Thank you for making this. The people were interviewed soon enough after they had participated in the SOE that it was interesting. Not just a couple of guys in their’90’s mumbling about the old days.

Unfortunately this is the only one I have I was backing up our old VHS tapes to DVD and came across this. It was originally broadcast back in 1984.

I find very few docs on the China India Burma Indochina theatre of World War II. Most overlooked and undermentioned theatre of year inspite of the bloodiest and brilliant battles. Thank you for this gem.👍

Thank you for doing the necessary work to share this with us. It's much appreciated.

A fantastic book by Freddie Spencer Chapman "The jungle is neutral" Odd, really, that the name Freddie Spencer Chapman doesn't figure higher up the roll call of great British heroes. In fact, you've probably never heard of him at all. Yet for three and a half years during the second world war, this unassuming adventurer-naturalist lived behind Japanese lines in the jungles of Malaya, blowing up trains, bridges and enemy soldiers, training local insurgents, battling malaria and starvation. And all the while, remarkably, he was also taking detailed notes on the local birdlife and collecting seeds to send back to Kew Gardens. "It's Ripping Yarns meets Charles Darwin,"

A very important documentary of Malayan history. Great viewing too. Thanks for uploading.

Fascinating documentary.Thank you for posting.

This is a forgotten part of SOE. Most documentaries focus on operations in ocupied Europe. Nice to see a change.

I never heard of this series, thanks an awful lot for posting it! I thought I was clicking about the SOE in Western war action, this is a treat!

What a Fantastic Documentary. Thank You for Posting this

Wish the whole series was posted here...it’s terrific!

Excellent! Absorbing and informative with plenty of human interest stories. Great accounts by actual British SOE personnel..

I'll second this! Thanks for sharing this w/ the rest of us! Cheers...

Many Thanks for this......interesting and educational.

Thanks for posting!

Superb documentary.

spencer chapman.. the greatest british soldier in malaya ever..

An absolute hero Freddie Spencer Chapman

I was seeking Operation SPENSER, and found this group- thank you

This is the best written doc I've ever seen on the subject of WWII in Asia. This, now becomes the paradigm to me of man's defining weakness as regards his inherent barbarism. The placement of means above motivations, even on a temporary basis is irresistible to those seeking power. At the same time, the motivations for having power are forever tainted by the betrayal (assuming there were ever any valid motivations in the first place). We lurch between that behavior and the petrified self preservation of the ruling classes like a food poisoning victim in dry heaves.

I hear Chapman was the subject of a 'This is Your Life' in 1964 but I can't find it on youtube.

..."and there were times where we didn't know or even think we would physically last another hour be we did and days on after that. There wasn't a choice. The mind and body is far more tolerant and capable than you can think it is or even imagine. The measure of time distorts in ways you cant show others or write in words. You can take them there but its not a place you can explain to them for them to go themselves."

And the show still goes on.

Brilliant

In the film Bridge on the river Kwai, Jack Hawkins says " I am from a rather odd outfit, called force 136 " At the time I thought it was some film fiction.....Little did I know how true it was and how brave and heroic they were.

It was broadcast as part of a series on BBC2 around 1988. I loved the series. Every part was great. If anybody has the rest of the series please upload.

Richard Broome is first identified at time-mark ~21:07. Later in the film Broome talks of rolling up and placing valuable documents for protection in a "French letter." That is an older, euphemistic term for what we now call a condom or rubber.

Excellent documentary !!! You see a lot on SOE in Europe but not the Far East.

I downloaded this Thank you for allowing England to be the carrier/battle ship of democracy ....

14:58 20108 Bunga Melati. First diesel loco class introduced in Malaya in 1957.

Check out the book "Between Silk and Cyanide" by Leo Marks for a wonderful history of the SOE by an insider.

I'm actually reading a book called tales from the special forces club and 2 chapters so far have been about soe , 1 lady called Noreen riols who spoke French and obviously was involved in training agents to drop into France. The next is about Leonard Ratcliffe who became the commanding officer of a squadron that flew agents into occupied Europe it was so secret they only accepted its existence in 2008. I'm only a few minutes into the documentary but I'm on a chApter now about Burma so find it appropriate to comment because although I'm 34 I find myself with role models all being from the 2nd world war and they are men and women alike. I'm sad to think that people are starting to look at what they did and sacrificed the way we think of battles in the middle ages........it happened but its resigned to history. It did happen and it is resigned to history but I for one will make sure at every chance I get young, old or new to the subject will hear a few stories I myself hAve read about what these incredible people did

Hahaha the monopoly and them putting up hotels on Mayfair had me laughing hard 😂 what an experience

Where has this series gone? I can't find it anywhere? Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle I watched this as a kid too.

A "We formed a Tight Scrum" Think of the game rugby and you will understand

Nancy Wake was the best Australian agent in France. Her book the white mouse is really worth the read

Beside gathering information from French resistance movement in France during the WW2, the British intelligence service, S O E ( Special Operation Executive), also recruited some Malays to be their inteligent agent to spy on Japanese strength in Malay Peninsula. They exploded some vital objects such as bridges, railroads etc. Some British S O E officers died in Japanese concentration camps.

Any more of these BarnbySmock?

Its a shame there aren't more ads😉

Is there an equal-quality documentary on SOE activities in Occupied Europe (that isn't History Channel produced in USA)? If so, please post link/redirect and if possible send me a message! Thanks so much!! :)

A lot to think about there

There was also an Eddie Chapman causing the Germans some problems in Europe at the same time. Another interesting character from WWII.

Historia pura y dura

as you all can see,you do not have to make sensational footage,like history channel use to do. just give the facts and be serious about it. much more intressting to look at then this american style of sensational manytimes inaccurat and shoutinglike comments .

what a terrific find! Do you have any more like this? Also when was this originally broadcast.

What is the deference between SOE and MI6?

The narrator, is he Lawrence Olivier? sounds like him..great voice great job.

Dear BarnbySmock! I liked this documentary but am looing for Part: These are the details: Question: do you have a copy for me perhaps? This is the sequence: SOE - Englandspiel Eight stories about the Special Operations Executive. Narrated by Michael Bryant 4: The Hague, 1830 hrs, Friday 6 March, 1942. German Security Police arrest a young, bespectacled Dutchman and trigger the greatest disaster in SOE's history. The Germans persuade the young man - SOE's first Dutch radio-operator - to transmit messages to London for them as if he were still free. So started the radio-game the Germans called the Englandspiel. It was to last two years, cost the lives of 54 agents and leave the Dutch resistance impotent. Three of those who survived the Englandspiel tell their tragic story. And so does the SS Sturmbannfiihrer who arrested them. Why did the 'game' last so long? How did it start in the first place? What went wrong? "More extraordinary ... than anything in Len Deighton or John Le Carre" (Daily Telegraph) "Fascinating viewing" (Times)

Comment below refers to the accompanying Toyota car commercial.

My name is actually soe

You would never be buried for using word 'Oriental' to describe someone from the, er, Orient. Or only, possibly, if a pc non-Oriental tried to bury you. Any actual Oriental person would not be offended by the phrase. I guarantee it. However, if you called a black person negro everyone would be up in arms. Apart from rap artists, perhaps.

Hold on this isnt shadows of evil

Is that Richard Burton narrating?

Interesting no mention made of the British traitor who had been demeaned and ridiculed by 'superior" upper crust officers for years in the army and gave the entire British military plans to the Japanese. He was eventually hunted down and killed on a waterfront in Singapore just before the Japanese entered the city after threatening to poison its water supply and thus forcing the surrender.

Great Men.

Just magic . Love the british ,dont get too serious!!! It was all Fun!!!! Do we still have that attitude? Who knows.

France was also happily subserving Herr Hitler at the same opportunity.

Before COD WW2 : 100,000 views. Later 1,000,000.

No doubt about it, that is Richard Burton narrating!

Dont feed the dog that bites

Pune and not Poona @22:57

The front end sports a large black ugly and cheap looking mesh grill, reminiscent of the maw of a huge bottom feeding sea creature. I wouldn't want to lookat this repellent creation in my own driveway every day but, on the other hand, some might say (such as the Toyota design team ) that it's so ugly it's cute.

Not interested in failures!!

"Oriental", LOL you'd be buried for using that word now. GREAT docu! :-) Tx to OP!

Killed 500 Jaops?! Don't think so!

British white flag.

Communists again, communists still...

A "We formed a Tight Scrum", ''Wireless", I wish the English would Speak it, so the rest of us can understand , Please !........

OPPAN GANGNAM STYLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I admire these men and women. We, in our current age are spoiled brats and gutless cowards compared to those who came before us. We should be happy to live and breathe. Sadly, due to the influence of Jews and socialists, our old England is gone.

Problem they are a Muslim country. Antonius vd klis

For me today, its very bad they are a Muslim country. Pity for the people now, who lives there, in that day's they did not see that was coming...

Thank you for this! I had no idea it even existed. I'm currently on my third reading of TJIN and to see the major players in the story is simply fascinating!

Historia pura y dura