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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:05,920 A puzzling web of corridors that appear to lead nowhere. 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:07,936 They're hardly noticed by the general public, but you can't 3 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:11,680 build an air force without them. 4 00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:16,480 A huge abandoned facility in a remote desert. 5 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:21,280 This was a hardcore military base, fully prepared to survive 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:23,800 all-out war. 7 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,880 Gigantic steel towers in an industrial wasteland. 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:33,040 They've not just changed western Pennsylvania, 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:37,560 but changed the world and helped build america's 20th century. 10 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:39,360 And a massive seven-tonne Cannon 11 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:43,120 left on the edge of an icy mountain top. 12 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:46,240 It was a real, if you like, war-winner 13 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,560 for the Italians and it was well worth bringing up here. 14 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,880 It still did its job and did it very well. 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,360 Once, they were some of the most advanced structures and facilities 16 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:07,040 on the planet, at the cutting edge of design and construction. 17 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:13,600 Today, they stand abandoned, contaminated and sometimes deadly. 18 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,440 But who built them, and how? 19 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,600 And why were they abandoned? 20 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,120 ♪ ♪ 21 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:46,280 Just outside London is a corrugated iron and concrete building. 22 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:48,080 It stands amongst the scattered 23 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,360 offices and workshops of an unremarkable industrial estate. 24 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,960 Would you expect to find mysterious 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,360 equipment and enormous wooden devices 26 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,520 almost within arm's reach of ordinary people, ordinary houses? 27 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:08,720 It's really astonishing. 28 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:16,920 The interior of this lopsided structure is initially mystifying. 29 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,880 Two huge circular apertures with gigantic propellers 30 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:27,840 lead to a vast concrete tunnel, 230ft long and 140ft wide. 31 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,120 Its incredibly smooth walls 32 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:35,320 are pierced by veins and hidden channels. 33 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,840 Yet it leads nowhere, simply looping back on 34 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:41,480 itself in a series of right angles. 35 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:47,320 The engineers constructing the 24ft-diameter tunnel 36 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:50,960 faced unforeseen problems that they hadn't encountered before. 37 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,680 The sheer size of it made it 38 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,600 quite difficult in terms of its construction, as well as operation. 39 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:01,560 What complex process was carried out 40 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:06,320 in this mammoth tunnel that made such technical features necessary? 41 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:10,800 And after so much effort, why was it abandoned? 42 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:27,120 In may 1933, Adolf Hitler created the reich 43 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:33,200 aviation ministry with former flying ace hermann goering at the helm. 44 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,080 This was a major step towards 45 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:41,080 the birth of Germany's new air force, the luftwaffe, in 1935. 46 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:46,120 To Hitler, aerial warfare was the future and soon, the full 47 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,000 weight of Germany's aviation industry was working towards 48 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,760 his program of rearmament. 49 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,720 With some of the best engineers in the world, they began designing a 50 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:57,720 new breed of aircraft. 51 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,760 Aircraft technology is transitioning 52 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:08,080 from olde-timey biplanes to what we think of as a modern aeroplane, 53 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,640 and the British government says, "we cannot allow the Germans to get 54 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,400 a technological edge on us." 55 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,160 As an aviation arms race developed, 56 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,000 the British set about building a high-tech research facility. 57 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:28,520 The farnborough wind tunnel. 58 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,200 This testing facility was designed to allow British engineers to study 59 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:37,880 aerodynamics and aircraft performance 60 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,400 with far greater accuracy and in more realistic conditions. 61 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:52,320 A wind tunnel is an absolutely essential part of designing 62 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,560 and building and testing aircraft. 63 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:03,960 Every element of the aircraft, that's on the outside, affects 64 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,200 aerodynamics, even things like the struts that hold the wheels, 65 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:10,320 or the way the flaps are designed. 66 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,040 So everything had to be subjected to these tests, and tiny, tiny 67 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:18,560 little variations can have massive impact on how an aircraft performs. 68 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,720 Creating this complex was an immense challenge. 69 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:36,680 Beyond its sheer size, every material and component, from 70 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,320 the giant propeller to the concrete walls, had to be carefully selected 71 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,920 and engineered to ensure optimum performance. 72 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,160 Kenny odgers is lead technician 73 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,440 and an expert on the facility. 74 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:57,920 We're looking at four years of construction 75 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,720 in concrete, asking the people to 76 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:03,240 work at tolerances, which I find quite frightening. 77 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:07,680 Every little feature in the tunnel had to 78 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,760 be perfect. The air flow had to be able to move past the walls. 79 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,440 You couldn't have little bolts sticking out. 80 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,640 The louvres had to be exactly right to straighten out the air flow 81 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:21,760 and not add new layers of turbulence. 82 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:28,960 In 1935, the 24ft wind tunnel went into operation. 83 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:34,760 Instead of using scale models, full-sized aircraft were suspended 84 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,800 between the arms of the tunnel so their aerodynamic performance could 85 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:41,880 be measured and faults corrected. 86 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:43,880 But the clock was ticking. 87 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:49,040 Germany's new prototype planes began breaking numerous world records, 88 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:52,440 demonstrating to the world their technological prowess. 89 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:56,480 In 1936, the junkers ju 87, 90 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:00,440 a dive bomber known as the stuka, was rolled out. 91 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,240 Soon after, it was the messerschmidt 109, 92 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:08,280 which would form the backbone of the luftwaffe's fighter force. 93 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:13,680 Through late 1939 and 1940, they played a devastating role 94 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,080 in the blitzkrieg tactics that crushed Western Europe 95 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,120 and forced the British army back across the channel. 96 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:24,936 Over the course of the second world war, the Germans make their 97 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:28,200 aircraft better and better. 98 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,960 And what's really important for the British is that the British 99 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,680 have gotta be able to improve aircraft ever so slightly 100 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:40,680 every minute of every day in order to defeat the Nazis. 101 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,640 At the centre of the wind tunnel, a giant 30ft propeller could blast 102 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:52,800 a 115mph jet of air across the gap between its two arms. 103 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:04,640 The mighty fan rotated at up to 250 revolutions per minute, 104 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,440 sucking in air, which span as it left the blades. 105 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,280 This turbulent air was then progressively smoothed as it 106 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:15,960 flowed through a series of straighteners and deflectors 107 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,000 around the rectangle's corridors. 108 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:21,360 At the end, it exited the tunnel's 109 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,520 jet toward the test plane as a smooth current of air. 110 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:31,680 At full whack, the wind was pushing around 4.5 111 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:34,440 million cubic feet of air, and when you think back over things that 112 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:37,800 were being tested, ok, everybody talks about the iconic aeroplane, 113 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:43,160 the spitfire and the hurricane, but we had the westland whirlwind, 114 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:44,960 a stirling, 115 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,440 then we had the hobby and we had a heinkel. 116 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:53,760 Testing German aircraft such as the heinkel 117 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,920 helped the British discover secrets of their technology. 118 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:03,680 By 1940, with the battle of britain raging in the skies, 119 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,336 farnborough continuously honed the performance of British fighter 120 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:11,680 aircraft, including hurricanes, and the iconic spitfire. 121 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,880 You'll start world war ii where the first models of the spitfire 122 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,240 have a two-blade propeller. 123 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:22,960 End of the war, 124 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,200 they have an adjustable pitch four-blade propeller. 125 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:29,960 An adjustable pitch propeller is one of the things that increases 126 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,960 aircraft climb and performance enormously. 127 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:39,080 And you can't develop propellers without a wind tunnel. 128 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:46,240 Engineers quickly identified and introduced new 129 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:51,040 aviation features that helped secure victory in the skies over britain. 130 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,480 Improved engine cooling and reduced drag gave British pilots 131 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,680 an edge in combat. 132 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,840 With the arrival of the famous Lancaster bomber in 1942, it was an 133 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:11,960 edge they would not relinquish through the rest of the war. 134 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,520 There's a process of the engineering of British 135 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:18,840 aircraft getting better and better, 136 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:22,640 while the Nazis are still trying to create 137 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:27,440 the miraculous super-weapon that is going to win the war for them. 138 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:33,680 And as a result, the Germans are tripping over their own attempts 139 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:35,400 to improve their technology. 140 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:43,440 The Nazis pressed for quantum leaps in aircraft design, including 141 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:44,680 jet-propelled aircraft, 142 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,520 to turn the tide of war back in their favour. 143 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,480 Meanwhile, the allies focused on incremental changes 144 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:56,600 and mass-produced proven aircraft. 145 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:00,560 Wind tunnel facilities such as farnborough played a pivotal role 146 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:04,560 in establishing air superiority over the luftwaffe and securing 147 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,400 victory in world war ii. 148 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:17,360 But with the dawn of the jet age, farnborough would gradually be 149 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:19,760 rendered obsolete. 150 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,120 Having a large tunnel being propeller-driven 151 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,680 wasn't as necessary because you could create high-velocity air 152 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:31,320 streams using jet engines, and that made an older style like 153 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,360 farnborough obsolete and basically doomed it to the history bin. 154 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:42,160 Finally, in 1992, its wind tunnels fell silent. 155 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:46,920 But today, it's designated an historic building. 156 00:11:54,680 --> 00:11:58,440 The heroic struggle fought by the raf in the skies over britain 157 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:04,640 during those pivotal months of 1940 is well-documented. 158 00:12:04,680 --> 00:12:07,880 Less well-known is the painstaking work 159 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:11,760 done by men and women at facilities like farnborough, 160 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,880 work that helped give the raf the tools they needed 161 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:17,640 to win the war. 162 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,000 The farnborough tunnels and the farnborough establishment 163 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:31,400 itself was an absolutely essential part of the British 164 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:34,600 military and war effort. 165 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:36,680 They're hardly noticed by 166 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:40,880 the general public, but you can't build an air force without them. 167 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:57,480 In the gobi desert around the Mongolian city of choir, 168 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:01,240 an empty landscape stretches unbroken across the horizon. 169 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:14,000 Yet 19 miles northwest of the city, a cluster of isolated strange grassy 170 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,600 mounds spring out of the barren steppe. 171 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:22,480 They're largely empty areas. 172 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,920 These were miserable places in the middle of nowhere. 173 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:36,160 Standing 30ft high and 80ft across, each of the 40 mounds is connected 174 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:40,800 to the next by a strip of concrete, overgrown with weeds. 175 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,680 Nearby, a two-mile-long roadway leads 176 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,800 off towards a range of low hills. 177 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:53,280 Most bizarre of all 178 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:58,400 are the rows of crumbling apartment blocks buttressing the background. 179 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,920 But why would anyone build a community in 180 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,880 this vast and remote wilderness? 181 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,440 And why was it abandoned? 182 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,440 In the years after world war ii, 183 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:22,400 China and the Soviet union had become firm communist allies. 184 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:26,200 By the 1960s however, diverging ideological 185 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:32,520 interpretations of marxism led to a breakdown in political relations. 186 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:36,000 This was exacerbated by disagreements over 187 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,880 how to coexist with the us and it developed into a potentially 188 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:43,000 disastrous border dispute. 189 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:47,680 Known as the sino-Soviet split, it brought the two mighty communist 190 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,040 powers to the brink of war. 191 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:57,680 The reality is that the communists in Russia and the communists 192 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,520 in red China, they couldn't agree on where to have lunch. 193 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:04,400 Much bigger than communism was the inbuilt rivalry. 194 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:09,600 As distrust grew, 195 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:13,800 military forces steadily built up along their borders. 196 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:21,880 Wedged in between the two adversaries 197 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:27,200 was the ussr's ally, the Mongolian people's republic. 198 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,080 As tensions Rose, this Soviet satellite 199 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:34,920 state found itself at the centre of a potentially explosive situation. 200 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,080 Mongolia is something of a 201 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:46,000 contested area and, in fact, this heated up back in the early 1960s. 202 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:47,720 It got to the point where there 203 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:53,040 were some serious, not just skirmishes, but actual battles. 204 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,480 The Soviets created the Mongolian people's republic 205 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:02,040 as a puppet state to buffer them against Chinese attack. 206 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:07,720 The Soviets are really concerned that, as China modernises, 207 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:13,800 as China grows stronger, that Russia and China will fight a war. 208 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,280 In response, the Soviet union deployed 209 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:23,080 hundreds of thousands of troops near the Mongolian border with China. 210 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,680 They were backed up by a formidable network of air power. 211 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,080 A key component was the bayantal air base. 212 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:42,800 This was home to the 126th fighter aviation regiment. 213 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:50,000 A huge new base designed to provide a first line of defence against 214 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:54,720 any Chinese attack on the Soviet union's satellite state, Mongolia. 215 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:02,880 This base is massive. The runway's two miles, 216 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,680 with hardened bunkers where they could hide their aircraft from even 217 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:09,280 the most serious aerial attack. 218 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,480 At the air base, there were 1,800 men, and the associated families 219 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,040 that were in charge of the aeroplanes, as well as 220 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,640 the maintenance and running of the facility. 221 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:23,120 This was a hardcore military base, 222 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:26,680 fully prepared to survive all-out war. 223 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:39,040 In 1970, red army engineers rapidly laid foundations in the vast expanse 224 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:41,200 of the Mongolian steppe. 225 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,320 In keeping with the secrecy that surrounded its construction, 226 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:52,960 the cost of this massive installation is still unknown. 227 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,880 Work at bayantal faced a number of unique challenges. 228 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:04,160 This was a long way from the typical Soviet air bases in Europe. 229 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,960 A whole town had to be built from scratch for the Garrison and their 230 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:13,600 families, with every last nut and bolt brought in from the ussr. 231 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,160 One thing the Soviets were really good at was building massive 232 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:23,400 infrastructure in the middle of nowhere. It would be difficult 233 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:27,200 to build a two-mile runway, you know, ten miles outside of Moscow. 234 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,520 Imagine doing it in the middle of nowhere, 235 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:34,120 thousands of miles away from your normal sources of supply. 236 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:39,760 What you see on this base is how much effort, 237 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:45,120 resources and money the Soviets poured into their defence system. 238 00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:50,920 In 1972, bayantal became operational. 239 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:55,480 Surrounded by anti-aircraft missile batteries and a network 240 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,560 of defence bunkers, the base was formidably well-protected. 241 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:05,760 Hidden within its blast-proof shelters was a deadly strike force 242 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:10,160 that included dozens of mig-21s and 23 fighter jets. 243 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,200 At the air base, there was a squadron of mig-21s, which, 244 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:19,640 at the time, was a top-of-the-line fighter interceptor, 245 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:23,480 so a supersonic jet that would deal with any airborne threats 246 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,480 that would come from the Chinese. 247 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,920 It's one of the ten great aircraft of the cold war. 248 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:37,280 The us encountered the mig-21 in the skies over north Vietnam, 249 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:38,960 where it was a formidable opponent. 250 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,160 It was fun to fly, fairly easy 251 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:47,440 to maintain, and the people that flew it liked it and trusted it. 252 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:55,160 While the aircraft were high-tech, conditions at the base were brutal. 253 00:19:55,200 --> 00:20:00,680 In the summer, temperatures reach 40 degrees celsius, while in winter, 254 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,920 the icy winds blasting across the desert steppe could bring 255 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,880 everything to a stop at minus 40. 256 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,440 The problems that they faced on base were both from a maintenance 257 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,400 perspective, keeping the machines 258 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,440 operational in the desert environment, as well as morale. 259 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:22,040 Keeping people motivated to live in such a stark and barren place 260 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,880 was quite a challenge. 261 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:27,520 Yet bayantal remained on a state of 262 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:32,680 high alert throughout the 1970s and '80s as tensions continued. 263 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:37,280 At this point, 264 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:43,040 China's interests are clearly opposed to Soviet interests. 265 00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:47,280 And as long as Chinese and Russian interests are opposed, 266 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,960 there is always going to be tension between Moscow and Beijing. 267 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,960 And that tension is gonna be stretched right across Mongolia. 268 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:04,240 Bayantal air base helped prevent China from taking direct military 269 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,200 action against the ussr and all-out war was narrowly avoided. 270 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:16,640 When mikhail gorbachev came to power in 1985, he made a determined effort 271 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:18,440 to ease tensions. 272 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:26,960 Just a few years later, in 1989, the Soviet union was collapsing 273 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,520 and bayantal no longer had the funds to be maintained. 274 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,000 This was not a country with a lot of money at the time. 275 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,800 It's part of the reason the Soviet union ultimately collapsed, was 276 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:43,720 the need to spend so many precious resources building and maintaining 277 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:48,200 this far-flung network of expensive military facilities. 278 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,440 And this base shut down, as did hundreds of others. 279 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:56,440 In December 1989, the bayantal air base was abandoned. 280 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:06,880 Today, this once-vital air base is a ghost town. 281 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,120 The base is largely abandoned now. 282 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:14,000 None of the structures are used for the original purpose. 283 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,800 Native people, the Mongolia, can be found on the base, but not 284 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,920 in the buildings themselves. They live in and amongst 285 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,056 the buildings, using them for shelter from the environments. 286 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,400 But largely, the buildings are completely empty 287 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,080 and abandoned. 288 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:35,160 Bayantal air base shows that nuclear armageddon could have started 289 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:39,760 not just in cold war Europe, or the United States, 290 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:45,000 but even in the vast desert wastelands of Mongolia. 291 00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:50,880 Like most military installations, this one was never used in war, 292 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,400 but that's not necessarily how you measure 293 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:56,800 the success of an investment in military infrastructure. 294 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:01,040 If it prevented a conflict, then it did its job as well. 295 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,520 On the other side of the planet, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 296 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:13,760 is a perplexing wreck of rusting metalwork. 297 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:27,000 A steel and concrete mass rises above the trees that grow along 298 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:29,440 the banks of the monongahela river. 299 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,240 It's really peculiar-looking and you're thinking it's some sort 300 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,160 of steam punk theme park. It's that weird. 301 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:45,120 When you first see the Carrie furnaces, 302 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,760 you're taken right back to an age of huge industrialisation, 303 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,160 with these enormous plants. 304 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,320 The scale of this unusual construction dwarfs nearby 305 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:01,320 buildings. 306 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:10,320 A mighty chimney soars 280ft high and a row of rocket-shaped silos 307 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:15,360 are flanked by two 110ft-high pipe-covered steel towers. 308 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,600 Connecting them all is a mid-air rail 309 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,240 line that seemingly leads nowhere. 310 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:28,160 When people first see these, 311 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,760 I think they're just struck by how big they are. 312 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:35,360 This crazy collection of pipes and tubes, and intricate plumbing 313 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,200 on a massive superhuman scale. It's kind of mind-blowing. 314 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,800 What exactly took place in this jumble 315 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,080 of pipework, concrete and steel? 316 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:51,960 And why was this gargantuan facility abandoned? 317 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,560 At the turn of the 20th century, an explosion in building 318 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:03,480 and transportation across the usa created huge industrial need 319 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,640 for steel. 320 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,240 Iron and steel were the backbone 321 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,840 of the development of north American infrastructure. 322 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,240 Every building, every highway bridge, 323 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,400 every car, every train, every ship 324 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:23,080 and tank, they all contained steel that came from Pittsburgh. 325 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:28,520 This was the birth of america, really, the industrial revolution, 326 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,120 the empire state building, the Brooklyn bridge. 327 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,320 Every city had its proud structures that came from this 328 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:39,080 dangerous, complicated process of producing steel. 329 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:46,160 This dangerous process involved the smelting of iron ore. 330 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,080 But not enough could be smelted to keep up with 331 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,320 the ever-expanding steel production. 332 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:58,160 Ron baraff is a director at rivers of steel heritage. 333 00:25:58,200 --> 00:25:59,896 He works to preserve the history of industry 334 00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,240 and steel in western Pennsylvania. 335 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:09,000 They made iron that not just changed western Pennsylvania 336 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,200 but changed the world, and helped build america's 20th century. 337 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,160 Us steel came up with a solution to the bottleneck. 338 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:21,440 These are Carrie furnaces 6 and 7. 339 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:25,440 The extraordinary towers 340 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,520 were designed to produce more iron for the production of steel. 341 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,760 Really what you're doing is melting rocks. 342 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:39,120 It is a manmade volcano that is reducing three basic ingredients. 343 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,280 Iron ore, 344 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:46,760 coke - which is coal that's baked and is carbon - and limestone. 345 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:51,040 And you're subjecting it to an immense amount of heat and reducing 346 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:52,880 it down to iron, which is then 347 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,120 transported from this site across the river and converted into steel. 348 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,640 These furnaces were purposely built near Pittsburgh. 349 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,200 This was because of the extensive 350 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,760 natural deposits of coal that exist in 351 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,000 the nearby appalachian basin. 352 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,920 In that part of america, you have a lot of structures in the earth's 353 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,320 crust, which have brought coal, 354 00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:23,840 have brought limestone and have brought iron ore 355 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:28,760 close to the surface, and you need those three things to make iron. 356 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,520 Building began in 1906. 357 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:43,080 It was no easy task creating these 90ft-tall combustion chambers. 358 00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:44,800 Made of 2.5-inch-thick 359 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,800 steel plate, they are lined with thousands of bricks capable of 360 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:53,640 withstanding temperatures of almost 2,000 degrees celsius. 361 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:02,560 A system of counterbalanced cars was designed to carry tonnes of ore, 362 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,400 coke and limestone up an inclined ramp 363 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,680 to be emptied into the furnaces. 364 00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:14,320 We can think of the furnace as, like, a giant test tube with a big 365 00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:16,000 bunsen burner underneath. 366 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,320 We're adding in the chemicals to make the reactions to get 367 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:23,880 from a solid rock with iron in it, to liberating free iron as a metal. 368 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:28,800 And we do that by reacting the iron with the coke, to free the iron, 369 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,720 and we also add calcium to get rid of all the silica. 370 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,320 All of this is happening in mid-air. 371 00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:39,280 Suspended in mid-air, this big push of air up, 372 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,840 material coming down, the coal burden coming down, being heated, 373 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,320 and the iron rains out. 374 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:52,160 In 1907, the new furnaces began operating. 375 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,520 The process of emptying the white-hot iron 376 00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:56,200 from the furnaces and into 377 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,440 the waiting rail cars made for hazardous working conditions. 378 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,240 This was not a job for the faint-hearted. 379 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:07,400 This is a tap hole here behind me. 380 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,200 It's a Clay plug that's drilled out. The drill's right in front 381 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,840 of me here, so it drills through, the iron starts 382 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,616 flowing, iron goes down this runner and through a hole in the floor. 383 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,800 Then hopefully, stationed directly 384 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:23,000 below that hole in the floor is a bottle car or ladle car. 385 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:25,960 Fatalities were high. 386 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:27,880 Injuries were extremely high. 387 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,000 Fatigue was always a problem. 388 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:32,520 You know, working in these plants, especially early part of 389 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:37,280 the 20th century, you were an old man if you were in your 40s. 390 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,520 It would eat you up and spit you out. 391 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,320 During the American 20th century, 392 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:57,080 furnaces 6 and 7 proved a phenomenal success. 393 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:02,080 Each producing up to 1,000 tonnes of hot iron every day. 394 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,080 In 1910, 60% of 395 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,640 the usa's entire steel output was coming from Pittsburgh. 396 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,720 And Carrie furnace was particularly efficient, 397 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:14,880 thanks to its hot metal bridge, 398 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,200 which took molten iron straight 399 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,000 to the heart of the homestead steel works across the river. 400 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,440 This helped production keep up with spikes in 401 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,320 demand for steel in war time. 402 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,520 During world war ii, 180 tonnes 403 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,040 of molten iron were shipped across the bridge every single hour. 404 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,360 At its height, and you're looking 405 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,880 second world war on, these furnaces alone, 406 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,520 just this complex of furnaces, were outproducing Great Britain. 407 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:45,880 You know, the Pittsburgh region 408 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,680 was outproducing all of the axis powers together. 409 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:53,400 This region gained the moniker of the 'arsenal of democracy'. 410 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:58,560 This was the heart of america's industrial might. 411 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:00,440 But as the years went by, 412 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:04,360 the way the furnaces operated became increasingly outdated. 413 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,320 It was incredibly dangerous, absolutely incredibly dangerous. 414 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:15,600 The force of the pressure inside this furnace, the amount of gases 415 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,880 that are in there... 416 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,560 It is a constant balancing act. 417 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,560 You have too much pressure build up in these vessels, they can explode. 418 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:29,280 It requires team work, it requires everyone being on that same page, 419 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,360 and understanding that they're trying to tame a volcano. 420 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:40,200 By the 1970s, demand for iron from the Carrie furnaces had dropped off. 421 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:41,896 Even more seriously, this early 20th-century 422 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:47,280 technology was raising serious concerns about safety. 423 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,880 This is heavy industry we're talking about. 424 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,480 The conditions for the men working at the Carrie furnaces would have 425 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,520 been like working in hell. 426 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:03,480 Extremely hot, you're working around molten iron. 427 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,400 Soot in your face, the fumes. 428 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,856 Just the heat, the oppressiveness of that environment would have been 429 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:13,680 unbelievable and the risk of injury or even death 430 00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:15,680 were all around you, all the time. 431 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:21,560 You had these high temperatures, toxic fumes, dangerous work that 432 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,600 required a lot of skill. 433 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,040 This was work for very, very tough, motivated people. 434 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:33,440 In 1978, time ran out for the two giant furnaces and their fires 435 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:38,640 were extinguished for good, leaving the site abandoned. 436 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:46,880 The rest of the Carrie works around the region were deemed too dangerous 437 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:48,440 and contaminated. 438 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,320 So they were all demolished. 439 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,040 Furnaces 6 and 7 however, still survive. 440 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:06,400 Designated a national historic landmark in 2006, they are now 441 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:08,840 a local tourist attraction. 442 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:18,840 Where we're standing, in 1907, this was the high tech of its day. 443 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:23,160 And, you know, it's the building of america's 20th century. 444 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,560 It happened in places like this. 445 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,000 Across the Atlantic ocean 446 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,000 in the Italian alps, the cresta croce Ridge 447 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:45,600 sits 10,000 feet above sea level, amongst the rugged mountain tops. 448 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,800 On the brink of an almost vertical cliff 449 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:58,240 stands an 11ft Cannon. It's supported by a steel cradle 450 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,600 and two huge wooden spoked wheels. 451 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:08,800 The idea people could move something so massive on top 452 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:13,000 of a mountain so high 453 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,840 really is a testament to what humans can do. 454 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:22,960 There is no doubt about the purpose of this 455 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,280 six-tonne steel Cannon. 456 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,320 More of a mystery, however, 457 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:31,680 is why it's perched here on this barren mountain top. 458 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,560 If I came across an old Cannon like that in the middle of the Italian 459 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:42,480 alps, I would be utterly amazed, because how did this get there? 460 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:46,040 And why was it abandoned to this icy wilderness? 461 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:53,840 Since its formation in 1871, 462 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,360 the nation of Italy had been attempting to build up 463 00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:04,240 its army and Navy to protect itself from their chief adversary, Austria. 464 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:10,440 In 1915, Italy entered world war I, taking up the allied cause against 465 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,160 the austro-Hungarian empire. 466 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,840 For Italy, it was a war of barbed wire, machine guns and, above all, 467 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:24,400 heavy artillery along the northern border in the Italian alps. 468 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,480 The Austrians had, for centuries, dominated Italy, 469 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:30,960 along with the French. 470 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:32,896 And what the Italians see in the first world war 471 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:38,560 is those Austrians coming across the passes yet again, 472 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:45,000 to try to dominate the country that the Italians had only just built. 473 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,160 And the Italians had to stop it. 474 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:55,520 In 1916, there was a critical danger that Austrian troops would breach 475 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,600 Italian mountain defences and break through what was then the border 476 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:04,560 between Italy and Austria, just by the cresta croce Ridge. 477 00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,360 The artillery piece was the prime 478 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,520 killing weapon of world war I, and Italy's success in defending 479 00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:16,880 this mountainous border would hinge on its effective use. 480 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:20,200 You would never beat the Austrians 481 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:24,600 unless you got heavy artillery up into the mountains in Italy. 482 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,840 One or two guns will dominate a large amount of territory 483 00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:33,520 in a mountain terrain. 484 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,560 The Italian army, however, 485 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:41,760 was desperately short of modern heavy guns. 486 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,760 The only solution available was an outdated gun from 1888. 487 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,200 The 5.9-inch g-model Cannon. 488 00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:00,480 Nicknamed 'the hippopotamus', it was designed to fire a 60lb shell 489 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,800 over a distance of six miles. 490 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,000 Easily outranged by more modern guns, 491 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:12,360 it was all that Italy had available to defend its borders in 1916. 492 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:24,840 When you needed fire support, you wanted not small mountain guns 493 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,400 that you could transport on the back of a donkey - everybody had those. 494 00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:30,200 You needed heavy artillery. 495 00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:38,280 On 9 February, 1916, 496 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:42,440 the hippopotamus Cannon arrived in the valley below. 497 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:50,000 It faced a daunting journey up the mountains near the town 498 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,160 of passo del tonale. 499 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,320 If the town was captured, Austrian troops would have 500 00:37:55,360 --> 00:38:00,000 a clear run to the vital manufacturing city of Milan. 501 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:05,440 The gun had to be sited on a Ridge blocking the Austrian advance. 502 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,640 With no roads and the mountains covered in deep snow, 503 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:14,520 the only option was to manually haul the 6.6-tonne Cannon thousands of 504 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,640 feet up the mountain, in temperatures of 20-below. 505 00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:27,800 Well, as an engineer and as an amateur mountain climber, the idea 506 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:32,040 of taking a Cannon and hauling it up is almost impossible 507 00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:36,680 to imagine, because of the weather and the snow conditions, 508 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:39,960 and just the absolute misery that those men had to go through. 509 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:49,240 Professional mountaineer Cain Olsen is visiting the Cannon 510 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:53,320 to better understand exactly what those men went through. 511 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,200 To imagine, you know, 18-year-old, 19-year-old kids, 512 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:03,240 you know, hundreds of them, to get this up here in lots of 513 00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,680 snow, from a mountaineering point of view, it's incredible. 514 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,160 Freezing temperatures weren't 515 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:15,240 the only obstacle faced by these young soldiers. 516 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:21,480 During the gruelling march upward, they were twice buried by avalanche. 517 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:25,400 Members of the tow team were killed. 518 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:29,080 Yet the mountain troopers and artillerymen had to 519 00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,960 dig out the Cannon and continue the long haul. 520 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:37,240 Now, the friction capacity of snow is very much a function of 521 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:41,640 the weather conditions, so cold, dry snow is almost like sand. 522 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,240 So imagine dragging a heavy weight 523 00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:46,960 through a sand dune, where wet, sticky snow is almost like mud. 524 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:48,720 And so 525 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:52,360 there's really no great way to drag a heavy weight through snow. 526 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:59,000 Despite this, after 78 days of incredible effort, 527 00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:02,920 the Cannon arrived at its first firing position. 528 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:05,720 But the initial location proved problematic. 529 00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:13,560 The Austrians were positioned on that Ridge over there. 530 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,920 And from its original position, the Austrians were just a bit too 531 00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:23,320 far away, so that's why they had to then move it over onto cresta croce 532 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:27,120 and from cresta croce, they could easily hit the Austrians. 533 00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:35,200 Italian artillerymen faced yet another problem, as historian 534 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:38,240 David Caldwell-Evans has discovered. 535 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:41,480 There's virtually no recall mechanism on this gun. 536 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,120 When you fire it, it's gonna slam straight back 537 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,296 and there's nothing you can do about that, other than 538 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,040 try and stop the roll back. 539 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,600 Each wheel had a wooden wedge behind it, and when it fired, 540 00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:57,080 the wheel would rock back up, come up the wedge, and then slide 541 00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:57,960 back into position again. 542 00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,920 That was the only way they had of stopping it, 543 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,640 basically recoiling straight off the back of the mountain. 544 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:08,880 Austrian troops were stunned to find themselves under bombardment by 545 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,240 a Cannon twice the calibre of their own mountain artillery. 546 00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:15,000 Shelters dug deep 547 00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:20,000 into the ice, snow and rock were pulverised by the enormous shells. 548 00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:24,160 It not only stopped the Austrian advance in this sector, 549 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:29,760 but went on to provide covering fire for Italian counter-attacks. 550 00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,360 This was the largest-calibre gun 551 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:36,640 at high altitude anywhere in the first world war. 552 00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:39,040 The Austrians had nothing to compete with it. 553 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,440 So, although it was obsolete, although it was well past 554 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:44,320 its sell-by date of world war I, 555 00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,496 it still was bigger than anything else up at this altitude. 556 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:50,960 What this gun is doing really is saturation fire. 557 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:57,520 For two long years, the battle above the clouds ebbed to and fro. 558 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:02,960 The two sides simply battered each other and, of course, 559 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:09,000 the mountain positions gave you a very important advantage. 560 00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:15,600 In 1918, Italian troops stormed forward with the help of the g-model 561 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,720 gun atop cresta croce Ridge and drove the Austrians back 562 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:21,240 for good. 563 00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:28,200 When world war I came to an end, 564 00:42:28,240 --> 00:42:32,040 the obsolete hippopotamus was simply abandoned. 565 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:40,720 Today, the surviving heavy guns 566 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:46,880 of world war I are gathering dust in museums across the globe. 567 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:52,080 Yet the extraordinary hippopotamus still stands where it fired its last 568 00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:53,920 epic shots. 569 00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,480 It was a real, if you like, war-winner 570 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:03,240 for the Italians, and it was well worth bringing up here. 571 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:05,760 Although it was out of date, although it didn't compare with 572 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:07,520 more modern guns 573 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:11,320 in use in France, it still did its job and did it very well. 574 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:19,320 The story of the cresta croce Cannon is a reminder that a decisive weapon 575 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:20,936 doesn't have to be technologically advanced, 576 00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:24,840 it just has to be in the right place at the right time. 577 00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,256 Now abandoned, they were once on the cutting edge 578 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:45,080 of human engineering. 579 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:50,480 Within these decaying structures are the echoes of history. 580 00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,880 They speak of war and terror, 581 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:56,320 but also of exploration and human endeavour. 582 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,480 Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV 52045

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