All language subtitles for The Proof Is Out There Military Mysteries 2024 S01 E06_track3_[eng]

- [Rudy] The following
program contains footage

of military operations.

Viewer discretion is advised.

Tonight, on The Proof Is Out
There: Military Mysteries.

Film of a top secret base.

What was it hiding and
should we be worried?

- The vision for Camp
Century was enormous.

- [Rudy] Video of
a decimated plane.

Were its passengers sacrificed
in a mission to target Saddam?

- The government
deliberately landed them

in a war zone to get the
secret team on the ground.

- [Rudy] Who were
the mystery pilots

who terrified the
Nazis in World War II?

- You wouldn't know
where they were

or what they were targeting
until you heard the explosion.

- [Rudy] And if this
photo doesn't show

the world's strangest
secret weapon,

somebody tell us what is.

- Historians are really
struggling to figure out

how and why the Nazis
would've even tried

to build this thing
in the first place.

[dramatic music]
[artillery booming]

- [Rudy] In the modern history
of war, there are films.

- Shazam.

- [Rudy] Photos,

recordings,

and documents that
raise questions.

- So everything about this
story is one big mystery.

- This particular footage has
caused a lot of controversy.

- [Rudy] What's
really happening?

- [Expert] There's so
little information.

- Nothing like this has
been attempted before.

- [Rudy] That's
where we come in.

Our mission:

Investigate the battlefield's
strangest images,

sounds, and more.

- [Expert] This
photo blows my mind.

- [Amy] You can imagine
how terrifying it would be.

- [Rudy] We'll analyze
each with military experts

and try to come up with answers.

- I'm Ronnie Adkins, former
U.S. Army intelligence analyst.

- I'm Rudy Reyes, recon
Marine war veteran.

The proof starts now.

[dramatic music]

Hello everyone, I'm Rudy.

He's Ronnie.

And we are locked and loaded

to take on some of
the wildest stories

ever to come out of
the world of warfare.

- Let's get to it. Picture this.

In 1995 in a remote
area of Greenland,

a Danish team comes across
a huge abandoned ice base.

- You had me at ice base.

The mystery.

What was the base used for?

And today, is it a
ticking time bomb?

[tense music]

It's 1960.

This is footage of a U.S.
military facility being built

in Greenland into a glacier.

The U.S. had made a
deal with Denmark,

which administers Greenland.

The facility's 150 miles inland

and just 800 miles
from the North Pole.

It's called Camp Century

and built as a nuclear-powered
research center,

supposedly to study
the Earth's climate.

The trenches average 26
feet in height and width

and are topped
with a steel arch,

using the cut and
cover technique.

- The vision for Camp
Century was enormous.

53,000 square miles
planned for this base.

11,000 troops planned to be
stationed and working there.

2,500 miles of tunnel.

- [Rudy] For an ice base,
there are plenty of amenities.

The Army Corps of Engineers
chiseled out a chapel,

a library, and even
a movie theater.

- I think the best way
to probably describe it

is building a
complete city in ice.

- [Rudy] But within six years
of the initial groundbreaking,

the massive camp is abandoned.

The soldiers are gone,

but plenty of diesel fuel
and construction materials

of wood and iron
are left behind.

So when the Danish
team arrived in 1995,

they could see that something
went seriously wrong here.

As you can see from
this government footage,

the American soldiers
who built the base worked

in extreme cold.

Is that why the
base was abandoned?

Or did it have to do with
something the base was hiding?

If you're not
properly protected,

your core temperature
can go down.

You start to become delirious.

You actually feel like
you're getting hot.

You can rip off your clothes
and now you've got hypothermia.

Once you've got
hypothermia, death follows.

- That's right, man. It's
also hell on the gear.

When temps hit 20 below,
engine oil freezes

and your whole logistics
train can be derailed.

- So what the hell
happened at Camp Century?

[tense music]

First things first, Camp
Century was just a cover, a lie,

to conceal something
called Project Iceworm.

- The purpose of Iceworm was

to build a strategic nuclear
missile facility and site

that could launch
over the Arctic Circle

and strike targets
in mainland Russia.

- [Rudy] Those miles
of deep tunnels

were really designed to shuttle

and protect 600 Iceman
nuclear missiles,

modified versions of
the Minuteman ICBM.

Designed as a two-stage rocket
with a range of 3,300 miles,

Iceman had the ability
to hit most targets

in the Soviet Union.

- This seemed like a
perfect plan for us

where we could have this
hidden in plain sight

and only using the
medium-range missiles,

as compared to the long-range.

- [Rudy] Okay, so that
answers the question

of what the base was really for.

How about what happened to it?

The first thing we found out

was that all was going
according to plan

until the middle of 1962,

when a frightening
discovery was made.

The ceiling of this chamber,

housing the research
facility's nuclear reactor,

had lowered by five full feet.

Journalist MJ Banias explains

that repairs were
ordered immediately.

- All of a sudden, they're
in serious jeopardy.

You have a nuclear reactor.

You could have meltdowns.

You could have a
catastrophic event occur

if this reactor suddenly
shuts down or breaks down.

- [Rudy] Why did the
ceiling collapse?

Turns out it was due
to a big mistake.

The Defense Department
miscalculated

how fast the
glaciers were moving.

It was only when scientists
took ice core samples,

lo and behold, they
realized within two years,

all the tunnels would be
destroyed by the ice's movement,

nuclear missiles and all.

The U.S. carted off
its nuclear reactor

and the missiles, of course,

but it left behind
the nuclear waste

produced by the reactor.

The thinking was the ice
would keep the material safe.

- There's some some ego
there that kinda says,

well, nobody's gonna find this
stuff this far underground.

It's gonna be buried in ice.

It's not going to hurt anyone.

- [Rudy] Unfortunately,
global warming

messed up their plans.

- What no one was
predicting in the 1960s

was that the temperature
of the planet is increasing

and Greenland itself is
becoming much more green.

- [Rudy] That leaves us
with a two-sided problem.

- First part is the scientific

and technology
part of the problem

in terms of how to clean
this stuff up effectively

before it becomes a
larger issue in 2090.

- [Rudy] Climate predictions

from the American
Geophysical Union

suggest that by 2090, there
will be enough ice melt

to unleash the toxic
chemicals buried within.

- The second part of the problem
is kind of a diplomatic problem

because this is a mess that
the United States left

in a ally's backyard,
essentially.

- For now, both the nuclear mess
and the diplomatic mess remain.

Unbelievable!

We have a word for that, buddy.

SNAFU.

Situation normal, all fouled up.

- SNAFU 2090.

Mark your calendar.

- The next story is about one

of the biggest military
controversies in recent years.

It happened during the opening
shots of the first Gulf War.

- The big question.

Did the British government
sacrifice a plane full of people

to smuggle special
operators into Kuwait?

It's 1991.

A Boeing 747 has been
reduced to rubble

on the ground at Kuwait
International Airport.

- The body of the plane
is definitely destroyed,

twisted metal,

parts thrown all
over the airfield.

- [Ronnie] This was no crash
and it's not just any plane.

- Everything about this
story is one big mystery.

- [Ronnie] Let's rewind.

[tape rewinding]

On August 1st, 1990,

the plane, British
Airways Flight 149,

takes off from London.

Its first stop is Kuwait City.

Deborah Saloom and
her husband George

are among the 367
passengers on board.

- We were in first class

and it's quite separated on
the British Airways flights

from the regular passengers.

We got our seats and
everything was really nice.

- [Ronnie] But when Flight
149 lands in Kuwait,

all hell breaks loose.

While it's refueling,

the cabin door opens to let
in an unexpected visitor

who reportedly speaks
with a British accent.

- He was not in uniform.

He had on very
nondescript clothes,

like a khaki colored
light blazer, khaki pants.

No insignias, no anything.

- [Ronnie] Suddenly,
a group of nine men

who'd been passengers

and have a military look
stand up to meet the guy.

- They were young men.

They were fit and muscular.

They had crew cuts.

The officer said, "You're
late, you're really late."

And while all the
passengers waited,

this group of young
men went to the front

and got off the plane.

- [Ronnie] While the
passengers don't know it yet,

Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein,

and his forces have begun
their invasion of Kuwait.

As Flight 149 sits
on the tarmac,

Iraqi forces seize the airport.

The passengers and crew

are taken hostage
by Saddam's troops.

- They became human
shields of Saddam Hussein.

- [Ronnie] Saddam moves the
hostages to strategic locations,

making them human shields.

- He somehow thought that
if he put allied prisoners

in these locations, the
allies wouldn't bomb there.

- [Ronnie] The prisoners
were then transferred

to detention centers in
cities like Basra and Baghdad.

There they were
subjected to starvation,

mock executions, and more.

Luckily, the Salooms survived.

Nine months later,

after the allies have
driven Saddam out of Kuwait,

their family is reunited
back in America.

- We just made it out
because of the grace of God.

It was not our time
to leave this earth,

and we were very blessed

that we were able to
get back to our family.

- [Ronnie] And while the other
passengers made it home too,

the plane, as we've
seen, was destroyed.

A detail some believe
is no coincidence.

- With a spectacular victory

and the safe return
of the hostages,

it looks like case closed.

But not exactly.

- As the dust settles,
people start wondering,

who were those guys
that got off the plane

when it first landed?

And how'd the plane
end up like this?

It doesn't look like
this thing went up

in an explosion to me.

It looks a whole lot like
fire and the reason is,

we can see almost
an entire fuselage.

The parts to this
plane look contained,

rather than spread out.

We don't see any evidence
of a blast crater.

- For our answers,
we'll go to our experts.

[tense music]

- [Ronnie] Author Stephen
Davis claims the wreckage

is a clue that Flight 149 was
a pawn in a secret operation.

In Davis's opinion,

it's suspicious the
British government

didn't warn the aircraft that
the Iraqis were invading,

since other countries
did contact their planes.

- What we now know is that

approximately three hours
flying time from Kuwait City,

Iraqi troops crossed the border

and began the
invasion of Kuwait.

I have a defense intelligence
agency flash message

distributed to all
agencies, including NATO.

So all the allies
got it straightaway.

- [Ronnie] The DIA flash
was sent hours earlier.

- The Kuwaiti air
traffic control

were turning away
other aircraft,

so it could have been
alerted at any time.

But it wasn't.

The government has lied
about this constantly

and the government deliberately
landed them in a war zone

to get the secret
team on the ground.

- [Ronnie] A secret team? Yes.

That's what Davis believes
those nine mystery men were.

- They were part of a
group which is known

in the British special
forces community

and intelligence services
as the Increment.

- [Ronnie] The
Increment, aka the Inc,

have a literal license to kill.

They're rumored to
have been involved

with many top-secret operations

on behalf of the
British government,

including secretly monitoring
Gaddafi's inner circle

ahead of the 2011
Libyan uprising,

working undercover
in Northern Ireland

during the height
of the Troubles,

and carrying out
high-value assassinations

during the Bosnian War.

Former Army Ranger
sniper Nick Irving agrees

with the Trojan Horse theory.

He believes the
original plan was

to get the Increment team in
before the invasion started.

But once Saddam moved early,

the British decided
to proceed regardless.

- Having been in this
special operations community,

flying in on a commercial jet,
having special privileges,

deboarding the aircraft,

all the key traits of what
a clandestine operation

would look like.

And I think they were
there to gather intel,

maybe to scout out
enemy locations

to be bombed or targeted.

Key individuals,
high-ranking individuals

within Saddam Hussein's
army, government.

- [Ronnie] Ex-CIA officer,
Joseph Assad, isn't so sure.

He's worked extensively
in the Middle East.

And Assad thinks Flight
149 landed in Kuwait due

to old-fashioned
bureaucratic bungling.

- There were no obligations

for the British
Front Home Office

or the embassy to warn
them of a pending invasion,

particularly when nobody
knew what was happening.

It was utter chaos.

- [Ronnie] As for
those nine mystery men,

Assad says when it comes
to eyewitness testimony,

the facts can get
muddled over time.

- It's not plausible.

People under trauma,
they see things,

they conclude things.

How did you know he is
British or otherwise?

And particularly if that was
part of a covert mission,

you probably don't want to
reveal your own identity.

- [Ronnie] Wait up.

What about the destruction
of the airplane?

- Saddam set Kuwait ablaze.

So it was not
uncommon at the time

for the Iraqis to
destroy property.

We're gonna destroy this.

We're not gonna
allow them to leave.

We're not gonna allow
this aircraft to leave.

- [Ronnie] But advocates
of the Trojan Horse theory

believe the plane was actually
targeted by the allies

trying to cover up evidence
of the secret operation.

That lack of a blast
crater, for instance.

To me, it suggests
a fire from a source

other than a bomb
planted inside.

And Davis believes that source

was an explosive
dropped from above.

- The plane was destroyed
by the U.S. Air Force

on a request from the
British government.

A pilot zipped in, bombed
it, and destroyed it.

Of course, they did not want
the plane examined closely.

[tense music]

- [Ronnie] Due to that
lack of physical evidence,

we may never know
the whole story.

And to this day,

many passengers
from Flight 149 say

they're still suffering.

And not only because
of what Saddam did.

- We had not received
any apologies

from the British government.

Deborah and myself and my son

and the other passengers
were expendable.

And we were basically
on a Trojan Horse.

[tense music]

- Since the incident, some
people have come forward

to say that they were
involved in the op,

but the British government

has always denied
it ever happened.

- But just last year,

the Brits admitted they
did make a mistake.

They now say they knew
about the invasion,

but failed to tell
British Airways.

Warning, the
imagery may be disturbing.

- It shows the death
of an American hero

in the U.S. Navy SEALAB program.

The big mystery: was it
an accident or murder?

February 17, 1969.

We're in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast

of San Clemente
Island, California.

It's zero dark 30,
and US Navy aquanauts,

Bob Barth and Berry Cannon,

are tasked with a
critical mission.

Fix a helium gas
leak on SEALAB III,

an incredible research
facility 600 feet underwater.

- Everybody was a
little agitated

and there'd been a lot
of delays so far already.

A couple of the
aquanauts volunteered

to resolve the issue underwater.

- [Rudy] Like much
of SEALAB's work,

the tragic incident that
follows is captured on film.

You can see that, suddenly,
Cannon's mouthpiece,

also called a
regulator, comes loose

and he's left convulsing
on the ocean floor.

Barth tries desperately
to save Cannon's life,

but he's too late.

Our country loses
a great aquanaut

when Berry Cannon
is pronounced dead.

[melancholy music]

- Shortly after Cannon's death,

the whole SEALAB
program was shut down.

- [Rudy] Hang on now. Really?

Cannon's death is
a devastating loss,

but the reality of
experimental military programs

is that fatal
accidents do happen.

Just two years earlier,

three NASA astronauts died
during a pre-launch test

for the Apollo 1 mission.

Nobody suggested shutting
down the space program.

Rumors swirl that maybe
SEALAB was scrapped

because Cannon's death
wasn't an accident.

- Rudy, you've got some
experience diving, right?

Does this death seem
suspicious to you?

- I've been diving
over 20 years.

And at these depths,

there's many things
that can go wrong.

First and foremost is
decompression sickness.

We call it the bends.

As you see here,

as the diver ascends the
water column, the gas expands.

If you don't do a safety
stop or you ascend too fast,

it comes out of your joints
and into your nervous system,

bends you over in pain.

Now, how do you
take care of that?

First, you do some personal
maintenance on your regulator.

The regulator brings
compressed air through the tube

in your mouth so
that you can breathe.

For that reason,

something about this story
seems a bit odd to me.

[tense music]

Was Cannon's regulator
not properly checked?

Retired U.S. Navy submariner
and author, Ken Sewell,

admits it's possible this

or other human errors
could have been the blame.

- There are always
gonna be problems

whenever you're
developing a new system.

Some of the conditions from
breathing these compressed gases

could cause some
cognitive impairment.

And so it could
have been the fact

that these men made mistakes.

This was really dangerous.

- [Rudy] But another
theory soon emerged

after an investigation
into Cannon's death.

- What they found was that his
system was missing a chemical

that pulled the carbon
monoxide out of his air supply.

And it wasn't that it was
short or that it was damaged,

it just wasn't there at all.

So that led some to believe

that it could have
been sabotage.

Somebody tried to
kill these divers

when they were below water.

- [Rudy] U.S. Army vet
and military journalist,

Chris Capelluto,
says Cannon's death

was part of a pattern
of suspicious events.

- There was no shortage of
sketchy problems happening.

The transport capsule that
brings the divers all the way

down to the bottom of the
ocean was tampered with,

mysteriously flooded.

And that caused a
two-month delay.

There was accusations
that the oxygen valves

in the decompression chamber

had been tampered
with multiple times.

All the evidence suggested

that there was a saboteur
working behind the scenes.

- [Rudy] Not much info on the
investigation's been released.

But what has is chilling.

- A potentially unstable
suspect was identified

by the Navy mental
health officials.

- [Rudy] But oddly, that suspect

was never publicly
named or charged.

Maybe the Navy didn't
think he was guilty,

despite the fact
that life in SEALAB

could be triggering
for a troubled person.

- They're in this
cramped environment.

It's not crazy to think

that it may have
altered their mindset.

I don't know that it
would alter somebody

to the point of sabotaging
one of their crewmates,

but it's entirely possible.

- [Rudy] Another theory is
that the Navy didn't wanna

draw attention to SEALAB

because of the types of
experiments they were doing.

- It was a military program
from the very beginning.

SEALAB was strictly to
develop the technology

to tap the Soviet cables.

The Soviet Union sent most

of their military
messages via cable.

It was heavy, it
was armor plated,

it was buried in the sand,

and it was well within
their territorial waters.

The cables were at depths
where the technology derived

from the SEALAB project
could be utilized.

- [Rudy] In other words,

SEALAB may have been a
deep-sea proving ground

for testing tools to sabotage
Russian communications.

So could this unnamed
suspect have been a spy?

Consider this:

at the exact time of
the SEALAB disaster,

the KGB had infiltrated the
Navy thanks to this man,

Chief Warrant
Officer John Walker,

a traitor who fed the
Soviets intelligence

for a whopping 18 years.

- Ironically, at this time,

the Soviet Union was
also listening to us.

So we were listening
to each other.

- [Rudy] Did the Soviets
penetrate SEALAB?

There's no hard evidence.

But there's one final theory
about how SEALAB ended.

It didn't.

- It never really did go away.

It kinda went to the next level

into a world of
covert operations.

So what better way to
just kinda pull the plug?

I think it was a
convenient point

to transfer that program
from the light of day

into the shadows of
a covert operation.

[tense music]

- Okay, so Rudy, where
do you come out on this,

accident or murder?

- The circumstances
seem suspicious to me,

but there are a million things
that can go wrong underwater.

And I doubt there
was a spy involved

given the high security
in the program.

- Operation Barbarossa
was the code name

for Adolf Hitler's invasion
of the Soviet Union.

He assumed it would
be another win

for his Blitzkrieg machine,
but he was dead wrong.

- One of the ways the
Russians fought back

was with a squadron
of mystery pilots.

Now at the time, the
Nazis were wondering

who were the mystery pilots

and why were they so deadly?

June 28th, 1942.

After its initial
invasion of Russia

has bogged down in
a war of attrition,

the Nazis are launching
a summer offensive

and making some significant
advances in the south.

But on this evening, outside
the city of Stavropol,

a brand new threat is
preparing to strike.

Silent, deadly, and
unlike anything the Nazis

have ever faced before.

- It's nighttime, the
Germans are resting.

Suddenly they hear this
very unique sound,

like branches
whistling in the wind.

[wind whooshing]

And before they know it,

their base just lights up
in a series of explosions.

[explosions booming]

- [Ronnie] It's an air
raid by the Russians,

and it's not just one.

Night after night,

the Germans are
attacked from above

by pilots who seem to
have incredible aim

and whose planes make
this weird sound.

To the Germans, it's a mystery.

Who are these guys?

- You can imagine how
terrifying it would be

to be out at night minding
your business, doing your job,

and you hear this
whistling in the distance.

You can't see it.

You can't protect yourself.

You have no idea if you're safe.

- Many soldiers will tell you

they can identify different
aircraft from afar

just by the sounds they make.

- That's right.

You can easily
tell the difference

between a Little Bird

[helicopter whirring]

and a Chinook.

[helicopter whirring]

- But in this case,

the Germans couldn't
hear much of anything.

It slowed down their
reaction speed.

They had no time
to duck and cover.

- We asked our experts
what's behind all this.

[tense music]

Former naval aviator,
Ward Carroll,

says the Germans
figured out the identity

of the pilots when
they shot a few down.

- The Germans were
shocked to realize

that all of the
pilots were female.

- [Ronnie] Here's some photos
of these mystery pilots.

Dictator Joseph
Stalin had formed

this all-female
combat air squadron,

officially known as
the 588th Regiment,

at the behest of female
aviator Marina Raskova.

- 400 women were put through
an accelerated flight program.

- [Ronnie] But why
were they so deadly?

That tied back to the strange
sound their planes made.

Turns out these top-notch women

were given
bargain-basement gear,

outdated wooden
planes better suited

for crop dusting
than bombing raids.

- [Ward] So the Po-2, the Mule,

was a early 20th-century
technology biplane.

It would've been more
at home in World War I

than World War II.

Canvas, wooden, very
basic, very rudimentary.

- [Ronnie] Even so, these
women figured out a way

to use these planes

that would provide that
element of surprise.

- And once they got close
to their bombing area,

they'd idle their engines

and glide down
towards their target.

This meant that they
were effectively silent.

All anyone could hear

was the sound of the wind going
over and under their wings.

So it would've created
this really eerie,

almost otherworldly
sounding sound.

You wouldn't know
where they were

or what they were targeting
until you heard the explosion.

[tense music]

- [Ronnie] The Germans
would create a name

for these unique attackers,

Die Nachthexen, AKA
the Night Witches.

- The type of plane actually
plays into the nickname

that these pilots had.

These wooden planes were
akin to broomsticks.

And the fact that you couldn't
hear the plane coming,

you just heard this
whistling sound,

was like a witch flying a
broom through the night sky.

- [Ronnie] So, why
haven't we heard more

about these deadly pilots?

Sadly, although
the Night Witches

were the most highly-decorated
unit in the Soviet Air Force,

they were disbanded
after the war

and excluded from the big
victory day parade in Moscow,

leaving history the
same way they arrived,

as a shadowy, secret legend.

[tense music]

By the end of World War II,

the Soviet Night Witches had
flown 30,000 combat missions.

That's a huge number.

- You know, over
here in the U.S.,

we had an all-female air
group called the WASPs,

the Women Airforce
Service Pilots.

They tested planes

and they helped train
male fighter pilots.

But unlike their
Russian counterparts,

they never saw a day of combat.

It's time for this week's
secret weapon piece.

And in this case, the
weapon is so secret,

there are hardly
any photos of it.

- Yeah, this was
over 80 years ago

and we think it might be a tank,

but it doesn't look like
anything I've ever seen.

It actually looks a
little bit dorky looking.

The question is, what
was the Kugelpanzer?

[tense music]

- [Rudy] Manchuria, 1945.

It's the tail end of
the Second World War

and the Russian Red
Army is on the march

for the largest campaign
of the Soviet-Japanese War.

In just over one week, the
Red Army is victorious.

But when the smoke clears,

Russian soldiers are
left standing perplexed

over a small, strange
alien-like piece of machinery

that's been left behind,

wondering what the heck is this?

- Compared to a
lot of the weapons

that we saw being developed
during the Second World War,

this is definitely one
of the stranger ones.

- [Rudy] We can see it's
a sphere made of metal,

just under five feet tall and
weighing over 4,000 pounds.

The only clue to
this oddity's origin

is the Iron Cross
painted on its sides.

That means it's Nazi tech.

While it may not have a known
purpose, it does have a name.

- So what we have here

in this picture is a mysterious
Second World War vehicle

known as the Kugelpanzer.

- [Rudy] The Nazis used
nearly 100 different types

of combat vehicles.

And while some of them,

like the Panzer V Panther
or the Panzer VI Tiger,

became infamous legends,

the Kugelpanzer barely
left the development stage

and remained a
strange curiosity.

- They never made it
to the assembly line.

So it was just one thing
and one thing only.

So, even if it was useful in
actual battlefield situation,

with only one thing,

there's only so much
you can accomplish.

- [Rudy] With barely any
historical records to go on,

we have to look deeper

to determine more about
this mystery machine.

What was the Kugelpanzer's
actual purpose

and how did it end up in Japan?

- The Kugelpanzer
actually joins a long list

of other bizarre
combat contraptions

that never quite made
it to the assembly line.

- Right here's the Big
Bob from New Zealand.

This is the Treffas-Wagen
from Germany.

And last but not least,
from the bad idea factory,

the Praying Mantis from the UK.

- Yeah, I don't
know what's weirder,

the Kugelpanzer itself

or the fact that other people
had this same strange idea.

Let's check in with our experts

and see what they have to say
about this odd bit of tech.

[intense music]

- Obviously, it's much smaller

than a full-sized
World War II tank.

It can get into a lot of places

that a full-size battle
tank's not gonna get into.

- A few characteristics
here is the exterior

was made up of a thick
kind of metal construction,

designed to keep out bullets
and other small arms fire.

On the back side of the ball

was an entryway for the
operator to be able to crawl in

and access the driving
mechanism inside.

- If it only has an engine the
size of a motorcycle engine,

it's not gonna be the fastest
thing on the battlefield.

It's gonna be
limited in its speed.

It's probably also
gonna be limited

in terms of how far you can go

on a single tank of gas
before it needs to refuel.

- [Rudy] World War II
historian, Sayuri Shimizu,

adds another observation.

- This can only be
used for reconnaissance

or some kind of a moving
things over for long distance.

That kind of transport or
reconnaissance purpose.

- [Rudy] Maybe the
biggest mystery is

how this one-of-a-kind
Nazi weapon ended up

in Japan to begin with.

- Some experts believed that
it was given by the Germans

to Japan as a sort of
a gift of good will.

And then nobody was
really expecting

to really do any actual
military purpose.

- [Rudy] But by that
point in the war,

the Japanese were so desperate,

they were willing
to send this oddity

to the front lines
to fight the Soviets.

- This looks kind of
very science fictiony.

And maybe in the movies,
like "Star Wars,"

it would play a
valuable role in combat.

But I think in the
battlefield of Europe

in the Second World War,

this is probably not your
best choice of vehicle.

- So some people might theorize

that this was designed to work
as a reconnaissance platform

or for use by scouts,

but all of the other
drawbacks of it

make that less likely

just based on the
problems with the scale,

the problems with
the visibility.

- [Rudy] The idea for
a rolling ball tank

first presented itself

as a way to traverse no man's
land in the First World War,

where the Kugelpanzer could
have possibly had some success

as a one-man combat vehicle.

But, as our experts
have pointed out,

this design would've been
completely ineffective

against the more
advanced weapons

and divergent landscapes
of World War II.

- Once you start trying

to get this object through
heavily forested areas

or through cities

or through sort of
real life battlefields,

I think the theory of how
successful this machine would be

sort of quickly falls apart.

- [Rudy] And while we all
can make our best guesses

about the Kugelpanzer,

it remains to be seen if we
will ever figure out the truth

behind this strange,
little vehicle.

- We need to understand
there's very few photos

of this object, even today.

We're ultimately just
left to speculate.

[tense music]

- I still think
it's dorky looking,

but our best guess
of what it was for

is the Kugelpanzer's some
sort of recon vehicle

presented to the Japanese in
the final days of the war.

- But this we do know.

You can see the artifact in
all of its ridiculous glory

at the Kubinka Tank
Museum in Moscow, Russia.

- The fog of war
is a real thing.

I've been lit up a couple
of times by friendly forces.

Now, that's people that
you know are your friends,

and then you know who
the enemies are as well.

But imagine fighting
someone or some force

that's completely anonymous.

- And that's exactly what
happened a few years back.

A bunch of randos
on the battlefield,

nicknamed little green men.

And the mystery, who were they?

[suspenseful music]

[citizens cheering]

Eight years prior to Russia's
infamous invasion of Ukraine,

a conflict erupted
between loyal Ukrainians

and Russian stalwarts,

who intended to annex

the strategically important
peninsula of Crimea.

[camera shutter clicking]

You can see in this video
some mysterious armed men.

They're wearing face masks
and plain green uniforms

with no identifying insignia.

Historian Martin KA Morgan

says they immediately
make their presence felt.

- The fact that their
clad from head to toe

in this contemporary
green camouflage

leads to them being
called the green men,

the way that Americans referred
to aliens back in the day.

- Who were these guys?

Were they Russian intelligence?

Were they Russian
special forces?

Were they Russian military?

Were they Ukrainian separatists?

Were they contractors
brought in?

Were they warlords
from another country?

- [Ronnie] These
mysterious little green men

seized the local airports
and military bases.

President Vladimir Putin denies
that they're Russian troops.

Instead, he claims that they're
local self-defense forces.

- In other words,
these are people

living within the
borders of Ukraine,

who because of their fondness

and their admiration for
Russia and the Russian people,

wish to secede

and wish to become a part
of the Russian Federation.

- [Ronnie] Military
historian Anand Toprani

says under that pretext,

Russia seizes Crimea
from Ukraine weeks later.

- People are sort of
thinking to themselves,

"Well, what if they actually
are pro-Russian groups?"

[citizens chanting]

- [Anand] "What if
actually people in Crimea

want to stay part of Russia?

Who are we to say

that they shouldn't
remain part of Russia?"

[citizens chanting]

And by the time
that whole process

had worked its way out,

the Russians have already
taken over the whole thing

and it's au fait accompli.

- We know that historically,

the Crimea has been of
strategic importance to Russia.

The Port of Sevastopol

is one of the few
deep-water ports

available to Russia in the area.

So the Crimea is a key
hold for maritime routes

from the Black Sea,

to the Mediterranean Sea,

and all the way out
to the Atlantic Ocean.

- We also know that
the little green men

caught the Pentagon by surprise,

thanks to their cyber tactics,

hacking, spoofing, and phishing,

to disable Ukrainian defenses
and pinpoint targets.

But who were they exactly?

[tense music]

- [Ronnie] Morgan
believes the key

to identifying the
little green men

is their gear.

- You can clearly
see they're armed

with the AK-74M assault rifle.

- [Ronnie] The AK-74

is a gas-operated,
selective fire weapon.

Many militaries use it,
including, guess who?

The Russians.

And that's not all.

- They're carrying
the PKM machine gun.

They're carrying the GP-25
40-millimeter grenade launcher.

They're carrying the
SVD-63 sniper rifle.

- [Ronnie] This weapon system
is extremely effective,

all the way out to 800 meters.

It's seen action everywhere
from Vietnam to Nicaragua.

- They're carrying
all of the small arms

that arm the armed forces
of the Russian Federation.

- [Ronnie] Putin
claimed that anyone

could buy those weapons.

And while that didn't
pass the smell test,

it did raise an
interesting possibility,

that these men were not just
any regular Russian troops,

but members of a
shadowy organization.

- There's also the possibility

that these were Wagner
Group mercenaries

and that the Russian
Federation was

employing mercenaries through
a private security firm.

- [Ronnie] The Wagner
Group was once called

Putin's shadow army,

regularly doing
Putin's dirty work,

while providing the Kremlin
with plausible deniability.

Since the Wagner Group's
first appearance in 2014,

two men have
claimed founding it.

The late Russian oligarch
Yevgeniy Prigozhin,

and Dmitry Utkin, a retired
Russian special forces officer.

They've gone on to operating
conflicts all over the world,

and they were blamed for taking
part in a vicious massacre

that killed over 200 people

in the West African
nation of Mali.

- This firm, it
works at the behest

of whatever state is
sort of paying its bills.

But you have the
plausible deniability

because these are private,
sort of contractors,

they don't have
sort of the rights

or obligations of
ordinary soldiers.

- [Ronnie] Although
once considered

Putin's secret weapon,
in June of 2023,

Yevgeniy Prigozhin
led the Wagner Group

in an attempted
rebellion against Putin

and Russia's Ministry of Defense

due to his increased frustration

with Russia's top
military brass.

However, the
attempted coup failed,

and Prigozhin would
die in a plane crash

just two months later,

leaving the current status
of the Wagner Group unclear.

While some believe
members of the group

have rejoined the war within
different Russian units,

there's never been
any confirmation

that they were the little
green man of Crimea.

- The whole idea was that no
one really knew who to blame.

And as long as there was a
mystery about their identity,

they could push forward
with their goals bit by bit

and destabilize
the entire system.

- [Ronnie] One
other possibility,

the little green men were
Russian special forces,

or Spetsnaz.

But they typically
wear camouflage

or the uniforms of airborne
troops, including berets,

and they typically handle
smaller commando operations,

like anti-terrorism.

The mystery raged until the
most unlikely person solved it,

Putin.

After Crimea was conquered,

Putin, without a
reason to lie anymore,

admitted the little green men
were plain old Russian soldiers.

There's even a monument
to them in Russia now.

The soldier in this statue
is not wearing a mask.

Strangely though,
he is saving a cat.

You can't make this stuff up.

[tense music]

- In fact, in February of 2018,

American Special
Operations Forces

engaged the Wagner
Group in Syria,

and they got spanked.

- They absolutely did.

And when it was all over,

its estimated 100
of them were dead,

and none of us.

- And that's our
show for tonight.

I'm Rudy Reyes.

- And I'm Ronnie Adkins.

Until next time,
keep your powder dry.

- And your head on a
swivel, good night.

[dramatic music]