Andy Chatterton

Seven men in here for a fortnight under real pressure in here during the day.

No real light, just really, really grim stuff.

Really, really grim.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, yeah, imagine trying to get some sleep.

And it's so important for them to get sleep during the day because you're coming out every night to go on a mission, to go and blow up a convoy, to go and assassinate someone.

So you needed that rest.

But gaining rest in here must have been really difficult.

Because your window of operation was so small, we expect to be so small, just a fortnight, you had to go out every night to go and destroy something, to go and cause havoc.

If the Germans came to Mabe, you and your dad would have disappeared, you would have come here, and your mum wouldn't have any clue where you've gone or what you're up to.

You never told her?

Wow.

So we researched the auxiliary units, which we know were very much on the coastal counties, on the vulnerable counties to invasion.

But for years and years, we were getting information from all parts of the country saying, oh, my granddad or my grandmother was definitely in New York's units.

They were trained in unarmed combat.

They were trained in explosives.

They had hideouts where they were to come out and blow up German infrastructure.

But this was coming from Leicestershire and Nottingham and Liverpool and...

all over the country where we know absolutely there were no oxygen units, which was confusing to say the least.

And then in 2010, the official history of MI6 came out by a chap called Keith Jeffery.