Churchill's Secret Army
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trap doors under toilets, hidden radio rooms in the back of wardrobes, secret bases behind waterfalls....Dan investigates an extraordinary network of secret resistance cells set up during Britain's "darkest hour".
In the summer of 1940, Britain and its empire stood alone as the Nazi war machine stormed through Europe. Prime Minister Winston Churchill created something extraordinary: secret factions of men and women trained to wreak havoc behind the lines of an invading army.
Dan once again joins forces with Andy Chatterton from the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team, who are unearthing this incredible part of World War Two for another bunker hunt. What they find on this adventure is truly extraordinary.
You can learn more about Britain's secret resistance in Andy's book 'Fortress Britain 1940: Britain's Unsung and Secret Defences on Land, Sea and in the Air'.
With thanks to Chris Hale, Nina, Will and Martyn from CART, Andy Aust and Duncan Akers.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? |
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| 0:40.1 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history here. |
| 0:44.8 | Now, if you're a long-time listener to this podcast and why wouldn't you be, you may remember that back in the summer of 2023, my producer, Yanna and I went in search of hidden World |
| 0:51.5 | War II bunkers in the new forest near where I live. |
| 0:55.1 | These bunkers are so exciting. |
| 0:56.2 | They were set up in preparation for a German invasion. |
| 1:00.9 | So local British men would hide down those bunkers. |
| 1:05.9 | Once that invasion had taken place, they would lie in wait for the Germans. |
| 1:13.2 | They would then emerge at night and carry out acts of, well, ambush and sabotage and assassination to try and disrupt that German |
| 1:20.8 | invasion. They were called auxiliary units, and the men who served in them were Britain's |
| 1:25.8 | unassuming silent assassins. And in the vast |
| 1:30.6 | majority of cases, they took the secret of that service to their grave. And that meant they also |
| 1:37.0 | took the secret of the location of most of these bunkers to their graves. So now hundreds of those |
| 1:42.4 | bunkers lie hidden along Britain's coastlines, |
| 1:46.1 | particularly here in the south. It's difficult to say how many of them still exist. |
... |
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