Original subtitles

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Since the dawn of humankind,

there's always been conflict.

And while war is a terrible thing,

it often leaves behind traces, discoveries, and stories

that are straight-up mind blowing.

From terrifyingly destructive devices

found carelessly discarded to eerie underwater graveyards,

get ready for battle as we charge through

some of the most amazing and unexpected military finds.

(upbeat music)

Uncovering the Unbelievable.

While a soldier's job is to serve and protect,

sometimes they make pretty good detectives too!

This picture was reportedly taken in May, 2003

near Kirkuk, Iraq after the 173rd US Airborne Brigade

discovered 999 gold bars hidden in a truck

during a routine traffic inspection.

The shimmering stockpile was reported to be worth

close to a quarter of a billion dollars

according to a Pentagon official,

and this isn't the only time a military find

has struck gold.

The internet is full of wild stories

about people finding abundant riches in strange places,

and out of the stories that are true,

you'd be surprised how many of these discoveries

have a military connection.

One of the wildest stories starts with Nick Mead,

a military enthusiast and tank collector

who owns the aptly-named tank driving experience school,

Tanks Alot, in Northamptonshire, UK.

While perusing eBay

looking for his next tank trinket in early 2017,

Nick stumbled across a Chinese Type 69 battle tank

for $38,000.

Built in the early 1980s,

the tank was a Chinese copy of the Russian T-54 design,

which has been touted

as the most-produced tank in history

with almost 100,000 having been manufactured.

Unlike its inspirer,

a Chinese Type 69 is considered quite the rarity

in the tank world.

With less than 4,500 manufactured

since its introduction in 1958,

it's safe to say Nick was more than a little excited.

When the Chinese Type 69 arrived at Tanks Alot,

Nick got to work on it right away,

examining the tank's condition

and setting about replacing damaged parts.

As part of the process,

the Tanks Alot team search every nook and cranny

of newly recruited tanks for safety reasons.

These are armored vehicles,

many of which with explosive capabilities, after all!

During the search on their newly-arrived Chinese tank,

Nick and team found something rather odd.

It looked as though one of the fuel canisters was jammed up,

and what was more,

it looked like something very different to fuel was inside.

As one of the Tanks Alot team members reached in,

no one knew what to expect,

but what came next was beyond unbelievable.

After struggling with the weight of whatever was inside,

Nick's colleague pulled out

what at first looked to be a brick, a very gold brick.

Further examination revealed

that this looked to be a brick of gold bullion.

Tanks Alot had quite literally struck gold!

And it didn't stop there.

Like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat,

every time a hand went into the canister,

it emerged brandishing yet another gold bar.

And they kept coming

until there were five gold bullions in total,

with a value of $2.7 million.

With a seriously life-changing amount of money on the line,

the question of whether or not Nick could keep the gold

was on everyone's lips.

Unfortunately, the concept of finders keepers

isn't always true

when it comes to valuable discoveries like this.

Nick had to turn over his bullion batch to the police,

who, as per standard protocol,

are then supposed to take steps

in finding the rightful owner of the gold.

While it might put a dampener

on treasure hunters everywhere,

the aim of the rule is to make sure

that important archeological items are preserved correctly

and not destroyed through improper use or storage.

The question of how exactly the gold stash ended up tanked

was never definitively answered,

but this treasure did leave one main trail to follow.

The main theory goes that the gold bars

were stolen from Kuwait

during the invasion of the nation in 1990.

During the conflict,

Iraqi soldiers notoriously looted

billions of dollars' worth of valuables from Kuwait

during the occupation,

only some of which were returned.

What's more, it's widely documented

that the Chinese Type 69 was used in the Persian Gulf War

after China sold more than 2,000 of the tanks in the 1980s.

But one year after the incredible

tank-full-of-gold discovery,

it was reported that the question

of whether or not Nick would be allowed to keep the gold

was still unanswered.

And with no recent updates, we can only assume

that he is still in millionaires' limbo.

If Nick does get to keep the gold, though,

he can forget calling his company Tanks Alot.

A more suitable name would be Tanks a Bullion!

Back In Time Bombs. (gentle music continues)

While the Vietnam War ended in 1975,

it's estimated that there are still around 800,000 tons

of unexploded bombs scattered across the country

just beneath the ground.

Also known as unexploded ordnance,

leftover bombs from days of conflict

pose a significant danger to civilians

going about their daily activities.

In April 2021, local farmers in Vietnam's Sung Nhon commune

found a 750-pound live bomb

while working in a rice field.

The bomb was an M117 Destructor,

a type of mine that uses what's known

as a magnetic proximity fuse.

This fuse is intended to be triggered off

by the presence of metallic objects

like tanks and submarines,

and it's a miracle that no farm equipment had triggered it

in the five decades it'd been laying there.

With lurking hazards like this found disturbingly commonly,

countries with a history of war need to be extremely careful

when taking on new construction projects.

In December 2020, construction workers found

what looked to be a bomb

at Bangladesh's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

The discovery took place as the workers set about excavating

the airport's third terminal in preparation for renovations.

Upon being notified,

the Air Force Bangabandhu Base Bomb Disposal Unit

rushed to the scene to painstakingly extract

the unexploded ordnance,

and gladly managed to without any explosions!

While the airport itself began operating in 1980,

it's likely that the bomb was dropped

during Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971.

Terrifyingly, it was built over completely unknowingly,

and it sat lurking under the feet

of countless unwitting airport goers for decades.

So, if the thought of a bomb at an airport

wasn't scary enough, just think how you'd feel knowing

you were walking over one that had been there for 49 years,

and could have gone off at any moment!

We've already witnessed how scary

finding one unexploded bomb can be,

but what about one big bomb

filled with hundreds of little bombs?

In 2006, this nightmarish bomb was found in Lebanon

on the outskirts of a small village called Ouazaiyeh.

It's a cluster bomb, which are usually fired or dropped,

opening up mid-air to release hundreds

of deadly bomblets.

Many varieties have the capacity to cover areas

similar in size to several football fields.

Because of their capability for mass destruction,

including of civilians, the use of cluster bombs

is considered highly controversial,

which gives the locals of that small village

all the more reason to be grateful

that this one didn't go off as intended!

Underwater Graveyard.

Located 1,000 miles north of the island of New Guinea,

Chuuk Lagoon was Japan's main and most formidable naval base

in the central Pacific Ocean during World War II.

The lagoon is a part of the 607 islands

that make up the Federated States of Micronesia,

which receives an average of just 19,000 visitors per year,

making it one of the least visited countries on the planet.

Despite not having many visitors,

the lagoon has a lot of secrets,

but you'll have to swim to find them.

During World War II, Chuuk,

along with the many other Pacific islands

played an important role in the Asia-Pacific conflict,

which pitted the Allies against Japan.

In February, 1944, the US navy launched a massive air, ship,

and submarine offensive on Chuuk Lagoon

that resulted in the destruction of a large portion

of the Japanese fleet.

In fact, the destruction of the attack,

dubbed Operation Hailstone,

was so vast that Chuuk Lagoon became known

as the world's largest underwater graveyard.

After the war, the sunken Japanese ships and aircraft

were left to rust at the bottom of the lagoon.

The world moved on and the underwater graveyard

at Chuuk Lagoon was forgotten.

These days, only scuba divers can fully submerge themselves

into the lagoon's deep military history.

The abandoned underwater battleground at Chuuk

is chock filled with a whole host of wartime relics,

and that's not all.

Over 4,000 Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded

during Operation Hailstone

and many of their remains lie alongside the sunken wrecks,

and many scuba divers have actually recovered skulls.

For this reason, despite its historical significance,

Chuuk Lagoon is one of the eeriest places to go diving,

especially given that divers never know

exactly what, or who, they're going to find down there.

This underwater find in Chuuk Lagoon

must have had scuba divers jumping out of their wetsuits,

given that it looks like some kind of ghostly

deep-sea military diver that perished in battle.

Thankfully, the rusted humanoid figure

is actually a pump attached to one of Chuuk Lagoon's

most famous shipwrecks, the Fujikawa Maru,

a colossal armed cargo ship that lies 110 feet

beneath the lagoon's surface.

The sinking of cargo ships like the Fujikawa Maru

meant that a whole host of other land artillery

also found itself in a new watery home,

like these tanks that were likely being transported

to or from a naval base.

This area of the South Pacific

is overloaded with military history,

and it doesn't stop with Chuuk Lagoon.

1,000 miles to the west of Chuuk Lagoon

is the island nation of Palau,

another hotspot for military relic discoveries.

One of the most impressive recent finds

was discovered by tourists who were kayaking

around Palau's coastline in August 2017.

There, found in a dreamy pool of paradise,

was not a tropical bird, but a plane!

This particular World War II plane

has been in a picturesque lagoon in Palau

for more than 75 years,

and mother nature has well and truly taken hold,

covering it with moss, coral, and sea life.

Given Palau's tropical paradise appearance,

the thought of its history as a conflict site

in World War II's Pacific theater of war

is almost hard to believe,

even with the evidence in front of us.

Swamp Ghost. (gentle music continues)

While the pilot of the plane in Palau

didn't live to tell their tale, this next aviation anecdote

is one of survival against all odds.

While on a routine flight over Papua New Guinea in 1972,

soldiers from the Australian Air Force

spotted an unusual object lurking within the greenery.

After touching down their helicopter for a closer look,

they found the old wreckage

of a World War II B-17E Flying Fortress plane

bogged down in a swamp in the forest lands.

Despite being caked in swampy mud for three decades,

the B-17 was amazingly very well preserved,

with the machine guns still in place, and astoundingly,

old coffee still inside thermoses onboard.

But how had the plane ended up here?

And what became of its passengers?

The mystery of how the bomber ended up bogged down

takes us all the way back to February 23rd, 1942.

On this particular day,

Captain Fred Eaton was out on a mission

to take down a 10,000-ton enemy Japanese freighter.

As he lined up to take aim, his B-17 bomber malfunctioned,

and enemy aircrafts quickly swooped in to wipe him

and his squadmates out of the sky.

After a thundering aerial battle,

the B-17 had taken quite a beating,

and Captain Eaton realized that there was fuel

leaking from damage to one of the wings.

Miles from the nearest refueling port,

the only option was to go down,

into the boggy bowels of the Agaiambo Swamp

in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea.

Amazingly, Captain Eaton and the six other soldiers onboard

survived the rough landing,

but they found themselves stuck in the mud

of the remote swamp.

Facing an impossible situation,

the soldiers' survival instincts kicked in,

and it was time to put their crisis training into action.

It took two days of hacking through thick, sharp grass

until the group reached the edge of the swamp

and emerged onto dry land.

By that time, they were completely ravaged

with mosquito bites and infected with malaria,

but against all odds, they stumbled across a group of locals

who took them to a nearby village for help.

After a night of rest, they traveled downriver in canoes

where they were met by Australian officials for rescue.

The nine soldiers arrived at Port Moresby on April 1st,

a full 36 days after their crash

and returned to duty after just a week in hospital.

Due to its remote location,

the plane wreck remained in place,

and its eerie appearance left locals severely creeped out,

so much so that they dubbed it the Swamp Ghost.

Unlike its passengers,

it took the Swamp Ghost a lot longer to escape the bog.

After hearing of the B-17's rediscovery in 1972,

military relic enthusiasts Fred Hagen and David Tallichet

decided to set out into the treacherous swamp

to find out more.

The crocodile infested Agaiambo Swamp

is known to be very dangerous

and few dare to enter its depths willingly.

In fact, the inaccessibility of the plane's location

contributed to the preservation of the bomber,

and it was widely considered

that it was going to be impossible to salvage.

The goal was considered so impossible

that while the project to recover the Swamp Ghost

began in the 1980s, it took more than two decades

for a plan to get off the ground.

In 2006, Fred and David organized a salvage operation

in which the B-17 was cut into sections.

These were flown by helicopter to a nearby port

where the parts were eventually transported

to Hawaii in 2010.

To this day, the remains of the Swamp Ghost are on display

at the Pacific Aviation Museum

at another wartime hotspot, Pearl Harbor.

If that's not a fitting end

for this piece of wartime history, I don't know what is!

Abandoned Salvation. (gentle music continues)

This is Camp Hero, a creepy abandoned military base

on the outskirts of Montauk in Long Island, New York.

Once the home of an Army base in World War II

and an Air Force base during the Cold War,

Camp Hero was finally decommissioned in 1981

and is now owned by the U.S. state parks organization.

These days, it's only brave hikers

that discover the compound's unnerving exterior,

and while it may look haunted on first glance,

things are a lot more scientific than that.

This place is seriously creepy, but the cherry on the cake

is the radio tower looming above the Montauk horizon.

Constructed during the height of the Cold War,

the antenna, which broadcasted its signals

to a network of towers along the USA's East Coast,

was intended to give the US military a 30-minute warning

in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

But this morbid purpose wasn't the only creepy thing

about this place in its prime.

In 1992, author and conspiracy theorist Preston Nichols

published a book entitled

"The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time,"

in which he wrote about the alleged kidnapping of children,

who were taken to the facility

and endured mind-altering experiments

conducted by the government.

If all that sounds just a little too familiar,

then things are about to get even stranger for you.

Crazily enough, Camp Hero is the real-life inspiration

behind the spine-chilling Hawkins Laboratory

in Netflix's smash hit, "Stranger Things."

But while Preston Nichols' book

has been interpreted as truthful online

due to its authentic feeling,

it is in fact a work of fiction,

though that doesn't stop many online theorists speculating

that various untoward activities

occurred at Camp Hero in its heyday,

and that Nichols' book

is more grounded in reality than fiction.

These claims are uncorroborated by any official sources,

but the eerie conspiracies surrounding Camp Hero

are enough to make you think twice before paying a visit,

even if you're joined by Eleven and co. for backup.

Tanks a Million. (gentle music continues)

Since its wartime debut in 1916,

the tank has been one of the ultimate tools

used by the armed forces to fight wars.

But have you ever wondered what happens to tanks

once their military careers are over?

Designed to be almost indestructible by nature,

disposing of tanks is a weighty job.

Usually, tanks recovered from battlefields

are stripped for their valuable parts

and then taken to scrap metal yards,

but clearly, some get left behind.

While this may look like an ancient fossil,

this is a 20th-century tank

that dates back to the Second World War

and was discovered

by the Norwegian Heavy Engineering Battalion

in August, 2007 in Norway.

After the Second World War, the Norwegian military

obtained a surplus of German tanks called Panzers

that were given up in light of the Axis power's defeat.

And let's just say the Norwegians put these tanks to use

in an interesting manner.

In 1953, the Norwegian army built a defensive fort

very close to Bardufoss airport and airfield

in northern Norway.

The purpose of the fort

was to have readily-available heavy weapons

with the range to cover all entrances to the airfield

in case of enemy forces moving in to take over

as Germany had done in 1940.

For the ultimate defensive barrier,

the Panzer tanks were half buried in concrete

and a hole was cut into the bottom

for use with a tunnel that would funnel ammo

in and out of the tank in the event of a standoff.

By the 1960s, however, the fort had expanded,

and extra fortified positions had been created,

rendering the Panzers redundant.

So the tanks were fully covered with concrete

and were forgotten after the fort was disbanded

in the 1980s, that is, until they were dug back up in 2007

after rumors of their existence re-emerged.

Dang, when I try to dig up something cool,

all I ever find is boring, old, ancient treasure troves.

Is it so much to ask for a tank or two?

From concrete to countryside now,

this eerie snap of an abandoned tank in a beautiful field

was taken on the island of Shumshu.

Shums-who, I hear you ask?

Well, Shumshu is part of the Kuril Island chain

in the north-western Pacific Ocean

and was the site of a Soviet offensive

to occupy the islands in August 1945.

While you might be fooled into thinking

that tanks like the ones in the flower fields of Shumshu

are a thing of beauty, the battles they were a part of

drew a heavy toll in human lives.

So the tanks remain in stark contrast

with the surrounding greenery

as a haunting and solemn reminder of the horrors of war.

Submarine Madness. (gentle music continues)

They say that things often turn up

where you least expect them,

but this next military discovery

takes unexpected to unprecedented.

Check this out.

(submarine crashing)

(sirens wailing)

On October 1st, 2013, residents of Milan, Italy

woke up to what looked to be an utterly baffling catastrophe

right on their doorsteps.

There, in the middle of the street, was a submarine

that had burst through the pavement from below.

While this might look like

one of the messiest military missions of all time,

things weren't what they appeared to be.

The elaborate stunt turned out

to be a clever advertising campaign,

dubbed "Protect Your Life,

or in this case, protect your car,

set up by the agency M&C Saatchi Milano

for insurance company Europ Assistance.

The point of the advert was meant to show the importance

of protecting your possessions,

as you never know what unforeseen events

might take you by surprise.

While the reality behind that street submarine

turned out to be less than historically accurate,

there are plenty of real-life submarine discoveries

that give a true glimpse into military history.

During World War II,

a recorded 52 U.S. submarines were lost,

with a total of 3,506 personnel going down with them.

One of these missing submarines was the USS Grayback,

which despite its eventual disappearance,

was one of America's most successful submarines

of the Second World War.

Throughout its ten sea patrols,

it's credited with sinking 14 enemy ships

totalling 63,835 tons,

including an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine.

But despite its success,

this sub didn't get a very happy ending.

The mystery began on January 28th, 1944,

when the USS Grayback sailed out of Pearl Harbor

for its tenth combat patrol.

By the time March rolled around,

the Grayback was three weeks overdue for its return

and was ultimately declared missing

along with the 80 crewmembers onboard.

After the war, the Navy tried to piece together

exactly what happened to the submarine, and by 1949,

all they could deduce was an approximate location

where they thought USS Grayback had met its end.

Post-war Japanese records documented an incident

in which a Nakajima B5-N bomber aircraft

recorded the sub's coordinates

to be around 100 miles southeast of Okinawa, Japan.

But when efforts were made to locate it,

the Navy found nothing.

It seemed that the USS Grayback

had vanished off the face of the Earth, or had it?

Well, that question was eventually to be answered

by Tim Taylor, a bona fide submarine hunter

who made it his mission to locate all 52

of America's missing submarines.

Dubbing the initiative the Lost 52 Project,

Tim and a team of experts began the search in 2006.

Needless to say, it wasn't a quick or easy task.

But things began to change in a pretty crazy way in 2018,

when Japanese systems engineer and military enthusiast,

Yutaka Iwasaki, contacted the Lost 52 Project team,

who were hot on the trail of USS Grayback.

While studying Japanese navy archives,

Yutaka came across a transcript of a radio transmission

made on February 26th, 1944.

His analysis of this revealed

that the original translation of the Japanese documents

referencing the Grayback had included an error

in the coordinates of the Grayback's location.

One of the digits were incorrect.

With the correct coordinates now revealed,

more than half a century after the initial mistake was made,

the team set sail in June 2019

and with the aid of underwater drones,

began scouring the ocean floor for the Grayback.

Despite now being in possession of the correct coordinates,

the total search for the exact location of the Grayback

was expected to take up to a year to complete.

However, on June 5th,

the team were reviewing some of the sonar data

collected from the underwater drones,

and to their astonishment,

the Grayback appeared before their eyes.

With the help of these high-tech drones

and their ability to build a digital image using sonar,

not only was a 74-year-old mystery solved,

but it also meant closure

for the families of the 80 American soldiers

who went down with the submarine.

As of November 2022, the Lost 52 Project and others like it

have located 14 out of the 52 lost submarines,

and I for one can't wait to find out

what they'll find in years to come.

(energetic music)

Have you ever found any military relics of your own?

Let me know down in the comments below. Thanks for watching!

(energetic music continues)