Secret Army

Lifeline, a Brussels-based resistance organisation smuggling downed RAF fliers back to Britain, is endangered when Luftwaffe Major Erwin Brandt blows one of their safehouses. Meanwhile Brandt finds assistance from Gestapo Sturnbannfuhrer Ludwig Kessler, transferred from Berlin to crack down on the evasion lines.

Albert and Lisa continue to be suspicious of Curtis, whilst Lifeline is stretched to its limit trying to deal with several evaders. Meanwhile the Germans capture one evader, Sergeant Walker, who has travelled down the line and is familiar with several of Lifeline’s personnel.

The Jewish population of Brussels is being systemically deported according to colour-coded identification papers developed by the Germans. Curtis becomes involved with a Jewish family hiding out in the city and asks Lisa if Lifeline can help, but Lisa is unwilling to put the line, which is supposed to help RAF evaders not Jews, at risk. Curtis himself is still under suspicion by Albert, when Lisa’s uncle, bank manager Gaston Colbert, identifies Belgian banknotes he brought over from London as forgeries. Kessler obtains some of the notes, and realises that they are too accurate to be real and have been made by the Belgian treasury plates, which were evacuated to London before the German invasion. He believes that the notes will bring him closer to Lifeline.

An American airman has written a magazine article about his experiences being shot down in Europe and getting back home with the help of the evasion lines. British Intelligence has blocked the article’s publication, but Brandt has managed to obtain a copy from German intelligence based in America. Studying the article, he begins to deduce the probable route taken during the evasion and travels to the Pyrenees, where he enlists the aid of Malaud, a French policeman, to close in on the line. Meanwhile, Lisa is also in the area, taking some evaders down the very route Brandt is so close to tracking down.

The safety of Lifeline is at risk when Albert deduces that the Candide is being watched by a Gestapo spy, while Lisa continues to resent Curtis’ presence and his domineering take-charge manner. A wounded RAF evader, Finch, finds sanctuary with Hans Van Broecken, a Dutchman who lives on a barge with his wife Lena. Finch plans to desert the army and escape to Switzerland and finds a kindred spirit in Hans, who is in fact German and deserted during the First World War. Hans plans to take Finch to Switzerland himself on the barge, but Lifeline becomes involved when Lena receives a visit from her niece – Natalie. However, helping evaders escape to comfortable Swiss internment is not Lifeline’s purpose, and how can Finch be involved with Lifeline with the Candide under German surveillance?

Lifeline’s latest intake of evaders have been forced to leave a wounded colleague behind, hidden in a barn, but Lisa and Albert are unable to make a move due to heavy German activity in that area. The wounded evader, Sergeant Howson, is befriended and helped by a young boy, Jean-Paul Dornes, but Howson needs medical attention and Jean-Paul has to contact the resistance. Unfortunately, Jean-Paul’s mother Anna, who has raised him alone since her husband died in the fighting and is now involved with Emil Schnorr, a corporal from the local barracks, is sympathetic to the Germans.

Some months have passed, and Albert and Monique are preparing for the grand opening of the Restaurant Candide on Brussels’ Grand Place, financed by London to allow Lifeline to continue its activities. Lifeline also recruits a new forger, Max Brocard. Alain brings a British agent to the Candide with an urgent request from London: a Brigadier General with information on a major Allied offensive in North Africa (named in the programme as Operation Torch) has been shot down on his way to a top secret meeting and must be rescued at all odds. Natalie has already discovered the Brigadier and prepares to take him down the line. However, disaster strikes when a German soldier is murdered, and in retaliation, Kessler orders that twenty people are to be held hostage and shot if the killer doesn’t give himself up. The Brigadier is one of the hostages.

Dr. Keldermans visits the Candide with tragic news, and Albert must take decisive action if Lifeline is to continue. Meanwhile, Natalie has the difficult task of taking two eccentric Russian evaders down the line. Brandt dines with a high-ranking military acquaintance, Oberst von Elmendorff, who tries to recruit him in a military plot to assassinate Hitler, while Kessler invites Albert to a strange garden party.

Lifeline must work overtime when a heavy storm downs several British planes on their way back from a bombing raid on Berlin. Natalie comes into contact with Major Nicholas Bradley, a British officer on a special assignment, who is uncooperative and highly critical of Lifeline’s security when he follows her all the way back to the Candide. It seems that Bradley’s concern is well founded, as an undercover Gestapo man is also tailing Natalie.

Whilst dining at the Candide, Kessler becomes intrigued by Madeleine Duclos, an elegant but remote socialite. Meanwhile, Monique takes some airmen down the line and is shot and wounded when she becomes unintentionally involved in a smuggler’s attempt to evade a railway checkpoint. Recovering in a convent hospital, she is cleared of smuggling, but finds herself in more danger when the French police discover the train tickets she was carrying for the airmen and that her papers are false. Kessler sets out from Brussels to interrogate her, prompting Natalie, Alain and Max to stage a daring rescue mission.

Natalie’s new boyfriend, Francois, is keen to become involved in Lifeline, but Albert has doubts. Paul Vercors, the fanatical leader of a Communist cell in Brussels, wants to take over Lifeline, and tries to enlist the assistance of a colleague – Max. Meanwhile, the Communists continue their resistance activities and plant explosives on a railway line to derail a train. Unfortunately, the train’s passengers include Natalie and Francois, escorting evaders down the line.

Brandt receives a visit from his wife Erika, who asks him to let her and their children come to live with him in Brussels as it is becoming too dangerous to carry on living in Berlin with the increasing British air raids. Brandt tells Erika that his work in Brussels may soon be over, as he has successfully infiltrated Lifeline with an undercover agent. Word of this reaches the Candide, and Albert must face the grim possibility of killing all evaders currently in hiding to preserve the safety of the line. However, Max and Dr. Keldermans have an alternative plan to discover the identity of the infiltrator, but the scheme requires the assistance of Natalie’s uncle, Hans Van Broecken, who hates Albert and will not help Lifeline.

At Gestapo headquarters, Kessler takes an instant dislike to the newly arrived Luftwaffe Major Hans Dietrich Reinhardt, who has joined him in a final concerted attempt to crush the evasion lines. As the Allies continue to advance from the invasion beaches, Lifeline must continue their efforts in getting airmen back to Britain, but when Natalie attempts to guide two evaders down to Spain, it becomes clear that their work may at last be over.

Lifeline’s original function is now over – the Allied advance has severed the evasion lines and it is now a matter of keeping evaders safely hidden until the war is over. Despite Kessler’s irritation at Reinhardt’s manner and methods, his efforts pay dividends when he discovers a Lifeline safehouse. Two of his new prisoners commit suicide rather than talk, but Reinhardt is determined that the third prisoner will give information under torture. Albert and Monique receive a tip-off that the middle-aged Chantal sisters, who are based in Senlis and often shelter airmen for Lifeline, are in imminent danger.

An assassination attempt has been made on Hitler, and Kessler believes that Reinhardt is involved in the conspiracy. He begins to gather information that he hopes will provide his colleague’s guilt. Meanwhile, Albert becomes aware that the Communists are once more out to get Lifeline, and that he is their target.

Albert is imprisoned on trumped-up charges as part of a Communist revenge plot, and Monique is left to take charge of both Lifeline and the Candide. Alain discovers the existence of a false escape line set up by Reinhardt to flush them out and that one of their evaders, “Mad” Mike Miller, had previously been shot down and helped by Lifeline. Monique must make a difficult decision if she is to maintain Lifeline’s safety.

Still languishing in prison, Albert learns that he was set up by the Communist leader Paul Vercors. Meanwhile, Dr. Keldermans makes a shocking discovery when examining an evader at a safehouse – the man is dying of bubonic plague. Lifeline’s personnel face the horrifying possibility of being wiped out by the deadly disease.

Major Nick Bradley returns to Brussels to co-ordinate resistance activities whilst waiting for the Allies’ final push, and clashes with Monique over leadership of Lifeline. A tense time is in store for Lifeline when Alain is arrested, and Bradley decides to make a deal with a German officer to try to get him out of Gestapo headquarters. However, the officer demands one million francs in exchange for Alain’s freedom.