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NARRATOR: A top secret complex in
Arkansas

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whose occupants carried the fate of
a nation in their hands.

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MAN:They would have been very aware
of the fact

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that they could be the person that
started a nuclear war.

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An ancient ruin in Cambodia ravaged
by one man's cruel deception.

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MAN:There were gun battles
happening.

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They were fighting over the statues.

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Calling these "blood antiquities"
makes a lot of sense.

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A facility in Wales tainted by the
actions

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of an international hero.

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Winston Churchill is most remembered
in history for leading Britain

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through the Second World War.

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But for some, his legacy is more
complicated.

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And a stronghold in France that
became the site of one man's

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journey to clear his father's name.

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The French commander, was he a
traitor, a coward,

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or did he stay with his men?

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NARRATOR: In northeast Arkansas are
the sprawling remains of a

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secret facility that stood guard over
America

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during its most dangerous hour.

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WOMAN:This place is huge.

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It's obviously been used for
something very big.

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MAN:You've got offices, you've got
playgrounds,

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you've got athletic fields.

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There's all the makings of a proper
town here.

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But this was no normal town.

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It was built with a very specific
purpose.

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One area, in particular, provides
the first piece of the puzzle.

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MAN:The most obvious feature here
is clearly the runway.

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With all the housing and other
facilities near the airfield,

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you'd have to assume this is part
of the military.

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These places were all around the
country and most people had no idea.

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But what were they hiding?

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Everything here was part of the
nation's last line of defence

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during a time of perilous
uncertainty.

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WOMAN:When the Cold War reaches its
most fevered pitch,

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the people on this base

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are tasked with the most serious of
responsibilities.

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MAN:The crews knew that if they
were ever called upon to go aloft

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and use their payloads in battle,
they would trigger World War III.

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And for one terrifying instant, it
looked like that moment had come.

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This was the closest that we, as a
nation, have ever come

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to nuclear war.

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Joseph Alley is a historian who has
spent almost three years

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uncovering what went on inside this
clandestine compound.

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Security was paramount.

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There were very specific places
that you were allowed to go,

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and there were also places that you
were explicitly forbidden to go,

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and this was all laid out to you on
day one.

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This is Blytheville Air Force Base.

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It was first operational during
World War II.

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But in the 1950s, as tension between
Western democracies

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and the Soviet empire mounted,

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it became part of America's
front-line defences in the Cold War.

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JOSEPH ALLEY:In 1959,

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when the Strategic Air Command took
this base over,

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this is where they were going
to be making very important,

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world-changing decisions.

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WOMAN:So SAC, the Strategic Air
Command,

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is essential to the Cold War
effort.

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They're in charge of all the nuclear
capabilities that come from the air.

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A squadron of B-52 long-range
bombers was based here,

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poised to counter the increasing
Communist threat.

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MAN:So, these big B-52s could carry
a nuclear payload.

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And so they were meant to deter any
adversary.

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But as soon as the Strategic Air
Command arrived at Blytheville

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to evaluate the base, they realised
there was a critical flaw

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in their deterrence strategy.

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MISSILE LAUNCHES

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If the Soviets were to launch
a first strike attack,

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intended to cripple America's
defences,

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they would not have been able to
retaliate fast enough.

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WOMAN:SAC commanders understood
that the US was not ready

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to respond quickly to incoming
nuclear threat.

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Something had to be done to remedy
that, and fast.

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PROF WAWRO:You have to fuel these
bombers.

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You have to get them out of their
hangars onto the runway.

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You gotta put the right ordnance
aboard.

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The average time to do all that is
six hours.

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Well, if you're in a nuclear
standoff,

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and time is of the essence, that's
way too long.

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And so Strategic Air Command decides

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it wants to get that down to 15
minutes.

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By 1960, the construction of a new
building designed to meet

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the rapid-response objective was
completed on this base.

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JOSEPH ALLEY:So this is the
Readiness Crew building.

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This was a 70-man crew dormitory.

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They would do what was called
an alert rotation.

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For seven days, they would be
living, eating and working

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in the Readiness Crew building.

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The airfield's distinctive design was
also a key part of the defence plan,

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if the pilots were called into
action.

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The shape of the tarmac was all
about speed.

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It ends up looking a bit like a
Christmas tree,

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but without the kind of package
we'd want Santa to deliver.

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The planes were fully fuelled and
armed on the branches,

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ready to pull out onto the runway
at any moment's notice.

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JOSEPH ALLEY:And then they're gonna
come up to the end of the runway

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at a specific angle so that they can
very quickly take off.

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There's no stopping and turning.

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There's no having to work your way
in, arrange it.

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It's just boom, boom.

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Sometimes you would have one
plane's tail

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fitted right up against one plane's
nose.

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That's how close these guys
would get.

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The payload each bomber carried

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had the potential to inflict
unimaginable devastation.

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JOSEPH ALLEY:You had five B-52s.

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Each one was manned with two Hound
Dog GAM-77 cruise missiles.

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Each of those cruise missiles was
roughly three times as powerful

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as the nuclear weapons that were
used on Japan

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at the end of World War II.

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You also have about 58 other bases
all over the US,

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so you can figure out just how much
destructive force

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the United States was capable of
bringing to bear

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with just the flip of a switch.

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And it's not long before they get
the call.

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In October of 1962, an American
spy plane flies over Cuba,

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and they realise that there are
missile bases being built

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on the Cuban islands by the Soviet
Union.

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This was simply too close.

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They could take out Miami or take
out Washington DC

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with no warning really.

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So this triggers the Cuban Missile
Crisis.

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PROF MITCHELL:The B-52s across the
country were put on 24-hour alert,

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and Blytheville was no different.

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In this room, there was a meeting

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with all of the crewmen that were
on alert at the time.

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It was explicitly explained,

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"Things are getting tense with the
Soviet Union.

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"There's something happening down in
Cuba.

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"And the Strategic Air Command
has officially notified us

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"that they're going to be
implementing what they called

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"their one-eighth program.

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This means that one out of every
eight bombers

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"in the Strategic Air Command is
gonna be in the air at all times."

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This was all part of a wider plan
called Operation Chrome Dome,

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which would run for seven years.

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For 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,

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around 60 nuclear-armed bombers
were circling the skies over America,

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ready to strike Cuba, the USSR, or
elsewhere at a moment's notice.

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And, as the Cuban Missile Crisis
escalated,

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the threat edged ever closer.

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On the 24th of October,

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the Strategic Air Command issued a
new order.

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PROF ZARSADIAZ:They stepped up to
DEFCON 2.

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That's just one step away from
nuclear war.

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The DEFCON defence readiness system

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prescribes five states of alert for
the US military.

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At DEFCON 2 You are at your station,
your finger is on the button.

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And then, of course, DEFCON 1
is pressing that button.

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While the American people were aware
that the country was on the brink

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of nuclear war,

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those inside this building knew that,
at any moment,

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they could be called on to launch a
strike.

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The tensions were real.

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The stressors were real.

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This was an incredibly dangerous
time.

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JOSEPH ALLEY:You had this kind of
cycle where guys would wake up

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and they would get their
assignments,

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and they would be in this building,
just sitting and waiting

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for that klaxon, telling them that
it is now DEFCON 1.

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They would have been very aware
of the fact

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that they could be the person
that started

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a nuclear war.

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For eight agonising days during the
crisis,

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the personnel based here waited for
the apocalypse to begin.

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The purpose of these bases can be
none other...

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But behind the scenes,

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President Kennedy and Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev were negotiating.

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Luckily, neither side really wanted
to go to war,

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and so Kennedy and Khrushchev

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were able to come to a peaceful
conclusion.

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Nobody was happy, but nobody
was dead either.

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The Soviets agreed to remove
their missiles from Cuba

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in exchange for the US removing its
missiles away from Turkey.

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The immediate danger may have passed,

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but the conflict was far from over.

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In the decades to come, those
stationed at Blytheville

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continued to quietly guard the
nation from the skies.

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JOSEPH ALLEN:You've got thousands
of people

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that are working to keep up the
alert facilities,

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so you've got a veritable army of
men and women

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who are working to keep the country
safe.

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DR SHARP LANDDECK:As we move
through the 1980s,

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and the Cold War starts to ease,

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American military bases are being
closed.

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And so Blytheville was on the
chopping block.

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In 1991, the last aircraft left its
hangar,

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rolled along the runway and took to
the skies.

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Following its closure in 1992,

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Blytheville became a municipal
airport

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and the Ready Alert facility was
permanently closed down.

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Now, Joseph and his team plan to
turn this, once top secret site,

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into a Cold War museum.

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Originally, there were 59 alert
facilities over the continental US.

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This is the last one that is fully
intact.

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This is the last one that the public
will ever be able to visit.

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And so we are very proud to be able
to take on a project like this.

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In northern Cambodia is the ruin
of an ancient site

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caught in the middle of a modern
day scandal.

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MAN:On the ground, we can see we're
kind of in Indiana Jones territory.

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There are ruined temples.

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There are stone carvings, pillars,
walkways.

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WOMAN:The labour alone that would
have been required to construct

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something of this scale is
staggering.

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But that's just the tip of the
iceberg.

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You get the sense that these
structures

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were part of an entire city.

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NARRATOR: At its height,

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this was once the capital of a
formidable dynasty

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that mysteriously vanished.

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Leaving behind an extraordinary
treasure trove

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that lay forgotten for a thousand
years.

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When it was rediscovered, that
became the beginning

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of a different kind of tragedy.

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If you look, you can see these
pedestals,

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but it looks like something is
missing.

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The treasures of this place would
be plundered in, what some

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people have called, the greatest
art heist in history.

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WOMAN:The mastermind operated in
plain sight,

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masquerading as a friend of the
Cambodian people.

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He was warm, he was funny.

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And so he was a brilliant conman.

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But his luck would eventually
run out.

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Dr Ea Darith is an archaeologist
and expert on this site.

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00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,320
He first came here in 2005

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00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,920
and has been unearthing its secrets
ever since.

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The origin of this lost world dates
back to the birth

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of a great civilisation.

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MAN:The Khmer Empire began to come
together in about 900 CE,

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when a leader named Jayavarman began
to unite various warring tribes

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into a large entity like a modern
state.

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But just over a century later, it
was hit by a power struggle,

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with Jayavarman IV emerging
as the potential new leader

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00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:03,360
of the Khmer people.

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He needed an impressive city to
prove his superiority,

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so he built this...

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..Koh Ker.

240
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,600
He cemented his power with
deliberately

241
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,600
ambitious construction projects.

242
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:41,800
It would have been furnished with
priceless objects,

243
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,120
including statues revered by the
Khmer people.

244
00:15:57,160 --> 00:15:59,680
By 928, Jayavarman's rivals were no
more,

245
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,040
and he proclaimed himself the sole
emperor at Koh Ker.

246
00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:08,120
But Jayavarman IV's reign would be
short lived.

247
00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:12,960
He died in 941, and in the political
shifts that followed,

248
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,360
the Khmer capital was relocated.

249
00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:22,080
That, coupled with a likely water
shortage, left his city abandoned.

250
00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,720
Koh Ker would remain hidden for
almost a thousand years,

251
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:32,800
but when it was rediscovered, it
opened the door to some

252
00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:34,680
very nefarious characters.

253
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:41,320
In the late 19th century, French
explorers stumbled upon the remains

254
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,320
of Koh Ker and began documenting
the site,

255
00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,440
including its numerous statues.

256
00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,920
But a century later, in 1975,

257
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:55,240
when Cambodia was taken over by the
Communist Khmer Rouge regime,

258
00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:59,200
the country and this ruin were cut
off from the world

259
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:00,760
until the late 1990s.

260
00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,440
As the country recovered slowly, it
was becoming clear

261
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,160
that it wasn't just the Cambodian
people who had suffered.

262
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,120
Their ancient history had been
destroyed and ravaged.

263
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,160
Hundreds of temples were looted,
and at Koh Ker

264
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,920
virtually every statue was missing.

265
00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:27,040
In 2012, lawyer Bradley J Gordon, an
American based in Cambodia,

266
00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:29,560
was called in to help bring them
back.

267
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:33,440
I'd been hired by the Department of
Justice

268
00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,600
to track down stolen Cambodian
antiquities.

269
00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,480
My assignment was to find the
smuggling network,

270
00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:43,640
and we were just focused on one
statue, the Duryodhana statue.

271
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:48,000
One year earlier, the statue had
gone up for auction at Sotheby's

272
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:52,680
in New York, with a list price of $2
to $3 million.

273
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:57,120
It was a 500lb sculpture of a
mythical Hindu warrior,

274
00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:58,680
and it was taken from Koh Ker.

275
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,040
After a tip-off from the Cambodian
government

276
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,600
that this was a stolen artefact,

277
00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:10,720
the US Department of Justice stopped
the sale and opened an investigation.

278
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,440
BRADLEY GORDON:We interviewed more
than 100 people.

279
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,800
We found one man in particular, who
remembered seeing it

280
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,440
at Koh Ker village on an oxcart.

281
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:22,960
But we also started to realise

282
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,440
that many of the people we were
talking to,

283
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,240
knew a lot more than just about
that one statue.

284
00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:32,600
As Bradley dug deeper, it appeared
that the widespread theft

285
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:37,000
of treasures from Koh Ker could be
linked back to one man.

286
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:44,000
I came across the name of this
dealer, Douglas Latchford.

287
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,560
He was a well-known character
when it came to the sale

288
00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,360
of Cambodian antiquities.

289
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:52,520
JIM MEIGS:He was this charming guy.

290
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:56,800
He presented himself as almost an
amateur archaeologist.

291
00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:01,360
The idea that he might be a kind
of kingpin of an international

292
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:04,760
looting scandal was really shocking.

293
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:10,640
Latchford was born in British India
and moved to Thailand in the 1950s.

294
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:14,640
From there, he began searching the
ancient ruins of Cambodia

295
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:18,760
and became obsessed with the statues
at this site.

296
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:23,160
To me, Douglas Latchford was the
Shadow King of Koh Ker.

297
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,200
He was behind one of the greatest
art crimes in history.

298
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,360
Bradley's investigation revealed

299
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,240
that Latchford had used his contacts
and knowledge of the region

300
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:39,880
to exploit the chaos of the Khmer
Rouge period and make himself rich.

301
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:45,160
For 40 years, from his home in
Bangkok, he organised gangs

302
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:49,280
of Cambodian looters to smuggle
out statues.

303
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:52,640
The reward was so great, these
looters were willing

304
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:56,960
to risk their lives to get their
hands on the ancient treasures.

305
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,960
Er, calling these "blood
antiquities" makes a lot of sense

306
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,320
because they definitely have blood
attached to them.

307
00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:04,920
There were gun battles happening.

308
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:06,960
They were fighting over the statues.

309
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,640
And so we've heard stories about
individuals being killed,

310
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:13,080
out here at Koh Ker.

311
00:20:15,120 --> 00:20:20,360
It's estimated that Latchford's
gangs stole up to 100 statues

312
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:21,840
from Koh Ker alone.

313
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,080
We know that from one billionaire
client,

314
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,040
he sold him $35 million of statues.

315
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:29,440
That's just one client.

316
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:30,840
Latchford had many.

317
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,560
ALICIA GUTIERREZ-ROMINE:His
customers were private collectors.

318
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:38,760
But also museums, including the
world-renowned Met in New York

319
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,760
and the British Museum.

320
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:43,560
He was even knighted by the
Cambodian government

321
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,680
after donating a number of statues
to the National Museum.

322
00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:50,160
Latchford had fooled the world

323
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:55,160
and in the process earned himself
around £75 million.

324
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,600
But the volume of evidence was
adding up

325
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,200
and his time was running out.

326
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:06,000
In 2019, US federal investigators
made their move.

327
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,120
He was indicted by the US government

328
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:14,560
for the trafficking in stolen
Cambodian antiquities.

329
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:16,880
Douglas Latchford escaped justice.

330
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:21,200
He died in his late 80s, and he
didn't serve any time

331
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:25,640
for these incredibly massive crimes
he carried out.

332
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:29,640
Bradley and his team didn't give up
the fight to get back

333
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,000
what belonged to the Cambodian
people.

334
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:36,440
We entered into negotiations with
the Latchford family.

335
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,400
We were dealing mostly with
Douglas's daughter.

336
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:44,120
During the negotiations, Julie
Latchford did the right thing.

337
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,400
She agreed to give back everything.

338
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:52,080
Now, of course, there remains a huge
problem of identifying and returning

339
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:56,960
the hundreds of other Cambodian
antiquities that Latchford peddled

340
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,200
over the years, but that's underway.

341
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:04,120
Our restitution team has already
successfully brought home

342
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,440
about 300 objects.

343
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:10,880
We know that there are more out
there, especially from Koh Ker.

344
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:15,240
I think for the rest of my life,
I will be working on this

345
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:16,920
and it will be far from over.

346
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:28,000
Today, Koh Ker is still revered as a
place of worship by the local people.

347
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:33,400
Meanwhile, in July 2024, 14 of its
statues were finally returned

348
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,760
to the National Museum of Cambodia.

349
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,920
For the Cambodian people, these
statues are not artwork.

350
00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:42,560
They're not Picassos, they're not
Van Goghs.

351
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,240
They're living, they're spirits.

352
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,880
So they feel very strongly that the
statues were taken

353
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,120
out of the house, out of the family,
and now they need to come back.

354
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:03,000
In the Welsh town of Tonypandy
stands the relic of a time

355
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,880
when this region was the centre of a
fierce rebellion.

356
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,440
MAN:This building looms large,

357
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,320
and it's clearly from an era that's
now been forgotten.

358
00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:21,280
WOMAN:Inside, it's just this vast,
cavernous space.

359
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:25,840
There's nothing really to suggest,
you know, what it was used for.

360
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,280
Yet, within these walls, a desperate
people mobilised

361
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:33,520
against the might of the British
Army.

362
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,040
MAN:This building was at the heart
of a conflict that was gonna

363
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,440
reverberate across the nation.

364
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,880
MAN:The townspeople here tell
stories of mounted cavalry

365
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:46,720
marching down their streets.

366
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:48,840
It must have felt like an
occupation.

367
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,800
And for them, the treachery lay
at the hands of one of Britain's

368
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:54,560
most lauded politicians.

369
00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:00,200
Winston Churchill is most remembered
in history for leading Britain

370
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,520
through the Second World War,

371
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:06,160
but for some his legacy is more
complicated.

372
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,320
In time he would be regarded as a
hero.

373
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:12,280
Back then, he was seen as a villain.

374
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:17,640
He faced an impossible decision, do
nothing or send in soldiers

375
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:19,840
against his own citizens.

376
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,640
His decision still haunts the town
to this day.

377
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,760
This place was the flashpoint.

378
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,800
What happened here spread like
wildfire.

379
00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:41,320
Philip Rowlands grew up in this
small Welsh town.

380
00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:44,560
His grandfather worked here in the
early 1900s

381
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,920
and told him stories of a very
different place.

382
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:51,800
It was a little bit like the
Klondike.

383
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,280
People were coming in from
everywhere.

384
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,480
It was a vibrant, burgeoning
community, you know.

385
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:02,240
It's places like these that used to
be the industrial heart

386
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:03,320
of the country.

387
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,600
Each morning, men would file out of
their homes

388
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:12,520
and make their way to the sites that
built this town, the coal mines.

389
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,040
This coal field was the largest in
Britain,

390
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,840
and the town of Tonypandy sat in the
middle of it.

391
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,240
My grandfather's generation never
wanted me to go down the mine.

392
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,440
You know, they only wanted you to
be a teacher or something.

393
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:27,800
They wouldn't have given it up for
anything,

394
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:31,360
because the camaraderie and the
bonding that they made

395
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,600
was second to none, really.

396
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,640
But the nature of the work meant
that each day

397
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,720
could be the miner's last.

398
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:44,080
At the time, this was one of the
most dangerous jobs in the world,

399
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:47,040
and the pits in this valley were no
exception.

400
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,000
The issue the miners encountered
in the wet Welsh hills

401
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:55,840
was that as they dug, the water,
would pool and fill the mine shafts,

402
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:59,440
so they needed to constantly pump
the water out to prevent

403
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,120
it from flooding.

404
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,160
This is the Tonypandy Powerhouse.

405
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:09,960
Built in 1905, it housed
state-of-the-art machinery

406
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,160
capable of pumping up to 5,000
gallons of water from the mines

407
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:15,240
every minute.

408
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,280
It would have been very noisy in
here because of the machinery

409
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:27,040
that was used to...to pump and to
keep the mine clear of water.

410
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:28,520
It would have been a steam engine.

411
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:30,400
You would need to stoke the steam
boilers.

412
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,480
And that was incredibly dirty, hard
work.

413
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,560
Without these engines running, the
mines would be unworkable.

414
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:42,760
In many ways, this was the beating
heart of the operation.

415
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:49,800
But even with the powerhouse in
place, it was still a risky business.

416
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:53,640
The coal seam the miners excavated,
was one of the most hazardous

417
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,520
in Britain, and they wanted their
wages to reflect this.

418
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,560
It's gaseous, which means that it's
especially volatile.

419
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,880
It wasn't uncommon for workers
to end up dead from explosions,

420
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:13,200
partial collapses, any number
of accidents.

421
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:18,080
Meanwhile, the mine-owning cartel
who controlled these coalfields,

422
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:23,840
refused to compensate for the dangers
despite their exorbitant profits.

423
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,640
They called the shots, and they
would squeeze their workers

424
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,240
as much as they could.

425
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,440
There was no minimum wage in the
mining industry.

426
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:38,120
Wages depended on how much coal a
miner could cut during their shift.

427
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:43,480
Years of hard work, injuries and
meagre pay took a toll

428
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:44,960
on a place like this.

429
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,720
At some point, people were going to
demand a change.

430
00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:56,160
It was a scene all too familiar in
mining centres across the world.

431
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,280
And in Tonypandy, in 1910, came the
final straw.

432
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,960
A new pit opened in the valley and
it came time to negotiate pay.

433
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,440
Workers and management were
immediately at odds.

434
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,560
The Cambrian Colliery Company first
offered its workers

435
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:20,120
one shilling and ninepence for
every ton of coal extracted.

436
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:24,000
The workers came back with two
shillings and sixpence.

437
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,920
The new pit was extremely difficult
to mine,

438
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:32,080
and the miners ended up with even
less pay.

439
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,360
The two sides wouldn't budge,
and the haggling went on

440
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,960
until the mine owners decided to
force the issue.

441
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:47,840
On September 1st, 1910, the company
locked out the entire workforce

442
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:49,480
from one of their mines.

443
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,400
It was a deliberate act of
provocation

444
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,200
because of the growth of the South
Wales Miners Federation

445
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,720
that would have challenged the coal
owners' power,

446
00:28:57,760 --> 00:28:59,600
and they didn't want that.

447
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:04,640
But the union was already stronger
than the owners realised.

448
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:09,080
Miners across the region responded
by balloting for a strike,

449
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:13,440
and on November 1st, 12,000
men went out on strike.

450
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:19,400
Tensions were high and Tonypandy
had become a ticking time bomb.

451
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,560
Only one pit was left operating
in the area,

452
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,640
and it relied on the powerhouse to
keep it going.

453
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,280
On the 7th of November, angry miners
descended here,

454
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:35,200
determined to force the crucial
facility to shut down.

455
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:43,160
8,000 striking miners began to
gather in the town,

456
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,400
with their sights set on the
powerhouse, still churning away.

457
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,400
But the police knew the strikers
were coming

458
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,960
and had prepared for the assault.

459
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,320
There were about 100 police drafted,
waiting for any problems.

460
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,760
A tense standoff ensued.

461
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,560
The whole situation was balancing
on a knife's edge.

462
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:09,320
And then a stone came crashing
through one of the windows.

463
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:14,400
The scene quickly turned violent
and a riot erupted in town.

464
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:20,440
After repeated baton charges,
police drove strikers back

465
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,480
just before midnight.

466
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,680
Yet the police were terrified they
would be overrun by the strikers

467
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:30,640
and made a frantic call to the
government in London for help.

468
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,880
The man in charge of homeland
affairs at the time

469
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,680
was Winston Churchill.

470
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,440
30 years before he became
Prime Minister.

471
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,640
Churchill had authorised police
forces from London and Bristol

472
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,160
to maintain order.

473
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:50,040
But it was becoming clear this
wasn't just gonna go away.

474
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:55,440
The next day, the riots didn't
subside. In fact, they escalated.

475
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:59,160
People were smashing in windows,
breaking into shops.

476
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:01,080
It was a mess.

477
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,200
Churchill was faced with a tough
decision.

478
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,560
Appease the miners or send in the
army to crush the uprising.

479
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,960
He chose to use military force
against his own people.

480
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:22,680
At 1.20am on the 9th of November, two
days after the riots began,

481
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,360
Churchill dispatched a British
cavalry squadron to restore order.

482
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:31,560
This was a big call to make,

483
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,760
one that was guaranteed to be
contentious.

484
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:37,760
Fear spread throughout the town.

485
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,520
Not only were there hundreds
of police in the streets,

486
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,400
now there were armed troops
alongside them too.

487
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,560
The miners faced such an
overwhelming force

488
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,120
they had no choice but to back down.

489
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:57,520
The strikers had to go back slowly,
drift back because they didn't

490
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,360
have any money and, you know, they
were...

491
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,280
..Children were starving. Their
wives were starving.

492
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,560
The line had been crossed and that
would never be forgotten.

493
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:08,360
These weren't foreign enemies.

494
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:11,280
These were his own countrymen.

495
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:15,320
Winston Churchill was vilified here
for many years.

496
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,160
The stories go when the news showed
a picture of Churchill

497
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,280
during the war, you know, people
would boo.

498
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:33,880
The Tonypandy Powerhouse continued
operating until 1966, and today,

499
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,000
following the decline of Welsh coal
mining, only one mine

500
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:39,480
here remains in use.

501
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,040
That's the sad part. We are losing
our legacy

502
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,520
and we're losing our memory of
things.

503
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:52,040
We are trying to raise the awareness
of the rich and unique heritage

504
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,000
of this area, that people should be
proud.

505
00:32:59,960 --> 00:33:03,400
In northern France, near the Belgian
border,

506
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:07,480
a bizarre collection of structures
litters the landscape.

507
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,760
MAN:It's an area covered in rolling
hills and sprawling farms.

508
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:22,200
But up on one ridgeline is a massive
metal saucer, tilted on one side,

509
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,360
almost like a UFO crashed there.

510
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:33,240
This huge, heavy piece of steel has
been popped up like a bottle cap.

511
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:39,120
What power was required to knock
that loose?

512
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,640
The land is scarred and riddled
with craters.

513
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:50,560
It looks as if a violent and
terrible event has taken place.

514
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:56,040
A short distance away is a building
that at first seems unrelated.

515
00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:00,680
Yet further investigation reveals
they are intimately connected.

516
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:06,000
When you go inside, you realise
that most of this site is actually

517
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,280
underground and it is enormous.

518
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:13,240
We see bunk beds, crumbling walls,
twisted metal.

519
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,760
This was clearly a military site on
a massive scale.

520
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:24,720
This marvel of 20th century
technology

521
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:29,720
became the pride of France that came
before its fall.

522
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,360
Benjamin Dumont is part of an
association dedicated

523
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,800
to preserving the memory of this
site.

524
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:57,600
He was inspired to return when he
understood its importance to history.

525
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,960
That story began after Europe was
engaged in a conflict

526
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:16,640
that had grave consequences for
future generations.

527
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:24,000
After World War I, French leaders
began to debate how to best prepare

528
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:28,600
for what they saw as a second,
inevitable conflict with Germany.

529
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:34,160
They therefore began to construct
this line of defences

530
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:38,040
that would straddle the demarcation
between Germany and France,

531
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:41,240
and protect France from an attack.

532
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,320
It was called the Maginot Line

533
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:48,000
and was named after France's Minister
of War, Andre Maginot,

534
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:49,680
who ordered its construction.

535
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:55,480
By 1938, the line of fortifications
was complete.

536
00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:00,320
This section was called L'Ouvrage De
La Ferte.

537
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,920
The result was meant to be
invulnerable,

538
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,560
both to airplane bombing and to
tank fire.

539
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,640
If a French soldier can stand in a
dome with a machine gun

540
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:18,000
and shoot Germans all day, that
makes the French

541
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,600
soldier more powerful.

542
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:26,600
The technology is a substitute
for...for manpower,

543
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:32,080
and the technology is gonna save
lives in the next war.

544
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:35,080
Of course, it didn't work.

545
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:39,600
In 1940, the Nazis invaded France

546
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,960
and the nation's defences would be
put to the test.

547
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,560
But there had been a major oversight
in the French design.

548
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,720
They never expected the Germans to
invade through Belgium,

549
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:57,200
and this part of the Maginot Line
had been left vulnerable to attack.

550
00:36:57,240 --> 00:37:02,320
The idea is they're going to armour
the whole border of France.

551
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,240
But then budget cuts...

552
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:07,680
..it's expensive.

553
00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:12,520
There wasn't enough money to fully
fortify this section of the line,

554
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:16,840
and this was a fact the Nazis were
all too aware of.

555
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:20,160
On the 18th of May, 1940,

556
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,360
the Germans began pounding L'Ouvrage
De La Ferte.

557
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:27,200
The French soldiers stationed as
the garrison there, fell

558
00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:30,800
under the command of Lieutenant
Maurice Bourguignon.

559
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,680
With only around 100 troops, he was
left to fight a battle

560
00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:38,200
against the Nazis he could never win.

561
00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:43,200
The Germans have got 88mm anti-tank
guns.

562
00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:50,320
These high-velocity artillery pieces
are capable of drilling rounds right

563
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,560
into those steel domes.

564
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:55,120
We can see the scars.

565
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:11,440
But worse was to come.

566
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,640
The German soldiers then moved
to the next stage

567
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,160
of their carefully orchestrated
assault.

568
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:22,400
The German forces had dug trenches
up the sides of the hill,

569
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:24,480
reaching the gun emplacements.

570
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,200
Once the fort's defences had been
breached,

571
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:45,880
the German attackers began to drop
bombs and smoke down inside.

572
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:51,160
Fire raged throughout the fort,
detonating munitions and filling

573
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:52,880
the passages with smoke.

574
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,840
It was clear the battle was over and
Lieutenant Bourguignon

575
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,120
made a desperate plea for help.

576
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:17,680
Lieutenant Bourguignon wanted to
save his people.

577
00:39:17,720 --> 00:39:19,680
And the general comes back,

578
00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:24,160
"Your fortress is like a submarine

579
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:28,600
"and you are going to go down with
the ship."

580
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:34,120
The French soldiers had no choice
but to retreat to the lowest levels

581
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,960
of the fallen stronghold.

582
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:50,040
They put on their gas masks
and try to survive.

583
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:06,280
The myth of the Maginot Line's
strength had been shattered

584
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:10,000
and the Nazi propaganda machine went
into overdrive.

585
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:19,000
The Germans are able to say that
superior German technology

586
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:25,720
and German racial superiority
overcame the vaunted Maginot Line.

587
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:32,760
One German leaflet read, "The
Maginot Line is a mass grave

588
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:34,520
"for all those who defend it.

589
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:37,200
"There's no way of resisting the
German army.

590
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:40,080
"Stop fighting, lay down your arms."

591
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,040
In the chaos that followed,

592
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:47,240
Lieutenant Bourguignon was accused
of betraying his country.

593
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:52,440
In June, the Germans gave the
French soldiers a burial.

594
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:54,960
14 of them were not named.

595
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,720
Among those unidentified was
Lieutenant Bourguignon.

596
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,520
Rumours swirled that he had deserted
his men, or even collaborated

597
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,960
with the Germans to hand over the
fort.

598
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:12,360
This was a theory that had some
currency during the war

599
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:13,920
and immediately after.

600
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:18,840
But one man was determined to find
out the truth and clear his name.

601
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,280
Eve worked tirelessly to contact
German war veterans,

602
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,160
hoping one of them might know
something.

603
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:40,280
33 years after the fateful German
assault, his prayers were answered.

604
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:58,360
They exhumed the shallow grave,
identifying some by their ID tags.

605
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:04,280
Bourguignon's body was confirmed
by his uniform stripes.

606
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,640
It was discovered that Lieutenant
Bourguignon had not

607
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:10,280
deserted his men.

608
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:13,520
Posthumously, he was given the
Legion of Honour,

609
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,480
which is France's highest military
order.

610
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,880
Today, the site is open to the
public and includes

611
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,960
a small cemetery for those who gave
their life defending France

612
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:31,600
in its darkest hour.

613
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,720
Subtitles by Red Bee Media