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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,960 Narrator: A peculiar mix of structures left derelict 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:07,200 in a parisian park. 3 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:10,440 There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, 4 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,600 it's all just smashed together in the same spot 5 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,280 and that's part of the wonder and mystery of this place. 6 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:20,080 A watery graveyard forgotten by time, 7 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,000 the silent protector of an English village. 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,160 This isn't just one old rowing boat tossed aside, 9 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:29,240 these things dominate the landscape. 10 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:36,680 A network of relics forged through deception on a grand scale... 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,080 Audacious doesn't cover it, 12 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,840 you had a team of 1,000 overseers 13 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,600 watching to make sure they adhered to the rules 14 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:47,480 and if they were caught breaking those rules, 15 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,680 it could have started another war. 16 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:57,520 ..And a site on america's east coast harbouring vast secrets. 17 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:02,080 Inside you're presented with this large cavernous void 18 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:04,360 and then as you venture deeper, 19 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,720 you see these rusting elements that suggest that something hefty 20 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,800 was being hoisted or lifted up and down here. 21 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:24,280 Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds. 22 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,400 Forged through years of toil, now haunted by the past. 23 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,760 Their secrets waiting to be revealed. 24 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:55,640 Paris, France. 25 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:58,240 The city of light. 26 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,240 Gay Paris it's a proper Metropolis, 27 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,560 a real melting pot for cultures around the world. 28 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,040 Liberty, equality and brotherhood 29 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:14,280 it's really a particular vision of human democracy, 30 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,040 of equality that really resonates in France. 31 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,080 But on the outskirts of the city 32 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,960 are a series of crumbling structures that don't seem to belong. 33 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,840 You have this park that combines some features 34 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:32,000 of seemingly far away cultures. 35 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:35,960 There are facets of architecture 36 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,000 that look like they've been airlifted from around the world. 37 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,400 Vietnam, Tonga, China, 38 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:46,080 there's a bridge there that looks vaguely Japanese, 39 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,600 appropriately surrounded by bamboo. 40 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:54,080 Alone each of these things are really beautiful 41 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:56,680 but they're smashed together rather curiously. 42 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:01,480 The items in this collection are relics of a past that parisians 43 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,000 would rather forget. 44 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,120 You wonder when they're bought together what they mean, 45 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:08,680 what they were used for 46 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,280 and why they were placed in juxtaposition. 47 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,640 The story begins at the dawn of the 20th century 48 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:18,480 with the opening of a garden. 49 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:26,400 In 1899, the French government decided to open a garden 50 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,000 with a greenhouse to grow exotic plants. 51 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:35,320 Catherine hodeir has studied the garden's dark secrets. 52 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,560 In the greenhouse you had plants such like cocoa beans, 53 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,960 or coffee beans or vanilla beans. 54 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,320 But this wasn't just an ordinary greenhouse 55 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:48,680 growing garden tomatoes, 56 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,560 this was an institution of scientific study 57 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,040 and where were all these plants coming from? 58 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:56,600 The French colonies. 59 00:03:57,480 --> 00:03:59,040 In the 19th century, 60 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:03,840 France had an empire that stretched across 8% of the world's surface. 61 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:07,840 Alongside england and Germany, 62 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:12,920 France has colonies that really are all over the globe. 63 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,720 You have French colonies in the Caribbean, 64 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,840 you have a French colony in South America, 65 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:22,520 you have them in Asia and in Africa, 66 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,520 north Africa and west Africa. 67 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:31,080 The 19th and 20th centuries were a time of rapid discovery 68 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,560 and the major global powers competed for scientific superiority. 69 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:39,040 So the work that these French experts were doing here 70 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,360 has real potential 71 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,640 and any new commodities that they discover 72 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:48,000 can then be processed and redistributed across the empire. 73 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,080 But all that doesn't explain these buildings. 74 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,520 For seven years French botanists studied the samples gathered 75 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,480 from the colonies. 76 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,800 But by 1906, the garden was broke. 77 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:04,680 This garden needed some cash. 78 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:08,160 The ordinary French population just didn't seem that interested 79 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:09,576 in the work that was being done here, 80 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:11,600 even though it was very, very important work. 81 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,760 They needed to get the French people excited 82 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,200 about the colonies and their products again. 83 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,000 To raise capital for the garden, 84 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,800 they decided to stage a grand exhibition 85 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:30,200 and at it's centre were new buildings inspired by the colonies. 86 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,960 Imagine a turn of the century Disneyland, 87 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,920 so you were going to see the orient right next to the African jungle. 88 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:45,400 And it was a huge hit, thousands of visitors came 89 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:48,000 and they even got the president of the French republic 90 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:49,320 to come and check it out. 91 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:52,240 The samples of architecture 92 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:58,760 in this garden were French Guyana from indo-China, from Tunisia, 93 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,000 Morocco, Madagascar. 94 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:04,800 The noise would have been incredible 95 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:08,160 from music to squawking animals and the hub bub of people 96 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:10,920 and there would have been a cocktail of rich odours 97 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:14,080 from spices to camel excrement. 98 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:16,000 This was quite an exhibition, 99 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:20,760 the rarest treasures from the colonies were on display. 100 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:26,600 There was nothing you couldn't see here including human beings. 101 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,680 Mongolians, Chinese, africans, 102 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:38,680 they would have been presented in what would have been considered 103 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:40,680 representative indigenous wear, 104 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,880 clothing that may or may not have had ceremonial purposes 105 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:48,600 but they would be presented sort of as exotics in dress. 106 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,440 And in speech and in behaviour. 107 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,000 It was meant to be a cultural exchange 108 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:56,320 but the exchange was in one direction. 109 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:58,200 With people who were on display 110 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,080 being gawped at, almost like being in a zoo. 111 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,600 The owners of the garden hoped to make big money 112 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:05,840 from their exhibits. 113 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:07,120 History had taught them 114 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,800 that the human zoo could draw a crowd. 115 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:16,040 These type of colonial exhibitions or human zoos if you will, 116 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,280 were not limited to, to France, 117 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:23,800 you had similar examples in terms of england, 118 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:25,520 in terms of the United States. 119 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:32,160 London, Berlin even New York, put human beings on display. 120 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:35,680 High minded scientists would come 121 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:39,520 and perform a systematic study of non Caucasian people 122 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:42,480 to try to classify the differences 123 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:44,920 but the conclusions they came to, 124 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,040 today they would be considered extremely racist. 125 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:51,840 To raise enough capital for the garden, 126 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,120 they needed the most eye catching displays 127 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,440 from France's most distant colonies. 128 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,480 There were adventurers who would travel 129 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:02,920 to the four corners of the French empire 130 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:06,840 and they would offer to pay these people handsomely 131 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,480 if they would come to France 132 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,320 and talk to French people about their culture. 133 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,960 The recruiters offered things like a percentage of ticket sales 134 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,400 but that often never materialised. 135 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:20,696 And the vast majority of these people 136 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:22,640 didn't speak any French, 137 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,280 so they were completely at the whim of the adventurers 138 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:27,600 that had bought them there. 139 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,720 The colonial exhibit of 1907 raised thousands of dollars 140 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,600 for the garden, ensuring it's future. 141 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,040 But a global crisis less than ten years later 142 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:44,200 would see the garden put to a different purpose. 143 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:48,240 So during world war I, 144 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,720 the garden was converted in to a war hospital 145 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,200 because the people from the French colonies 146 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:58,720 were bought here to fight for France 147 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:00,640 on the French western front. 148 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:03,440 France's colonial subjects 149 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,120 were recruited by the hundreds of thousands 150 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:09,440 to fight on the side of their own colonisers. 151 00:09:11,560 --> 00:09:16,080 Buildings that used to be exhibition spaces or ticket halls 152 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:17,720 were now things like surgeries 153 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:21,040 for France's foreign and native soldiers. 154 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:25,840 They even built Paris' first mosque for Muslim colonial troops. 155 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,680 And you'd think that this would be some type of watershed moment, 156 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:34,480 now that these people had fought for France, 157 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:37,640 that they'd get recognition, if not as equals 158 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:38,840 then at least more respect 159 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:41,840 than being put on display but you'd be wrong. 160 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,160 Over a decade after French and colonial soldiers fought 161 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:49,880 as brothers in arms, 162 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,240 France threw their biggest colonial exhibition, ever. 163 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,920 For this 1931 exhibition 164 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,760 there are some 32 million tickets sold over six months. 165 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:04,760 There was even an entire nomadic tribe of people from Senegal. 166 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,240 You have to wonder how they were convinced 167 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:08,880 to participate in such. 168 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:12,800 This would be the last time 169 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:15,440 this kind of display was seen in France, 170 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:18,480 the colonial exhibitions soon went out of fashion. 171 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:22,440 The park was again closed to the public 172 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:26,400 and the buildings left to rot in this quiet corner of Paris. 173 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:34,600 Today, historians like Catherine 174 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,240 dedicate their work to recording the history of the colonial era. 175 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:44,280 So, today, the garden is partly abandoned. 176 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:48,560 It became very important in 2005 177 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:52,280 to reopen the garden to the public. 178 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,440 Although these exhibitions end, 179 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:01,960 the legacies of colonialism has a very, very long after life 180 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,960 but that idea some how that allure, 181 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:09,160 that exoticism still persists 182 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,480 and we should blame at least part of that 183 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,800 on the history of putting people on display. 184 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,400 Standing in the waters off the New Jersey coastline, 185 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:26,680 is Sandy hook, 186 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:30,120 a sandbar littered with the remnants of war. 187 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:37,640 Looking around Sandy hook today, 188 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:42,240 it's like a kind of a yard sale of military technology. 189 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:47,080 Some look like very typical cold war era installations, 190 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:51,040 others look as though they date back as far as the civil war. 191 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:56,240 The assortment of structures and weapons on show here, 192 00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:00,400 makes you wonder is this your typical military base 193 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:02,960 or something entirely different? 194 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:08,160 The sites position seems to offer the first clue as to it's purpose. 195 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:13,680 This long narrow peninsula points like a dagger 196 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:15,480 right at New York harbour 197 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:18,120 and this hints at it's strategic importance. 198 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:22,080 Because any deep draft vessel approaching New York harbour, 199 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:25,160 is going to have to swing right by this peninsula. 200 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,640 Yet, this wasn't a place with just one role to play. 201 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,160 Or one story to tell. 202 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,280 I see construction from times 203 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:47,800 when america was just another colony, 204 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:54,160 parts that show america's rise to military superiority, 205 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:57,080 I see evidence of the moment 206 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:03,240 when the United States stopped being just another country 207 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:07,880 and became the military colossus it is. 208 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:11,560 Here it is, on this little Sandy bit of ground. 209 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,600 Towards the northern end of the peninsula, 210 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,720 an old light house provides a commanding view 211 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:29,080 across this baffling complex and hints at it's beginnings. 212 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:32,640 The construction of this lighthouse 213 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:36,000 points to Sandy hook's significance in American history, 214 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,960 dating all the way back to the mid 1700s. 215 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,520 It's need was driven by New York's merchant traffic. 216 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:48,400 This is a harbour that has been strategically important 217 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,600 to anyone trying to hold the north Atlantic. 218 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,080 It was an important Dutch, English and American harbour 219 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,760 and when you look at that lighthouse, 220 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,000 it shows how long people have needed 221 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,880 to navigate safely in and out of New York. 222 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,920 Park ranger, Tom Hoffman, knows the danger of these shores 223 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:13,200 better than most. 224 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:16,080 Even on a clear day, 225 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:19,880 Sandy hook is so low and flat it blends in with the ocean water 226 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:22,000 and imagine that's the day time 227 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,360 and at night time, you don't see anything, 228 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:26,080 the night they lighted it 229 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:27,120 for the first time 230 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,880 was 11 June 1764 231 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,440 and it's been standing here on this location ever since. 232 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,840 But these ruins show the treacherous coastline 233 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:39,880 wasn't the only danger here. 234 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,440 The story of war written across this place, 235 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:46,800 actually began at the lighthouse 236 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,480 when the British hoped to defend this vital navigational aid 237 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:52,320 during the American revolution. 238 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,160 The British dispatched two frigates 239 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:58,600 and anchored them right out here 240 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:01,840 and had an armed guard here and sure enough who shows up? 241 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:05,600 But 200 American soldiers with two Cannon... 242 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:10,320 ..In 1776, they're sneaking up the hook, 243 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,000 the commanding officer ordered the cannons 244 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:14,560 to fire at the lighthouse 245 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,440 but as he put it in a report, 246 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,200 "we bombarded the tower for over an hour 247 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,320 "but could make no impression." 248 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,040 Continuing to shine for centuries to come, 249 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,320 the lighthouse would oversee a dramatic transformation 250 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:30,480 of this land. 251 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:36,280 In 1874, nearly a decade after the civil war ended, 252 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:39,240 thunderous shots rang out over Sandy hook, 253 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:42,240 fired from this now silent platform. 254 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,080 A now united nation was weary of external threats, 255 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:52,760 this empty landscape had become the us armies first proving ground. 256 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:57,840 A proving ground is a place where you can take in new design 257 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:02,760 and where you can take samples of all of your military production 258 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:04,080 and you can prove them. 259 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,240 They would check to make sure that the rounds worked, 260 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:09,400 the fuses worked, the range accuracy, 261 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,000 the detonation, the explosion. 262 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,840 They would test every aspect of the projectile 263 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:16,320 and the gun firing it 264 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,240 and so you needed a place where you could fire freely 265 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,040 without risk to, you know, civilian life. 266 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:28,000 Over the coming half century, hundreds of thousands of rounds 267 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,960 would be fired from the Sandy hook proving ground. 268 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,880 And some of the largest, 269 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,200 most ambitious weapons ever created were tested here. 270 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:41,000 Yet as some of the structures here testify, 271 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:44,240 this site was about more than simply testing weapons 272 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:46,960 or helping ships navigate these waters. 273 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,480 What if the fight came to Sandy hook and america's own shores? 274 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,920 We're talking about the two big stories of Sandy hook, 275 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,920 one's the lighthouse and that will guide any ship 276 00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:03,360 from around the world in to New York harbour 277 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,480 but in times of war, 278 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:07,440 you have to have some kind of defence 279 00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:10,560 to stop enemy warships from coming in. 280 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:16,480 In the mid 1890s, war with Spain appeared inevitable. 281 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,480 So more emphasis was put on nearby defensive structures 282 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:23,040 like fort hancock. 283 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:29,880 The us did not have the capacity at the end of the 19th century 284 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:32,960 to build a big enough Navy, 285 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,440 so instead of building a lot of ships, 286 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,880 the United States builds a lot of batteries of guns 287 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,840 to defend all of it's major harbours. 288 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:49,400 What you had here were four 12-inch calibre mortars 289 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,680 and you can see their bases had been circular, 290 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,320 that's because a mortar fires projectiles high up 291 00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:58,720 to come back down on your enemies ships. 292 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,880 As a proving ground for the military 293 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:04,080 and with access to the latest technology, 294 00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:06,920 Sandy hook was set as an example to follow. 295 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:11,080 The decision is taken in the United States 296 00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:15,520 to protect every valuable harbour with these shore batteries 297 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:19,480 and so breach loading eight, ten and 12 inch naval guns 298 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,560 are delivered to forts like hancock, 299 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,760 starting in 1895 to defend america's harbours. 300 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,880 While the Spanish never came within range, 301 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:34,120 other enemies would soon threaten these shores. 302 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,400 And while the us had always trailed 303 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:38,880 the European powers in military might, 304 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:42,440 here at fort hancock, that old dynamic was shifting. 305 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:48,000 European gun makers are developing artillery pieces 306 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:52,480 that can shoot smokeless powder, fire quickly, disappear 307 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:57,200 and Sandy hook is where the American versions 308 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,800 of these guns are being developed. 309 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:03,160 Here is where American technology 310 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:07,440 is keeping up, thanks to us government research. 311 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:13,120 This is the very first and only steam powered 312 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,400 disappearing gun battery, 313 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,840 so you load the guns while inside 314 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,760 then it lifted up through openings in the roof 315 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,840 to fire at enemy ships out in the ocean 316 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:26,920 and of course, once you fire, now you've got to reload, 317 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,560 so the gun comes back down on the elevator 318 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,440 and it's a disappearing gun. 319 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,600 Within a few years of being completed however, 320 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:39,920 this battery was already outdated. 321 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,960 But the race to keep ahead was still on. 322 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,600 In 1918, a u-boat reported fired 16 shots at fort hancock 323 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:53,240 and the guns that stood here responded in kind. 324 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,720 The German submarines were a sign that the times were a changing. 325 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:04,000 The two big threats to American ports in world war ii 326 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:08,280 were enemy bombers and enemy submarines 327 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:12,400 and those big coastal gun emplacements designed 328 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:17,520 to defend American port facilities were no longer as important. 329 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,960 What remains is a legacy of both the history of this site 330 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,440 and the route america took on it's journey to the modern era. 331 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,840 By the 1950s, Sandy hook entered it's final chapter. 332 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,040 We're walking in the last defence system 333 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,680 used by the us army here at fort hancock, 334 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,000 the Nike air defence radar site, 335 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:51,000 designed to shoot down Russian bombers 336 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:52,640 if the cold war went hot. 337 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:58,400 Once Russians have atomic weapons 338 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,760 then everyone in america instantly understands 339 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:04,880 that American cities 340 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:09,000 are immensely vulnerable to Russian attack. 341 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,000 After more than a century defending New York from the sea, 342 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,040 attention now shifted to the skies 343 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,640 and the gravest threat the us ever faced. 344 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,280 For hundreds of years, Sandy hook's military installations 345 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,880 had helped protect the waters around New York... 346 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,520 ..But by the 1950s, 347 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:43,120 they were also defending the city from the air. 348 00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:48,880 Nike batteries were part of the us army air defence command. 349 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:54,120 These were placed strategically near cities across the country 350 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,920 to prevent the destruction of the centres 351 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,240 of america's great retaliatory and productive might. 352 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,040 The Nike positions around New York City 353 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:10,360 are designed to stop another Pearl harbour style sneak attack. 354 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,040 So we just went under one of the platforms 355 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:17,920 that held the missile tracking radar 356 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:21,120 because the missiles were a mile south of us 357 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,320 and once you launch the missile, 358 00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:26,880 the radar here guided the missile up to the target 359 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,360 and then another radar, the target tracking radar, 360 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,200 was tracking the target and through a computer system 361 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,000 bought the two together and guaranteed a hit. 362 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,560 Yet, like all the weapons and defence systems on show here, 363 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,960 it's lifespan was short. 364 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,520 In 1974, with the Nike missile programme outdated, 365 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,160 the last of the equipment 366 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:53,920 and military personnel left the peninsula. 367 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,000 Left to the elements on this windswept coastline, 368 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:05,720 what remains here paints a picture not just of the story of this site 369 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,000 but of the birth and history of a nation. 370 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,600 All of these artefacts taken together, 371 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:15,520 reflect america's rise to world power 372 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,840 from this vulnerable colony of the British empire 373 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,320 to a nation that then projects power 374 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:25,040 and then has the latest cutting edge technology 375 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,080 to defend the free world against the communist threat. 376 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:30,040 It's all right here on Sandy hook. 377 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:36,680 Southern england, 378 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,440 in a quiet village called purton, 379 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,800 lying beside a mighty river is a fleet of the dead. 380 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:53,120 They certainly look like boats but they appear to be made of stone, 381 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,200 can you make boats of stone? 382 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:56,880 Are they statues? 383 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,760 These monoliths stand half submerged 384 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,480 in britain's longest river, the severn. 385 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,360 Some of these boats, you can only see the very tip 386 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,320 of their rotting bow just poking out from the ground. 387 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,000 They draw a line 1.5 miles along the shoreline. 388 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:18,960 There are so many of them, 389 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,480 but they definitely all seem to have been there for a while. 390 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,200 It's almost as if they've been put here for a purpose, 391 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:27,680 as if it's been designed 392 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,920 but yet they're completely enveloped by the land. 393 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:36,600 The river and a much calmer body of water next to it, 394 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,840 both connect the village of purton to the rest of england. 395 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,000 We have a major river right next to the canal, 396 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,160 I mean talk about belt and braces, why would you need both? 397 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,360 Nearly 50 years ago, 398 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:57,200 a young boy and his family came to this river bank in southern england. 399 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,640 When I came here as a child, this was a great place to play. 400 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,680 Paul barnett and his father found strange shapes 401 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,000 sticking out of the mud. 402 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,920 But they had no idea what they were. 403 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:13,680 Well, my father being an ex sailor, 404 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:15,880 he had his own curious sort of observations 405 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,680 as to what this may be and he just naturally assumed 406 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,600 it was just a great and easy place to get rid of vessels. 407 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,160 We didn't know, we really didn't know. 408 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,760 The secrets of the site and it's boats made of stone 409 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:29,280 would remain buried, 410 00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:34,160 until Paul returned to solve the mystery 20 years later. 411 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,560 Well, the first thing that I chose to do 412 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:40,560 was to carry out a research project 413 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,040 at the local archive, 414 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,560 the information held therein was very sparse. 415 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,840 I was absolutely astounded by the lack of information. 416 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,080 These things dominate the landscape, 417 00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:54,040 you would have thought that if they'd been put here 418 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,960 for a reason, that there would be an official record. 419 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,120 But the archives were empty. 420 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:03,560 Paul's investigation had hit a wall. 421 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:09,360 But a clue would be found in the river severn's storied past. 422 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,600 Although it may not look it, this is an immensely dangerous area. 423 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:17,496 Nobody had ventured out in to the river severn, 424 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:18,960 it's incredibly treacherous, 425 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,040 the tide itself actually runs in at about 13 knots. 426 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,200 The river severn is deadly 427 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,280 but next door is a more placid body of water. 428 00:26:30,360 --> 00:26:34,080 Directly next door to this powerful river is a canal, 429 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:40,600 200 years ago, canals like these were the main ways of moving freight 430 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,120 around britain and people came to rely on these, 431 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,040 these canals were the arteries 432 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,560 for moving goods around britain, including here at purton. 433 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,800 The sharpness canal opened in 1827, 434 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,280 the people of purton 435 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,520 were now connected to the rest of england. 436 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,200 But less than 100 years later, 437 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,440 the canals existence was under threat. 438 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:07,960 The canal, a major piece 439 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,200 of infrastructure for trade 440 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,560 is protected from this very dangerous river 441 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,120 by a very narrow mound of dirt. 442 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,640 That mound in some places, just 20 feet thick, 443 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,920 is all that keeps these two bodies of water separate. 444 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:27,480 With the full force of the river coming in, 445 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:28,840 it was hitting the bank 446 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,360 and as a result of which it was now prone to erosion 447 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,600 which was happening almost on a daily basis. 448 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:38,160 The river bank literally holds back the tide 449 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:40,920 without it, the river would consume the canal. 450 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:47,520 For nearly a century the canal and the river co-existed in Harmony. 451 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,440 But in 1909, that Harmony was shattered. 452 00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:56,680 A massive storm hit the south west of england 453 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,920 and the river severn began to over flow 454 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:02,240 and spill over in to the canal. 455 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,680 The full force of that storm came into the bank 456 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,240 approximately 60m of it was removed. 457 00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:10,440 One hit and it was swept away by the river severn 458 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,400 and it's fast flowing waters. 459 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,480 Tonnes and tonnes of dirt and silt were carried away down stream. 460 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,640 Nearly 200 feet of the bank was swept away. 461 00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:24,000 The canal was now in real danger of breaching. 462 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,440 Something had to be done. 463 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,760 The storm almost obliterated the river bank 464 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,240 but a fleet made of stone was about to change it forever. 465 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,120 They had no money for big restoration projects, 466 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,080 this was a very small part of britain 467 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:46,440 that had very limited means and very little time. 468 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,960 But the chief engineer for the canal had a radical plan. 469 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,200 The engineer for the dock company made a request, 470 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,560 are there any barges that could be bought to his point, 471 00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,960 run up to the foreshore and add their strength 472 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:01,760 in order to protect that waterway. 473 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:06,640 For the plan to work, they needed a whole fleet of boats, 474 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,400 so they asked the locals to volunteer their old tugs 475 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,360 and they rallied to the cause. 476 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:17,600 In total, 15 wooden vessels were bought to purton. 477 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:21,720 This was actually one of the first vessels, 478 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,880 in actual fact, the first vessel to be beached here. 479 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,280 20 minutes before high tide, the vessel with a full head of steam 480 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,560 would come thundering in to the bank. 481 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:34,160 The plan was to then drill holes in them to let water in, 482 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,040 this would allow silt and mud from upstream 483 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,120 to come down then fill into the boats 484 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:42,400 and around the boats 485 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:44,440 and effectively rebuild the river bank. 486 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:48,800 The barges were beached on the river bank, 487 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,360 protecting the canal from the severn, 488 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,280 they became known as the purton hulks. 489 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,240 It appeared the canal had been saved 490 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,640 but the celebrations were short lived. 491 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,720 The one thing about wood is that it rots. 492 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,160 What was happening was the timber, were now rotting 493 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,160 and as a result, they once again, the canal was in danger. 494 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:19,240 So wooden boats rot and metal boats rust, 495 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,480 fortunately history provided the answer. 496 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,320 In the years after world war I, 497 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,080 the price of timber and iron Rose sharply, 498 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,080 it became too expensive to make river boats. 499 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:35,640 So boat makers turned to an unlikely material, 500 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,600 the concrete boats could be made really fast 501 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:43,080 and really cheap but apparently they were a nightmare to drive. 502 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,680 Old concrete barges were the solution 503 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:49,600 to protecting the river bank, permanently. 504 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:54,960 In the 1960s, eight were bought to purton, the final purton hulks. 505 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,440 60 years later, the banks thickness has doubled. 506 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,520 The canal was saved. 507 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:07,600 Knowing how you can work with the sea, you can't work against her. 508 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,680 Absolutely astounded by the real seamanship 509 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,960 that would have taken to get these vessels in here. 510 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,920 The purton hulks now stand as silent guardians 511 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:23,840 made of wood and stone. 512 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,560 For the last 60 years they've been there, 513 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,080 protecting the canal from the powerful river severn, 514 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:34,400 a testament to engineering by the seat of your pants. 515 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,920 In a remote region of western Poland 516 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:50,240 an engineering giant is hidden in plain sight. 517 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,880 When you approach this site, it really doesn't look like much. 518 00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,600 And then as you get closer, 519 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,360 you see that there are pillboxes dotted around the landscape. 520 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:08,040 Once you spotted one, you then see another 521 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:09,440 and as your eye carries on, 522 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:12,320 you realise this line goes on almost forever, 523 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:15,600 this is a really major piece of engineering. 524 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,040 So it reminds me of the marginal line in France, 525 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:22,800 but we're not in France, so it couldn't be that. 526 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:27,640 These pill boxes draw an outline of a fortress buried underground. 527 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:31,680 There is an immense network of tunnels 528 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:33,960 that seems to go on just forever 529 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,360 and in one of them, there's a railway line. 530 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,800 People worked here and then they left 531 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:42,800 but they left some clues 532 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,680 as to what they were doing down there. 533 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,800 A room with a sign above it that says maschinenraum, 534 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:48,840 machine room. 535 00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,040 This is a place where clearly 536 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,440 an immense engineering effort went in 537 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,320 but ultimately, it came to nought. 538 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:04,000 Almost 22 miles of tunnels are buried in the Polish countryside. 539 00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:08,320 But a clue on the surface points to a history of deception. 540 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:12,080 There's this one above ground feature, 541 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:13,600 this odd bridge. 542 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,080 That's the key to understanding the structure. 543 00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,160 What secrets are buried beneath the surface? 544 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,640 A mammoth engineering project spanning nearly 40 miles, 545 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,920 stretches across and under the Polish countryside. 546 00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:34,080 Most of this site is underground, 547 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,960 it's miles and miles of tunnel, the train tracks 548 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,680 but the clue to what this site is about 549 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:44,080 is right here in this one above ground part of it, 550 00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,360 the bridge, a bridge with an odd hinge on it. 551 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,400 Historian and architect, Robert jurga, 552 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,040 has spent his career exploring 553 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:57,240 one of Poland's most overlooked historical sites. 554 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,496 Translator: "The plan of this bridge is still protected 555 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:04,440 "by the patent that's kept in Berlin. 556 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,080 "The level of security was so high 557 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:09,360 "that the operators consisted 558 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,440 "of a specially trained group of soldiers." 559 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:15,160 Swing Bridges are common on major rivers 560 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:17,800 to let large ships pass through. 561 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,640 But the water here is practically a trickle. 562 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,400 The swing bridge is here because this entire set 563 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:28,920 of fortifications is actually illegal. 564 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,200 In western Poland, 565 00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:39,960 just 40 miles from the German border, 566 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:41,960 a swinging bridge was part 567 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,160 of an illegal fortification programme. 568 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,920 The origins of this structure date to the end of world war I, 569 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,520 when this part of Poland belonged to Germany. 570 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:53,720 Think back to what happened 571 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:54,840 in Germany at the end 572 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:56,160 of world war I. 573 00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:00,760 They were defeated by a big allied coalition, they were disarmed, 574 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:02,120 they lost territory, 575 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:04,760 they lost citizens to the treaty of versailles. 576 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,120 The treaty was punishing to Germany, 577 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,080 they had to give up their entire empire 578 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,360 they had to allow the allies to occupy 579 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:17,560 part of their industrial heartland 580 00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:20,440 and they also had to limit their army to 100,000 men. 581 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:23,040 Germany was also forbidden 582 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:26,440 from building any new fortifications along it's border. 583 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,160 Leaving the country virtually defenceless. 584 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,680 The Germans felt a great sense of vulnerability about their border 585 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,520 because after world war I, 586 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,880 they were a universally loathed nation 587 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:41,640 but they had enemies on their right, 588 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,360 there was Poland and behind Poland of course, 589 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:45,840 the Soviet union. 590 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,360 With limited defences, 591 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,440 Germany was vulnerable to invasion from the east. 592 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,200 It's biggest weakness was a stretch of land sandwiched 593 00:35:57,240 --> 00:35:59,080 between two rivers. 594 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,680 This region was flat and had no natural barriers. 595 00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:05,520 It was a highway that led straight to Berlin. 596 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,480 If the Poles or the Soviets wanted to invade Germany, 597 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:11,560 that was the perfect route 598 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:15,000 'cause it gave them a direct path to Berlin, the capital. 599 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,120 This was a huge hole in Germany's defences 600 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:19,640 and they wanted to plug it. 601 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,680 But with the treaty making the contraction 602 00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:25,520 of new defences illegal, 603 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,120 the German government concocted a rouse. 604 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,000 The rules of the treaty of versailles 605 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,280 limited Germany's spending on the military 606 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,120 and on fortifications but it didn't say anything 607 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,560 about water management, 608 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,080 so they bought in engineers 609 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,880 and dug up hundreds and hundreds of tonnes of earth, 610 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:51,800 redirected rivers and essentially created a new natural barrier. 611 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:57,480 Translator: "The main tool against the tanks was water, 612 00:36:57,520 --> 00:36:59,560 "many tactical canals were built 613 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,680 "and they became the main barrier against the enemies tanks 614 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:06,840 "on those channels, they built a line of tactical Bridges." 615 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,960 A series of Bridges across an artificial waterway, 616 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,320 each with a mechanism to stop an enemy advance. 617 00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,000 Translator: "Those Bridges were closed in case of the arrival 618 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:26,240 "of the enemy and in normal times, were used by the civilians." 619 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,720 Over five years, a line is drawn 620 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,040 between the varta and odor rivers... 621 00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:37,920 ..This is the beginning of the ostwall. 622 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,160 Audacious doesn't cover it, 623 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:44,840 you had a team of 1,000 overseers, 624 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,920 watching to make sure Germany adhered to the rules 625 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:49,920 and if they were caught breaking those rules, 626 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,360 it could have started another war. 627 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,480 An embolden, German government began to add tunnels and bunkers, 628 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,120 making the ostwall a state of the art battle fortress. 629 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:08,920 But in 1938, Germany's leader comes to inspect it. 630 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:10,520 He was not happy. 631 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,760 When Hitler visits the ostwall in 1938 632 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,680 he is definitely underwhelmed, 633 00:38:17,720 --> 00:38:20,400 Hitler is somebody who wants to see, you know, 634 00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:22,360 parades of panzers in the street, 635 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,640 flyovers by luftwaffe bombers, dive bombers and fighter planes. 636 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:28,640 Goose stepping infantry, 637 00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,760 he does not want to see these subterranean fortress 638 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,040 with just a little machine gun turret poking out of the pine trees. 639 00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:41,360 The ostwall failed it's inspection and the construction was put on hold. 640 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:44,040 The following year, 641 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,720 Hitler marched his troops past the wall and into Poland. 642 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,200 Once Germany had conquered Poland, 643 00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:55,840 this fortification lay in the middle of German controlled territory, 644 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:57,600 so was militarily useless 645 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:02,120 after a decade of pouring so much effort and money into this line, 646 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:03,960 it was left as a lame duck. 647 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:08,840 This speaks to Hitler's conception of warfare, 648 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:10,536 that the German army had to be on the move, 649 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:11,920 it had to be attacking 650 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,320 and it was not going to sit passively behind fortifications. 651 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,640 With the ostwall cancelled, the tunnels were left empty... 652 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,880 ..Until the furore found a new use for them. 653 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:29,400 After Hitler stopped construction on the ostwall, 654 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,160 it was largely unused 655 00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:35,120 but when the allies begin their strategic bombing of Germany, 656 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,560 it finds a new purpose, 657 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:41,480 they move machinery down here to build aircraft engines. 658 00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:46,720 With most able bodied soldiers fighting on the front lines, 659 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,880 only a small regiment was left to defend the wall. 660 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,840 Regular troops weren't stationed there, 661 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:55,160 you just had militia, 662 00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,480 which were mostly poorly trained Hitler youth 663 00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:00,480 and men too old to be sent to the frontlines. 664 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:04,560 Conditions were dreadful, it was dank, it was dark, 665 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,360 it was under funded, there were no resources, 666 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,120 the people who were here really had been forgotten about. 667 00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:14,240 Remember the front line was hundreds of miles away, 668 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:15,920 until everything changed. 669 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:21,440 By the end of 1944, the Germans were being pushed back 670 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,480 and the Soviets were creeping closer to Berlin. 671 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:30,520 So Hitler was not by any stretch of the imagination a military genius 672 00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:34,880 and he insisted on this tactic of no retreat 673 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:36,600 and what happens is, 674 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,680 hundreds of thousands of German troops are surrounded 675 00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:42,120 and captured by the red army 676 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:46,800 until one of the last things in-between the Soviet war machine 677 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:50,480 and Berlin is this one bit of fortification. 678 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:55,720 The ostwall and those defending it, were about to be put to the test. 679 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:02,640 Translator: "Enemy was approaching from that side, approaching slowly. 680 00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,680 "Firstly he had to overpass the antitank barrier on the road." 681 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:10,360 So, these Hitler youth and these old guys, 682 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,040 militia they stand no chance against the Soviet army 683 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,520 but that doesn't stop them, they put up resistance 684 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,640 and they were determined to defend the border 685 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,080 and defend this fortification. 686 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:24,960 In just days, the wall was breached 687 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,640 and the red army rolled towards Berlin. 688 00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:32,680 The slightly pathetic thing about the line really, 689 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:36,480 is that after so much deviousness, so much planning, 690 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,560 so much hopes for it, when the time actually came, 691 00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,560 they weren't prepared to put the manpower or the resources 692 00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:43,680 in to using it 693 00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:46,280 and the lame duck became a damp squib. 694 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,120 Translator: "Had this fortification been completed 695 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:52,800 "the way it was designed, 696 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,920 "most likely it would have been very precious to the German army. 697 00:41:56,960 --> 00:42:01,240 "Unfortunately for them, they completed it only to 30%. 698 00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,960 "And without anti tank weaponry, the soldiers didn't have a chance 699 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,400 "against the power of the Soviet army. 700 00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,040 When the war ended and the treaties are signed, 701 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:16,960 the borders are redrawn and this area ends up inside Poland, 702 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,880 the very nation it was built to keep out. 703 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,960 Now the ostwall lies empty... 704 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,560 ..Rumours speak of Nazi treasure still hidden in the walls... 705 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,360 ..But all that fills the dark corridors today 706 00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:39,760 are some 35,000 protected bats. 707 00:42:48,720 --> 00:42:53,320 Abandoned, disintegrating, reclaimed by nature. 708 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,840 Structures once at the cutting edge, 709 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,280 bearing witness to the forces, 710 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,760 pioneers and villains that define the world today. 711 00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:06,560 Emblems of a shared past standing in our present. 712 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,600 Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV 59448

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