All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S02E01.The.Sum.of.All.Fears.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] 1936.

On a remote peninsula
in northern Germany,

a top-secret project
of astounding scale

is being built by the Nazis.

- Why are the Germans building

such an immense
industrial complex

just off the Baltic coast?

- There are hundreds
of buildings.

This is a whole city.

- My brain can't even
fathom the budget.

- [Narrator] Here,
earth-shattering technology

will be created.

- There's a lot of
innovation happening.

- No project was too big.

Nothing was undoable.

- [Narrator] Thousands of
scientists and engineers

working under strict
security measures.

- The Nazis were
obsessed with secrecy.

- Anyone caught
passing information

would have been
condemned to death.

- You have to start thinking,

"There's something
else going on here."

[ominous music]

- [Narrator] Temperamental
and dangerous machines

are being built in the shadows.

- You're talking about a
whole new level of terror.

- If something went wrong
here, you'd level the place.

- [Narrator] All for
one sinister purpose.

- What was it that
was being done there

that was so
important to destroy?

[suspenseful orchestral music]

- [Narrator]
February 17th, 1945.

The top-secret Peenemunde Army
Research Center in Germany

is abandoned by the Nazis.

- They evacuated this facility.

It was hundreds of structures,

and they moved that
underground quickly in a war.

- [Narrator] With Allied
forces closing in on all sides,

things are looking grim
for the Third Reich.

- It became obvious that Nazi
Germany was going to lose.

The Red Army is rushing
in from the east.

The Allies get a
toehold in D-Day

and are coming in from the west.

The writing was on the wall.

- [Narrator] The site personnel,
equipment, and research

is transported deeper
into Nazi territory,

away from the Allies' reach.

Whatever can't be
taken is to be burned.

- What secret are they
trying to hide here?

- [Narrator] Today,
Peenemunde is home

to the ruins of a once-sprawling
industrial complex.

But in the 1930s, it is
simply a small fishing village

on the Usedom on the
Baltic coast of Germany.

- Peenemunde, named
for the river Peene

that flows into the Baltic,

used to be a quaint
seaside town.

It was a popular tourist spot

renowned for their
fish sandwiches

and a favorite retreat for
Prussian royalty of old.

- It was an isolated
area, but it wasn't so far

that it didn't have
good rail connections

to major centers in
other parts of Germany.

So, you could get there
by train from Berlin

and you could get
supplies in and out.

- But in 1936, it
serves another purpose.

The Nazis have much
more evil ideas

for this formerly
quaint fishing village.

- [Narrator] On April 2nd, 1936,

three years into
Adolf Hitler's rule,

the Aviation Ministry
pays 750,000 Reichsmarks,

around $5.5 million
US dollars today,

for the entire northern
peninsula of the island,

and the massive
construction project begins.

- Projects being
built in remote areas

present their own challenges.

You've gotta build roads
in to even get there.

- Geotechnical engineers
need to come in

and assess the ground,
and that will determine

how they're going to build
the structure on top.

- The soil there was wet, it
was mucky, it was a swamp.

They had a lot of work to do

to even bring it up to a
feasible construction site.

Why not build it somewhere else

with better soil conditions,
with better access?

There's something about
building so remotely

that was important to them.

- [Narrator] A power
station, pumping station,

heating plant, and massive
housing complexes are set up.

Shops, schools, and
restaurants are built

to serve a sizable population.

- Being here in Peenemunde,

you can understand
this effort necessary.

They built 700
buildings around here,

buildings up to four times
bigger than the power station.

- My brain can't even
fathom the budget,

probably in the
billions to start.

And then, by the end,
probably double that,

because especially on a
project of this scale,

you're always over-budget.

- You've got multistory
factories, basically,

with heavy equipment in it.

There's tons of
different materials

coming together to
build this facility.

You need a lot of concrete

to build these very
robust structures.

You need cranes, you
need mechanical equipment

to put these elements in place.

That takes money and manpower.

- When I look at
these structures,

it looks almost as if they
were just over-engineered,

just overkill on concrete,
overkill on the quality

and the strength of all
of these structures.

Why would you need
to over-engineer
everything so much?

- [Narrator] Rail lines are
built throughout the site.

Over the next few years,

the lines are expanded
to cover 65 miles.

- That's a huge task
in and of itself

to be able to create that
appropriate structural rail bed

to support the kind
of loads and traffic

that those areas
were going to see,

and they needed 65 miles of it.

- So, for the Nazis to
have built what they built,

they would've had to
have brought everything,

and I mean everything, in.

This was remote.

There was nothing there.

So, who was it for?

- [Narrator] By 1938,
the industrial complex

covers 10 square miles.

- Peenemunde was a city.

It would be the equivalent
of a massive university today

filled with research
sites and laboratories.

- [Narrator] The
site is split in two,

with the army occupying
Peenemunde East

and the Luftwaffe
in Peenemunde West.

At the start, Peenemunde
is home to 80 researchers.

Many bring their families.

- It's a kind of idyllic
community setting

where the elite scientists
and their families lived.

There were beaches, you
could go to the club,

you could go to the cinema.

It's an entire world
cut off in a way

from the rest of Germany.

- When you see this
complex on the map,

you can see just
how isolated it is.

And so, then it makes sense

that if the Nazis did
want to build something

that they wanted to keep
away from prying eyes,

this was the perfect spot.

- [Narrator] The site is still
under construction in 1939

when, having spent
years rearming the Reich

and stoking German nationalism,
Hitler invades Poland.

- And that becomes the
proverbial line in the sand.

And so, at that point,
France and Britain

are both committed to
the specter of war,

and that's what technically
starts World War II.

- [Narrator] With
the war underway,

Peenemunde's isolation
is a strategic advantage.

- This was one of the biggest

and best-kept secrets
of the Third Reich.

And at the beginning of the war,

it must've seemed that this
facility was completely safe

because no Allied bomber
had a hope of getting close.

- The distance that a typical
airplane could fly back then

was not what it is today,

so it woulda been
impossible for the British

to leave from an airfield in
England and hit Peenemunde.

- [Narrator] Nevertheless,
the Germans implement

strict security measures

and build a massive system
of coastal defenses.

- When you look at this place,

you soon realize this is
a purely military complex.

- [Narrator] Of
the 700 buildings

that once existed on this site,

only one remains standing today.

- When you first arrive
at this location,

I mean, your attention
is immediately drawn

by this huge building.

It looks like it's some
kind of giant factory

that at some point musta
been very efficient

at producing whatever
product was being made there.

- Concrete structures
can last very long,

but this one is in
really good shape.

What was the strength
of that concrete?

Oh my goodness!

- [Narrator] This
sturdy building

reveals itself to
be a power station

capable of producing
30 megawatts of energy.

- This, in real-world
dollars of today,

is a multibillion-dollar project

and it's on the
same type of scale

as what we would consider now

the largest nuclear power
plants in the world.

- You have to start thinking,

"What was it that
was going on here

"that needed that much power?"

- 33 megawatts of power

is not something that
you order off a shelf,

and they were only
halfway there.

They were hoping to double that.

- When you step inside
and you're confronted

with these cavernous
turbine holds

and the scale of the boilers,
everything's super-sized here.

There are these huge
banks of controls,

and it's very different from
modern-day control rooms

which are all on
computer screens.

Here, you've got physical gauges

and valves and
levers and lights.

- This really is one
of the first examples

of a megawatt-size power plant.

- The supply of coal
required to run this plant

and deliver that power is huge.

Never-ending barges
dumping this coal on land

and just building mountains
of it for them to consume.

They needed this fuel
source constantly.

- You'd have huge
amounts of coal

brought in on
barges up the river,

where it'd then be
taken into the facility

on a conveyor belt.

Now, that coal was then
burned in giant boilers,

producing steam
at high pressure,

which is then channeled
to turn turbines,

generating your electricity.

- These are some of the largest
steam turbines being made

and the largest generators
attached to those turbines

that have ever
been built as well.

- [Narrator] Generating
power on that scale

comes with risks.

- Steam contains an
immense amount of energy,

and when it's released,
it's extremely destructive.

And we really want to produce

as much pressure in
that steam as possible.

We start to try and have
bigger and bigger steam pipes,

higher and higher flows

and, at the same time,
higher and higher pressures.

And the problem with that

is that the stresses
in those pipes

go up very significantly.

Once you have that
steam pressure,

there's so much energy density,
it's almost like a bomb.

- You can understand that
a facility of this scale

is gonna require a lot of
power, but over 30 megawatts!

That's not all that
much these days.

But back then, that was a
phenomenal amount of power.

What do they need it for?

What's going on here?

- Why are the Germans building

such an immense
industrial complex

just off the Baltic coast?

- [Narrator] Whatever
the Nazis are doing here,

it needs massive
amounts of power,

and a large amount
of it is directed

to this ominous structure.

In 1936, the Nazis
begin construction

on Peenemunde Army
Research Center in Germany.

- This isn't just one factory.

This is an immense
industrial complex.

It's truly a city.

- [Narrator] The
10-square-mile site

holds a massive
30-megawatt power station.

- Why; what are they doing?

There's a lot of questions

around what this
facility is meant for.

- [Narrator] One clue
as to why the Nazis

needed so much power might be
found in this abandoned ruin.

- 22 megawatts of that
30-megawatt production capacity

is consumed by the
production of liquid oxygen.

- In the oxygen plant,

we're using the first
refrigeration systems,

some of the first
massive-scale systems

to cool things down to
super-cool temperatures.

- The process of
producing liquid oxygen

requires temperatures as low
as -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

I can only imagine the
innovative thinking

that had to be around
the research table

when they were talking about,

"How are we going to get
-300 degrees Fahrenheit

"and then sustain it in order
to produce all of this?"

- [Narrator] Production
of liquid oxygen

is not only energy-intensive,
it's extremely dangerous.

- It's pressurized.

There is potential
for explosion.

Oxygen doesn't wanna
remain in its liquid form.

It wants to change states.

It wants to be gas.

And whenever that happens,
there's energy that's expelled.

If something went wrong
here, you'd level the place.

You need to consider
containment;

basically, bomb shelters
to protect people

and scientists working
in these facilities.

- [Narrator] The
plant manufactures

over 28,000 pounds of
liquid oxygen every day.

- What on Earth could
you possible need

28,000 pounds of liquid
oxygen for every single day?

[explosion booming]

- [Narrator] By 1941,
the Nazis are embroiled

in a two-front war.

The engineers at Peenemunde

believe they can use
that liquid oxygen

to give Germany the upper hand.

- As the war goes on,
it's increasingly clear

that everything the Germans
have got to bear so far

isn't gonna win the war.

- Maybe the Nazis
had superior tanks,

but they could be
hit from the skies.

Maybe Nazi Germany had built

impressive eastern
and west walls,

but the Allied bombers
could fly right over them.

- Hitler must've known
that unless he brought

revolutionary new
technology to the table,

the war musta been lost.

- [Narrator] Still
feeling the sting

of the loss of World War I,

the Nazis apply the lessons
learned from their defeat.

- The army in World War I

had placed a lot of
emphasis on technology.

It had shock troops.

They had huge guns
in World War I,

Big Bertha and long-range guns

that were aimed at
places like Paris.

They learned the lesson
that science and technology

went hand-in-hand
with the military.

- [Narrator] With conventional
battle strategies failing,

the Nazis redirect
their resources

to the growing
science of rocketry.

- Rockets have
theoretically been with us

for thousands of years.

Ancient Chinese
societies had them.

And rockets weren't covered
by the Versailles Treaty

because that technology
really didn't exist very much.

- In order to power this
revolutionary technology,

you need liquid oxygen.

It's volatile fuel, it's
highly complex to make,

and it requires an immense
amount of production facilities.

- [Narrator] The 28,000
pounds of liquid oxygen

created daily at Peenemunde
will fuel these new weapons.

But developing
this new technology

requires a new way of thinking.

- Almost every military
is always preparing

for the last war,
not the next war.

The generals and admirals
were trained decades before

in an antiquated form of combat

and military
strategies and tactics.

Along comes Wernher von Braun.

- Wernher von Braun
was a true academic,

and he was very ambitious
and had big dreams

about what humans might achieve

if they're able to
go into outer space.

By the age of 30, he's
running the vast majority

of the technical
programs at Peenemunde.

- Von Braun could almost be the
epitome of the mad scientist

because he's thinking of things

that virtually no one
has ever thought about.

He suggests that he can change
the complexion of warfare

by developing
rockets and missiles

that can travel
hundreds of miles.

- Hitler wasn't
really interested

in the beginning of the war,

but they showed him
films and showed him,

"This is how we
can beat England."

From 1942, Hitler says, "Oh yes,

"this will be the
weapon to win this war."

- [Narrator] Von Braun
oversees the development

of many technologies
at Peenemunde,

including advances
in television systems

and the world's first
electric analog computer.

- You've got some
really brilliant

German engineers and scientists,

people who were really
pushing the envelope

in terms of new technologies.

- [Narrator] But this innovation
is in support of one goal:

the creation of new
rocket-powered weapons
for Adolf Hitler.

- There's a very pro-science
mentality in Germany,

but it's pro-science in the
sense that there's a commitment

to shifting scientific
priorities to Nazi priorities.

- A lot of scientists
and engineers

were swayed by the desire
to push the boundaries.

They obviously
joined the Nazi Party

and became part of the evil
machine that was the Nazis.

- So, it's almost
like the scientists

are making a pact
with the devil.

They're coming together,
getting state support,

the kind of support they
wouldn't get anywhere else,

but it's all gonna
go towards one aim:

death and destruction.

- [Narrator] By 1942, the
workforce has greatly expanded.

Peenemunde East alone
has 5,000 workers,

including engineers,
technicians,

scientists, and support staff.

- With so many people, you're
planning something big.

- [Narrator] Every
effort is made

to disguise the
cutting-edge technology

being developed at Peenemunde,

starting with a device known
as Flak Target Apparatus 76.

- The Nazis knew that
the Allies were watching,

so they went to the
effort to disguise that

and convince everybody outside

that this was just another
anti-aircraft system.

- The British took the attitude

that no piece of
information is too small.

So, the idea of creating
entirely fictional stories

about what these
sites were up to

was designed to stop the British

from getting their hands
on the genuine information

through their vast
network of informants.

- [Narrator] Flak
Target Apparatus 76

is in reality the codename
of a terrifying new device

that the Nazis believe will
change the course of the war:

Vengeance Weapon 1.

- The V-1 is a flying bomb
using rocket technology.

It's pretty rudimentary stuff,

although it's highly
capable for its time.

- It has a kind of
prearranged telemetry

by virtue of how you shoot it.

They travel largely silently

until they reach that arc
where they whistle down.

- It's capable of delivering

almost a ton of
explosive firepower

from a huge distance away.

If the Germans can get hundreds

or even thousands of
these to hit the Allies,

as Hitler had intended,

the war's gonna take a
very different direction.

- The V-1 wreaked
havoc on Britain.

The new rocket
technology made it faster

than any conventional prop
airplane, 400 miles an hour.

And the advanced fuel
system allowed it to travel

from the European continent
across the English Channel,

raining down destruction
on the population below.

- The V-1 flying bombs
were revolutionary

and they caused terror, but
only for a short period of time

because the Allies
would quickly work out

that they can shoot them down

or just disturb them
from their trajectory.

- [Narrator] In addition,
the V-1 has a limited range

and unreliable accuracy.

- They didn't have laser-

and radar-guided
systems at the time.

It's like throwing a rock
from a trebuchet or a catapult

toward your enemy's castle,
and where it lands, who knows?

- But their principal
intent was to demonstrate

the capacity of the German
state and what's coming next.

And of course, the Germans
had lots of other plans.

- [Narrator] As
the war rages on,

the site at
Peenemunde is growing

to include strange
facilities in the woods

at the very edge
of the peninsula.

- You have this very large
space with clear visibility.

- So, what is going on here?

- [Narrator] World War II.

Engineers at Peenemunde Army
Research Center in Germany

have created the
V-1 flying bomb,

the first of Hitler's
vengeance weapons.

- Huge numbers of V-1 rockets

were launched against
Allied targets

and thousands of people
were ultimately killed.

- [Narrator] The V-1
terrorizes Britain.

But with limited speed,
range, and accuracy,

it is not enough to
achieve Hitler's goals.

- The answer for the
Nazis was the V-2,

the world's first long-range
ballistic missile.

[missile roaring]
Much larger, much faster.

These things could fly
over 3,000 miles an hour.

They could travel 200 miles
and boasted a one-ton warhead.

- [Narrator] At Peenemunde,

in the woods at the very
edge of the peninsula

is the testing site for
Hitler's newest wonder-weapon.

- The location of Peenemunde

makes it an ideal testing
site for these rockets.

There's very few people
around outside of the complex

who are gonna be able
to see what's going on.

You have this very large
space with clear visibility.

- Imagine being a fisherman

who lived and worked along
the coastline of Peenemunde.

And all of a sudden, you
look up and you see rockets

launching into the sky.

It musta been a
frightening experience

for the locals that
lived along the coast.

- The V-2 is a completely
new technology,

and with that comes a
completely new level of terror.

- The V-1 rocket, the buzz
bomb, everybody hears it coming.

With the V-2, when we
launch it up into space

and that rocket starts
falling back to Earth,

it's actually breaking the
speed of sound on its free-fall.

By the time the rocket
hits the ground,

you still haven't heard it.

- Imagine if you're Adolf Hitler

and across the table from you,

German generals are explaining

that they should be able
to hit the British Isles

and the Allies with
this revolutionary
supersonic technology

and they won't have
any kinda defense.

The tantalizing idea that
he can strike without mercy

musta been quite
exciting for him.

- [Narrator] Scientists
work around the clock

to perfect the V-2 rocket.

Great advances are
made to its engines,

fuel mixture,
range, and payload.

- One of the things
about developing

advanced new technologies

is you start developing
the sub-technologies

to enable that
larger technology.

So, a rocket; yeah,
that's a great technology.

But all the little pieces and
all the little technologies

that go into it are
equally important

to make that rocket work.

- What's the logical next
step for this rocket?

Well, they built it
so it was capable

of going at supersonic speeds.

The next thing
woulda been accuracy.

[fireworks fizzing]

- Fireworks that we see all
the time are chemical rockets.

They have no guidance system.

All we can do is shoot them up
in the air and they explode.

We actually have
to take a system

and put it into this rocket

and have it take the rocket
to where it needs to go.

- [Narrator] To
solve this problem,

Peenemunde engineers construct

the world's first
electronic analog computer.

- At that point in time,
we were just starting out

with the process of
having machines produce
their own logic.

So, the German engineers are
developing a new technology

where a system of circuits
can start to make decisions:

how to actuate flaps, how much
thrust I need at this point,

how I can change my trajectory
to get to where I need to be.

Basically, the V-2 is
the self-driving car

of the 1930s and 1940s.

If Wernher von Braun,
a scientist involved
in this project,

had been even better at being
able to guide this technology,

well, it's not
impossible to imagine

that when the Allied fleet
had sailed across the channel

to launch the
invasion of Normandy,

the Germans could've rained
down a hail of rocket technology

that the Allies would've
had no chance of stopping.

- [Narrator] In addition
to the rockets themselves,

other technologies are developed

to help the researchers
do their jobs.

- So, in the 1930s,
we saw the advent

of the first cathode ray tube.

So, these are TVs, essentially.

A closed-circuit TV system is
basically we have a camera,

in this case at our launch site,

and then we transmit the
signal from that camera

to a remote cathode ray tube,

essentially a TV, at
a remote location.

And these are some
of the first times

that we're taking
remote live images

from one location and projecting
them in another place.

- For the Nazis, this
is trial and error.

And the ability to be able
to watch these rockets

as they land over immense
distances is really important

'cause that's the only
way they're gonna be able

to learn what works
and what doesn't.

- Prior to these type of
systems being developed

in the 1930s,

the only way to see what
was happening somewhere else

was to take a movie, run back,

develop the film,
and then project it.

That's not gonna happen in
any short period of time.

[rocket roaring]

- [Narrator] The Allies
getting their hands on a film

of the V-2 in action would
be a devastating blow

to the Nazis' plans.

- They always
considered competition

between Germany and the US.

They thought, "We
and the Americans

"are the biggest
innovative nations,"

so they idea was,
"We have to be first

"and we have to realize
it completely secretly."

- [Narrator] With a
staff of thousands,

security measures at
Peenemunde are strict.

- There's all kinds of
rules and regulations

about what you
can and cannot do.

It's already an
isolated community.

The bridges are guarded.

You have to have special passes.

- Well, the Nazis were
obsessed with secrecy

on all sorts of
different levels.

This was a regime generally
run by German intelligence,

and the spearhead
of that, of course,

is the Schutzstaffel, or the SS.

- And the SS installs
spies on the inside

to listen in on conversations

and to report on what
people were saying.

- [Narrator] Amid this
atmosphere of fear and paranoia,

plans are made to
begin manufacturing
the V-2 at Peenemunde.

- When Hitler became interested
in this rocket project,

he said, "Okay, yeah,
that will be the weapon."

And he said, "Okay,
we have to hit England

"by 5,000 missiles at one time."

And then one time he said,

"We'll launch 50,000 missiles
to England per year."

One time he said 100,000.

And everybody says, "Yes,

"that's the way how
we'll win this war."

- For the Allies,
the ability to stop

this revolutionary technology

would've been first on the list.

- [Narrator] Can
Peenemunde's isolation

and strict security
measures hold off the Allies

long enough to make
thousands of rockets?

[ominous music]

Engineers at Peenemunde Army
Research Center in Germany

are hard at work perfecting

Hitler's newest vengeance
weapon, the V-2.

- A British Lancaster
heavy bomber

can deliver six tons
of high explosive.

The V-2 rocket can
deliver one ton.

So, in order for the Germans

to be able to win the
war with this technology,

they need to produce as
many rockets as possible.

- [Narrator] Hitler's
ambitious goal

of 100,000 launches per year

means Peenemunde needs
to expand its workforce.

In 1943, 3,000 slave-laborers

and 1,300 concentration
camp workers

are brought in to
work in the factories.

The slaves are
mostly from Belgium,

France, and the Netherlands,
and are building weapons

that will be used
against their own people.

Peenemunde is gearing up for
mass production of the V-2,

but Hitler's plans are
soon hampered by reality.

- One of the problems
with the weapon systems

being developed in
Peenemunde was the fuel.

- Each rocket needed four tons
of liquid oxygen to launch.

That's a lot.

- [Narrator] Even with
Peenemunde's output

of 28,000 pounds of
liquid oxygen per day,

it won't be enough.

- There was a engineer here,

the group leader of
the engine section,

and he started to calculate,

"How much fuel would we need
to launch all those rockets?"

And he came to the result,
"We won't be able to launch

"more than 5,000, maybe
6,000 missiles per year."

- [Narrator] But the Nazis
have a more pressing problem.

Despite their
obsession with secrecy,

word gets out that something
big is going on at Peenemunde.

- Intelligence
about the facility

made its way to the Allies,

intel that would ultimately
seal the facility's fate.

- [Narrator] The Allies
initiate Operation Crossbow,

a plan to systematically destroy

all of the V-weapon development
sites throughout the Reich,

starting with Peenemunde.

- The only way the Allies
could stop these missiles

was to hit the source where
they were manufactured,

and did they ever.

At great personal
risk to themselves,

two Polish laborers
at Peenemunde

smuggled out maps and reports

which made their
way to the British.

The British acted.

Known as Operation Hydra, on
the night of August 17th, 1943,

several hundred aircraft
struck the massive facility.

It was the largest bombing
campaign of the entire war

against a single target.

They suffered considerable
damage to Peenemunde,

including the death

of some of their most
important scientists.

- [Narrator] In the raid,
the Allies mainly target

the labs, offices,
and living quarters.

With a rocket
program so advanced,

is it strange that
the bombing raid

did not focus on the
manufacturing capabilities?

- There's something to be said
for targeting the brain trust

rather than targeting
the buildings,

because the hope was
that in doing so,

you would effectively
make it impossible

for the other scientists
to keep going.

If you can take
out the scientists,

you essentially kneecap
the entire program.

- It's actually really difficult

to replace scientists
and engineers

because they all have a very
specific field of expertise.

The engineer who
really understands

the liquid oxygen
manufacturing process,

it becomes very difficult

to rebuild that process
as a whole somewhere else.

While you might be
able to continue

some of the manufacturing,

you're still gonna
take a lot more time

relearning some of
that information.

- Much of the residence complex
is taken out by the bombers,

and it's quite
psychologically damaging

to the group who work
there because before that,

they had felt largely
untouched by the war.

So, all of a sudden,
they're realizing

that they are just as vulnerable

as every other part of Germany

to the Allied bombing campaign.

- Tragically, of
course, they also kill

a lot of innocent workers
who were there, right?

The slave-laborers
and some civilians,

but it's a legitimate
military target.

They cause damage,

and certainly that damage
slowed down production,

but it didn't stop production.

- [Narrator] While the Nazis
will continue to use Peenemunde

as a test site for the V-2,

development and production
of this wonder-weapon

is moved elsewhere.

- It's followed up by
several more bombings

by the Americans.

So, it is the indication
to the group at Peenemunde

that essentially
they've been found out,

that now they know that
the Allies are on to them

and that they can expect
more bombings to follow.

- And it's precisely after that

that the facilities
are moved to Mittelwerk

with the province of Thuringia,
and there it's reshaped,

largely in underground
facilities utilizing, again,

slave labor from the
Dora concentration camp.

So, the program continues,

and it's actually
after the bombings

that the V-1 and V-2 are
successfully launched.

So, the idea that
Hydra destroyed it
is a bit misleading.

It set it back a few months

and did manage to kill some
top officials, but not enough.

- [Narrator] The
researchers and scientists

remaining at Peenemunde
shift focus to new projects.

- Right up until the very
end of the Second World War,

the scientists at Peenemunde
are working round-the-clock

to develop new and
even better technology

to turn the tide of the battle.

- It makes you
think that the V-1

and the V-2 was just the start.

What further terror
is on its way?

[pensive orchestral music]

- [Narrator] 1943.

The Allies have
attacked the Nazis'

most important secret
research center,

delaying the development
and production

of Hitler's new wonder-weapons,
the V-1 and V-2.

- The intent in the bombing

wasn't necessarily to
destroy the facility.

It was to kill scientists.

That's the valuable
resource there.

- [Narrator] While the
remaining researchers

relocated and retool,

Nazi leaders discover another
way to use these weapons.

- Because they're
fighting a two-front war,

they're stretched very, very
thin in terms of manpower.

So, the hope is
the rocket program

would intimidate the British

into trying to come to some
sort of agreement with Hitler

which would allow him to
only have to fight a war

against the Soviet Union.

- It was also designed to cause
terror and to cause panic,

because, of course,
now people think,

"Well, the Nazis have
this secret weapon,

"and therefore we've already
lost this war," right?

It produces a
demoralizing effect.

- I remember my
grandmother telling me

about the sheer chaos in London

of having these V-2
rockets come over

that no one knew about.

Panic and fear, they're the
things that can change a war.

So, Goebbels's propaganda
starts to emphasize

that these Wunderwaffe,
these wonder-weapons,

will change the
course of the war.

It gives the average
German civilian and soldier

the hope that if they
carry on fighting,

their scientists might
be able to rescue them.

- This belief in new
technology as salvation

was more or less invented
by the Peenemundes themself.

They kind of sold their weapons

to the political decision-makers

and they took this
ideology of technology

and used it for
propaganda purposes.

- The Allies are
pounding German cities,

so the Nazis decide to call
this V-2 rocket technology

a vengeance weapon.

It's gonna strike revenge back
into the hearts of the Allies

and teach them a lesson
for what they're doing

to the German cities.

- [Narrator] With V-2
development moved elsewhere,

the Peenemunde
researchers concentrate

on development of
new wonder-weapons,

like the V-3 long-range cannon

and the Wasserfall
and anti-aircraft
version of the V-2.

- Right up until the very
end of the Second World War,

the scientists at Peenemunde
are working round-the-clock

to develop new and
even better technology

to turn the tide of the battle.

- Who knows what other
science, what other weapons,

what other rockets were
developed at these sites?

- [Narrator] In February 1945,
with the Allies closing in,

the last V-2 test rocket
is launched at Peenemunde.

- Fortunately for history,

Germany could not
sustain the costs

of building thousands and
thousands of these rockets.

- They were only producing
one rocket every 90 minutes.

With that kind of
rate of production,

there was no chance for the V-2
rocket to be a game-changer,

and that's the
story of Peenemunde.

What would've happened if
they launched that facility

a couple of years earlier?

If they'd been a couple of years

further down the
line at Peenemunde,

they could've changed the
entire course of the war.

- [Narrator] Over
the next month,

the remaining staff,
around 4,000 people,

relocate to the alternate sites,

destroying anything they
can't take with them.

- Today, as an engineer,

if I wanna move from
one place to the other,

I just take my laptop.

All of my files are digital;
they're stored on a network.

In this era, though,
everything was on paper.

That scientific
process was documented

through hundreds and
hundreds of pieces of paper,

drawings, schematics,
everything,

and they had to
physically move that

from one place to another
as quickly as possible.

- The starting point of
the history of Peenemunde

is the decision, "What
can we take with us

"and what are we
going to destroy?"

- It has fueled a lot
of conspiracy theories.

I think that it woulda
been very difficult

for these scientists to
burn some of their research

because they were
very proud of it.

They were proud of the
potential that the rockets had

for creating a new
space frontier.

And so, some of them
would have willingly

handed that material
over to the Americans,

even though they
were supposed to

have destroyed it as they left.

- So, they not just made their
own propaganda during war,

but they also started to
write their own history

because they decided what
should get into the archives

and what not.

And we as historians have to
ask, "What don't they tell?"

- [Narrator] On May 5th, when
the Soviet army rolls in,

they find this vast
facility over 75% destroyed,

with all of the
research facilities

and rocket test stands in ruins.

But Peenemunde's story
doesn't end here.

- The reality of war is that
it really pushes forward

technologies that may not have
developed at the same speed

if we'd been in
normal civilian times.

- There were literally
trainloads of documents

carried away from Peenemunde,

so where did all of this end
up and what did it contain?

[pensive orchestral music]

- [Narrator] Throughout
World War II,

Peenemunde is the Nazis'
foremost research facility.

But when the Soviet army
captures the site in 1945,

they find it abandoned
and partially destroyed.

- So, the Russians are curious
as to what's gone on there

and, of course,
like they always do,

try to find as much
as they possibly can

to try to improve
their own scientific

and technological programs.

But, really, their principal
interest is to get to Berlin.

- [Narrator] Peenemunde
is bombed four times

throughout 1943 and
'44, destroying 75%
of its structures.

But today, other
than the power plant,

nearly all other buildings
are in complete ruins.

If this isn't the result
of Allied bombing,

what is the cause?

- The structures that
are left standing

is just a small piece of
what this facility was.

- There's a lot of metal.

There's a lot of
abandoned stuff.

There's a lot of
stuff that's broken.

- The destruction creating
a ruined landscape,

this was the result of
the blasting of Peenemunde

after the war by
the Soviet army.

- [Narrator] Under the terms
of post-World War II Europe,

the Soviets must destroy the
facilities at Peenemunde.

But is it possible that
this was just a cover

to avoid anyone else
getting their hands

on advanced Nazi tech?

- The Nazis were
at the forefront of
science and technology,

and their research
was mission-critical

to the Allies and the Soviets.

- The Second World War happens,

and Russia goes from being a
primarily peasant community

to being an
industrial world power

in a very short period of time.

So, the Russians really reaped
a huge amount of technology

from Germany during
the postwar era.

- [Narrator] At the
end of World War II,

Europe is divided
by the Iron Curtain.

Whatever technology taken by
the Soviets from Peenemunde

becomes shrouded in secrecy.

- There's a lot of speculation;
some conspiracy, some not.

But after the war,
the US and the Soviets

immediately rolled out

their own new advanced weapons
systems based on the V-1.

The US military
reverse-engineered the V-1

from debris they'd
managed to gather

from an exploded
device in Belgium.

And only months later, they
brought out the JB-2 Loon,

which was almost
identical to the V-1.

What other technology was
captured from the Germans

that we don't know about?

- [Narrator] It
would seem impossible

for this advanced
level of technology

to spring up so quickly,

unless you had your hands
on the tech and scientists

and were keeping it secret.

- Peenemunde was not only

a state-of-the-art
weapons facility

that was critical to the
Nazis' success in the war,

but it would end up impacting

the future of weapons
of mass destruction

and even space travel.

- The Germans have taken

immense steps forward
in technology.

That technology doesn't exist
anywhere else in the world

in the 1930s and the 1940s.

The Americans and the Russians
want to reap the benefits

of that intellectual
investment, manpower investment

to further technology
in their own countries.

- Most of the scientists,

they wanted to give
themselves up to the Americans

and not to the Soviets.

Germany had engaged
in such a ruthless

and brutal war of annihilation
against the Soviet Union.

There was a sense that
they would be shown

very little mercy
under Soviet rule.

- As World War II was ending,

President Truman authorized
a top-secret program

to not only find Nazi
research and documents,

but to snatch and grab
top Nazi scientists.

- The Americans find
a special category

in which to place
these scientists.

Some of their records
are whitewashed.

- Known as Operation Paperclip,

the mission ultimately brought

about 1,600 Nazi scientists
to the United States,

including Wernher von Braun.

- And now he's working
with the Americans

to build the same
kinds of weapons

he was working on
in Nazi Germany,

only this time, of course,

they're potentially being
used against the Soviet Union.

- Can we directly
link Peenemunde

with the Americans
developing rocket technology

and putting a man on the moon?

Well, we know one
thing for sure:

The Germans' desperate desire
to win the Second World War

by developing these
new technologies

pushed these scientists
further and faster

than they ever could have
done in normal civilian times.

- The V-2 rockets literally
leave the Earth's atmosphere

and are on the edge of space

during their parabolic
flight to London.

It's a lot of baby steps
in really quick succession

so that we can have that major
leap at the end of the day.

- The Soviets also
got several hundred

of engineers and scientists

who worked for
them after the war.

They took them with
them to the Soviet Union

and started their own
rocket project also

with German experience
like the US did.

- [Narrator] What has happened

to all of the lost
documents of Peenemunde

and what tech or research

is locked away in
a Russian archive?

- At this facility, there's a
lot of innovation happening.

You've got hundreds of people
working on these projects

and documenting their findings,
but they had to relocate

and choose what
they took with them.

But you can imagine the
brainpower behind all this.

There's a lot more to this
story that we may never know.

- It's inevitable that there
were technologies developed

that we don't know about.

Some of the equipment
was novel and new,

and some of those
engineers and scientists

probably weren't given
the opportunities

to recreate that technology,

and it probably took
years and even generations

to recover from that loss.

And I'm sure there's
a lotta technologies

that just got lost.

[suspenseful orchestral music]