Original subtitles

Tom ward (narrates): Two lost fortresses

on the banks of the Mississippi.

Something bigger than just the passage of time

has taken an even heavier toll on these buildings.

A concrete monster that withstood a fierce bombardment.

These structures are so massive,

they're so well-built you can't get rid of them.

You can't level them, you can't tear them down,

you can't blow them up.

And a ghostly ruin that's home to an eerie presence.

There are reports of apparitions in the corridors

and that's no surprise.

It has that kind of feel to it.

If you ever wanted to visit a haunted mansion then this is it.

Decaying relics and ruins of lost worlds,

they were forged through years of toil

but now they are haunted by the past.

Their secrets are waiting to be revealed.

(Theme music)

Overlooking the sea on the north coast of wales

stands an imposing castle.

This looks like something out of a medieval fairytale,

like a home for princes and princesses.

It's a grand palace of a building with so many rooms,

embattled towers and amazing windows.

Somebody clearly wanted to impress and make an impact.

But as striking as it appears from the outside,

it's only on the inside

that a visitor really feels the creepy atmosphere.

If you ever wanted to visit a haunted mansion

this place has got it all.

You've got your gothic architecture, your faded grandeur,

your air of mystery and terror.

Rumours of hauntings float around the place

and every wall tells a story.

Marriages gone terribly wrong,

battles and children fleeing

from cruel and deadly fates.

But the story here isn't quite what it seems.

What's strange is that although it looks ancient

there's parts of this building

that don't look like that old at all.

You can see this was once a glorious structure

but now it's just crumbling away and disintegrating.

It's as though the life has been sucked from the place.

It looks so sad and abandoned.

What went wrong here?

These crumbling walls hide tales of vaulting ambition,

stories of families at war

and accounts of people saved from certain death.

Without doubt there's something very odd

about this great stronghold.

There's some clever trickery a-play here

because it's clearly been made to look like something it isn't.

Dr Mark barker is an architectural historian.

He's spent the last 20 years

investigating the castle's deepest secrets.

So, this looks like a medieval fortress

but as we look around we'll find out that

there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Inside there are features that betray its true age.

So, one of the tell-tale signs that

you can pick up looking around the building

that it's not as ancient

as you think are the windows.

And the window's made out of cast iron

which was the wonder material of the early 19th centuries,

the... the pvc of the day.

So, if this isn't a medieval castle

then why did someone spend a fortune

making it look like one?

And did those sturdy defensive walls ever actually see a battle?

This place was commissioned by the wealthy industrialist

Lloyd hesketh in 1812.

It was the largest structure

to be erected in britain in the 19th century

and at its peak boasted an estate of over 6,000 acres.

Many said that hesketh was a dreamer

but he had a bold and ambitious plan

one that he hoped

would influence architecture forever.

It all seems to centre around

the loss of his mother when he was,

um, round about 11 or 12.

And he wanted to build a...

A monument to her

and to immortalise her in... in architecture.

This was Lloyd hesketh's masterpiece.

A lavish 19th century imitation of a much earlier time...

Gwrych castle.

So, in wales we are famous for the medieval castles

of the native princes

and Lloyd knew this when he was building here

and he set about looking back at the medieval castles

but also, um, all the medieval manuscripts

working out how they actually did it properly.

It is a hugely significant structure

as it was the first gothic folly in all of Europe.

Lloyd's dream may have come true

but this story doesn't have a happily ever after ending.

A bitter family feud was brewing.

The horrors of war were on the horizon

and a ghostly presence would soon make itself felt.

Hesketh lived in this castle for many years.

It was his home.

And then it got passed down through his family.

Eventually coming into the ownership

of his granddaughter in 1894.

Inheriting the castle and the estate

meant that the countess of dundonald

was a woman of very great means like her grandfather before her

she left her Mark on the castle in a very unique way.

The countess added her own touches to the building

including this grand marble staircase

and her influence can still be felt here.

But it was her political activities that caused a real stir

and that may have sowed the seeds for what was to come.

She was a very strong-minded person

who fought heavily for women's rights

and was a key figure in the suffragette movement.

This was extraordinary at the time

but apparently the marriage was a very unhappy one

and her husband treated her cruelly.

She was really very forward-thinking

and I think this was very disturbing to her husband.

Um, he was a victorian gentleman really,

um, that, um, he should have complete control and she refused.

What's astonishing was that in 1906

she did something that was unheard of,

bear in mind that her husband had all of the power over this property,

she actually banished him from the castle

and cut him out of her will entirely.

For 20 years, right up until her death in 1924,

the countess managed the estate alone.

When she died it was put up for sale.

But its story was far from over.

As it turns out,

the countess's estranged husband wouldn't let things lie.

He bought back the castle.

And he bought it back out of spite

and it was a great tragedy that occurred

that he destroyed all of her papers,

the contents of the castle were sold off

and his parting shot was that he said to the children that

no member of the family shall ever live here again.

According to legend,

the countess took her revenge from beyond the grave.

Just a few years after the countess's death

her estranged husband bought the castle.

He sold off much of the contents to finance the purchase

but he was determined to make it his again.

Shortly after the collection was broken up in 1928,

people start to see a figure on the marble staircase.

A woman is seen walking down the stairs

and also in the gardens.

One of the most famous,

um, sightings was by a boxer called Randolph turpin.

He was training in the park and he saw this woman,

um, in white walking towards him crying

and then he turned to ask

what was wrong and she disappeared.

Despite the rumours of hauntings and the appearance of apparitions,

gwrych eventually became an unlikely place of hope

for children fleeing the horrors of Nazi tyranny

during the second world war.

This was a time when world war ii was on the horizon

and britain knew only too well

what this would mean for the children

so what it did was it evacuated

10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany,

Poland, Austria, czechoslovakia to britain.

It was known as the kindertransport

and the children were taken to farms,

foster homes and schools across the country

with 200 of them coming here to the castle.

It would've been heart wrenching

for these children to be pulled away

from their parents at such a young age,

brought to a completely foreign country

but what is truly horrifying

is these children were often

the only surviving members of their family

after the holocaust.

After the war, the castle opened its doors to the public

one of the first country houses in britain to do so.

That was until 1985

when maintenance costs finally became too high.

As a result the castle was closed and it quickly fell into disrepair.

The castle was extensively looted and vandalised,

reduced to a derelict shell.

But then the final blow came when a fire broke out and...

And caused devastating damage to the structure.

For years the castle sat neglected and forgotten

until an 11-year-old boy

fell under its spell.

The fairytale had one final twist.

So, I'd pass the castle every day to and from school

and it really kind of invoked something in me

qwanting to save the place.

And that drove me on to set up the trust.

Mark now leads a team dedicated to restoring gwrych castle

to its former glory

and to securing its future for generations to come.

In its short life

the castle has seen many fascinating and important events.

Hopefully it can be brought back from the dead

so that it can do so again.

In the busy harbour of lorient on the west coast of France

there is a colossal relic.

As you approach the structure

you can see from miles away how big they are.

It's in stark contrast of what's surrounding it.

You've got these beautiful luxury yachts and villas

and then you've got this concrete what some would call a monstrosity.

What you see are identical massive structures

just like this one and you realise

you're not dealing with just one structure,

you're dealing with an entire complex of structures.

What are these enormous structures?

And what part did they play in the longest continual battle

of world war ii?

They are oppressive in their scale.

They are absolutely huge sat there on the waterline.

Vast concrete chambers, heavy metal doors.

Whatever its original purpose,

this place appears to have been built

to withstand more than just the elements.

There's nothing fragile about the construction of this,

it looks absolutely solid.

There's superficial damage in places

but this is no way going to collapse in the next few years.

But then when you go to other parts you can see they're darker,

locked away and those are windows to this structure's

rather sinister past.

What you have is a...

A strange-looking man-made concrete tunnel

with large beams and the light coming down.

You... you really wonder what kind of facility this is.

What do the spooky submerged vessels lying in the harbour

tell us about this strange place?

Why are there ships sunk out the front of these structures?

Was this a scene of a battle?

Or something else?

Construction here began two years into the second world war.

At this dark time in the history of Europe,

the French people were living under the terror of Nazi occupation.

What was hidden inside these walls struck fear

into the hearts of the allied forces.

1940 was a game-changer for the axis powers.

Germany went from having just a small area on the baltic

that could have access to seas from

to having the whole of the coastline of France.

And that changed the face of warfare for the next few years.

And what this meant was that

there was a change in focus for the Nazis.

It went from very much a land-based war

to being much more focused on the sea

and particularly the Atlantic.

This place was so important to the Germans

they went to extraordinary lengths to protect it.

What made this place so great for the Nazis and at the same time

dangerous for the allies was the design of the roof.

The roof construction itself is a very clever,

well-thought out piece of engineering

to protect what's below from the threat from the skies.

Maritime historian

christophe cerino

is an expert on the stronghold.

The three-part design was repeated across the entire structure.

A concrete frame sitting above a solid roof some 10ft thick.

What we see here with the beams across the top

is they're almost sacrificial.

If a bomb was to hit those,

they could break but not threaten the main structure below.

They're to absorb the energy

and thus protect the structure below.

The design of the roof didn't mean there was no damage.

There was just no damage

to the actual bit that needed protection.

What deadly weapon were the Nazis working so hard to protect

from allied bombers?

Now, the Germans have lost

the greater part of their surface fleet,

damaged or destroyed in the Norway campaign

but the German Navy has one weapon

with which it can bring a great deal

of power and force against Great Britain and that's u-boat.

To house their deadly submarines the third reich built this,

the keroman u-boat base.

The largest submarine facility

of its kind on the west coast of France.

In order for the u-boats to be most effective

they needed a quick way to resupply,

refuel and then get them back out in the sea

and that's what this structure was all about.

Uh, you can see the effort that was put into building it.

It is absolutely vast.

And it rises up

and it just is massive imposing temple to u-boats

and it completely dominates the area.

From here and four other sites along the French west coast

the battle for the Atlantic was fought.

It was the longest continuous campaign of the entire war.

The Atlantic was a vital theatre for Germany.

It was basically a different way of fighting.

It was picking off the enemy, hiding in the shadows.

Britain is an island.

It has to import key raw materials, it has to import men,

it has to import oil

and if the Germans can establish an effective submarine blockade

against Great Britain they can win the war.

After the fall of France

Germany's newly-won access to the Atlantic

meant that its Navy was able to attack and sink

3,500 British merchant vessels.

In one devastating week alone

German u-boats destroyed 27 royal Navy ships.

We're talking millions of tonnes of shipping that goes down

and shipping and carrying supplies, carrying personnel,

carrying oil and raw materials.

This kind of warfare became very successful for the Nazis

and so obviously when you find something

successful you invest in it

and that's exactly what they did.

Winston Churchill said the one battle that kept him

awake at night was the battle of the Atlantic

which lasts from 1939

until the last day of the European war, 1945.

For the allies to be able to stay in the war,

the German u-boat bases had to be attacked and destroyed.

I've seen some of the aerial photographs that were taken,

uh, post-mission

and 500lb, 1,000lb bombs,

direct hits all over these massive concrete structures

and they barely chip the concrete.

Underneath this modern protective shelter

you can see a bomb crater,

you can see that there was damage caused to the roof

but what you can also see is that...

That damage is contained.

It didn't go through to the actual building.

It wasn't just the roof of the base that seemed to be impregnable.

Every inch was designed with defence in mind.

There were gunning placements on top

and in the waters in front

makeshift torpedo barriers were built.

Those boats were scuttled at strategic positions

so if a low-flying bomber came in it would be those shipwrecks

that would take the impact

and not the u-boat that's being prepared.

How did allied aircraft attack the heavily defended u-boat bases?

And were they ever able to destroy them?

In France, during world war ii,

allied aircraft were trying to destroy German u-boat pens.

For many allied pilots attacks were little more than suicide missions.

A new approach was clearly needed to give

the allies any hope of success.

But the change of tactic was very bad news indeed

for the town of lorient.

The allies very quickly realised

exactly how impenetrable these u-boat pens were.

And they focussed their efforts on the town beyond.

Something like 95% of that town

was taken out and that meant houses,

that meant water, that meant supplies.

By disrupting the supply lines,

by taking out the railway lines bringing the raw materials down,

uh, they hoped that they would be able to put

an end to the u-boat activity.

Although the allied bombers had failed to destroy the submarine base

they were much more successful in crushing its supply lines.

You can see there looks like what would be a fourth bunker

and it was just that,

it was gonna be fourth bunker but during the allied bombing

they just couldn't continue its construction.

But success came with a heavy price for the people of lorient.

Hundreds paid for it with their lives.

After the war keroman lay abandoned only briefly.

Soon the French Navy moved in.

The second world war left a legacy of huge unique structures

across Europe

one of which is this massive submarine refuelling station.

What do you do with something like this?

It's difficult to repurpose it to something civilian

so the French Navy continued to use it for decades afterwards.

Today, some of those extraordinary

concrete structures have been repurposed.

They are now homes to a host of commercial enterprises

including a theatre.

But there is also a museum

which keeps the history of keroman very much alive.

On the banks of the mighty Mississippi river

just north of triumph, Louisiana, usa,

a structure emerges from the thick foliage beyond the Levy.

Southern Louisiana is a land that is just sinking into the sea,

everywhere you look there's water, strips of land.

And then here you see this large structure.

You know you've come across something important

when you see blocks of granite, masonry, concrete.

Somebody put a substantial structure there.

It's in such a swampy place.

There's something that looks like a drawbridge.

There must have been a reason to...

To build something so imposing here.

Across the drawbridge inside the surrounding moat

an unusual complex is revealed.

It's quite a sophisticated structure.

I mean, you come in and you see these huge vaulted galleries

extending off into the distance built at tremendous cost.

But this mysterious site doesn't stand alone.

Across the river a second set of ruins

are being slowly submerged.

This place is clearly on its way to being washed out to sea.

It shows a lot of damage and destruction.

The two are obviously linked

but what left them in this condition?

And how did they work together

during a pivotal moment in American history?

This is fort Jackson

a long forgotten relic with a fascinating history.

Once the scene of bitter conflict,

it helped shape the future of america.

James madere is an expert on the ruin's turbulent past

and is fighting to preserve its remains.

Because we're almost 90 miles away from New Orleans

most people don't even realise this place is here.

It's part of our history and our heritage.

One thing that makes this fort so impressive

is that it got built at all

and at such a scale in this very difficult area

where transportation is... Is difficult.

There's no firm foundation to build on.

Ex-marine Mark sauer knows

better than anyone how treacherous

trying to build in this region can sometimes be.

From above, the challenging nature of the terrain becomes clearer.

Headed to fort Jackson.

As can you see with the terrain mostly all swampland

and intermingled canals.

This is the area that is nearly cut off

from the rest of the world and it's very difficult

and challenging to get to.

When construction here began in 1822,

engineers found a novel way

to overcome the difficulties of building on a swamp.

They literally laid down logs of cypress as a foundation.

It sounds crazy but that could sink down into the muck

and then create a firm stable platform

upon which to build this massive brick structure.

It's a beautiful thing.

It has its origins in these bastion forts

that they were building in renaissance Italy

which were considered this huge innovation of warfare

because the fort is shaped like a star.

Modelled on European castles

that were built four centuries earlier

the layout was designed to inflict maximum damage on an invading army.

(Cannon fires)

The importance of that shape

is always because a Cannon has a wider sweep on a point

as well as the opposing force

would have to basically go around more edges

where you could possibly pick 'em off

with your sharp shooters

or your bastion cannons

that go from side to side.

That's what's really interesting.

Even though this thing is built in the 1800s

it's basically rooted in the 1400s.

In this period this fort was regarded

as being almost invincible.

Enormous effort was required to build the fort.

Whoever was responsible must have had

something very important indeed to protect.

The key to understanding what it was lies in the great

Mississippi river.

You simply can't underestimate how important the Mississippi was

to American history and still is.

It's like a superhighway leading into the heartland of the country.

If you wanted to move a lot of goods and men

you did it by boat in that part of the country

or you didn't do it all.

This locale is on the river right before it bends towards

New Orleans into the United States so it's really a strategic point.

And defending New Orleans

was a big, big issue from the very time

that the United States acquired the territory.

So, who ordered the construction of fort Jackson?

And from whom did New Orleans need protecting?

To find out we need to investigate

the crumbling relic on the opposite side of the river.

You can see the... The remains of it.

Pretty bad state of disarray

due to the high water and the currents

and the uncertainty of its location.

This is fort st Phillip

which was built by the Spanish in 1792,

a time when the usa was not in control here.

But fort Jackson was built some four decades later.

This region of the Gulf of Mexico was one that was actually

contested among the great powers for a long time.

Spain claimed it at first and then France controlled it,

the early United States famously purchased Louisiana from France

and so it kept trading hands but everyone recognised

it had enormous strategic importance.

After the purchase of Louisiana in the early 1800s

the fort passed into the hands of the fledgling American states.

And when the us was fighting to maintain independence

from the British empire

it was going to be called into action.

The war of 1812 was coming.

(Cannon fires)

Britain attempted to attack New Orleans

which was a pivotal port at that time.

The ground troops attacked and some warships

tried to sail up the Mississippi to join that attack.

They were beaten back by the gunneries in this fort.

They weren't able to get past this particular bend in the river.

Having denied it Navy support

the American troops under general Andrew Jackson

were able to completely rout the British army.

If the British warships had been able to get through

the outcome could have been very different.

Fort st Philip is really instrumental in the American victory

and the battle of New Orleans in 1815.

This is the moment when britain gives up on its dream

of re-conquering the American colonies

and bringing them back into the British empire.

From a strategic point of view

what we learned from the war of 1812 was

it was very important to defend the lower Mississippi

and defend New Orleans

and having forts on the lower Mississippi

could make that possible.

Following the close call with the British,

Jackson became convinced that another fortification

was needed to protect the largest city in the south.

Jackson was a national hero.

He was, uh, considered a military genius

and a brave swashbuckling character.

So, his word carried a lot of weight.

But, in fact, his military advice was dead on,

I mean, this was an absolutely crucial Avenue

for the young country to control.

What was the fortification proposed by Jackson?

And what ingenious piece of engineering did it employ?

It took a decade but the stronghold

named after the name responsible for it

was eventually ready for action.

Now, fort Jackson and fort st Philip were able to work together

to repel enemy attacks.

Plaquemines bend in the Mississippi river

is at such an angle that any sailing ship

at the time predates 1860s

would have been very subject to bombardment

from the opposing bank which would've been

fort st Philip at the time.

By having this fort on the west bank and having them trapped between

these two forts is incredibly dangerous

for the sailing ships.

There was another ingenious piece of engineering

that made the two forts even more deadly.

The forts were designed to complement each other.

They would run an underwater chain

between the forts to block any river traffic

so any ships trying to push up the river would be...

Would be caught in this chain and they'd be hung up

and then they'd exposed to fire

from the casemates of the fort facing the river.

And they'd be annihilated in this crossfire

so it made, uh, exceedingly difficult

for anybody to contemplate an attack on New Orleans

or an attack up the Mississippi river

into the heart of america.

It would be another three decades

before the defences of fort Jackson and fort st Philip

were put to the test.

This time the enemy was no foreign army.

The threat came from much closer to home.

You have to remember at the start of the civil war

New Orleans was one of the world's top port cities

and a massive quantity of goods were...

Were travelling through it every day,

so whoever controlled it really had their hands around the windpipe

of the economy of... of the south.

In 1862, the two forts were under the command of the confederacy.

Union admiral David farragut

was determined to break through the blockade

and so he moved his 40 ships up river.

About a week before the battle there was barges,

wooden schooner hulls that were stretched between the two forts

and chain links were linked to each one of them.

Farragut's fleet approached on the morning of the 18th of April.

Their ships are equipped with the newer heavy guns,

they also bring in a lot of smaller boats equipped with large mortars.

Now, the one vulnerability that these old style forts had

is they were pretty vulnerable to, uh, mortar fire.

That means high trajectory coming up and down

and, uh, landing explosive shells in the middle of the fort.

Farragut's ships unleashed a fierce barrage

on the 1,000 confederate troops holed up inside.

The bombardment of over 8,100 projectiles coming in at this fort

in fort st Philip must have been incredible.

There were brave men that were fighting hard

that didn't know the outcome of what was gonna happen

after the thunderous cannons had been rocketing this place

from those ships for hours and hours and hours.

The confederate garrisons of these forts would've been

subjected to just really hellish bombardment.

They were taking, uh, you know,

more than 1,000 rounds a day from these union warships.

For five murderous days the union fleet bombarded the forts

as they attempted to break through.

Meanwhile union soldiers somehow

cut the linking chain between the two forts.

It was all part of a daring plan.

They had to get past these two forts.

And farragut did something really brilliant.

They could've tried to wait,

bombard the forts until they overpowered them

but it's very hard firing cannons from a ship

to overpower a fort with unlimited ammunition

and many more cannons all protected by many feet of solid brick

so he decided to lead his ships

around that bend in the river

between the two forts knowing they would be

taking fire from both sides

in a single file but he did it at night

when the clouds of smoke and darkness

would somewhat obscure his ships

and he gambled they could get through.

Using artillery at night is a very iffy proposition

even for well-trained troops in those days.

Both sides were blazing away with every gun they had.

Amid the noise and confusion,

13 union ships managed to break through the blockade.

The route to New Orleans now lay open.

Downriver the union success had a devastating effect.

The morale effect of this union victory at fort Jackson

is huge I mean downriver you see a complete collapse

of confederate resistance as,

you know, confederate ships surrender,

confederate troops along the river surrender

and pretty soon this important tract of the Mississippi

is entirely controlled by the union facilitating

a push up the river.

New Orleans had fallen

but what became of the confederate troops

that remained inside the forts?

Any civil war army has real, real problems with disease.

And you put people way out in the swamps of southern Louisiana,

a malarial climate sitting until they're attacked

this is not really something

that's going to work for your troop morale.

They were fed up, they were dispirited.

The conditions were terrible.

They actually mutinied.

They refused to fight any more and they walked out which meant that

when the union army came to take these forts,

they were able to do it without firing a shot.

Fort st Philip and fort Jackson had managed to survive the civil war

but what accounts for the great damage to them

we see today?

You have hurricane season that starts

1 June through 1 November every single year

and just that warm water from the Caribbean

and then from, uh, from the Gulf of Mexico

that generates those storms

and just the way it kind of channels them in up through,

uh, the lower portion of Louisiana.

It is truly something that you are eagerly awaiting

and praying that a storm doesn't directly hit you.

Since 1960s, uh, there's been several hurricanes.

None worse than hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Devastated this fort,

17ft of water settled in for six weeks.

Although badly damaged,

fort Jackson survived the hurricane

but on the other side of the river fort st Philip fared less well.

What ultimately leads to the destruction it's not a war,

it's not an attack, it's not an assault it's nature.

Their position on the Mississippi delta

puts the forts very much at the mercy of the elements.

While fort st Philip is all but gone,

fort Jackson may well have a brighter future.

We're trying to get the national park service to take this over,

our local effort just tried to save it.

It's part of our history and our heritage.

The battle here was one of the bloodiest

in the civil war history.

But not just the battle, the people that were here,

there's lives and stories that are untold.

These forts are important to preserve

because they tell part of the story of the United States

and really world history

because this part of Louisiana and New Orleans and the Mississippi

was a crossroads of global trade, a crossroads of many nations,

many different peoples

and that's what's so fascinating about it

and it's not as well understood as it should be.

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.

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