All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S01E02.Maisey.Batteries.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

- This structure is a fortress.

- These weren't temporary
defensive fortifications.

This stuff was built,
and it was built to last.

- This isn't a battery.

It's an entire complex.

- [Narrator] 1944, one mile
from Omaha Beach in Normandy,

the Nazis built a
massive 42-acre complex

known as the Maisy Batteries.

Positioned near the French
village of Grandcamp-Maisy,

the base's construction is
shrouded in such secrecy

the Resistance isn't even
privy to its existence.

- This base was built
under extreme secrecy.

- [Narrator] Once the
Maisy complex is conquered

by the Allies, it sinks
back into mystery.

- A battery the size of four
football fields would have

only vanished if there was
some sort of conspiracy.

- [Narrator] Then,
one man, chancing

upon a D-Day map, begins
to unravel mysteries.

- This story is still alive.

There is still a
mystery to unfold.

- [Narrator] Why did the
Germans go to such great lengths

to build Maisy in
complete secrecy?

Why was it buried?

How did a crucial piece of
D-Day history completely vanish?

Was it perhaps meant
to be forgotten?

[dramatic instrumental music]

[metal doors slamming]

The Allied assault on Omaha,
Utah, and Pointe du Hoc

on D-Day are some
of the most iconic

battles in the
history of warfare.

For hours, a hailstorm
of artillery and gunfire

rained down on wave
after wave of Americans

who seemed doomed to fail
in the early hours of D-Day.

For decades, historians have
debated all facets of that day.

The secrets of one base in
Normandy may yield new answers.

- People think that we know all

there is to know about history.

We don't the half of it.

We're still uncovering
secrets about the war.

- [Narrator]
Historian Gary Sterne

is an avid collector of
war artifacts and uniforms.

He's followed the trail
of an unusual old map

found in the pocket
of a Ranger's uniform,

and it led him here.

[dramatic instrumental music]

The map describes an
area of high resistance.

- I wasn't looking for a map
when I found the uniform.

I was at a show in Ohio
actually, and the map was

in a pair of trousers
under a table for sale.

On it was marked a small area

which said area of
high resistance.

It was one of those
eureka moments,

where you think, hang on, this
might have some significance.

- Think about it for a second.

60 years after the fact,
this little tiny map

is pulled out of a uniform
that Gary's bought,

and suddenly it unfurls
not just accepted fact

but a completely
new story in D-Day.

- The problem was when
I went in history books,

there's nothing on Maisy.

Maisy doesn't
exist historically.

So, I decided next time
I came over to France,

I would investigate
this piece of land.

I was looking for
this area, this field,

that was marked high
resistance place.

So, I drove down a country road

looking with the map on my knee,

and I found a field
with tall grass

and I literally tripped
up over a chimney pot.

And from that I
deduced that I stood

on the roof of a building
and not on the floor

of building that had been
destroyed during the battle.

- When Gary literally
trips over and finds

this complex network
of structures,

it's mind boggling
that this was buried,

that we didn't know about this

until pretty recently,
only 10, 15 years ago.

- Now, at the time
of findin' the site,

I was just getting
blank looks from people

when I said, there's something
in the fields over there.

I approached many of the
landowners in the area,

and I managed to buy
32 parcels of land.

After that, we spent
10, 11, 12 weeks

with a 20-ton digger, and we
found a tunnel and a trench.

And we advanced for weeks
and weeks around the site,

and we would follow the
blackened earth of the trench.

The digger would hit
the concrete, cling.

We would find another building.

We'd have to go and dig
the building out by hand.

Eventually, we got to the
point where we are now,

where we have 2.5
miles of trenches,

completed, dug, restored.

This story is part
of D-Day history,

and it has been lost and buried.

And the rest of
the village grew up

not knowing that there was
anything on the fields here.

- What I find absolutely
astounding is that

in the months and the
years after the invasion,

the farmers and the
local folk had absolutely

no idea what was buried
right underneath their feet.

Happily just gettin' on
about their everyday business

with not a clue that
something that played

such a huge role in
D-Day was right there.

- Until Gary uncovers
this treasure trail

of unaccepted facts,
most historians

have moved past Maisy,
just like the locals have.

Nobody understands the
severity and the enormity

of the complex there and
its importance to D-Day.

- [Narrator] The mysterious
base has the potential

to challenge a
decades old history.

June 1943, the fortifications
at Maisy are built

by forced Czechoslovakian,
Russian, and Polish labor.

The base is built under such
secrecy that none of the

neighboring townspeople
surrounding the fortifications

are allowed into the secret
base, and none of the

forced laborers inside
are allowed out.

- Despite information
from air reconnaissance

and intel from the
like Resistance,

the Germans were still
able to build secret bases.

- At this point the
Germans have become masters

at one of the key ingredients
in winning a war, secrecy.

- There was obviously a
reason to keep this a secret.

This was a German occupied area,

and they didn't want
the locals to know

anything about
what was happening.

How they achieved that was
by bringing in forced labor.

There was no locals
allowed to work on this.

- Folks are taken
from labor camps,

prisoners of war,
concentration camps,

the worst, most inhumane of
conditions and told to work.

If you do talk, that's the end.

- I met the local milkman.

He told me that he couldn't
deliver milk to the site.

He had to stand outside and
deliver it to the entrance.

- The Allies were
incredibly reliant on the

French Resistance folks
that knew the language,

knew the culture, saw the Nazis,

knew their movements,
were providing maps.

And the Allies had
spies on the ground

communicating with them.

- By this stage in the
war, a German officer

can't even buy his
French girlfriend

a new fur without the
Resistance knowing about it.

So, the fact that the Resistance

have no clue about
a military complex

as important and as large
as Maisy is phenomenal.

- Most armies, and
even in modern times,

if you build a bunker,
you build a bunker

or a battery, and you
put a gun or two in it,

and you have a couple
of men deployed.

The Nazis built them
with ventilation,

septic systems, water systems,
food, field hospitals.

It's remarkable.

- It would have required
a significant amount

of steel and cement in
order to construct a battery

that was the size of
four football fields.

It would have been very, very
difficult for the Germans

to keep something
like that quiet.

- The Germans have at
this late stage in the war

become complete experts
at understanding

how to withstand
almost direct hits

onto concrete emplacements
and deep bunkers.

They know what's coming
so they prepare for it.

- By using a substantial
mass of concrete,

sometimes, you know, two
meters thick of concrete,

we've created a static
barrier, one that doesn't move

and is going to resist the
impact from a projectile.

And so, you need mass to
dissipate that energy,

and they did that
by using concrete.

Concrete also has an
interesting property.

It can be brittle,
and if it's struck

by a projectile,
it will shatter.

The Germans knew
of this, and they

plated the ceilings with steel.

And they would put
tiles on the walls

or barricade the walls with wood

so that any shattering of the
concrete would be contained.

- Also, after all this battle,

after all this fighting,
after all this shelling,

it's a testament of the
fortitude of these buildings,

that they're still standing
today in near perfect condition.

- [Narrator] The
base design includes

three heavily fortified
batteries emplacements

that will house an
arsenal of deadly weapons.

World War I French
field Howitzers,

Russian Howitzers,
105 millimeter guns,

anti-tank cannons, and
12 anti-aircraft guns.

It is to become one of the
deadliest bases the Nazis built.

But why would the Nazi army
go to such great lengths

to construct and
fortify Maisy with such

immense weaponry
in absolute secret?

What was its ultimate purpose?

For seven decades, a Nazi
base has been secretly

buried under fields,
yet the Maisy Batteries

may be so strategic
that it could have

guaranteed Nazi victory on
the Omaha and Utah beaches.

But despite its importance,
this base has been lost to time.

Gary Sterne, an avid military
collector and historian,

stumbles across its existence

setting in motion a
series of discoveries

that will challenge
D-Day history.

- This is isn't just a
small defensive position.

This is an entire base
the size of a town.

- If you decided
to attack Maisy,

you would have been walking
into a hail of fire.

Every position supported
another position.

The Germans had become
masters of this by now.

They know exactly how
to combine mortars,

light machine guns,
heavy machine guns,

rifle fire, mine
fields, barbed wire.

You name it, they've
got it at Maisy.

- This thing was a
terrifying defense.

Surely Maisy inflicted massive
casualties on the Allies.

The size and power of
the guns that were there

and the ability to hit
both Utah and Omaha,

the ability to hit
ships and landing craft,

the ability to continue
to hit 'em on the beach,

and as you're coming inland the

ability to continue to fight.

This is an important and
impressive defensive system.

- It had numerous
machine gun positions.

It had mine fields,
anti-aircraft guns.

It even had its own hospital.

And let's not forget,
being manned by hundreds

of well-trained German soldiers.

- So, what we see today
when we look at Maisy is

an exposed structure, but
at the time it would have

been camouflaged with netting,
with leaves, with dirt.

If you look at the roof
structures of the bunkers,

they're curved, which
doesn't create a sharp corner

and can't cast shadows from sun.

- What's fascinating
about Maisy is the fact

that the Germans built it in
complete and utter secrecy.

Unlike most of the
other parts of the wall

that they're building
to keep the Allies out,

they don't let the French in.

The Resistance can't get close.

They don't understand
what's going on there.

And every time the Germans need
to get any kind of support,

they leave the fortifications.

- There must have been some
covert purpose to this battery

that was completely
different from some

of the other batteries
that were constructed

along the coast
not too far away.

- This was the
perfect German secret.

- [Narrator] Maisy is a crucial

component of the Atlantic Wall,

a network of batteries built
to repulse an Allied invasion.

Between 1942 and 1944, the
building project is vast,

and most of it is done
along the French coastline,

where the Nazis assume an
Allied landing will come.

- The Atlantic Wall was a
series of defensive positions

that were built all the way
along the Atlantic coast

from Norway right the
way down through Belgium,

France, up to the
Spanish border.

In total it covers 1,670 miles,

and the construction
of all of this

came directly from
Hitler, himself.

- The way the Atlantic Wall is
built is really quite clever.

You've got forward
emplacements that are there

to chew up the troops
that land on the beach.

Behind them, you have
heavy artillery pieces.

They're to take out the
boats and rain artillery fire

down onto the beaches as well.

The Germans are hoping
that this Atlantic Wall

will be a meat
grinder into which

the Allies will
feed their troops.

- Add to that all of the mines

and the barbed wire
and machine gun nests

that are along the beach
themselves, and you've got

yourself a pretty
formidable defensive system.

This is not land they're
gonna give up easily.

- [Narrator] Hitler
appoints Erwin Rommel,

a respected and
battle-tested general

to oversee the Atlantic
Wall defenses and ensure

the coast is impenetrable
ahead of an Allied landing.

- As Rommel always said, if the

Allies get the beach, it's over.

So, they would have
done everything they can

to fortify that particular area.

Rommel was a soldier's general.

He was a tactician.

He was a strategist.

The fact that he was put in
charge of the Atlantic Wall

shows you that Hitler
and the senior command

knew that this was going to
be the key to the entire war.

When Rommel takes over
the Atlantic Wall,

he calls it cuckoo land
because he looks at it,

and Hitler had been
broadcasting and propagandizing,

this is indefensible,
impregnable.

It'll never fall.

Rommel looks at it and says,

oh, they can
overcome this easily.

Rommel starts
preparing defenses.

The Atlantic Wall
becomes a hardened,

formidable defense after
Rommel takes charge.

- [Narrator] The
Atlantic Wall defenses

are so extensive, it
required the excavation

of over 120 square
miles of dirt,

the equivalent of 120
modern large airports.

- I couldn't even
conceptualize, quite frankly,

what it would take to construct

fortifications along
the Atlantic Wall.

For the amount of
concrete and steel

that would have been
required to build

all of those structures, and
the sheer amount of labor

that would have been
required to create

and build those
structures and the number

of lives lost is
completely inconceivable.

- [Narrator] In
1944 General Rommel

is seen touring Pointe du Hoc,

one and a half miles from
the secret Maisy base.

He discusses the position
with senior Nazi officials

and takes great efforts to
show it off to the press.

The cameras also capture
images of large guns

installed on the cliffs
and a daunting number

of German soldiers
stationed at Pointe du Hoc.

In the midst of this
media attention,

Rommel makes no mention
of the terrifying

Maisy Batteries only
a short distance away.

What secrets could
be hidden away

in the massive, well
defended Maisy complex?

- General Rommel
understands the power

of propaganda and
publicity, but he's not,

he's not a very
camera hungry guy.

In fact, when you see him
going around these defenses

that have been built
along the Atlantic front,

it does kind of stand
out for that reason,

that Rommel's actually
in these pictures.

- We know that Rommel
was sly, crafty,

and was a master of
decoys and deception.

If I was a betting
man, I would guess

that it was Rommel's call.

Let's promote Pointe du Hoc.

Whereas that being
jutted out on the coast,

that's harder to defend,
and it's probably

one of the first sites
hit because they'd

been promoting it for so long.

- The focus of the
Allied soldiers

on day one of D-Day
is Pointe du Hoc.

The real story is at Maisy.

Nobody knows about that.

- [Narrator] Operation
Overlord is the code name

for the western
European invasion,

one of the most ambitious
missions in military history

to combine Allied forces and
breach the Atlantic Wall.

The target, the
beaches of Normandy.

The Allies send surveillance
missions to photograph

miles of the Normandy coast
that they intend to attack.

Over 14,000 sorties are flown,
85,000 photos taken per week.

A picture begins to formulate

of what the Allies
are up against,

and it is daunting.

One site draws great attention,

the unique fortification
of Pointe du Hoc,

poised strategically on a cliff

above Omaha and Utah beaches.

But how is this spot
connected to Maisy?

- If you're the Allies
in the run up to D-Day,

through your
reconnaissance flights

and the intel that
you're gathering,

when you see guns
that big and the fact

that Rommel's there
showing them off,

you're gonna start to
think that Pointe du Hoc

is a strategically very
important base to hit.

- If I'm any Allied
leader, I don't

wanna see Rommel
in the news reels.

I'd rather face almost any
other general than Rommel.

The fact that Rommel's there,

I know that I'm in for a fight.

I know this is going to
be very, very difficult.

You're also seeing how
high the cliffs are.

You're seeing some of the
defenses put on the beach.

- Pointe du Hoc gives
fantastic field of fire

for artillery onto
Omaha and Utah beaches.

So, from the Allies point
of view, it's really, really

important to make sure
that they take this.

- [Narrator] A Nazi
propaganda film

orchestrated by Rommel captured
the attention of the Allies.

Eisenhower selects Pointe du Hoc

as a primary target on D-Day,

but was he playing into a game

of deception
masterminded by Rommel?

A few miles away, the
secret Maisy Battery

is fully operational and
brimming with weapons.

- One example of Rommel's
ability to outmaneuver

and misdirect the Allied forces

is the number of dummy
artillery positions

and dummy units that he
places all along the coast.

And, of course, the
Allies don't know

which ones are real and
which ones are false.

- It's almost as though
he's waving one hand

and saying, look at Pointe du
Hoc, look at me, look at this.

Whereas in the
other hand, he's got

the coastal defense
covered by a huge complex,

which he's gone to a lot
of trouble to keep secret.

- Maisy was constructed in
a way that was different

than some of the other
structures on the Atlantic Wall.

The locals might have had
access to the other structures.

It wasn't shrouded in secrecy.

There wasn't a deliberate cloak

that was put around
the construction.

- The Germans don't know
where the Allies will come,

but they do know
that when they come

they're gonna bring a
hell of a lot of planes

and a lot of artillery
into the fight.

So, a secret base
like Maisy is gonna

give the Germans
a big advantage.

- Were the Allies
indeed fooled by Rommel

in thinking that Pointe du Hoc

was something it simply wasn't?

- The Maisy Battery
set the stage

for what would be the most
important part of the war.

- Maisy was a remarkable and
intriguing secret in 1944.

Ironically, it still is
somewhat of one today.

- [Narrator] As Project
Overlord is set into motion,

the largest amphibious assault
in military history launches

while the mysterious Maisy
Batteries lie in wait.

Although much of the Atlantic
Wall is built in plain sight,

the Nazis take
great care to build

the Maisy Batteries
in complete secrecy.

The Allies are focused
on the formidable-looking

Pointe du Hoc seen
in the publicity

films released by
General Rommel.

Was Maisy the surprise
hiding in the shadows?

- The Germans don't
really see Pointe du Hoc

as being vulnerable
from a sea invasion.

The Allies are banking
on this very idea

that the Germans
perceive Pointe du Hoc

as being virtually
impossible to assault.

- Just imagine the
bravery of climbing

the sheer vertical
cliff with grenades

and rifle fire
raining down on you.

Meanwhile your own side
are firing artillery on.

If one round falls
short, the explosion's

gonna blow you completely
out of the air.

- Depending on the
materials of the rock,

it can have fractures
that go throughout it,

if there is a grenade or
a bomb impact over here,

it can affect the
rock over here.

It's all interlinked.

And that rock face will
change dramatically

over the time of you just
climbing a couple meters.

It's very dangerous.

- There's a quote
attributed to an American

intelligence officer that
said that we couldn't do it.

It couldn't be taken.

He said that three
old women with brooms

could keep the Allies
from taking the cliff.

- Pointe du Hoc became
such a huge focus

for the Allied
invasion on D-Day.

Not only did they bomb
the hell out of it,

they also planned one
of the most daring,

famous, and horrific
assaults to scale the cliffs,

to put men up there,
and to take it back.

- You know, up until
this day you can see

the battle scars still
there in the ground.

Thousands and thousands
of shells raining down

have left this deep
imprint in the ground.

- When you look at the craters
on top of Pointe du Hoc,

it's an incredibly
visceral feeling

of translating that
force into destruction.

You can see that they have
forever altered the landscape.

- [Narrator] After two
years of preparation

and thousands of
reconnaissance missions,

why weren't the Allies
paying more attention

to the massive fortifications
at the Maisy Batteries?

- For the Allies invading
the coastline on D-Day,

Battery Maisy was a terrifying
concentration of firepower

that awaited them
just over the ridge.

- Now, Maisy's been
hit, but because nobody

knows it's there, they're
not really hitting it

with the kind of
firepower that they want.

- [Narrator] On D-Day
the Maisy Batteries

were left largely unscathed
during the initial bombing runs,

threatening the success
of the most daring mission

one and a half miles
back at Pointe du Hoc.

- By taking Pointe
du Hoc, if they fail,

they know that it's
not just their lives.

It's all their comrades.

It's the entire invasion.

- The Allies believe
that at the top of the

Point du Hoc cliffs are four
155 millimeter Howitzer guns

able to bring down
incredible rain of fire

on the troops that are
advancing onto the beaches.

So, they assign a
special Ranger unit

to use grappling
hooks and ladders

to climb up these sheer vertical
cliffs and take the guns.

It's almost like a battle
in the First World War.

The Allies begin a
huge bombardment,

thousands and
thousands of missiles

raining down on the
German positions.

The Allied soldiers
on the boats,

they're kind of happy about it

because they can see that the
ground is getting chewed up.

But what they don't realize is

that much of the artillery
fire is misdirected,

falls short or goes too long.

The German positions
are quite safe,

and now they know the
Allies are coming.

- The Nazi army
is one of the most

terrifying and formidable
armies in world history.

- They were at the peak
of their technological

and their warfare capability.

- These are absolutely
battle-hardened troops.

They've been fighting for years
in the east against Russia.

Now, the Allies are coming.

- [Narrator] But a
shocking discovery

awaits the Rangers as
they top Pointe du Hoc.

- When the Rangers
finally scale the cliffs,

get into the emplacements,
they're completely

shocked to find the
guns aren't even there.

- [Narrator] Only once
they scaled the cliffs

did the Rangers realize
that the all important guns,

their objective,
had been removed

at some point prior to D-Day.

The emplacement scene
in the propaganda film

orchestrated by Rommel were
replaced with wooden poles.

Meanwhile, the Maisy
Battery, hidden in secrecy,

springs to action with
devastating effect.

- Maisy was put into
action immediately

on the morning of D-Day.

It started firing at
any of the targets

that it had designated by its
forward observation system.

Guns like this were
capable of firing

two, three, four
rounds per minute.

If you've got command
and control center

being given targets from the
beach from the observers,

from troops visually
spotting the

American troops
coming off the beach,

that target coordinate
would be telephoned in.

And within seconds this could
deliver devastating fire.

- Whilst the Rangers are
bravely taking Pointe du Hoc,

Maisy's guns are still firing,

a phenomenal rapid fire rate.

And what they're
doing is chewing

the American units up on
Omaha beach to pieces.

One of the soldiers
who fought in that

beach that day called
it pure murder.

For days after the
initial raid of D-Day,

shells were raining
down on them.

- Those shells were
coming from none

other than Battery Maisy.

- [Narrator] By June 9th, 1944,

the Maisy Battery
was finally captured,

a full three days after D-Day.

But shockingly, in a world
obsessed with this moment,

the base is completely
lost to history.

Even the townspeople
have no idea

what lies beneath their fields

until Gary Sterne stumbles
upon a forgotten map.

- I phoned a number
of leading museums,

some in the States,
and I was laughed at.

People would say, no,
there's nothing there.

In one particular
instance, the guy said,

"Oh, you found Pointe du Hoc."

And he put the phone down on me.

I knew because of
my own research,

physical research and physical
exploration and discovery,

I knew there was something here.

- You only have to
take one look at what

Gary's uncovered to
see that this is a

complex of immense importance
and immense potential.

The sheer number of
different buildings,

the size of this
particular area,

you know, it's extraordinary.

- Everything is a
progression really

from finding a map in
a pair of trousers.

The map led me on to the field.

The field led me
on to the chimney.

The chimney led
me on to a bunker.

And then, that led me
on to buying the lands.

It was secret really until
the day I uncovered it,

and the press
found out about it.

So, we're talking 60
odd years afterwards,

and then that's when
a lot of people said,

it can't be important.

It can't possibly
be of any interest

because we would know
about it, wouldn't we?

- What has been discovered
could not have been

anything else but a vital
part of the German defenses.

- You can't study Pointe
du Hoc and the defense

of this area without
coming to see Maisy,

without understanding
the role that Maisy

played in the
defense of this area

and the assault
on Pointe du Hoc.

Everything in this
area is interlinked

and Maisy was an
integral part of that.

In my view, over the
years it's a jigsaw piece

which has been missing, and
now that jigsaw is in place.

You can see the full picture,

and until now you
couldn't do that.

- [Narrator] The heroic
acts during the Rangers

assault on Pointe du Hoc
resulted in 70% casualties.

Meanwhile the
secret Maisy Battery

may have been producing
the barrage of artillery

that threatened the
very outcome of D-Day.

But how could such a
devastating complex

disappear from history until
Gary Sterne's discovery?

- Battery Maisy is an extensive
Nazi defensive position.

It's the size of
four football fields.

- The scale of these
fortifications is baffling.

The pillboxes, the
encasements, the bunkers,

the walls, the
landmines, the effort

that has gone into fortifying
this is, it's astronomical.

- It's got machine
gun positions.

It's got huge cannons.

It's got miles of
bunkers and tunnels.

It's got buildings.

It's got a field hospital.

It's surrounded by
marshland with mines.

This is the ultimate
defensive position.

So, how could something like
this be completely lost?

- [Narrator] On D-Day,
the critical target

Point du Hoc provides
a shocking surprise.

No guns were present
on the cliff top.

Meanwhile the Maisy Batteries

may have been the
source of devastating

artillery on the
Rangers position

threatening the very
outcome of D-Day.

Erwin Rommel, Hitler's
most respected general

and the mastermind behind
the Maisy Batteries,

plans more than just
the fortifications.

He also designs the layers
of deception surrounding it.

- The Nazis are
masters of propaganda.

It's frankly how
they came to power.

And, of course, in a
battle as big as the

Second World War, public
opinion still counts.

The Nazis bring the
best they've got.

- Rommel was one of the best
the Nazis had in misdirection,

thus his nickname
the Desert Fox.

He was sly, crafty like a fox.

Why the large wooden poles
where Pointe du Hoc would be?

The Nazis knew we
were looking at it.

They were broadcasting it.

They knew we had intel.

They knew an
invasion was coming.

So, maybe it was put
there as a decoy.

Maybe it was put
there to make people

think it was still armed
to teeth and ready to go.

That's what I think it
was probably Rommel's idea

to put Maisy behind
Pointe du Hoc.

That's a play out
of his playbook.

- Could that have been
Rommel's intention

through his propaganda?

- [Narrator] Hundreds
of casualties were taken

in an attempt to capture
what turned out to

be a possible dummy
site put in place

by the Nazi propaganda machine.

Could Maisy have been the true

Nazi strong point and
not Pointe du Hoc?

- The positioning of
the battery covers

the southern end of Utah beach

and the western end of Omaha
beach where the Rangers landed.

This site was bristling
with weapons on D-Day.

It's very difficult
to know what effect

numerically Maisy
had on the landings.

We know for sure it
was killing troops

walking up the street
towards Pointe du Hoc.

We know it was
shelling Pointe du Hoc.

We know it was
shelling Utah beach.

So, you have to consider

that these are
professional gunners.

We would be very
naive to suggest

that they didn't
incur a large number

of casualties at
those locations.

- If I'm an Allied commander,

I want Maisy's
Battery neutralized

before we even hit the beaches.

I want it destroyed in
the initial bombing runs

because I know that kind
of havoc it can create

on the beach, on the
beaches plural, and to the

landing craft, and all the
way fighting to the battery.

And Maisy's not hit and
liberated or overwhelmed

until D+3, until three days
after the D-Day landing.

So, this battery
inflicts, surely,

some devastating damage
on Allied troops,

not only on D-Day but
in the next three days.

- I think you probably
have to question

what might have been different
on the outcome of D-Day

had the energy, and the
effort, and the intensity

of the attack of Pointe du Hoc

been refocused onto
the Battery Maisy.

- [Narrator] Gary Sterne
has an alternative theory

of what happened
that fateful day,

and it challenges
accepted history.

- As D-Day approached, the
intelligence that we have

states that there's five guns.

Then, there's four guns.

A few weeks later
there's three guns.

There's potentially two guns.

Our intelligence by
D-Day really knew

there were not six
guns there anymore.

The whole complex of Pointe
du Hoc had been dumbed down.

We can't talk about history
as being what could have been.

History is what
happened on the day.

And on the day Pointe
du Hoc was empty.

And on the day and on
the days that followed,

Maisy was fully
operational and firing.

- Just imagine the damage and
the casualties that it caused.

- [Narrator] This base is
part of General Rommel's

larger plan to repel the
Allies back into the channel.

- In the after action reports

of the First Infantry Division,

we found a report of
troops and tanks advancing

to try and relieve the
troops at Pointe du Hoc,

and they were beaten
back by gunfire.

And it says in the report,
Maisy was firing at us.

We lost 35 to 40 men
on the seventh of June.

And that's a day after D-Day.

- Let's remember that
the battery at Maisy

is firing for three whole
days through some of the

most critical moments
of D-Day when the actual

battle hangs in the balance.

It was those hours
that would decide

whether the Allies
were successful.

- [Narrator] As Sterne
continues his excavation,

he comes across the
most extraordinary

discovery yet,
documents detailing

the presence of 4.2
million French francs.

Why would this exceptionally

large sum of money be at Maisy?

Was this space
much more than just

a complex of gun batteries?

- We met Ranger
veterans who said

that there'd been a huge
cash of money found here.

The regional payroll
for the German army

had been stored here and
was still stored here

on the ninth of June.

The Rangers found so much money

they were throwing it about.

They were pushing it
into their shirts,

filling bags with it.

One of them found
out that at the beach

they could exchange it for
U.S. dollars in checks.

To distribute that volume with
such a value in those days,

especially in a poor country,
that says to me that the

Germans had ultimate confidence
that it would be safe here.

- It appears as though the
Maisy Battery was special

and different because it
did have a store of money.

This leads me to
believe that the battery

was much more than
just an armed station.

Perhaps it was meant
to survive in the event

that they were taken
over by the Allies.

This is a place where
the German soldiers

could have survived
conceivably underground

for a very long period of time.

- [Narrator] So, why did Maisy,

this all important puzzle
piece, vanish from history?

Declassified documents
reveal on June 9th, 1944,

three full days after
D-Day, the Rangers

finally launched an assault
on the Maisy Batteries.

- Colonel Rudder put his
force from Pointe du Hoc

into rest on the evening
of the eighth of June,

allowing the rest of the
Ranger force to be gathered up.

And on the morning
of the ninth of June,

they were ordered to attack
and take the Maisy complex.

- [Narrator] After the
assault, the Allies

clear the site of
explosives and ordinance,

cover it with earth, and
return it to the local farmers.

Then, amazingly the site
is completely forgotten,

lost for decades beneath
the fields the farmers work.

- It's not like
people don't live

around this part of France.

It's not like
people haven't lived

here for the last 75 years.

This is a place known about.

The Allies knew about it.

The Allies attacked it.

The Allies won it back.

So, how could something like
that get completely lost?

- The idea that the
most iconic event

of World War II, the
most important day,

maybe in human history, D-Day,

one of the keys if not
the single main key

to Nazi defenses is something
that has been forgotten?

Is something that has been lost.

It doesn't make history books.

How could this happen?

How could we have missed
something this central?

It remains a shocking mystery.

- This story is still alive.

There is still a
mystery to unfold.

- [Narrator] And this is where

Gary's theory begins
to take a darker turn.

- I've uncovered a series,
multiples of Rangers orders,

which were issued
to Colonel Rudder

for his men to undertake.

And they differ from
the conventional norm.

The convention says
that they were to land

at Pointe du Hoc
and guard the road.

But we find that they were
to land at Pointe du Hoc,

destroy whatever
they found there,

and then advance along the coast

to the village of Grandcamp,

attack the Maisy
Batteries on D-Day.

The strange thing is,
and this is the bit

that we can't understand,
Colonel Rudder

kept his men at Pointe du Hoc.

By not advancing
through Grandcamp

and coming to Maisy and
going to his objective,

that allowed the
gun batteries here

to continue to fire
for three days.

- So, ask yourself the question,

why is it that Colonel
Rudder doesn't move

on this fortification,
that's continually

firing on the Allied
troops earlier?

Why does it take him
three days to get there?

- Maisy was firing for
three days after D-Day.

So, sixth, seventh,
eighth, and it was

still firing on the morning
of the ninth of June

when it was finally
attacked by ground troops.

And we know that because
we've got after action reports

from units advancing
with the Rangers

and the naval shore
fire control personnel

who were commanding the ships

and giving them the coordinates
on behalf of the Rangers.

So, they were coordinating
the gunfire from the ships.

And they were asking for gunfire

on Maisy the village and
on the batteries here

to try and silence the
guns and stop them firing

on the morning of
the ninth of June.

- [Narrator] During
Sterne's excavation,

he also finds concrete
mounts for a large

155 millimeter gun,
and he immediately

makes the link to the guns seen

in Rommel's press
footage at Pointe du Hoc.

- The guns found at
Maisy match those

that were originally
seen on the footage

with Rommel at Pointe du Hoc.

In fact, when the Rangers
got to Pointe du Hoc,

all they found in the gun
positions were big wooden logs.

So, what actually happened here?

Were those guns moved after
they'd been filmed there?

Was that the plan all along?

- They were going to bring in
new guns, deck-mounted guns,

the guns that would have
been sitting on a ship.

What they were doing was
building casemented positions,

bomb-proof bunkers above ground.

They were in the process
of being constructed

when D-Day interrupted
that construction.

Two or three or four
months after D-Day,

it would've been a
tremendously powerful battery.

- [Narrator] Perhaps
a clue to the mystery

lies with the fact that
when Gary excavates

the bunkers, he discovers that
they weren't just covered.

They were backfilled
with earth and rock.

- I can't for the
life of me imagine

people taking the time to
backfill those bunkers.

This is a massive bunker.

It would be a herculean task.

- It would have to
be done by hand.

People would have to
move soil and debris

from outside inside
because they would only use

the doorways and the windows.

They wouldn't be
creating any new openings

to easily use
machinery to infill.

The bunkers were designed
to withstand bombing.

That is a huge force.

It is very safe to say
that if the functionality

of these bunkers
was to be converted

into just a buried
structure, it's fine

to have agricultural activities

occurring on top
of this structure.

Bombs are not
equivalent to that.

It is significantly
over-designed for that use.

Infilling a structure
is something

that sometimes we
do in tunneling.

In mining operations, we
will excavate the earth

and take out the material
that we want from the earth.

And we will backfill it.

We will fill it with concrete
to reinstate structure.

Reinstating structure
and filling in the rooms

of these bunkers doesn't
make a whole lot of sense.

- So, the fact that they decided

that it was important to
conceal the information

in the bunkers further
by backfilling them

brings into question
what secrets they hold.

- [Narrator] With an
invasion still ongoing,

why would the Allies
expend unnecessary

amounts of energy to
fill in the structures

of the Maisy Battery
with earth manually?

- After the battle, the
site is almost immediately

cleared of ammunitions.

It's filled in with sand

and given back to
the local farmers.

Since then, the location
and even the very existence

of this base has been completely
forgotten from history.

Did the Allies cover it
up after the war was over?

- [Narrator] The mystery
surrounding the Maisy Battery

only deepens when
Sterne discovers

a strange radio
complex in the center,

an unusual find
that proves Maisy

was an important
link in the chain

of communication
for the Nazi army.

- During the course
of our digging

in various areas, we were
led to a large building

with sloping sides, a
very unusual building.

It's function was to
evaluate radar information

that was coming in
about incoming ships

or incoming aircraft
to the coast.

It would then transmit
that information

to anti-aircraft
units in the areas

where those incursions
were coming.

And it would be
able to give them

height, distance, and
speed of incoming craft,

whether that be ships or
whether it be aircraft.

- Gary's uncovered the
fact that the Germans

had the radar communications
technology systems

built with inside
the Maisy Batteries.

That shows how important
this complex was.

You know, the Second World War

was a battle where radar
became more and more important.

These aren't the
kind of technologies

that you put into
every single base.

You only place them
at critical points

in the Nazi infrastructure.

That raises the question,
was something more

going on at this
particular place?

- It adds a degree of importance

which a lot of gun
batteries didn't have.

The Allies obviously didn't
know the radar center was here.

Because I think that would have

even more further
amplified what they

needed to achieve on D-Day.

- Given what we now
know about Maisy

with communication
systems, this was

obviously a command
and control center

for all of the Nazi resistance.

- [Narrator] What secrets do the

classified archives
hold about Maisy

and the role of
the base on D-Day?

Did senior officers decide
to cover up the base

because it wasn't
neutralized for days

after the invasion and
the damage it inflicted?

By June 9th of 1944,
the Maisy Battery

is finally captured,
but not before

many Allied casualties
are inflicted.

Decades later, the discovery
of this forgotten base

may challenge the D-Day
story that's become legend.

Was the Maisy Battery the
true Nazi strong point

of D-Day and not Pointe du Hoc?

And if so, how?

And why was the base covered up

and forgotten for all this time?

- Colonel Rudder and the Rangers

who were at Pointe du Hoc have
been written about in books.

They are celebrated,
and they occupy

an iconic part of not just D-Day

but of American
history as heroes.

- So, ask yourself the question,

why is it that
Colonel Rudder doesn't

move on this
fortification that's

continually firing on the
Allied troops earlier?

Why does it take him
three days to get there?

- Did the Maisy Battery
continue to operate after D-Day?

Yes, for three days.

Did it inflict enormous
casualties on the Allies?

Almost certainly it did.

Did people die from
June 6th to June 9th

because of what Maisy was doing?

Almost certainly, yes.

So, if Gary's right, it opens up

a really, really painful topic

that probably should
be further explored.

- With something this big,
with so much firepower,

that the Allies knew
something about,

why wasn't more
attention paid towards it

and how they were
going to defeat it?

- The research I've
uncovered recently

proves beyond a
shadow of a doubt

that Colonel Rudder was
ordered to attack Maisy.

It was part of his
D-Day missions list.

He was not ordered to guard the

road behind Pointe du Hoc.

He was ordered to come through
Grandcamp and attack Maisy.

- The Allies knew
about Battery Maisy,

but it seems like
it never made it

anywhere near the top
of the priority list.

Why was that?

- Every single target at
Normandy has been preplanned,

but for some reason the Allies,
who knew about this site,

it wasn't a surprise
that it was there.

They'd been bombing it for
days before the campaign.

Didn't put it on
the priority list.

As a result, Allied
soldiers died.

Why don't we know about Maisy

until Gary Sterne
stumbles on the site?

- It took the Rangers
to come back here

and talk to the press and
talk to the local people

and say, yes, he's
actually telling the truth.

We fought here.

This was a big battle for us.

- [Narrator] This may
be one of the greatest

examples of the success of
the Nazi propaganda machine.

While the aerial
reconnaissance indicated

that Maisy was a
threat, the Allies chose

to pour resources
into Pointe du Hoc.

- It's most likely that
the site was buried

in an attempt to just draw a
line under the whole subject,

to stop people
talking about Maisy.

If Maisy didn't exist anymore,

people wouldn't be asking
questions about Maisy.

- Was this successful
communications

and propaganda from Rommel?

Was it a mistake by the Allies,

maybe caught up in the confusion
of the battle on D-Day?

But the real question is, is
there something that happened,

something at stake,
something in history here

that's been covered up by
the Allied authorities?

- Could it be that the
Allies were so embarrassed

by the sheer loss of
manpower at the Maisy battery

that they just did not
want this story to get out?

- It's very difficult to
know why it was buried,

but when you take all the
evidence into account,

that Colonel Rudder
stayed at Pointe du Hoc

instead of advancing inland.

The generals who had ordered
Rudder to advance inland

and take Maisy didn't on D-Day

question why he
wasn't advancing.

Are they at fault?

Did Eisenhower know
that his generals

hadn't allowed his
troops to advance?

All of these factors
come together

to bring out the
question, who buried it?

Who ordered the burial at Maisy?

And why was it then
almost written out

of historical
documentation post-war?

- Something the size
of four football fields

behind Pointe du
Hoc that inflicted

most likely
horrendous casualties,

I don't know how
that's been forgotten.

- When I think about
the Maisy base,

it started in secrecy,
and it's morphed

into a different
kind of secrecy now

and one that we only have
pieces of the puzzle.

But from an engineering
point of view,

that base was
originally constructed

to provide a very, very
destructive offensive point

that had a critical role
in progressing the war.

That is very evident from
the construction itself.

- And if it hadn't been for
Gary finding that complex,

well, it's not
impossible to assume

that the whole story would
remain buried forever.

- [Narrator] The
Maisy Batteries played

a crucial part in
the events of D-Day.

The German army managed to
build the base in total secrecy,

all while diverting
attention to the nearby

battery at Pointe du Hoc,
that might have been a decoy.

As the excavations of the
rediscovered base at Maisy

expose more details,
and secrets are unlocked

in declassified
war documents, the

truth will eventually
be revealed.

[dramatic instrumental music]