All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S06E12.Spike.Island.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

(Dramatic percussions)

Narrator: The
remote pacific site

where a strange
collection of structures

caught American forces unaware.

The Japanese military
fortified everything they could,

cave systems, tunnel systems

so that when the allied
forces finally landed

they would be entering
in to a meat grinder.

The derelict Irish prison

where the inmates struggled
to break in, as well as out.

A lot of very high
risk inmates arrive

and this place simply
isn't designed to hold them.

A massive complex in
France with an explosive past.

Woman: No-one knows
what happened for sure,

everything disappeared
in one huge bang.

Was it deliberate?
Was it accidental?

Was it sabotage?

And the Spanish ghost town

where us freedom fighters fought
to the death for a better world.

We see a lot of graffiti

which itself has
some real significance

in solving this mystery.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

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

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In the western pacific

foreboding ruins scattered across
the Japanese island of ie jima

make for a confounding site.

This island is so unusual
looking, it's almost entirely flat

but then you have
this bulging mountain

standing right in
the middle of it.

Looking down on it, it looks
almost like an aircraft carrier.

And someone has
built three runways here.

You'll see some old airfields

with weeds growing up, you know,
through cracks in the pavement.

It's not immediately
clear who was flying in

or out of this place.

The modern day town
hides the first clue.

There's a building that
looks completely out of place

in a 21st century context,

it looks battle scarred,
it's got gaping holes in it.

Structures hidden below
ground are no less intriguing.

And it has a lot of
naturally occurring caves,

some of which could be engineered
in to excellent defensive positions.

They're pretty well sheltered,
from the outside you have no idea

of what a large complex
exists behind those entrances.

What links the disused
runway to the blown out building

and the fortified caves
that lie below this island?

A torn out concrete shell hiding
in the modern day town of ie

is the only building on the island
that survived the second world war.

Local guide tamae takamichi knows
exactly what this place once was.

Translation: "This
building is the remains

"of the municipal pawn shop.

"It was built before the war
and made out of concrete."

The one old concrete
building left on this island

from the old days
is the pawn shop.

The pawn shop is pretty
much the local bank

and that means that it's
got to be a strong safe place.

It has been torn to pieces,
it has clearly been in a fight.

Translation: "The big holes
are damaged from artillery.

"And the small ones
these are from rifle fire.

1,000 miles from Tokyo,

iejima is part of the
Japanese archipelago.

Since we're here
in the pacific ocean,

a very contested space near
the home islands of Japan,

this place obviously
had military significance.

Iejima has got some
nice long runways

that go straight out
over the pacific ocean,

that means it's easy to
take off, it's easy to land,

it's a big safe airport.

During the second world war

these overgrown airfields
were among the largest in Asia,

the Japanese had built them to
aid their expansion in the pacific.

But by 1944 they'd been
forced to change their tactics.

The Japanese had learned
they didn't have the resources

to stop the Americans any more.

So, instead of going out to
meet in battle out over the ocean

they dug in, they
went to ground.

Meanwhile from
across the pacific,

the Americans envied
iejima's airfields.

If you don't have iejima

then you don't have that
clear path that takes you

from the American
mainland to Hawaii

and step by step across
the pacific to take Japan.

Iejima is the ideal place to
land heavy military equipment.

The island itself has got some
nice neatly shelving beaches

around it's perimeter.

Then around the
island you can see

a whole bunch of
entrances to little caves.

These coastal caves lie below

the flat stone plateau
that covers this place.

Punctuated only once.

By mount gusuku, the
spectacular peak at it's heart.

The island itself is pretty
natural as a defensive position

because the pinnacle
in the middle of the island

enable an all around defence.

(Dramatic music)

On home turf the Japanese knew

just how to defend
this peculiar place.

What the Japanese
wanted to do ideally

was to make it difficult
for the Americans to land

by using artillery

and defend the island
in depth using infantry

who were comparatively
poorly prepared.

The Japanese
smashed the airfields,

built pillbox positions
and laid mines

but most importantly they
made full use of mount gusuku.

Below ground this limestone peak
is riddled with tunnels and caves

which the Japanese plan to
use to move around undetected.

They secured the
tunnel entrances,

built machine gun
positions and fortified caves.

Some three-stories high with
look outs across the island.

They fortified everything they could
from cave systems, tunnel systems

so that when the allied
forces finally landed

they would be entering
into a meat grinder.

Iejima's civilian
population took refuge

in the caves round the coast.

Local residents like tamae
takamichi still revered this place.

Translation: "It's a
sacred place on iejima,

"during the war many
people sought refuge here.

"This place received many
mortar shell attacks from the sea

"so people came here
because it was safe."

With no idea what was
going on underground,

when the American
forces finally arrived

they weren't prepared for
an unseen and deadly foe.

16 April 1945

the us army invades iejima.

The Americans had spent
the whole second world war

learning how to conduct
amphibious operations.

But the thousands of Japanese
soldiers installed in mount gusuku

could see their every move.

The Americans
advance to the town of ie

was under constant ambush.

And they couldn't tell civilians
and Japanese soldiers apart.

Translation: "During
the battle of iejima,

"civilians also took up arms.

"Some civilians were
told by the Japanese army

"to fight with guns but
they mainly used grenades."

Slow progress and the
unexpected loss of hundreds of men

meant the Americans had to take
the high ground of mount gusuku

which lay beyond the town of ie.

The gruelling
conflict was witnessed

by the famous us
war reporter Ernie pyle.

Ernie pyle was an American
newspaper columnist

who was beloved for
his devotion to the troops.

He was one of these
war correspondents with a,

with a human touch,
he really knew the gis.

Pyle was travelling with
the troops near the town of ie

when they came under fire,
a sniper hit him in the head.

Pyle was killed instantly.

True to his nature

he was pressing right up
close to be near the action

when he was killed on iejima.

With pyle gone,

the Americans were
determined to get the job done.

Beyond pyle's memorial

today there's one other remnant
of the bitter battle that played out.

The shell of the
concrete pawn shop.

This building did
not necessarily serve

any strategic purpose
for the United States

but it was caught
in the crossfire.

They pulverised this pawn shop

on the way to pulverising
the Japanese headquarters.

The Americans eventually
took mount gusuku

but traces still lie
below this place

that suggest for the people
of ie the full horror of the war

was not yet over.

The Japanese military
convinced the population

that the American forces
would be like wild animals

and no-one would
survive their onslaught.

On ie island they actually
issued people hand grenades.

If all else fails they
were to kill themselves

rather than suffer the
disgrace of surrender.

In iejima's coastal caves

hundreds of civilians
took their own lives,

those in the near tear cave
didn't believe the propaganda

and chose not to.

Translation: "Many
died inside these caves.

"However at this particular
cave that tragedy didn't happen."

After a gruelling six-day battle,
the Americans took iejima,

in total almost 5,000 Japanese and
more than 1,000 American soldiers

lost their lives in
the fight for iejima.

And some claim that Japan's
resolute defence of this tiny island

led the us to drop
the atomic bombs

that finally ended
the war in this region.

But iejima still had
one more role to play.

Translation: "At
the end of the war

"the Japanese went to
the Philippines via here."

After taking off from iejima

the delegation agreed
peace terms in Manilla

before submitting
to a public display.

We've all heard about the Japanese
surrendering to general mcarthur

on the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay

but in fact the initial
surrender happened here

at one of these air strips.

This is an almost forgotten
part of the history of the war.

Today little remains of
the bloody battle for iejima.

But the memory of the
thousands of soldiers and civilians

who died here lives on.

Translation: "This place is one
of the few places left from the war,

"not only for iejima
but also for okinawa.

"So we are
preserving it carefully."

Marooned in the chilly
waters of the Celtic sea,

a cluster of structures guards
Ireland's biggest harbour.

This island unambiguously
has pride of place.

It's exposed, it's
windy, it's isolated.

There are ditches,
fences and walls,

this says security and strength.

It's really quite clear
that this place was a fort,

so there's also a sense that there
was something else happening here.

(Dramatic music)

This part is dark, it's quiet,
there are bars on the windows,

there's a sort of
oppressive feeling.

And the darkness
just swallows you up

the further you go inside.

It feels like something
of a time machine,

there are parts that are quite
obviously several centuries old

and there are other bits that
only seem like 20 years old.

At the centre of the
complex is a long building

that appears to
offer up some clues.

There's clearly evidence of fire

having swept through
this place at some point.

It feels like something actually
quite violent happened here.

It's those burnt out ruins
that really draw you in

and make you wonder
what happened here.

This is spike island.

Today it sits in Irish waters

yet these defensive structures
were built by the British

more than 200 years ago.

Local historian Tom
O'Neill once worked here.

The fort here was
built by the British

'cause they were always afraid

that an enemy of theirs
would invade Ireland

and use Ireland then as a base

through which to
attack the mainland UK.

Building the
strategically vital fort

cost almost 100 million
pounds in todays money.

This was a really
significant project.

They started in 1806

and it took 60 years to build
across to cross a 24 acre site

and it's cutting edge
military technology.

From here we can
actually get a perfect idea

of how clever the design was

to make this fort as
strong as possible.

Deep trenches surround the fort

which is built in a
distinctive star shape

to protect it from
every direction.

The design worked, no
enemy ever attacked the fort.

But that doesn't mean it's going
to escape violence all together.

Much later in it's life

it's going to be
attacked from within.

The defensive role
wasn't the only thing

this place was used for.

There's more than one
story to tell about this place.

Bars on windows, security
spikes and reinforced gates

show how the British
retooled their prized bastion

to control the Irish instead.

Being on an island
with fortified high walls

and excellent observation
and look-out positions

that also made this
site ideal to be a prison.

In 1845 the great
famine hit Ireland

and this imperious star shaped
fort became a paupers prison.

People became more desperate

and some were even willing
to be arrested and imprisoned

just to get some food.

The situation was so dire

that these fortified walls soon
held thousands of prisoners.

Additionally with the British
government using spike island

as a stop over for convicts
en route to criminal colonies

the population swelled.

And the numbers kept on rising

because of the numbers that
were being arrested and imprisoned

until eventually
we had 2,500 here

and that 2,500 made it
one of the largest prisons

in the world at the time.

Eventually the famine passed
and the prison closed in 1883.

But this would
not last for long.

In 1916 when the Irish
Republicans rebelled

against britain's
oppressive military rule

the fort again
proved invaluable.

During the Irish
war of independence

this site was bought back
in to use again as a prison.

And some of the rooms have
changed very little since then.

This was where the convicted
Republicans were held,

this would have been
their living quarters,

their sleeping quarters,
their dining quarters,

their recreation quarters.

With British soldiers
guarding republican internees

hostility between
them was inevitable.

There were some
pretty serious tension

between these prisoners
who had fought on one side

and the guards who
were their enemies.

Obviously there was friction,

these were the individuals

that had been attempting
to kill crown forces anyway.

The famous revolutionaries
who came through this place

ran rings round the British.

There was one particularly important
individual here with the prisoners

and his real name was Tom
Malone, he made a name for himself

attacking and
destroying rac barracks,

he was fairly near the top of
the crown forces most wanted list

and he was arrested in cork
city on Christmas morning 1920.

Malone was a commander
in the republican army.

He was once described
as Ireland's Houdini

when he escaped
this fortress jail

helped by the prison's
catholic chaplain.

His comrades had to remain inside
until Irish independence in 1921.

But modern cell doors,
locks and partitions

suggest spike island's role
as a prison wasn't yet over.

In 1985 the fort was
again used as a prison

but a civilian prison this time.

There had been a
spate of increased crime

and so spike island
was opened up again

to absorb some of
these extra inmates.

This time it was the Irish themselves
who put the prison fort to use.

This area was converted
in to modern cells in 1985,

there were 25
four-man-cells in total

and that then gave the
civil prison a capacity of 102.

Other blocks were
less well secured.

The plan was to send fairly
low risk inmates to spike island

and if that had been
followed through

there wouldn't have
been a problem.

But when prison governors
got the opportunity

to get rid of some prisoners

well naturally enough they
got rid of their troublemakers

if they possibly could.

A lot of very high
risk inmates arrive

and this place simply
isn't designed to hold them.

Damage found at one
part of the makeshift jail

points to the consequences.

As you look closer and
you see the damage,

you see the fire damage,
the charred windows,

you realise that there was
some final dramatic event

that was the last
chapter of this site.

Spike island, a fort turned
prison in the republic of Ireland.

Tasked with housing a
number of high risk offenders

in an ill-equipped cell block,

violence soon erupted.

Tom O'Neill was a
guard here at the time,

he witnessed the
chaos that ensued.

This was one of the dormitories
where prisoners were held in 1985.

On the night of 31 August,
just before midnight,

the riot started.

The prisoners simply
broke up the wooden floor

and set fire to it.

And when the fire was on

they simply kicked down the
wooden doors and escaped.

They even managed
to get as far as the pier

but they couldn't
get any further

and that's why you build
a prison on an island.

They can't get off

so they decide to do
the next best thing.

They decide to break
back into the prison

and destroy all
the records there.

But the fully bastioned
British built fort

wasn't that easy to break into.

The prisoners had to use an
excavator to break down the doors.

The riot was just a
simple want of destruction,

photocopiers turned upside
down and smacked off the ground,

tins of paint opened and
scattered all over the place,

just the want of
destruction of it really.

The riot was
eventually contained,

spike island was used as a
prison for another 20 years.

The prison was remodelled
and made much more secure,

they'd learnt their lesson.

Eventually it
closed fully in 2004

primarily because of the
cost of keeping prisoners here.

Having spent nearly 200
years off limits to civilians,

spike island is now
open to the public.

It's colourful history preserved
for generations to come.

But what we really have here is
a place that provides snap shots

of Ireland's history
at crucial moments

and a conflict that could
characterise that history

and the violence
that was there as well.

In Spain, the remains
of a hilltop ghost town

reveal that this site
is steeped in religion.

This place has been
inhabited for centuries

at least since the knight's
templar in the middle ages.

These little towns
in the Spanish hills

were always on the
very edge of survival.

The most prominent
building is the church.

It was clearly the
centre of this community.

But as you get a little closer
you can see it's in ruins.

This is a place that
has been torn to pieces

and here we've got buildings

that look like they've been
scorched and crumbled.

A lot of these structures
have been levelled by artillery,

we see the stone work pot
marked with shell fragments,

bullet holes that sort of thing.

But there are traces
to who was at war here.

We see a lot of graffiti

which itself has
some real significance

in solving this mystery.

Then if we poke
around a little more

we come across this plaque
to Robert hale merriman.

That does not sound Spanish

and when I read further and I
see the name Abraham Lincoln,

I know that Americans have
done something significant here.

A band of freedom fighters
once came to this desolate site

and left their idealism
smashed in these ruins.

(Dramatic music)

This is called corbera d'ebre.

Today there's little left
of the thriving community

where Joan Montana
father was born in the 1920s.

Translation: "We are in one of
the main streets of the old town.

"You have to imagine
it was all houses here.

"You can even see the remains
of the original cobbled street.

"And these are the
foundations of the house

"where my father was born."

Back then the residents of corbera
lived as they had done for centuries,

the church and the land
owners held all the power.

Translation: "The main
church was built here

"back in the 13th century.

"And the nerve centre
of this rural community

"was the church square."

Once upon a time
this little Spanish village

might have been
filled with poor people

but they were poor people

who were strong in
their Christian faith

and they understood themselves
as subjects of a catholic monarchy.

Yet the damage rot on this church
suggests something changed.

In 1931 a new left wing
government sought to rest control

from the catholic land
owners who ruled Spain...

..But it faced
strong opposition.

There was an extreme
right wing military click

who felt that they had
a chance to save Spain.

You have senior army officers,

you've got some
very wealthy people

and you've got a catholic church
and that is the nationalist party.

In 1936 led by the fascist
general Francisco Franco,

the nationalists staged a coup
and a bitter civil war broke out.

The rubble of corbera

reveals how the conflict
soon reached the town.

Translation: "Here we
can make out the traces

"of a series of
historical marks.

"This graffiti from the
time reads, "seized ciente"."

The ciente it's the
Spanish acronym

for the national
labour confederation.

What that meant in
that place and that time

was that these guys
were anarchists.

The anarchists had taken
advantage of the conflict.

One armed faction
swept in to corbera.

When the ciente anarchists
occupied this village

they saw the village priest
as part of the nationalists,

the fascists, the enemy.

And so they did them in.

The anarchists killed corbera's
priest and his assistants.

But when they left the
town itself was still standing.

Meanwhile the rest of Spain
was swept up in the uneven fight

between the fascists nationalists
and the left wing Republicans.

The Republicans, the government
side of the Spanish civil war

have to fight throughout with
one hand tied behind their back,

they have no American
aid, no British aid,

against this big
organised nationalist army

completely funded and supplied
by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

In the 1930s there were
plenty of young idealists

who were willing to
fight for democracy.

2,800 Americans
volunteered to fight

on the republican side
in the Spanish civil war

and they came to be
known as the Lincoln brigade.

Some of the most important
writers and thinkers of the day

wanted to go sign up to fight.

Ernest Hemingway covered the
war as a newspaper correspondent

and George orwell spent time
fighting with the Republicans.

The cause attracted lesser
known freedom fighters too.

Robert haile merriman, the
commander of the Lincoln brigade

and he gives up his studies
to go over and lead this brigade

in the Spanish civil war.

By the start of 1938

corbera had so far
escaped the carnage

of Spain's vicious civil war

but pot-marked houses and
swathes of derelict ground

suggest that this
would soon change.

Corbera's proximity
to the ebro river

meant the conflict
was fast approaching.

If the nationalists
can take the ebro river

and push to the sea,

they're going to drive a wedge
between the republican stronghold

so it's vital for the
nationalists to win there

and it's vital for the
Republicans to hold there.

On the outskirts of corbera, merriman
and the exhausted Lincoln brigade

dug in with Republicans.

Translation: "By march 1938

"we know soldiers were camped
here, very close to corbera.

"These soldiers were members
of the international brigade

"and they were suffering a lot.

"They were being defeated

"and they had come to the
vicinity of corbera to regroup."

Merriment believed if he could
just reach the republican held town

he and his men would be safe.

But unbeknown to him,

the fascist nationalist
had seized corbera.

Merriman was now
trapped behind enemy lines.

And in April 1938
just outside corbera,

he unwittingly walked
into a nationalist camp.

And merriman and
his second in command

are captured by their enemies

and so far as we can tell

they were probably
put up against a wall

and shot right
there on the spot.

The Republicans fought on,
eventually they recaptured corbera.

But this bare hill, once
covered in houses,

took the brunt of
the fascist revenge.

Translation: "The very day the
Republicans reconquered corbera

"the bombing started.

"And continued almost daily."

Mussolini sends troops
to aide the nationalists

led by general franko,

the Germans send the condor
legion this advanced air force.

Franko says I'm going to
destroy the Republicans

in a battle of attrition

and that battle is focused
on this village of corbera.

In August 1938 corbera was
occupied by republican forces

putting it firmly in the crosshairs
of general franko's fascist army.

Translation: "This place
was protected from artillery fire

"so some soldiers made
makeshift shelters here.

"They dug in and took
advantage of the house wall.

"And after the bombing
stopped the strafing started,

"we can still see the
impact on this wall."

When the battle of the
river ebro finally ended,

most of corbera
had been destroyed.

Translation: "They call
corbera the eternal flame.

"Nails and other metallic things
are melted and fossilised here.

"We can even see the key

"that was used to
open a tin of sardines."

Just a glance at
the village of corbera

and the destruction there,

it points again to the savagery
of the Spanish civil war.

General franko's nationalist
party took control of Spain in 1939

and ran the country as a
dictatorship for almost 40 years.

When Spain was again
peaceful but a dictatorship

the villagers came back

and the place had been
pounded to smithereens.

They rebuilt their
village down by the road.

Today corbera remembers
those who fought to the death

for a better world.

They came to stop
the kind of fascism

that was going to be the ruin
of Europe in the years to come.

These are people
who were killing Nazis

at a time when governments
weren't ready for that yet.

The first people to do that

are these idealistic
volunteers in Spain.

Near the border between
Germany and France,

in the long disputed
region of al sass

lies a mysterious complex
with an explosive past.

There's a big central building

where all the glass has
been shattered, blown out,

something violent happened here.

When you look up you've
got these crazy structures

just perched high up there
above looking down on everything.

Whatever was being made

someone went to great efforts
to try and sport it out of here.

It has a train line running through
that's completely overgrown,

it's clearly not been
used in decades.

And there on the tracks is
a train that's just been left.

This incongruous
collection of derelict buildings

seems to make little sense.

There's something here that
people are willing to kill over,

it's that precious
and that essential.

The first clue to
what's going on here

lies half a mile underground.

They were digging for some
valuable commodity here

but it wasn't gold, it wasn't
diamonds, wasn't silver.

(Dramatic music)

This sprawling plant
is carreau rodolphe.

It was built to extract
a precious mineral

from deep underground.

Jean misiano once worked here.

Translation: "I spent 30
years working for this enterprise

"where working conditions
were incredibly tough.

"This is the elevator that carried
the miners both up and down.

"We're at the top of
the rodolphe one shaft,

"which went down 750 metres."

It was nasty work
down in the mines.

It was hot and cramped

and if you hit a pocket of gas it
could trigger a deadly explosion.

Translation: "It's
very dangerous here

"and expensive trying
to get this mineral out."

More than 600 people
lost their lives here

during a century of operation.

What precious mineral
was worth this level of risk?

Translation: "Carreau rodolphe
at the beginning of the 20th century

"was a strategic place for
the production of a mineral

"called potash."

Potash is one of the
best fertilisers going

and carreau rodolphe was
sitting on top of the motherload.

(Dramatic classical music)

The first mine
opened here in 1913

to extract the mineral
the whole world wanted.

At the beginning
of the 20th century

you have a big
explosion in population,

we need to very quickly grow
more crops and better crops

and for that you
need fertiliser.

And a major part of
fertiliser is potassium

and here potash, buried underground,
contains that magic ingredient.

This site lies in El sass,

a region that France and
Germany had long fought over.

The opening of this place
made it even more desirable.

Carreau rodolphe was one of
the only potash mines in the world

outside of Germany

but that put a huge
target on it's back.

When world war one
breaks out in August 1914,

in that initial German
rush in to France.

They over run the
carreau rodolphe

and they take this
motherload of potash.

Even more worrying is that potash
is the key ingredient in gunpowder.

This overgrown railroad once
headed toward the battle trenches

of world war one.

And it wasn't only carrying
the ingredients for gunpowder.

Intelligence reports suggested
that ammunition was seen leaving

this industrial complex.

Translation: "From 1914 to
1915 the Germans installed

"a narrow Gauge railway
starting here at carreau rodolphe.

"The munitions were
transported to the front by train."

Now that it was key to
the German war effort,

both the British and
many French locals

wanted to destroy this place.

So who got there first?

New years Eve
the last day of 1915,

this whole potash
facility is just ripped apart

by a tremendous explosion.

The entire complex
was reduced to rubble.

The munitions secretly
stored at the factory

only added to the blast.

It shook houses and rattled
windows 20 miles away from the site.

But the mystery
persists. Who did it?

It would make sense if it was
an allied aerial bombing attack

on the mine,

but if you asked the
locals they didn't believe it.

Translation: "Attacking on
the 31 December is symbolic

"since it's new years Eve
and everybody celebrates then

"so they might have
celebrated this victory too."

It's an interesting date to
have an industrial accident,

you'd normally expect that to happen
when everything was in full flow.

We'll never know.

Whatever caused it,

the blast meant the
mine was out of action

until long after the
first world war ended

by which time carreau rodolphe
was back under French control.

It didn't actually
open again till 1929

but then it was into full flow

because the world
still needed potash.

The crazed collection of
structures that littered the site

were all built to supply
this pressing need.

The thing that fascinates
me most about this site

is of course the head stocks,

these huge sheds that
you see up in the sky.

The mine relied on lifting
hundreds of tonnes of rubble

out of the ground,

it was bought to the
surface on a cable system

which ran through enormous pulley
wheels attached to the structures.

Over the coming decades,

500 million tonnes of
potash were mined here...

..But as they dug even deeper,
the cost of extraction grew.

Eventually in 2003 the
last mine shaft closed.

(Upbeat music)

Today the dormant
mine stands empty.

It may have seen
out two world wars

but the hulk of the machinery
and what's left behind

tells the story of the actual
people that worked here.

Abandoned, disintegrating,
reclaimed by nature.

Structures once
at the cutting edge

bearing witness to the
forces, pioneers and villains

that defined the world today.

Emblems of a shared
past standing in our present.

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