Original subtitles

Narrator: a desert ghost town

Poisoned by An unnatural body of water...

It looks like some kind Of apocalyptic vision.

Something happened here, And it wasn't that long ago.

Narrator: ...A derelict Settlement in the czech republic

That disguises a dark past...

We're talking billions of Dollars of environmental damage.

Narrator: ...And a jungle Compound with a shameful secret.

It really is hell on earth.

It really is hell on earth.

Narrator: decaying relics,

Ruins of lost worlds,

Forged through years of toil, Now haunted by the past,

Their secrets waiting To be revealed.

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

*

*

Norway -- 80 miles west Of the capital, oslo.

Perched high On a mountain precipice

Sits a structure that could've Changed the course of history.

This place would become The subject

Of a major Hollywood blockbuster.

Woman: so you've got this Imposing, huge building

With these giant windows Overlooking the valley.

It's definitely built With purpose.

It's definitely built With purpose.

What was it for?

You can see this is a large Factory-type,

Industrial installation,

And I'm thinking the effort To have built this is enormous.

Narrator: the remote position And barbed-wire fences suggest

Whatever was made inside Was of great value.

It's obviously under tight Security, even today.

Narrator: but the grand exterior Of this striking facility

Masks a dark past.

Masks a dark past.

The rubble in front is all that Remains of a different structure

That once dominated This mountain enclave.

What went on here that --

You've got one building That has lasted and will last

And one building That obviously hasn't.

Narrator: in the surviving Subterranean levels

Is a tangled mass of steel.

Inside, there are signs Of immense destruction.

Something happened here With great force.

Narrator: the story of this Commanding industrial complex

Dates to the beginning Of the 20th century.

In the years to come,

An elite fighting force Would risk their lives

Attempting to wipe this place Off the face of the earth.

Evidence In the surrounding terrain

Offers clues to the surviving Building's purpose.

There are clear connections Between the landscape

And particularly the waterfall And the building

Because there are vast pipes Coming off the mountain

Because there are vast pipes Coming off the mountain

And into the building.

Narrator: this is the vemork Hydroelectric power plant,

Constructed by Norsk hydro in 1911.

Gunhild luras is an expert On the history of the facility.

Luras: This is the machine hall,

Where the hydroelectric power Was made.

When it was finished,

It was the biggest Power plant in the world.

Narrator: the colossal building Was built in response

To the world's Growing need for fertilizer

To the world's Growing need for fertilizer

To feed a rapidly Expanding population.

One of the many challenges For scientists

In the early 20th century

Was to find more fertilizer For food production.

And for fertilizer, You need nitrogen.

Narrator: But the chemical process

Needed to extract nitrogen

Required an enormous amount Of energy.

Well, one thing norway Has in abundance

With mountains And rivers is hydropower.

Luras: so the waterfall will hit The turbines with high speed,

And then it will turn around,

And then it will turn around,

And you produce electricity In the generators.

Narrator: yet in the basement Of the now-destroyed building

Was a room Of specialized equipment

That made something With the power to destroy.

Luras: This place started out producing

Something very good For human beings,

But it turned out To have deadly potential.

Scott: so this whole Manufacturing of the fertilizer,

This fixating of the nitrogen,

This fixating of the nitrogen,

It ended up producing A by-product,

And this by-product Was heavy water.

Corum: Heavy water is very complex.

It's very difficult to produce,

And it's very expensive To produce.

Narrator: like ordinary water, Heavy water contains

Two hydrogen atoms And one oxygen atom,

But the hydrogen contains An extra neutron

That increases its weight By 10%.

And this type of hydrogen Is known as deuterium

And this type of hydrogen Is known as deuterium

Or a heavy form of hydrogen.

Narrator: On its own, it poses no danger.

However, its unique Atomic structure

Made it a vital ingredient

In the production Of nuclear weapons.

And when hitler led the world Into war in 1939,

It was no surprise He was desperate

To get his hands on it.

Selwood: hitler's scientists Needed the heavy-water plant

To slow down and sustain A nuclear reaction,

To slow down and sustain A nuclear reaction,

Which was a key stage in the Development of an atomic weapon.

Luras: this site, it was The only place in the world

Where they produced heavy water At a commercial scale,

So this was very important For the german nuclear program.

Narrator: Nazi troops captured the plant,

And within months, production of Heavy water increased 50-fold.

Allied forces were Increasingly nervous.

If hitler won the nuclear-arms Race, the war was lost.

If hitler won the nuclear-arms Race, the war was lost.

For norwegian scientist Leif tronstad,

The burden of responsibility

To defeat the nazi leader's Plans was enormous.

Selwood: tronstad knew the site In minute detail

Because he had helped design it.

He was able to explain To the british

That simply dropping ordnance From the air onto the site

Would do nothing As the heavy-water plant

Was in the basement

And bombing it would simply Destroy the buildings on top.

And bombing it would simply Destroy the buildings on top.

Narrator: tronstad proposed A riskier solution,

One that had to work, No matter the sacrifice --

Infiltrate the facility

And destroy vital equipment From the inside.

There was just one problem --

Vemork was a heavily Guarded natural fortress.

It is very mountainous terrain.

You simply can't get up there By road.

It is very easy to protect This plant in a conventional way

Because it is isolated up On the mountainside.

Because it is isolated up On the mountainside.

Narrator: That concern was realized

After a four-man norwegian Reconnaissance team

Were parachuted in and were Later followed by british forces

Trained in explosive demolition.

Selwood: the first attempt ended In complete disaster.

On the 19th of november, 1942, Two gliders of british soldiers

Landed on the top Of the mountain,

But one crashed,

And the other was found By the germans and the men shot.

Narrator: allied forces Were left with no option

Narrator: allied forces Were left with no option

But to try again.

At any price, hitler's nuclear Ambitions must be stopped.

On february 16, 1943, Under the cover of darkness,

Operation gunnerside began.

Six norwegian commanders Were parachuted in,

And they were dressed In british uniforms,

So that, if captured,

The germans Wouldn't take revenge

On the local Norwegian population.

Narrator: The plan was to rendezvous

With the original team,

Which had survived unaided For three months

Which had survived unaided For three months

In the subzero wilderness.

Selwood: they landed safely but Far away from the target.

This was a supplies And logistics disaster

Because they simply Didn't have rations.

Narrator: If the mission failed,

The consequences Would be unimaginable.

But after five grueling days, Trekking through knee-deep snow,

The two teams At last made contact.

Now they were united.

They could finally attempt The seemingly impossible task

They could finally attempt The seemingly impossible task

Of entering the site and Halting hitler's nuclear plan.

There was a discussion Among the saboteurs

About how they should Enter this place,

And one possibility was to cross The suspension bridge,

But it was guarded.

Narrator: Following the failed attack,

The nazis had already Strengthened

The facility's defenses.

The norwegian soldiers had To find another way in.

Operation gunnerside And the fate of the world

Operation gunnerside And the fate of the world

Hung in the balance.

*

Narrator: in the heart of norway Are the remains of a building

With the power To change the course of history.

The heavy-water plant In the basement of vemork

Was key to hitler's plans To develop an atomic bomb.

Norwegian commandos were tasked With the mission to destroy it,

No matter the cost.

It was one of the most Extraordinary operations

Of the war.

Of the war.

Narrator: The main access to the plant

Is along a narrow Suspension bridge,

But it's heavily guarded.

Only two death-defying Options remain --

Approach through a heavily Fortified mountain pass

Littered with land mines...

...Or scale a 500-foot, Steep-sided ravine.

Luras: so they decided that they Were going down the gorge,

And they had to climb Their way down

And up again on the other side Where there was a railway.

And up again on the other side Where there was a railway.

And on the railway, There were no mines.

Selwood: once at the site,

They knew How to enter the building

And exactly where to place The explosive charges

Because tronstad had given them Such detailed instructions.

Narrator: yet once inside, There was no guarantee

The mission to thwart Hitler's nuclear plan

Would succeed.

In this room, The sabotage action took place.

The leader of this operation Placed the charges

The leader of this operation Placed the charges

On the heavy-water stands.

Narrator: the team set Short 30-second fuses

On the electrolysis chambers That produced the water.

As they rushed out Into the night,

The explosives detonated Behind them,

Destroying around 1,000 pounds Of hitler's heavy water.

Their story of daring was Forever immortalized

In the kirk douglas 1965 blockbuster,

"The heroes of telemark."

It was one of the most important

It was one of the most important

And significant operations Of world war ii.

If the vemork plant Had not been destroyed,

Hitler could have been able to Go on to develop atomic weapons.

Narrator: In the years to come,

The remains of the heavy-water Plant were demolished.

Today, what is left is being Turned into a museum,

A lasting memorial To the courageous men

Who fought to resist Hitler's nazi empire.

Who fought to resist Hitler's nazi empire.

Luras: The saboteurs are heroes.

They are maybe one of The biggest heroes of norway.

Just imagine if operation Gunnerside

Hadn't been successful.

The world could be a rather Different place.

Narrator: 150 miles Southeast of los angeles,

In the middle of The barren californian desert,

Is an unusual inland sea.

*

*

When you look at this body Of water, it looks off.

Something's a little bit wrong With it.

Narrator: Dotted around the water's edge

Are crumbling remains Of a long, forgotten past.

Meigs: it looks like some kind Of apocalyptic vision.

There's all these signs Of human settlement,

But everything is broken down And decrepit.

Instead of being A vast, living place,

It's almost death-like.

It's almost death-like.

Narrator: derelict buildings And rusting relics

Are reminders of a community

That once depended On the eerie-looking waters.

Meigs: you can see the remnants Of a motor home,

A broken-down, old motel.

So something happened here, And it wasn't that long ago.

Narrator: Possible clues as to the cause

Of the apparent mass exodus

Are visible In the surrounding terrain.

And as you look around, The land is alive.

There's bubbling mud coming up

There's bubbling mud coming up

From gases deep Within the earth.

Could that have something To do with it?

Is this a natural phenomenon?

What changed, and what is going On with this body of water?

Narrator: only 60 years ago,

This region Was full of bustling towns

Built to accommodate tens Of thousands of people.

Today, a small fraction Of that number remains.

John kariotis moved here In the 1970s.

John kariotis moved here In the 1970s.

It was very nice because There were markets

And gas stations And restaurants,

And it was a big community that Lots of people were a part of.

To see it depressed Like this hurts.

And the people that are here Are probably going to be here

Until the day they die.

Narrator: in the 1960s, this was A booming holiday resort,

Regularly attracting over One million tourists every year.

Regularly attracting over One million tourists every year.

Only a 2-hour drive From los angeles,

It soon became A favorite playground

Of hollywood's rich and famous.

So back in its heyday, The rat pack was here --

Sammy davis jr., Frank sinatra, dean martin,

Streisand, A whole lot of other people.

It's before palm springs Was what it is now.

Narrator: bathers crammed Onto the sun-soaked beaches

And anglers filled their nets With a bounty of plentiful fish.

And anglers filled their nets With a bounty of plentiful fish.

There were regatas.

There were more boats out On that sea

Than you could shake a stick at.

The fishing was wonderful.

Barratt: it's hard to imagine Those luxury times.

The fact that all of these Communities are down

On their luck, It's not just one

Or two suffering From lack of investments,

Point to a much, Much bigger problem.

The thing that connects all Of these sites together,

The problem is the water.

Narrator: these are the ghost Towns of the salton sea,

An accidental lake That transformed the fortunes

Of this dusty desert region For better and for worse.

But how does a giant lake appear From nowhere in the middle

Of one of the driest Regions in the world?

And why does this place Now resemble

An apocalyptic wasteland?

*

Narrator: in california, the Fate of a crumbling community

Appears bound to An inexplicable inland sea.

But how did a lake of such Magnitude form

In the middle Of a dry desert valley?

Could it be some kind of natural Disaster was the culprit,

Or is another simpler reason To blame?

In the early 1900s, everybody Wanted to use the colorado river

In the early 1900s, everybody Wanted to use the colorado river

To irrigate farms In the surrounding desert.

Narrator: the colorado begins High in the rocky mountains,

Winding its way Along 1,500 miles

To the gulf of california.

To irrigate the golden state's Imperial valley,

Engineers constructed a canal To divert water

Away from the powerful river,

Yet trying to tame such a mighty Beast was asking for trouble.

Yet trying to tame such a mighty Beast was asking for trouble.

Barratt: Engineers like to be in control.

But when you're up against The force of nature,

You can never actually Tell what's going to happen.

Narrator: In 1905, after torrential rains,

The colorado swelled

And breached The newly built embankments.

The river changed course And started flowing west

Into what was A dry desert valley.

Six billion cubic feet of water

Discharged into The unplanned lake

Every 24 hours, causing it To rise by 7 inches a day.

Every 24 hours, causing it To rise by 7 inches a day.

Meigs: it took two years For the engineers to figure out

How to stop the flow of water,

And by that time, it had largely Filled this vast inland basin.

The lake itself Essentially then

Created all of the things Around.

Money started coming in With the tourism.

People started wanting To tap into that.

Meigs: they started Building motels

And beachfront facilities,

And people started to drive out From los angeles

And people started to drive out From los angeles

To check out This brand-new inland sea.

They called it The salton riviera.

Narrator: spanning nearly 400 Square miles, the salton sea

Became california's Largest freshwater lake.

In addition to the thriving Tourism industry,

The engineering disaster

Transformed The once-inhospitable land.

The water in the desert meant That the land became fertile.

It became a huge Agricultural area.

John: farming is very important To the area.

John: farming is very important To the area.

Imperial county is known as The breadbasket to california.

If you want fruits And vegetables,

All the way through the midwest,

They very likely came from here In the imperial county.

Meigs: At first, it was great.

You had this barren, dry desert

All of a sudden filled With fresh mountain water,

And it was this lovely Kind of oasis

In this otherwise Pretty brutal desert.

Narrator: what began life as A catastrophic mistake

Soon became known As the miracle in the desert,

Yet the popularity of this Man-made californian lake

Was short-lived,

And before long, the miracle Turned into a nightmare.

John: well, here we are In the center of town.

This used to be the bank,

The building that We're in here right now.

In its heyday, you could expect That there were traffic jams

Out here in the street,

People crossing In the middle of the street

And not really caring who they Stopped and what they did

And not really caring who they Stopped and what they did

Because they were here For a good time.

Narrator: little did The fun-loving tourists know

An ecological Time bomb was ticking.

Barratt: Looking at the beach today,

You don't have to be A specialist to know

That it doesn't look right.

It doesn't look natural.

There's something alien About the landscape.

Everything is covered With this fine layer

Of kind of A white, dusty powder.

Narrator: The once-pristine beaches

Now resemble a vision of hell.

Now resemble a vision of hell.

John kariotis' wife, amari,

Has witnessed firsthand The devastation

Wreaked on this region.

Amari: you know, people think This is sand.

This is millions of fishes, Fish bones, vertebrae.

There's barnacles in here.

It looks really pretty, But it's just dead fish,

Millions and millions Of dead fish.

You begin to start to think, "Is there a natural disaster?"

Well, this is a very active part Of the earth, geologically.

It's very near To the san andreas fault

It's very near To the san andreas fault

And many other faults.

One of the stranger things That you find

Is this kind of area

Where there's all These mud pots bubbling up.

Jerram: it's almost like An alien landscape.

Could it be that something Like this

Happening suddenly changed The environment around

And caused many Of the problems?

Narrator: what caused the death Of this once-bountiful lake

And the towns That depended on it?

*

Narrator: the salton sea is California's largest lake.

The accidental creation was once A thriving holiday resort.

Do geological features That bubble and boil all around

Offer a clue to What caused its sudden demise?

Well, at first impression, You might assume

Some sort of natural disaster Has caused the problems here.

But when you delve in,

But when you delve in,

There's something more sinister Is going on

Because it's not A natural disaster.

It's a man-made problem.

Narrator: the salton sea's Only source of new water

Comes from the half a million Acres of agricultural terrain

That surround it.

It appears The industrial farming

That brought riches to many Came at a terrible cost.

Because it's the lowest place In the landscape,

There's no in and out Like a normal lake might have.

So what goes in to the system Stays in the system.

So what goes in to the system Stays in the system.

It's constantly getting saltier And denser

As the water evaporates.

You see that in the dead sea In israel.

Here, the problem's compounded Because what water is flowing in

Is flowing through These various irrigated farms,

So it's highly polluted With pesticides and fertilizer.

And what we're left with in The lake is this chemical soup.

The fish can't breathe, And they die,

And then they end up On the shore.

And then they end up On the shore.

We've had half a mile in Of dead fish.

And it was just... It was horrific.

The smell was horrific.

No one wanted to be On the beach.

Narrator: tourists quickly Abandoned the dying salton sea

And the towns that it supported, Yet even worse was to come.

Over the past 15 years,

The water level has dropped By almost 8 feet,

Exposing 20,000 acres Of desiccated lake bed.

In that region of the desert, There's almost no rainfall,

So the salton sea Started to dry up.

So the salton sea Started to dry up.

And it's now exposing this Flying dust with lots of salt,

But also lots of these poisonous Pesticides

And so on concentrated in it.

The winds pick up sand From desert,

And it will pick up The chemicals and transport them

Hundreds of miles Across the rest of america.

It's a huge risk To public health.

Narrator: where once sunbathers Packed the beaches,

Now toxic sludge And the stench of death

Drifts from the shore.

Amari: It has a whole impact.

We have the highest asthma rate Because of this.

There are people who are ill Because of breathing this.

Barratt: Behind every tourist town,

There's a population of people Whose home it is.

That's where they bring up Their children.

That's where they live And they die.

And for people here, It's very, very sad.

Narrator: today, the hotels And restaurants

Narrator: today, the hotels And restaurants

Once so full of life Lay abandoned,

A fading memory Of a once-golden age.

You used to think that this was Gonna be a place

That was gonna come back

To the way it was In the '60s and '70s.

And I'm sadly mistaken.

It's not going to happen.

*

Narrator: in french guiana,

On the northeast coast Of south america,

Is a remote amazon settlement With a shameful past.

Is a remote amazon settlement With a shameful past.

*

Some of the buildings here Look relatively pleasant,

Colonial buildings with The traditional wooden shutters.

But as you move Farther into the site,

You encounter a different Type of building.

It's clear that people have been Here before, and lots of them,

And they've left their mark, Quite literally, on the walls.

Selwood: The more you look around,

It becomes apparent it's tinged With suffering and sadness.

It becomes apparent it's tinged With suffering and sadness.

The walls feel like They're closing in.

It's getting more And more unpleasant,

And the dark history Of this place

Is beginning to dawn on you.

Narrator: The oppressive structures

Appear intended to contain.

And for one man exiled here, His story of misery

And daring escape became An international best-seller.

Auerbach: but was it true?

Was it really his story Or was it embellished?

Clearly, there's a lot here Worth investigating.

Clearly, there's a lot here Worth investigating.

Narrator: the intriguing story Of these crumbling buildings

Begins over 4,000 miles away In 19th-century france.

The french were facing an issue With their prisons.

They were crowded, And they were expensive.

And slavery is about to be Abolished around the world

In the colonies.

Narrator: to combat the Combination of rising crime

And a shortage of workers To maintain foreign territories,

And a shortage of workers To maintain foreign territories,

Napoleon iii hits Upon a drastic solution.

The french began exploiting

Their colonial territories Abroad

By sending their Very worst criminals there.

This removed dangerous prisoners From france,

Took the strain off The french prison system

And gave the french colonialists A free workforce abroad.

Narrator: Established in 1852,

This penal colony Located along the maroni river

Was the first stop For convicts sentenced

Was the first stop For convicts sentenced

To prison and hard labor In french guiana.

Auerbach: it's no coincidence That this type of punishment

Was often used In some of the most inhospitable

And remote territories In any given european's empire.

Narrator: By 1946, 70,000 convicts

Had been shipped Across the atlantic

To south america, Yet it was another two decades

Before this place Became truly infamous.

On the walls are names And signatures,

And one of them in particular Leads you to realize

And one of them in particular Leads you to realize

What an incredible story This place has to tell.

So there's a very famous inmate Here -- papillon.

The man is a legend, The mysterious prisoner

With a large butterfly Tattooed on his chest.

Narrator: in 1969, his account Of suffering was published,

Becoming an international Best-seller.

Four years later, steve mcqueen And dustin hoffman

Brought the story To an even wider audience.

Brought the story To an even wider audience.

This is the notorious Saint-laurent-du-maroni prison,

Part of a brutal complex of Penal colonies in french guiana.

Local guide ronnie Is an expert on this site.

At the age of 27,

Henri charrière, A.K.A. Papillon,

Entered the gates Of this daunting penitentiary.

His journey began here But would end at a place

With a reputation Even more fearsome.

How would papillon survive Devil's island?

*

Narrator: in french guiana

Are the remains Of a brutal penal colony.

Papillon's dramatic story Laid bare the suffering

Inflicted In the remote jungle prison

And his final destination, Devil's island.

Henri charrière was sentenced To life imprisonment

With 10 years' hard labor For a murder

He claimed he never committed.

He claimed he never committed.

As well as the usual Brutalities of hard labor,

There was also a very hot And difficult tropical climate

With all the diseases That it brings --

Malaria, dysentery, fever, Typhus, even leprosy.

Narrator: 40% of new arrivals To the colony

Perished within the first year.

Violence between inmates Was disturbingly frequent,

And only the strongest survived.

Discipline and beatings By guards were widespread,

And if prisoners attacked them, The penalty was severe --

Death by guillotine.

In the open space between The two rows of barracks,

The public executions Were performed.

Auerbach: it's no coincidence That these prisons

Have large graveyards Attached to them.

For most people sent there,

It was going to be A one-way trip.

Barratt: Part of the uproar

About the prisons In french guiana

Was that these places Were never about rehabilitation.

It was about using vulnerable People in society

As slave labor.

Narrator: against this Background of brutality,

Narrator: against this Background of brutality,

Escape attempts were common But rarely successful.

Barratt: the architecture Of the prison

Is like prisons worldwide.

But in this place, the Environment was also a prison.

Auerbach: in the jungle, You've got spiders,

Poisonous snakes, venomous Centipedes, flesh-eating ants.

You think, "Oh, well, I'll Escape the heat in the river."

You don't want to do that either Because it's full of piranhas

And cayman.

Narrator: despite the odds Stacked against him,

Papillon refused to give up

Papillon refused to give up

And tried numerous times To break out.

And for those escapes,

He was finally sentenced To devil's island,

Which was considered The most inescapable

Of all of the colonies.

Narrator: devil's island Was the most feared place

In the french guiana Prison complex.

Located 10 miles offshore, The bleak, rocky outcrop

Was surrounded By shark-infested waters.

Sentenced to two years In solitary confinement,

Papillon had nothing but time To plot his next move.

Papillon had nothing but time To plot his next move.

Auerbach: Solitary-confinement quarters

Have to be one of the worst Aspects of the site.

Imagine being shut In completely on your own,

No ventilation, No window, nothing,

Just you alone With your thoughts.

Narrator: After 13 years of imprisonment

And nine daring escape attempts,

Papillon finally breaks free.

Using a bag of coconuts As a raft,

Charrière escaped And eventually made it

To venezuela, Where he started a business.

To venezuela, Where he started a business.

He became a restaurateur

And then wrote a book About his experiences.

Selwood: But after all this time,

The mystery still remains

As to how much of it Actually is true.

Narrator: whether papillon's Account was fact or fiction,

One thing is certain --

For the people sent here, This was hell on earth.

There's some thought That his book is a mix

Of other people's stories As well as his own.

Actually, when it comes Down to it, the truth is,

This was a harsh environment.

This was a harsh environment.

Narrator: in time, reports

Of the barbaric Treatment of prisoners

Made their way back to france.

And once news about The inhumane conditions got out,

The french conscious was stirred By these revelations,

And the lease on life for These places was short indeed.

Narrator: a century after The penal colony opened,

Its doors were finally closed

And the remaining Prisoners repatriated,

Except for 300 men That refused to leave.

Except for 300 men That refused to leave.

They instead remained In french guiana.

It was the only life That they remembered

And the only one That they could imagine.

Narrator: Today, the people may be gone,

But the pain And suffering remains,

The empty cells A haunting reminder

Of colonialism's true cost.

The czech republic,

40 miles northeast Of the capital, prague,

40 miles northeast Of the capital, prague,

A vast wilderness extends As far as the eye can see.

Selwood: It's a spectacular area.

It's rural, quiet.

It feels like the ideal place For a day's hiking.

Scott: when you start To investigate farther,

You've also got settlements That hint

That there's been populations That have lived in this area

For rather a long time.

Narrator: A short distance away

Narrator: A short distance away

Are structures That appear to date

To more recent times.

You can see that this area Has been developed

Over a fairly long time, And there are

Different buildings From different eras here.

There's something of a mix.

Narrator: any trace of the Inhabitants that once walked

The ghostly stairwells Has long since vanished.

But strangest of all is a Building with a very creepy air.

There's a large bath, showers, And a contraption

There's a large bath, showers, And a contraption

That's big enough To walk through.

Narrator: Outside, the mystery deepens.

Bullet cases, pockmarked walls, And twisted metal

Offer haunting clues This area has a dark past.

Scott: it makes you wonder What is wrong with this place.

People keep on coming, But then going.

What is happening?

Narrator: The intriguing structures

Are located in a region Of the czech republic

Are located in a region Of the czech republic

With a complex history.

Could this provide a clue To the building's purpose?

When the communist party Came to power in czechoslovakia

After world war ii,

The country effectively became A satellite state of the ussr.

Czechoslovakia was on the border With west germany.

That was the front line Of the cold war.

Narrator: This sprawling site in ralsko

Was once the biggest soviet army Base in czechoslovakia.

Was once the biggest soviet army Base in czechoslovakia.

When it was built, Only the red army soldiers

Were allowed to enter The top-secret facility.

In modern warfare, You need large training areas,

Not just to base the troops,

But you need large Tracts of land

Where you can fire artillery.

Narrator: even today,

Access to all areas of the site Is restricted.

Retired local vaclav bilicky Worked nearby in the 1970s.

His job was to tackle Hazardous materials

His job was to tackle Hazardous materials

That spilled out From the confines of the base.

Interpreter: I came here in 1976.

I was working for The police force,

At the time called The national security corps,

As a bomb-disposal expert.

Within this area, We had a blasting hole

For destroying ammunition.

Narrator: but why were the Soviets so desperate to conceal

What they were doing inside?

And what disaster lay in wait For this land?

And what disaster lay in wait For this land?

*

Narrator: At ralsko in the czech republic

Is a secretive cold-war base Used by the soviet army.

But why did they choose This location,

And what were They really doing inside?

A clue is found in the location It sits,

A place born out Of terror and conflict.

Throughout the 20th century,

This border region Was the front line

Of a european Territorial dispute.

Of a european Territorial dispute.

First it was occupied

By the austro-hungarian Military for training

And then the nazi luftwaffe During the second world war.

This part of europe was home To thousands of ethnic germans,

And hitler very much wanted To bring them

Within his concept Of greater germany.

Corum: after the war, The czechoslovakian government

Will then brutally expel The germans

And seize their land, Seize their property.

And seize their land, Seize their property.

Narrator: the stage was now set For the czechoslovak army

To unleash a new wave Of destructive power.

All the homes, Schools and churches,

They used them For target practice.

With heavy munitions, They flattened the lot.

So those little quirky houses Built into the rock face,

They were just cellars.

The houses actually Were aboveground,

And those houses Were blown to smithereens.

Narrator: this was the beginning Of the area's rapid expansion

Into a czech military zone,

But with the threat of soviet Control creeping ever closer,

Darker days loomed large.

Until then, czechoslovakia Had been

The only warsaw pact country Not to host soviet troops.

Interpreter: they were Everywhere else -- in germany,

Poland, hungary and bulgaria, Everywhere but here.

Narrator: in 1968, amid a wave Of anticommunist protest,

Narrator: in 1968, amid a wave Of anticommunist protest,

That was all set to change.

Corum: the soviets sent in

A quarter of a million troops Into prague

And the core cities Of czechoslovakia.

And the number doubled Over the next couple of days.

After the soviet invasion, There was a treaty signed,

And that stated That 75,000 soviet troops

Could be stationed In this region.

Narrator: The legacy of that invasion

Narrator: The legacy of that invasion

Are these Oppressive-looking structures.

Interpreter: these buildings Were intended

For the families of the pilots,

Officers of the soviet army.

Narrator: At a time when east and west

Stood on the brink Of mutual annihilation,

This site's strategic location On the german border

Would be critical in the event Of all-out war.

Up to 20,000 soviet troops Were living there

In a full military town With schools,

In a full military town With schools,

Shops, apartment Buildings, work spaces.

Narrator: the existing airfield Was rapidly expanding

And bunker-like structures Built to conceal

State-of-the-art Attack aircraft.

The soviets were preparing For a new kind of war.

Corum: the mig-23 was A big step forward.

It was very capable,

And it would've made A pretty good opponent.

Narrator: yet much of the History of this military site

Is still a dark secret.

After the collapse Of the soviet union,

The true scale of weapons Stockpiled

Became disturbingly clear,

And more alarming discoveries Were yet to come.

Scott: So with the military gone,

You've now got A city-sized grassland

Absolutely strewn With live ammunition.

How do you go about making A place like that safe again?

How do you go about making A place like that safe again?

Narrator: around 130,000 pieces Of unexploded ordnance

Were left dumped Or crudely buried in the ground.

Vaclav was part of the team

Tasked with the hazardous Clear-up.

[ speaking czech ]

Interpreter: this was probably The most dangerous piece

Of ammunition here.

If it remained in this condition And someone had found it

And wasn't careful enough, It was quite a blast.

Narrator: inside one Of the surviving structures

Are signs the soviets May have been developing

Even more sinister Weapons of war.

Scott: as you go in, you can see This weird-looking machine,

And it's now thought that That machine is an autoclave,

And they're used To decontaminate

And sterilize equipment.

Whatever they were up to With that equipment,

It was serious business.

Narrator: in all, 50 million Cubic feet of soil

Narrator: in all, 50 million Cubic feet of soil

Was found to be polluted By dangerous contaminants.

Corum: when the soviets left,

It cost millions of dollars Of environmental damage.

Narrator: Despite the terrible impact,

The russians claimed The buildings left behind

Were adequate compensation For the devastation caused.

Although much of the land Has been cleared,

There remains always the danger Of undiscovered munitions.

So work still has to be done To make it 100% safe

For the local people.

For the local people.

Narrator: to this day,

The russians Have never acknowledged

What took place behind closed Doors on this shadowy base,

And until cold-war-era Archives are opened,

The site will remain shrouded In mystery.