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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:04,840 Narrator: A desert canyon where fortunes were made 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:06,520 and fates were sealed. 3 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:11,440 There's not much here besides desert and rock, 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,240 what would draw people here? 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:18,320 Well, in these remote inhospitable locations 6 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:19,760 the answer is usually the same. 7 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:20,920 Money. 8 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,640 A mighty cliff top complex on the island of Malta. 9 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:29,640 It was damp, it was dark, 10 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,640 it was like being in a cell in many ways. 11 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:34,960 But things would have been much worse in battle. 12 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:42,120 A rural area in Poland that once connected the world. 13 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:44,800 A lot of the electronics are still here, 14 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:48,640 this two megawatt transmitter it's, I mean it's just unheard of. 15 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:50,640 That's enough to power a small town. 16 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,560 And an island fortress in Scotland with a dramatic back story. 17 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:01,280 It was armed to the teeth with guns, canon and anti-air defence. 18 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:03,760 But all these guns were useless 19 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,400 against the main threat of that time. 20 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:11,640 Decaying relics. 21 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:16,640 Ruins of lost worlds. 22 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,040 Sites haunted by the past. 23 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,840 Their secrets waiting to be revealed. 24 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,720 The wilds of Nevada usa, 25 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:45,640 in a hostile desert 26 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,200 are the haunting remains of a settlement. 27 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,360 This place is only a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas 28 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:01,280 but it feels like a million miles away from the casinos, 29 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:03,360 the bright lights and the glamour. 30 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,440 I mean you can see that there are a number 31 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,800 of man made structures around, there's some large tanks, 32 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:12,320 there's bits of machinery. 33 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,120 Old wooden buildings are echoes of the 19th century. 34 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,680 But scattered around are remnants of the 20th. 35 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:27,760 There's this rusting old abandoned truck, 36 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:29,240 a crashed plane. 37 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,800 This place looks like it's trapped in some type of time warp. 38 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:39,360 This is a wild place. 39 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,520 If the climate doesn't get you then nature will. 40 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,080 Humans were never designed to live in a place like this. 41 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:51,400 The place is filled with decaying machinery. 42 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:52,920 But what was it all for? 43 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:56,640 If you're gonna go to somewhere so extreme, 44 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:58,640 you have to be drawn by something 45 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,160 and usually in places like this 46 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:03,600 it's something to do with what's in the ground. 47 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,960 This entrance had been covered up for 80 years 48 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:09,680 but when we popped into this thing, 49 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:11,880 there's a half a mile of tunnel in here 50 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:14,720 that nobody had been in for years and years. 51 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,760 People came here to make their fortunes 52 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,720 but for some life would turn out very differently. 53 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:30,400 There's nine different levels in here, 54 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:33,720 there's three miles of tunnels and it goes 600 feet deep. 55 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,480 Tony werly first came to the tunnels 25 years ago. 56 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,000 They were dug as part of a search for a precious mineral. 57 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:47,400 This is an extremely hard rock, 58 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,120 this is like a number seven hard from one to ten, 59 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,000 this is a seven which is stronger than cement. 60 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,160 To come here, you need a pretty good reason 61 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,320 and in the most extreme locations like this 62 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,440 that's usually to make money. 63 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:05,120 What they were looking for 64 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,520 was not only hard but glistening white. 65 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:14,080 This is a vein, you can see it runs from here 66 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:15,880 all the way over into here 67 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:17,960 and you see it's running up the mountain. 68 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:23,320 The white rock here would be the source of untold wealth. 69 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,080 The first person to recognise it's value 70 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:29,760 was a man called John moss. 71 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:33,920 John moss was your classic frontiersman, 72 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,080 they really should be making movies about this guy. 73 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:38,960 He was the first non-native 74 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,440 to descend the Colorado river rapids by raft. 75 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,680 He spent three-and-a-half days being drenched, 76 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,240 ducked and pounded by the river 77 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:50,680 as he travelled through the Grand Canyon. 78 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,120 Originally from utica New York, 79 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,040 moss was on an expedition into western america. 80 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,720 He apparently had a real gift for languages 81 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:05,800 and he spent a lot of time travelling around 82 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:08,360 with almost two dozen different native American tribes 83 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,840 which allowed him to immerse himself in their culture. 84 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:15,400 Moss was drawn to Nevada by rumours 85 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:18,920 about that strange white rock in the mountains. 86 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,520 He suspected it was quartz, a mineral that forms in veins 87 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:26,680 when hot magma interacts with ground water. 88 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:30,840 Quartz is sio2, it's silica, 89 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,040 it's one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, 90 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,520 it can occur in certain different ways 91 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:38,840 as these veins, rich in silica 92 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,160 but rich in other minerals like lead, 93 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,840 zinc, silver and sometimes gold. 94 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,360 Moss analysed the mineral and his hunch was confirmed. 95 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,480 This is El dorado canyon, 96 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,080 home to the richest gold deposits in southern Nevada. 97 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,040 Once the miners found this white coarse vein, 98 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:09,560 they never left track of it, they just keep it in sight, 99 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:11,520 and so they'll chase it wherever it goes. 100 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,880 As you go into the mountain, the geology changes, 101 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,440 maybe your vein suddenly goes off on a different angle. 102 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:18,760 So you'd follow that 103 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,360 if that's where the potential resource was. 104 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,040 However, following the trail of quartz 105 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:28,280 was only the first part of a complicated process. 106 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:30,080 It's important to note here, 107 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,920 they're not finding big gold nuggets, 108 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:36,880 in this situation a lot of the gold is small particles in the veins. 109 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,720 Carts filled with quartz were pulled out of the tunnels. 110 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,360 But extracting gold from it was not only expensive 111 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:47,040 but potentially deadly. 112 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:53,240 You have to crush this rock up as fine as you can, 113 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:55,520 all the way down to the texture of flour. 114 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:00,440 The crushed quartz was then mixed with a very toxic chemical. 115 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:03,880 You would mix it in these big cyanide tanks here 116 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:06,920 and the cyanide would pull the microscopic pieces of gold 117 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:08,240 and silver out of the ore. 118 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,520 But with high risk came big rewards. 119 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,760 El dorado was making money hand over fist. 120 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,680 The gold mining that took place in El dorado canyon is phenomenal. 121 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:28,680 About $200 million worth of gold and silver came out of that mine. 122 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:35,360 For every tonne of quartz, 28g of gold was extracted. 123 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:39,080 But the greater challenge 124 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:41,520 was getting the gold out of El dorado. 125 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,760 Everything has to be shipped in by water, 126 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,800 trucked up the canyon through the Colorado river. 127 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:55,360 In the mid 1800s, 128 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:57,920 there was only one port in the canyon. 129 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,520 A small dock on the river called Nelson's landing. 130 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:07,200 But despite the harshness of the conditions, 131 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:11,280 despite the difficulty in getting the supplies there, 132 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,920 what's being produced is so valuable 133 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,000 that you actually get pretty heavy traffic 134 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:17,440 in and out of the canyon 135 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:22,120 and Nelson's landing turns out to be one of the busiest transition points 136 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:24,160 for supplies in the whole region. 137 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:27,520 Cut off from law abiding society, 138 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,800 El dorado eventually became a hotbed for criminal activity. 139 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,760 At a time when much of the us was under prohibition, 140 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,040 here there was a thriving black market. 141 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:45,720 It's said that the alcohol produced there for you know, 142 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,280 pennies was actually sold 143 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:53,040 for up to $1 a gallon just across state lines. 144 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:58,360 Nelson's landing had turned into a pirates bay. 145 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:02,120 Back in the late 1800s, 146 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,080 El dorado canyon was one of the most violent 147 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:07,400 and lawless places in america. 148 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,200 Yeah it's a bad place to be, 149 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:14,840 in the 1880s not even a killing is a good enough reason 150 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:16,400 to bring the sheriff out here. 151 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:17,640 200 miles away, 152 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:20,160 he tells them they have to fend for themselves out here. 153 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,280 Local miner, John riggs, later wrote, 154 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,360 "I never think there was another place 155 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:31,480 "in proportion to the population 156 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:33,680 "where so many murders were committed. 157 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:38,680 "And the perpetrators never bought to justice or even apprehended." 158 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,160 Greed, vice and murder 159 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:47,400 made El dorado Nevada's first sin city. 160 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:53,000 But it wasn't the arrival of the law that eventually bought it down. 161 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:56,880 When world war ii started, 162 00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,880 all the miners that worked at the mine went to war. 163 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,560 This mine right here is where they were when they left, 164 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:05,800 when they came back from world war ii, 165 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:07,600 they never opened this mine again. 166 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:14,800 It's said that $1 million in gold was left in the El dorado mine 167 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,920 but nowadays it would cost 2 million to dig it out. 168 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:25,240 The mine has been silent for 80 years. 169 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:27,440 But the wrecks of military vehicles 170 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,840 are signs that the drama here continued in a different way. 171 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:39,400 Hollywood came to El dorado to film '3,000 miles to Graceland'. 172 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:44,200 Big names, a big budget, car chases and a crashed plane. 173 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,760 But it was a bomb. 174 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:49,960 But good film or bad film, 175 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,280 the legacy remains and we see it before us now. 176 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:05,600 Hidden in plain sight on the south east coast of Malta, 177 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,840 a great complex stands guard over the shore. 178 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:19,400 Got these azure seas, rocky Sandy beaches, 179 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,640 you've got these tall cliffs rising out of the sea. 180 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:27,240 And as your eye follows these rocky cliffs, 181 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:29,520 your eye suddenly realises 182 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:31,840 that you're not looking at a cliff anymore. 183 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:35,480 Look at those bars on the windows. 184 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:37,720 If I didn't know any better, 185 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:41,600 I'd think this was a place designed to lock up 186 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:43,480 the most desperate criminals. 187 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:48,080 It has a almost prison like quality 188 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:52,480 and yet given it's placement right on this important coastline 189 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:55,520 that argues that this is probably a fort. 190 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:59,920 Viewed from above, the distinctive features confirm 191 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:02,560 that this place was built for defence. 192 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,360 Here we can see elements of a fortress 193 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:09,880 that date back years 194 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,880 but we also see elements that are clearly modern. 195 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:19,480 That are clearly meant to withstand 20th century weapons. 196 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:22,880 When you think about all the Greek, Italian, 197 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:25,800 Spanish islands that aren't fortified, 198 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:27,280 why is this island fortified? 199 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,920 It must have some real strategic importance. 200 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:37,080 It was once preparing to face a colossal naval assault 201 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:38,760 but who was the enemy 202 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,720 and did those inside live to tell the tale? 203 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,360 The story here dates back to the 19th century 204 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,640 when Malta was under British rule. 205 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,360 Matthew balzan is a local historian 206 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,840 who has made detailed studies of the complex. 207 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:02,920 Here we are in tunnels 208 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,600 below the main sites which run all the way across. 209 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:11,000 From outside, one would not realise what lies beneath here. 210 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,800 Although most of what remains above ground was built later, 211 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:19,640 the original defences here were hidden from view. 212 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:25,680 Here we are seeing an example 213 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,680 of a 12.5 inch 38 tonne rifle muzzle loading gun. 214 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,680 The time when it was put in place here in 1880 215 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,080 was the largest example of rifle muzzle loading technology 216 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,840 the British army had at it's disposal. 217 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:41,920 Comparing it to the size of a human being, 218 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:46,200 one can immediately realise the sheer size of such artillery. 219 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,400 What's more interesting about this example, 220 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:53,280 is that these are the last remaining examples in the whole world 221 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:55,800 where we still see the original gun 222 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:57,440 on it's original carriage 223 00:13:57,480 --> 00:13:59,840 and platform in their original locations. 224 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:04,360 This represents the alchemy of gun technology at the time. 225 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,560 It's rifled, meaning it can fire accurately 226 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:08,800 at a much longer range, 227 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:10,680 more penetrating power, 228 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,640 fires a bigger shell with far greater accuracy. 229 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:19,200 It's purpose is to kind of spar and jab with assaulting fleets. 230 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:24,320 But one of these guns alone would not have been enough. 231 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,680 As the many openings in the cliff suggest 232 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:31,320 half a dozen of them were once trained upon the horizon. 233 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,920 One can just imagine the sound which would be created 234 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,640 when a gun of this size would be fired. 235 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:46,160 To give just a small example, a gun powder cartridge when fired 236 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:47,880 inside the chamber of this gun 237 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:50,520 would expand in volume 20,000 times. 238 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,880 And all of that has to go out in smoke and noise. 239 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,960 Located just a few miles south of the capital city of Valletta 240 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:02,680 is fort delimara. 241 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:07,400 The British, they learned some valuable lessons 242 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:08,800 from Malta's past, 243 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:10,800 they learned for example that it's not enough 244 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,560 to fortify the grand harbour around Valletta, 245 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:16,200 you have to always fortify the secondary harbour, 246 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,600 marsaxlokk at the end of the island. 247 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:20,080 What had happened previously 248 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:23,120 is everybody had left marsaxlokk undefended 249 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:25,760 and powers like the French had just sailed in there, 250 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:27,840 off loaded their amphibious forces 251 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,520 and taken the island essentially through the back door. 252 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,240 So what you see the British do in the 19th century 253 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,720 is pouring millions into these new fortifications 254 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:39,640 in this secondary harbour, the marsaxlokk harbour. 255 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,080 Once again, it was the French who were threatening to attack 256 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,600 but now the fort was ready for them. 257 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,800 These massive guns were put here 258 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:57,480 because this was a desperately sensitive spot 259 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,480 for the royal Navy to defend. 260 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:06,200 Moats on the landward sides protected it to the rear. 261 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,320 But the real key to defeating an invasion force 262 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,880 was the invaluable element of surprise. 263 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:17,640 The fortifications are deliberately small 264 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,280 and almost invisible from the sea. 265 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:22,400 They're low profile, they're pushed up, 266 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:23,920 they're built out of the bedrock 267 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:26,240 so they blend into the actual hill itself, 268 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:28,240 into the cliffs. 269 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,160 In the olden days, you'd build tall walls 270 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:36,200 to keep people out but in the gun powder age, 271 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:39,800 you've got to build low walls that are hard to see 272 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,040 and that are thick and backed up with earth. 273 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:48,120 This is a fortress designed to be effective against modern assault. 274 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:54,400 This is the very model of modern military architecture. 275 00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:59,840 In the end, the invasion force didn't come 276 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,800 and the guns were never fired at French ships. 277 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:05,600 But the threat remained 278 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:09,760 and in time a new enemy and a new threat emerged. 279 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,680 From the 1870s when the British start building this fort 280 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:17,640 and start adding artillery, 281 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,720 they are continually upgrading the artillery 282 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,240 as there's changes in casting techniques, 283 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:26,200 metallurgy, shell construction. 284 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,720 Here it was the final upgrade to the forts artillery. 285 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:37,840 The six inch breach loading gun which was installed here in 1938 286 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,720 in preparation for what would become world war ii. 287 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:44,560 The British had spent decades 288 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:48,680 preparing for an attack on Malta and now it seemed imminent. 289 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:50,800 The main target was this harbour. 290 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:53,840 The British military had to be prepared 291 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:55,800 in case of enemy action, 292 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,240 in fact this gun would go on to be fired in anger 293 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:00,920 during the same conflict. 294 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:02,720 In June 1940, 295 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:06,640 Italy joined the war on the side of the axis powers 296 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,560 but she had ambitions that spread well beyond Europe. 297 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:12,760 Malta emerges early on in world war ii 298 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:15,800 as a place of, you know, great strategic importance, why? 299 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:20,560 Because Italy and then Germany are trying to conquer north Africa. 300 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:24,320 Under the leadership of irwin rammel 301 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:27,120 known famously as the desert fox, 302 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,800 the axis powers invaded north Africa 303 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:33,400 as part of a plan to seize the valuable oil fields there. 304 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,920 The fighting was fierce and bloody 305 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:40,440 and the allied bases on Malta were to be a vital importance. 306 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:45,120 If rammel, the great German tank general 307 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,600 had been able to blast through from north Africa 308 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,320 to take the caucuses to meet up with German forces 309 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:54,080 in the caucuses 310 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:56,600 then the Nazi's would have had the oil, 311 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:00,680 the resources they needed to keep on fighting 312 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:05,200 and maybe to keep the war going a long time, 313 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,240 maybe even to win world war ii. 314 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,640 But for the Italians and the Germans to communicate with north Africa, 315 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,320 to resupply their armies, 316 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:18,400 they have to be able to freely cross the mediterranean 317 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,360 and they're attacked in this by the raf and by the royal Navy 318 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:23,720 which are based in Malta. 319 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:28,400 One of the most damaging raids by the British 320 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,040 on axis communications happens in September 1941 321 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,080 when the British using their code breaking at bletchley park, 322 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:36,760 they learn of this convoy, 323 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,320 they put submarines right out in it's path, 324 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:42,800 they sink two of these big luxury liners. 325 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,640 And German troops are drowned at sea. 326 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,760 The threat posed by Malta 327 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,680 was simply to great for the axis to ignore. 328 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,760 An invasion plan was quickly drawn up 329 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,840 and fort delimara was suddenly in the firing line. 330 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:02,960 Hitler sees that Malta is really a burr under the saddle, 331 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:04,440 that needs to be removed 332 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,720 and so he actually puts together this thing for 1942 333 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:09,560 called operation Hercules. 334 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:12,560 Marsaxlokk harbour 335 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,280 would have offered a good place to land 336 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:17,480 because it is a very wide harbour, 337 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,160 therefore accommodating several hundred of vessels at the same time, 338 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,320 so it would allow an easy landing of the enemy force. 339 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:29,560 The axis planned a combined aerial and amphibious attack. 340 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,520 30,000 paratroopers would drop inland. 341 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:39,040 While 70,000 more troops would arrive to the south on Navy ships. 342 00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:43,800 Once the defences here had been overpowered, 343 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,600 the plan was to march north towards valetta. 344 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:51,480 The fort here sits at the tip, 345 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,400 at the entrance of marsaxlokk harbour 346 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:55,600 therefore any attempt at enemy invasion 347 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,600 would have to bypass this location in order to gain access 348 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:00,640 therefore the fort was Paramount 349 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:02,720 to the defences of this side of Malta. 350 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:09,120 The invasion was scheduled to begin in the summer of 1942, 351 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:13,720 all the troops stationed here could do was wait. 352 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:17,400 The British forces on Malta 353 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,640 were always expecting that German invasion to arrive. 354 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:25,440 And at one point, they saw a vessel on the horizon. 355 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:31,440 Everybody was bracing themselves 356 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:36,040 for the bombardment that would surely proceed this German fleet. 357 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:38,480 In August 1942, 358 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:40,336 search lights of the fort captured the target 359 00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:42,000 just outside the harbour 360 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,640 and immediately guns in place here fired against it. 361 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,920 But the target they had sighted was not the feared invasion fleet. 362 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,160 It turned out it was an e-boat, the equivalent of a pt-boat 363 00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:00,480 that was outlaying mines in the sea off of Malta. 364 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,640 And that gives you an idea of how worried everyone was 365 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:11,360 that any minute on Malta would be the minute before Malta fell. 366 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,440 But of course, Malta never fell. 367 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:20,600 Although Malta had been in the sights of the axis for a long while, 368 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:22,800 a turn of events on a different front 369 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:24,920 meant that they would never capture it. 370 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:29,120 Because Hitler gets bogged down in December 1941 371 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:30,840 at the gates of Moscow, 372 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,880 decides he's going to make a turn into the caucuses in 1942 373 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:36,600 to try to take the oil fields. 374 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,520 Hitler simply doesn't have enough force to deal with Malta, 375 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,520 so he just has to let it go. 376 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:44,720 With the invasion cancelled, 377 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,360 fort delimara continued to guard the southern shores of Malta 378 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,480 until the very end of the war. 379 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,480 Twice in it's lifetime it, 380 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,680 had faced the threat of invasion and had lived to tell the tale. 381 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,960 In 1964, the British handed over Malta 382 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,000 to the local government and fort delimara went with it. 383 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,160 In the Polish countryside are the remains of a place 384 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,320 that history has largely forgotten. 385 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,400 We're in a place called Gavin, 386 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,880 pretty much in the geographical centre of Poland. 387 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,800 Hidden amongst the trees 388 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,840 is a central building and a lattice tower. 389 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,760 You get the feeling when all this was built this was open land. 390 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:45,880 Now the trees have grown up, 391 00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:50,120 a young forest has covered a lot of this hidden (indistinct). 392 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,920 In the tall grass are the footprints of an engineering giant. 393 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,600 You can see other buildings, 394 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,320 you can see concrete pads some distance away. 395 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:07,000 Clearly this was a big operation at one time. 396 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,360 It's hard to believe now but back in the 1970s, 397 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,360 this was a high security location. 398 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,520 This was pretty heavily trafficked, 399 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:20,160 pretty big site 400 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:24,640 and beside it all this wreckage of this steel trusses 401 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,160 and girders lying in a heap. 402 00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:33,040 These scattered elements add up to a greater haul, 403 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:36,280 but one major piece of the puzzle is missing. 404 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:48,600 Tomasz mis is part of a group that protects and preserves the site. 405 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,880 We are in central Poland in a restricted area 406 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,960 of high national and military importance. 407 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:01,640 We were allowed to get in, 408 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,600 never the less very few people are able to do so. 409 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,520 Today the building is empty, 410 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:13,840 all that remains is mould, rust and solemn reminders of the cold war. 411 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,000 Oh, yes. 412 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:21,640 Political documents. 413 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:24,920 But there are signs 414 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,320 that it once required an enormous amount of power. 415 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:35,480 So this site we are currently in was extremely powerful, 416 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,360 even for today's standards. 417 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,840 One thing that's fascinating at this site and unusual 418 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,880 is that a lot of the electronics are still here. 419 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,680 All this stuff looks kind of old and decrepit today 420 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,480 but it was state of the art back in the '80s. 421 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:54,160 It consumed so much electrical power 422 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:59,680 that a small city could be powered using the thing which came in here. 423 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:02,560 Outside the main building 424 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,840 is a clue to what that much needed power was for. 425 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,400 A concrete anchor designed for industrial cables 426 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,320 is a common site at the bottom of these very tall structures. 427 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:24,280 So this is the foundation of one of the first level guy ropes 428 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,840 which held the mast stem in vertical position. 429 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,320 15 of these anchor points were scattered 430 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:34,920 across the countryside. 431 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:42,320 They were used to hold up the Warsaw radio mast. 432 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,880 What we're looking at here is the site 433 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:52,680 of what was once the most ambitious radio transmitting tower 434 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:54,160 in the world. 435 00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:58,360 It's hard to wrap your mind around how tall this thing was, 436 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:00,400 2,100 feet, 437 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,840 this was once the tallest man made structure in the world. 438 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,440 This tower was designed at a time when Poles 439 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,760 were leaving Poland in their thousands. 440 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,400 One thing that's fascinating about Poland 441 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,680 is how many Polish people don't live there. 442 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,480 They live in all of these other places in the world. 443 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,600 By one estimate, there are 20 million 444 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,040 people of Polish descent around the world. 445 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,720 So after world war ii, when the borders of Poland changed 446 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,760 and many Poles actually emigrated also to the United States, 447 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,360 a way of communicating with them was desperately needed. 448 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:51,920 With such a wide spread community before the advent of the Internet, 449 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:56,000 reaching Poles around the world was a massive challenge. 450 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:02,040 So in fact the Poles were looking to set up a radio station 451 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,000 in the geographical centre of Poland 452 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,960 that could reach Poles all around Poland equally 453 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,080 but that was also big enough to transmit 454 00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:11,400 to these Polish communities around the globe. 455 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:15,600 In 1970, 456 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,280 construction of a new transmission tower began. 457 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,680 Switchboards, transformers 458 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,080 and guardhouses were all vital components. 459 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:29,800 And in 1974, Polish radio was heard around the globe 460 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:32,720 through one of the words most powerful transmitters. 461 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:39,480 The engineer who designed it was called yan polock, 462 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:40,920 he must have been brilliant. 463 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:45,600 It was designed in 86 sections all joined together 464 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:50,120 and then anchored to the earth with 15 steel, 465 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:51,440 they call them ropes, 466 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:56,440 cables that would anchor it in any kind of wind conditions. 467 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,560 So when the wind blew they would correct for each other, 468 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,520 they would stabilise it. 469 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:07,440 The tower stood precisely 2,120 feet tall, 470 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,240 it's great height was the key 471 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,960 to reaching the most far away listeners. 472 00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,600 They were long wave radio signals 473 00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:17,560 and when I say long each, each wave, 474 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,000 I mean a literal wave in the atmosphere 475 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,160 of electromagnetic radiation was over 1,000m. 476 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,160 So why would someone want to use those very long wavelengths 477 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,560 because they tend to follow the curvature of the earth 478 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,160 and they can travel very, very long distance 479 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:38,520 and still be received. 480 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:43,240 So in the right conditions signals from this tower 481 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:48,520 could reach Africa and North America really just about anywhere. 482 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:54,320 The broadcasts were produced in a studio 60 miles away in Warsaw 483 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,040 before being sent via an intermediary tower 484 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,640 to this radio transmitter station. 485 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,040 They would transmit locally to a radio receiving tower here 486 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,000 near the base of the transmitter 487 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,120 and that's the big metal structure we see that's still standing, 488 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,920 I mean, it looks big but it's puny compared to the transmitter. 489 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:21,240 This tower is approximately nine times smaller 490 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,520 than the mast that was located on the other field. 491 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:27,680 On the top, there is still a dish 492 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,560 which received and transmitted signals 493 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,680 between the intermediary tower and Warsaw. 494 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,040 The main purpose of this tower was to collect the signal 495 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,640 from the Polish radio studios so anything music 496 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:43,760 and speech and all of it 497 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:47,160 so that it could be later encoded and broadcasted. 498 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:52,240 Then they would take that signal and then amplify it dramatically, 499 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:56,200 change the wavelength to this long-wave system 500 00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,880 and then that's the signal that would go around the world. 501 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,720 This engineering giant was Poland's crown Jewel. 502 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,320 But on 8 August 1991 503 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,840 the tallest structure in the world came crashing down. 504 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,280 The mast broke down, twisted 505 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,840 and collapsed onto the antenna field, 506 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,120 including the exact place where we are standing. 507 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:25,280 This tower would have been the tallest structure in the world 508 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,280 until the construction of the burj khalifa in 2009. 509 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,760 It was 17 years old so it wasn't that old actually 510 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,400 but in fact, it needed a desperate renovation 511 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:42,920 after these 15, 16, 17 years of constant operation. 512 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,800 Building the tallest structure in the communist bloc 513 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,480 in Eastern Europe was a pretty dodgy proposition 514 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,000 considering how just poorly things were maintained. 515 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,760 They were just known for their shoddy architecture, 516 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,280 shoddy maintenance. 517 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:04,840 So in 1991, an attempt was made to renovate the mast 518 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,320 as it was getting older, however, 519 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:11,040 the entire process was done with a couple of major mistakes. 520 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,120 A technician was hired to carry out repairs 521 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,720 but he was unqualified for the job, 522 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,640 he detached a major guy rope without adequate support. 523 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,360 The lowest part of the mast fell towards the helix house 524 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,440 destroying it as we can see it here. 525 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:37,600 Gas lights designed to warn off air traffic 526 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,160 smashed onto the ground starting a fierce fire. 527 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,000 Some of the bottles with gases exploded 528 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:48,520 as the mast fell on them 529 00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,240 and a couple of fire brigades needed to extinguish all of this. 530 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:57,480 All that was left of the tower was a mass of twisted steel 531 00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:58,880 and broken glass. 532 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,080 It was nearly impossible to walk through this area 533 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:06,640 because it was all covered with the material 534 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:07,920 coming from the masts. 535 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,120 Nobody's hurt and yet it is a national scandal, 536 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,440 a couple of engineers are jailed for it. 537 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:18,960 This place where we are here now was left largely intact 538 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,080 after the catastrophe took place so, yes, 539 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:25,840 all around we can still find many elements of the mast. 540 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:31,920 For Poles across the world, Polish radio had fallen silent. 541 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,960 An engineering masterpiece gone before its time. 542 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,680 Today it is closed to visitors. 543 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,800 It's probably the biggest and tallest structure on the planet 544 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:53,760 that most people have never heard of. 545 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:58,160 A landmark in the truest sense of the word 546 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,960 now hidden from view in anonymous Polish countryside. 547 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,280 In Scotland near the ancient city of Edinburgh 548 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,280 is a rock that helped to defend a nation. 549 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,160 We're in northern climes here 550 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:29,200 and it's a island surrounded by dark cold water 551 00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:31,240 at the entrance of a great estuary. 552 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,960 It's wet, it's cold, 553 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,080 it's not a place you want to be spending your summer vacation. 554 00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,600 Empty concrete buildings provide reminders 555 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:43,920 of the former residents. 556 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:47,000 Clearly, a lot of people used to live here, 557 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,840 perhaps some kind of commune but now it's all overgrown, 558 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,600 the only sign of civilisation are some chickens. 559 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,600 Today this island is deserted 560 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:03,680 but less than 100 years ago it was vital for Scotland's defences. 561 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:08,160 It's heading into Edinburgh 562 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:12,560 and any place like that has a defensive role to play. 563 00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:23,440 Two miles out of Edinburgh 564 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,680 a ferry will take you to a place where few people dare to tread. 565 00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,880 The journey crosses the firth of forth, 566 00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,160 an estuary that leads into the heart of Scotland. 567 00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:42,080 Gordon barclay is an expert on the island history 568 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,240 which involves a wartime tragedy. 569 00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:51,400 This is the northernmost 9.2-inch gun emplacement. 570 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,080 There are three of them down the spine of the island 571 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,400 and this is the one that covers the north channel. 572 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:05,320 This is inchkeith the gatekeeper to Scotland's waters, 573 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,160 during world war I 574 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:11,040 the island was issued with nine new Cannon. 575 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,640 Most of these fortifications are built in the early 1900s, 576 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,920 1903, 1904, '05, '06, '07 577 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,320 as they're responding to these fears of German invasion. 578 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,040 To defend the firth of forth 579 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,720 it was made into an impregnable fortress. 580 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:36,400 But that firepower wasn't enough to prevent a disaster. 581 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,600 On 4 September out near the main island, 582 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:47,920 'hms pathfinder' was sunk, went down in a few minutes 583 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:52,320 and only a handful of men survived out of over 200 crew. 584 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,280 When these guns were put in place 585 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,760 they were designed to fire on surface vessels, 586 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:00,760 dreadnought and destroyers. 587 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,880 They weren't built to defend against anything beneath the waves. 588 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,280 The firth of forth had been breached. 589 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:11,680 Two days before the attack 590 00:37:11,720 --> 00:37:14,040 there had been an opportunity to prevent it, 591 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,200 but inchkeith was found wanting. 592 00:37:19,240 --> 00:37:22,080 On 2 September 1914, 593 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:24,760 a u-boat submerged, 594 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,560 managed to get all the way up to the forth rail bridge 595 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:30,480 by about 10:30 in the evening. 596 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,400 For ages, it was undetected 597 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,960 and then suddenly someone spotted a periscope 598 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,880 sticking up out of the waves and the u-boat left the area. 599 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:47,040 Two days later, that same submarine surfaced 600 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,520 just outside of the firth of forth 601 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,880 and took a shot and sunk 'hms pathfinder'. 602 00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:58,400 It was the first sinking by a submarine in world war I 603 00:37:58,440 --> 00:37:59,520 of a ship. 604 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,760 The Germans then rely all in world war I on u-boats, 605 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:10,000 submarines that can get past the British blockade 606 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:12,200 and they can attack British warships, 607 00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:13,920 British shipping covertly. 608 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,280 This island fortress had failed. 609 00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:24,640 In 1914 there was only one way to detect enemy submarines. 610 00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,160 The only way to detect a submarine was the human eye, 611 00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:32,440 binoculars looking out at the sea, 612 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:36,360 this grey featureless surface, hour after hour 613 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:40,840 and if one spotted the wake of a periscope 614 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,000 going through the water you were lucky. 615 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,240 Other than that there was no technology 616 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:48,280 to detect a submarine 617 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:52,400 or indeed to prevent a submarine penetrating a base. 618 00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:56,080 At that time there was a lot of hysteria 619 00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,480 about new German weapons, 620 00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:02,560 the public were reporting sightings of u-boats left, right and centre, 621 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:06,120 99% of them ended up being false reports. 622 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,920 Everybody saw a periscope, everybody saw a submarine 623 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,280 so they were just overwhelmed with warnings of German submarines 624 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,040 and so the British came to disregard them. 625 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,080 So when a boy actually saw clearly a submarine and reported it 626 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:21,320 they ignored him. 627 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:26,960 Three months after the first u-boat attack 628 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,680 the firth of forth began a major upgrade. 629 00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:39,200 A network of new defences between the islands were built. 630 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,040 Inchkeith is so important 631 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,400 in this anti-submarine war for the British 632 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,480 they begin first of all by defending the firth of forth 633 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:52,280 with anti-submarine nets 634 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,120 that will trap a German submarine trying to come in. 635 00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,240 Or will attach a buoy to the German submarine 636 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:01,200 so it will drag this buoy along the surface 637 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:02,800 and we'll be able to know where it is. 638 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:08,160 But Cannon and nets weren't the key to defending Scotland. 639 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,720 The most powerful defences were a collection of small huts 640 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:15,480 built to the rear of inchkeith. 641 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:19,200 Places like this were vital 642 00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:20,920 to the protection of the firth of forth. 643 00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:25,080 The men in the gun crews at least were out in the fresh air 644 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:27,240 but here you were stuck hour in, hour out, 645 00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,040 day in, day out, watching the instruments. 646 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,920 These huts were built on the island 647 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,400 as part of a powerful new anti-submarine weapon, 648 00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:38,800 the detector loop. 649 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:46,040 A submarine produces a magnetic field from its large steel hull. 650 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,720 By laying three cables in a loop on the river bed 651 00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:52,200 its magnetic signature could be detected 652 00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:55,040 and a warning signal sent to the guard huts. 653 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,280 The men listening out for an enemy submarine 654 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,760 had to be somewhere quiet where they could concentrate, 655 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,680 where there would be no noise to drown out or to distract them. 656 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:13,480 Here at my feet, you see the outlet 657 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,200 of one bundle of cables from detector loops 658 00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:19,640 under the river still there. 659 00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:24,160 For six long years during world war ii 660 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:26,280 these huts were never empty, 661 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,920 an officer was always on station 662 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,720 waiting for a signal that might never come. 663 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,880 There were multiple layers of defence, 664 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,560 a submarine would first be detected passing the isle of may 665 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,280 and again by the detector loops just east of inchkeith. 666 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,480 Parallel with inchkeith were the minefields 667 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:51,480 which if a submarine was detected entering them could be exploded, 668 00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,400 it was pretty impregnable. 669 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:55,840 As far as we're aware, 670 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,040 no submarine ever penetrated the defences... 671 00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:04,840 ..Until the final hours of world war ii. 672 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:09,080 On 2 may 1945, 673 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:13,160 the first German regiments in Europe laid down their weapons, 674 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:18,440 they agreed to a total surrender to take place six days later. 675 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:23,560 But on the morning of 8 may, a u-boat crept into the forth. 676 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:30,080 Two hours before the end of the war, 677 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,240 one u-boat captain attacked a convoy leaving the river 678 00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:37,280 out towards the isle of may, 679 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:41,360 and sank two ships, killing a number of men. 680 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,000 It was another tragedy for inchkeith. 681 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:49,640 German u-boat gets in 682 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:51,176 mainly because the British are napping, 683 00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:52,240 they think the war's over, 684 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:53,920 it's the last day of the war, literally. 685 00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:58,120 He claimed that he had not received the order 686 00:42:58,160 --> 00:42:59,200 to stand down. 687 00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:04,960 He had, however, been one of the officers responsible 688 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,520 for developing the new type of submarine 689 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:09,200 that he was commanding. 690 00:43:09,240 --> 00:43:12,680 And to my mind, he ignored his orders 691 00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:15,240 and decided to try out his new toy, 692 00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:17,400 his murderous new toy. 693 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,920 Fort inchkeith saw the first submarine sinking 694 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:24,320 in world war I 695 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,720 and ended its watch with the final sinking world war ii. 696 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:43,480 Now few people cross the forth to visit the island, 697 00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:49,040 what was once on the front line in the defence of Scotland 698 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,760 is now a safe haven for the wildlife 699 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:53,200 that has reclaimed it. 700 00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:56,240 Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV 58211

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