All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S03E06.Last.Stand.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] March 1945,
the Nazis are mounting

a last-ditch counterattack to
take back the town of Luban

from the Soviets.

- This was the last effective
German offensive action

of the entire conflict.

- [Narrator] The
Germans succeed

in wresting control of the
town from the Red Army.

But the timing
is strange.

- The Soviet Red Army is
rolling towards Berlin.

This is the end
game of the war.

- [Narrator] Within two
months, Hitler will be dead,

and the war in
Europe ended.

Germany's evil dream of a
thousand-year Reich is over.

- But here's this
one last attempt

to try to convince the German
people that it's all good

and we got it
under control.

- [Narrator] Stranger
still is the area

so desperately
fought over.

- Nobody knows what's
going on there.

I don't think there was any
strategic purpose to it.

- Why was this place so
important to the Nazis?

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] In
early March of 1945,

during the final months
of World War II,

a determined division
of German soldiers

are heading into the town
of Luban in Lower Silesia.

Assisted by two
Panzer divisions,

they intend to take it
back from the Soviets,

who had captured it
a few weeks earlier.

But this desperate
attack seems pointless,

as the Nazis are
forced to confront

an increasingly
inevitable defeat.

- At this stage
of the war,

the ring is closing on
Hitler and the Nazis.

From the west,

the Allies have established
their bridgeheads in France

and Allied ground troops
are moving towards Germany,

while Allied bombers
continue to pound
Germany from the sky.

- [Narrator]
From the east,

the 11-million-man-strong
Red Army

has been rolling
across Europe,

retaking the territory
conquered by the Germans

earlier in the war.

- The Soviets just built
this massive war machine.

The entire German armies were
vanishing and coming out

as mincemeat out of
the Red Army machine.

- [Narrator] By 1945, the
Soviets have retaken Belarus

and Western Ukraine,

and are working their
way across Poland

and into German
territory.

- It was just
flattening the Nazis.

Marshal Zhukov have
had very clear directions
from Stalin.

"Don't stop
'till Berlin."

All the urban centers which
were on the path to Berlin

would be taken
by the Red Army.

- [Narrator] Luban
is on that path.

But General Ferdinand
Schorner has spent a month

building up German
forces in the area,

in anticipation of
the Soviets' arrival.

- Schorner was
ideologically committed
up until the very end

and was willing to use
all of his authority

to keep as many soldiers
in action as he could,

even though each
day of fighting

was only prolonging
the inevitable.

- [Narrator] The
Silesian region,

in what is modern
day Poland,

was fully German
during World War II

and viewed as the
doorstep to Berlin.

- In 1945, Luban was Lauban
which was a German town.

German forces are essentially
trying to buy time

for populations
to move westward

and get out of the
way of the Red Army.

- [Narrator] But in the
face of the pincer move

on the Fuhrer from east
and west, it's a mystery

why the Nazis would put
their dwindling resources

into this region.

Why not mount a
larger, stronger defense
around Berlin?

A structure a few
kilometers south of Luban

may provide some clues.

- One of the reasons

Luban might have been so
important to the Nazis

were the industrial
facilities based here.

- There is this constant
need on both the Axis

and the Allied side to
outsmart each other

in terms of better
weaponry, better armaments,

better war production,

bigger and better
and deadlier ways
to kill people.

- They were in effect
trying to avoid

the specter of
World War I

which was a war
of attrition.

You and me in trenches
fighting each other

until one of us
bleeds to death.

So the German military
strategy from the get-go

was to hit hard and fast

and use technology as
the cutting edge of that.

- [Narrator] This
cutting edge

took shape in
Hitler's infatuation

with advanced
wonder weapons.

- He no longer has
hope in his generals.

Goöring and Luftwaffe
had failed him.

His dream of
super weapons

are the one thing
that keeps him going.

- I think there's a sort of
fetishization of technology,

one simply loses count

of all of the different
weapons projects

and experimental programs
that are underway

with the idea that
one could invent

their way out of this
strategic cul-de-sac

that the Germans
find themselves in.

- If you consider what
the United States

had to do with the
Manhattan Project,

and how that
miraculously ended the
war in the Pacific,

Hitler's dream is
not all that crazy,

if only it was based on
some kind of working science

and they had the
resources for it.

- [Narrator] Though
German scientists

are at the forefront of
research and technology,

the Reich's advantage
falls short.

- The Germans were
pretty capable when it
came to research,

but they had
some challenges

in converting the early
scientific stages

of these projects
into a product

that somebody can actually
employ on a battlefield.

- The journey
from prototype

to an actually used
weapons system

is a long, drawn
out process

the Germans tried to
accelerate at that time,

but not always
successfully.

- This pressure
to innovate

led to a type
of conscription

of the scientific and
engineering elite

to work on the
war effort.

That hadn't
happened before.

Now they're being hustled
away to secret sites

to work on projects
and not speak about it,

and not go back to their
families for a while.

- [Narrator] But the
research labs and factories

that enabled
this innovation

were under constant
threat from the Allies.

- During the
Second World War,

the Americans and
British had undertaken
a concerted effort

to bomb German
war industry.

And in response to
those bombing raids,

the Nazis had moved

their production
facilities further east.

- Once you get as
far east as Silesia,

that's pushing the outer
ranges of the bombers

as well as any
escort fighters

that might be
accompanying them during
daytime operations.

- [Narrator] In
the Luban region,

hulking structures
guard the secrets

of some of the Nazis'
last desperate plans.

- As they moved east,

they took over
existing facilities

in these countries that
they had already seized,

textile factories, and he
had manufacturing factories,

and they would actually
retool that factory

for their own
war production.

- [Narrator] This enormous
prison-like building,

in nearby Lesna, once held
a manufacturing facility

that produced components

for some of the most
advanced weapons

of the Second World War.

These are the remains, of
just one of the buildings,

of the Walter-Werke
factory.

- The output from the
Walter-Werke factory

was so important
to the Nazis,

they went to
great lengths

to keep it hidden
from the Allies.

It was covered over
by a masking net,

making it very difficult
to spot from the air.

Any roads also leading
to the factory

were incredibly
heavily guarded,

making it very difficult
for unwanted guests

to get in on land.

- [Narrator] Even stranger,
in the hills nearby,

a network of
tunnels and caverns

have been carved
into the hard rock.

Most of these are
left unfinished

with bits of machinery
left to rust in the dark.

- And absolutely,
that would suggest

that there was some
pretty top secret

technologically cutting
edge stuff going on there.

- [Narrator] The Walter-Werke
Company is founded in 1934

by pioneering engineer,
Hellmuth Walter.

Walter first comes
to the attention

of the Kriegsmarine
in 1937,

when he shows them plans

for a new submarine
propulsion system

using hydrogen peroxide.

- His first prototype
came about in 1940,

and it remarkably was
able to double the speed

of existing submarines,

but it relied on a
very volatile mix

of chemicals to
achieve this.

- This is a problem
which perhaps is faced

all over the world
by engineers.

There are certain demands
which are made in wartime

and demand for speed,
efficiency and so forth.

The kind of submarine
propulsion systems

he was working with,

these take time to
develop and to perfect

and to bring
into production,

and they are often
taking great risks

because time was something
which the Nazis didn't have.

- Although this
propulsion system

was too volatile
for naval systems,

it was more easily
adapted to rocketry.

- [Narrator] The Walter-Werke
Company produces components

for two of the Nazi's most
well-known wonder weapons:

The V1 missile and
the V2 rocket.

- Basically, they're
flying bombs.

They were unmanned.

They are designed
to go up

and launched from
sites in Europe.

- [Narrator] While The
Walter-Werke Company

doesn't make
the V1 itself,

they are responsible for
getting it in the air.

- The V1 had to be fired
from a fixed launching point

and required a
very long rail,

almost like a
roller coaster rail

upon which the
missile was launched.

- [Narrator] This is
called the Walter Catapult,

and its engine is powered

by the same hydrogen
peroxide steam technology

used in Walter's
submarine engine,

giving the V1 a
rocket-powered boost.

- They would reach
particular altitudes.

They would burn out
their fuel systems

and the moment that
fuel system exhausted,

they would come
crashing down

full of explosives
on enemy targets.

- And people would hear
the sound of these V1s

coming into the city
and they weren't worried

while they were
buzzing overhead.

It was when they
stopped buzzing,

because that's when
they knew it would drop

and that they
would explode.

- [Narrator] Nearly
30,000 V1s are made

and 10,000 are
fired at England.

Over 2,000 of them
reach London,

killing more than
6,000 people

and injuring
nearly 20,000.

Hellmuth Walter's
ground-breaking technology

is also applied in
the Nazis' next,

and most terrifying,
wonder weapon.

- The V1 was followed

a little bit later in
the war by the V2.

It was the first guided
ballistic missile.

It could be fired from
mobile launching sites

and was a more
advanced weapon,

but one that actually played
a smaller part in the war.

- [Narrator] Walter's
hydrogen peroxide
steam technology

is used to
power a turbine

that pushes rocket
fuel and liquid oxygen

into the V2's engine.

The V2 travels at
supersonic speeds,

and impacts
without warning,

making defense against
it nearly impossible.

They are manufactured
from September 1944.

And more than 3,000 are
launched towards London,

Antwerp, and Liege,

resulting in the deaths of
approximately 9,000 people.

- The Germans put an
awful lot of time,

money and effort
into that.

And they did it with
all of what's left

of the German resources.

They did it with
slave labor.

They did it with
a conviction

that they were going to
perfect the technology

and be able to turn
the tide of war.

And of course, all of
that is ridiculous

that because they
weren't even close.

- [Narrator] Hitler
imagines thousands

of these
terrifying weapons

raining down on
the British.

An objective that
is now out of reach

for the hard-pressed
Nazi war machine.

With the Allies
bombing ever further

into German-occupied
territory,

could the massive
efforts here in the
lower Silesian region

be a final attempt
to win the war?

In March of 1945,

the German army is
preparing to take back

the seemingly
unimportant town of Luban
from the Soviets.

Factories in the region
around this town

are hard at work supplying
the Nazi war machine

including the
Walter-Werke factory,

which produces
engine components

for Hitler's wonder
weapons, the V1 and V2.

- We've got this
factory is owned by this
prominent engineer

who is trying to push the
envelope of our technology

who likely has a
mandate from Hitler

to innovate, to create
weapons of destruction.

- Was that the reason
that the Nazis

defended the area
so vigorously?

Chances are pretty
good for sure.

- The so-called miracle
weapons are supposed

to help reverse the course
of the war at the 11th hour.

But that's not how
the Second World War

was really
fought, was it?

I mean this is a war
fought by mass armies,

who are most effective
when they have simple

but reliable
technology available in
large quantities.

By 1944 and '45, the
Germans have neither.

The army actually
fighting on the ground

seem to becoming
in many respects more
and more primitive

rather than more
sophisticated in
the equipment

that they're actually able
to use to good effect.

- [Narrator] But there is
one piece of innovative tech

being worked on
right in Luban

that is of vital importance
to the troops in action.

- One of the major areas of
technological competition

in the Second World War
was in the realm of radar.

- Radar works quite simply
by sending radar waves

out into your
surroundings,

which will then bounce
off any solid objects

which you can
then detect.

So in a way, it
gives you eyes

where your eyes
physically can't see,

whether that's because
it's too far away

or whether it's in
inclement weather.

- It really changes the
nature of the battlefield.

Remember that it was only
20 or 25 years earlier

during the First
World War,

when about your only option
for detecting the presence

of oncoming enemy
aircraft from a long range

was to have a giant
cone-shaped device

mounted on a truck

that had like a
stethoscope attached to it

that you put
up to your ear

to try to capture sound
coming away from a distance.

And we're moving
from this now to in the
Battle of Britain,

where the RAF Chain
Home defense system

can detect
German aircraft

even as they're taking off
from their own airfields.

- It swings the
Battle of Britain

for the Allies dramatically
because you see them coming,

and it becomes
now essential.

- [Narrator] One of
the key enterprises in
radar development

was the GEMA company,
founded in 1934,

by physicist and
scientific director

at the Kriegsmarine,
Rudolf Kuhnhold.

In the years leading
up to World War II,

GEMA innovates the
most advanced radar
systems in the world,

outperforming those used
in both Britain and the US.

As the war rages,

GEMA leads the charge
in radar development.

- Anyone who would have
more sophisticated radar

would have an edge.

And even though
the Germans

were late to the
party, as it were,

they were
working on radar

which would have
far outstripped what
the Allies had.

- [Narrator] Radar
gives the Luftwaffe

the ability to navigate
even with poor visibility,

allowing pilots to increase
their time in the air

to carry out raids.

Kriegsmarine U-boats

not only support their
own radar capabilities,

but these deadly
ships are also fitted

with radar
detection systems

to give them an edge
when they're surfacing

as they become visible and
vulnerable to the Allies.

The radar development
at GEMA in Luban

is vitally important to
the German war effort

and the Soviets
are on their way.

- The kind of work that
was being done there

was not something
the Germans

were going to surrender to
the Soviets without a fight.

- [Narrator] World War II
constant Allied bombardment

forces the Nazis to
move weapons production
further east.

But while this does,
at least temporarily,

put them out of
Allied reach,

it also places them
right in the path

of another great danger:
the oncoming Red Army.

Following operation
Barbarossa in June 1941,

the Soviets are
overwhelmed by the Nazis,

losing vast expanses
of territory.

But they manage
to turn the tide

in the deadliest
battle of the War:

the five-month long
Battle of Stalingrad

in late 1942
and early 1943.

Despite heavy casualties
of over one million men,

and the city that bears
their leader's name

reduced to rubble, the
Red Army hands the Nazis

their first significant
defeat of the war

and gives people
worldwide hope

for Hitler's
inevitable downfall.

The victory invigorates
the Red Army.

And with Joseph Stalin's
massive war machine

of tanks and weapons
behind them,

the 11-million-man force

is ruthlessly working its way
across Europe to Germany.

- Nazi propaganda is
absolutely frightening

everybody in Germany
with good cause,

because certainly
the Russians are
showing no quarter

man, woman or
child in Germany

considering what the
Germans did with Russia.

- For years,
the Nazi state

had been hammering
home to Europeans

not just Germans that
national socialism

was the last bastion

that could protect
European civilization

from sort of the
Bolshevik menace,

so the Eastern Front has
to hold fast at all costs.

- [Narrator] To
help safeguard

German resources
from the Soviets,

the City of Breslau has been
converted into a fortress.

If the Luban area
is supplying defensive
weapons to Breslau,

it would be
vitally important

to safely transport
them where needed.

- They needed to maintain
their roads, their railways,

the whole
transportation system,

they all had to be
in good condition

to keep the war
machine moving.

- [Narrator] Luban
represents a key location

in the regional
railway network.

- This was a
distribution point

which was whitelisted
for the Nazis to retain.

If they had lost this
distribution point,

they would lose access
to the rail network,

which allowed good
and commodities,

including weapons,
to circulate

and actually be
put into use.

- [Narrator]
Across the Reich,

industry is being turned
to the manufacture

of advanced super weapons

including engine
components being made

at the Walter-Werke
factory in the Luban area.

But these are not the
only important innovations

being made by
this company.

- A lot of the work
carried out at the
Walter-Werke factory

included the development
of existing weaponry.

So for example, there
was the Type XVII U-boat,

which was a smaller,
faster version of what
had come before.

- [Narrator] The Type XVII
uses an updated version

of Walter's record-breaking
submarine engine.

It comes into service in
1944 but only 16 are built,

none of which saw combat.

Though the tide is turning
in the Allies' favour,

the Nazis aren't through

creating new
nightmarish technology.

And the factories in this
area are key to success.

- Among the other innovations
of the Walter-Werke factory

was the Henschel 293,

which was an unmanned
underwater bomb,

which would
actually be dropped

from an aircraft
into the water,

but could only work when it
was still within radio range

of the aircraft,

making it vulnerable
and ineffective

because it revealed where
the attacking aircraft was.

The Walter-Werke
factory also developed
the Enzian missile,

which was a
radio-controlled drone,

but never entered into
service during the war.

- [Narrator]
After the war,

as the Allies sweep
through Nazi factories,

taking what they want

for their own research
and development,

they find evidence

of one of Walter-Werke's
most innovative creations

in an unusual location.

A few kilometers east of
Walter's Lesna factory

stands the 13th
century Czocha Castle.

- The strange piece
of equipment shows up
in an old castle,

why would you
put it there?

You think a castle
is historical.

It's a space of
appreciation.

It's not a high tech lab.

It's not a
fabrication plant.

It's not a warehouse.

- [Narrator] Through
the centuries,

this enormous building was
home to Silesian princes

and other noble families.

So how did this strange
object end up there?

Perhaps the artifact itself
can provide some clues.

The object is a
metal component

belonging to one of
the most advanced

German military
apparatus ever created.

- The Messerschmitt 163

was the only rocket-powered
fighter plane

ever to have been
manufactured

that could reach speeds

of over 620
miles an hour,

which would have been
a massive advantage

over Allied aircraft
at the time.

- [Narrator] These record
speeds are thanks largely

to Walter's hydrogen
peroxide-based engines,

whose success in testing
had caught the attention

of the Messerschmitt
company.

- The goal of such
a fast aircraft

was to engage oncoming
bomber forces.

The idea was that the
Messerschmitt 163 Komet

would use its speed
to fly higher

than oncoming
bomber formations,

drop down on top
of those bombers,

and deploy a warhead
that would destroy

these Allied
bomber forces.

And in fact, the aircraft
was so fast and so capable,

it was expected to be able
to make multiple attacks

against multiple bomber
formations in one sortie.

- There was no way
for the Allies

to bring any countermeasures
against this fighter

when it was already
in the air.

The only way that this
fighter could be countered

was when it was
taking off or landing

or when it was
parked somewhere.

- [Narrator] Components
of this incredible machine

are being made at
Walter's Lesna factories.

Could the piece of the
Komet found at Czocha Castle

mean it too was being
used in the creation

of these wonder weapons?

There has been
much speculation

about Czocha's role
in World War II.

Some stories say
that the castle

was a site for
weapons research.

Others say it housed a
secret intelligence center,

tasked with decrypting
Soviet communications.

And there are even rumors
that Wernher von Braun,

the engineer
behind the V2,

had visited Czocha
Castle during the war.

The advanced nature
of the Me 163

makes it essential to
keep its existence quiet.

Could this
simply be a case

of hiding something very
important in plain sight?

- A castle is a bit of
camouflage in a way,

someone could say
"Oh, that's a castle.

There's probably
nothing exciting
happening in there."

- [Narrator] Work
on developing the
propulsion technology

continues right until
the last possible moment,

with Hellmuth Walter
receiving the Knight's Cross

for his service in 1945,

shortly before his
capture by the British.

But the Me 163
arrived too late

to be of any real
help to the Nazis.

- This is another example

of one of these
advanced technologies

that was just starting
to come online

towards the end
of the war.

While the Messerschmitt
163 did enter into service,

it flew very
few missions,

and so it's impossible
to really calculate

the effect something
like this would have had

had the war continued
or if it had been
designed earlier.

- [Narrator] Regardless
of its late arrival,

the Nazis were exceptionally
proud of the Me 163 Komet

and the potential it had
for wide-scale destruction.

If the Komet came too late
to fulfill Hitler's plans,

why would the
Nazis order troops to
recapture the region?

At the time of the
Battle of Luban,

the Red Army is all but
knocking on Berlin's door,

where the Fuhrer
is cornered.

Perhaps something
else is brewing.

1945, the Soviet Red Army

is plowing through
Poland and into Germany,

taking over Nazi-occupied
territory quickly
and efficiently.

In January, the Soviets
make major advances

capturing Warsaw,
Krakow, and Poznan.

The Lower Silesian
offensive in February
sees further gains.

- Of course, they're
headed to Berlin.

They're just cutting
through Silesia on the way.

There's actually a race of
different Soviet commanders

who are trying to be
the first to Berlin.

- [Narrator] On
February 17th,

as they approach
the town of Luban,

Soviet soldiers
are struggling.

Weeks of fighting have
left the men exhausted.

But the Soviets far
outnumber the Nazis

in terms of soldiers
and artillery

and they capture the North
Eastern part of Luban

including its vital
railway line.

They believe all
will be well.

- You start off
with the mindset that
"We're successful,

we're successful,
this is easy, this is
easy," you know?

And it's repeating
and it's repeating.

And then all of a sudden,
something gums up the gears.

- What these tired,
hard fighting Soviet
forces don't know

is that the Germans
have actually been
building up forces

in this region with
the express purpose

of launching a
counter offensive

of pushing back against
the Soviet attackers.

- [Narrator] General
Schorner has been amassing

a sizable force,
and in early March,

he's about to launch a
series of counterattacks

to take back the region,

starting with Luban.

But why? What is so
important in Luban?

- [Narrator] Could
it have anything to
do with the rumors

about another technology
being tinkered with at GEMA?

One that suggests
something far more sinister

than radar development.

- There were rumors
at that time in Luban

that the Nazis perhaps
for doing experiments

with the
electromagnetic field.

And at one point,
all the cars in the town
stopped working.

- Electromagnetic
pulse, or EMP,

is actually the real weapon
in the post-war world.

It's conceivable
that enemies

could release an
electromagnetic pulse

that would disable or
irreparably damage

all kinds of
electrical components,

not just military
components,

but civil
infrastructure as well.

- [Narrator] Could the
Nazis have been working

on secret electromagnetic
weapons still unknown to us?

- When it comes
to the Nazis,

nothing surprises me.

They were so bizarre
in so many ways,

not just hateful and
horrible and violent,

but also entertains
innumerable possibilities.

- [Narrator] The Nazis were
known to be experimenting

with a range of wonder
weapons and outlandish
sci-fi ideas;

like the sun gun, which would
harness the power of the sun

to fry whole countries
like ants under a
magnifying glass.

- So when you have
these moments,

Luban and other places

where people say strange
things have gone on,

our devices aren't
working properly,

there's weird
atmospheric conditions,

you probably go, "Yeah,
it's true," right?

- [Narrator] The Nazis are
desperate at this stage.

Hitler refuses
to surrender

despite great loses of men,
equipment, and territory,

his is an evil,
uncompromising regime.

And as the war
progresses,

so does his madness
and obsession

with striking back with
absolute destruction.

Could the factories
frantically at work
in the region

be a reason for the
German counter-offensive?

The Nazis are well known
for building vast networks

of underground complexes
throughout the Reich.

And the Luban area
is no exception.

An extensive tunnel
system has been built
into the hills

around the towns and
factories of the region.

But there is little
information about
their purpose.

- There's all sorts
of speculation

as to what they
might have been.

- [Narrator] With so
much high-stakes research

being carried out
at facilities like the
GEMA radar plant,

the Nazis consider their
protection a top priority.

Could the mysterious
underground tunnels

have been the beginning
of a subterranean factory?

- We have
real-world examples

where the Germans
are moving

production facilities
underground.

And use of these
underground facilities

is doubly frightening

because not only do
you have these cases

where slave labor
is employed

to manufacture and
assemble the weapons,

but slave labor can
also be employed

to construct
the facilities

underground in which the
weapons are being built.

And if one wants to
work people to death,

this is a pretty
straightforward way of
doing it, isn't it?

Achieving two
objectives at once.

- [Narrator] But stories
circulating after the war

suggest that the tunnels
could have been used

for a more
secretive purpose.

Luban and its
surrounding area is an
industrial center,

manufacturing weapons
for the Nazi war effort.

And buried in the hills
around these factories

is a vast network
of tunnels.

Many think they are simply
underground extensions

of above-ground
production facilities.

But there are rumors
of another story.

400 kilometers from Luban
in the City of Krakow,

a den of top Nazi
brass is established

not long after the
invasion of Poland.

Here, the dreaded
Gestapo will make
their headquarters.

- The Gestapo was
broadly speaking a
secret police force.

It was the job
of the Gestapo

to keep their
finger on the pulse

of the local populations

and in conjunction
with a constellation

of other security
services

under the larger
umbrella of the SS

to undermine
resistance networks

and other activities
which could be seen

as acting against
the interests

of the National
Socialist occupation.

- [Narrator] It is here

in what is now known
as Silesian House,

that the Nazis
held and tortured

countless prisoners
and party members

in their constant
hunt for traitors.

- They could have
surveillance activities

against anyone in the
general population

and wouldn't necessarily
matter who they were,

or what they were doing or
what their walk of life was.

- [Narrator] It is
thought that the Gestapo

collected a great deal
of sensitive information

during these
interrogations

and cataloged it in
their own archives.

- The Nazi
security apparatus

is a huge informational
bureaucracies.

The Nazis had this
card index system.

This was essentially
a mechanical analog

database
management system.

So the Gestapo
records of Krakow,

you're talking
about like housing

a national security
computer database.

- [Narrator] Some
suggest that the secret
tunnel system

in the Luban area may have
been an ultra-secure vault

meant to house highly
classified documents.

- That the Gestapo had stuff
to hide is not surprising.

One has to think that there's
some tension over here

between the need to
preserve those records

and also to keep them
out of the public eye.

- [Narrator] As
it becomes clear

the Nazis are
losing the war,

the Gestapo abandons
their Krakow headquarters,

and allegedly dispose of
their sensitive archives

by burning them.

At least that's the
official version of events.

According to the
post-war testimony

of SS-Obersturmfuhrer
Kurt Heinemeyer,

a Gestapo officer
operating in Poland

from 1940 to 1945,

a sizable portion
of the archive

was not destroyed as
previously thought.

Instead, it was transported
to the lower Silesian town,

then known as
Rothwasser, Germany

18 kilometers from Luban.

Could these tunnels
have been intended as
temporary storage

for a longer-term project to
resurrect the Third Reich?

Or should we be skeptical
about the dubious source

that passed on
this information?

- In the immediate
post-war period,

the Allies relied
heavily on information

gained in the interrogation
of prisoners of war

at all levels of command.

Clearly, in many of
these instances,

the individuals either had
their own Axis to grind

against some of their
peers or counterparts,

or they had an interest
in exculpating themselves

as far as any
criminal activities

in which they may have
been personally involved.

- [Narrator] It would be
in Heinemeyer's interest

to portray himself as
having valuable information.

But this is
only one factor

in deciding this
information's authenticity.

- What we don't have here
are strong other options.

You know, it's not clear
that there was an extension

with materials
with men working.

We don't have
ventilation shafts

and everything else
that would have happened

if it was a bunker to
protect people against
bombing raids.

So when that individual
comes forward and says,

"Hey, these tunnels,
I think they were used

because we're moving
records into them."

Without other
plausible things,

we'll just fall back
into whichever option

that we do have available
to us is likely it

even if it should
fall below a line of
plausibility itself.

- [Narrator] As World War
II is coming to a close,

Germany's battle strategy

has turned from
conquest to survival.

Desperation is
in the air.

In October 1944, the
Volkssturm is created.

- We have increasingly older
men in their 50s and 60s,

even older perhaps
in some cases,

and children, teenage
boys, very young teenagers

who are being pressed
into service.

- [Narrator] The boys
in the Volkssturm

were members of
the Hitler Youth.

All Germans from age 10 to
18 were required to join.

They trained boys to
be future soldiers

and girls to be
wives and mothers.

- The Nazi war machine
included much propaganda.

They needed to
have buy in,

by all their citizens,
especially the Nazi youth,

they needed them to
believe in their fuhrer

that what he was doing was
for their best interests.

- [Narrator] No longer
just a propaganda tool,

the Hitler Youth is now part
of a ragtag fighting force:

a last-ditch effort to
throw something, anything,

at the oncoming Red Army.

- So as an adult
soldier in the army,

if you see a kid doing,

well, then obviously you
should be able to do better.

But it's also providing
message for the other people

that you don't have to
be a trained soldier

to help us fight.

And so it would be inspiring
to the general population.

- And these are more
senseless sacrifices
being made

in this death cult which
sees not just the collapse

of the Nazi regime
and its hierarchy

but as many ordinary
Germans as possible.

- [Narrator] But despite
their looming defeat,

the German military
is preparing to put up
a fight at Luban.

- The last thing
Soviet to expect,

which is to have any
kind of problems

rounding up what's left to
the German armed forces,

but that's exactly
what they get.

- [Narrator] In
February of 1945,

Soviet forces take
the town of Luban

as part of the Lower
Silesian offensive.

But only three
weeks later,

they will face a
new fight for this
conquered territory.

- The German forces

who were deployed in that
area were actually able

to mount a fairly
powerful counterattack.

- General Schorner
has been building up
these Nazi forces

and he launches a
two-pronged attack.

- [Narrator]
On March 1st,

the 17th Panzer Division
and Fuhrer Grenadiers

move across the
north of Luban.

The 8th Panzer Division

comes in from the
south to meet them,

effectively trapping
the Soviets.

And allowing the
6th Volksgrenadiers to
take the town back.

The Soviet commanders attempt
to evacuate the town,

and many soldiers do
manage to get away.

But by March 4th, the
encirclement has tightened.

- In an example
of the gruesome

and extremely fierce fighting
at this stage of the war,

no Soviet soldier
survives the encirclement.

The Germans take
no prisoners.

- [Narrator] The
battle for Luban

is part of a larger
offensive strategy

to take back Lower
Silesia for the Nazis,

and to stop the Soviets'
advance toward Berlin.

Schorner has some
success on March 11th

recapturing the
City of Striegau.

Working his way east,

he is organizing an ambitious
offensive at Breslau,

besieged by the Soviets
for nearly a month.

But the Soviets
have regrouped

and the attack
does not proceed.

However, after his
success at Luban,

General Schorner is
promoted to Field Marshal

on April 5th, 1945.

And after Hitler's
death on April 30th,

Schorner is made commander
of the entire German army,

as ordered in
Hitler's will.

- This counter attack,

it was the last
locally effective German
offensive action

of the entire conflict.

So it is, I guess,
sort of important

to bookmark in
that sense.

Even though in a larger
strategic context,

it wasn't going to reverse
any sort of outcomes

in the grand
scheme of things.

- [Narrator] But the
victory at Luban

did have one
important effect.

- This battle becomes
a touch point.

It's an important
victory by the Germans

to take on the Red Army

and squash the
Allied invasion

of that one small town.

And it became part

of the propaganda
at that time,

even at the late
stage of the war.

- There's also an
advantage externally

to keep that
positive propaganda,

"We're still strong,
we're still determined,

we'll still there."

By having this
propaganda,

you're waging that war

in the minds of the
people across the table.

- I'm sure in the war
diaries, it's written up,

we held the vital
industrial facilities here

rather than, you know, we
sacrifice two divisions

to make a propaganda show
for the rest of the Germans

not to hang out
white sheets

outside their windows
and surrender.

That's not going to
be in the war diary.

- One of the famous
photographs shows the
right minister

for culture
and enlightenment,
Joseph Goebbels,

involved in an
award ceremony

where iron crosses
are being presented to
German soldiers.

And one of the soldiers
is Willi Huebner

who I think was 15 or 16
years old at the time.

- That is a big propaganda
value for the Germans.

That's incredibly
important

because most Germans
are painfully aware

that they've lost
this war already,

and are waiting
for the end.

But here's this
one last attempt

to try to convince the German
people that, you know,

"It's all good, and we
got it under control."

And ultimately, it
doesn't make a difference.

Like let's be honest,
at the end of the day,

no matter what they were
defending or why or how,

they still lost
the damn war.

- [Narrator] In the
aftermath of the war,

the Potsdam Agreement
gives most of lower
Silesia to Poland.

And Lauban is
renamed to Luban.

All Germans remaining in
the town are expelled,

and Luban is repopulated
with Polish citizens.

On April 30th, 1945,

Hitler commits
suicide by gunshot

in his besieged bunker.

Abandoned by many
of his followers,

save the most
fevered Nazis,

and leaving a wake of
death and destruction

across much of the world,

and an evil legacy
of the Holocaust.

As his own country is
destroyed and burning,

the final days of
the Third Reich

are marked with the
roundup of war criminals

and utter defeat
of the Nazis,

and a rush to restore
some sense of order

and peace to Europe.

Allies are already
measuring each other up

for the next conflict:
The Cold War

- Patton famously
said, you know,

"Once we finish
with the Germans,

let's just keep going.

Let's go all the way to
Moscow, take them all out."

And the capture of industrial
facilities, scientists,

all those things
by the Russians

is something that
is troubling Western
intelligence.

- [Narrator] Lines
are drawn on maps to
create new borders,

and the world is
beginning to come to grips

with the horrors of
the last 12 years

since the Nazis
rose to power.

Lost in all of this

is a mysterious story
of the desperate rush

to defend a small
patch of countryside,

hiding a collection of
buildings and tunnels.

As the research
continues,

the ruins of
these structures

slowly reveal
their secrets.

[suspenseful
dramatic music]