Alle afleveringen

De stoïcijnse Vera Atkins was vastbesloten om een netwerk van vrouwelijke agenten op te bouwen, Virginia Hall ontsnapte gewaagd uit Frankrijk, Mathilde Carré was een verraderlijke dubbelspion, Noor Inayat Khan was een moslimprinses die een onverschrokken radio-operator werd, de jonge moeder Yvonne Cormeau zocht wraak, en Yolande Beekman was een jonge kunstenares die spion werd. Te midden van geheime operaties, verraad en toenemend gevaar, trotseren ze de kansen, waarbij ze elk een ongeëvenaarde moed tonen - en sommigen betalen de ultieme prijs.

Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog werken vrouwen van alle achtergronden als spionnen: Krystyna Skarbek, de Poolse aristocraat wiens gedurfde heldendaden haar de titel 'Churchills favoriete spion' opleveren, Andrée de Jongh, het Belgische meisje wiens ambitieuze ontsnappingsnetwerk honderden geallieerde piloten zal redden, Josephine Baker, de glamoureuze zangeres wiens roem de perfecte dekmantel vormt voor haar anti-nazi-activiteiten, en bordeeleigenaar Kitty Schmidt, wiens door de nazi's gerunde etablissement zowel geheimen als genoegens biedt.

Many brave women defy societal norms and play a crucial role as spies during World War II. Australian Nancy Wake sacrifices her comfortable life to spy on the Gestapo, sisters Jacqueline and Eileen go undercover together but are torn apart by fate, Betty Pack makes her way through Europe and America, enduring more than just a broken heart to gather secret information. The sacrifices and contributions of each woman underscore their commitment to the Allied cause.

They are the heroines and villains of the story: Hannie Schaft and Truus and Freddie Overseegen are Dutch girls who decide to take a ruthless revenge attack in the face of the Nazi occupation, Velvalee Dickinson uses an ingenious method to thwart the American war effort, Zheng Pingru risks her life to hunt down a collaborator, mother of three Odette Sansom fights against the Nazis in France, Catherine Dior, the fashion designer's sister, leaves her mark with the Resistance and a perfume.

In occupied Manila, Claire Phillips was tasked with spying on Japanese soldiers in her nightclub. Peggy Utinsky and Naomi Flores joined the Filipino resistance movement to provide medicine and food to Allied prisoners of war. Yoshiko Kawashima, the Chinese princess, betrayed her country of birth to serve Japan, the country where she grew up. Betty McIntosh worked for a predecessor of the CIA and helped, among other things, to take action against Japanese soldiers. Peruvian Elvira Chaudoir served the British secret service as a double agent.

Joey Guerrero was a Filipino spy who suffered from leprosy and extracted important information from Japanese soldiers. Marie Madeleine-Fourcade worked for the French and British secret services; after the war she became a member of the European Parliament. The French agent Violette Szabo was exposed by the Nazis and died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Pearl Witherington was the only woman to command a network of resistance groups in France. Long before Julia Child became a cooking icon in the USA, she worked as an intelligence officer. Vera Schalburg, alias Vera Eriksen, a native Russian, spied for the German Abwehr. Her cover was exposed in England in 1940 and she was imprisoned, after which her traces were initially lost. In 2012 her story was made into a film (“The Beautiful Spy”). The German Ursula Kuczynski - code name: Sonja - joined the Soviet military intelligence service GRU during the Second World War.