably the most fascinating WWII documentary ever. Few historical accounting's prove this enthralling (even to my wife.) It is about the British Special Operations Executive [SOE] established by Churchill himself, admonishing spies to "set Europe ablaze." They did, and this set provides 13 episode proof which contain narration, archival & new footage, survivor testimony, experts, photos, some reenactment clips, and all historically & entertainingly produced. Color and much in B/W, no attempt to colorize the 1940s film.

A must own for spy thriller, WW2, military, history, and political fans. Or those willing to try something completely different and astonishing.

It's a toss up as to whether it's more educational or entertaining. I submit 50/50. I began listing fave episodes till I realized it was them all. Helpful facts for the novice about British intelligence: MI6 = Brit. Intelligence Espionage Service; MI5 = Brit. Home Counter-Espionage Service; SAS = Special Air Service. The single drawback was noticing frequent duplicate use of archival film clips in different episodes. Even so, the set is worthy of 6 stars.

SDH SUBTITLES available.
1 SPECIAL INTERROGATION GROUP= SIG, least known intelligence/espionage group, summer '42. 40-German speaking Jews cause bedlam behind the Nazi lines.

2 HARDY AMIES: OPERATION `RATWEEK'= Fashion designer Amies, friend of the Queen, SOE spy, gay, in no-rules warfare. Belgian resistance.

3 THE MAFIA CONNECTION= Boss `Lucky' Luciano sentenced 50 yrs but died free after his secret dealing with the US forces. German spies were on the docks (control by Mafia) giving info to Nazi subs. Huge shipping losses required a unique remedy.
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By it on April 21, 2012
Format: DVD Verified Purchase
I had this company's documentary about Hitler's body guards. It was first rate. This presentation is completely different. It has loud mood music. It has visual effects such as rapid changes in the video image. These things are distracting in a documentary. In order to pad out the presentation to 50 minutes, additional scenes are added that are not from the situation being documented. It leaves out important information. For instance in the North African episode it failed to say that the British had terrible tactical radio security. The Germans collected much intelligence from this. The Germans had special radio direction finding units that triangulated the locations of the British forces, including commando raids. Also, the Germans had broken the British codes. This is how they had two weeks advanced notice of one of the raids. In order to disguise this, they attributed the cryptography information to human spies.

Another thing not mentioned in the documentary was that SOE was riddled with Soviet agents. I suspect that this included the general in charge who in turn put Soviet agents in the top London management positions. Some of them defected to the Soviet Union after the war. Part of the Soviet agenda was to allow the Germans to kill off everyone who would have the capacity to fight against a Soviet take over of their country after the war. This would explain the numerous cases of apparent crass incompetence in London that are documented in this series. It also explains the crass incompetence that are white washed in this series such as doing nothing when there was hard evidence that all of the Dutch agents were captured.
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this is not a new story for me, i have it in a Reader's Digest collection of short stories on spies of ww2. i bought ALL of the videos offered and i am a huge fan. please make more and i am guilty of watching and re-watching certain ones that have color re-enactments with paratroopers and black and white footage of the actual people. thanks so much!!
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You could very easily make a motion picture from any of these stories. Hey Holloywood, if you are looking for ideas just view these stories and you could have a great screenplay and movie in no time about true stories most folks never knew existed.
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Format: Amazon Video Verified Purchase
So many tv shows with little new information now put out with the same bits of film seen hundreds of times. This was only slightly better than average. Some mistakes in labeling of film; Italians described as japanese is one example. Much too long for information given.
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The secret war takes a look at the British intelligent services during WWII and their role in infiltrating German facilities and communiques. It focus on the development and activities of spies and resistance movements, and focuses on particular individuals who made significant contributions to the allied cause, as well as those who made errors in judgment that cost human lives.
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FASCINATING, MAKES YOU WONDER WHY SCREEN WRITERS PRODUCE SO MANY POOR WORKS WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH INCREDIBLE NON-FICTION MATERIAL PRESENT IN HISTORY.
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While this DVD set is similar to the programs that originally aired on the Military History Channel (same scripts), the episode titles and narrator were different.These episodes were longer than the versions shown in the US which were edited to insert commercials into a 60 minute times slot. Unfortunately, with my player the format of the DVDs would not allow them to be played in color.

All in all the series is an excellent summary of the role and operations of the Special Operations Executive begun by Churchill to disrupt the Nazi occupation of Western Europe. The results were mixed. The Counter-Intelligence units of the Abwehr and Gestapo outwitted the SOE on several occasions leading to the deaths of many agents in concentration camps.
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