Spy lands of Scotland: Would-be secret agents head north for training

DO today’s generation have the gung-ho grit needed to be a wartime secret agents?

A new TV series takes a group back to the days of the Second World War to see if they could survive life as an agent behind enemy lines.

And, just like the real thing, the modern day recruits were brought to Scotland for training.

They found themselves firing live ammo, learning to kill with their bare hands and sending codes that could keep fellow agents alive.

The only Scot taking part in Secret Agent Selection: WW2 says the mental toughness of the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE) trainees left him in awe.

In 1940 Winston Churchill approved the foundation of the SOE, to conduct espionage and sabotage in occupied Europe.

Their “anything goes” tactics led it to be known as the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The secret training regimes have only recently been revealed and it’s those which the participants in the five-part BBC2 series are put through.

All 14 were chosen to reflect the diverse range of backgrounds, ages and occupations of real SOE agents.

Alastair Stanley, 22, was doing a Masters in Computer Science at St Andrews when he was recruited.

“We were taken to locations where some of the real training happened,” said Alastair, from Edinburgh.

“We were out in the wilds with no real idea of where we were. We lived just as they would have, for four weeks.”

That meant wearing the same uniforms, sleeping in similar dormitories, eating the same rationed food and following the intense training programme.

The group faced a terrifying moment when an instructor appeared behind and them and fired a machine gun in the air.

“Our weapons training was quite a shock,” admitted Alastair.

“After just a couple of days we were firing real live rounds. It was very intense and there was lots of adrenaline. It was done like that just because of the pressure to get people out on the front as quickly as possible.

“The whole weapons and explosives side of things, including handling grenades, was quite exciting.

“We also learned how they were taught to disguise a bomb in a dead rat or animal dung in the road, like a landmine.

“Some inventions were incredible. We were shown a gun disguised as a pen – I had no idea the technology to make something so small but powerful existed back then.”

The new recruits also taught hand-to-hand combat, including how to kill using just their bare hands.

“It was hard to comprehend the decisions these agents would have had to make,” added Alastair.

“You had to try and imagine the atrocities their families and loved ones may have been facing.

“The constant pressure of never being able to rest, always looking over your shoulder must have been immense. Some did that for years on end and they must have been so mentally powerful.”

Secret Agent Selection: WW2, BBC2, Monday, 9pm.