All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S04E03.A.Secret.to.Win.the.War.1080p.UKTV.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

June 6th, 1944.

The shores of Normandy come alive as
Allied forces surge forward

in a massive coordinated assault

to liberate Europe from
Nazi occupation.

Word of the landing rapidly
spreads through

the chain of German
military command.

The countdown to Hitler's
downfall has begun.

D-Day is to this day the largest
amphibious operation in history.

It's also one of the biggest
military gambles in history,

as the success of
the operation relies on

the Germans not knowing where
the Allies are landing.

Just 10km from these beaches,
Luftwaffe forces

at the Douvres Radar Station
stand their ground.

A defiant outpost in the face of
the Allied advance.

This radar station was
a priority target

on the 6th of June, and it was the
duty of the Canadian Forces

and their North Shore Regiment
to take it - intact, if possible.

Yet, as the Allies rush in
to reclaim Western Europe,

this German station holds strong
for nearly two weeks.

What secrets lie within this site?

What makes this installation
so vital to protect?

The answer lies in events that
unfolded two years earlier

on the windswept cliffs of
Bruneval, France.

In 1942,
grainy photographs captured at

British intelligence reveal
an epic piece of Nazi engineering.

The photographs capture a grand
chateau nestled 12km from Bruneval.

Beside it, a dark spot on the image
reveals itself to be

a peculiar dish-shaped structure
pointing directly at England.

This is no ordinary coastal defence.

It's something far more sinister.

This is a piece of radar technology
the Allies have never seen before.

This is something new,
something different.

What is it? How does it work?
What does it do?

For months,
the Allies have struggled

to get their bombers past
enemy lines.

Time and time again, they've been
caught off-guard by German planes.

It's as if they're expecting them.
But how?

This site could hold the key
to unlocking some of

the Nazis' best-kept secrets when
it comes to aerial dominance.

Is this site important for
a particular reason,

or is it just part of
the bigger puzzle?

The Allies are determined
to find out.

These photographs set the stage
for a daring gamble,

a mission to unravel
the secrets that appear

to be hidden in plain sight.

How did this quiet stretch of
the French coastline become

the target of British paratroopers?

And what would they discover here
that would ultimately lead to such

a prolonged German resistance during
the D-Day invasion?

A ten-day stakeout on
the shores of a falling regime

is the culmination of the Second
World War's Battle of the Beams,

an unspoken technological arms race
between Germany

and Britain that ignites in
the early days of conflict.

The Second World War was as much
about technology

and technological innovation as
it was about brute force.

Technological superiority in war
is critical,

and the country that can outmatch

and outperform the other has
the upper hand in the conflict.

Both sides have bomber planes,

so what then would give one side
the advantage over the other?

The ability to attack when
the other side is least prepared,

and the ability to defend against
similar surprise attacks.

To accomplish this,
both Nazi Germany

and Britain will turn to
a novel technology called radar.

Early radar technology operates on

the basic principle
of radio wave reflection.

The radar sends out radio waves,

and when they hit a metal object -

say, an aircraft or a ship -

they're sent back to the receivers.

Radar measures the distance
to that object

by the time it takes

to bounce back from it.

Radar transforms the battlefield in

the Second World War by shattering
the threat of a surprise attack.

But the British have an early lead.

By the time the Second World War
explodes into

a brutal reality, in September 1939,

they were already equipped with
a secret weapon.

The world's first operational
early-warning radar

to be integrated into
a country's air defence system.

It's known as the
British Chain Home.

After the First World War,

early detection became
a real concern in France

and England because Paris
and London had been bombed

by the German airships

and by the Gotha bombers.

And the acceleration

of war in those times
forecasts that the winner of

the next war will be the country
with air superiority

and smashing enemy towns under
carpet bombing.

A prediction that proved
to be woefully realistic.

The Chain Home radar stations are
predominantly located along

the eastern and southern coast
of Britain.

By the beginning of the war,
the Chain Home system is made up

of around 20 individual stations.

But over the course of the war,

that network expands
to over 40 stations.

The Chain Home system is

a network of early warning radar

stations that can spot enemy
aircraft up to 190km away.

Any aircraft flying over
the English Channel

and North Sea would be seen,

triggering a warning to
the Royal Air Force,

who could swiftly intervene.

Each station typically has two
main sites - a transmitter site

with four 110m tall steel towers,

and a receiver site with wooden
towers about 73m tall.

The transmitter towers send out
radio waves in

a fan-shaped pattern over the sea.

And when aircraft entered
this field,

the signals would reflect back
to the receiver tower.

And of course, this entire chain
is linked to

the British aerial command system,

so that's of great help in
the defence of Britain.

It's key in helping target

the Luftwaffe as it's coming in
on bomb runs.

Could the technology at
Bruneval simply be

a Nazi version of
the Chain Home system,

or could it be something much
more advanced?

Struggling to evade Britain's
formidable defences,

Nazi Germany develops a strategy

to improve their bombing techniques.

This is no easy task,
but the Third Reich has a plan.

The Lorenz system is

a blind-landing technology
that's developed

for civil aviation in Germany
in the 1920s and '30s,

and is adopted in 1932
at German airports.

The system transmits beams that
guide the aircraft left,

right or centre through bad weather
for a safe landing.

Simple tones are used
to signal position.

Too far to the right of the runway,

a pilot would hear
a series of Morse code dashes

and know to adjust to the left.

Too far to the left of the runway,

and he would hear a series of dots

and know to adjust to the right.

The key to the system is
the centreline,

where both signals overlap,

resulting in a steady tone known
as the equi-signal.

By adjusting his path until he heard
a steady tone,

the pilot could be guided to
the runway.

In the late 1930s,

this technology is installed on
planes

in the German Air Force known
as Luftwaffe.

Leveraging this
commercial technology,

they use radio signals from
ground stations

to facilitate night-time
military operations.

The Lorenz radar system needed
to be located at

the end of a runway.
And it was quite a compact system.

It consisted of a small shack that
housed a lot of the equipment

and three antennas as
a timber frame connected

to that building to gather
the signal and relay the data.

It was made out of wood. It was easy
to construct and pretty compact,

but also pretty limited in
its capabilities.

In the early days of WW2,

the Luftwaffe relies on the Lorenz
beam system for navigation,

but its limited range
of roughly 48km proves insufficient

for their ambitious bombing plans.

Very early on in the war,

Hitler does declare Britain
to be his primary enemy

on the Western Front.
Now, Britain is an island,

whereas Germany is on
continental Europe.

So the strategy that was decided

for attacking Britain was one
of using airpower.

This kind of attack was extremely
taxing on the British population,

obviously, because it would happen
in a very sudden wave.

It would be a lot
of bombs that would be dropped.

So, of course that takes
a toll on the population,

not just with respect to casualty

and the mass destruction that it
brings with that, but also,

of course,
the psychological costs

of having these attacks happen again
and again and again.

The Germans really focus on these
bombing raids for

a number of reasons.
They want to disrupt

the British war effort by targeting
specific military

and strategic sites.

The bombing raids will also
hopefully divert

British resources from
other fronts.

Nazi scientists develop
a more powerful,

long-range version of the
system. Knickebein.

They essentially built huge versions
of Lorenz antenna arrays,

capable of projecting two powerful
intersecting beams over targets in

Great Britain to guide bombers
with greater accuracy.

Knickebein literally means
"bent leg",

and it's actually called
the crooked leg

because the frame that holds up
the antennas is in a bent shape.

The antenna is fixed on
a steerable rail-mounted track,

allowing for directional control
of the radio beams.

By 1940,

multiple Knickebein transmitters are
strategically placed along

the coasts of Norway,
Germany, Holland and France.

Their gaze fixed on potential
targets across the English Channel.

The Knickebein systems work together

to dramatically boost

transmission power.

The bombers are able
to track these beams like

a digital breadcrumb trail
to their target.

This really changes the way
the war's fought,

as it allows German bombers
to attack their targets

with much more accuracy.

There's nowhere to hide.

This is a new and deadlier kind
of warfare.

The Luftwaffe is now far
better equipped

to carry out night raids than
their adversaries.

German pilots are now becoming
blind flying experts.

From a military perspective,
they own the night sky.

Later this year,

a very different installation sits
on the shores of northern France.

The Bruneval coast, 1940.

A frenzy of construction unfolds as

a hulking structure of steel

and wire rose up from the ground.

A radar station,
the eyes of the technological beast

with its watchful gaze
focused across

the English Channel.
This isn't just a line of defences.

It's a technological shield
in the making.

This particular site,
once it's photographed,

baffles photo analysts

because it doesn't look like
any other site.

The radar antenna at
Bruneval doesn't appear

to be attached to any kind
of shack that you'd expect

to see with the Lorenz system.
Instead, it's positioned within

the grounds of this inconspicuous
French villa.

When I look at the crooked leg,
it's large, it's long, it's movable,

and it has these towers that
are tall

and has more fine elements.

And the other radar system is solid.

It's this parabolic bowl that is
mounted to a base.

It's a very different feeling when
you look at these two things.

If this was the site of a Lorenz or
a Knickebein radar system,

the most obvious giveaway would be
the surrounding infrastructure.

It's not fortified.
It's not protected.

So what's it doing?
What's it picking up?

What's it looking for?

If you're an Allied pilot or
an Allied bomber,

you have to wonder,

could this radar represent your
impending doom?

Most notably, the station at
Bruneval is missing two crucial

structural elements that these
bomber guidance systems would

need to operate -
tracks and airstrips.

Completely detached from
its surroundings,

the radar at Bruneval is
a solitary structure.

Could it be yet another leap

of technological warfare for
the Nazis?

As Germany deploys its secret array
of radar along

the continental coast,

British scientists get
to work on counter technology.

Starting in October 1940,
the RAF deploys

a high-powered transmitter codenamed
"Aspirin," effectively confounding

German bombers and their
Knickebein systems.

Instead of jamming
the Knickebein system,

the British deploy
a clever deception strategy

by broadcasting their own
dot signals.

These random signals synchronise

with German transmissions

and essentially scramble
the Morse code guidance.

This was so effective that

the Germans began missing their

targets at a much higher rate
than before. And in fact,

it was so confusing that at
one point

a German aircrew landed on

the British air base using their
radar information,

thinking it was actually their own
air base.

That's how lost they were.

This countermeasure doesn't slow
the Nazis down, though.

They'll have to come up
with something better,

and it's almost guaranteed that
they will.

Aspirin can only cure
the German headache for so long.

The Luftwaffe will soon become
immune

to the British countermeasures.

November 14th, 1940. The sky over
Coventry, England,

erupts as more than 500
bombers unleash

a devastating 11-hour aerial attack.

The Luftwaffe has flown under
the cloak of darkness,

honing in on their target
with incredible precision,

resulting in one of the most
infamous raids of the war so far.

What's called the Blitz over
England by the Germans

was intended to soften Britain up
for the impending invasion.

The term Blitz means lightning,

and it harks back also to
the blitzkrieg,

which was the type of warfare that

the Germans had engaged in
when they invaded Poland

in September of 1939,

and also when they invaded
Western Europe in

the spring of 1940. The Blitz is

a sustained aerial bombing campaign
that lasts from

the fall of 1940 until
the spring of 1941.

It's estimated that approximately
43,000 civilians are killed in these

bombing raids,
and over 120,000 more are injured.

Britain is still considered one
of the strongest,

most powerful countries
in the world.

They are at the peak of their power,
essentially.

And then suddenly this Blitz happens

and Germany comes back on
the world stage

with superior military technology,

enhanced military technology
with the ability

to attack England in this way.

So how was the Luftwaffe able
to achieve this?

What type of technology did
the Germans have at this time

that could surpass the
Chain Home system?

The answer?

A new radar system now operating
on a higher frequency.

The X-Gerat.

Just months after their reliable

Knickebein is jammed,

this new Nazi tech

utilises cross signals

to pinpoint targets

with unparalleled accuracy.

Germany is developing new systems
very rapidly.

As soon as one is deployed,

they're already working on improving
it and extending its capacity.

The X-Gerat operated on a higher
and more powerful frequency,

and its beam was narrower
and more concentrated,

making it difficult for
the enemy to detect and jam.

Soon the Blitz becomes
a terrifying symphony

of destruction as X-Gerat guided
bombers

carve a path of ruin across
British cities.

Looking to the coastline where this
strange device was spotted,

you have to ask, could the French
cliff sides

be concealing an X-Gerat system?

The unit at Bruneval is specifically
positioned just metres away

from the edge of the cliff.

It's a rather unusual position for

a long-range bombing tool,

which could be installed
further inland.

Its aim is clearly laser focused on
the English Channel,

but what is it looking for?

We know from their track record that

the Nazis are always very
specific about

the sites that they choose.

So what was it about this
particular location

that made it so important?

Barbed wire and other fortifications

hint at the vital role this
location plays.

The villa is located about 90m back

from the cliff edge.
Between the villa and the coast,

we see this parabolic radar mounted
on a wheeled unit.

The British, as they're looking at
this new parabolic antenna,

they don't see any control room hut.

And their assumption here is
that the so-called "brain"

of this radar system is
going to be somewhere in the house.

Though the dish itself is
distinct, smaller,

and uniquely shaped,
it's the brain of the radar system -

hidden in the old French home -
that is truly

the most fascinating feature
of all.

Inside the control room, you have

Luftwaffe-trained radar operators.

A category of trades in
the military that you know how

to read a scope, measure it,
understand what you're looking at

and communicate that information for
the Luftwaffe air commander

then to scramble his airplanes
and deploy them.

Control rooms like these handle

the all-important communications
portion of Nazi Germany's main line

of defence.
This is just one station in

a fine-tuned web that passes
information back and forth.

By overlapping their
observational coverage,

the Nazis have come up with

a way to expertly map
and track the sky.

But how exactly it does this is
still a baffling mystery

to the Brits.
Even as the Allies hone in

and effectively intercept
the Nazis' advanced expert systems,

this radar station remains operable.

Could it be a technology even more
superior than what

the Germans had already
devastatingly deployed?

As the Blitz rages on,

a relentless downpour of fire
and steel,

the British refuse to yield.

Uncovering the strategic purpose
of this site

becomes an urgent endeavour.

It would have been incredibly
challenging and even demoralising

for the British, having undermined
one scheme,

to suddenly find out
the Nazis have another one.

Because the stakes are so high,

Britain is really fighting
for its survival,

and time is of the essence.

Both sides recognise the critical
importance of radar dominance,

and with each leap Nazi Germany
makes in radio navigation,

the British trail close behind,
working to thwart enemy attacks

with counter technologies
for each new development.

Thanks to secrecy on both sides,

they were not really aware of

the level of technology reached by
the opponent.

This really becomes
a cat-and-mouse game where

as the British are able to intercept
and jam the German radar,

the Germans are then coming up
with new technology

that the British have
to figure out new ways to counter.

At this point in the
Battle of the Beams,

the British recognise that maybe
it's time for them

to go on the offensive. So far,

most of their radar technology has
focused on defensive strategy,

but the Germans were always
one step ahead of them.

As war tactics shift,

the British turn their attention
to the offence.

But in order to develop
a technology worthy of warfare,

they not only have
to intercept German radar

but uncover what makes it
so successful.

Radar is basically something
for defence,

and defence is not a concern for
the Germans in the '30s.

They do not fear
to be attacked by anybody.

Yet, as the Nazi war
machine continues

to plough through Europe,

the need to defend their skies
becomes evermore pressing.

By 1941,

a sinister transformation
of Nazi-occupied Europe unfolds

as a defensive line
of radar installations,

Eyes of the Reich,
emerges from conquered land.

The Kammhuber Line runs from
Denmark to the middle of France,

dividing Western Europe into
a series of radar-equipped boxes.

These stations relay
real-time information

to Luftwaffe command posts,

so they can shoot down enemy
aircraft before they get

to their intended target.

This system was able to detect enemy
aircraft from up to 320km away,

so it posed a real threat
to Allied bombers.

The German forces had been on
the offensive

for a long time.
But with this development,

it seems like they were realising
that at some point they'd have

to defend the territory they
conquered or even their home turf.

Kammhuber Line is a two-pronged
system that requires long

and short-range tracking.

Several long-range radars provide
the first line of defence,

but it's a mysterious new technology
that delivers the final punch -

turning night skies into a killing
ground for Allied air crews.

The implications of
the Kammhuber Line defence for

the German military are immense.

Early warning means preparedness.

So now the Luftwaffe can detect
incoming threats

and mobilise against the Allies.

Allied bomber losses increase
with each attempted raid,

and soon British intelligence
concludes that

an advanced German defensive system
must be responsible.

Nearly two years before,
on December 18th, 1939,

German radar systems spotted a
British bombing raid on

Wilhelmshaven,
a staggering 113km away.

German fighters pounce on
the unsuspecting bombers.

This was one of
the first instances

that really tipped the Allies off to
the possibility that

the Germans had some kind
of defensive radar system.

The Allies, however,

don't have any vital information
about what it's called,

where it's located,
or how it works.

Mere months later, some of these
questions are answered when

a Danish Flight Lieutenant
stationed on

the remote island of Fano makes
a startling observation.

Photographs reveal this large
rectangular array

of antennae, almost looking like
a bed spring.

The Freya system is
20 to 30 metres wide.

It's a huge set-up

and very difficult to mistake
for other technologies.

The Freya system uses pulse
repetition frequency.

It sends out radio pulses and
measures the amount of time it takes

to bounce back off of an aircraft,

which then reveals the exact
position of that aircraft.

Freya has this amazing
long-range capability

to pinpoint enemy aircraft up
to 160km away.

Despite its capabilities,

Freya still has some weaknesses.

Primarily the fact that it's
a 2D radar system.

This means that
a radar technician knows where

the plane is coming from,

has a general idea
of where it's going to,

but does not know what its
altitude is.

While Freya blankets the skies
with its early warning net,

another radar revolution
is under way.

German engineers plot
a complementary system,

one that fills the gaps in
Freya's vision,

pinpointing enemy aircraft
with deadly precision.

And among the many vantage points
which it will soon occupy is an

unassuming clifftop in
Bruneval, France.

Follow-up reconnaissance flights
soon feed the Allies

the infamous photographs snapped
about Bruneval.

This isn't the bedspring-like
installation they'd captured before.

The radar here is something
entirely different.

Seeing this parabolic dish
at a time when

the Allied radars,
English or Americans' radar,

were mostly rectangular ones.

It shows that the Germans at this
time had

a three or four-year advance
in technology.

The Allies see this new radar
station as posing

a real threat.

It may have the capability
of not only measuring

the distance of
the incoming aircraft,

but also the direction
and the altitude.

Think about it. It's unlikely that
this parabolic dish is a one-off.

So could the Allies,
by learning more about this station,

actually figure out how to penetrate
the German coastal defence?

This radar station,

with its strategic position facing
southern England,

scans the English Channel
for Allied bombers.

The site's location,
perched on an exposed coastline,

raises troubling questions for
the Allies,

who intend to investigate.

At first glance, this dish doesn't
seem very well protected.

It's not fortified. But actually,

by placing it on top of
a rocky cliff side,

the Nazis were exploiting
the natural landscape to protect it.

This would be hard
to reach by foot and dismantle.

But with Allied aircrew casualties
mounting in early 1942,

and the German radar threat growing,

it's imperative that
the Allies take action now.

They had to go and investigate.
They had to figure it out,

because it could have been new
technology that they needed

to understand.
It could have turned the war.

A request rockets up
the chain of command

to Combined Operations HQ,

a raid on the Bruneval site
to capture

the German radar technology

and bring it back to Britain
for dissection.

It would be quite concerning
because you do not know what

the capability of this new radar
technology is.

The first question that would
probably go through their minds is,

what can this object do? Second,

how is it more enhanced than
previous technologies that

Germany has deployed before?
The third question would be,

OK, how can we try to emulate this
or to make it better

so that we can get
the technological edge?

This could be the most important
raid of WW2 that you've never heard

of. If it could give
the British air superiority

and the ability to penetrate German
detective systems,

the tide of the entire war
could turn.

A direct assault on Bruneval could
be a recipe for disaster.

Not only would it likely cost
countless lives,

but any hint of
an approaching raid could trigger

the swift destruction of
the coveted radar technology.

A different approach is needed,
one that demands daring innovation.

Britain's new 1st Airborne Regiment,

a fresh experiment in
paratrooper tactics,

could be just what
the Allies need to pull this off.

The success of Operation Biting
hinges on

a carefully orchestrated manoeuvre

in a silent airborne raid
to seize the equipment

and a harrowing escape under
the watchful eyes of the enemy.

When the time is right,
a parachute drop will deliver

a 120-man assault force led by
Major John Frost.

Their mission?
Overpower the German garrison

and secure the vital
radar installation.

As soon as the parachute
team deploys,

the clock starts ticking.
They have to find the radar,

dismantle it,
and get it to the beach

before the Germans are aware that
they're there.

Can it be divided up into pieces?
What's the material?

How heavy is it?

You've got all these questions going
through your brain that you can't

answer until you're actually there.

The British, in preparation for this
very carefully timed mission,

rebuilt the entire complex
in England

so the paratroopers could practise
on, you know,

similar kind of topography
that they're

going to actually go into action

to make sure that absolutely
everything happens on time

and that they get
the right equipment out of there.

A very complex operation.

This is an incredibly risky raid,

but the expected rewards make
it worthwhile.

If the British are able
to capture and dismantle

and study this German radar,

they'll know exactly what
the Germans can detect

and what they can't detect,

and how they could maybe slip
under the radar

and penetrate German lines
of defence.

February 27th, 1942, 2100 hours.

120 British paratroopers
descend towards the French coast.

These elite soldiers plummet towards
their objective,

poised to snatch
a vital piece of Nazi technology

and rewrite the course of the war.

The sound of British bombers buzzing
overhead clues them in

that something's going on.
But it's actually pretty confusing.

They don't immediately
understand how or why

the British would be launching
a raid on this installation.

German forces scramble
to respond to the attack.

They rush towards
the Bruneval radar station

and they engage
with the British paratroopers.

The question is, how does someone
manage to steal such

a massive device?

Piece by piece.

Flight Sergeant Cox,

the RAF's technical specialist
for the raid,

leads a team of engineers towards
the massive round dish

to the soundtrack
of heavy German fire.

Ignoring the danger,
they begin dismantling the system.

Working swiftly, they use crowbars
and other tools

to remove key components
for analysis.

They know how radar systems work
in general,

but this is something new that
they've never encountered.

If they damage the wrong part or
leave something vital behind,

this could all be for naught.

After roughly 30 minutes,
they secure the essential parts

and information they need
and set their sights on the beach.

The crew narrowly evade the wrath of
machineguns just in time

to escape onto British boats.
Once they return,

the British need to build
the radar system from

the stolen parts using photographs
and their memories to guide them.

If they could pull this off, they
may unlock the secrets to some of

the Nazi's most powerful wartime
tools before

the Germans have a chance to come up
with their own game plan.

You can imagine how difficult
it would be

to rebuild this system
with raw parts and pictures.

It's certainly an art,
reverse engineering.

When you take apart a system

and you're not quite sure which
parts are

the essential parts
and how they work,

and now you not only have
to rebuild it

the way it was built originally,

but then to actually decipher how
that system actually works.

Thankfully, they have help.

So when this assault team captures
the radar dish,

they also fortuitously capture two
German technicians

and they will provide unexpected
expertise for

the scientists back in the UK.

Would they have been able
to reassemble this

and gain the knowledge that they
gained without these two?

I'm not sure.

When they reassemble this dish
piece by piece, they

discover that it's the top-secret
German Wurzburg radar system.

This is a major score for
the Allies. They've discovered

the secret that was being kept
at Bruneval. They've cracked

the mystery of what they were seeing
in those reconnaissance photos.

The British leveraged the technical
knowledge gained from the stolen

equipment and German technicians
to verify the design, function,

and capabilities of not only
the Wurzburg system

but the Kammhuber Line as a whole.

The Wurzburg radar system was
so effective

because it could track
the movement of enemy aircraft

with unprecedented detail,
providing vital information

for German anti-aircraft guns
and night fighters.

The Wurzburg system uses
a highly-concentrated beam,

which makes it a deadly tool in
anti-aircraft defence.

By analysing the Wurzburg,
researchers determined

the exact wavelength used by
German radar,

and this is a key factor

in developing effective jamming
techniques.

Based on its proximity to

the other German Freya systems
discovered on the French coast,

it's clear that Wurzburg was
designed to work in tandem

with its predecessor.

First, Freya's long-range vision
acts as an early-warning system.

It identifies blips on
the radar that pinpoint

the incoming aircraft's distance
and direction.

Once Freya sounds the alarm,

Wurzburg steps in.

Prior radar systems could only
measure the distance that

the plane was from the radar

and the direction that that plane
was heading.

This technology could determine
the altitude at which

the plane was flying,
a three-dimensional radar system.

And that was the game-changer.

That was the advantage that
the Nazis had in air warfare.

For the British, this is a huge win.

Successes in espionage,
successes in intelligence gathering

I think are huge confidence-boosters
for any military.

Yet, even with this win,

the Battle of the Beams is far
from over.

Hitler's response to the
Bruneval raid

inadvertently aids the Allied cause.

His order to fortify
radar installations

with barbed wire creates
an easily recognisable pattern

for aerial reconnaissance,

marking these sites as prime targets
for future attacks

and weakening German defences in
the lead-up to D-Day.

While performing
an air reconnaissance,

the station was quite invisible,

but the defence around was
absolutely visible.

Hitler believes that
the most likely landing spot for

the Allies in their
attempted liberation

of Nazi-held Europe is
at Pas-de-Calais,

and the reason for this is
very simple -

that is where the English Channel
is at its narrowest,

and therefore it's the closest
geographic part of France

to Great Britain. So the Germans
only have limited resources.

As the Germans are pouring all
this effort

into fortifying Pas-de-Calais,

it means that the Normandy coastline
remains relatively undefended.

June 6th, 1944.

Allied forces surge onto
the shores of Normandy, France.

Just a short distance inland,

German troops at
the Douvres radar station braced for

an unprecedented assault.

The largest amphibious invasion
in history.

Baiting made them aware that this
station was quite

a vulnerable target, and that's why
the level of defence was

so heavily reinforced,
in fact. And the consequence in, uh,

on the D-Day, in June 1944, was that
it could oppose a fierce resistance.

The Douvres station code name

"Distelfink" holds particular
importance in the assault.

Not only does it house
the powerful Freya and Wurzburg duo,

but its location on
an elevated plateau with

a panoramic view of
the sea makes it a prime spot for

a German master station.

One of just six critical
control centres

to amalgamate radar data from
the 92 stations along

the coast of France.

They were not sure of
the level of the German technology,

and that's why, even in 1944,

it was important to take
a master station to understand

the level of the equipment

and the organisation of
the Luftwaffe.

And that's why this radar
station was

a priority target on
the 6th of June.

But it won't be an easy feat.

Though the Allies manage
to damage the site's antenna

with naval artillery,

breaching the station by foot is
a task fraught with danger.

After their Wurzburg was hijacked on

the exposed shores
of Bruneval two years earlier,

the Germans ensure this set-up is
near impenetrable.

The minefields,

they had barbed wire,
they had concrete defences.

As Allied forces rained fire
upon the Germans,

the compromised station continues
to relay critical data

to Luftwaffe night-fighters.

Without control of Distelfink,

the Allied advance is uncertain if
the Germans refuse to yield.

This place resisted for ten days.

Six attacks have failed.
So the British said,

"Well, there'll be siege.
We wait for them

"to surrender when they are running
short of food

"and short of ammunition."

It was the establishment of
the airfield in

the vicinity that make them decide
to wipe the position out.

On June 17th,

Allied forces initiate
a devastating bombardment.

Finally, after relentless pressure,
surrender seems imminent,

but not before orders come down

to destroy all evidence
of their technology.

The Germans still believe that
they have a technological advance,

and that could be interesting
for the Allied to capture it.

And that's why the instruction was
to destroy everything.

The Bruneval raid was incredibly
significant in the wider war.

This allowed the British to get
a leg up in

the technological race
to understand German technology

and thwart it. It gave the British
an advantage in the battle

for control of the skies.

The secret war over radar,

fought in the shadows
of hidden Nazi research facilities

and allied laboratories,

emerges a critical factor in
determining the outcome of WW2.

Both sides recognise that
technological dominance could mean

the difference between victory
and defeat.

German ingenuity pushes
the Nazi regime to

the forefront of innovation,
earning them a temporary lead.

But in the end,

the radar race proves to be
a marathon, not a sprint.

To understand how important it was

and why this competition
about radars,

we can compare the budget of
the Manhattan Project,

which is the development of
the atomic bomb, is $2 billion.

The American investment in radar
research during

the Second World War, $3 billion,

so 50% more than for
the atomic bomb.

These secret Nazi facilities do
raise unsettling questions.

How close do these technological

innovations bring the Nazis
to victory?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media