1 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:10,480 Tonight on "Secrets Declassified," 2 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,920 extreme extractions carried out under pressure, 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,120 under fire, and under the enemy's nose. 4 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:19,920 From hunting lost nuclear weapons 5 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:21,840 in a frozen wasteland-- 6 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:25,440 As the teams are searching, it's minus 50 degrees outside 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,440 and it's dark 24 hours a day. 8 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:30,040 To a prison break in Panama 9 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,080 in the midst of a full army invasion. 10 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,560 A guard is outside the American's cell 11 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:37,320 with instructions to execute him 12 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,520 at the first sign of a U.S. invasion. 13 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,600 And a bold plan to steal a Russian helicopter 14 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:44,600 from a desert battle zone. 15 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:47,600 Extracting this helicopter will be extremely difficult. 16 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,720 Libyan forces could attack at any time. 17 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,320 These are the astonishing top secret missions 18 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:57,400 undertaken by governments and the people who work for them. 19 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,239 It's time to bring them to light. 20 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:11,080 It's 1989, and a former American soldier 21 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,200 is in prison in Panama with an execution order on his head. 22 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:17,800 The U.S. has just one hour to free him 23 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,240 before a full invasion begins. 24 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,200 The U.S. is preparing to launch an invasion of Panama 25 00:01:28,320 --> 00:01:30,720 to depose General Noriega, 26 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:33,840 the military dictator accused of drug trafficking, 27 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:36,840 election fraud, and human rights abuses. 28 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,520 Noriega knows the U.S. is closing in. 29 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,400 But he's got one last bargaining chip, 30 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:48,480 a U.S. Army veteran locked away in one of his prisons. 31 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,360 Kurt Muse is imprisoned in Cárcel Modelo, 32 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:53,720 a notorious Panamanian prison. 33 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:56,120 He's been imprisoned for running a clandestine 34 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,440 radio station called "The Voice of Liberty," 35 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,720 which broadcast anti-Noriega messages. 36 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:03,200 It's also suspected, 37 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:05,720 though never confirmed by the agency, 38 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:08,600 that Kurt Muse is a CIA asset. 39 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:10,560 Noriega has given the order 40 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,040 that on the first sign of a U.S. invasion, 41 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,960 Muse is supposed to be killed on the spot. 42 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:19,720 In fact, there's a guard stationed outside his cell 24/7 43 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,280 specifically for that purpose. 44 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:24,320 President George H.W. Bush 45 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:26,520 doesn't want to abandon Muse, 46 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:29,320 so in 1989, 47 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:32,040 he gives the green light for an invasion of Panama. 48 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,920 He issues an impossible command. 49 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,480 Muse must be extracted first. 50 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,280 Delta Force, which is an elite U.S. Army unit 51 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,160 known for their expertise in impossible missions, 52 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:47,080 is selected for the task. 53 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:48,600 To prepare for this mission, 54 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,200 they build a full-scale, three-story mock-up 55 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,240 of the Modelo prison at a base in Florida. 56 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,080 Operatives conduct intense assault rehearsals 57 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,920 with live fire and close quarters combat 58 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,080 based on operational plans derived from intelligence. 59 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:07,080 They wanna be prepared for every eventuality. 60 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,240 By mid-December, practice is over. 61 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,720 The invasion is set for 1:00 a.m. on the 20th. 62 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:15,560 And the Delta Force operatives 63 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,280 have one chance to get this right. 64 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:20,040 They fly into a U.S. Air Force base 65 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,759 just 4 miles from the prison. 66 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:26,560 The hour's before midnight. 67 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,160 In secret, Delta Force operatives 68 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,560 assume positions across the city. 69 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,600 The mission starts at the stroke of midnight. 70 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:38,600 Delta operators will have just one hour 71 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:40,720 to get in, grab Muse, and get out 72 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:44,800 before the full U.S. invasion begins. 73 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:46,760 Two teams of snipers move in. 74 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,040 They target an anti-aircraft battery 75 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:50,720 and the prison's main power supply. 76 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,440 That takes time, but eventually 77 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:56,600 they manage to take it out and the whole prison 78 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:58,720 is plunged into darkness. 79 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,520 Two U.S. helicopters then approach the prison. 80 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:06,480 They land on the roof and 23 Delta operatives rush out. 81 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,560 By now, 45 minutes have passed. 82 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:11,800 The Delta Force operatives have only 15 minutes left 83 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:13,640 to rescue Muse. 84 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:17,680 They load the rooftop door with explosives. 85 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:21,959 They back up, light it up, it blows up, and they're in. 86 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:23,560 Heavily-armed Delta operators 87 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,240 make their way down the stairs 88 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,800 to the cell where Muse is being held, 89 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,160 and they kill the guard before he has a chance to kill Muse. 90 00:04:31,280 --> 00:04:34,720 The operatives shoot the lock off the cell door. 91 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:37,960 One of them shouts, "Muse! We're gonna take you home." 92 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:39,600 They lead him out of his cell 93 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:40,920 and up through the prison to the roof. 94 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:44,160 To break in, to break out, 95 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:47,240 the whole thing takes just six minutes. 96 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,600 But that's when this precision plan starts to fall apart. 97 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:52,840 He's then loaded onto one of the little bird aircraft, 98 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:54,560 one of the helicopters. 99 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:57,800 And just as the pilot begins to pull pitch and climb out, 100 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,520 it's raked by gunfire. 101 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:04,600 The chopper falls to the earth. 102 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:06,360 Muse and the pilots are unharmed, 103 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,040 but the four Delta Force operatives are injured. 104 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:12,320 Then time's up. 105 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,120 At 1:00 a.m., the wider invasion begins. 106 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,520 They're now caught in the middle and they're under fire. 107 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,080 The Special Forces operators, as well as Muse, 108 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,080 take cover as fire erupts 109 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,279 between Panamanian forces and the Delta team itself. 110 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,200 The perfect extraction has suddenly fallen apart. 111 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,520 They decide to do anything that they can. 112 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:36,800 They use strobe lights to signal U.S. aircraft 113 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:38,600 that's flying overhead. 114 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,160 The strobe light, which is invisible to the naked eye, 115 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:43,239 alerts U.S. troops to their location. 116 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:47,360 Finally, an armored personnel carrier 117 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:51,400 spots their signal and it whisks them away to safety. 118 00:05:57,840 --> 00:05:59,680 Hours later, Kurt Muse is back 119 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,960 on U.S. soil and reunited with his family. 120 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,479 As for Noriega, his bargaining chip is gone. 121 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:12,440 Two weeks later, he surrenders. 122 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:14,160 He's brought to the U.S., 123 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:16,800 where he's sentenced to 40 years for drug trafficking 124 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:18,800 and money laundering. 125 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,599 In 2006, Kurt Muse publishes his account of the mission... 126 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,240 And reveals the minute-by-minute details 127 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:28,279 for the first time. 128 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:32,920 Pulling one man out of a Panamanian prison 129 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:34,400 is tough enough. 130 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:36,960 But extracting six men from a frozen country 131 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:38,920 where the sun never comes up? 132 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:40,760 That's a whole different ballgame. 133 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,000 On the 21st of January, 1968, 134 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:52,360 a U.S. B-52 bomber armed with thermonuclear weapons 135 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:57,040 is flying over Greenland when a cabin fire breaks out. 136 00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,160 Cabin is filling with smoke, 137 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:03,080 so the captain, John Haug, he orders the crew to evacuate. 138 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,800 They are in pitch-black darkness 139 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:07,760 in the cold in the Arctic. 140 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:11,280 And one by one, the crew have to jump out of the plane. 141 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:13,240 The unmanned bomber and its deadly load 142 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:17,079 of four hydrogen bombs careens toward the ground. 143 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,600 It smashes into the frozen sea ice of North Star Bay, 144 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,920 just miles from the U.S. operated Thule Air Base, 145 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,960 and then erupts in a massive fireball. 146 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:36,040 Miraculously, the nuclear bombs don't detonate. 147 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:37,920 But now, seven airmen 148 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:40,960 and thousands of highly classified bomb components 149 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,760 are scattered across this hostile environment 150 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,040 in the middle of the Arctic winter. 151 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,080 An immediate and desperate search and rescue mission 152 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,080 is launched by the U.S. and Denmark, 153 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:52,640 which controls the territory of Greenland. 154 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,560 The first objective is to identify a crash site. 155 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:57,680 Secondly, they then have to carry out 156 00:07:57,800 --> 00:07:59,599 a search for survivors. 157 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,520 The problem is neither the Danes nor the Americans 158 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,720 have intimate knowledge of the treacherous terrain. 159 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,959 So the rescuers turn to the people who do. 160 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,360 Greenlandic Inuit dog sled teams are assembled 161 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:17,680 to lead a coordinated ground search. 162 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:19,440 These dog sled teams, 163 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:22,440 they begin mushing out in the black of night 164 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,320 under intense snowfall, blindly searching 165 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:29,560 out across the landscape of northwestern Greenland 166 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:31,679 in the search for survivors from the B-52. 167 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,440 They soon find five of the seven ejected crewmen alive, 168 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:39,760 suffering from frostbite and exposure. 169 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:43,559 Another is found dead, but the final crew member 170 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:48,080 remains missing, navigator Curtis R. Criss. 171 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,240 It turns out he's landed on a piece of ice 172 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,080 that has broken loose and he's now floating at sea. 173 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,480 He is out there unprotected, unsheltered. 174 00:08:57,600 --> 00:08:59,680 He's buffeted by the wind, and the temperature 175 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:04,640 keeps falling all the way down to -50 degrees Fahrenheit. 176 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,920 The only thing he has with him is his parachute. 177 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:10,760 He wraps himself in the thin nylon of the parachute, 178 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,719 hoping that it'll keep him warm enough to stay alive. 179 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,640 20 hours later, an Inuit-led dog sled team 180 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:21,640 spots a body on an ice floe in the bay. 181 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:23,520 Sled team make their way carefully 182 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:25,280 across the floating ice. 183 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,240 They can see a huddled figure wrapped in a thin covering, 184 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:33,120 but they have no idea if he's actually alive. 185 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:35,800 It's navigator Curtis R. Criss. 186 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:38,480 He's hypothermic, frostbitten, 187 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,320 barely conscious, but alive. 188 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:43,160 So they bring him in. 189 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,000 The extraction team has found the missing crew. 190 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:50,000 But now the bigger question-- where are the nuclear weapons? 191 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:58,080 In 1968, a U.S. B-52 loaded with four nuclear bombs 192 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:00,960 goes down in the frozen north of Greenland. 193 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:04,720 The crew is rescued, but the bombs are still missing. 194 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:06,200 And as spring approaches 195 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,720 and the ice begins to shift and melt, 196 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:11,879 the window to find them is closing fast. 197 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,520 The plane crashes with four hydrogen bombs on board. 198 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,560 These four hydrogen bombs consist of a nuclear core 199 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:26,440 that's encased in conventional high explosives. 200 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,280 And when the plane crashes, the nuclear cores, 201 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,560 luckily, do not explode. 202 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:35,480 But those conventional explosives, they do. 203 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,440 Force of the explosion rips the bombs apart, 204 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:40,640 spreads their material, casings, 205 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:44,000 classified components, and radioactive nuclear fuel 206 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,920 across an 800 million square foot area. 207 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,360 To prevent a radioactive disaster, 208 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,360 U.S. Armed Forces race to clear up the crash site. 209 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:54,840 They're working under 210 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:56,920 the most impossible conditions imaginable, 211 00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:59,760 because first of all, the deep, bitter cold, 212 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:02,160 visibility is reduced to almost nothing, 213 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,640 and there's blinding snow being driven into your face 214 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:06,000 at all times. 215 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:07,600 The conditions are brutal. 216 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:09,640 Under floodlights, the teams dig with 217 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:12,680 everything from bulldozers to hand shovels. 218 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,600 Many workers work without any adequate protective gear. 219 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,720 The U.S. workers and the locals collect 220 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:20,880 around 600,000 gallons 221 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,280 of radioactive snow and slurry 222 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,400 that they place in the steel drums 223 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,200 for transport back to the United States. 224 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:30,560 Retrieving all the bombs' classified components, 225 00:11:30,680 --> 00:11:33,800 however, is a different story. 226 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:35,560 It's not like you're finding intact bombs. 227 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:37,480 You're finding fragments of bombs 228 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:40,960 that have been ripped apart by conventional explosives. 229 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:43,640 And so that makes it vastly more difficult 230 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:46,360 to account for every last piece 231 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:48,559 of all four of the thermonuclear bombs. 232 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:53,960 In 1968, after nearly 2,000 personnel 233 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:56,240 have spent seven months on the ice, 234 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,720 the U.S. government announces the cleanup is over. 235 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:02,080 According to the government, all the hazardous material 236 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:04,840 and all four bombs have been recovered safely. 237 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,240 The mission is over. 238 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:09,320 At least, that's the official story. 239 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,640 And it stands for decades, until British journalists 240 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:15,480 dig into declassified records of 2008 241 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,600 and uncover what really happened. 242 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,720 The American cleanup was not quite as thorough 243 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,760 as they made it out to be. 244 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,720 A key component of one of the bombs was never found. 245 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,160 The thermonuclear secondary, which triggers 246 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,519 the fusion reaction, is missing. 247 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:38,240 This is the part of the bomb that contains 248 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,240 the most radioactive fuel, and it's still missing. 249 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,080 So it still remains out there somewhere just sitting 250 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,279 like a ticking time bomb. 251 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,360 An extraction in the Arctic requires precision 252 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:53,280 and help from the locals. 253 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,280 But in World War II, when British forces 254 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:57,240 rushed to liberate a concentration camp 255 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:01,080 in the heart of Axis Italy, precision goes out the window. 256 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:02,920 They load a squadron of commandos 257 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:07,120 on a hijacked passenger train and pray for the best. 258 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:13,320 In September 1943, 259 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:16,360 Allied forces come ashore in southern Italy. 260 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,280 The objective is to liberate Italy from Axis control. 261 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:21,800 Across southern Italy, 262 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:23,120 the plan is working. 263 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:27,080 The Italians and Germans are in retreat. 264 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:28,600 The Germans, however, 265 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:30,880 are destroying everything as they leave. 266 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:32,960 40 miles from allied lines, 267 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,040 this spells danger for prisoners 268 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,720 held inside a brutal concentration camp. 269 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:39,440 Pisticci is fascist Italy's 270 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:41,200 first concentration camp. 271 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,200 Nearly 1,000 prisoners are being held behind barbed wire. 272 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:46,960 These include Jews, 273 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,360 partisans from Yugoslavia, Poland, and France, 274 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:51,320 as well as artists, writers, and priests 275 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:53,160 who oppose fascist rule. 276 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:55,680 At Pisticci, the Germans' plans are hatched 277 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:57,840 to deport prisoners to Nazi-controlled camps 278 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:02,440 in Germany and then stage mass executions. 279 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:05,360 The British know they need to act fast, 280 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:07,240 but they've just landed in Italy 281 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:10,400 and don't have enough troops for a full-scale attack. 282 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,320 They turn to SAS Major Cary-Elwes, 283 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,640 a specialist in daring raids. 284 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,480 He's tasked, really, with mission impossible. 285 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:20,280 He has to get behind enemy lines 286 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:22,640 and liberate concentration camp victims, 287 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:24,440 and then find a way to repatriate them 288 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,440 back to friendly lines. 289 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,160 The camp is 40 miles behind enemy lines, 290 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,760 and all they have is themselves and their Jeeps. 291 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,360 They know that if they all cross behind the frontline 292 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:37,400 in those, they'll be spotted right away. 293 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,480 The camp sits close to a railway line, 294 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,960 and that gives the British an idea. 295 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,920 On September 13, 1943, 296 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,920 50 SAS commandos led by Major Cary-Elwes 297 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:56,040 gather outside the station in the small town of Chiatona. 298 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,040 Their plan is to seize a passenger train, 299 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:03,040 hide the commandos on board, ride it to the nearest station, 300 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,280 then storm the camp. 301 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:06,880 It needs to be a passenger train 302 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:08,800 instead of a military train. 303 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,000 To the Germans at the camp, it won't attract 304 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,079 so much attention to see a passenger train. 305 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,240 Major Cary-Elwes orders his men 306 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:19,120 to commandeer the train. 307 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,599 But now he spots another issue. 308 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:27,000 The tracks ahead run straight along the coast. 309 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,760 To reach the camp, the train has to be diverted inland. 310 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:32,680 While his men steal the train, 311 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,560 Major Cary-Elwes will take a small party of men in Jeeps 312 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:37,080 deep into enemy territory 313 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:39,240 to change the points ahead of the train. 314 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,640 It's an incredibly risky operation. 315 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:45,920 They know that if they encounter German forces, 316 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,560 they'll find themselves outnumbered and outgunned. 317 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:51,160 Less than half an hour later, 318 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:53,239 the Jeeps pull up at the points. 319 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,600 Quickly, they secure all the roads and railway tracks 320 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,160 leading to the crossroads 321 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,480 and park their Jeeps to form makeshift barricades. 322 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,080 Then they switch the points. 323 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:07,759 Now all they can do is wait. 324 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,960 At any moment, they can be spotted. 325 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:13,600 But then one of the units 326 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:15,999 spots the hijacked train from a distance. 327 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,920 This is the critical moment. 328 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:28,760 The train steams past. It made it through. 329 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:30,560 The officers watch it disappear down the track 330 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,560 on its way to Pisticci, uninterrupted. 331 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:35,920 A few hours later, 332 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:37,840 the train loaded with SAS commandos 333 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:40,640 pulls up just short of a deserted station. 334 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:44,119 And the SAS makes the final leg to the camp on foot. 335 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:51,160 The only thing that the SAS have on their side 336 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:52,679 is the element of surprise. 337 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:56,800 In a lightning attack, they break through 338 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:59,000 the wire perimeter of the camp, and the guards at first 339 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,200 are so shocked that they're paralyzed. 340 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,280 They're unable to understand, much less react. 341 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:06,599 Within minutes, 342 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:09,000 the SAS have the camp under control. 343 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:12,440 They disarm the guards, take the camp commandant prisoner, 344 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,160 and free the detainees. 345 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:19,079 SAS officers escort as many as they can onto the train, 346 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,599 putting 180 prisoners into carriages 347 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,000 that are bound for safety. 348 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,760 They can't rescue everyone. 349 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,520 The remaining prisoners are reportedly advised 350 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:31,840 to flee into the nearby mountains 351 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,720 and to lay low until Allied soldiers can reach them. 352 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:39,320 The passenger train carrying the rest of the prisoners 353 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:41,200 speeds back to Chiatona. 354 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,880 Shortly thereafter, the train, the SAS men, 355 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,760 the prisoners all arrive safely behind Allied lines. 356 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,279 For nearly 80 years, the story stays secret. 357 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,759 Then author Damien Lewis reveals it to the world. 358 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,919 A revelation that no one saw coming. 359 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:08,400 Before this discovery, 360 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:10,800 even Major Cary-Elwes's daughter 361 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,440 didn't know about the astounding mission. 362 00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:17,920 Most extraction missions retrieve people. 363 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:21,320 But one of the most extreme ever targeted a machine-- 364 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,240 a 9-ton Soviet-built helicopter 365 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,719 sitting in a desert battle zone. 366 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,000 Nine years into the conflict between 367 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:36,120 Chad and Libya, the Libyan Army suffers 368 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:40,440 a crushing defeat and suddenly pulls back at speed. 369 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:42,560 Out in the desert, they leave behind 370 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:46,840 around $1.5 billion worth of military equipment. 371 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:48,800 The Libyan Army has been armed by Moscow 372 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,640 and is fighting with the very latest Soviet hardware. 373 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,080 In the north of Chad, the U.S. spots one item 374 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:58,360 in particular it would like to get its hands on. 375 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,680 The crown jewel in this bounty of treasure 376 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:06,120 is an armored helicopter, the Soviet MI-25 Hind, 377 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,040 one of the most advanced aircraft 378 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,480 in the world at the time. 379 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,000 The Hind helicopter is tantalizingly close. 380 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:15,960 It's abandoned at the Ouadi Doum Air Base 381 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,080 in northern Chad. 382 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,200 The U.S. knows that if it can recover 383 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:24,000 this enemy chopper, it will be an intelligence gold mine. 384 00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:26,000 But that means a daring recovery mission 385 00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:27,920 near the Libyan frontline. 386 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:31,000 Extracting this helicopter will be extremely difficult. 387 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:33,760 Libyan forces could attack at any time. 388 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,040 Soviets would rather blow up this helicopter 389 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:37,640 than allow the Americans to capture 390 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,360 and examine its technology. 391 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,080 The CIA gets approval from Chad's government 392 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:46,160 to attempt an extraction of the Hind. 393 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,120 The mission is handed to the Night Stalkers, 394 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:53,120 the U.S. Army's elite aviation unit. 395 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,600 The advance team flies in on May 30, 1988, 396 00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,120 and the mission sounds relatively simple. 397 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:01,480 Get to the helicopter, hotwire it, 398 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,120 start it up, fly it back to the capital. 399 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,120 But they discover a problem. 400 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:07,720 They examine the engine. 401 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:09,680 They find that there is a bullet lodged in it. 402 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,600 Critical components could be damaged, 403 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,440 so it's just too risky. 404 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:14,720 They don't wanna be airborne 405 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:18,080 and the engine go out and they all die. 406 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,320 They decide the only way to extract this thing 407 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,000 is to airlift it out using a technique 408 00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:25,360 called "sling loading." 409 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,000 Sling loading is something that 410 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:28,920 can be done by helicopters, whereby 411 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,240 a cargo load of some kind can be strapped up 412 00:20:32,360 --> 00:20:34,360 to a hovering helicopter. 413 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,000 Flying a slung load of this size 414 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:39,120 is extremely difficult. 415 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,960 It's 21 meters long and it weighs 9 tons. 416 00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:45,040 But they have no choice. 417 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,000 The weight of the Soviet Hind 418 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:51,800 is almost exactly the limit of what the Chinooks can carry. 419 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:55,440 The Night Stalkers spent days planning this risky lift. 420 00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:58,560 They even calculate how the temperature of the desert air 421 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:02,400 will affect the maximum power of the Chinooks. 422 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:06,200 Then, at midnight on June 11, the Night Stalkers' main team, 423 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,440 led by Major Gary Hasselbach 424 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:12,160 load into two Chinooks and fly to the airstrip. 425 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,000 At Ouadi Doum, the team works through the night 426 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:18,080 prepping the chopper for the lift. 427 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:19,800 Under cover of darkness, 428 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:21,879 they're safe from Libyan attack. 429 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,360 But they must be ready to take off as soon as the day breaks. 430 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,840 They pull the heavy equipment off of the aircraft, 431 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,560 put it on one Chinook, then sling load 432 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,800 the entire airframe beneath the other Chinook. 433 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:36,840 The two aircraft then take off 434 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:38,960 and begin flying back toward N'Djamena, 435 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:40,639 which is the capital of Chad. 436 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:44,440 For the first few hours of the flight back, 437 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,280 everything goes smoothly. 438 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,760 But 45 minutes out from their destination, 439 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,400 they're hit, not by enemy fire, 440 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:54,559 but a 3,000-foot high sandstorm. 441 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:57,440 Big sandstorms like this 442 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,040 can be deadly to an aircraft. 443 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:03,880 The particles of dust and sand get into the engine, 444 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,279 causing them to lose power and sometimes cut off completely. 445 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:11,000 Now, normally, Major Hasselbach 446 00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:13,200 would fly higher to avoid the sandstorm, 447 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,920 but because of the 9-ton Soviet chopper 448 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,559 he's carrying beneath him, that isn't an option. 449 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:22,360 They have to power through the sandstorm, 450 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:24,360 and the result is that the aircraft, 451 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:25,680 they can't see a single thing. 452 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,360 Visibility drops to absolute zero. 453 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:30,960 There's no visual contact. 454 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,680 The Chinooks are a danger to each other. 455 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:36,680 So now the pilots of the Chinooks 456 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,000 are concerned that they may collide with each other. 457 00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:42,240 Soon they lose not just visuals, 458 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:44,840 but also radio contact. 459 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,120 30 tons of military equipment 460 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,280 is flying completely deaf and blind. 461 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:55,840 Suddenly, the wall of sand dissolves away 462 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,480 and Major Hasselbach in his Chinook 463 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,680 can see his destination 12 miles away, 464 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,280 and he makes a dash for it. 465 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,640 Just as he's about to land, he sees the second Chinook 466 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,720 emerge from the sandstorm right behind. 467 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,640 And in that second Chinook, the pilot barely 468 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,040 has enough time to land his helicopter 469 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,320 before the sandstorm engulfs them again. 470 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,760 The Night Stalkers' courage and quick thinking 471 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,000 has secured the U.S. one of the great prizes 472 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:29,320 of the Cold War, an intact Soviet Hind helicopter. 473 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,760 The Hind helicopter is flown back to the United States 474 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,680 in the belly of a military transport plane, 475 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,320 where it's taken to Fort Rucker for examination. 476 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,520 It's a huge coup. 477 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:44,040 Access to the Hind gives the U.S. military 478 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,920 firsthand knowledge of one of the USSR's 479 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,399 most integral pieces of air technology. 480 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:52,320 The U.S. government keeps 481 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,920 its daring snatch-and-grab under wraps. 482 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,360 But in 1991, the USSR collapses, 483 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,200 and a year later, the details 484 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,240 are fully declassified with one of the most 485 00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:07,880 audacious extraction operations of all time. 486 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:12,480 In 1944, 487 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,800 deep in the hills of Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, 488 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:19,320 hundreds of downed American airmen are stranded. 489 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:22,280 Facing impossible terrain and enemy threats, 490 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,360 the U.S. Air Force launches a bold extraction operation, 491 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:29,480 which involves digging a top secret aircraft runway 492 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,320 by hand. 493 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:42,000 By July of 1944, 150 American airmen 494 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,640 have been shot down during recent bombing runs 495 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:46,680 over Axis oil fields, 496 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:50,560 now lie scattered across the hills of Yugoslavia. 497 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,440 Yugoslavia is controlled by the Nazis, 498 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,240 but there are intense pockets of anti-Nazi resistance 499 00:24:56,360 --> 00:24:58,320 inside the country. 500 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,440 The downed aviators are located near a village 501 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,400 called Pranjani, 502 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,680 which is under the protection of a local resistance leader. 503 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:06,120 Unfortunately, 504 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,240 they can't stay there for much longer. 505 00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:11,120 German patrols are combing the countryside. 506 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,680 If the aviators are caught, they face imprisonment 507 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,240 or even execution. 508 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,040 The OSS gets word of the stranded airmen. 509 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,480 It's determined to get the men home. 510 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:24,160 But a rescue won't be easy. 511 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,040 You can't get these men out by land because 512 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,600 they're deep in Axis-controlled Yugoslavia. 513 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:31,360 You can't get them out by sea 514 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,280 because they're far away from the sea shore. 515 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:35,440 Really, the only way to get them out 516 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,119 is to get them out by air. 517 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:41,120 It's risky. 518 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:43,960 It's possibly even suicidal, but it's the only way 519 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,600 to try and save the 150 men. 520 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,240 The mission is codenamed Operation Halyard. 521 00:25:51,360 --> 00:25:54,480 First, the OSS inserts a small team into Serbia 522 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,280 to locate the airmen. 523 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,840 Serbian-American OSS Officer George Musulin 524 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:02,440 is selected to lead the operation. 525 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,239 In August 2, 1944, his team flies in. 526 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,560 Men parachute into the countryside near Pranjani. 527 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,240 Resistance fighters in the area have been informed 528 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:16,000 that they're coming and are waiting. 529 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:18,040 George Musulin and his team link up 530 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,120 with local partisan fighters who lead them 531 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,240 to the downed aircraft pilots. 532 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:25,960 Musulin's team meets the stranded airmen, 533 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:27,800 but there's a surprise. 534 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,320 There aren't 150 men in hiding. 535 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,200 There are now over 250 with more arriving. 536 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,040 Their next task is to find 537 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,400 a workable landing area for the rescue planes. 538 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,200 They scout the area looking for an obvious place 539 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,200 for planes to land, but the problem is 540 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:49,160 the area is heavily forested and highly mountainous. 541 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:53,720 There's no clear area for the planes to safely fly into. 542 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,240 There's only one option. 543 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:58,840 They'll need to build a runway from scratch. 544 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:00,720 The villagers have no machinery, 545 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,640 no electricity, only ropes, axes, 546 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:05,480 pitchforks, and livestock. 547 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:08,880 They dig and drag and clear the earth by hand. 548 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:10,760 When German planes fly over, 549 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,359 they scatter into the trees, hoping not to be seen. 550 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:17,800 In a few days, they're able to clear 551 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,800 a 700-yard strip through the forest. 552 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,840 Just long enough for a C-47 plane 553 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,640 to land if the pilot is skilled enough 554 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,360 and if the wind cooperates. 555 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,960 The OSS team radios Allied command in Italy 556 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,840 to tell them the airfield is ready. 557 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,120 The first C-47 transport plane takes off from Italy, 558 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,600 and it's a dangerous journey because the pilot 559 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,240 is navigating at night, 560 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:45,800 flying low over unmapped enemy mountains. 561 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,240 And he has no radio beacons, no radar guidance, 562 00:27:49,360 --> 00:27:52,040 and no air traffic control to aid him. 563 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,160 What the troops on the ground can do 564 00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,880 is they can light hay bales and fire, 565 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,240 which they do, and that helps. 566 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:02,840 But it's still not ideal. 567 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,560 The C-47 comes in for the landing, 568 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,920 but the pilot pulls up at the last second. 569 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,080 Mountain landings are notoriously difficult, 570 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,760 and the runway looks too short. 571 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,560 It's an incredibly risky operation, 572 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,400 taking on a makeshift runway in enemy territory 573 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:21,640 at night without proper equipment. 574 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:23,800 If he can't make this landing, 575 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:28,560 hundreds of American airmen will be left stranded. 576 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:30,840 Pilot lines up again, and this time, 577 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,400 he gets the plane down. 578 00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:34,840 On the ground, desperate airmen 579 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,360 scramble onto the aircraft. 580 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,920 Somehow the pilot gets out. 581 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,240 And three more planes touch down that night, 582 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,360 and dozens of men are evacuated. 583 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,720 The following night, more flights arrive. 584 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,600 Plane after plane lands and departs, 585 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,200 each carrying up to 12 American airmen to safety. 586 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:55,640 By the final extraction flight, 587 00:28:55,760 --> 00:29:00,119 Operation Halyard has rescued every last man. 588 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,040 By the time the mission finishes, 589 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,040 over 500 airmen have been extracted from the region, 590 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,160 making Operation Halyard the largest rescue ever 591 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:14,640 of downed airmen behind enemy lines. 592 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,240 Despite this, the story is kept secret. 593 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,200 Throughout the Second World War, 594 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,360 OSS operations remain classified. 595 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,160 But by the late 1960s, it was decided that 596 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:27,640 the story of the Operation Halyard extraction 597 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,360 should be made public. 598 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,040 In 1967, the U.S. government 599 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,080 finally acknowledges the work of OSS and Serbian forces 600 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,520 in rescuing the American airmen. 601 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,040 Extreme extractions usually mean extreme technology, 602 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:48,880 helicopters, night vision, satellite communication. 603 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,080 But in Poland in 1981, the CIA doesn't have any of that. 604 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,000 So they have to make do with something much simpler-- 605 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,679 cardboard boxes and a plan that sounds insane. 606 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,520 In 1981, Poland, like most of Eastern Europe, 607 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,640 is controlled by the Soviet Union. 608 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,280 So to obtain top secret information about its enemy, 609 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,840 the U.S. relies on a network of spies there, 610 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,240 and Ryszard Kuklinski is one of the best. 611 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,040 By November 1981, 612 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,400 Kuklinski has passed tens of thousands of pages 613 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,440 of Soviet intelligence to CIA. 614 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:27,560 Kuklinski discovers, however, 615 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:32,040 that his Soviet superiors have caught wind of a leak. 616 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:36,320 And sooner or later, it's going to lead back to him. 617 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,640 If he's discovered, he'll be executed for treason. 618 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,120 Kuklinski signals to his CIA handlers 619 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:47,440 he's in danger and needs to escape Poland fast. 620 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,240 Kuklinski is being handled by a CIA officer, 621 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,280 who has been promising Kuklinski throughout 622 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:54,240 his entire career that if he ever came into danger 623 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:55,960 or fell under scrutiny, 624 00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:57,920 the United States would keep him safe. 625 00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,600 Kuklinski's CIA handler 626 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,840 quickly devises an exfiltration plan. 627 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,360 The CIA will pick Kuklinski and his family 628 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,400 up in a car at a designated meeting point. 629 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,920 Then they'll be taken to the U.S. embassy, 630 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,760 disguised, and smuggled out of Poland to West Germany 631 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,680 and on to the U.S. 632 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,560 That night, Kuklinski comes clean to his wife 633 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:22,520 and two adult sons, confessing that 634 00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:24,680 he's been spying for the Communist enemies 635 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,360 and they now need to escape. 636 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:28,960 Kuklinski and his family 637 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,720 go to the meeting point in the city and await. 638 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:34,120 But no one shows up. 639 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,280 The CIA van that's en route to pick them up 640 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:37,800 can't actually pick them up 641 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:39,520 because it falls under surveillance. 642 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,080 After multiple efforts to try to break free 643 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:43,600 of that surveillance, 644 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,880 it's just too tight to be worth risking. 645 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,720 The Kuklinskis tried twice more 646 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,240 on successive nights, and each time, 647 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,680 the CIA pickup van is trailed too closely. 648 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,640 Kuklinski can feel the noose tightening 649 00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:00,520 on him and his family. 650 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:02,920 Kuklinski's handler can see the original plan 651 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:04,880 isn't gonna work. 652 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:06,760 For the extraction to succeed, 653 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,080 he needs to catch the secret police off guard. 654 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:11,880 He looks to Tom Ryan, 655 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,400 a CIA Bureau Chief who's in Berlin, 656 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,560 and asks him to drive all the way out to Warsaw. 657 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:19,080 The plan is on. 658 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:21,800 Ryan drives a circuitous 12-hour route, 659 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,160 and this is a monumental challenge. 660 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:26,440 In order to evade all surveillance, 661 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:29,400 Ryan has to drive over 300 miles 662 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:31,560 without anyone trailing him. 663 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,040 It's a lengthy drive, 664 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:36,000 and so if he does pick up a tail at some point, 665 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,560 he's got lots of time to hopefully lose that tail 666 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:40,080 or convince the tail that 667 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:41,600 he's not actually interesting after all. 668 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,799 When he reaches Warsaw, the Kuklinskis are waiting. 669 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,000 Immediately, he throws jackets and blankets 670 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:52,800 over the Kuklinski family and drives them 671 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,080 straight away to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw. 672 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:56,680 Once in the embassy, 673 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,320 they're put into a van with diplomatic plates. 674 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:00,720 In the van, the family are told 675 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,080 to get into huge cardboard boxes, 676 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,440 and they're sealed inside. 677 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,600 They now set off on the 340-mile trip to Berlin, 678 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,840 encased in darkness and unable to see a thing. 679 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,680 This must have been excruciating. 680 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:16,440 They can't see anything. 681 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,240 They don't really know what's going on outside. 682 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,840 And God help them if one of them is claustrophobic. 683 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,760 In fact, one of Kuklinski's children 684 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:25,640 is actually sedated 685 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:27,080 so that they can make it through 686 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,840 this long and arduous trip. 687 00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,320 After several hours on the road, 688 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,400 the van suddenly slows. 689 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:37,160 The Kuklinski family knows that they are 690 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:38,640 clearly approaching a border. 691 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:40,440 It's gotta be the border 692 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,800 between Poland and East Germany. 693 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:44,440 They're just hoping 694 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,280 that the doors don't come swinging open. 695 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:49,480 Outside, though, there's a problem. 696 00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:52,000 The Kuklinskis hear raised voices. 697 00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:53,480 The van's diplomatic plates 698 00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:55,560 haven't been properly registered, 699 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,000 and the guards are now suspicious. 700 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,640 They have every right to search the vehicle. 701 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:02,880 They're in darkness. They can do nothing. 702 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,040 All they know is that they can hear people 703 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:06,800 outside screaming, yelling, 704 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,159 talking about how they wanna search this vehicle. 705 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,360 Their lives are over. 706 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:12,880 Kuklinski is sure 707 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,560 his family's cover is about to be blown. 708 00:34:15,679 --> 00:34:17,719 If the family is discovered here right now, 709 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:19,880 the whole operation is a failure, 710 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,760 and there's no way to explain the evacuation of people 711 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,080 through a cardboard box across an international border. 712 00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:27,560 The doors remain shut. 713 00:34:27,679 --> 00:34:29,360 The Kuklinski family continues to sit 714 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:31,800 in darkness until finally 715 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,040 they hear the engine roar back to life. 716 00:34:35,159 --> 00:34:37,000 The CIA's driver has managed 717 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:38,919 to calm the border guards down. 718 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,560 Hours later, the Kuklinskis arrive in West Berlin. 719 00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,120 They can't quite believe it. 720 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:48,679 They've arrived in the West, safe and unharmed. 721 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,520 On November 11, 722 00:34:50,639 --> 00:34:54,040 they fly out of Europe and land in Maryland. 723 00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:57,600 Just a day after his arrival, Kuklinski is awarded 724 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:01,040 the Distinguished Intelligence medal from the CIA. 725 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:05,240 Back in Poland, Kuklinski is sentenced to death in absentia 726 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:09,880 by the Communist government for treason of the fatherland. 727 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,920 Details of the extraction, 728 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,320 however, remain top secret for the next two decades. 729 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,280 In 2004, Benjamin Weiser writes a book, 730 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,080 "A Secret Life." 731 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,760 Granted access to CIA documents for the first time, 732 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:25,960 his book reveals the full story 733 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:27,680 of Kuklinski's extraction, 734 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,400 revealing he smuggled out crucial intelligence, 735 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:33,560 including the locations of secret 736 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,680 Soviet nuclear weapons stores in Eastern Europe. 737 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,400 You're a U.S. pilot downed in enemy territory. 738 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:42,880 The good news is you're carrying 739 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:44,760 an emergency beacon that tells the U.S. 740 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:46,960 exactly where to find you. 741 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,080 The bad news? It tells the enemy too. 742 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,640 In 1995, Americans are patrolling the skies 743 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:00,760 over the former Yugoslavia and attempting 744 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,040 to keep the peace between warring factions 745 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,960 that are fighting for control of the country. 746 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:07,600 On June 2, 747 00:36:07,720 --> 00:36:10,360 U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady is on 748 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,960 a standard patrol of NATO no-fly zones in Bosnia. 749 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:20,040 Enemy fighters fire a surface-to-air missile. 750 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,200 He's just able to evacuate before the F-16 falls apart, 751 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:27,760 but O'Grady finally lands 752 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:29,520 on the opposite side of a highway 753 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:31,959 inside the hostile-controlled Serbian ground. 754 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:35,880 O'Grady knows the Bosnian-Serb enemy 755 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,920 will have tracked his descent. 756 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:40,040 He needs to contact U.S. forces 757 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,280 and secure extraction fast. 758 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,000 Whenever possible, the United States tries 759 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,760 to establish an underground railroad 760 00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:50,680 in the areas that we operate, 761 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:52,360 where downed pilots can be recovered. 762 00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,040 But sometimes these networks don't exist. 763 00:36:56,160 --> 00:37:00,720 In this case, Scott O'Grady was behind enemy lines and alone. 764 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:03,040 He has a pistol and some survival gear, 765 00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,160 but notably he has a survival radio. 766 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,840 O'Grady's survival radio has two different functions. 767 00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,320 One is that it can transmit voice, like all radios do. 768 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,560 And the other is that it can transmit an SOS frequency 769 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:17,440 to allow the American military 770 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,400 to try and hone-in on its position. 771 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:22,200 The signal will be bounced by satellites 772 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,720 to analysts half the world away 773 00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:26,760 at the U.S. Signals Intelligence Center 774 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:28,799 in Pine Gap, Australia. 775 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,280 There, signals analysts are on alert for any sign 776 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,160 that O'Grady is trying to communicate. 777 00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:38,720 The benefit of the emergency beacon 778 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,160 is that as soon as he triggers that beacon, 779 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,760 those forces in Pine Gap will inform local forces 780 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,040 to come rescue him. 781 00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:47,920 But triggering the emergency beacon 782 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,360 has one big downside. 783 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:52,280 If he uses the emergency beacon, 784 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,760 he's gonna send out such a strong signal 785 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:57,360 that anyone in the area that's collecting signals 786 00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:58,960 will also be able to identify him 787 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:01,560 and direct the patrols into his direction. 788 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:03,080 All the Serbian forces in the area 789 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,600 would know to look for an emergency beacon signal 790 00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:08,640 coming from this downed American pilot. 791 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:10,880 It's the first day on the ground. 792 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,560 O'Grady decides it's too big a risk. 793 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,360 He opts for the voice radio instead. 794 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,320 But almost as soon as O'Grady takes his radio out, 795 00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:23,160 he notices enemy Serbs combing through the forest nearby. 796 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,280 So he stays absolutely still. 797 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,000 It's only when he sees them leaving again 798 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,400 at 6:00 p.m. that he thinks about trying the radio. 799 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,880 He waits until he's convinced they're not coming back, 800 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,720 and then he tries the radio again. 801 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,200 U.S. planes are searching for him, 802 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,200 but no one hears him. 803 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:49,440 In a busy war zone, there's a huge amount of radio traffic, 804 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,280 and it's really a matter of luck 805 00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,520 whether a pilot tunes in at the right frequency 806 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,719 and within range to hear O'Grady's communications. 807 00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:01,040 Over the next few days, O'Grady constantly 808 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,000 tries to send radio transmissions. 809 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,599 But he's greeted with silence every time. 810 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,520 He doesn't wanna use the emergency beacon. 811 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:13,560 It's just too much of a risk. 812 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:15,200 On the ground, however, 813 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:17,680 O'Grady can feel the net tightening around him. 814 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,720 In one instance, a Serbian helicopter 815 00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:23,600 flies so close by his position 816 00:39:23,720 --> 00:39:26,480 that he can actually make out the pilot's face. 817 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,920 By the fifth day, he's starving, 818 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,040 he's freezing, and he's almost out of water. 819 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,480 He's having to resort to eating ants. 820 00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:37,840 He knows that if he doesn't do something, 821 00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:41,639 he will either be killed by the enemy or die in the wild. 822 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:45,200 Finally, O'Grady realizes 823 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:47,880 he has no other option. 824 00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,440 O'Grady decides to use the emergency beacon on his radio. 825 00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,320 He turns it on and off for short periods of time, 826 00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,440 hoping that the Serbs aren't gonna be able to find him. 827 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:01,600 8,500 miles away, 828 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:04,040 in the middle of the Australian desert, 829 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,360 the U.S. signal team at the Pine Gap base 830 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,080 picks something up. 831 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,680 It's what they've been waiting days for. 832 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,520 It's O'Grady. He's made contact. 833 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,640 Pine Gap analysts pass the information on 834 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,040 to U.S. Forces off the coast of Italy. 835 00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:22,400 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit launches 836 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:25,600 two CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. 837 00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:27,240 At dawn, rescue helicopters 838 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:29,400 head toward O'Grady's signal. 839 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,480 O'Grady can hear the beat of rotor blades. 840 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:35,280 And when he spots an American helicopter, 841 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:38,440 he knows that this must be the rescue force. 842 00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,800 O'Grady runs out of the woodline 843 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:43,080 to get on that helicopter as fast as he can. 844 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,000 Less than two hours later, 845 00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:48,440 O'Grady is back at his base with American forces. 846 00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:52,360 He survived six days hiding in enemy territory 847 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:54,159 and returns a hero. 848 00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,800 O'Grady's rescue makes the headlines at the time, 849 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:01,480 but the full story of Pine Gap's involvement 850 00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:04,200 is only told in 2021, 851 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,720 when U.S. Signals Intelligence analyst David Rosenberg, 852 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:09,640 who was at Pine Gap at the time, 853 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,559 gives a blow-by-blow account of the rescue mission. 854 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:16,560 From prison breaks to desert heists, 855 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,280 nations have always gone to extreme lengths 856 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,680 to extract people and tech from hostile territory. 857 00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:26,480 Some of these secrets are locked away for decades, 858 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:30,359 but the truth always finds a way out.