All language subtitles for A.E.S15E11.1080p.WEB.h264-CODSWALLOP_track3_[eng]

In New Jersey, a secretive facility
infiltrated by a Soviet spy ring.

It's believed the damage they did to
national security was incalculable.

A palatial compound in
Peru that held lavish parties for

the country's elite.

But something terrible was happening
right underneath their feet.

A subterranean labyrinth
in Wales at the heart of

a booming global trade
but riddled with danger.

He was working in this area,
and unfortunately,

the blast went off early.

And an island stronghold in
Greece besieged by the Nazis.

This battle is such a disaster
for the allies that it gets called

Churchill's Folly.

In the lowlands of New Jersey,
USA, are the remains of

a sprawling complex linked to
a devastating infiltration.

We're just a few miles from
the Jersey shore in

a typical residential area
with wide tree-lined streets.

But this one area is set apart -
lots of wide-open spaces,

buildings that look like they
were constructed as part of

a unified project.

There appear to be theatres
or lecture halls

so was this maybe a
school or a university?

But other areas start
to paint quite a confusing picture.

One building has a room, it's all
filled with inward facing cones.

It feels otherworldly, like
something out of a sci-fi movie.

You get the feeling that there
was something very advanced

and highly classified
happening here.

For decades, this facility
was at the cutting edge

of military research,
but that would make it a target.

You could argue that this
was the worst case of

internal espionage in
American history.

Melissa Ziobro became
the official historian

for this innovative complex in 2004.

For close to 100 years,
this site was essential

to making sure that the
US Army was the best prepared

and best equipped in the world.

It was built to solve a fundamental
problem that any military faces -

how do you ensure
accurate communication

in the midst of battle?

Wars are won and lost
over information.

If you can figure out where
the enemy's strong,

where it's weak, and then
convey that information

to your troops effectively
and quickly, you have an edge.

In May 1917, just a month after
America joined World War One,

a temporary camp was
established here.

It was dedicated to training
the Army's signal corps.

This was a group completely devoted
to the correct transmission

of information under the
harshest conditions.

They used telegraphs,
telephones, even carrier pigeons.

In recognition of the crucial role
they played in defeating

Germany in 1918,
the camp was soon transformed

into a permanent installation.

In the gap between World War One
and World War Two,

the world was changing rapidly.

The aircraft carrier, mechanised
transport, meant that the wars of

the future were going to take place
over even larger expanses

of terrain or ocean.

That would strain the existing
communications technology

New, approaches would need to be
developed and soldiers would

need to be trained to use
all this new technology.

We are in one of the barracks
buildings on Barker Circle,

the first permanent construction
done here on base.

They were very involved in early
wireless technologies, early radio -

they were testing
air to ground radio.

The high-tech innovations
made here led to this place

developing a nickname -
the Army's House of Magic.

But its official name was
Fort Monmouth.

During the 1930s, they made
a pivotal breakthrough with

a technology that would
change warfare - radar.

The radar systems developed here
would be deployed on many fronts.

One of the first was Hawaii,
the home of the US Pacific fleet.

There are actually radars from
Fort Monmouth at Pearl Harbour

on December 7th, 1941.

They detect the incoming
Japanese planes.

Panicking at what they saw,
they reported the

incoming planes to their superiors.

But the radar operators told them,
"Don't worry about it.

"It's probably birds,
or maybe it's our own planes."

Because the technology was just
so new, people didn't understand it,

they didn't trust it.

And of course, then
the Japanese attack happens.

And now back here at Fort Monmouth,
the radar folks are

at first horrified - they think that
their technology has failed.

Then they find out, no, it worked
but the warning wasn't headed.

This will go down in history
as one of the great

communications disasters
in modern warfare.

Japan's raid on Pearl Harbour
turned out to be

a spectacular success for them,
sunk much of the American fleet

in the harbour, killed 2,400
American servicemen.

It was an epic disaster for the US.

Thrust into global war,
Fort Monmouth's mission

was now more critical than ever.

Thousands of civilian engineers were
bought into the signal corps

to create vital new
communication technologies.

This would have been
a highly classified facility.

The anechoic chamber absorbed
sound and electromagnetic rays

and allowed personnel to test things
like antennas and radars.

As well as further advances
in radar, they also developed

groundbreaking backpack radios.

These made a vital difference
on the battlefield.

The technologies coming
out of Fort Monmouth were

the envy of the world,
and so there was

a constant recognition that we
might be infiltrated.

Yet Fort Monmouth had already
been compromised with

a mole embedded within its ranks.

Julius Rosenberg joined
the Army Signal Corps

Engineering Laboratories in 1940.

He worked as an engineer
and inspector for them until 1945,

but early in the war he had been
recruited as a Soviet spy.

The history here is tricky.

The Soviets were nominally
America's allies in fighting

the Germans, but everyone knew
the Soviets would again be

America's enemies at some point
after the end of the war.

Julius Rosenberg was
perfectly positioned

to gather as much information
as possible.

And he wasn't operating alone.

Rosenberg and his handlers
recruited two more people

who worked at Fort Monmouth -
Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant.

Rosenberg's spy ring copied
more than 9,000 pages

of top secret documents, information
about 100 different weapon systems.

In one case, Rosenberg obtained
the actual unit of a proximity fuse,

an incredibly vital piece
of technology.

He literally put it in a box
and wrapped it up as

a Christmas present
for his Soviet handler.

As World War Two was
morphing into the Cold War,

Rosenberg continued to smuggle
top secret material back

to his Soviet overlords,
now America's primary foe.

In this dawning nuclear age,
the stakes were higher than ever.

He recruited his brother-in-law who
worked at the post-war period's

most important, most
top secret project, Los Alamos,

where they were doing the work
to develop the atomic weapon.

The information that Rosenberg
passed on to the Soviets

allowed them to greatly accelerate
their own programme

to develop an atomic bomb.

On the 29th of August, 1949,
the Soviet Union tested

their first nuclear weapon.

It was almost a carbon copy
of the Fat Man Bomb

developed at Los Alamos.

US intelligence investigated
a potential leak

which eventually led them
back to Rosenberg

and his co-conspirators who began
their betrayal at Fort Monmouth.

Helped by a tip-off from
the Russian handlers,

Barr and Sarant fled to the
Soviet Union where they spent

the rest of their working lives
developing new weapons systems

for the Communist regime.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were not so lucky.

Ethel's brother, David Greenglass,
implicated the pair

after his own arrest in June 1950
for leaking confidential information

from Los Alamos.

The Rosenbergs were put on trial
in one of the most publicised

and closely watched events
in American history.

They were both sentenced to death
and executed at Sing Sing Prison.

Two months later, in 1953,
the Rosenbergs' connection

to Fort Monmouth was pounced on by
a fanatical anti-Communist crusader,

Joseph McCarthy.

A flamboyant senator Joseph
McCarthy was taking advantage of

the concerns about communist
infiltration to boost

his own profile and career.

McCarthy claimed that Communists had
infiltrated all sorts of branches of

the US Government, from the
State Department to the military.

So once McCarthy knows that
Rosenberg had worked for

the signal corps - Fort Monmouth
is the home of the signal corps -

he becomes convinced that
surely there must still be a

communist spy ring operating.

He actually visited the base
as part of his investigation

in the fall of 1953.

He made a big show of how he
was here and he was, you know,

personally trying to root out
these Communists.

MCCARTHY:A complete, wholehearted
support now of the commanding

generals in Fort Monmouth who
want to clean Communists

and potential espionage agents
out of their organisation.

He went on to hold
a series of hearings into

the "subversive activity"
he believed was still going on here.

His allegations were reckless,
they were flamboyant,

they weren't really based on any
inside information on his part,

but any time McCarthy talked,
he could be guaranteed

a bank of TV cameras.

Workers were suspended
for anything from attending

a benefit rally for Russian
children, to having a name

similar to someone else
who was a suspect.

Based on McCarthy's allegations,
the officials at Fort Monmouth

suspended 42 employees.

Of the 42 accused, all but two
were reinstated by 1958.

But 15 years later in 1973,
after a military reorganisation,

the signal corps was relocated.

What remains behind here at
Fort Monmouth is something known as

the electronics command,
and then we start getting into

things like night vision
technologies and GPS

and early cell phones
and on and on and on,

up through the global War On Terror.

The base was officially closed
on September 15th, 2011

and with that, nearly a century
of US Army occupation

came to an end.

But Fort Monmouth would have
one more brush with fame.

Bruce Springsteen, who is
a Monmouth County native,

practised here in the Expo Theatre
that we're standing in.

I have met Bruce.
He is lovely, you know,

he's just another Jersey Shore guy
who happens to be

an international rock star.

Today, like many retired
US Military bases, there are plans

for Fort Monmouth to be
converted to various kinds

of civilian uses including
business and housing.

And there are plans under way
to turn parts of the campus

into a movie studio.

In North Wales,
near the Irish Sea,

is a scarred landscape that helped
inspire Tolkien's Mordor

and Middle Earth.

We're in the ancient rugged
mountains of Wales,

it's one of the wettest parts
of Britain,

cloudy and misty,

but the landscape has
a special majesty.

But the landscape around here
isn't pristine,

it's deeply scarred
and there are huge piles of rubble

and debris everywhere.

You see old structures,

some of them in ruins,

with all kinds of equipment
laying around,

clearly there's something in

the hills here that was worth
an enormous amount of human effort.

This material was carved out
of the land,

transforming the region

and creating a vast
unseen labyrinth.

When you descend into
the mountainside,

you enter a completely
different world,

it seems like there are miles
and miles of tunnels

and then interspersed along them
these enormous cavernous rooms.

But the material they were mining
was prized across

the world, from New York

to San Francisco, even as far
as Australia.

At one time,

half the buildings in New York were
covered with this material.

Phil Lee Jones has
a deep connection to this site.

He gives tours around

the complex, where his forefathers
once toiled.

I can go back about five generations

of my family working
in these places,

probably more.
You can imagine all the machinery,

all the wheels turning,
it'd be a very noisy place,

it would be a very busy place.

As far back as Roman times,
humans have tried to extract

a precious resource from this land.

But in to the mid-1800s
that extraction began

to change it beyond all recognition.

From rolling green hills into

the blackened landscape
visible today.

This whole enormous complex began

with one man's determination

to find his fortune in these
barren hills.

Entrepreneur John Greaves arrived
here in the 1840s.

Greaves was convinced there was

a seam of what was known as blue
grey gold somewhere here.

He just had to find it.

That blue grey gold was
a precious rock called slate.

Slate had been mined in these hills
for many years

and there were little quarries
all over the place,

but the really good slate was found
deep within the hills.

He dug for three years
and found nothing,

the story goes that he sank
his entire fortune into

the search and was on
the verge of bankruptcy.

But it says something about what
kind of leader he was

because his men were willing for
a time to work for free,

they also believed that he was on
the verge of a great discovery.

Then, in 1849, his prayers
were answered.

They found what's known
as the Meirionnydd Old Vein

and they began to follow it
deep underground.

Eventually, they would dig out 250
chambers across 16 levels,

stretching
1,200 feet from top to bottom,

and it's all connected by 25 miles
of tunnels.

This is Llechwedd Mine

in an area called Blaenau
Ffestiniog, which became known as

the slate capital of the world.

The slate from Wales has
a reputation to being some of

the best in the world.
It's very smooth,

has a beautiful colour,
it weathers well,

and despite being easy

to split on one axis it remains
extremely durable,

that makes it a wonderful
building material.

Highly resistant to fire
and corrosion,

it's also waterproof, lending
itself perfectly to roofing.

Slate roofs can last 100 years,
even a couple of centuries.

Wagons would be coming in
with big slabs along

the rail tracks here
from underground.

They'd come to these sawing tables

and then they were sawn into
manageable blocks

and then they were transported down

to these cubicles down over here
where then they would be turned

into finished roofing slates.

Into the 1850s, it was being
exported to all corners of

the globe, giving rise to the saying
Wales roofed the world.

It was a fact not lost
on the mine's owner.

Greaves was an astute businessman

and he invested in
a series of railways

and shipping wharfs to ensure that
he could export his slate around

the rest of the country
and the world.

As San Francisco was having
a huge building boom due to

the gold rush,
a lot of the buildings were roofed

with slate from this mine.

Greaves' operations were proving
to be a huge success.

But even by the standards
of underground mining,

slate mines were
particularly hazardous.

It's hard to imagine
just how dangerous

and difficult this work was.

First of all, no electric lights,

so they're descending
deep, deep, deep into

the mountainside with
a candle at best.

They can see basically what's
in front of their faces.

The miners could be crushed
to death by cave ins,

burnt by gas explosions or blown up
by gun powder.

This is what happened
to my grandfather,

he was working in this area,

and unfortunately
the blast went off early

and he lost the use of his hand.
His hand was mangled,

it was like that,
couldn't straighten his fingers out,

he had a big scar on
the inside of his wrist

and glue freckles all over his hand,

it's where the slate had gone
in, underneath the skin,

so I can appreciate the dangers.

But there was another unseen threat,
perhaps the biggest of all.

Mining and processing
the slate was very dusty

and the workers had no protection
against it,

they spent their lives breathing in
harmful silica dust.

The Government was
so concerned they did an enquiry in

to the death rate in these mines

and they found that it was even
worse than that of coal miners.

The risks would eventually provoke
the miners into action.

In 1874 a mine workers union
was formed.

This is one of the first places
where there was

a real effort to unionise
the work force,

to fight for some of their rights,

to fight for greater safety,
better pay.

At this movement was gathering pace,

Llechwedd went through
a period of transition.

John Greaves died in 1880

and passed the operation over

to his son,
also called John Greaves.

He was soon faced with

a wave of strikes that swept across
the region.

And a recession which dragged on
into the 1890s

and was compounded by
a changing global market.

There was increasing competition
from cheaper slate bought in from

abroad including mines in
Pennsylvania, which were originally
set up by Welsh miners.

So soon, the miners in
Wales were competing against some

of their former countrymen.

The industry's decline
continued into

the 20th century, exacerbated
by the great depression

and two world wars.
It would never fully recover.

Underground mining eventually ended
here in the 1980s.

That's the downfall
of Welsh slate, it's the best in

the world but it's the most
expensive in the world as well.

The slate landscape
of North West Wales is now

a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But Llechwedd has been repurposed
to boost employment.

In 1972, the Llechwedd Slate Caverns
opened to

the public as a tourist attraction.

As well as historical tours,

a company called Zip World has
turned several former slate mines in

the area into adventure playgrounds,
which include

the fastest zip line in the world.

In Greece is the rugged island
of Leros,

a strategic outpost that's been
the envy of leaders

and dictators through the ages.

On one of the largest peaks is

a strange three-sided formation made
of concrete.

From the ground, this just looks
like some concrete construction,

but when you get above ground

and you look down at this place,

that is one strange three-sided
structure down there.

Though unique looking,

it becomes clear that it doesn't
stand alone.

It's part of a wider network.

Low concrete buildings,
tunnels, bunkers,

towers with high vantage points,

these must be some type
of military structures,

but they've fallen into disrepair.

Is this natural decay or signs
of a more violent event?

Up close, the walls riddled
with bullet holes

and pock marks provide the answer.

The people on this island
suffered a lot,

they were the victims
of other people's war.

On the Greek island of Leros,

shattered structures are
all that remain of

a bitter conflict that ripped
this quiet community apart.

This modern sculpture was
the acoustic mirror.

It was a concave structure that,

trapped and amplified
the sound of the incoming aircraft.

Local resident Nicos Phocas has been
entranced by these formations

for decades.So the operator would
work within this trench.

When he heard a noise,
let's say now here,

he knew that it was coming
from that direction.

Around it, there was
a lot of anti-aircraft guns

and also the command centre
for all the air defence control.

Leros is part of Greece today,

but these structures date back
to an era when

the island was under
foreign control.

This aircraft warning system
was part of

an extensive network
of fortifications,

built in the 1920s and '30s,

on the orders of Italian fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini.

Their purpose was to protect

the island's greatest
strategic asset,

a port that would allow Mussolini
to challenge

the British Navy's domination
of the region's seas.

This island is providing
a massive naval base,

a deep water port that enables
the Italians

to keep sea power active against

rival powers in
the Eastern Mediterranean.

It was one of the largest,

naval bases they had outside of,
the mainland Italy.

They had seaplanes,
they had warships,

they had the submarine base,

it gave them total control
of the area.

Mussolini's rapidly expanding navy
could now vie

for supremacy in
the Eastern Mediterranean...

..able to refuel and resupply in
safety under the protection of

the island's fortifications.

It wasn't until World War Two that
these defences would be put to use.

By 1943, the region was largely
occupied by

the axis powers of Nazi Germany
and fascist Italy.

But when the allied invasion

of mainland Italy began
in September,

Mussolini's regime crumbled
and his armies surrendered.

The race was now on
for control of Leros.

The Germans rushed to seize
all the areas held by

the Italians who were now seen
as traitors.

This made British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill
incredibly nervous.

He like Mussolini,

saw these islands as
strategically crucial.

And he says we have got
to take these islands.

But his American allies
would have none of it.

The American decision makers,

Dwight Eisenhower in particular,
want nothing whatsoever

to do with trying to grab Italian
held Greek islands off

the coast of Turkey.

From an American point
of view if we're going to attack

anything in the Mediterranean
it's Italy.

But Churchill was hell bent on

seeing his plan through, even if it
meant the British going alone.

Churchill rushed 3,000 British
troops to the island

to reinforce the 8,000-man Italian
garrison now stranded on Leros.

They won the race against the
Nazi's, but a reckoning was coming.

On September 26th,
the German air attack began.

The Luftwaffe began

a relentless campaign that lasted
over 50 days.

Nickolas Daloglou was just

nine years old when the
bombardments began.

But the Germans didn't just target
military positions,

they attacked the island's towns
and villages.

Sometimes, 40 bombers came
with each wave

and there were up
to six waves per day.

After seven weeks
of relentless attack,

in the early hours of November 12th

a German invasion force
approached Leros.

Nearly 3,000 elite troops launched
an assault across the island,

hoping to claim the vital port
for Nazi Germany.

Some units landed right beneath
this arsenal of weapons.

These were the mounting bolts
for the guns.

The guns placed here were
anti-ship guns.

Everyone knows that
a naval ship can never win in

a gun fight against
a shore battery.

But the cannon on top of this steep
peak had a fatal flaw.

The gun is built
to fire at something far,

if you bring something up close
you can't depress

the barrel far enough
to shoot at it.

This gun is fearsome at range,
it is useless up close.

German landing craft managed
to sneak in under

the blind spot of the guns,
they started climbing up the hill.

The Allied artillery troops
stationed in this battery were about

to be confronted with hand to hand
combat against elite Nazi infantry.

So the German troopers that landed

there were specially trained
to climb the rocks.

The fighting was close quarters,
hand to hand fight with hand guns.

It was actually like being on
a street fight, it was that close.

Once they secured positions on

the rocky slopes, it was impossible
to dislodge the German soldiers.

Soon the Allied troops were hemmed
in on all sides.

There were also some paratroopers
that fell on

the other side of the hill

and there were heavy losses
on both sides.

It took the Germans two days
to conquer this gunpoint.

With total control of the skies,

the Nazis dropped waves
of paratroopers on to

the narrow neck at the centre
of the island,

splitting the Allied forces in two.

After four days of bitter fighting,

the Germans had
the Allied HQ surrounded.

At that point the British
commander surrendered,

he was keen to avoid a massacre.

Out of the 3,000 British troops
on the island,

almost 600 were killed

and the rest were either injured
or taken as prisoners of war.

The Italians lost nearly 300 men

and in total 8,500 Allied troops
were taken captive.

This is said to be one

of Germany's last victories
in World War Two.

It's such a disaster for

the British that it gets called
Churchill's Folly.

Despite its obvious flaws
from the very start,

Winston Churchill remained defiant.

Privately he blamed the Americans,

with their help it might
have been avoided.

Germany occupied Leros until
the end of the war,

after their defeat it returned
to British control.

The island finally became part
of Greece in 1948.

Since then the gun battery ruins
have sat abandoned,

slowly crumbling
down the mountain side.

In recent years,
the Greek cultural ministry declared

Leros' World War Two remains
as an historic monument.

Leros stands as a living museum
of one of the most epic

and tragic battles
of World War Two.

80 miles south of Peru's capital
city Lima,

is a palatial compound designed by
an owner living a double life.

We can see farmland stretching out
into the distance,

but surrounded by modern
structures is

a building that looks really
out of place.

This building has
a real mish-mash of features

with its ornate arches and tiling.

There are also gothic spires,
castle-like walls and these towers.

The gardens indicate wealth

and opulence which
is mirrored inside.

Decorative wallpaper, wood carvings
and stained glass windows.

Whoever built this had some serious
cash to play with.

On a lower level, we find
a trapdoor that leads to

a dark dungeon-like space.

It's a completely lightless network
of narrow tunnels.

They could have been
for access or storage,

but you can't help wondering if they
had a more sinister purpose.

In the early 1800s,
a vast estate growing sugar cane

and cotton was acquired by

an iconic figure in
Peru's history, Hipolito Unanue.

He was an academic

and politician that supported
Peru's fight for independence.

After liberation from
Spain was achieved in 1824,

Unanue served as president
of the congress

and the minister of finance
in the new republic of Peru.

He died in 1833
and the estate passed to his son,

Jose Unanue Dela Coba.

Jose Unanue was determined
to build himself

the most luxurious home on
the Peruvian coast,

as well as have
it serve as a tribute

to his father.

Construction began on this project
in 1843.

Local historian David Pino has spent
years investigating this place

and has unearthed some surprises
along the way.

Legend has it that Unanue bought
a Bavarian castle,

stripped it of its doors,

windows and furniture,

and transported them all the way
here to decorate his own palace.

He was heavily influenced by
North African Moorish architecture

and you can definitely see
those influences.

Its construction was
a passion project

and continued to evolve for decades.

The many visitors who enjoyed these
spaces, knew it as Hacienda Unanue.

The mansion hosted
an array of people from

the Peruvian elite and regularly
hosted lavish banquets.

But just feet away from these
extravagant parties lay

the dark secret behind
Unanue's wealth.

The estate was run on
a system of slavery.

Unanue didn't just own
enslaved people,

his mansion also served
as a market place.

The slave trade in Peru had
technically been abolished in 1821,

but illicit imports of enslaved
Africans into Peru continued, albeit
in secret.

It's believed the tunnels
were used both to hold

and punish the 400 enslaved people

that Unanue is thought
to have owned.

This continued on the estate until
1854 when slavery was abolished by

President Ramon Castilla who became
known as the Liberator.

In the 20 years after emancipation,

some 100,000 Chinese immigrants
came to Peru.

They were promised

a better life, or coerced into
leaving China by recruiters

and bought here
to work as indentured servants.

This system of forced labour
was brutal

and it led to about half of these
Chinese workers dying before

the age of 40 for things
like exhaustion,

ill treatment, but even suicide.

But soon these workers would be
presented with

an opportunity to seize freedom
and enact a measure of revenge.

In 1879, war broke out with Chile.

The following year an invasion force
landed 40 miles south of Unanue.

The Chilean Army rampaged through

the area moving north towards

the capital, passing through
Canete Valley.

Many of these Chinese
labourers joined

the Chileans in ransacking these
Peruvian estates.

But their collaboration led
to terrible reprisals from

the local Peruvian peasants.

In 1881, tensions boiled over
and a riot broke out.

In the ensuing violence and chaos,

1,000 Chinese workers
were massacred,

including on the Unanue estate.

Peace only returned to
the region in 1884 when

the Chilean Army withdrew.
The following year,

Jose Unanue died childless

and the estate passed through his
nephew's family for generations.

It continued operating

with its traditional semi-feudal
system that exploited

poorly paid workers.

But the 1960s would see seismic
changes that would transform Peru.

Revolution gripped Peru

and this place was right in
the firing line.

In 1968, Army General Juan Velasco
Alvarado led a coup

to seize control of the government

and forcibly implemented agrarian
reform across Peru.

The estates were transformed into
farming cooperatives,

partly owned by the peasants
who worked them.

Jose Unanue's descendants
were forced to leave

and the surrounding estate divided
up among the poor.

The palace itself was left abandoned
and its fittings

and furniture looted.

In 1972, Unanue Palace was declared
a national historic monument.

Despite it being open to

the public, this abandoned building
has suffered from lack of investment

and has fallen into ruin.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media