All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S05E03.Escape.From.Devils.Island.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom voiceover: A
desert ghost town

poisoned by an
unnatural body of water.

It looks like some kind
of apocalyptic vision.

Something happened here
and it wasn't that long ago.

A derelict settlement in
Czechia with a mysterious past.

You are talking
billions of dollars

of environmental damage.

A notorious jungle compound that
became infamous around the world.

It really is hell on earth.

And the Norwegian
mountain fortress

that saw one of world
war ii's most daring raids.

It was one of the most
extraordinary operations of the war.

Decaying relics and
ruins of lost worlds.

They were forged
through years of toil,

but are now haunted by the past.

Their secrets are
waiting to be revealed.

(Theme music)

Perched high on a mountain,

100 miles west
of Oslo in Norway,

is a structure that could have
helped change the course of history.

This place will become the subject
of a major Hollywood blockbuster.

So, you have got this
imposing huge building

with these giant windows
overlooking the valley.

It is definitely
built with purpose.

What was it for?

You can see this is
a large factory type

industrial installation,

and I'm thinking the effort to
have built this is enormous.

Its remote position and
the barbed wire fences

suggest that whatever was
inside was of great value.

It's obviously under
tight security even today.

But it's the rebelling front

which is an important
part of the story.

That is all that remains
of a different structure

that once dominated
this mountain enclave.

What went on here that
you have got one building

that has lasted and will last,

and one building
that obviously hasn't.

In the surviving subterranean
levels is a tangled mass of steel.

Inside there are signs
of immense destruction,

something happened
here with great force.

The story of this great
industrial complex

dates back to the
beginning of the 20th century.

Men from an elite fighting
force would later risk their lives

attempting to destroy it.

The surrounding
terrain offers some clues

about the purpose
of the building.

There are clear connections
between the landscape

and particularly the
waterfall and the building,

because there are vast pipes

coming off the mountain
and into the building.

This is the vemork
hydroelectric power plant

that was built by
norsk hydro in 1911.

Gunhild luras is an expert
on the history of the facility.

This is the machine hall

where the hydroelectric
power was made.

When it was finished,

it was the biggest
power plant in the world.

Vemork was built to produce
fertiliser to help grow the crops

that were needed to feed the
world's rapidly increasing population.

One of the many
challenges for scientists

in the early 20th century

was to find more fertiliser
for food production,

and for fertiliser
you need nitrogen.

But the chemical process
involved in the extraction of nitrogen

require an enormous
amount of energy.

Well, one thing Norway
has in abundance

with mountains and
rivers is hydro power.

So, the waterfall
will hilt the turbines

with high speed and
then it will turn around

and you produce
electricity in the generators.

Yet, in the basement
of this now derelict place

is a room full of
specialised equipment

that was built for a
very different purposes.

This place started out
producing something very good

for human beings,

but it turned out to
have deadly potential.

So, this whole
manufacturing of fertiliser,

this fixating of the nitrogen,

it ended up producing
a by-product,

and this by-product
was heavy water.

Heavy water is very complex.

It's very difficult to produce

and it's very
expensive to produce.

Like ordinary water, heavy
water contains two atoms,

one hydrogen and one oxygen,

but the hydrogen atom
contains an extra neutron

that increases
its weight by 10%.

And this type of hydrogen
is known as deuterium

or a heavy form of hydrogen.

On its own it poses no danger.

However, its unique atomic
structure makes it a vital ingredient

in the production
of nuclear weapons.

So, when Adolf Hitler plunged
the world into war in 1939,

it was no surprise that he
wanted to get his hands on it.

Hitler's scientists needed
the heavy water plant

to slow down and
sustain a nuclear reaction,

which was a key stage

in the development
of an atomic weapon.

This site was the
only place in the world

where they produced heavy
water at a commercial scale.

So, this was very important
for the German nuclear program.

In 1940,

German troops invaded neutral
Norway and captured the plant.

Within months,

production of heavy water
there had increased ten-fold.

The allies knew that to have
any hope of winning the war,

they had to prevent the Germans

from making and using
an atomic weapon.

The key man for the allies

was the Norwegian
scientist leif tronstad.

Tronstad knew the
site in minute detail

because he had helped design it.

He was able to
explain to the British

that simply dropping ordnance

from the air onto the
site would do nothing,

as the heavy water plant
was in the basement,

and bombing it would simply
destroy the buildings on top.

Tronstad's plan was
dangerous and thwart with risk.

It was for specialist
troops to infiltrate the facility

and destroy its vital
equipment from the inside.

But vemork was a natural fortress
and it was very heavily guarded.

It was very mountainous terrain.

You simply can't
get up there by road.

It's very easy to protect this
plant in a conventional way

because it is isolated
up on the mountain side.

In October 1942,

four Norwegian nationals

were parachuted in
as an advance team.

The plan was for them to
link up with British paratroopers

who arrived the following month
as part of operation freshman.

Their mission was to
break in and destroy vemork.

The first attempt ended
in complete disaster.

On the 19th November 1942,

two gliders of British soldiers
landed on the top of the mountain,

but one crashed and the
other was found by the Germans

and the men shot.

Despite this very
costly set back,

the allies had little
option but to try again.

And so, in February 1943 they
launched operation gunnerside.

It was to be one of
the most dramatic

and important military
missions of world war ii.

Six Norwegian commanders
were parachuted in

and they were dressed
in British uniforms

so that if captured,

the Germans wouldn't take
revenge on the Norwegian population.

The plan was to rendezvous
with the original Norwegian team,

which had somehow managed

to survive for three months
in the sub-zero wilderness.

It landed safely, but
far away from the target.

This was a supplies
and logistics disaster

because they simply
didn't have rations.

Incredibly, after a
gruelling five-day trek

through knee-deep snow,

the two teams at
last made contact.

Now, they were united,

they could finally attempt

the seemingly impossible task

of entering the site and
halting Hitler's nuclear plant.

There was a discussion
among the saboteurs

about how they
should enter this place.

And one possibility was to
cross the suspension bridge,

but it was guarded.

After the failed
operation freshman,

the Germans had strengthened
the power plant's defences.

Crossing the heavily
guarded bridge

was obviously now
out of the question.

The team would have
to find another way.

Only two highly dangerous
operations remained.

They were, to approach through
a heavily fortified mountain pass

which was littered
with land mines

or to scale a deep sided
ravine of some 500 feet.

So, they decided that they
were going down the gorge.

And they had to climb their way
down and up again on the other side,

where there was a railway.

And on the railway
there were no mines.

Once at the site,

they knew how to
enter the building

and exactly where to
place the explosive charges

because tronstadhad given
them such detailed instructions.

In this room, the
sabotage action took place.

The leader of this operation

placed charges on
the heavy water cells.

After somehow
sneaking past the guards,

the team made for the
heavy water production room.

They had to work fast,

placing short 30-second fuses
on the electrolysis chambers

that produce the heavy water,

and then they were gone.

The operation
was a total success.

The explosions ripped
through the plant,

destroying at least a 1,000
pounds of Hitler's heavy water.

It was one of the most
extraordinary operations of the war.

Amid the chaos, in the
aftermath of the explosions

the entire group
managed to slip away.

Incredibly, not a
single life had been lost

and no shots had
been fired by either side.

The group somehow made
its way back through the ravine

before splitting
into smaller groups

and making good their
escapes to neutral Sweden.

Eventually, every single man

found his way back
to the Norwegian unit,

which was stationed in britain.

Their story of daring
is forever immortalised

in the 1965 kirk
Douglas blockbuster,

'the heroes of telemark'.

If the vemork plant
had not been destroyed,

Hitler could have been able to go
on and develop atomic weapons.

It's true that the Nazis were
eventually able to resume

the production of
heavy water at vemork,

but by then it was all too late.

Germany hadn't the
capacity or resources

to produce an atomic bomb,

which could have turned the
tide of the war in Hitler's favour.

In later years, what remained
of the heavy water plant

was demolished.

Today, the site is being
turned into a museum,

a lasting memorial to the
daring and courageous men

who did so much to help win
the war against Nazi Germany.

The saboteurs are heroes.

They are maybe one of the
biggest heroes of Norway.

Just imagine,

if operation gunnerside
hadn't been successful,

the world could be a
rather different place.

In the middle of the
barren californian desert,

some 150 miles south
east of Los Angeles,

is an unusual inland sea.

When you look at
this body of water,

it looks off, something
is a little bit wrong with it.

Dotted around the water's edge

a crumbling remains
from a long forgotten past.

It looks like some kind
of apocalyptic vision.

There is all these signs
of human settlement,

but everything is broken
down and decrepit.

Instead of being
a vast living place,

it's almost death like.

Derelict buildings
and rusting relics

are all reminders
of the community

that once thrived
around these waters.

You can see the
remnants of a motor home,

broken down, old motel.

So, something happened
here and it wasn't that long ago.

So, what was it
that happened here?

Are there clues to be found
in the surrounding land?

As you look around,
the land is alive.

There's bubbling mud coming up
from gases deep within the earth.

Is this a natural phenomenon?

What changed and what is
going on with this body of water?

Only 40 years ago,

this region was
full of bustling towns

built to accommodate
hundreds of thousands of people.

Today, only a small
fraction of them are still here.

John kariotis
arrived in the 1970s.

It was very nice because
there were markets,

and gas stations,
and restaurants.

And it was a big community
that lots of people were a part of.

To see it depressed
like this, it hurts.

And the people
that are here are...

Probably going to be
here until the day they die.

In the 1960s this was a
booming holiday resort,

which attracted more
than one million visitors

every single year.

It was just a two-hour
drive from Los Angeles,

and it soon became
a favourite playground

of Hollywood's rich and famous.

So, back in its hay day
the rat pack was here,

Sammy Davis junior, frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Streisand,

a whole lot of other people.

It's before palm Springs
was what it is now.

Bathers crammed onto
the sun soaked beaches

and anglers filled their
nets with the plentiful fish

that were found in the waters.

There were ricottas,

there were more boats out on the
sea than you could shake a stick at.

The fishing was wonderful.

It's hard to imagine
those luxury times.

The fact that all of these
communities are down on their luck,

it's not just one or two
suffering from lack of investment.

Point to a much,
much bigger problem.

The thing that connects
all of these sites together,

the problem is the water.

These are the ghost
towns of the salton sea.

An accidental lake
that transformed

the fortunes of this
dusty desert region

for better and then for worse.

But how did a giant
lake appear from nowhere

in the middle of one of the
driest regions in the world

and why does it now resemble
an apocalyptic wasteland?

In the early 1900s

everybody wanted to
use the Colorado river

to irrigate farms in
the surrounding desert.

The Colorado begins
high in the rocky mountains

and winds some 1,500
miles to the Gulf of California.

To irrigate the
important agriculture area

in the golden states
imperial valley,

engineers constructed a canal

which diverted water
away from the river.

But trying to tame
the mighty Colorado

was no easy task.

Engineers like to be in control.

But when you are up
against the force of nature,

you can never actually
tell what's going to happen.

In 1905 after torrential rains,

the swollen Colorado
river broke its banks.

The river changed course
and began flowing west

into what was then
a dry desert valley.

Every 24 hours,

six billion cubic feet of
water flooded into the valley,

creating a lake that Rose
by seven inches every day.

It took two years
for the engineers

to figure out how to
stop the flow of water.

And by that time,

it had largely filled
this vast inland basin.

The lake itself
essentially then created

all of the things around.

Money started coming
in with the tourism,

people started
wanting to tap into that.

They started building motels
and beach front facilities.

And people started to
drive out from Los Angeles

to check out this
brand new inland sea.

They called it
the salton riviera.

Spanning nearly 400square miles,

the salton sea became
California's largest freshwater lake,

as well as giving birth to
a thriving tourism industry.

The engineering disaster
completely transformed

once inhospitable land.

The water in the desert meant
that the land became fertile,

it became huge
agricultural area.

Farming is very
important to the area,

and imperial county is known
as the breadbasket to California.

If you want fruits and vegetables
all the way through the mid-west,

it very likely came from
here in the imperial county.

At first it was great, you
had this barren dry desert,

all of a sudden filled
with fresh mountain water.

And it was this lovely
kind of oasis in this,

otherwise, pretty brutal desert.

So, what began as a catastrophe

soon became known as
the miracle in the desert.

But the success of this
man-made californian lake

was short lived,

and before long the
miracle had turned

to something of a nightmare.

Well, here we are
in the centre of town.

This used to be
the bank the building

that we are in right here now.

In its hay day you could expect

that there were traffic
jams out here in the street,

people crossing in
the middle of the street

and not really caring
who they stopped

and what they did because
they were here for a good time.

Little did everybody know,

but an ecological
time bomb was ticking.

Looking at the beach today,

you don't have to be a specialist
to know that it doesn't look right.

It doesn't look natural, there is
something alien about landscape.

Everything is covered
with this fine layer

of a kind of a
white dusty powder.

The once pristine beaches
now look very different indeed.

John kariotis's wife Amari
witnessed it first-hand

the devastation that
came to the region.

You know, people
think that this is sand.

This is millions of fishes,
fish bones, vertebrae.

There is barnacles in here.

It looks really pretty,
but it's just dead fish,

millions and
millions of dead fish.

You begin to start to think,
is there a natural disaster?

Well, this is a very active
part of the earth geologically.

It's very near to the
San Andreas fault

and many other faults.

One of the stranger things
that you find is this kind of area

where there is all these
mud pots bubbling up.

It's almost like an
alien landscape.

Could it be that something like
this happening suddenly changed

the environments around
and caused many problems?

Was this a natural disaster or
something that was man-made?

But the bubbling and
boiling areas are the clues

that tell us this is no
ordinary body of water.

At first impression
you might assume

some sort of natural disaster
has caused the problems here.

But when you delve in
something more sinister is going on

because it's not a natural
disaster, it's a man-made problem.

The only source of new
water for the salton sea

comes from the
half a million acres

of agricultural terrain
that surround it.

And there was the problem,

the huge benefits that came
as a result of industrial farming

actually had a terrible cost.

Because it's the lowest
place in the landscape,

there is no in and out like
a normal lake might have.

So, what goes into the
system, stays in the system.

It's constantly getting saltier and
denser as the water evaporates.

You see that in the
dead sea in Israel.

Here the problem is impounded
because what water is flowing in

is flowing through these
various irrigated farms,

so it's highly polluted with
pesticides and fertiliser.

And what we are
left with in the lake

is this chemical soup.

The fish can't
breathe and they die

and then they end
up on the shore.

We have had half a
mile in of dead fish,

and it was horrific.

The smell was horrific.

No one wanted
to be on the beach.

Eventually, the tourists
and visitors stopped coming

and the once thriving
towns were abandoned.

And there was
even worse to come.

Over the past 15 years,

the water level has
dropped by almost eight feet,

exposing 20,000
acres of lake-bed.

In that region of the desert,
there is almost no rainfall.

So, the salton sea
started to dry up.

And its now exposing this
fine dust with lots of salt,

but also lots of these
poisonous pesticides

and so on concentrated in it.

The winds pick up
sand from the desert,

and it will pick
up the chemicals

and transport them hundreds of
miles across the rest of america.

It's a huge risk
to public health.

Beaches that were once
packed with sunbathers

are now lifeless, toxic sludges.

It's heart-breaking for those
that knew this place in its hay day.

And it has a whole impact.

We have the highest
asthma rate because of this,

there are people
who are ill because...

Of breathing this.

Behind every tourist town,

there is a population of
people whose home it is.

That's where they
bring up their children,

that's where they
live and they die.

And for people here,
it's very, very sad.

Today, the hotels and
restaurants are abandoned,

all just fading memories
of a once golden age.

Used to think that this
was gonna be a place

that was going to come back

to the way it was
in the '60s and '70s.

And I'm sadly mistaken,
it's not going to happen.

In French Guiana,

on the north east
coast of South America,

is a remote Amazon
settlement with a brutal past.

Some of the buildings
here look relatively pleasant,

colonial buildings

with the traditional
wooden shutters.

But as you move
farther into the site,

you encounter a
different type of building.

It's clear that people
have been here

before and lots of them.

And they have left their
Mark quite literally on the walls.

The more you look
around, it becomes apparent.

It's tinged with
suffering and sadness.

The walls feel like
they are closing in.

It's getting more
and more unpleasant

and the dark history of this
place is beginning to dawn on you.

There is no doubt that this place
was one some kind of prison.

And for one famous inmate,

the story of his life here

and of his daring eventual escape
became an international bestseller.

But was it true?

Was it really his story
or was it embellished?

Clearly, there is a lot
here worth investigating.

The intriguing story behind
these crumbling buildings

began in 19th century France.

The French were facing
an issue with their prisons.

They were crowded
and they were expensive.

Slavery is about to be
abolished around the world

and their colonies.

To solve the twin
problems of rising crime

and the shortage of workers

to maintain France's
foreign territories,

Napoleon III came up
with a radical solution.

The French began exploiting
their colonial territories abroad

by sending their very
worst criminals there.

This removed dangerous
prisoners from France,

took the strain off the
French prison system

and gave the French colonists
a free workforce abroad.

Built in 1850,

this penal colony
on the maroni river

was the first stop for
convicts sentenced to prison

with hard labour
in French Guiana.

It's no coincidence that
this type of punishment

was often used in some
of the most inhospitable

and remote territories in
any given European's empire.

By 1946, some 70,000 convicts

had been shipped across
the Atlantic to South America.

Yet, it would be another
two decades before this place

became infamous
around the world.

On the walls are
names and signatures,

and one of them in
particular leads you to realise

what an incredible
story this place has to tell.

So, there is a very famous
inmate here, papillon.

The man is a legend,
the mysterious prisoner

with the larger butterfly
tattooed on his chest.

In 1969, his account of
his life here was published

and it became an
international bestseller.

Four years later, Steve
McQueen and Dustin Hoffman

brought the story to
an even wider audience

in the movie 'papillon'.

This is the notorious
Saint-Laurent-du-maroni prison,

part of a grim complex of
penal colonies in French guano.

Local guide Ronnie
explains more.

The more tough and
rough guys stayed here.

And you see
here, papillon's cell.

Henri charriere, alias
papillon, this is his cell.

And on the floor here,

you see he write
his name papillon.

Henri charriere
was just 27 years old

when he was sent here in 1931.

His story began here,

but as we will see
it is to end at a place

with a reputation
even more fearsome.

Henri charriere was
sentenced to life imprisonment

with ten years hard
labour for a murder

he claimed he never committed.

As well as the usual
brutalities of hard labour,

there was also a very hot
and difficult tropical climate

with all the diseases
that it brings,

malaria, dysentery,
fever, typhus, even leprosy.

An astonishing 40%
of new arrivals died

within the first year.

There were almost
daily acts of violence

between the prisoners.

Here, only the strongest
and the fittest survived.

If you eat, they're
going to punish you.

Maybe you don't eat,
they take your food,

they beat you, take your
money, take everything from you.

The prisoners were regularly
beaten by the prison guards.

If any inmate dared to retaliate,
the punishment was severe.

They were put to
death by guillotine.

The executions were carried
out here in the open space

between the two
rows of barracks.

They don't seem to (inaudible)
When the knife go down shack.

They say (inaudible) And
then they begin to sing.

The whole place here
sing a song for their friend.

It's no coincidence that

these prisons had large
graveyards attached to them.

For most people sent there it
was gonna be a one-way trip.

Part of the uproar for the
prisons in French Guiana

was these places were
never about rehabilitation,

it was about using vulnerable
people in society as slave labour.

Its hardly surprising that there
were many attempts to escape,

they were rarely successful.

The architecture of the
prison is like prisons worldwide,

but in this place the
environment was also a prison.

In the jungle
you've got spiders,

poisonous snakes,
venomous centipedes,

flesh eating ants.

You think, "oh, well, I'll
escape the heat on the river."

You don't want to do that either

'cause it's full of
piranhas and Cayman.

Despite the overwhelming odds,

papillion refused to
give up hope of escape.

He made several
attempts, they all failed.

And for those escapes

he was finally sent
to devil's island,

which was considered
the most inescapable

of all of the colonies.

Devil's island was
the most feared place

in the French
guiana prison system.

Situated 10 miles offshore,

the bleak rocky out crop

was surrounded by
shark-infested waters.

Being sent there was bad enough,

but papillon was also sentenced
to two years solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement quarters

have to be one of the
worst aspects of the site.

Imagine being shut in,
completely on your own,

no ventilation, no
window, nothing,

just you alone
with your thoughts.

Amazingly, after 13
years of imprisonment

and 9 escape attempts,

papillion finally broke
free from devil's island.

Using a bag of
coconuts as a raft,

charriere escaped and
eventually made it to Venezuela,

where he started a business.

He became a restaurateur

and then he wrote a book
about his experiences.

But after all this time
the mystery still remains

as to how much
of it is actually true.

A French justice ministry report
into the devil's island complex

concluded that charriere's story

should be divided by at least
10 to get anywhere near the truth.

Others insisted that
the episodes in the book

were imagined or embellished.

Much later, another former
prisoner came forward

to claim that he not charriere
was actually papillion.

Some thought that this book
is a mix of other people's stories

as well as his own.

Actually, when it
comes down to it,

the truth is this was
a harsh environment.

Whatever the reality is,

the controversy surrounding

charriere's account
continue to this day.

He died from throat
cancer in 1973,

so the truth about him will
probably never be known.

But news of the
barbaric conditions here

did eventually
seep back to France.

And once news about the
inhumane conditions got out,

the French conscience was
stirred by these revelations,

and the lease on life for
these places was shut indeed.

A century after it opened,

the doors of the penal
colony were finally closed

and the remaining
prisoners were repatriated,

except for 300 of them
who simply refused to leave.

Instead remained
in French Guiana,

it was the only life
that they remembered

and the only one that
they could imagine.

Today, thankfully
the prisoners are gone

and these derelict
buildings and empty cells

are all that are left to remind us
of the darker side of colonialism.

Fifty miles north east of Prague

the capital of Czechia,

a vast wilderness extends
as far as the eye can see.

It's a spectacular area.

It's rural, quiet.

It feels like the ideal
place for a day's hiking.

When you start to
investigate further,

you have also got settlements

that hint that there
has been populations

that have lived in this
area for rather a long time.

A short distance away

there are structures that appear
to date for more recent times.

You can see that this
area has been developed

over a fairly long time

and there are different
buildings from different eras here.

There is something of a mix.

Any trace of the
people who once walked

these ghostly stairwells
has long since vanished.

What's strangest
of all is a building

with a very creepy air.

There is a large bath, showers,

and a contraption that's
big enough to walk through.

Outside, there are bullet
cases, pockmarked walls,

and twisted metal.

The mystery deepens.

It makes you wonder what
is wrong with this place.

People keep on
coming, but then going.

What is happening?

The intriguing structures are
located in a region of Czechia

that has a complex history.

The reasons they were built

are to be found during
the post-war years.

When the communist party
came to power in czechoslovakia

after world war ii,

the country effectively became
a satellite state of the ussr.

Czechoslovakia was on the
border with west Germany.

That was the front
line of the cold war.

This sprawling site in ralsko

was once the biggest Soviet
army base in czechoslovakia.

When it was built,
only red army soldiers

were allowed to enter
the top secret facility.

In modern warfare, you
need large training areas.

Not just to base the troops,
but you need large tracks of land,

where you can fire artillery.

Even today, access to all
areas of the site is restricted.

Retired local
policeman vaclav bilicky

worked nearby in the 1970s.

His job was to tackle
the hazardous materials

that spilled out
from within the base.

I came here in 1976.

I was working for
the police force,

at the time called the
national security corp,

as a bomb disposal expert.

Within this area we
had a blasting hole

for destroying ammunition.

But why were the Soviets
so desperate to conceal

what they were doing inside
and what disaster lay in store?

Throughout the 20th century
this was on the front-line

of a bitter European
territorial dispute.

During the early years,

it was occupied for
training purposes

by the austro-Hungarian
military.

Later, the luftwaffe used
it during the world war ii.

This part of Europe

was home to thousands
of ethnic Germans,

and Hitler very much
wanted to bring them

within his concept
of greater Germany.

After the war,

the czechoslovakian government

will then brutally
expelled the Germans

and seized their land,
seized their property.

The stage was now set
for the czechoslovak army

to unleash a new wave
of destructive power.

All the homes,
schools and churches,

they used them
for target practice.

With heavy munitions,
they flattened the lot.

So, those little quirky houses
that were built into the rock face,

they were just cellars.

The houses actually
were above ground

and those houses were
blown to smithereens.

This was just the beginning of
the areas rapid transformation

into a modern military zone.

But as the years past,

the threat posed by the Soviet
union grew even stronger.

Until then czechoslovakia had
been the only Warsaw pactcountry

not to host Soviet troops.

They were everywhere else

in Germany, Poland,
Hungary, and Bulgaria,

everywhere but here.

On August 20th, 1968,

amid a wave of
anti-communist protests,

all that changed.

The Soviets had to have
a quarter of a million troops

into Prague and the core
cities of czechoslovakia.

The number doubled over
the next couple of days.

After the Soviet invasion,
there was a treaty side

and that stated that
75,000 Soviet troops

could be stationed
in this region.

It's that invasion that
explains the reasons

for the buildings here.

These buildings were intended
for the families of the pilots,

officers of the Soviet army.

At a time when
both east and west

were threatening each
other with annihilation,

the location of this place

would have made
is strategically vital

in the event of all-out war.

Up to 20,000 Soviet
troops were living there

in a full military town

with schools, shops,
apartment buildings, workspaces.

The existing airfield
was rapidly expanded

and bunker-like structures

were built to conceal
state-of-the-art attack aircraft.

The Soviets were preparing
for a new kind of war.

The mig-23 was
a big step forward,

and it was very capable

and it would have made a
very pretty good opponent.

Yet, much of the history
here is still hidden in secrecy.

After the collapse
of the Soviet union,

the true scale of
the weapon stockpile

started to become clear

and more alarming discoveries
were being made all the time.

So, with the military gone,

you've now got a
city sized grassland

absolutely strewn
with live ammunition.

How do you go about making
a place like that safe again?

Over 130,000 pieces of unexploded
ordinance were left dumped

or crudely buried in the ground.

Vaclav was part of the team

with the hazardous
job of clearing it all up.

This was probably the most
dangerous piece of ammunition here.

If it remained in this condition
and someone had found it

and wasn't careful enough,

it was quite a blast.

Inside one building is evidence

that the Soviets may
have been developing

even more sinister
weapons of war.

As you go in, you can see
this weird looking machine.

And it's now felt that that
machine is an autoclave,

they used to decontaminate
and sterilise equipment.

Whatever they were up
to with that equipment,

it was serious business.

In all 50 million
cubic feet of soil

was found to be polluted
by dangerous contaminates.

When the Soviets left,

it cost millions of dollars
of environmental damage.

Despite this, the Soviets
ignored all requests

to help restore and
clean up the mess

they had left behind.

Although, much of the
land has been cleared,

there remains always the danger
of undiscovered ammunitions.

So, work still has to be done

to make it 100% safe
for the local people.

To this day,

the Soviets have never revealed

what took place behind
closed doors here.

So, until the cold war era
archives are fully opened,

the site will continue to
be shrouded in mystery.

Now, they are
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)

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