Original subtitles

[narrator] A peculiar concrete box

overlooking the coast of China.

[Dr. Nusbacher] It looks like a speaker,

only it is the size of a building.

[narrator] The windswept remnants of a seafaring people.

[Polly] These men were a special breed

of professional plunderers.

[narrator] And an epic Alaskan venture

that led to fame and fortune.

that led to fame and fortune.

They were celebrities and incredibly famous in American culture,

and they were controversial at times.

[narrator] Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past...

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

On the coast of a tiny island,

On the coast of a tiny island,

just a few miles from mainland China,

a bizarre block looms over the shoreline.

[Jim] One of the strangest things on the island

is this weird concrete box.

It almost looks like an office building.

[Prof. Wawro] What appear to be windows

in an apartment block

are not windows at all,

they're little circular openings,

almost like a speaker on a radio.

almost like a speaker on a radio.

[narrator] Rusting structures along the beach

suggest an attempt was made

to protect against a landing force,

but not all of the defenses here are immediately visible.

[Jim] There's a huge underground complex

carved into one of these mountains.

There are tunnels here that are big enough to drive a truck through.

This wasn't some little hideaway,

this was a serious underground base.

As small and insignificant as it appears today,

this island came very close to triggering a nuclear war.

this island came very close to triggering a nuclear war.

[narrator] Yang Shi Rong grew up here

and remembers a time when this beach

was strictly out of bounds.

[Yang] We could not go to the sea in the past.

We couldn't be near the beach.

It's ironic, we are surrounded by the sea,

but we rarely saw it.

[narrator] This is Kinmen Island.

Within sight of neighboring China,

Within sight of neighboring China,

this territory actually belongs

to another country, Taiwan.

[Yang] I think people in Kinmen

understand both Taiwanese and Chinese culture.

It's a bridge of communication

between Taiwan and the mainland.

[narrator] This unique understanding

was born out of the Chinese Civil War,

which came to a head in 1949.

[Prof. Wawro] Mao totally defeats the Nationalist forces

[Prof. Wawro] Mao totally defeats the Nationalist forces

and drives them out of China

and onto the island of Taiwan,

where they exist to this day as the Republic of China.

[narrator] Chairman Mao's communists,

the People's Liberation Army,

had ousted the Nationalists

led by general Chiang Kai-shek.

Mao Zedong seats himself in power in mainland China

and the previous government of China,

the Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Movement

flees to the island of Taiwan.

flees to the island of Taiwan.

But they don't only take the island of Taiwan,

they take this little island group

directly off the coast of China.

[narrator] The biggest island of the group is Kinmen,

just four miles from the mainland.

[Jim] There's no way that the communists wanted to tolerate

what they saw as subversives right off their coast.

And in 1949, Mao's forces attack Kinmen Island.

[narrator] The defense still on show today

suggest they knew they were coming.

suggest they knew they were coming.

[Prof. Wawro] There's a 56 hour battle for Kinmen,

as the amphibious Chinese communist forces

land on Kinmen and try to rest it

from its Nationalist defenders.

[narrator] Bullet ridden buildings are testament

to the ferocity of the fighting.

The People's Liberation Army was in here at the time.

This was the command headquarters.

We were surrounded.

We were surrounded.

It was a war of annihilation.

[narrator] Yet, Mao's communists army

wasn't up to the challenge

of an amphibious assault.

[Dr. Nusbacher] They establish a beachhead,

but they cannot break out

onto the rest of the island.

They didn't have the technical capability

to put a big enough force on shore.

[narrator] Those that did make it onto the beaches

were met with mines,

bunkers and obstacles...

backed up by a force

far larger than they expected.

[Prof. Wawro] Using these beach obstacles,

using these defenses,

Chiang Kai-shek pushes them back into the sea.

[narrator] For Mao, it was a disaster.

9,000 communist soldiers stormed ashore,

the majority were killed or taken prisoner.

There were corpses everywhere here.

It was tragic.

[Jim] The Republic of China's forces

[Jim] The Republic of China's forces

were able to repel the attack,

but it wouldn't be the last time

they came under fire.

[narrator] Separated by only a few miles of water,

the islanders knew it was just a matter of time.

We could see mainland China from here,

it's really close.

You can see it clearly in that direction.

That's mainland China.

[Prof. Wawro] The Taiwanese filled up Kinmen

as a major defensive bastion.

as a major defensive bastion.

They honeycomb all the cliffs and hills with bunkers

and they make this a much more defensible place.

[narrator] The Cold War was now running hot throughout East Asia,

and the island found itself on the front line.

[Prof. Wawro] We saw Korea falling to the communists,

Indochina falling to the communists,

all of China falling to the communists.

The U.S. felt that it was losing this battle of containment...

and that something had to be done.

[narrator] U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower,

[narrator] U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower,

fearing a domino effect

of nations falling to communism,

offered protection to the Chinese Nationalists

on Taiwan and Kinmen.

In 1954, there's a major international crisis

when Mao Zedong bombards Kinmen

and the neighboring islands with artillery,

forcing the United States

to tell the communists to cease and desist.

There's a second crisis in 1958, much bigger one.

[Jim] Mainland China really unloaded on Kinmen Island.

They launched an artillery barrage

that went on day and night and just didn't stop.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Over 44 days,

the People's Liberation Army

would deliver 470,000 artillery rounds.

[Yang] At the time, Kinmen was within the shooting range

[Yang] At the time, Kinmen was within the shooting range

of mainland artillery.

So, in the aftermath, the whole of Kinmen suffered tragically.

A lot of houses were destroyed,

especially the places located near the artillery ground.

They were all burned to scorched earth, to ashes.

[narrator] It seemed only a matter of time before the Nationalists

would have to evacuate Kinmen.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The big question

in the mind of everyone in China,

everyone on Taiwan,

everyone on Taiwan,

and even back in Moscow,

is what is Washington going to do?

[narrator] This tiny island would bring the world

to the brink of nuclear war,

but what role would this bizarre concrete box play

in the ongoing dispute?

[narrator] In 1958, Kinmen Island was coming under attack

from Mao's communist China.

America had offered protection to the Nationalists.

So, all eyes were now on Washington.

[Jim] In the US, at one point,

the Joint Chiefs of Staff

recommended considering nuclear weapons

to stop China's aggression.

to stop China's aggression.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.

[narrator] Eisenhower resisted calls for a nuclear strike.

Instead, he combined a show of naval strength

with the supply of military hardware

that could fire from the safety

of Kinmen's bunkers and tunnels.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The United States started to give

heavy howitzers.

These guns made it possible

for the forces on Kinmen Island

for the forces on Kinmen Island

to return fire.

They were able to start shelling the main land.

[narrator] This initiated a curious ritual.

[Dr. Nusbacher] On alternate days,

the gunners on each side

would prepare their guns,

load them up and bombard the other side,

while the other side kept their heads down.

[narrator] While this bizarre artillery duel continued,

[narrator] While this bizarre artillery duel continued,

the Cold War was evolving.

[Jim] Part of the continued conflict was a propaganda war,

and that entailed a secret weapon on the island.

[Yang] We are now located

in the Northwest corner of Kinmen.

The place closest to mainland China is Dadeng Island,

about four miles away.

This building is called the Beishan Broadcasting Wall.

Its main function is to send messages to mainland residents.

Even now, we send messages to mainland China.

[narrator] Built in 1967,

this was the last of five broadcasting walls

erected on Kinmen.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The Chinese Nationalists realized

that the communist projects

that the communist projects

had killed a lot of people in China,

had made a lot of people hostile

to the Government in Beijing.

And so, the Nationalists decided

to start beaming propaganda

at the communist population on the mainland.

[Jim] It said this speaker was so loud,

it could be heard 15 miles inland on the mainland.

[Yang] Political propaganda was broadcasted

across the strait in the early days,

mixed with some secret messages.

For example, our undercover soldiers

who were sent over there

were given a coded instruction

before performing their missions.

[narrator] Over time, the speaker was used

not just for political but cultural warfare.

not just for political but cultural warfare.

[Jim] The speaker tower blasted out songs

from popular Taiwanese singers

and ear-splitting anticommunist propaganda.

[narrator] By the late 1970s,

improving relations between the United States, China and Taiwan

meant the guns, propaganda and music finally fell silent.

Today, a ferry service

Today, a ferry service

runs between Taiwanese Kinmen

and the Chinese mainland,

but tensions in the region remain.

[Jim] Officially, our support for Taiwan

is known as strategic ambiguity.

In other words, neither Taiwan nor China really knows

whether we would come to Taiwan's defense.

But so far, China has not wanted to push its luck.

[narrator] Deep in the Alaskan mountains,

perched precariously on a steep slope,

is an extraordinary relic

from America's pioneering past.

[Prof. Jerram] This area really is remote.

It's a good couple of days away from any major towns.

[Jim] This setting is just epic.

You've got these beautiful mountain peaks,

an enormous glacier.

[narrator] Breaking up this rugged scene

is a collection of red buildings

is a collection of red buildings

tumbling down a hillside.

[Jim] Everywhere you look,

you see the ruins of industrial equipment.

You see cables and chains

and broken-down machinery.

[Claire] You realize this is 14 stories high.

This is on a big scale.

[Jim] You can imagine living up here

if you were a tough pioneer type,

but it is not an easy place to live.

[narrator] Two of America's best-known names

made fortunes here.

But prospecting in this wilderness

wasn't for the faint hearted.

Kyle Thilbert is an Alpine Guide

and well used to exploring these ghostly ruins alone.

[Kyle] It can get a little spooky at times

walking through these old abandoned buildings

and knowing that you are the only person,

but you're still hear things.

Those buildings are starting to fall apart.

They're definitely not quite safe enough for us to go into.

[narrator] Yet, some areas are still accessible

and display the remnants of a fully-fledged town

once known as Kennecott.

[Kyle] Because this town is so remote,

they had to be fully self-sufficient.

You can imagine everything

from food to parts, to clothing.

Kennecott had about 550 men on payroll.

[narrator] So, what was it that drew this many people

[narrator] So, what was it that drew this many people

to such a remote outpost?

In 1900, two men,

"Tarantula" Jack Smith and Clarence L. Warner,

made a discovery that spawned a legend.

[Jim] They stopped for lunch

and looked across the valley

and they saw this green patch.

And one of them said, "Oh, that might be good for sheep."

[Prof. Jerram] They scrambled up

the side of the mountain

and what they thought was green vegetation

actually turned out to be green rocks.

They're still credited as one of the richest deposits

They're still credited as one of the richest deposits

ever discovered in the world.

They've made the bonanza discovery.

[narrator] "It's a bonanza,"

were the words Smith and Warner

supposedly exclaimed upon their discovery... of copper ore.

[Prof. Jerram] Copper was becoming

a very, very valuable commodity.

With the advent of electricity,

Copper was in high demand.

[narrator] Getting it out of the ground, though,

in this unforgiving landscape

would be no mean feat.

[Jim] They needed investors

[Jim] They needed investors

with very deep pockets,

and they found them.

In 1905,

a group called the Alaska Syndicate was formed

and its members included

two of the richest and most famous bankers in the world,

The Guggenheim brothers and J.P. Morgan.

They pooled their vast resources

to begin the process

of developing the mines.

[narrator] Soon, the Bonanza Mine

[narrator] Soon, the Bonanza Mine

was connected to a processing mill

and the Kennecott copper mine was in full operation.

So, these cables here you see,

run about four and a half miles up the ridge line

behind us to the mines themselves,

bringing those buckets

loaded with 500 to 600 pounds of copper ore.

You would have one bucket coming down these lines

every 52 seconds.

So, in less than a minute,

you'd have to be able to dump that ore,

get it back on the line in just enough time

to catch the next one as it came off.

[narrator] From here, the ore needed to be sorted,

[narrator] From here, the ore needed to be sorted,

and this is where the vast height

and slope of the building came in.

[Jim] You put the ore on the top,

you crush the big pieces,

and then you let gravity carry it down level by level

one crushing machine to another,

until it's reduced to a fine sand.

When this building was in operation,

the noise here would have been deafening.

There was a lot of equipment, crushers,

different machinery that was separating out that copper ore.

[narrator] But getting the ore

out of the ground and processed

out of the ground and processed

wasn't the biggest challenge facing the Alaska Syndicate.

There was no rail road at that time,

but the buildings and everything were operating

before that rail road came in.

So, all that equipment was brought in by hand, essentially.

We're just under 200 miles to the coast from here,

so you can imagine trying to bring all that equipment in

by either dog sled, pack horses.

It's amazing that they could even get that here.

[narrator] Guggenheim and Morgan

desperately needed a rail road

desperately needed a rail road

to get the copper to market.

[Kyle] They didn't start construction

on the rail road till 1907.

Part of that was, they couldn't actually find anybody to build it.

Nothing of this scale or this terrain

had ever been done before.

[narrator] It was a monumental engineering challenge.

And its pinnacle was how to cross

the mighty Copper River.

[Jim] If your idea of a river

is something like the rivers you see

in most parts of the world,

in most parts of the world,

you have no idea what rivers in Alaska are like.

[narrator] The most infamous crossing

was just below the Miles Glacier.

[Jim] So, this glacier was not only dumping out...

millions and millions of gallons of water,

but in the warmer seasons,

it was dropping huge icebergs

into the river that would then flow down.

[Claire] If one of those hits a pier,

which is supporting the trusses,

your whole bridge comes down.

your whole bridge comes down.

[Kyle] So, to build that,

it was almost impossible, really,

by those standards at the time,

they didn't think it could be done.

It would cost well over a million dollars

to build that one bridge alone.

[narrator] Yet, the Million Dollar Bridge,

as it was famously coined,

was just a fraction of the overall cost

of building the railroad.

The Alaska Syndicate thought it worth the investment,

but they weren't alone.

[Jim] So, this new group encountered

[Jim] So, this new group encountered

these representatives of the Syndicate...

and, ultimately, a gunfight broke out.

It was a huge scandal.

[narrator] In the early 1900's, the Alaska Syndicate,

led by the Guggenheims and J.P. Morgan,

were building a 200-mile rail road

to connect the Kennecott copper mine to the coast.

[Jim] While the Alaska Syndicate

is busy building their own route up to their mines,

there was another group

that claimed to have rights to also build a route.

that claimed to have rights to also build a route.

It got very heated.

It turned out that the Syndicate,

they didn't want anybody else building a rail road line.

They were armed. They wanted to keep them out.

One member of the Syndicate crew

hid behind a boulder

and really, like a sniper,

he shot three men from the other team.

[narrator] Dubbed "the Keystone Canyon affair",

it made national headlines.

[Jim] J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim brothers...

[Jim] J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim brothers...

were incredibly famous in American culture.

I mean, today, you'd almost look

at somebody like Mark Zuckerberg

or Elon Musk.

They were celebrities

and it was a huge scandal.

Legitimately, it was cold-blooded murder.

And, in Alaska, the Syndicate was viewed

very suspiciously from that point on.

[narrator] Yet, this scandal didn't stop them.

Having fended off the competition

and completed the railroad,

nothing, it seemed,

nothing, it seemed,

could stand in the way

of Guggenheim and Morgan.

[Kyle] When the rail road came in at 1911,

they had enough ore stocked up,

so they could fill that very first train,

send it out with $250,000 worth of copper ore.

[narrator] The mine was running

as one of the most profitable in the world.

[Kyle] So, this building here

was the ammonia leaching plant

used to extract

all those little pieces of copper ore that were left.

And with this building,

they were running at about 92% efficiency.

they were running at about 92% efficiency.

That's, even by today's standards, is unheard of.

[Jim] By 1916, the price of copper was climbing

and these mines were running around the clock.

Three shifts, trying to get as much copper

out of these mountains and into the ships

and onto market as they could.

[narrator] Yet, Kennecott's fortunes

were tied to the global market,

and with the Great Depression,

and with the Great Depression,

came plummeting copper prices.

And in 1938,

management prepared to shut down operations.

[Kyle] But they didn't tell the men that,

'cause they were afraid

if they started warning people

that things were going to start closing down,

work production would start to decline.

So, to try to maximize

the amount of work they could get out of these men,

they didn't tell them

until 24 hours before that last train was going to leave.

If you were not on that train,

you were gonna get left behind.

[narrator] Almost overnight,

[narrator] Almost overnight,

this place became a ghost town.

Today, Kennecott lives on

through hiking trails and guided tours,

highlighting the enduring legacy of this site.

[Kyle] All that copper that was produced here

was used to create copper wiring

to electrify the east coast,

shell casings during the World War.

Very crucial impact on the United States and the world.

[narrator] On an island in the North Atlantic

is a place that time forgot, twice.

As you approach these islands from the south,

you can see the remnants

of a very large stone building.

It's reminiscent of a castle,

but that's not even the half of it.

but that's not even the half of it.

[narrator] The stone walls suggests a structure

that's hundreds of years old,

but at its feet are structures far older.

[Sascha] You wind up in these circular rooms,

all made out of blocks,

piled up precariously,

but there's no mortar in use here.

And it feels as if if you knock one stone over,

that the whole thing's gonna come

crumbling down around you.

[Dr. Nusbacher] They really blend into the Earth.

They are part of the land.

It's very organic form of building.

[narrator] The mixture of the old and the ancient

suggests this place had a long history.

But one more clue

might reveal how it became abandoned.

[Sascha] Slightly further away from the main building

are these shallow channels

are these shallow channels

cut into the ground.

[narrator] Inside the smallest remains,

lies the answer to this mystery.

And it's a story of greed and bloodshed.

[Polly] These men were highly advanced.

They were pushing the limits of the known world

and they could be extremely violent.

[narrator] In Scotland's most northern region,

Dr. Val Turner has studied a ruin

and the legend of its unscrupulous former owner.

[Dr. Turner] This is the laird's house

and it became the home of obsession

of Patrick Stewart,

who was the Earl of Orkney and Shetland.

[narrator] Patrick was the son of Robert Stewart,

[narrator] Patrick was the son of Robert Stewart,

a man with connections.

He was the half-brother of a queen

with one of the most tumultuous reigns in history,

Mary, Queen of Scots.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Because the lairds here in Shetland

were so far from royal authority,

their power was untrammeled.

And that meant, when they got out of line,

there was no body to discipline them.

And these guys got out of line.

[narrator] Patrick exploited this power

and freedom remorselessly.

And as Lord of Shetland,

he was notorious for being barbarous,

rapacious, womanizing,

intimidating, letting off criminals and murderers.

He found the perfect spot to build a monument

to his conquest, to mark his spot.

[Dr. Turner] I think his quality of life

would have been very good,

because, I mean, we see here as bare walls,

but it would have had ornate paintings,

hangings, tapestries.

hangings, tapestries.

It would have been quite cozy and warm.

And, of course, he would have had servants

and people working for him as well.

[narrator] But in the late 19th century,

it emerged that the Laird of Shetland

wasn't the first person to recognize the value of this site.

[Dr. Turner] In 1897, there was a huge storm,

and it lashed away

at the edge of the coast.

And a few days later,

And a few days later,

somebody walking along the shore

noticed that there were the edges

of what looked like buried buildings poking out.

[narrator] The storm uncovered dwellings

that predated the laird's house

by at least a thousand years.

They were arranged in a circular pattern

and made of layered stone.

[Dr. Nusbacher] But they also partitioned these houses

into a number of cells or rooms,

and the local people would have taken refuge

and the local people would have taken refuge

in these wheelhouses

from the harsh weather coming off of the sea,

possibly from their harsh neighbors.

And it would have created a feeling of community.

[narrator] The wheelhouses were built by early settlers

known as the Picts.

[Polly] The Picts were a native Celtic tribe

from the Iron Age

from the Iron Age

who managed to make the journey

all the way from mainland Scotland to the Shetland Islands.

That kind of journey

would take a tremendous strength of will

and a tremendous strength of arms.

[Sascha] It's 100 miles to the nearest mainland.

And it's pretty much a one-way journey

because the way the currents work,

once you get here,

it's gonna be almost impossible for you

to get back to the mainland.

[narrator] Evidence of even earlier structures

add to the mystery,

add to the mystery,

and suggests that defense

had long been a priority on these rugged islands.

[Dr. Turner] So, this is the base of a massive tower.

And, while that's the inner face,

just wait to see where the outer face is.

There's a cell,

which is in between the two walls...

and the outer face is right here.

So, all of that... is the base of the broch.

So, all of that... is the base of the broch.

[narrator] 2,000 years ago,

this structure stood 40 feet tall.

It had four levels for people, animals, and the central hearth.

It was one of hundreds

that lined the Shetland coastline.

A few still survive intact.

[Dr. Nusbacher] All over the north of Scotland

and the isles,

there are these towers called brochs.

You can sleep in comfort

You can sleep in comfort

knowing that nobody's going to sneak up

and cut your throat in the night.

[narrator] But these sturdy defenses

were about to be put to the test.

[narrator] On a remote island in the North Atlantic,

1,000 years ago,

strangers landed on the shoreline.

[Polly] Britain has had a long history of invasion,

but these men were a special breed

of professional plunderers.

They were highly skilled,

had complete mastery over the sea.

had complete mastery over the sea.

[narrator] These invaders... were Vikings.

[Sascha] When the Vikings arrived

in this part of the Shetland Islands,

it's possible that the Picts were still here,

still living in their traditional wheelhouses.

But Vikings did things differently.

[Dr. Turner] The Viking longhouses are rectangular.

The area here is where people lived.

And there were benches on either side

And there were benches on either side

of the living, feasting area,

which people would have sat on in the day,

but then at night,

there would have been skins on the benches,

and they would have been where people slept as well.

[Dr. Nusbacher] If we look at the foundations

of this long house,

it reminds us of Beowulf,

where Hrothgar lived with his sword and friends.

It reminds us of a smoky night

where Grendel creeps in through the door.

where Grendel creeps in through the door.

[narrator] This wasn't just one hut,

this was a settlement,

one of hundreds that would lead

to the Vikings conquering two thirds of Britain.

[Sascha] So, using these incredible long ships

and their navigational skills,

they actually traveled as far as the coast of North America.

They also raided and eventually settled

all along the coast of Western Europe.

And then, they traveled up the rivers,

And then, they traveled up the rivers,

as far as Moscow.

[Dr. Nusbacher] We don't know what happened

to the native population of Shetland

when the Norse came.

It could be that, instead of keeping the locals as slaves

or marrying the local population,

it could be they killed them all.

[narrator] Despite more recent excavations,

the fate of the native Picts remains a mystery.

[Polly] So, what happened to the Vikings

here in the Shetland islands?

In some ways, they never went away.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The Viking Norse

were happy to leave behind their descendants,

who still live there

as proud descendants of Vikings today.

And people feel a very strong affinity with Vikings.

And, of course, there's this big Viking festival

in Shetland every January.

[narrator] At this fire festival,

Shetlanders take to the streets with flaming torches

and burn a Viking long boat.

High in the Swiss mountains,

sits a pretty Alpine village,

but for those in on the secret,

it's anything but.

The Swiss Alps are beautiful.

It's lush, it's manicured.

It's lush, it's manicured.

[Prof. Wawro] You wander across a meadow here

and you see what look like

totally innocuous, little cottages.

[Prof. Jerram] They could be summer huts,

they could be storage barns for farming and so on.

[narrator] The reality, though, is completely unexpected.

So, this isn't just a hut

or an animal shelter.

This is actually a camouflaged cannon,

ten and a half centimeter cannon.

They can turn 360 degrees

They can turn 360 degrees

to be able to shoot down into the valley,

or all the way around.

And there's four of these in the village up here.

[Claire] The little, kind of... hut

is just there for disguise.

It's for display purposes only.

And underneath there,

is a serious amount of weaponry.

[Prof. Wawro] You start to realize,

"No, this is not your average bucolic Swiss pasture."

This is a killing field.

Someone's taken a lot of time to hide at this military site.

[narrator] This masquerading gun

is just the tip of the iceberg.

Another innocuous looking building nearby

conceals an even bigger surprise

and explains the real reason

behind the disguises.

[Dr. Breitenmoser] This isn't a barn,

this is actually a bunker, a concrete bunker

that's part of the fortress.

[narrator] One of the largest fortresses

ever built in Switzerland

is right here,

is right here,

masterfully hidden from view.

Behind the set dressing of the cottages

and stable blocks,

inside the mountain, that's where the action is.

[Prof. Jerram] They dug the fortress

into the solid mountains.

We're talking about five miles of tunnels

that could hold around 500 troops.

[Prof. Wawro] Basically, two storeys of fortifications

built into the side of a mountain,

with 60 feet of rock

between the lower story

between the lower story

and the upper story.

[narrator] This is Fortress Furggels,

a battleship hidden inside

the belly of a Swiss mountain,

and a vital part of a little-known military operation.

[narrator] Fortress Furggels, built from 1939,

was Switzerland's response to

an increasingly volatile Europe.

[Prof. Wawro] This thing is not just a fort,

it's an ensemble of facilities.

You've got the fortifications,

you've got rooms for storage of munitions,

you've got barracks for the garrison.

[narrator] Dr. Erich Breitenmoser

[narrator] Dr. Erich Breitenmoser

is now the fort's proud owner

and enjoys showing off

its incredible array of facilities and weaponry.

Here we have the sleeping quarters for the soldiers.

This room and the one next door

would house 120 soldiers for sleeping.

[narrator] Troops could live here

completely shut off from the outside world

completely shut off from the outside world

for as long as six months.

[Prof. Wawro] And, of course, no fort is complete

without a good armament,

and this place was bristling with good guns.

We have four 10.5 cm guns

which are up in the village,

and then we have four 15 cm guns.

It was the most heavily armed fortress

in Switzerland.

They would tell you,

"I'll go set up the gun...

and then give commander to shoot."

Right? They'd shoot,

the guy would pull the thing over there.

the guy would pull the thing over there.

Boom. [whistles] Shot would go off.

The whole mountain

shook like an earthquake

when they shot the gun.

[narrator] Trained soldiers would use

manuals and instruments

to expertly calculate

the trajectory of the missile.

But back in the day, it was far from an exact science.

[Dr. Breitenmoser] They always waited until the call came back

over the hit, the target,

to see how accurate they were.

One day, no radio message came back,

so they waited.

So, then a follow-up phone call came in from Liechtenstein.

So, then a follow-up phone call came in from Liechtenstein.

In the town of Malbun,

they said, "There was a bomb that hit

right in front of the village.

What happened?"

So, obviously, somebody made a mistake.

So, they found out the fellow here

did the wrong calculations

and they almost had a war with Lichtenstein.

[Prof. Wawro] Swiss neutrality is legendary,

but what distinguishes Switzerland

from other neutral countries

is Switzerland's policy of armed neutrality.

Meaning, you know, "don't mess with us".

[narrator] But in the early 1940s,

two of Europe's dictators

were planning to carve up the nation

and share in the spoils.

[Prof. Wawro] Early in World War II,

Italian dictator Mussolini

and German dictator Hitler

actually concocted a plan,

"Operation Tannenbaum" or "Christmas tree,"

in which Italian forces would invade Switzerland

from the south, German forces from the north,

they would partition the country between them.

[narrator] The fort was a crucial link

[narrator] The fort was a crucial link

in Switzerland's national fortification chain,

built in anticipation of an access invasion.

But as a neutral country,

building a heavily armed fort of this size

was treading a fine line.

[Claire] They're not supposed to be doing

any military engineering,

but what they do do

is carry it out very, very quietly.

[Dr. Breitenmoser] This place was very secretive.

In fact, I've known people who worked here

In fact, I've known people who worked here

and they wouldn't even be able to tell their wives

where they went to work.

[narrator] This wasn't the only reason for secrecy, though.

[Prof. Jerram] An important factor, as well,

about this place was you could catch the enemy by surprise.

If your guns are hidden in the mountains,

then, all of a sudden,

there's massive firepower

that they weren't expecting.

[Prof. Wawro] There's no better example

of how the Swiss plan to control

the only serviceable routes through the country

with fortifications than this one.

[Dr. Breitenmoser] They can see the Germans

[Dr. Breitenmoser] They can see the Germans

coming up from the Rhine valley down there,

from Austria, Lake of Constance,

or from this side here

from the San Bernardino mountain pass from Italy.

So, they were to be protecting this whole area here

from them being able to go towards Zurich over there.

[narrator] Once the Second World War ended

and Switzerland survived unscathed,

they didn't reveal or even disarm Fort Furggels.

Their attention, instead,

turned to a new and potentially

turned to a new and potentially

even more destructive menace.

[Prof. Wawro] The Cold War

immediately springs up,

so all of these World War II era forts

were maintained and upgraded

for the event of a Soviet invasion.

[Prof. Jerram] The fortress itself was then adapted

with nuclear filters and so on.

[narrator] The Swiss took this nuclear threat

so seriously, that Fort Furggels

was still top secret in the 21st century,

well after the Cold War had thawed.

well after the Cold War had thawed.

[Prof. Jerram] The fortress was decommissioned in 2002,

and the secret that was hidden beneath this village

could be finally revealed.

[narrator] With declassification,

the fort lost its military significance.

But just before it closed down,

one final shot was fired.

[Prof. Jerram] In the last time it was ever used,

one of the canons was actually fired off

to get rid of avalanches.

[narrator] Today, the fort is occasionally opened up

for small groups to explore these fascinating relics.

[Prof. Wawro] Nowadays, you can wander around

and you can see the barracks, and the field hospital,

and the ammo storage rooms,

and you can see the cannons in their turrets.

[narrator] The fort's constant cold temperature

now attracts new and interesting tenants.

now attracts new and interesting tenants.

A lot of people are inquiring about rooms like this

for storage, wine.

It'd be a great wine storage, cheese.

I had a guy here for cheese storage.

[narrator] Fortress Furggels' purpose

evolved to match Switzerland's perception

of what posed the greatest threat.

A peaceful Furggels full of wine and cheese

is good news for everyone.