All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S10E12.The.Drop.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

The musical heartbeat of a city
brought down by racial division...

There were raids, there were
arrests. People were taken away.

..A training facility in Belarus

used for a terrifying
show of strength...

Everyone in the
west is acutely aware

that this could
be world war III.

..And a mighty
fortress in Indonesia

built in a time when
nations behave like pirates.

This relic was once the
site of a furious battle,

raged over the most
unlikely of treasures,

worth more in weight than gold.

Decaying relics,
ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In the state of Louisiana,
where the great Mississippi meets

the Gulf of Mexico, lies the
vibrant city of New Orleans.

We're on la salle street in
the central city neighbourhood.

This is not a neighbourhood

that tourists usually
spend a lot of time in.

Among well-kept homes are a
scattering of rundown buildings,

one of which could
easily be overlooked.

It's dilapidated, some of
the windows are boarded up,

and you can see where the old
signs and hoardings used to be.

As you enter
through the old doors,

you see what looks to be a
reception area or ticket booth.

In one part of the complex, there is
a perfectly preserved barber chair.

In one part of the complex, there is
a perfectly preserved barber chair.

Out front, one distinctive
sign has survived

and reveals what
this place once was.

And this sign should
call up memories

for any fan of
American roots music.

This locale has a legendary
name in music history.

The dew drop inn was a light,

and this light attracted people
from all over New Orleans

and all over america.

As well as great names, it
attracted huge controversy.

This place was victim
to constant raids.

The drop was pushing boundaries

and it would bring the
wrath of the local law.

Curtis doucette is
a property developer

trying to restore this
club to its former glory.

So we're in the space
that was the nightclub

and there was a stage here.

And there was a stage here.

It wasn't just music.

There was full entertainment,
I mean, a full show.

There was shake
dancers here, there was...

One gentleman I believe
it was iron jaw or metal jaw

or something like that.

I've heard stories,
it's unbelievable,

but of him chewing
glass, for instance.

By the 1950s, the
drop, as it was known,

had become a mecca
for america's R&B greats.

You had folks
like Duke Ellington,

Ella Fitzgerald,
ike and Tina Turner.

People like ray Charles,
Otis Redding, James brown.

Little Richard even
wrote a song about it.

There are stories about, like,

maybe the first rock’n’roll
song, you know, was sang here.

This was a gathering place, not just
to see great music being performed,

but a place where musicians
could hang out when they're in town.

But a place where musicians
could hang out when they're in town.

One newspaper called it "the
south's swankiest nightspot".

Its fame and
popularity were born

out of the restrictions of
living in the Jim crow south.

So Jim crow is the
colloquial name given

to the laws that separated
American citizens from each other.

White institutions were
financed and maintained,

whereas the
separate institutions

for African Americans were left
to dilapidate, or didn't exist at all.

In some cases
hotels were white only,

and there were no hotels
for African Americans.

One of the great ironies
and injustices of this era

was that black musicians were
often invited to play white clubs,

but they couldn't even
necessarily sit at the bar

and have a drink in that club,

or stay in the neighbourhood
where the club was located.

Or stay in the neighbourhood
where the club was located.

They had to find a place to
stay and hang out after the show.

That left a gap in the market,

a fact not lost on one young man
working nearby on lasalle street.

The man behind
this whole complex

was named frank g painia,
and he was a real visionary

and a real representative
of a kind of entrepreneurship

that helped build
the black community

in the days of Jim
crow and segregation.

His grandson Kenneth
Jackson recalls

how he seized the opportunities
these laws could offer.

He was a barber by trade and
he decided to bring his family

to New Orleans, and he
started his barber business,

and when the property
came up for sale,

and when the property
came up for sale,

he and his brother
decided to purchase

one side of the building, and
they had the idea to start a club.

You know, to start, like, a bar

and then they added
on live entertainment.

Kenneth has fond memories
of living here as a child

and enjoying this
unusual playground.

We'd come in when they were
cleaning up the bar and they had

a set of instruments that were on
the stage and you could get up there

and beat on the drum,
or play with the piano,

or stuff like that, you know?

Always some entertainers
or musicians that were there,

that were, like, part
of the house band,

and they were basically almost
like relatives to us, you know.

My nickname was rooster,

so all of them would
call me rooster,

but it was a festive
environment.

Everybody wanted
to have a good laugh

and it just felt like a family.

Frank had also purchased
the other side of the building,

allowing him to further
expand the enterprise.

So, the dew drop was a
multi-purpose business, right?

There was a barbershop here,
there was a restaurant here.

There was a bar,
there was a nightclub.

All of those things
existed within this space

which is about
13,000 square feet.

Hotel is pretty much now what
it was. There's 29 rooms here.

Most of them are
very small rooms.

So this is one of
the smaller rooms

and one of the few rooms that
actually have a bathroom in it.

Soon, the drop was added
to the famous green book.

So this was basically a guide

for how African American motorists
were to navigate the Jim crow south,

and let them know where they
could be arbitrarily denied service,

food, lodging, not to mention
be arrested for no good reason.

Food, lodging, not to mention
be arrested for no good reason.

This was an essential tool

for anyone black in
that age trying to travel.

The dew drop fit in
the green book network

because it was a place
where you could rent rooms,

you could eat, you
could get your hair cut.

You know, it was just a
welcoming type of atmosphere

for people that
were coming to town.

The dew drop inn
therefore formed

part of a network of
green book-led institutions

that kept up and maintained a space
for African American entertainers.

In many ways, these
places provided a heartbeat

and a lifeline for this culture.

It's heart-breaking to
think this was necessary,

and the injustice
of it still rankles,

but this was the reality, so the
dew drop inn was kind of a beacon

on this landscape of hospitality

on this landscape of hospitality

for anyone who
came through the area.

Ray Charles and little Richard
made the most of frank's hospitality.

Both lived and recorded
here in the mid-1950s.

We're talking a who's who of
entertainment back in the days.

It was just a place where musicians,
if they weren't playing there,

they would come there to
find out where work was.

So the dew drop inn was an anchor
for the whole network of musicians

during a period
when these musicians

were not only transforming
American music,

they were making music that
would transform popular music

around the world.

But it was frank's open-door policy
that was so unusual for the time.

You had guys that
dressed up like women,

and, you know, it was
just part of the atmosphere.

And, you know, it was
just part of the atmosphere.

At frank's request, the
famous female impersonator

patsy vidalia became resident
bartender, performer and mc.

Vidalia, known as the
toast of New Orleans,

hosted an annual gay ball
held here each Halloween.

(Cheerful music)

Frank painia, the organiser,

made a space that was
inclusive, not exclusive.

African Americans mixed
with their white counterparts.

They even embraced
notions of gender fluidity

and had themed nights in
which people were able to explore

various forms of sexuality in a
way in which would have been

unheard of in the established
nightclubs of New Orleans.

For the time, you know, it wasn't
acceptable everywhere, you know?

Everybody didn't
agree with that,

you know, that that
should be allowed.

But it was ok at the
dew drop, you know?

But it was ok at the
dew drop, you know?

That was a part of society
that people were overlooking,

but my grandfather didn't care.

You know, it was
like he felt that,

you know, they deserve
to be seen in their own way.

But in such a racist,
divided society,

this level of tolerance and
success drew some serious heat.

It really took an immense
amount of courage

for him to offer this open-door
policy, but he did suffer for it.

The authorities decided to
shut down the dew drop inn.

This meant that
on a weekly basis,

there were raids,
there were arrests.

People were taken away.

The attempt was to make
sure that the inn closed for good.

There were times when my grandfather
actually had police pull up outside,

there were times when my grandfather
actually had police pull up outside,

with what they called
paddy wagons back then,

and if they knew that they
had white people in here,

they would arrest everybody in
the place and take 'em all down

and charge them
with racial mixing.

There's also times

when there weren't just raids
but there was just harassment,

police driving by and telling
people, "you better not go inside.

If I catch you inside there,
then I'm taking you to jail."

These arrests were commonplace,

but one particular raid
made national headlines.

In 1952, the actor
Zachary Scott got arrested

at the dew drop inn
for disturbing the peace,

and frank painia got arrested

for the crime of serving
blacks and whites together,

which was actually against
the New Orleans city code.

After years of
constant harassment,

frank sued the city,

arguing that the Jim crow
laws were unconstitutional.

Arguing that the Jim crow
laws were unconstitutional.

Painia took the suit all the
way up to a federal court,

but before a verdict
could be reached,

the civil rights laws were passed
in 1964, legally ending segregation.

This is absolutely what
frank wanted, but incidentally,

it actually contributed to the
demise of the dew drop inn.

You would hear people around
that time, in reference to integration.

They would say, "well, you
know, white man's ice is colder,"

and so people didn't
come to the dew drop

as much as they did
because they had options,

and particularly options that
had been taken away from them

for a very long time.

Sadly, frank died of cancer

just a few years after the dance
hall closed in the late 1960s.

As a person, my grandfather
was a real all-around nice guy,

and he loved for people
to enjoy themselves.

He tried to help people
whenever he could.

In 2005, a deadly
blow was delivered,

in 2005, a deadly
blow was delivered,

not just to the drop, but to
the whole of New Orleans.

Those of us who were here
during hurricane Katrina,

we remember the
infamous watermarks.

This is one of the
ways that we know

how high the water
settled in a place like this,

so this, you know, looks
like maybe 2.5 feet or so

that the water settled.

The impact of the
hurricane was so great,

the rest of the business closed
and has sat abandoned ever since.

Though devastated, this
place is far from forgotten,

and Curtis hopes
to bring it back to life.

I would say my day job is an
affordable housing developer.

When I found out about this
place, really, the history of it

is what made me fall in love, and
so this is a passion project for me.

Is what made me fall in love, and
so this is a passion project for me.

My goal for the dew drop inn

is to make it as close as
possible to what it used to be.

You walk in to the building now,

it’s kind of a
bittersweet situation.

I basically have to realise
my mortality, you know?

I'm getting older.

It's kind of like I need to pass
the torch to a younger generation.

It's in need of a lot
of repair, of course,

but I feel lucky, or blessed,
to have it still in existence

and with the potential

of being refurbished and reborn.

In a remote region of Indonesia

is a defensive structure
built in an age of discovery,

conquest and greed.

Conquest and greed.

It's an island paradise.
It's hot and humid.

There are fishing boats
dotting the landscape,

and at the water's edge, there's
a cluster of one-storey buildings.

Further up the hill is
what looks like a castle.

The imposing structure
suggests a military history,

but just whose battleground
was this tropical island?

The brutal construction,

at odds with the serene
beauty of the surrounding land,

suggests it was built by
people a long way from home.

This design is typical of the
Pentagon-shaped fortresses

found across Europe,

but here, it's on the remote
island of banda neira in Indonesia.

There's a courtyard
at the centre,

with what looks like a well,
and these strange square blocks,

where it's really not clear
what their purpose was.

Where it's really not clear
what their purpose was.

From the outer wall,
still armed with cannons,

you can see miles
into the distance.

So clearly this was set up to
stave off any threat from the oceans.

What was it here that required
such immense protection?

And what foreign
force risked slaughter

by launching a daring raid to
seize control of the prized asset?

This relic was once the site

of a furious battle raged over
the most unlikely of treasures.

The Indonesian island of
banda has long been coveted

for its natural resources.

Lukman ang is a local guide,

born and raised in
this tropical paradise.

(Speaks foreign language)

For hundreds of years, the
location of the banda islands

and their sought-after riches
remained a closely guarded secret.

Their eventual discovery
would change everything.

(Speaks foreign language)

We've all heard the phrase,
"money doesn't grow on trees."

Well, here in banda, it did.

Spice was really the most
valuable commodity of the age,

and the banda islands were the
Jewel in the crown of this trade network.

And the banda islands were the
Jewel in the crown of this trade network.

It was the only known
place in the world

where you could grow
nutmeg and mace.

Nutmeg was especially important,
as it was thought to prevent plague.

What value would
you put on something

that could cure
you of the plague?

Unsurprisingly, Europeans
would pay an extortionate amount

for this medicine.

In the early 1500s,

only Asian and arab traders knew
where to find the prized spices.

Among Europe's
fledging colonial forces,

the race was on
to find the islands

and seize control of the
lucrative trade for themselves.

(Speaks foreign language)

The Dutch were next
to discover the islands

and they swiftly forced
out their European rivals.

And they swiftly forced
out their European rivals.

At first, they tried to strike a
peaceful deal with bandanese nobles

that would Grant them exclusive
rights to the islands' riches.

But this contract alone wasn't
enough to guarantee a monopoly,

and they soon turned to
another means of control.

In 1609, the Dutch
admiral verhoeven

arrives in the banda islands
with a request to build a fort,

but the banda people aren't
gonna hand over their land so lightly.

Verhoeven and his men
were ambushed and killed.

The Dutch responded
by destroying local ships,

plundering villages and
executing local leaders.

This extraordinary violence led
to the signing of a peace treaty,

which recognised Dutch
authority over banda,

and even more importantly,
over the spice trade.

And so what began
as, you know, trade,

and so what began
as, you know, trade,

really involved
colonisation and occupation.

Fort Nassau, built in 1609,

would prove to be only the
first of a number of strongholds

constructed to safeguard
Dutch interests in the area.

What unfolded was a tragic
story, stained in the blood of locals

spilled at the hands
of foreign invaders.

By 1621, the Dutch still felt

that they didn't have a secure
monopoly on the nutmeg trade.

Some locals continued
to trade with other nations,

in defiance of their
treaty with the Dutch.

The Dutch had all the excuse
they needed to initiate a massacre.

Nobels were beheaded,

villages razed and
islanders tortured.

It was a bloodbath.

It was a bloodbath.

The native population
fell from 15,000 to 1,000,

and maybe even less than that.

By virtually annihilating
the bandenese people,

the Dutch secured their
monopoly, but at a horrible cost.

In fact, the Dutch had killed
so many bandanese people

that they needed to turn to
and bring in enslaved labour

from India and China to
work on the plantations.

(Speaks foreign language)

But the Dutch weren't
alone in their endeavours.

The British also had
their eye on the region.

The spice wars were about
to enter a dangerous new era,

the spice wars were about
to enter a dangerous new era,

and for that, the Dutch
needed a new stronghold.

As tensions increased,

the Dutch built the larger
and more strategic fort belgica.

(Speaks foreign language)

The belgica fort, which
is still standing today,

was begun in 1667 and
took six years to complete,

and once completed, it
could Garrison 400 troops.

Every inch of the fort's
construction was intended to inspire

fear among locals and deter
any would-be European attackers.

(Speaks foreign language)

The outer ring
consists of a low wall,

designed with five
bastions to cover all angles.

The inner ring was
built much higher,

with five circular towers
that offer panoramic views.

(Speaks foreign language)

From here, it was easy to spot

anyone trying to
smuggle spices illegally.

Those whom they caught they
threw into these cramped prison cells.

They were built for
political prisoners,

but also for any of the locals
but also for any of the locals

who dared to sell nutmeg
to anyone but the Dutch.

Capture didn't just
mean imprisonment.

It often meant a death sentence.

(Speaks foreign language)

But Dutch domination
of the islands’ people

and the money-spinning trade in
nutmeg and mace was nearing its end.

The British were coming.

The British had
never relinquished

their desire to get their
hands on the spice trade.

Their desire to get their
hands on the spice trade.

And when the Netherlands fell
to France in the napoleonic wars,

the British sensed an opportunity
and invaded the islands.

In August, 1810, a naval squadron
commanded by captain Cole arrived

in the waters of the banda sea.

(Speaks foreign language)

From the towers of this bastion,

it seems impossible the British
could have avoided detection.

The guards in their sentry boxes

would have sighted them as
soon as they came over the horizon.

But captain Cole was clever.

He arrived at night under
the cover of darkness.

At sunrise, Cole and his men

launched their surprise
attack and stormed fort belgica.

Launched their surprise
attack and stormed fort belgica.

They threw ladders against
the side of the ramparts

and climbed up under
heavy musket fire.

Rather than stand and fight, the
Dutch soldiers fled for their lives.

Within hours, the
battle was over,

and the British claimed control
over the rest of the island.

The Dutch were in no mood to
give up their prized asset so easily.

They rallied their
troops and hit back.

It wouldn't be long before
the Dutch reclaimed their stake,

but Cole and his men uprooted
hundreds of nutmeg seedlings

to replant in other colonies.

With that, the
Dutch stranglehold

on the spice trade
was fatally weakened.

And as the colonial
era faded into history,

so too did the
fort's significance.

So too did the
fort's significance.

By the mid-1900s, it was
completely abandoned.

In 1991, fort
belgica was restored

and now serves as
a tourist destination.

Today, it's a powerful reminder

of a brutal era when savagery
and greed ruled supreme.

(Speaks foreign language)

The ruins at fort Nassau
and belgica stand as a sign

of the violence and destruction

wrought on this region
by the colonisers.

The bandara really suffered
under European colonialism.

These were state-funded
trading organisations

with the aim of increasing
influence on the world stage.

But in essence,
they were just pirates.

But in essence,
they were just pirates.

And we can still
see this dynamic

playing out in the
modern world today.

We can still see war
being fought as a business.

We can still see economic interest
driving conflicts of various sorts,

and you still see corporations,
backed by governments,

trying to seize
control of resources,

seize control of certain
regions for their resources.

In the former Soviet
republic of Belarus,

near the Russian border,

is a disturbing reminder
of more troubled times.

It's actually very hard to
make sense of this complex

when you first see it,
and that's kind of the point.

Crumbling interiors reveal

a construction designed
to command and conquer.

A construction designed
to command and conquer.

There are bunker-like structures

built with thick,
reinforced concrete,

meant for keeping whoever was
on the inside safe from something,

and yet they afford a very good
view of the surrounding landscape.

That was no accident.

This complex was built way
out in the middle of nowhere,

and that's crucial.

Given what they were doing here,

they could not be near
any large residential areas.

This was a theatre of power
and the drama that played out here

was intended to strike fear into
the hearts of enemies near and far.

In some ways, what happened here

draws parallels with
modern-day Russia.

An event of this size looked
like it could only mean one thing...

A full-scale invasion.

A full-scale invasion.

How important was this structure

to an event that caused
the cold war to turn red-hot?

(Serious music)

Yuriy shapovalov was an
officer in the Soviet army.

He first came to
this location in 1981.

(Speaks foreign language)

At the time of yuriy's visit, the
world was a very different place.

(Speaks foreign language)

You would have had men in
uniform swarming all over this place,

whistles, shouts, crashes
booming all around.

It would have felt like utter chaos.
But this was organised chaos.

Whoever was in charge here
needed to build something that was

almost a fully functioning city,
and they had to do it in record time.

And the superpower behind it

had all the motivation it needed
to achieve the staggering feat.

Up until 1980, when the Soviet
union invades Afghanistan,

there had been a decade of
detente, of increasing normalisation

of relations between
the west and the east.

But by 1981, that was done with,

and the cold war was
heating up all over again.

To make matters worse,
communist rulers in Moscow

were also facing growing
unrest within their own borders.

In the late 1970s
and early 1980s,

there's a wave of anti-Soviet
sentiment in Poland,

and this is not good
news for the Soviet union.

The election of a Polish pope
only served to add fuel to the fire.

When pope John
Paul ii is elected,

he is the senior holy man in
a technically atheist country,

and that was a poke in the eye

to officially atheist communism.

Even under communist rule,
Poland had remained one of the most

catholic countries in Europe, so
to now have a catholic Polish pope

catholic countries in Europe, so
to now have a catholic Polish pope

calling so visibly
for resistance

was a real threat to
communist rule in the region,

so they needed to take
care of things very quickly.

Moscow goes to the Polish
defence minister and says,

"you will crack down,
or we will invade."

Soon, troops begin to amass in
the Soviet-controlled state of Belarus,

which shares a
border with Poland.

(Speaks foreign language)

So western analysts see

so western analysts see

the Soviet army massing
in Eastern Europe,

and they have got to
take seriously the idea

that this is a Soviet land
attack against NATO.

Something of this scale

definitely looked like the
precursor to an invasion.

But not all was as it seemed.

These are the dretun
training grounds,

the site of one of the largest
military drills ever performed.

It was called
west-81 or zapad-81,

'zapad' being the
Russian word for ‘west’.

And on the surface, it was
just a massive military exercise,

but it was something
more than that.

The zapad exercise
program is a proof of concept,

the zapad exercise
program is a proof of concept,

and the concept
they’re proving is

that the Soviet army can survive

an American nuclear attack and then
command and coordinate a response.

(Speaks foreign language)

Zapad-81 may have been presented

zapad-81 may have been presented

as a carefully orchestrated
training exercise,

but the west continued to
observe with deep suspicion.

This was an era
when one false move

could have unleashed
nuclear armageddon.

There was great uncertainty about
what was going to happen next.

Everyone in the
west is acutely aware

that this could be
cover for world war III.

(Speaks foreign language)

All the west could do was watch
and wait as the drama unfolded.

The Soviets filmed
the entire production,

running it like the set
of a Hollywood movie.

Only here, the
missiles were all real.

(Speaks foreign language)

News of the exercises quickly
spread around the world.

(Speaks foreign language)

It was theatre. It was
national security theatre.

The Soviet army had a lot of
amphibious armoured vehicles,

and the problem is that
the armoured vehicles

could not cross rivers very well,
so what they did was they built

concrete lanes across the bottoms
of the rivers just for this exercise.

It was a demonstration
to the rest of the world

that the Soviets had
the numbers and the will

to overrun Europe
if they so wished.

But western leaders were
not the only ones spooked

by this massive display
of Soviet strength.

The intimidation tactics
were also intended

to send a very powerful message
to Poland's dissenting population.

To send a very powerful message
to Poland's dissenting population.

One of the reasons
to look really good

is that this is meant to make
clear to the Polish government

that the Soviet army is
ready to invade Poland

and there will be nothing that the
Polish government can do about it.

That is very clearly
intended here.

The exercises at dretun played
out for eight consecutive days

and are said to have
involved up to 150,000 troops.

In Poland, the Soviets
didn't have to mount

a military incursion to put
down anti-Soviet demonstrations

in the way they had done
in czechoslovakia in ’68,

so you could say that the
show of force was a big success

from the Soviet perspective.

And much to the relief
of nervous NATO forces,

on the 12th of September, 1981,

on the 12th of September, 1981,

the Soviet military simply
packed up and headed home.

The dretun training fields

would never again host military
manoeuvres of such magnitude.

(Speaks foreign language)

There have been many
exercises in the following decades,

but none that could
quite match this one

in terms of the scale
and global attention.

Today, the war games at dretun
are over, but danger still remains.

(Speaks foreign language)

For soldiers like yuriy, the
cold war cast a long shadow,

and although full-scale
war never erupted,

the events of west-81
had a lasting impact.

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