Original subtitles

[narrator] A confounding facility caught up in a race to save countless lives.

It's this weird mix of 19th century bridge building

and 21st century Buck Rogers kind of thing.

[narrator] The search for the location of a highly classified

spy mission.

There have been rumors that a secret cave

had been deliberately covered up and hidden away.

[narrator] And a site where life was forever on the edge.

[narrator] And a site where life was forever on the edge.

There has always been an air of danger around this town.

[narrator] Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

[narrator] At the gateway to the Mediterranean,

on the southern tip of Europe,

is a much coveted rock.

It's a piece of land sticking out of Spain.

But it's not owned by Spain.

[narrator] All around are signs that this site

has long been fought over.

If you make it to the top of the rock,

If you make it to the top of the rock,

you'll find two enormous guns,

pointing out to the Mediterranean.

[Rob] This place was important enough

to defend with some serious firepower.

But below ground, the real secret of this rocky outcrop

lay abandoned and hidden for more than half a century.

[Onyeka] Gibraltar had been a place of strange rumors,

that there were these many secret tunnels.

It is grim. The air is thick with bugs.

It is grim. The air is thick with bugs.

[Neremiah] If you are fortunate enough to have a torch with you,

you just might be able to see

glimpses of rusting machinery inside.

This is a dark, nasty place to be.

[narrator] The top secret operation planned for this grisly dungeon

would require sacrifice and service way beyond the call of duty.

[narrator] Gibraltar, aka the rock,

is a British overseas territory.

Maintaining control of this strategic peninsula

has been a centuries long struggle.

Well, to say Gibraltar was well-armed is a bit of an understatement.

Gibraltar was extremely well-armed.

[narrator] Local historian Pete Jackson,

[narrator] Local historian Pete Jackson,

was once a gunner in Britain's royal artillery.

He was stationed on Gibraltar.

What we are gonna walk to now, is 9.2 inch gun.

Uh, this is capable of firing a shell

three miles into Africa.

[narrator] The rock overlooks the eight mile wide, Straits of Gibraltar

and sits opposite Morocco.

[Neremiah] Gibraltar is a very key place of real estate.

And essentially whoever controls Gibraltar

controls the Mediterranean.

[narrator] It's been a vital British military base

since 1704.

They turned the place into a fortress.

With thousands of soldiers, guns, canon, cavalry, and navy back up.

[Pete] When you see the size of the shell this thing fires,

you won't want to be on the receiving end of it.

[narrator] But with the constant threat of siege and attack,

the British needed more than brute force

to maintain their grip on Gibraltar.

And the secret to their success lies hidden in the rock itself.

The towering limestone monolith,

hides a labyrinth of spectacular caves, and natural tunnels.

hides a labyrinth of spectacular caves, and natural tunnels.

But there is also evidence of human activity below ground.

[Pete] You see the original drill marks,

as the tunnel being made in the 1700s.

The tunnels that we're in now date from 1782.

This is when we started to dig in to defend against attack.

[narrator] Back then, British defenders

needed the tunnels to survive Spanish assault

during the great siege of Gibraltar.

during the great siege of Gibraltar.

And centuries later, when Hitler came to power in 1933,

the value of Gibraltar was not lost on him.

Hitler had hoped to convince Spain to join the war on his side.

And of course, if he could offer Franco Gibraltar,

that would be a massive incentive.

The British knew of Hitler's ambitions,

and that the age-old tunnel system,

and that the age-old tunnel system,

would be crucial in defending the rock.

[Onyeka] British commanders in Gibraltar,

began to develop an extensive set of underground tunnels.

utilizing those that existed before,

and developing a whole extensive network.

[Pete] And what we are in is called the Great North Road.

And what is is,

more or less the... our main supply route within the tunnels.

more or less the... our main supply route within the tunnels.

[narrator] The royal engineers carved out around 20 miles of additional tunnels

to provide bomb-proof accommodation for Britain's Gibraltar Defense Force,

which had doubled in size.

[Neremiah] So, they tripled the length of these tunnels.

This new space had room for weapons,

ammunition, housing about 16,000 soldiers.

They had hospitals, communications, all within this mountain.

They had hospitals, communications, all within this mountain.

[narrator] Even so, at the start of the second World War,

Hitler looked set to take Gibraltar.

So the British devised an extraordinary intelligence operation,

that would spring into action when the Germans invaded the rock.

It was so secret,

that little is known about it even today.

that little is known about it even today.

[Neremiah] For decades there has been rumors that

the rock of Gibraltar had these secret caves and rooms

that were deliberately covered up and hidden away.

[narrator] But more than half a century after the end of the war,

evidence of the long lost bunker had still not been found.

And the hunt continued.

Historian Phil Smith has been exploring Gibraltar's tunnels for decades.

Historian Phil Smith has been exploring Gibraltar's tunnels for decades.

In 1997, a group from the local caving club,

sat down just outside here

and felt wind coming through from beyond the corrugated iron sheet.

When they removed it, they found cast concrete.

And as they moved further up,

they found this small entrance that leads to this room here.

[narrator] Until the discovery of these rooms,

the covert British intelligence operation

the covert British intelligence operation

had been little more than conjecture.

[Phil] I was absolutely amazed

hidden away inside the rock there would be a room like this.

There's a door on that side. There's a door on this side.

It's a very strange place.

[narrator] This clandestine complex

was the base of Operation Tracer,

an audacious British mission to be activated when Hitler conquered Gibraltar.

Operation Tracer was the brainchild

of head of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Sir John Godfrey.

If Gibraltar fell, the British would need information on what the enemy were doing.

So, the plan was to seal six naval personnel

in this chamber with enough supplies to last them

so they could observe and report back on enemy movements in the area.

[narrator] The discovery of the underground spy base

[narrator] The discovery of the underground spy base

finally proved that Operation Tracer did exist.

So were British soldiers ever entombed within Gibraltar's rock?

[narrator] In the early days of the second World War,

the British were convinced that Hitler would take control of Gibraltar.

So as part of the highly classified spy mission

Operation Tracer,

they dug out a hidden complex within the rock.

Under the leadership of General Richard Gale,

Under the leadership of General Richard Gale,

six volunteers would be entombed in these rooms

for the duration of the war

with this six inch crack as their only window.

There was a 10,000 gallon water tank,

food supplies for up to seven years,

and the all-important, communications room.

From here, they would spy on German military operations,

From here, they would spy on German military operations,

and radio their findings to London every night.

The floors are covered in court tiles put in place to dampen sound.

And a hand cranked generator would be used to power the radios.

In the 90s, the cavers found this strange contraption here,

you can see the blades on it, like a propellor.

But there's also a handle here.

So it looks like it was hand-operated,

So it looks like it was hand-operated,

There's two toilets here.

If you just had one toilet and it broke,

that would be a very serious problem for the men.

[narrator] In a remarkable act of bravery,

these men would be walled

into this underground complex for the duration of the war.

We're not talking about a couple of days or weeks, or even months.

Years of hiding out in utter darkness.

Years of hiding out in utter darkness.

You really had to be a person that was truly committed to the cause

and one who had high levels of mental toughness.

Operation Tracer was brilliantly conceived.

If the people involved were carefully selected and trained,

I think it would guarantee success.

[narrator] In the end, Hitler did not attack Gibraltar.

And Operation Tracer was never activated.

And at the end of the war, the top secret base,

was surreptitiously sealed up.

Today, the British still control Gibraltar.

But for how much longer?

Gibraltar is one of those places left behind

as not quite ruins of empire, but something like that.

But now that Britain is retracted,

But now that Britain is retracted,

and no longer thinks of itself as an empire,

what place does Gibraltar hold?

[narrator] The bad lands of New Mexico,

are as remote as it gets.

[narrator] Yet, someone has built here.

[Amma] Inside this open desert,

[Amma] Inside this open desert,

is a construction that looks like

it's from the 19th century wild wild west.

There's this sort of bridge to nowhere

that runs off of the ground level

onto this platform.

When you get closer, this place gets actually more complicated.

It's constructed almost entirely out of wood.

[Katherine] But at the same time, you've got all this

clearly modern technology around it.

[narrator] A bird insignia could be a clue

[narrator] A bird insignia could be a clue

to what went on here.

And despite appearances,

this creaking structure is part of a wider landscape

that has had global impact.

[Nehemiah] The deserts of New Mexico

has a very high pedigree for world-changing science.

It was here that the first nuclear bomb was tested.

[narrator] So, what was this ramshackle

wooden construction built for?

The origins of this site

relate to an unprecedented event

back in 1962.

The launch of the first communications satellite,

Telstar 1.

[Amma] Telstar was a real watershed moment

of the 20th century.

[Nehemiah] It was a satellite that was able to

broadcast television signal

from space, for the first time, ever.

[Amma] But, seven months after Telstar launched,

it shut down.

And it wasn't immediately obvious

as to what went wrong.

[narrator] Today, scientists like

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffry Heggemeier

of the U.S. Air National Guard

only know what happened

thanks to this crumbing structure

thanks to this crumbing structure

out in the New Mexico desert,

once a highly restricted military facility.

So Telstar 1 went offline because we were doing

nuclear testing in the Pacific.

[explosion]

Once that bomb went off,

it created the first ever electromagnetic pulse.

[narrator] An electromagnetic pulse or EMP

is a burst of electromagnetic radiation.

[Jeffry] A nuclear explosion causes an EMP

because it excites electrons in the ionosphere

which then cause an electromagnetic pulse.

[narrator] Nuclear electromagnetic pulses

cause damaging current and voltage surges

which interfere with electronics

in susceptible devices.

From mobile phones

to aircraft

to satellites like Telstar 1.

Today, an electromagnetic pulse

would decimate the technology we now depend on.

[Nehemiah] EMP was a real national security threat,

back in the 1960s.

But today, an EMP spike would still be devastating.

[narrator] So more than 40 years ago,

how did this dusty site

ensure Americans would be safe from such an attack?

[narrator] By the 1970s,

U.S. Air Force scientists

had discovered that nuclear testing in the Pacific

had fried the electronics on a communications satellite.

It was a chilling discovery.

The electromagnetic pulse the blast created,

The electromagnetic pulse the blast created,

had interfered with the satellite's electronics

and it would do the same to their aircraft.

EMP was such a threat to the American Air Force

because our aircraft relied on these electronic systems.

[Katherine] It just wipes out the technology,

it wipes out the ability

to respond to an attack.

[explosion]

So America needed a way to make its aircraft EMP-proof.

So America needed a way to make its aircraft EMP-proof.

And therein was the engineering challenge.

[narrator] The wooden relic at this site

is what they used to subject U.S. military aircraft

to the electromagnetic pulse

created during a nuclear attack.

It's all that remains of a classified testing facility

codenamed ATLAS-1.

[Jeffry] So simulating a EMP for a airplane in flight

is not practical, nor is it really safe

because if you affected the electronics,

you can potentially cause the airplane

to have issues while in flight.

The structure was made out of wood

because if it was metal, it would affect

the electromagnetic pulse we were trying to simulate.

And so, the solution was

to build the world's largest wooden structure

in the middle of the desert.

The design they came up with was inspired by those old railroad trestles.

Hence, the name of the structure was Trestle.

[narrator] But the structure couldn't be too high,

otherwise they wouldn't be able to get

the 100 ton, $300 million planes onto it.

The hole in the ground idea was to take a natural hole

and dig it out a little bit more

such that we could put the Trestle inside of it.

such that we could put the Trestle inside of it.

[Nehemiah] The idea was to roll the plane

off of a cliff, on to a platform.

So finding the hole in the ground was the easy part.

The difficult part was being able to design this platform

with all of the specific specifications.

[narrator] That was the job of scientists

like Bill Prather.

[Bill] My role with ATLAS-1

was as a member of the engineering design team.

was as a member of the engineering design team.

[narrator] Bill knows that the damaging

electromagnetic pulses created by a nuclear blast

could wipe out the electronics in American military aircraft.

But how could they simulate such an explosion

on this rickety-looking structure?

It's hard to tell from a distance, but if you look closely,

you'll see these cables that look like power lines,

you'll see these cables that look like power lines,

that are running on either side of the platform.

Those are incredibly important

to how ATLAS-1 actually worked.

[Bill] The wedge building on this side,

was used for the instrumentation

that recorded the currents measured off of the aircraft.

And, on either side are high voltage generators

that generate the EMP.

Eight million volts on each side.

Eight million volts on each side.

And it drives the pulses on to these wire plates,

one on this side

and one on the far side over here

generating the EMP

across this way where the aircraft is parked.

We had to do that because we couldn't use nuclear weapons.

So we simulated it with high voltage equipment.

Basically, this plane was just inundated

Basically, this plane was just inundated

and just bombarded with EMP.

And then after that, they would turn off the machine,

get in, put the key in the ignition

and see if the plane still turned on.

This was cutting-edge technology at the time as well

and they couldn't really tell if it was going to work

until they ran their first test.

[narrator] But it was a chance they had to take.

An enemy EMP attack would put millions of lives in danger.

An enemy EMP attack would put millions of lives in danger.

[narrator] During the Cold War, in the New Mexico desert,

scientists like Bill Prather

were part of a top-secret mission known as ATLAS-1.

The aim was to keep U.S. Air Force planes

safe from the damaging voltage surges

safe from the damaging voltage surges

of the electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear bomb.

We knew the structure was good

and we knew the concept would generate the EMP.

When they were ready for their first test,

they rolled their aircraft onto the platform

and then they turned on generators

which then fired 16 million volts.

[narrator] As the structure was blasted

with the massive current,

with the massive current,

to Bill's relief, it worked.

It was the first of many ATLAS-1 experiments

which showed the U.S. Air Force

how to shield electronics from EMPs.

[Bill] We then added protection to the plane

to stop that electrical energy

from getting through into the plane.

ATLAS-1 really helped the military make leaps forward

ATLAS-1 really helped the military make leaps forward

in terms of EMP resistant circuitry.

By making certain that aircraft could still fly,

even after being hit with EMPs,

we were able to make sure that

mutually assured destruction stayed in place.

And that's an important piece in keeping the Cold War cold.

[narrator] Once the Cold War ended,

the ATLAS simulator was finally abandoned

in 1991.

[narrator] The efforts of Bill Prather

and the ATLAS-1 engineers,

did not go to waste.

[Katherine] The thing about EMPs is they haven't gone away.

Our cell phones, our electrical grids,

all these things would just be completely wiped out.

[narrator] In the Aspromonte mountains of Southern Italy,

the shell of a town

looms above an inaccessible land.

[Amma] The town follows the contours of the hillside

winding down all the way to the river at the very end.

[Dominic] There are multiple levels of houses,

stacked on top of each other

in places as many as five stories.

All overlooking this deathly drop.

All overlooking this deathly drop.

[narrator] Its desolate streets

are paved with the husks of homes and businesses.

[Jaega] There are stacks of gas cannisters,

the remains of an empty bakery

and even a solitary woman's shoe.

[Dominic] Floors have given away and fallen through

this place is teetering on the edge of total collapse.

[narrator] A riverbed full of curiously large boulders

and scars on the surrounding hillsides

and scars on the surrounding hillsides

could give an insight

into what left this place deserted.

You wonder if whatever happened here

was completely natural

or if there's something else that could have happened

to make everyone leave.

[narrator] When this village died,

a unique and ancient culture died with it.

[narrator] The ghost town of Roghudi Vecchio sits in a precarious position.

The name Roghudi derives from words meaning full of crevasses

or just harsh.

And looking around here, you can really understand that.

But that's not the most interesting thing about its name.

Its name is actually Greek, but we're in Italy.

[narrator] Roghudi is so cut off from the world,

that many don't use Italian here,

that many don't use Italian here,

but a dialect of ancient Greek.

Former resident Bruno Stelitano

is one of the few who can still speak this rare language.

[speaking foreign language]

This language is pure,

because it has been passed down exclusively

through oral tradition

without any written documents.

So only those who spoke it

or heard it spoken by their elders know it.

or heard it spoken by their elders know it.

There are no written records at all.

[narrator] The people of Roghudi

claim origins that trace back thousands of years

to the ancient Greeks.

In the 8th century BC,

the Greeks set up colonies along the nearby coastlines of the Black

and Mediterranean Seas.

Many ancient Greeks moved to the coast of Italy

where they founded trading ports.

where they founded trading ports.

[narrator] But over the centuries,

invasions from coastal raiders forced these Greek speaking people

to retreat into the mountains.

To fortress villages

like Roghudi.

Not only did this keep them safe,

but it preserved their culture from outside influences

for many years to come.

[narrator] Isolated in this harsh landscape,

they clung to the traditions of their Greek ancestors for centuries.

they clung to the traditions of their Greek ancestors for centuries.

But in the end,

it was the rugged terrain that had once kept them safe

that eventually did them in.

[Amma] This region was prone to earthquakes.

And there are two earthquakes that occurred, one in 1905, another one in 1908.

[narrator] The earthquakes rocked the whole of southern Italy.

[speaking foreign language]

In 1908 after the bigger earthquake struck,

Roghudi was designated unsafe.

Roghudi was designated unsafe.

Even so, people refused to leave.

[speaking foreign language]

[narrator] But the river valleys that cut through this region

contained evidence of an altogether different threat.

[Amma] The reason why the river beds that surround the town are so wide

is because when the winter rains

and the spring thaw comes,

it creates these raging torrents.

[narrator] As the water courses down,

it causes mudslides that send boulders

powering down the riverbeds.

Seriously compromising the stability

of the mountaintop villages.

In the 1950s, a series of flash floods

threatened to wash Roghudi away.

The villagers clung on.

But two decades later, they would not be so lucky.

But two decades later, they would not be so lucky.

[narrator] In the mountains of Italy's Calabria region,

the Greek speaking village of Roghudi

has been battered by both earthquakes and floods.

In 1971, there was an unprecedented storm.

[narrator] The saturated ground

caused the slopes beneath the village to move.

caused the slopes beneath the village to move.

[speaking foreign language]

The evening of the landslide was utter chaos.

It happened in the night.

So everything was pitched black.

[speaking foreign language]

We presumed that the houses were collapsing.

But we couldn't see a thing.

[Amma] There was a real fear that the entire town could have come

crashing down hundreds of feet at any moment.

crashing down hundreds of feet at any moment.

[narrator] On February 16, 1971,

the town's Mayor ordered an evacuation.

The entire population of 1600 people were forced to pick up everything they owned

and leave.

[narrator] It seemed the freak rainfall

was not the only thing to blame for the destruction.

In the 1940s and 1950s,

the inhabitants decided that they wanted to install

running water and a sewer in the town.

running water and a sewer in the town.

[narrator] But some locals believed that this may have played a part.

[speaking foreign language]

The sewer served one area.

Those living down the road

whose drains didn't reach the sewer

just discharged the effluent

straight onto the rocks.

[narrator] When the floods hit in 1971,

it's possible

that the new drainage system had weakened the ground below the town.

There's a cruel irony in their trying to bring

modern conveniences to their town.

They may have signed it's death warrant.

[narrator] Some residents attempted to return over the years.

But most stayed away.

And Roghudi

was left to rot.

Although the people here lost homes and livelihoods,

Although the people here lost homes and livelihoods,

there was another casualty of the floods.

It was not only the town that was decimated by these disasters.

They also severely diminished the ancient

Greco-Italian culture of the region.

[narrator] Once widely used across the region,

today Calabrian Greek is spoken only

by a remaining few.

[speaking foreign language]

I hope it will endure,

but really it's on the brink of extinction.

[narrator] Off the coast of Estonia,

sits a small island with a big secret.

If you look at the island from above,

you can't see much apart from a thick covering of evergreen forest.

[Dr. Lynette] This forest cover is hiding

[Dr. Lynette] This forest cover is hiding

a narrow gauge railway.

[Katherine] If you follow along this railroad track,

it will lead you to these pretty imposing structures.

[narrator] The threatening installations

are clearly military.

All along the shoreline of this island

are concrete emplacements.

And they've got no windows.

When you come up to these buildings,

When you come up to these buildings,

you see all these things scattered about.

[narrator] These rusting remains of military hardware

may explain the absence of life here.

[Rob] Something dangerous must've been going on here.

This place was once heavily guarded.

So what was it hiding?

[narrator] Estonia's Naissaar island

sits in the Gulf of Finland.

A strategically important stretch of sea.

[speaking foreign language]

The Gulf of Finland is probably one of the most

heavily-mined waterways in the world.

Up to 60,000 Naval sea mines

have been dropped here at different times.

These old mines surface in the sea

These old mines surface in the sea

over and over again.

[narrator] Olar's family has a strong link to this place.

[speaking foreign language]

Very few people knew about this island

because access was prohibited for 50 years.

I came here for the first time in 1995

just after it was re-opened.

[narrator] He was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Johannes,

who had come to Naissaar when it was still controlled by Russia.

[speaking foreign language]

My grandfather arrived on the island in the 1920s

when this port was being built.

That's one of the main reasons he came here

as he was a builder by profession.

[narrator] Back then, the island had been inhabited by fishermen

and seal hunters for hundreds of years.

and seal hunters for hundreds of years.

But given its strategic position,

it began to attract attention.

[Katherine] You've got Finland to the north.

You've got Russia to the east.

Estonia to the south and Sweden to the west.

[narrator] In the early decades of the 20th century,

Tsarist Russia needed to defend itself.

The first modern fortifications on the island were put in place

in 1914.

[speaking foreign language]

These held the largest canons ever placed on Naissaar.

Their shooting range was more than 80 miles.

[narrator] There's more Tsarist constructions hidden in the woods.

[speaking foreign language]

This is where the officers and their families lived.

This is where the officers and their families lived.

We can see what was considered beautiful at that time

by looking at how they decorated the windows.

And here there was a proper square

with a sizeable alley.

[narrator] Following the revolution in 1917,

Naissaar continued under Russian control.

This time under the Communists.

And soon Olar's grandfather Johannes

And soon Olar's grandfather Johannes

was one of the only residents left.

Eventually, he too would disappear.

So what happened to the thriving population of Naissaar?

And why did Johannes Gofman vanish without trace?

[narrator] By the mid-20th century,

the Soviet-controlled island of Naissaar was almost deserted

and cloaked in secrecy.

Olar Gofman's grandfather Johannes

was one of the few islanders allowed to stay.

[speaking foreign language]

Because he was a builder

and had specific knowledge of the island's fortifications,

the Soviet army used him to get information

and to help build up the defenses.

[narrator] For the Soviets, the islands dense forest

made it extremely appealing.

[Katherine] They spent a lot of time and a lot of energy building

a whole industrial complex there on the island

under the cover of the forest.

[narrator] This is the Naissaar sea mines factory.

[speaking foreign language]

Here the mines were assembled before being dropped into the sea.

You can you one of the pools at the end

where they tested the mines to check they were waterproof.

where they tested the mines to check they were waterproof.

They used this tool to move the mines and carry them to the pool.

After a while, if the water didn't get in,

they were deemed fit for use.

[Katherine] These mines were incredibly dangerous.

When one of them exploded in the water

the shock from it could be felt over a mile away.

[narrator] Moving such dangerous weapons around the island

was no easy task.

[speaking foreign language]

During the Soviet era,

four miles of railway were added

to serve these mines depots.

[Lynette] They could be moved safely, silently

without having to build up

stores of vehicles and vehicle fuel.

stores of vehicles and vehicle fuel.

All the sites on the island were connected by rail.

After assembly,

these deadly weapons would be transported again to the harbor

and out into the far reaches of the Soviet Union.

[narrator] Naissaar was defended yet further

when the Cold War intensified and secrecy heightened.

In the 1960s, the Soviets moved beyond mines.

In the 1960s, the Soviets moved beyond mines.

And they actually built a missile base.

[speaking foreign language]

We're now in an area

that was highly classified in Soviet times.

It's the so-called anti-aircraft missile base.

These hangers held S-125 anti-aircraft missiles.

These missiles were three times the speed of sound

and were state-of-the-art weapons back then.

And underneath this building,

they concealed the command post of the missile base.

This was one of the most secretive places on Naissaar.

[narrator] At the end of the Cold War,

thousands of sea mines were abandoned here.

They dismantled and disarmed

something like 13000 of these mines.

When you walk across the island today you see

hundreds, thousands of empty shells of these formerly active mines.

[narrator] Today, one mystery remains unsolved.

[speaking foreign language]

The last thing I know about my grandfather

The last thing I know about my grandfather

is that a war tribunal sentenced him to five years in jail

for owning a gun.

After that, all the traces of him disappear.

There's no information about which prison camp he was sent to.

So we have reason to believe

that he was actually executed on this island.

And that he never left.