All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S06E07.Defenders.Of.Liberty.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

An epic terraced construction

once at the heart of a
mighty Asian empire.

You see this overgrown structure
kind of tumbling down the mountain

and then reaching away
from it are these long pipes

stretching out over the
hills, almost like tentacles.

A forbidding Ukrainian
palace shrouded in intrigue.

It's brooding.

Every one of those windows

looks like it ought to have a
ghost hiding in the draperies.

Mountain-side ruins forged in
one of humanity's darkest hours.

Emerging from the tunnel,
you see a grey stone building.

Grass and vegetation are
starting to climb up the walls

and nature's
beginning to reclaim it.

And a massive facility that
powered america to the forefront

of aviation technology.

It's an eerily deserted town.

The houses are all boarded
up. There's an old theatre.

And the focal point is these
three huge, hangar-like structures.

Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

forged through years of
toil, now haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

On the rugged coastline of
jinguashih, Taiwan, where mountains

rise out of the ocean,
an imposing structure

breaks the otherwise
lush, green vegetation.

There looks to be
some kind of fortress built

into the mountainside.

Fortress or castle, it's
not really very clear.

It's terraced and it's magnificent
in its monumental scale.

It looks like some old fortress or
palace tumbling down the hillside

or maybe some overgrown
Tibetan monastery.

But it's not luxurious, it's not
ceremonial, but nor is it domestic.

There are no doors or
windows that are apparent.

Clues as to its function may lie
in the surrounding infrastructure.

Reaching away from
it are these long pipes,

almost like tentacles
disappearing over the nearby ridges.

They're like veins protruding out
from this main fortress structure.

On a hill overlooking both the main
complex and these giant pipelines

is something
altogether different.

It looks quite grand and intricate
compared to the other structure.

Maybe a sign of a more
luxurious period of time for this area

or perhaps the influence
of a different culture or ruler.

What kind of facility was this

and why would hundreds of
Americans find themselves working here?

For local resident mr Cheng,
this place is in his blood.

I've been through
so much at this place.

I was born, educated,
worked here.

Even after I retired,
I'm still living here.

Now in his mid-'80s, he
remembers this facility in full flow.

I was involved with an experiment
with sulphides and copper.

If the density of the
sulphides were too high,

we weren't able to extract
the gold and copper from it.

So, we'd have to grind it
in order to extract them.

This is the shuinandong smelter,

known locally as the
remains of the 13 levels.

A processing plant for refining
and smelting copper and gold.

The tunnel is a transportation
system for mining.

The rocks are
transported out from here.

This is tunnel six.

The miners used to work here,

but there's no work anymore.

It's dangerous, so
they shut it down.

Once the high-grade
gold ore was extracted

from beneath the mountains,
these tunnels and railway lines

took the rocks to the
smelter for processing.

The way they processed the
ores, they would bring it in at the top

and there were a series of
processes and getting the ore

to be refined in a
purer and purer state

as they worked their
way down to the bottom.

The reason it has these large
arches without any windows is,

that's where they loaded the
rocks and the ore in and out.

And the same
goes for the ceiling.

It was all about efficiency.

The smelter is a chemical process
that involves huge amount of heat

and also a massive
amount of power

to split the component parts
of the raw ore into pieces.

And it's done through
a process of reactions,

with trying to separate and
oxidise out the metals that you want.

Yet, none of the valuable
gold remained here.

When this compound was
constructed in the 1930s,

Taiwan wasn't part of China.

At that time, mr Cheng's father
was working in brutal conditions

under the gaze of
a different overlord.

The ornate details and
kanji writing around the site

reveal their identity -
the empire of Japan.

Wherever the Japanese
went, they expected to stay.

They thought they were
building a grand empire

that would last forever.

And so, they built not
just factories and smelters,

but shrines.

Here in Taiwan, they built the
shinto shrine to the mountain god.

Originally built to bring
peace and stability,

the health of local workers
became secondary to gold,

as mr Cheng's father discovered.

He worked in the
mines as a mine worker.

He was digging in the fields.

I was four years old
when he passed away.

I was raised by my
mother and brother.

Japan was an empire on the rise.

Having emerged out
of an era of isolation,

the country had entered a
period of rapid transformation

and Taiwan was incorporated
in to the empire of Japan in 1895.

It was the start of a chain
reaction that would have devastating

consequences for the region
and for many young Americans.

Taking over Taiwan
was one of the first steps

in Japan's expansionism,
where they would ultimately

take over much of Asia and
finally attack the us at Pearl harbor.

After Taiwan came Korea.

Then, they turned their
gaze back to northern China

with the invasion of
manchuria in 1931.

Japan really conducted itself
like Great Britain at its prime.

They had a powerful Navy,

they set up colonies,
they took over territory.

And wherever they went, they
wanted to extract resources,

they wanted to
accumulate wealth.

The Taiwanese people
here in of jinguashih

would enjoy little
of this wealth.

They exploited most of the gold
when it was under Japanese rule.

They sent all of it to Japan
for their national celebrations.

The exploitation extended
into all aspects of life.

Since we were ruled
by the Japanese,

we became second-class citizens.

It became much tougher.

Even with schools, there
were different schools

for the Japanese and the locals.

We were segregated.

By the time mr Cheng arrived
here as a young man in 1943,

the pacific war was raging.

Japan's desire to
dominate the pacific

had bought them into
direct conflict with america.

And that meant a new labour
force was arriving on the island.

Prisoners of war caught by the
Japanese were sent to this mine.

Now, the biggest copper
mine in the Japanese empire.

And they were predominantly
British and American soldiers.

In total, 1,100 allied prisoners
of war served time here.

Many bought in on hell ships
from Singapore and the Philippines.

Most were forced to work
here for almost three years

and face conditions
as bad - if not worse -

than on the railway
of death in Burma

made famous by movies
like 'bridge on the river kwai'.

Many died of disease and a prisoner
of war memorial erected here in 1997

pays homage to their memory.

The Japanese
surrendered and left in 1945.

So, who was behind
the mammoth pipelines

that extend out of the facility?

After the country's restoration,

the Taiwan gold and copper
mining bureau was established.

But it soon faced
new challenges.

With gold deposits depleted,

the focus was on copper
refining and then purification.

They started
purification in 1965.

There was a 65m-high chimney,

but it was really
close to the factory.

The sulphate levels were high

and the residents and
workers couldn't take it.

Safely disposing of
these toxic emissions

required a marvel
of engineering.

What they ended up doing
was building a massive chimney

or flue system to take the gases
up and away out of the valley

and over the Ridge
of the mountain.

It's actually, they say it's
the longest concrete pipeline

ventilation system in the world.

Despite this, with
dwindling profits

and compensation claims
hanging over their heads,

the company soon
shut down operations.

The Japanese shrine still
looks over this dramatic scene,

a remnant of an empire that
emerged at an extraordinary pace

and crumbled away even faster.

Yet today, in 2020, some in Taiwan
are still fighting for independence.

This time, from China.

Out in rural champagne
county, Illinois,

lie a group of massive
abandoned warehouses.

But they're not alone.

It's a huge area with buildings
that look in fairly good condition.

It looks sort of like its
own self-contained town.

Fire station, warehouses,

housing stores,
it's all shut down.

Everything's overgrown.

The focal point is these three
huge, hanger-like structures.

Quite clearly, the hangars
tells you what this site was.

But yet, when you look
at the other elements,

there's something
else going on here.

Clues inside suggest these
hangars weren't just for storage,

but for something
rather different.

The large hangars

give you the impression that
when this place was operating,

it must have been
filled with machines,

aircraft equipment and people.

Something that really
makes it feel rather ghostly

is its vastness
and its emptiness

and a sense of something having
just gone away almost inexplicably.

You have a sense that
the answer to this place

lies at the bottom
of the stairs.

Here is where you're finally
going to understand what this is for.

But, in fact, what you're
confronted with is a lake of water.

It's entirely unpassable.
You can go no further.

In its day, this place
was at the forefront

of technological change.

But it was also at the heart

of a ground-breaking
social transformation.

The war department
authorised the formation

of the 99th pursuit squadron,

which was the first
all-black squadron.

This vast site would
become the birthplace of an

African-American air squadron who
went on to become world-renowned.

The clue to the origins
of this site in rural Illinois

are found outside
- the airstrip.

The first one built here was
completed in the early 1900s.

Aviation in the early 20th
century was an incredibly exciting

new adventure. This was all about
boundaries and how to break them.

John Pratt worked at
this site for 22 years.

I probably would
have retired here.

I was that close to it.

But to walk around
now is very painful.

It's hard to see this. It
was a beautiful installation.

This place was
vital to the protection

of the United States.

At the time of the
site's inception,

the us military was
facing a problem.

Even though aviation was really
sort of born in the United States,

the United States was sort of
slow to take advantage of that ability.

The Wright brothers may
have started it all, but by 1917,

the Americans had fallen behind
in terms of aviation technology.

So, this place was specifically
created to remedy that.

There was a vast
amount of money.

Over $600 million appropriated
by the congress in 1917,

solely for building up the
us aviation infrastructure.

A suitable site had to be chosen
for the us to develop their air power.

It was an isolated situation.

There's flatlands out here
and it was a good flying place.

It was centrally located
in the United States.

Testing aircraft
was only the start,

as the site soon became a
vital cog in the us war machine.

When you think of
aeroplanes, you think of pilots.

But actually, that's only
a small part of the story.

What it takes to keep
aeroplanes in the air

is a vast number of different
skills - ground crew, engineers.

It's absolutely critical that
people are trained in various

aspects of maintaining the
planes and so, it's really about

building and training a crew
in all aspects of maintenance.

This is the chanute
air force base.

Chanute field, as it was first
known, was used for technical training

and to instruct cadets in the
rigours of flying warplanes.

The first real
challenge for this place

came with the outbreak
of the second world war.

Everything changed for the
United States with Pearl harbor.

After that attack,

america was on a war footing
and knew it was about to engage.

And so, this place became
absolutely key to the air effort.

Us army air core expands
from perhaps 20,000 in 1939

to several million by 1943/44.

Now, this expansion requires
a training infrastructure

that is enormous.

Oh, this place is huge.

It's bigger even
when it's empty.

It was all kinds of training
that went on in here

and all kinds of
activity from wall to wall.

There would be planes
and activity and classes

going on, all the
way through here.

Let's take a b-17 bomber.

A b-17 bomber
carried a flight engineer

who would have been
trained here at chanute field.

The b-17 also
carried the radiomen.

They had radio courses
and radio repair courses,

radio specialist courses
here at chanute field.

There were four
places similar to this

and they were filled
with activity every day.

There were students
coming and going all the time.

But it wasn't just the kind
of training taking place

here that was groundbreaking.

It was also who
was being trained.

At the beginning
of world war ii,

the society in the United
States is thoroughly segregated.

In 1940, the us census recorded

only 140 African American
pilots across the nation.

But this would soon change.

There were black
airmen that came here

and they were
trained as mechanics.

But some of them had
prior flying experience

and they were doing
exceptionally well in the classes

and so some of the
people on the base decided

that they would make
them into actual pilots.

Fighting a war against a fascist
and racist regime in Europe,

suddenly, the United States'
own policies were under scrutiny.

So, it's a moment that United States
realises that having this squadron,

this 99 squadron,
training these black pilots,

is a way to indicate an opening,

a commitment to democracy,
a commitment against racism.

Unlike some other peers
in the army, for example,

they're being trained equally.

And so, this is a
breakdown of segregation

in the United States military.

That unit would evolve
into the tuskegee airmen,

who would become world-famous.

And so, the 99 pursuit squadron
became the tuskegee airmen,

and they moved them
to tuskegee, Alabama,

from here and became pilots.

So they were trained,
initially, at chanute.

The forming of the
tuskegee airmen

was a very important
part of chanute's history.

These first black military aviators
had a really critical role to play.

They flew over 15,000
individual sorties

over north Africa and Europe.

So, they really had a wide-ranging
impact and sphere of influence.

And for their skill and
bravery and commitment,

they received 150
distinguished flying crosses,

which is a very
significant record.

Whilst the work being
done here during world war ii

was vital to the us war effort,
much of what remains lies empty.

Yet, the interior of one hangar
suggests the site still had

a crucial role to play
later in the nuclear age.

We're talking about a very
powerful aggressive totalitarian

Soviet union on one side with a
vast number of nuclear weapons.

There was a new type of aerial
warfare during the cold war,

during this nuclear age, and
chanute was at the forefront of offering

this training in a situation where
mistakes could cost American lives.

These new weapons were titan
intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Some of the largest
ever deployed.

With that spirit and legacy
of innovation and training

and reliability, when the time
came for the titan missile programme,

chanute was the
obvious place to host it.

Well, the 1950s,
it was decided that

all seven different missile
programmes would move here

to chanute and the
training was conducted here.

This was the
primary training facility

for especially missile launch
and missile maintenance.

The titan missile housed a nine
mega-tonne nuclear warhead,

making it america's single
most powerful nuclear weapon.

And at chanute, the titan missile
silo was housed inside a vast hangar,

so missilers could train in the
latest deployment techniques.

They were fully prepared
to go out into the field

and take the order, if
necessary, to fire a missile.

The crews trained at
chanute through the years

had to be vigilant and alert for
whatever threats were coming.

So, chanute is
one of the pillars

of the success of western power
in the cold war and we're free today

because chanute did a very
good job in training its people.

Chanute provided training for
thousands of us air force airmen.

Until the government
downsized the armed forces

and it was closed in 1993.

The slightly melancholy
aspect to places like this,

the sad reality is
that whilst war is live,

places like this are of
a supreme importance.

But when the war is over,
there's no real need for it,

and their legacy is one that is so
powerful, but so quickly forgotten.

This was like a family.

I mean, there were a lot of people
here just really enjoyed working

with each other and they enjoyed
their jobs and they really enjoyed

what they were doing, it gave
your life a meaning to work here.

And at least for me, that
was a very important thing.

In a remote region
of western Ukraine

stands an imposing building
with an unusual charm.

You're out in this rural area and
here's a hulking massive castle.

It looks almost like an
English manor house

out of a Tim Burton movie.

On examining this palace, you
know, you're struck by its grandeur,

its magnificence and yet, something
really bad has happened to it.

It's brooding.

Every one of those windows
looks like it ought to have

a ghost hiding in the draperies.

You could see how people could
find this kind of spooky and unsettling.

All across this grand building
are confusing design aspects.

This has kind of
a split personality.

On the one hand, it looks like a
sprawling English country estate

with grand windows
and ballrooms.

On the other hand, it
has a military quality.

It's got a moat and
emplacements for canons.

Throughout its life, this building
went through so much turmoil.

But what finally
struck this place down

was a bizarre and
unexpected twist to its story.

The foundations of this castle
are buried in the 17th century,

when this area was a part of the
Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

A territory that stretched
over 400,000 square miles

in Eastern Europe.

The palace was built by a guy
named stanisław poniatowski,

who was a grand hetman -
meaning a senior advisor to the king -

and a guy that, you know,
exercised a lot of power

and wanted to build a palace
that reflected his personal role

in this Polish-Lithuanian
commonwealth.

Historian Ivan dudych has
explored every room in this building.

Hidden behind the fortress walls,
there is a real royal luxury inside.

There are bright, grand
rooms that display wealth.

There were balls and
thematic evenings here,

both theatrical and poetic.

There were also
musical performances.

Life raged within these walls.

But this building doesn't only
feel like a luxurious palace.

The parties came later, something
else was going on here before.

It's not exactly a palace
for a aristocrat to enjoy

all the pleasures of life, because
it has some real military features.

It's up on this hill. It
has a moat around it.

It has a couple of fortified
bastions on it to repel attackers.

When you look at
this place from the air,

you see the long, pointy corners
of what's called the trace italienne,

the Italian shape of fortresses.

And this is designed
to repel Cannon fire.

To the extent that poniatowski
built a military structure -

one that could be defended -

that turned out to be smart
because, in fact, this palace

was the focal point of a number of
battles and attacks over the years.

Reflecting the violent
times it was built in,

the result was a
unique hybrid design,

an opulent grandiosity
on the inside,

but a brutally efficient military
structure on the outside.

This is pidhirtsi castle.

What were the defensive
advantages of this type of castle?

At close range, it was easy to
fire effectively from the castle,

and the fact that
it had a bastion

and Pentagon towers
made it hard to breach.

Here is a strategically
important valley.

If you come
charging up this valley

and if you can get
up there with impunity,

then you can make inroads against
the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

Across the first 150
years of its existence,

the castle saw
battle after battle.

But the warring
wouldn't last forever.

It suddenly arrives in an era of
peace from the 1770s onward,

because of the
partitions of Poland.

So, now, this is a
golden age for the castle

because now, it's in a region
that's characterised by peace.

They can develop all
of its economic assets.

As the austro-Hungarian
empire starts to exert control over

galicia, this part of the world,
it becomes a lot more peaceful.

And as austro-Hungarian
empire policies

start to make this place wealthy

this fortress becomes a
Jewel of a country house.

Designed with opulence in mind,

pidhirtsi castle now reverted
to its original purpose.

The second floor was
occupied by the royal rooms.

There were several halls.

Crimson hall, yellow hall,
and the European throne room.

They all helped influence
the decorative style

of other palaces and
castles in the region.

There were highly artistic
parquet floors, marble windowsills

and all the walls were
covered with precious tapestries.

This castle becomes
a place of ostentation.

It becomes a place
to show off wealth.

But for all its glamour,
there was something troubling

lingering in the background.

A gruesome tale
that still haunts

the castle's empty
rooms and dark corridors.

We're currently standing in
the dungeons of the castle.

This place gives you the
shivers. It's cold and damp.

The 18th century was
a strange, bizarre epoch

and there was no better place than
the basement to hide your secrets.

The second owner of the
castle was waclaw rzewuski,

and dark legends surround him.

His fiancee Maria rzewuski,

a beautiful 16-year-old girl
who constantly cheated on him.

Rumour has it that driven
by suspicion and jealousy,

he murdered her.

Her body has never
been discovered.

It's believed that her
spirit never found peace

and she is buried
somewhere within these walls.

Maria's spirit, however,
wouldn't be the only one

to haunt the castle's corridors.

For, in time, a different
use for this place

would soon see other
lost souls join her.

By the mid-20th
century, war had returned.

First, the Nazis, and then
the Soviets invaded this land.

Not wanting to take any chances
as the rampaging forces approached,

the castle's owner removed the
last of the treasures and fled to Brazil.

The castle stripped bare
is what we see here today.

When the Russians took control
of this territory late in world war ii,

they didn't care about the
opulent past of the castle.

They turned it into a hospital
for tuberculosis patients.

They divided all the halls into
narrow corridors and tiny hospital

wards, which significantly changed
the layout of the interior space.

As the second world
war ended, finally,

there was hope for peace
and calm again at pidhirtsi.

But in 1956, a final
blow was struck.

And just when the palace had
emerged from centuries of war

and looked like it was
going to reclaim its old lustre,

somebody was working up
in the roof with a blowtorch,

doing some
repairs, started a fire.

So, a lot of the damage to
the palace that we can see

with a naked eye today, you
know, stems from that big fire.

This place that was
so strong for so long,

this fortress that existed
for hundreds of years,

built to last, was so absurdly
destroyed by a simple house fire.

And plans are now afoot
for the next stage of its life.

The actual goal is
to rebuild this place

and open a museum
about pidhirtsi castle.

We are hopeful that this
castle will attract visitors

and will have another
chance to shine.

In spite of everything that was
thrown at this place for centuries,

the walls are still there,

the new roof is up,

and maybe this place
has got the staying power

to continue to dominate this
valley for a long time to come.

In the mountains of Slovenia,

a set of crumbling ruins perch
above a precipitous gorge.

You might think of this, at a
distance, as an old monastery.

The thing that strikes you is,
it's a very calm, tranquil place.

But scars on the mountainside

hint that the Serenity
is not what it seems.

There's a whole series of
stone walls tunnelling through

the earth and something
about it doesn't feel quite right.

Structures scattered
around this whole area

point to a history of conflict.

Somebody went to enormous effort

to actually cut through rock
and excavate trench systems.

This building
hasn't just decayed.

Massive damage
was inflicted upon it.

Whole walls have
been bought down.

And on the plains below this place,
half a million men were slaughtered.

This site saw one of the
most futile and deadly battles

in one of history's most
catastrophic conflicts.

At the turn of the 20th century
this region lay under Austrian rule

at the edge of the
austro-Hungarian empire,

on the border with
a newly unified Italy.

Italy wanted the austro-Hungarian
land just across its border

in the Julian alps in
what was, at the time,

austro-Hungarian territory.

With the threat of war looming,

in 1900 the Austrians finished
building this - fort hermann.

The purpose of fort hermann
is to mount heavy guns

that will control the
valley and the pass below.

At every key pass and valley,

there are military fortifications
that are very, very tough to take.

Local historian and tour
guide Vladimir lipovec

is an expert in the Austrian
border defence system.

They made 92 fortresses

all along the border between
Austria-Hungary and Italy.

This position was
chosen because from here,

you can see the Italians
coming from the west.

From this window,
you can see the enemy

and you can shoot the enemy.

Fort hermann really
commanded this valley region

with particularly
good viewpoints.

And you can imagine this fort
perched on this mountainside

and glaring down at
troops marching towards it.

But no amount of mountain
defences would prevent the carnage

that was about to play
out in the valley below.

Across the border,
the Italians believed

this land to be
rightfully theirs.

When world war I started, Italy
should have sided with Germany

and Austria-Hungary. But, in
fact, Italy decided to be neutral.

That meant that it was
courted by both sides

and, ultimately, it was the
allies who were able to offer Italy

the greatest
prospect of success.

The allies promised Italy the
prize of these disputed lands.

And in 1915, the
Italians joined the war

led by the notorious
general Luigi cadorna.

One commentator described
him as an old Roman

cast in the big, simple
mould of antiquity.

Cadorna, as the
Italian chief of staff,

is the picture of the officer
who has a headquarters 17 miles

far behind the front, almost
out of hearing of any artillery fire.

He was an authoritarian.
He was old-fashioned.

He was a strict disciplinarian.

He ran the army like a dictator.

One of the first prizes in
cadorna's sights was fort hermann.

In anticipation of this,
the Austrian's reinforced

their defences on the plains below,
an area known as the bovec basin.

There's a whole
series of stone walls

snaking across the mountainside.

And as you look, it becomes
apparent these are trenches.

This is battery chello,

a nearly 200m-long trench
connecting two artillery positions.

They prepared some positions
to stop the Italian attack.

The Cannon was fixed here and
you can move it for maybe 60 degrees.

The Austrian defences
continued below ground,

where shored-up caves
would act as bunkers.

To hide against
heavy artillery fire,

they made a lot of caverns.

And this small division near bovec,
there's approximately 500 caverns.

On 29 may, just six days
after the Italians joined the war,

Luigi cadorna gave the
order for his troops to attack.

This splinter is a part of Italian
grenade, which were launched

across this mountain over
there, which is 2,200m high.

All these grenades were
launched across the mountain.

Approximately 200 grenades
were falling around there.

All these grenades were
producing strong noise,

which causes shellshock.

Fort hermann held its own, but
Luigi cadorna was far from done.

He throws away large numbers
of troops in pointless attacks

and then criticises his commanders
who have had their units decimated

by Austrian artillery
and machine guns.

And for minimal gains, keeps doing
the same thing over and over again.

The Italian attack on fort
hermann heralded the start

of cadorna's ill-fated campaign
along the infamous isonzo front,

which ran south
from fort hermann.

Here, some of the
bloodiest battles

of the first world war
were to be waged.

This is a front
of only 60 miles.

On a 60-mile front, we
have 300,000 dead Italians

in the course of the war,
200,000 dead Austrians.

This is one of the bloodiest
battlefields anywhere.

This is the place where everything
ended with just one battle,

but not before half a million
men had lost their lives.

Eventually, in 1917, cadorna's
men were nearing the bovec basin

and the mountain
town of caporetto.

The frontline went
through this, bovec basin,

across those two
mountains or hills.

The Italian positions were on
the other side, a little further,

and the Austrians were here.

And this was the beginning
of the battle of caporetto,

but began here in
the bovec region.

Instead of defending,
the Austrians called in help

from a specialist
German military unit.

They came armed with
a controversial weapon.

They bought a special weapon -

gas - and this was
very poisonous gas

and it was launched down
there, from this direction,

to Italian positions
approximately a mile away.

In a few seconds, approximately
500 Italian soldiers were dead.

The Italians, taken by
surprise, break very rapidly

and the entire front
collapses in a two-week period.

The Italian loss at
the battle of caporetto

is one of the most comprehensive
defeats in Italian military history.

General Luigi cadorna
was finally sacked.

Despite their
victory at caporetto,

the Austrian-German
alliance lost the war

and the vast austro-Hungarian
empire collapsed.

And at the end of the war
Italy gets this piece of land

that they had wanted, but
it's certainly not worth the price

of several 100,000 dead
and the virtual rumination

of the Italian economy.

Today, the crumbling structures
that litter the bovec basin

are all that's left
of a bitter conflict.

Now, the region is known for the
beauty of the landscape and hiking.

There's even a path
of peace created

that connects the forts
and the old trench system.

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.

Captions edited by
ai-media ai-media. TV