All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S05E02.The.Valkyrie.Assassin.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom voiceover: An
underground compound

that symbolises the
terrors of the cold war.

To even get an idea of
the immensity of this place

you really have
to get down there.

It will blow your mind.

A pioneering complex
that played a central role

in a famous world war ii plot.

It's rare to be sad
about a death averted,

but in this case,
I think we can be.

A remote and desolate
landscape with a mysterious history.

As they started digging way,

they found bodies
that showed evidence

that they have been murdered.

And ruins on a beautiful
Caribbean island

that speak of a turbulent past.

This is the centre of a
struggle over something

worth a great deal.

Decaying relics
ruins of lost worlds.

Forged by years of toil,
but now haunted by the past.

Their amazing secrets are
now waiting to be revealed.

(Theme music)

In a remote part of
Washington state in the usa,

miles from the nearest town
lies an extraordinary secret site.

The area now is
desolate with barren land

and a junk yard all around

with rusting buses
and old metal work.

There aren't a lot of people,
there's not a lot going on.

So, if you wanted to hide something,
it would be a good place to do it.

You have some bare
farm land far from anything.

There are these
large concrete pads,

there are these
structures in the ground

that you can't quite place.

Something here
is a bit different.

Large iron doorways
leading down staircases.

Something else clearly
once happened here.

The site gives
very little indication

of what it is that's
underground.

To find out, you
have to investigate.

To do that you have to
go very deep underground.

This is clearly highly
engineered structure.

And the fact they put
so much underground

indicated they must have
had a really good reason

not to just build and
build it on the surface.

It's completely dark underground

with rusted tunnels
leading off into the darkness,

giving the impression
that the site is far larger

than the human eye can see.

If you want to actually
find out what's there,

you need somebody to get
their scuba suit on and go on in.

With so much
water in the tunnels,

it begs the question
whether this was the cause

of the end of
operations at this site.

Scuba diver Jim brockus
has spent many years

exploring this intriguing place.

So, if you're looking
for clues to what this site

and this area actually was,

you really don't have to look
any further for the biggest clue

because I'm standing on it.

These are actually
two very large doors.

They weigh 125
tonnes for each half.

So, you imagine the
size of these doors

what it would
take to lift them up.

This structure is something
enormously engineering

that was behind all of it

and the capabilities
to build something out

in this remote area
of this magnitude.

It just makes your mind spin
of what could this possibly be.

So, why put all this engineering
in the middle of nowhere?

The answer lies

in the cold war
politics of the 1950s

when the United States
and the Soviet union

seemed to be on the
brink of a nuclear war.

The threat of the cold war

was real and very frightening.

America had never been
in this position before

with the spectre of annihilation
seemingly round every corner.

The logic of nuclear weapons
is absolutely terrifying.

There was this crazy logic

called mutually assured
destruction, mad.

The only way to really be safe

was to convince your opponent
that even if they hit you first,

you could still strike back
and wipe them off the map.

The us needed a weapons program

that would act as a deterrent
against Soviet aggression.

And with Soviet ground
forces growing in numbers

along the border region
of Western Europe

time was running out.

Once the Soviets
acquire nuclear weapons,

deterrence for the
west is absolutely central

because the western forces
are vastly outnumbered.

Their answer was
to build a weapon

that had the power to
destroy an entire nation.

The titan missile.

These rockets was
state-of-the-art technology.

It was the sort that
NASA was using.

They had a range of 6,000 miles

and reach speeds of up to
25 times the speed of sound

by the time the
engine is cut out.

But to be able to strike back,

you would first need to
survive an initial attack.

That was the purpose
of this hidden facility.

The Larson airbase,
titan I, missile silo.

Well, right now, we are
about 40 feet underground.

To even get an idea of
the immensity of this place,

you really have to get
down there and see the size

of those launch tubes

and the other supporting
structures that are down there.

It will blow your mind.

Today, much of the
facility lies under water.

When you get to the launcher,

you will be on the
service elevator

and the service elevator
is permanently stuck

at the top of end
of the missile,

which is where it
was frozen to place

from the water
and lack of service.

And that's what you step
off of when you begin to dive.

That's really where
you see the enormity

of the launch tubes themselves.

You look overhead

and you see those
launch doors are closed,

125 tonnes a piece.

The site has
three of these silos.

The three silos were
all linked by tunnels

containing living
quarters, a medical centre,

and most crucially a
command and control centre.

And these were all
centred around the missiles

to maximise the speed

with which they could
be got ready and fired.

So, we are in a control room,

this is definitely the
heart of the facility.

The control systems in
this room control the fuelling,

the liquid oxygen,
the rocket propellant,

the whole launch sequence.

The raising of the antennas
because those also had to be done,

and the initialisation
of the countdown,

which we have to
remember took 15 minutes

from the time that
they hit the go button.

The men with the
controls at their fingertips

had the power to unleash
a nuclear holocaust.

One tiny mistake would have
had catastrophic consequences.

There would always be
probably six people in here.

They were very isolated,
very lonely, I'm sure,

but they were probably
a real close group

with the other four or
six guys that were here.

I mean they were family,

but at the same time

they were gonna
take it very serious.

But they knew if they
were called into service,

it might be the last
service they ever do.

The base was on high alert

24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

It was just one of hundreds of
similar sites across the country.

Titan wasn't the only program
the Americans were running,

simultaneously, they
were also developing

the atlas program.

And this was an indication of
just how desperate they were

to make sure they
had the best technology

at any given moment.

But why go to all the
effort to Bury these missiles

so far underground?

You put missiles
deep in the ground

with massive armoured covers
and concrete around them.

And unless you
score a direct hit

on that complex,

that is going to survive.

And if it survives
a nuclear strike,

then you can fire
your retaliation.

That's what they
were gambling on.

That enough missiles
would survive an attack

that we could then open
up the silos and launch back.

However, putting
everything underground

caused some serious problems.

One key danger was
that the ground water level

at the site was high

and the water had to
be pumped continuously

to keep it out of the system.

Technologically, it's a
simple problem to solve,

but looking around
at the flooding today

its clear quite how
catastrophic it could have been

if it had gone wrong.

Water was not the only
danger the silos faced.

Storing hundreds of tonnes
of highly flammable rocket fuel

was also fraught with risk.

Fuelling the missile is
a very complex process

and it's very, very dangerous.

And if you make
the slightest mistake,

it can be very, very fatal.

Fortunately for us all,

the missiles here
were never launched.

In fact, it was only
active for three years

before it was abandoned.

But why?

This period with
the titan missiles

didn't last that long.

Ultimately, they
designed better missiles,

more reliable that didn't require
these dangerous liquid fuels.

So, the program was
actually being phased out

by 1965.

Today, the site is
abandoned and alone,

but its cold war history
is a valuable reminder

of the reasons it was built.

Looking back it seems so insane.

We spent hundreds
of billions of dollars

on these missiles in
holes in the ground.

The Soviets pretty much
wrecked their economy

trying to keep up in
building their own missiles,

and yet in a perverse
way it worked in a sense

that we never had a major
war either nuclear or non-nuclear

during that entire
period of the cold war.

South of Germany's
capital Berlin

is a former celebrity hangout

and the birth place
of a deadly plan

that nearly changed the
course of human history.

You come upon this site

and it is surrounded
by farmlands, fields

with some broken
tarmac around it.

It's got these big
cavernous buildings.

The design is clearly
meant to incorporate

all of the most modern materials

of mid-20th century technology.

This has to have some
kind of important purpose.

Here we have a building

that has got very
few internal supports,

very high roof, thin walls.

The building is designed
so that you can build

very big things inside.

There are some things
here that don't quite add up.

What explains the
mysterious graffiti inside?

Inside there are defaced
with all kinds of graffiti

in multiple languages,
especially Russian.

And that, of course,
begs the question

why are these buildings
in the heart of Germany

filled with Russian graffiti?

The 1930s saw the dawn of a
new era of human achievement.

It was a time when the skies
were quite literally the limit.

The 1930s is really
the golden age of flight.

At this time, pilots
were celebrities,

they were
adventurers of the sky.

You've got Charles Lindbergh
making the transatlantic flight

in the spirit of
st Louis in 1927,

then in the early 30s
you've got the flights

of Amelia earhart
and italo balbo.

And we are seeing
European and American flyers

crossing the Atlantic,

expanding the boundaries of
flight more and more and more.

The heart of all this
was here at rangsdorf.

It was originally home to the
buka aeroplane manufacturer,

who were renowned
around the world

for building and
testing sports planes.

Knut hentzschel is
a historian of the site.

Rangsdorf was very
popular among the pilots.

Many famous people trained
at the flight school in rangsdorf.

Even the famous ocean
pilot Charles Lindbergh visited.

So, this is a place
that's not far from Berlin.

And in the early 20th century,

the most exciting
thing you could do

was learn how to fly a plane.

And people with money
would come from Berlin

and they would get
their flying lessons here.

But the onset of the war
in 1939 changed all that,

as events began to
take a more sinister turn.

The Germans were banned
by the treaty of versailles

from having any
offensive weapons.

So, they weren't allowed
to have heavy artillery,

they weren't allowed
to have tanks,

they weren't allowed
to have submarines,

they weren't allowed
to have big battleships,

and they weren't
allowed to have aircraft.

So, the German government
encourages private individuals

to join flying clubs
and learn how to fly.

And the German government
encourages companies

to build private
planes for people

who want to learn how to fly.

And they would have these
sport airports like rangsdorf,

where flyers could
practise flying

and say they were doing it
for sport not for military use.

But meanwhile this was
basically the seeds of the luftwaffe.

Rangsdorf was at the
very heart of the subterfuge.

A visitor today would note
that it looks very different

to a modern airport
in one key respect.

Unlike today, when every airport

has one or more
runways made of concrete,

planes started and
landed on grass.

At that time the
engines were quite weak,

so they always had to
start against the wind.

The round shape of the airfield

allowed planes to take
off in every direction

wherever the wind came from.

Once war broke out,

there was no longer any need
for the cloak and dagger approach.

Along with most of
industrial Germany,

rangsdorf was commandeered
for the Nazi war effort.

Inside these hangers it
was now military planes

that were being built
and not civilian aircraft.

We are standing here

in front of the so-called
special building.

This building was built
especially for war production.

The aircraft parts

that the Germans built
at the rangsdorf airfield

using foreign prisoners of war

were for some of the
most important planes

in the German arsenal,

like the stuka dive bomber,
like the focke-wulf fighter.

We are in the final assembly
hall where planes were assembled.

The aircraft stood very
close together, side by side.

The engines were installed, the
wings were mounted and finally,

the aircraft were weighed.

Here you can see the
remanence of the aircraft scale,

where the centre of
gravity was measured.

After they were done
with the measurements,

the big hall gates
were pushed open

and the planes were
driven out to the field.

The parts and planes
made here were vital

for the German war machine.

So, it's ironic that a place
so crucial to the rise of Hitler

was to play an important part
in the famous plot to kill him.

The airport really
cemented its place in history.

On July 20th 1944,
when a high ranking officer

named claus Von stauffenberg

boarded an aircraft to fly

to Hitler's high command
post for an important meeting.

He carried with him a
briefcase with two bombs.

Von stauffenberg was
one of the leading members

of a plot to kill Adolf Hitler

and remove the
Nazi party from power.

The d-day landings had convinced
the plotters that the war was lost

and that only the
death of the fuhrer

followed by an immediate armistice
could save Germany from total ruin.

As early as 1943

Von stauffenberg had
written a list of demands

to which the allies
would have to agree

for an armistice to happen.

It's hard to imagine
them doing so,

but the plot gathered
pace anyway,

driven on by Von stauffenberg.

When he arrived at the meeting,

he found an excuse
to go off to the toilet.

He armed the bomb, he
came back and put it in position.

When stauffenberg leaves
Hitler's bunker in rastenburg,

hears the explosion,

assumes that Hitler
is gonna be dead

'cause he placed
his briefcase bomb

essentially Hitler's
feet under the table.

Unfortunately, for Von
stauffenberg the briefcase

and bomb were moved
behind a heavy table leg,

which took most of
the force of the blast.

Hitler was wounded
but he survived.

The July plot had failed.

We still have the
original flight order

documenting his return flight.

Stauffenberg
landed in rangsdorf,

probably not knowing

that the assassination
attempt had failed.

Eventually, stauffenberg
and all the other plotters

are rounded up and
brutally executed.

Some shot, some
tortured, interrogated,

and then hung on meat
hooks to die a slow deaths.

And Hitler watches the
videos of those executions.

The war dragged on for a
further bloody year and eventually,

rangsdorf would
have new occupiers.

But who were they?

The place was vacated
in late April 1945,

the next day the Soviet
army took over this airfield

and also flew their
attacks on Berlin.

The Soviets were great
at taking over infrastructure

and putting it to new use.

So, they took over the
manufacturing facilities

and used it to build engines,
specifically jet engines.

They built helicopter pads

so they could use it as a
base for helicopter operations.

And they occupied the
airport for many years.

Following the reunification
of Germany in 1990

the Soviets left rangsdorf for good
and the airfield was left to decay.

Today, rangsdorf stands
empty and forgotten,

but its important place in
20th century history is assured.

We look at a lot of Nazi sites

and we see a lot of
darkness and evil and despair.

And it really means something

when we look at this airfield

to think about the
small number of people

who had the moral courage

to put their lives on the
line to stop the darkness.

Deep in a remote
corner of Colorado,

usa is a remarkable landscape

that was for decades
forgotten and unexplored.

The environments
have really remarkable,

topographical feast.

You've got these plunging
canyons and valleys.

You've got flat top
hills everywhere.

It's a visual feast.

The high desert of western
Colorado is a beautiful landscape.

It's a land of cliffs,
narrow spaces, mysteries.

You could hide away in here
for a long time and not be found.

And it seems someone
wanted to do exactly that

because hidden
away deep in the rocks

are some fascinating remains.

What's unique about this
site is if you were walking along

and you didn't happen to
glance up, you might miss it.

This is an area that
holds a lot of history,

but it's not always
visible on the surface.

You could walk up
and down the valley

for many, many days and weeks
and not even notice these villages.

And the remains here are
not isolated or dotted around,

they are everywhere.

They go on and on and on.

It's not just a few
small dwellings.

It's actually, you
know, a sort of town,

almost like a
city in the cliffs.

They're truly are inspiring, not
only because of where they are,

that they are on rock
face, that they are high up,

but the sheer size of them.

There are little cliff dwellings
tucked in, almost everywhere.

Very hard to see in some cases.

Far off the ground, incredibly
remote and inaccessible.

So, why are they here?

And from what dangers were
those that built them hiding?

In the late 19th century

a group of men made
an amazing discovery.

So, I have something
pretty incredible to show you,

but first we have to get
up to the top of the ladder.

Cristy brown is a
guide at the site.

She has spent 15
years studying the ruins

and learning more about
the people that built them.

So, we just climbed
32ft up this ladder,

but we are hundreds of
feet above the canyon bottom

and we are about to
go into balcony house.

The men who discovered the site

stumbled upon it by
complete accident.

The first, you know,
people that we really credit

with discovering these
site were the weatherils.

They were a ranching
family out of (inaudible).

And they started
recognising, you know,

what they were seeing as
dark shapes on the cliff side

was actually a cliff dwelling.

Can you imagine what it
was like to scramble up here

and walk in to
these ancient homes,

and realise you might
be the first person

to set foot in here since
the original inhabitants left?

In fact, the group had
accidentally discovered

one of the most
important ancient sites

in North America, mesa verde.

After its discovery, you can
imagine as an archaeologist

this would be an
absolute playground.

So, there was a
lot to be uncovered.

And as they started digging away,
they found more and more and more.

So, just like any
true curiosity,

you know, the more we learn

and the more the earlier
archaeologists learned about

what was going on here,
the more questions they had.

The mysteries were many,

but there are clues in the
buildings that help identify

who these people were

and when the buildings
were constructed.

So, we look at the
openings of these sites

and we think that they're
windows because they're so small,

but in actuality
they're doorways.

And that helps us understanding

how tall these
people were in stature.

And we look back in history
and we can start dating,

you know, when these people
might have been around this area.

Once archaeologists really began

to investigate
these cliff dwellings.

They realised this was an
era of native American life

that we didn't know
anything about.

And it pre-dated all of
the tribes and peoples

that were in that region

when the first people
of European descent

started to come in to that area.

The archaeologists
discovered that this was home

to a civilisations called
the ancestral puebloans.

The culture spanned the present
day four corners of the usa.

There's still some debate about

when the ancestral puebloans
emerged as a distinct culture,

but the latest research
places it around

the 12th century bc.

They were, it seems
remarkable people.

The ancestral puebloans
had to have been very skilled

not only in terms
of making baskets,

making pottery,

making things that would
sort of help serve everyday life.

They engineered this space,

and it's something
to really marvel at.

Numerous discoveries were made,

but the most fascinating
was that the 800-year-old

cliff dwellings were
only the beginning.

This was just a small piece of
a bigger parts of a huge puzzle.

The archaeologists have
unearthed some 4,700 sites

over tens of thousands
of square miles

that these people
have made a success

over many, many
years living in this area.

Curiously, these
precariously placed sites

were not their first homes.

So, although the cliff dwellings

were some of the first
sites to be discovered,

the archaeologists realised
that the history of these people

went back much, much further.

What we're seeing here
is one of those dwellings

that they were living in before
they were in the cliff dwellings.

This pueblo-style
construction allowed them

to be closer to their crops

and at the same
time allowed them

to take advantage of habitation
for their expanding population.

The ancestral puebloans
thrived on these mesa tops.

At its height there were perhaps
30,000 people living in the area.

They developed
roads, built sun temples,

constructed reservoirs,
and farmed the land.

The ancestral puebloan
people were able to command

around 40,000
square miles of land.

This puts them on par with
the sort of most important

ancient civilisations
in the america,

and so they're
incredibly significant.

They were able to establish
an empire if you will.

But then something changed,

and it appears that
they decided to give up

all they had on the mesa tops

and migrate from the flats
to the cliff enclaves below.

One has to wonder
why it is that a culture

that was doing so
well on the mesa tops

moved into these
cliff dwellings.

And then the mystery
deepens whenever you realise

they were only here
for a short period of time

and then they left.

Whatever drove these
people from their open villages

and their mesa top farms
into these remote, dangerous,

difficult cliff dwellings, it must
have been a powerful force.

You have to wonder whether
there were ecological concerns

or whether they were trying
to find more secure dwellings.

They might have been at war
with other indigenous people,

and so there are all sorts of
things that are kind of hard to know.

There must have been
something that was so terrifying

that they would take these
risks of dragging their families,

their babies up
these cliff faces

to live in these tiny
cramped little rooms.

But whatever it was
that they were fleeing

from made it worth it.

But time was running out,

what caused the
civilisations final demise?

Because the civilisation
is so undocumented

and there's no written
language associated with it

in terms of
archaeological finds,

there's no real way
of fully understanding

the great extent
of this civilisation.

What was its final demise?

We'll probably never know.

For decades, historians and
archaeologists have searched

for the reasons behind the fall
of this great ancient civilisation.

The site seems to have been
populated for a mere 100 years

and a grim discovery suggests
it may have had a violent end.

They found bodies
that showed evidence

that they have been murdered.

And so that led people
to start thinking well,

certainly something's
happening in terms of a conflict.

Now, whether that's
internal or external,

we can postulate.

Although, there's a
lot of theories about

why these people left,

whether it was conflict with
groups of people coming in,

whether it was just
societal changes in general,

whether it was a drought
or change in climate,

we really don't have a good
answer as to why they left.

Whatever the reasons,

these haunting ruins still
stand as an astonishing legacy

to the vanished
people that built them.

When you look at these
beautiful cliff dwellings,

you look at the effort
that went into them,

you look at all the
engineering work and brilliance

and then you realise they
were only here for a heartbeat,

you know, maybe two generations.

So, it's a tragedy.

On the paradise island of
st Lucia in the Caribbean,

there are ruins that
echo a dark period

in the island's history.

It's a tropical paradise
with these brilliant beaches

and you see these
crumbling European buildings.

There's another structure here,

which looks like it dates
to the late 19th century.

Clearly, this site was gonna
see a lot of different uses.

It was obviously in
use for a good long time

and was worth a great
deal of investment,

and now it is absolutely
going to pieces.

Why were these
buildings constructed

on such a remote
tropical island so long ago?

This place is clearly
very, very important.

This is the centre of a struggle
over something worth a great deal.

It's hard to believe
that an area so idyllic

can be a site for so
much violence and conflict.

What did st Lucia have to offer

that saw it become one of the
most fought over islands in the world?

The Caribbean with it's
fertile soil and warm climate

is the perfect place to
grow crops like sugar,

which were in high demand
in 18th century Europe.

Sugar islands in the
Caribbean meant money

for the home country.

Every country in Europe wanted
to have a sugar island or two.

But there was another
important feature on the island,

it was Castries harbour.

A deep water harbour, that's
the real value of the place.

It has tremendous
strategic importance.

France and Great Britain,

the two super
powers of the period

fought over the
island time and again.

The conflict began with
two failed British attempts

to colonise the island
in the early 17th century.

Within a few years the French
had arrived and purchased it

for the west India company.

The British, of course,
were not best pleased

and planned to allay
to invade the island.

The first of these
attacks came in 1778,

and the scene was set
for a series of prolonged

and very bitter battles.

These ruined fortifications bear
mute witness to that struggle.

Dr Gregor Williams is an
expert on the island defences.

We're walking towards
the half moon battery,

which was built by the French

when they started serious
fortifications in st Lucia.

And each of these would have
been an eight-inch Cannon.

The French then with those
cannons would be defending

the entrance to the
harbour from the British ships

that would have wanted to go in.

In st Lucia they talk
about seven times French,

seven times British,

meaning they passed
from French to British control

seven times as these great powers
fought for control of this island.

After years of bloodshed,

the fighting between
the French and British

eventually came to an end
and the military structures

that dotted the island
were abandoned.

And that was the way they stayed

until the outbreak of
world war ii in 1939.

When the war started,

these buildings had
been unoccupied,

there are sitting here
and doing nothing.

So, the British
engaged these buildings

to house soldiers
of the world war ii.

The Caribbean becomes a
vital front during world war ii

because you think about the
allies in Europe, the red army,

the us army, the British army,

they were all basically supplied
with oil from the United States.

And so all this oil transited
through the Gulf of Mexico,

through the Caribbean in
tankers headed for Europe.

The German kriegsmarine
spotted an opportunity to choke off

these essential supplies.

The Germans are trying to
use very efficient weapons,

small warships and submarines

to sink as much britain bound,

commerce including American
ships as they possibly can.

But the main threat
to merchant shipping

came in the shape of
the deadly German u-boat.

It's sort of cat and mouse stuff

as the allies are hunting
these German u-boats,

the German u-boats are
trying to dart in to inlets

and coves trying to
resupply themselves

and avoid detection
by the allied destroyers.

Every port in North America,

the Caribbean was
filled with people

nervously scanning
the sea for periscopes.

So, new fortifications
were constructed

to play their part in the fight
against the Nazi war machine.

We're on meadows battery.

First of all there was an
old French fortification there,

then the British came in
and then they established

this during the world war ii

when they were fighting
against the Germans.

Another thing that these structures
tell us is the immense scale

of the world war ii and
how it really touched

every corner of the globe.

No place was spared from it.

On the 9th of march 1942,

a very young Michael chastanet
saw the island fortifications

swing into action once more.

In the hours of 9:00 at midnight
we heard this very loud explosion.

So, we were immediately awoken
and we looked out at the veranda,

and we saw a number of people
and when they were questioned,

they said that we
were under attack.

There was a lot of pandemonium.

The Meadow battery
spat out machine gun fire

into the dark waters
but it was hopeless.

A u-boat had managed
to get into the great

deep water harbour of Castries,
the results were devastating.

The German u-boat u161
sneaks silently into the harbour

fires it's torpedoes and sinks
two massive British freighters

that are anchored there.

An 8,000-tonne freighter,

a 5,000-tonne freighter
both sink very quickly

with great loss of life.

The German u-boats
actually came in from this end.

Yeah, they came up quite
quickly, it's not a long harbour.

They knew we were ill prepared.

The st Lucia policemen,

the constable who is
looking down at the harbour

from these old fortifications,

where these creaky
nordenfelt machine gun

is able to bring the
u-boat under fire

and able to force it
back out of the harbour.

Fortunately, u-boat 161 was
the last to invade the island.

After the war, the
military structures

that had dominated Castries for
so long were finally abandoned.

Today, they are still silent,

but they remind all who see them

of a peaceful beautiful
island's turbulent past.

When you go to Castries today,

you see one of the propellers
from one of these freighters

which is still displayed
as a kind of memorial.

You're reminded this was a
place that was brutally contested

by the great powers
because of it's economic

and strategic importance.

The world war ii is not just
a story of the big countries

and the big battles,
here it is a story

that is as intimate as a
small island's own harbour.

Now, they're abandoned
crumbling ruins.

Many remind us of dark times,

but some were once
beacons of hope and progress.

Lasting testimonies
to human imagination,

enterprise, and spirit.

(Music)

Captioned by
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