All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S04E04.Vengeance.Under.the.Dome.1080p.UKTV.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

November 1943.

In the quiet countryside of France,

an unassuming chalk quarry comes
alive with activity.

In the wake of an enemy invasion,

Allied reconnaissance
watches closely as

the landscape is
slowly transformed to serve

the needs of the Third Reich.

Here, on the outskirts
of a small village,

a monumental construction project
is underway.

One harrowing leap poised

to shape the outcome
of the Second World War.

This is a strange construction,

and it's located as close as you can
get in Western Europe

to British soil,
in Pas-de-Calais, France.

Given the Nazis' proximity
to Britain,

it was crucial to keep their plans
hidden from enemy aircraft.

Code name - Bauvorhaben 21.

Under constant threat of air raids,

a prisoner workforce
feverishly toils

to complete construct.

Before long, a colossal concrete
shell emerges from the earth,

a symbol of Hitler's unyielding
pursuit of victory

even as the tide of war begins
to turn against him.

This dome is a menacing sight
from the air.

By Allied estimates,
it is 70 metres in diameter.

There is thousands and thousands
of tonnes of concrete here.

What was it shielding?
And why was it bomb proof?

Nothing around it gives them any
kind of clue of what

the hell this thing is.

This imposing stone dome hovers over

a hidden Nazi complex,

shrouding a deadly secret that could
alter the course of history.

What was it protecting?

Was it some kind of
a biological weapons facility?

Is it self-contained?
Are there weapons in there?

Who built it? What's it for?

And what does it mean for
the war effort?

The quiet communes
of northern France harbour a dark,

decades-old design.

A complex web of concrete that
stretches across

the Pas-de-Calais region.

From defensive block houses
to an annexed chateau,

concealed rail lines to
a subterranean stronghold.

The Nazis erect a labyrinth
of stone fortifications

meant to protect
a devastating scheme.

There are many remnants of

a massive Nazi undertaking in this
region today,

and the scale and diversity
of the structures here reveals

a region that must have been
very important to the Nazis.

Picture if you're the Allies,

you need to figure out what these
are for,

what danger they represent for you,

and how they can be breached.

This is ominous,
this is threatening.

And deciphering what these
structures are for is

a project that will take years
of hard work.

Rising from the battle-scarred hills
of Wizernes

is the centrepiece
of this Nazi network.

An immense circular slab of concrete
known today as La Coupole.

My first thought as

a structural engineer is,
how did they do that?

This is thousands of tonnes
of concrete emerging from

the green hillsides of France.

This is an imposing structure,

and it gives you
a feeling of unease.

A creation from the minds of
the Reich's leading engineers,

this aged bunker
is built during Nazi occupation,

cleverly camouflaged into
the rugged plate of

an old chalk mine.

Beneath this earthen guise,

a thick, reinforced lid
protects tall hallways carved into

the stone hillside.

But where they lead remains

a daunting question throughout much
of the war.

Where does this go?
Is it self-contained?

Are there weapons in there?
What's it for?

And what does it mean for
the war effort?

Why situate this massive dome

and whatever it's hiding

so close to the Atlantic in
the Pas-de-Calais,

only 30km away
from the British coast?

La Coupole lingers near
the narrowest stretch of

the English Channel,
a mere stone's throw from

the watery divide that
once separated

Hitler from his greatest foe.

Three years before breaking ground,

a Nazi invasion sets the stage

for this grand design
to take shape.

Although the Second World War begins
in September 1939

with Hitler's invasion of Poland,

the war doesn't actually come
to Britain

and France until
the following summer.

On May 10th, 1940,

the Western Front erupts
as Hitler's panzers rush into

the Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg,

and France.

Six weeks of a vicious
campaign ensues,

resulting in approximately
2.4 million casualties,

the majority of which are sustained
by the French.

One by one, these European nations
fall to the Reich.

Weakened and overwhelmed,

France is the last to surrender,

signing an armistice that

effectively abdicates part
of their nation to Nazi control.

With France capitulating,

Britain now stands alone against
Nazi Germany.

The Nazis move swiftly into their
newly acquired territory,

spanning much of northern France.

As British leaders pull their forces
from the continent,

Hitler turns his gaze
to the English Channel,

preparing his troops
for Operation Sea Lion,

the incoming invasion of Britain.

Yet, as more promising victories
lure them to the Eastern Front,

the Atlantic coast instead
becomes a vast bulwark

to safeguard his growing empire.

Stretching over 6000km from the
tip of Norway to the Spanish border,

the Nazis unfurl a vast barricade
along the seaboard -

the great Atlantic Wall.

Assuming that there's
going to be a counterattack,

Hitler builds this enormous line
of fortifications,

bunkers, pillboxes,
barbed wire, barricades,

minefields and it becomes known
as the Atlantic Wall.

This is the greatest protection

because whatever attack is
going to come from either England

or the United States,

either it's going to be
in the form of air power,

or it will be in the form of
a naval fleet.

To complete his impregnable wall,

Hitler orders the roll-out of
thousands of defensive structures,

including five Sonderbauten

scattered across
the Pas-de-Calais region.

"Sonderbauten" means special
constructions or special buildings.

They would have "sonderprojekt",
special project.

But what is that special project?

You don't know and you're not
supposed to know.

Fortifying the sprawling coastline

of occupied Europe
demands both engineering prowess

and a vast army of labourers.

One bunker complex would
take hundreds

to thousands of people to build.

That's just one bunker complex,

let alone you're now trying
to protect this entire coast.

The person power involved in
that is astronomical.

Hitler entrusts this undertaking
to Organisation Todt,

the only entity in Germany
capable of marshalling

the hands and expertise
for such an ambitious task.

It's a massive organisation
with enormous power given

to them to do basically
anything they want for

the engineering defence
of Nazi Germany.

Staff from Organisation Todts
Festung 27 Division are dispatched

to Pas-de-Calais to plan and
supervise

the fortifications in France.

Seeking a location both close to
the coast yet somewhat concealed

from Allied surveys,
they establish their headquarters in

the commune of Hallines,
taking over a 19th-century chateau

that had been seized
during the Nazi assault.

Chateau Dambricourt was owned by
the Dambricourt family,

and they were a wealthy
local family.

They made their money in
paper making,

and they owned a lot of properties
throughout this region.

The chateau is chosen
because of its location.

It's situated on
a very large lot that is camouflaged

by quite dense vegetation.

It's also within relative proximity
to a railway station,

and so it also allows for
the transportation of people

and materials, in and out.

Chateau Dambricourt becomes

a hive of highly
confidential coordination.

The new occupants
expand the surrounding roads

for military personnel

and build a protective
Blockhaus equipped with

a series of foxholes that protrude
from the building's roof.

Nazi Blockhauses are
an above-ground fortification

used by the Germans
and their allies during the war.

Hitler orders the construction
of thousands of Blockhauses across

the Atlantic Wall alone.

These Blockhauses are made
of reinforced concrete

and have ports for machine guns,
along with observational decks.

Tobruks were installed on
the roof of this Blockhaus.

Shelters with an opening at the top

where one soldier
could stand upright

with his head and shoulders exposed
usually with a machine gun.

The castle estate's once pristine
lawns are levelled

to make way for 600 square metres
of office space,

housing the top architects
and designers of the organisation.

One of the first tasks on
their agenda,

a special construction project
in an old chalk quarry.

Summer, 1943.

Just four kilometres
from Chateau Dambricourt,

Allied pilots spot a frenzy
of activity as labourers rush

to install rail lines in
the stark white basin of

a hollowed chalk mine.

These steel arteries snake
their way from

the quarry's subterranean depths to

the main railway
that cuts through Calais.

Allies really have
to rely on aerial reconnaissance

because, of course,
this is occupied territory.

You're getting photographic evidence
at best,

so you can only make
logical inferences based on

what it is that you're seeing.

And observation only goes so far.

Plumes of dust billow
into the sky as

the top workforce dig their
shovels into the chalky earth.

A seemingly significant undertaking
has begun.

The Allies know that something is
happening here.

From the sky,
it looks like an ant colony

with all of these workers
doing something,

but they hesitate
about blowing it up.

Sending out bombers

to attack something is using
precious resources,

but also putting men's lives
at risk.

And they are aware that
the workforce that is being used

to build this is French labourers.

Killing a bunch
of French civilians is not

going to be something
that the Allies are going to

want to do unnecessarily.

They also aren't sure if anything
really nefarious is going on here,

because the Nazis have this tendency
to set out decoys.

So they start creating these sites
where they make it look like

something important is happening,
but they use it

to divert attention from where
they're actually doing something.

Is this a decoy,
or is this something that is

going to surprise
us in a very bad way?

Allied intelligence
had already been alerted to

a seemingly more dangerous threat
lurking just 15km northwest in

the commune of Watten.

Hidden beneath the dense tree cover
of the Eperlecques Forest,

the Nazis' prisoner workforce had
arrived en masse

to excavate trenches
for another covert Sonderbauten.

The location of the
Blockhaus d'Eperlecques

is strategically significant.

It's located in
the Eperlecques Forest,

very close to a river.

It's also near electrical grid lines

and a Luftwaffe airfield,

and that provides crucial
access to air.

Soon, rising 18 metres from
the Earth,

a German Blockhaus is born,

forged from thousands of tonnes
of reinforced concrete.

For the Allies,
its sheer mass is dwarfed

only by the enigma it conceals.

By 1943,

the Germans are now beginning
to get pushed back.

The German army is expelled
out of Africa.

The Russians are pushing the army
out of the Soviet Union now,

and things are getting
a little desperate.

The question becomes,

is this construction part
of Hitler's attempts to regain

the upper hand?

Hitler is relying on wonder weapons.

And the question is,

is what are German scientists
working on?

What wonder weapon might they
be producing?

From the war's outset,

Hitler had proudly promised

a secret super weapon
of apocalyptic power.

Although initially dismissed
as nothing more than

a propaganda ploy, by 1943,

Allied intelligence
gathers convincing evidence of

a German missile programme at work.

The Germans recognised that

the only thing that they have left
to be able

to develop is a weapon that can
actually pass through

the air defence and naval defences
that the British have.

So it has to be something that

they can launch from far away
to be able to make

a direct hit on Great Britain.

As Hitler's suspicious blueprints
materialise right under

Britain's nose,
the Allies spring into action with

the precautionary
Operation Crossbow.

On August 27, 1943,

an American fleet
of 185 Boeing bombers unleashes

a devastating air strike
on the Watten Blockhaus,

bringing
construction to an abrupt halt.

A British civil engineer,
Sir Malcolm McAlpine,

advised the Royal Air Force

to bomb this Blockhaus when it was
most vulnerable,

while the concrete was
still setting.

By bombing that when it's wet,

you are destroying the formwork,

you're bringing them back
to square one.

This strategic attack renders
the site unusable,

leaving nothing
but a maze of mangled rebar

and shattered concrete behind.

Hitler,
forced to recalculate his scheme,

turns to his trusty architect,
Albert Speer,

and the chief engineer of
Organisation Todt,

Franz Xaver Dorsch.

Dorsch recommends that
the chalk pit be used as

the new site for this
secret operation.

The Nazis' original plan was for
the chalk quarry

to serve as a simple storage
facility for the Blockhaus,

but now it's going to become
the centre of the operation.

The irony is that

the decoy ends up actually being
the real threat.

However, the standard
Blockhaus design will not suffice.

To deter enemy interest
and protect their plan from carnage,

the Nazis will have
to take their mission underground.

November 1943.

The sleepy storage centre in
Wizernes is abruptly transformed

as more than 1,000 workers descend
into the pit

under the scrutinous
eye of Franz Dorsch.

The bold plan to convert
the quarry into

a lucrative Nazi base
commences under the code name

Bauvorhaben 21.

This ambitious task will require
one million tonnes of concrete

to create an expansive network
of tunnels,

operational facilities,

and storage rooms
forged deep beneath the hills.

They'd already invested large
amounts of time

and labour into the Watten facility,

and now they're about
to do it all over again.

Hitler was determined
to bring this project to fruition,

and he was not going to be
dissuaded, even by major setbacks.

Most critically,
Bauvorhaben 21 will be bomb proof,

and Dorsch enlists engineer
Werner Flos to implement

an ingenious method
of making this possible.

Utilising a technique known as
"verbunkerung", Flos relies on

the structure of
the natural chalk hills to fashion

a protective hood atop
the soon-to-be subterranean site,

a massive reinforced concrete dome
weighing 55,000 tonnes.

The verbunkerung method

of construction revolutionised
bunker architecture.

On the hilltop,

the Nazis constructed this enormous
mound of earth that would act like

a mould on which
the roof would be set.

They then poured concrete
and more concrete

and more concrete until

the shell was an astonishing
five metres thick.

That is a huge chunk of concrete.

Five metres thick is about
the height of

a standing giraffe.

You don't build
a five-metre-thick roof

unless you
are protecting something important.

Once that massive concrete
in the roof has then cured,

they can then start excavating
the earth from

the hillside below without the
threat of being bombed from above.

Even by today's standards,

this IS a remarkable piece
of engineering

and the fact that it was created
whilst there was

a war on, in many senses,
makes it even more impressive.

The concrete slab spans
an impressive 71 metres across,

with ample space beneath
to carve through the hills.

Ida, Katharina, and Sophia,

some of the facility's
codenamed tunnels,

are planned to stretch up
to 90 metres through the earth,

seamlessly integrating

the previous lead railway through
the compound.

The one vulnerability of
the chalk pit, however,

is that it is completely exposed.

How do they avoid

the same fate as
the Blockhaus d'Eperlecques?

To disguise the construction
of their concrete cocoon,

and any equipment or materials
that could tip the Allies off,

Todt officials devise
an intricate camouflage to cover

the building site.

They had to build their own
camouflage by hand.

They're building a net
of ropey material and tying fake

and real vegetation to it
to make it look real,

and they've got to cover
a 71 metre dome.

Just the camouflaging is
a huge project.

This site is like
a nesting doll of secrecy.

You have a camouflage net
that protects a concrete dome,

which in turn
conceals a covert facility.

Meanwhile, security tightens at
the nearby Chateau Dambricourt,

where a similar veil
of netting is placed atop

the grounds housing Werner Flos

and the Festung 27
Engineering Division.

Were they creating another...

..underground bunker
that would house members of

the Organisation Todt
to protect them

in case the chateau was attacked?

Once the Germans begin
to move everything underground,

this really now begins to signal
to the Allies

that there's something significant
about to be happening there.

Just a few hundred metres from
the chateau,

a complex of tunnels is being
planned underfoot.

Armed with jackhammers

and over two million
individual bricks,

the Todt workforce begins chiselling
their way into the earth.

Once completed, a 60-step descent
will lead officials into

a three-metre-high passageway.

This tunnel system will open onto
two parallel halls,

separated by a 30 metre gap,

that branch off into six galleries
of office space

for high ranking staff.

Here, the work on their valuable
Sonderbauten will be able

to proceed entirely out of sight.

The initial sight
for this new weapon system,

the Allies bomb that.

The Germans now learn that
exterior sights are not necessarily

going to be the safest way to go.

So everything is moved underground
for both security and safety.

By 1944, Allied intelligence begins
to paint a disturbing picture.

Photo reconnaissance and undercover
reports amass sightings

and blueprints of never-before-seen
missiles that are being developed

and tested by the Reich.

Pursuing their initial suspicions
of Hitler's intentions in France,

Operation Crossbow intensifies
bombings across Pas-de-Calais.

This site was built just 15km away
from another location that had been

destroyed by Allied bombs.

So why keep building in this area
that's so susceptible

to Allied bombing raids?

Pas-de-Calais is the closest part
of France to Britain.

This is an incredibly
menacing structure.

But what role does it play
in the Nazi arsenal?

In the early months of 1944,

construction at the quarry
is halted hundreds of times by

the ominous blare
of air raid warnings.

Yet, despite its vulnerable and
seemingly easy to target location,

the site remains
remarkably unscathed.

All the elements
to raise suspicion are there.

The British are making
the calculation.

Are we 100% that this kind
of rocket capability is ready

to be used by the Germans?

Because if it were to be ready
to be used by the Germans,

why haven't they used it already?

Do you see what I'm saying?
So, in a way,

they're calling Germany's bluff.

With the dome completed,

most of the workforce
moves underground,

leaving the quarry above
to appear deceptively quiet.

Little more than
a pit of shrubbery and stone.

However, on March 4th, 1944,

a British Spitfire captures
photographs of

a vast concrete mixing operation
beneath the site's camouflage veil.

This is the Allies' smoking gun.

It proves that there is far more
happening here than meets the eye.

March 11th.

34 B-24 Liberators pierced
the clouds above Pas-de-Calais

and begin their descent
on the quarry.

Though obstructed by thick,
overcast skies,

ground-based radio transmissions
guide the pilots to their target.

Suddenly, the village erupts

as 248 half-tonne bombs
rained down from the sky.

BOMB WHISTLES THROUGH THE AIR

Even with direct hits on
the dome, nothing happens.

It's just bouncing off the concrete.

And especially because this has this
kind of curvature on it.

Often they don't even detonate.

They just bounce off and then they
detonate after the hit.

In order to add
additional protections,

they built this element
called a shatter wall

that was two-metre thick,
reinforced concrete wall

that ran the circumference
of the dome.

And this would help
absorb any forces from bombing.

It was essentially sacrificial.

It could be destroyed,

and it would not have impacted

the structural integrity of
the main dome itself.

As the sheer tenacity of
the German dome comes into focus,

the Allies escalate their efforts,

launching seven additional
air raids.

These are bombs that had
successfully destroyed plenty

of other structures,

and yet
this one has remained intact.

The harder the target is to destroy,

the more worried
the Allies become about it.

This thing is made indestructible.
What is it?

What are they doing there?

When the Allies discover that their
bombs aren't penetrating the dome,

they start bombing the roads
and the rail lines

going into the location in an effort
to choke out any kind of activity.

Despite these setbacks,

work at the quarry presses on at
a heightened pace,

with the workforce expanded
to meet Hitler's intended deadline.

The Allies respond
with innovative bombing techniques

and new pathfinding technologies.

Yet, the dome
withstands each attempted assault.

To shatter this concrete behemoth,

they're going to need
a heavier bomb.

The Royal Air Force
decides it's time to deploy

a newly developed device,
the Tallboy,

a vessel of destruction otherwise
known as an earthquake bomb.

The Tallboy was first deployed
in the summer of 1944,

and it was enormous.

At six tonnes,

it was 12 times the size of
the typical medium capacity bomb.

These are known as earthquake bombs

because upon impact
they were designed

to create an earthquake-type shock,

undermining the foundations
of any building.

On June 24th,

the Royal Air Force's Dambusters
squadron puts the formidable device

to the test with a fleet
of 16 modified Lancaster planes.

They assemble into formation
above Wizernes.

In a matter of minutes,

15 menacing Tallboys plummet towards
the quarry.

The impact inflicts significant
damage on the ancillary structures,

roads and rail lines,

but the dome itself
is remarkably unshaken.

Undeterred, the squadron returns
one month later,

unleashing a dozen more
earth-shattering explosions

in what will be the decisive Blitz.

The air raid in July
finally delivers

a meaningful breakthrough.

Whilst the bombs
don't directly penetrate

the dome itself.

They compromise its integrity
by destabilising

the supporting structure.

They totally destroyed

the infrastructure underneath
the dome.

The air raid seals off
the site's tunnels

and causes part of the hillside
to collapse.

16 major air raids carried out
by hundreds of planes,

drop a staggering total
of over 3,000 tonnes

of explosives on the site.

Ultimately, the mighty Tallboy
finally brings

Bauvorhaben 21 to its end.

It shakes up Hitler's confidence
in his wonder weapons

and his architects.

It signals that nothing is
indestructible.

We'll get to you eventually.

The fall of the dome is just
one domino in a cascade of loss

for the Nazis.

Around 350km down
the French coastline,

the tide of defeat had already
washed ashore.

On June 6th, 1944,
over 150,000 Allied troops

landed on the beaches of Normandy

in the largest amphibious invasion
in history.

Ushering in a wave of liberation,
they surged towards Pas-de-Calais,

slowly reclaiming
Hitler's occupied France.

Hitler believes that
the most likely landing spot for

the Allies is at Pas-de-Calais.

The Allies realised that,
that is the area

that the Germans expect them,

and that is where
most of the defences of

the Atlantic Wall are built.

So the Allies choose
another location in Normandy.

As the Allied forces close in,

the once impenetrable dome
stands exposed and vulnerable,

its secrets ripe for the taking.

By September,
the site comes under British control

and the concrete curtain
is finally drawn back.

An unexpected benefit of the dome
not being destroyed is that when

the allies arrive after D-Day,

they're able to infiltrate the site

and gather information
about what the Germans were up to

and what kind of technology they
were developing under the dome.

September 5th, 1944.

At the request of
Operation Crossbow officials,

British engineers
enter the deserted quarry

for the first intimate glimpse
of its monstrous Nazi bunker.

Clambering through the rubble,
they inch closer to

the inner workings
of Hitler's elusive operation

and unearth a secret far more
extensive than ever imagined.

As the Allies advanced into
territory held by the Nazis,

they encounter a lot of weird stuff
- strange structures,

and they're not sure what
the purpose was,

but they know that Hitler
had a secret weapons programme.

They have to ask themselves,

"Will we find evidence there of what
the Nazis are working on?

"Will we find tools
and intelligence that will allow us

"to counteract whatever secret
weapon he's about to unleash on us?"

Adjacent to the massive domed roof,

they observe a concrete cube
jutting from the hilltop.

A partially excavated
ventilation shaft meant to service

the hidden complex below.

Though the two main entrances to
the subterranean base

had been buried by British Tallboys,

an alternative access point
is discovered via

the site's railway tunnel.

Codenamed Ida, this tunnel,

with a direct link to
the main rail line through town,

leads to an unloading station
for supplies and personnel.

From here, seven kilometres
of tunnels bridge out

to connect galleries, storerooms

and a 33-metre-high octagonal
chamber directly beneath the dome.

Getting up close to this
phenomenal structure must have been

a chilling experience.

The Nazis had excavated
an immense network of tunnels

and chambers, clearly designed

to house something
of incredible scale.

Armed with new observations
and intelligence

gathered from local sources,

British engineer
Colonel Terence Sanders is tasked

with compiling a definitive report.

Putting my engineering hat on
would be

a fascinating exploration
to try to deduce.

What was the purpose?
What was it made for?

How was it made?

And you're trying
to deduce that basically out of

a pile of rubble.

That's a tough project.

Gradually, Colonel Sanders

and his team assemble
a chilling image of

a functional Wizernes base.

As ample storage rooms, workshops,

and towering passageways
are sketched onto their map,

the report reveals
a grim assembly line fitted to

the specification of a new
vertically positioned projectile.

Hitler's rumoured wonder weapon,
the deadly V-2 rocket.

The "V" in V-2 stands
for "Vergeltungswaffe",

and this translates
to vengeance weapon.

He brands them as vengeance weapons
for what he felt was

the Allied bombing

of civilians in Germany.

The over 12.5 tonne missile
stands 14 metres tall

and is built to deliver explosive
payloads without

the need of a pilot,

an autonomous bullet
capable of mass destruction.

This supersonic weapon
has the potential

to revolutionise warfare,
and the Fuhrer,

desperate to turn his fortune,

clings to the hopes that it will
shatter Allied resolve.

As the Allies are
coming to grips with the V-1,

the world's first cruise missile,

the Germans unleash a new weapon,
the V-2,

the world's first
ballistic missile.

The V-1 had a slow cruising speed.

Pilots were able
to not only shoot the V-1 down,

but a pilot could fly
at the same speed

and with the wing of their plane,

just tip it off target
and the thing would crash.

It was very easily destroyed.

Hitler is looking for some kind of
a last ditch magic weapon

that they can launch from far away,

and that could pass through
the air defence

and naval defences to make
a direct hit on Great Britain.

Designed by Nazi rocket scientist
Wernher von Braun in utmost secrecy,

the V-2 entirely
dwarfs its predecessor.

The missile is armed with
an advanced guidance system

and utilises an innovative
propellant system

to generate immense thrust.

This propulsion allows it to reach
distant targets

nine times faster than
the V-1 at speeds of over 5,000km/h.

The V-2 just came in silence
until it detonates,

so you never knew it was coming.

We didn't have anti-ballistic
missile technology at that time,

and so Britain certainly
would have been vulnerable.

Not only was the dome well
within range

to wreak havoc
on as a V-2 launch site,

it also hosted testing
and maintenance facilities.

Far more than a missile launchpad,
the Wizernes Dome protects

an entire ecosystem of operations.

The V-2 rockets begin their journey
through this fortress on

the Ida Railway,
arriving from Germany,

where they are manufactured
by slave labourers.

The missiles are then loaded
onto trolleys

and transported to the heart
of the dome,

the octagonal multistorey chamber,

where they are prepared
for their deadly mission.

In here, the V-2 rockets
would have been fuelled,

armed, and lifted into an
upright position, ready for launch.

However, the potential of the V-2
relies on more than its range.

At the core of its revolutionary
propulsion system is

a critical component, liquid oxygen.

The problem is the demand
for liquid oxygen

to fuel V-2s far outstripped

the available supply
of liquid oxygen that the Nazis had.

So they actually had plans to create

a manufacturing station
right in this massive complex.

That would have transformed it into
a self-sufficient V-2 hub.

The Wizernes complex
is designed to be

a self-sufficient marvel
of military engineering,

housing a hospital, staff barracks,

offices and generators.

A subterranean city
dedicated to the V-2 programme.

Meanwhile, the remnants of
the Watten Blockhaus were planned

to host a supplementary liquid
oxygen factory,

while the nearby Roquetoire
Substation would assist missiles

in their initial moments of flight.

About ten kilometres from the dome,

the Roquetoire blockhaus
was built to house

a radio guidance system,
for the V-2s.

That means that once functional,

this radio-beam technology
could be deployed

to assist missiles
with course correction in real time.

Just as the Allies had suspected,
these Sonderbauten

or special construction projects
scattered across Pas-de-Calais

were much more
than isolated outposts.

Once fully primed for firing,

the V-2 rockets would be carefully
guided down one of

the two main launch tracks,
codenamed Gretchen and Gustav.

Leading westward to the quarry pit,

two hefty bombproof doors,

forged from 1.5-metre-thick steel
plates would part

to reveal the outdoor launchpads.

This is where Colonel Sanders' team
stumbles upon a strange discovery.

There were two tunnels that
the engineers couldn't access.

The entrances had been destroyed.

However,
they were able to determine that

the height of these tunnels
was between 17 and 24 metres.

A five- to 7-storey-tall building
could fit in that space vertically.

That's a really big tunnel.

They realised this was a much
longer and deeper silo than you
needed

for the V-2 weapon,
and so there would have been a V-3,

a more powerful missile coming
that would have been

an intercontinental
ballistic missile, ICBM.

Further analysis
of the quarry's location

finds the orientation of its
launchpads to be

within a half a degree of the
shortest aerial path to New York.

Britain is not the prize any more.

The prize is
the United States of America.

That's the much more powerful enemy.

And the country that has been
sitting protected by both

the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The prize is the United States.

It was going to be nicknamed
the America Rocket.

The possibilities are frightening.

They now understood
what that dome was about.

Though the Nazis' grand vision
of unleashing

a daily barrage
of dozens of missiles across

the English Channel is thwarted,

Britain does not escape unscathed.

Even as the Allied forces claim
victory at the Wizernes Dome

and liberate the entirety of France,
Hitler's V-2 programme persists in

the distant shadows
of his crumbling Reich.

Learning from the shortcomings of
a fixed launch site like La Coupole,

these V-2s are launched from
mobile launchpads across Holland

and Germany.

They launched about 3,000 V-2
rockets over the course of the war.

They were responsible for
the loss of nearly 9,000 lives,

both in Britain
and in other Allied countries.

Yet, for all its human cost,

the V-2 campaign proves
to be a futile endeavour.

The Furher's desperate bid
to sow fear and chaos

among Allied populations
fails to turn his fate.

Hitler isn't just looking for
a final victory,

but it's also to do as much damage
as he possibly can,

even if he is going to lose the war.

In a final frenzied act of defiance,

the last V-2 rocket screamed skyward
just weeks before

the Reich's collapse,
ending Nazi Germany's most ambitious

and costly armaments project.

A two billion Reichsmarks gamble
that hastens

the downfall of the regime.

Hitler's motivations were
demonstrating power,

and these massive
undertakings took time away,

perhaps, from other things.

It is really quite a vast

and ambitious project
that might have been part

of his downfall as well.

Though the Fuhrer's vengeance weapon
ultimately fails,

the toll it takes is
undoubtably profound.

The Todt Organisation is known
for its enormous building projects,

and those building projects
came with

an equally enormous human cost.

They were often carried out through
the use of forced labour.

Prisoners of war,
conscripted forced labourers,

and slave labourers
from concentration camps.

Twice the number of people were
killed who were working on the V-2,

than the V-2 killed of the enemy.

The Sanders team's final report,
published in 1945,

deems the site perilously
unstable due

to ongoing structural failures
beneath the massive dome.

Recognising the potential dangers
and possibility of future use,

British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill orders

the complex to be
partially demolished,

sealing its sinister
legacy for years to come.

The cavernous halls
of Bauvorhaben 21,

now known as La Coupole,
stand dormant for decades.

Yet, the influence of this
sprawling subterranean complex

soon reaches
far beyond its stone walls,

becoming the prototype
for modern underground missile silos

used in both military operations
and space exploration.

The dome's innovative layout went on
to influence

the blueprints for missile silos
during the Cold War.

Ironically, the big winner from
the V-2 rocket programme is

the United States
and the Soviet Union,

because they will take
that technology

and those German scientists,

and they will
ultimately then develop

the rockets that are used
to put the first humans into space.

While many of
the Nazis' Sonderbauten sites

across northern France succumbed
to decay, La Coupole finds new life.

In the 1980s, the Ida Tunnel is
ceremoniously reopened to house

a historical exhibition.

The winding passages and chambers
have since been transformed into

a comprehensive museum,

preserving the dark stories
of its past.

A powerful reminder of
the innovation

and devastation waged in
a time of war.

The dome becomes a symbol of

the moral implications
of engineering.

In war, we are forced to innovate.

It is a time of great engineering
that advances our societies.

It challenges us to reflect on

the implications of scientific
and technological advancement,

and the weight of responsibility
that comes with that power.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media