All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S10E01.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover
new mysterious phenomena

that defy explanation.

The Big Evil -- death and terror
in the Australian desert.

CAVANOUGH:
Wow, this is insane.

It's wiped all of the life
off the face of the Earth.

NARRATOR:
Discovered from the skies --

Braveheart's secret hideout.

KOUROUNIS: This would make it
one of the most

important archaeological sites
in all the British Isles.

NARRATOR: And inside
the Montauk Project.

MAN:
What is that?

They found this bizarre
creature unlike any other

animal that they have ever
seen before.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena.
Mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

Australia's Great
Victoria Desert --

a featureless expanse
of sand hills

and scrub the size
of California.

Ed Cavanough is heading deep
into this vast wilderness,

drawn by something weird
revealed from space.

I've lived in Australia
my whole life

and never seen anything quite
like this before.

NARRATOR: An image taken over
the region on April 8, 2021,

has captured this pattern in
the red sands below.

SZULGIT: Out in the middle of
nowhere is this giant carving

on the earth -- looks like kind
of wedges of a pizza.

MUNOZ: It's very strange.

The middle of it
has been cleared

in a way that it forms almost
like a bulls-eye.

NARRATOR: The mystery symbol
covers an area equivalent to

600 football fields

and has spokes up to
1,400 feet in length.

The shape itself has been
created with precision,

which can only mean that some
sort of government or military

operation has taken place here.

NARRATOR: What's more,
the remains of

an identical shape sit nearby.

Great effort appears
to have been made

to erase evidence of it.

As a journalist,

when I see something
clandestine in my own backyard,

I feel compelled to go
and investigate it.

NARRATOR: Officially, there are
no towns near the site,

but evidence on the ground
suggests otherwise.

CAVANOUGH:
Wow, this is insane.

I mean, it's a completely
deserted ghost town.

This can't just be
a coincidence.

♪

NARRATOR:
Just 15 miles from

the mystery symbols
sits this ghost town.

♪

Dozens of its buildings have
been razed to the ground.

This clearly would have been
a very sizable community here.

Looks like it's been
abandoned for decades.

NARRATOR: Whatever forced
this town to flee,

it appears to have happened
almost overnight.

Oh, this is amazing.

All the chairs and equipment
are left exactly

in place as they would have been
decades ago.

Everyone's just got up
and left.

NARRATOR: In each room,
Cavanough finds evidence of

government activity.

This vehicle was completely
out of place here.

It's clearly been modified
for some purpose.

It's got a completely enclosed
cabin to separate this

part of the vehicle from
those who are driving it.

NARRATOR:
The vehicle appears to be

designed to contain something
extremely hazardous.

Satellite images of another
ghost town in Australia

could offer a clue.

What we do know is that
a town in Australia

did have to evacuate because
of a toxic asbestos mine.

Could this have been
the same case

in the town
we're looking at here?

NARRATOR: Between the 1940s and
the 1960s, miners in the town of

Wittenoom excavate around
165,000 tons of blue asbestos

from the desert.

Over the years,

2,000 people
die from unwittingly inhaling

the cancerous fibers before

the government shuts down
the mine and wipes the town off

the map.

It's actually
the largest contaminated

site in the entire
Southern Hemisphere.

That's big.

NARRATOR: The nightmare scenario
is that the ghost town

and the shapes in the image

may be evidence of
another equally deadly disaster

on Australian soil,

one that authorities are
trying to cover up.

Something bad
has happened here

to make people abandon
this town,

and I'm certain it's got
something to do with

those wagon wheel shapes
I've seen in the desert.

[car engine starts]

NARRATOR:
The indigenous people here

call this area the Big Evil.

And the journalist soon
learns why.

CAVANOUGH: The closer I get
to the wagon wheel shapes,

the vegetation is getting
thinner and thinner.

It's almost as if some sort of
event has taken place here that

has just wiped all of the life
off the face of the earth.

NARRATOR:
Arriving at the coordinates,

Cavanough discovers
a vast flat area.

First thing
I've noticed is these

strange hooks that are embedded
into this concrete slab.

I'm not sure at all what these
will be pinning to the ground,

but it certainly adds to
the mystery here.

NARRATOR: Nearby, Cavanough
finds more objects

not visible
in the satellite image.

Wow, look at this!

These look like some sort of

rocket launching devices.

They're incredibly old
and brittle,

all rusted out.

NARRATOR: The rocket launchers
are weird enough,

but what really
intrigues Cavanough

is what surrounds them.

CAVANOUGH: There's this field
of green glass.

It almost looks
like a green jade

all across
the ground out here.

NARRATOR: Millions of square
feet of desert around

the mystery shapes shimmer
with the deformed beads

of glass.

Cavanough believes
this is trinitite,

a substance formed when sand
is subjected to temperatures in

excess of
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

This suggests to me
that this has to

have been made from
a nuclear weapons test.

I'm actually --
I'm completely speechless

discovering this here.

NARRATOR: What's concerning
is that there are only

nine countries with known
nuclear weapons capabilities,

and Australia
isn't one of them.

CAVANOUGH:
The idea is just unfathomable,

but there's just
no other explanation,

and it's just
completely shocking.

NARRATOR: Coming up, lies
and deadly government deception.

What happened here was secret.

No one knew anything about it.

NARRATOR: And the $9 trillion
treasure hunt.

HYMEL:
It's only by looking down from

space that we really
appreciate its enormity.

NARRATOR: Hooked by a giant
symbol revealed from space,

Ed Cavanough is in Australia's
Great Victoria Desert.

I'm arriving at
the coordinates now.

This area is not at all
what I was expecting.

NARRATOR: Evidence on the ground
has revealed these sands were

once ground zero for a series
of nuclear explosions.

But to the journalist,
that doesn't make sense.

CAVANOUGH: Australia isn't
a nuclear country, so

I just can't believe that this
would be happening here.

Hi, it's --
it's Edward Cavanough.

NARRATOR: Cavanough turns to
his newspaper contacts

to track down someone

who might be able to
shed some light.

All right. Thanks.

NARRATOR: Jeremy LeBois
is a member of

the Maralinga Tjarutja,

a council of local
Aboriginal peoples.

Hey, Jeremy.
How are you?

-How you goin'?
-Good to see you.

NARRATOR:
He confirms that 60 years ago

atomic testing did take place
in this desert,

but not ones conducted by
the Australian government.

Where we are today
is where the British

tested seven atomic bombs
that were

bigger than what
they dropped on Japan.

NARRATOR: In 1952,
the British become

the world's third nuclear power

and are desperate to play
catch up with the U.S.

and Soviet Union.

[speaking indistinctly]

NARRATOR: To do that,

the small, densely populated
nation needs to

persuade another country to
host their nuclear tests.

The British government looked
for testing sites

in the U.S. and Canada
but were turned down.

And then Britain
knocks on the door

of Australia,
part of the old empire,

and the Aussies go,
"You know what?

"Yeah, we'll have your nukes.

Let's blow up some nukes
in our deserts."

NARRATOR: In exchange for
sharing nuclear secrets,

the Australian government
grants the British vast swaths

of land for their tests.

But it's land that belongs to
LeBois and his people

Jeremy,
how much notice were

the traditional owners of
this land

given about the nuclear tests?

Absolutely nothing.
Not one of them ever, ever sat

down with the traditional
owners and asked them

for permission,
not one of them.

♪

NARRATOR:
The deserts here are of deep

spiritual significance to
the Aboriginal people.

Yet the British immediately
begin to remove them from

the place they had held sacred
for 2,000 generations.

LeBOIS:
The connection to this land,

you know, it goes back
thousands of years, and, uh,

they forced the people,
my people, away from

this country.

NARRATOR: The British build
a town to the south of

the site and prepare the area
for both air-

and ground-based tests.

On September 27, 1956,

they detonate the first of

seven devices in the desert.
-Three, two, one.

Such is its power that those
watching report being able to

see their own bones
through their hands.

MUNOZ: British soldiers
were ordered to observe

the mushroom clouds during
the tests, and all they

would go out there wearing is
pretty much shirts and shorts.

NARRATOR: But the troops
weren't the only ones

close to the blast.

Many Aboriginal people
remain in the desert.

[explosion blasting]

They later described how
a black mist

of radioactive dust
rains down on them.

But it gets worse.

Some even seek shelter in
the craters formed by

the explosions.

They were still living
nomadic lifestyle.

They didn't understand
the actual soil

was contaminated.

SZULGIT:
The people who stayed behind

began to suffer immediate
effects of nuclear fallout,

having their skin peel
and several of them dying

within only a few days.

[coughing]

NARRATOR: It's estimated that
around a third of the British

and Australian servicemen
exposed to the blasts later die

of cancer.

The figure among
the Aboriginal population was

never recorded,
but it's likely much higher.

LeBOIS: A lot of
the indigenous people are

dying of heart failure,
cancer.

What happened here
was all a secret.

No one knew
anything about it.

NARRATOR: Recent investigations
have revealed that many

casualties of these tests

gained no peace
even after death.

A program code-named Project
Sunshine sees authorities

exhume dead children

and study them for
radiation poisoning without

their parents' consent.

They don't tell the families,
the people that conduct

the autopsies are bribed

to keep their mouths shut, and
all evidence is basically swept

under the carpet.

NARRATOR:
In 1963, the British depart.

What they leave behind is
a toxic landscape that

has a catastrophic effect
on those survivors

still living here.

SZULGIT: The cleanup consisted
of just sweeping all of

this debris into shallow holes
in the ground,

which really didn't
get rid of the problem.

We're still finding stuff
that's been blown up

in the blast miles and miles
away from the test site.

NARRATOR:
Today, the scars created by

the nuclear tests run deep,

both on the land and on
the few people left here.

It's appalling
what I've seen out here,

an entire community
dispossessed of their land.

Even though these events
happened some 70 years ago,

the community is still reeling
with the aftermath.

NARRATOR: Coming up, a legend
rises from the earth.

He has this wonderful sword
called Freedom's Blade.

NARRATOR:
And the monster of Montauk.

MOSHER:
You can see why people might

associate it with some
secret government project.

NARRATOR:
May 2020.

Archaeologists
deploy drones to scan

an isolated area
of Dumfriesshire,

southwest Scotland.

By combining data captured
from dozens of aerial images,

they create a three-dimensional
model of an unusual

feature hidden
between two ravines.

It definitely looks like
it's not

a natural part of
the landscape.

WALTERS: We've got this kind of
V-shape of high ground

and maybe the vestige of
a wall going all the way around.

NARRATOR:
The aerial data has uncovered

the remains of a fort
swallowed by time.

When historians cross-reference
the ruined structure

with historic maps of the area,

what they discover stuns them.

In the First Ordnance Map of
Scotland done in 1857,

we see this exact image,
the exact topography.

What's so fascinating is that
it's got a label on it.

It says Wallace's House.

NARRATOR:
The document fuels speculation

that the drones have
uncovered the long

lost hideout of one of
the most extraordinary figures

in European history.

KOUROUNIS:
If this is true,

this is the William Wallace,
made famous as Braveheart,

of course.

NARRATOR: Despite a campaign
of bloody insurrection against

the English overlords,

which reverberates to
this day,

Wallace's life and exploits
are shrouded in mystery.

We don't know where he was
born or where he received

his military training,

but he emerges
as the freedom fighter

for the Scots during
the occupation of Scotland

by Edward I in the late
13th century.

NARRATOR: In 1296 AD,
King Edward deposes

and imprisons
the Scottish monarch

and claims the country
as his own.

Spurred by this,

a year later, Wallace launches
his first act of

revenge by slaying an English
sheriff and his men.

Word of his attack soon
spreads across

the beleaguered nation.

Wallace is seen
as this great folk hero.

He's what everyone
wants him to be -- a figure

of resistance against
the English

coming from the south.

NARRATOR: Over the following
months, Wallace gathers a band

of rebels who launch

increasingly audacious raids
against their oppressors,

infuriating the English king.

He has this wonderful sword
he carries

around with him that severs
English heads.

It's called Freedom's Blade.

For the English,
William Wallace was

public enemy number one.

He had to be caught.

NARRATOR:
In September 1297,

King Edward dispatches
9,000 troops

north to quell
the insurrection.

Despite being
vastly outnumbered,

Wallace meets them head on,
defeating the invaders

and massacring 5,000 at
the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

CADDICK-ADAMS: This is
an overwhelming victory,

and it's all down to Wallace,

his tactical genius,
and his leadership.

NARRATOR:
The remains of the structure

discovered from the skies

offers new insight into
Wallace's historic victories

against the English.

CADDICK-ADAMS: From what we know
of where he operated,

he has to have had a sort of
base from which to operate,

And the English never
discovered it.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists have
yet to excavate the site,

and much remains to be learned,

but they believe it likely
contained barracks

and wall defenses.

Its remote location also seems
perfectly suited to Wallace's

use of ambush tactics before
melting back

into Scotland's vast forests.

Like any successful
guerilla fighter,

you've got to know
the land well.

CADDICK-ADAMS: This seems to be
somewhere where he can hide,

attack, and then retreat back.

[shouting and battle noises]

NARRATOR: Despite being
revered by many Scots,

Wallace had his share
of adversaries.

The secluded structure
suggests he may have also used

this location as a refuge with
his few trusted accomplices.

HORTON: This was an enormous
advantage to Wallace,

because they were high
in the woods

and very difficult to locate.

They were secure from attack.

NARRATOR: Yet by 1305,

Wallace's enemies are closing
in, and he is given up to

the English.

Taken to London,

he is sentenced to
an unimaginably horrific form

of execution.

HORTON: He was given the death
of a traitor,

which involved hanging,
drawing, and quartering.

CADDICK-ADAMS: He's hung till
nearly dead but still conscious.

His internal organs
are drawn out of his body.

Then his body is divided into

several pieces and scattered
around the kingdom.

His head is severed and stuck
at the entrance to

London Bridge.

NARRATOR: King Edward hopes
Wallace's death will serve as

a warning to all those
who dare defy him.

But his plan backfires.

Wallace becomes
a Scottish hero.

A year later,
in 1306, Robert the Bruce

raises the rebellion
for the independence war that

ultimately is successful.

NARRATOR:
Two decades after his death,

Scotland gains the freedom
Wallace gave his life for.

150 years after it disappeared
from the historical record,

the site that may have played
a key role in those momentous

events is rediscovered once
more by eyes in the sky.

HORTON: What's so exciting
about the discovery of

this stronghold

is that at last
we've got a place that

we can associate with his
campaigns against the English.

And if so,
this would make it one of

the most important
archaeological sites

in all the British Isles.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the 1,300-square-mile

wound in the ground.

This is the biggest industrial
project on planet Earth.

NARRATOR:
And the CIA's psychic spies.

SZULGIT: Thoughts could be
projected into a target's head

to control their minds.

NARRATOR: August 13, 2019,
a satellite passing over

Canada scans Alberta's vast
expanses of boreal forest

and captures this among
the trees below.

KOUROUNIS: It looks like a vast
industrial wasteland.

Whatever is going on here,
it's being done

on a huge scale.

NARRATOR: A 1,300-square-mile
wound punctures

the pristine wilderness.

Analysts dial up
the magnification.

PEPPER: The first thing my eye
is immediately drawn to

are these giant rectangles
of yellow.

Looking closer,
we can see what looks like

blood spreading over
the corners of these blocks.

NARRATOR: For Martin Pepper,
these red veins are a clue.

PEPPER:
We're looking at sulfur.

Liquid sulfur is often red
before it dries.

These blood rivers
that we're seeing in

these images are liquid sulfur
before it

cools and turns into
these yellow piles.

NARRATOR: Scale analysis reveals
the mammoth blocks of sulfur

each cover an area greater
than 12 football fields

and are six stories high.

PEPPER: Sulfur naturally comes
from volcanoes,

but most of the sulfur that we
use is actually extracted from

fossil fuel refinement.

So maybe that's what
we're seeing here.

NARRATOR: Geological records
confirm the city-sized scar

sits on top of
the largest reserve

of crude bitumen on Earth,

an underground deposit
of primordial

ooze covering 54,000
square miles.

KOUROUNIS: Millennia ago,
this part of Alberta

was lush marshlands

and all of that organic
material decayed,

got buried underground,
and eventually transformed

into bitumen-soaked sand.

NARRATOR: Europeans first
noticed the potential industrial

use of these tarry sands
as long ago as 1717,

when indigenous peoples bring
samples to a Hudson Bay Company

trading post.

Raw bitumen from this area
was used by

the indigenous Cree and Dene
peoples to waterproof

their canoes, but when 18th
century fur traders moved in,

and they noticed the amount of
bitumen in this area,

they thought perhaps they
could turn it into an industry.

NARRATOR: Yet it's not until
the 20th century that

large-scale efforts to tap into
North America's bitumen

reserves begin.

Between 1900 and 1925,

the number of vehicles
in the U.S. alone jumps

from 8,000 to over 20 million.

Across the continent,

thousands of miles of rutted,
muddy horse tracks are replaced

with hard, flat,
asphalt-covered roads.

They want to industrialize it
and use it on a large scale.

These mining companies
strip-mined the landscape by

basically using absolutely

massive steam shovels to scoop
up tons of

this tar-soaked sand.

NARRATOR:
The miners soon exhaust

the region's surface
reserves of bitumen.

As the years pass, they move
underground where, trapped

in the tarry sands, are 140
billion barrels of oil,

more than has been used across

the world since the start of
the Industrial Revolution,

and the destruction of Canada's
forests moves up a gear.

PEPPER: The mining of tar sands
is labor- and energy-intensive,

because you have to get
it extremely hot

so it'll flow, and then
that's what you can actually

separate into your oil
and your asphalt.

NARRATOR: However,
the Canadian government

denies plans to excavate

the oil-rich sands by
detonating 100 nuclear

warheads underground.

In the 1960s,
mining companies devise

new ways to reach
their bounty.

When this mining gets too deep
to just shovel off the surface,

they actually have to inject
steam to melt it enough that

they can actually pump it out.

NARRATOR: In 1973,
Arab nations impose

a global embargo
on the export of oil.

With North America

now reliant on
homegrown sources,

production at
the Athabasca Mine explodes.

KOUROUNIS: Unfortunately,
the processing injects

these chemicals
into the nearby lakes

and streams well beyond
where the extraction is

actually occurring.

NARRATOR: Over the following
years, as more mining companies

flock to Canada,

the already massive industrial
landscape grows

to an area
the size of New York.

The tar sands are being
mined on just an epic,

unthinkable scale.

This is the biggest ongoing
industrial project on

planet Earth.

NARRATOR: Such is the scale of
the Athabasca oil sands that

the mines create more sulfur
than they sell to the industry.

As the site grows,
the monster piles of sulfur,

a byproduct of the refinement,
rise from the ground.

It's kind of rare in industry
that supply

vastly outstrips demand.

KOUROUNIS: There are
stockpiles of sulfur,

millions of tons of it,
just sitting around.

NARRATOR: Tens of millions of
years after it was formed,

the oil of the Athabasca sands
is now being pulled from

the ground at the rate of up
to 2.6 million barrels per day.

We can see how
the Earth's surface has

changed, and this image really
brings that home.

PEPPER: And it's only
by looking down from

space that we really
appreciate its enormity.

NARRATOR: Coming up,

mind control
and mutants on Long Island.

SZULGIT: Could it be
that the U.S. military is

using this site for something
they have not revealed?

NARRATOR:
And 55 tons of Nazi terror.

MUNOZ:
The tank was taking out 11

Allied tanks
for every one of theirs.

NARRATOR:
March 14, 2020.

Orbiting 380 miles
above New York State,

a satellite scans
a neighborhood on Long Island

and captures something that
doesn't belong in suburbia.

MORAN:
This is kind of crazy.

Right on the tip of
Long Island, in the middle of

a clearing, you see
this huge, weird structure.

It's this immense kind of
industrial box.

On top of this building is
this strange curved structure.

It almost looks like
a drive-in movie screen.

NARRATOR: The mystery rooftop
feature is over

120 feet in diameter.

Whatever this is, it must be
there for some important,

unknown purpose.

NARRATOR: Newspaper reports
reveal that the isolated

facility has attracted
suspicion for many years.

What we're looking at has
a pretty sinister reputation.

People who live in
the area have all these rumors

and tales of it being some
kind of secret

government laboratory.

NARRATOR: According to reports,
the site was the location

for a series
of highly clandestine

Cold War experiments.

The authorities,
however, claim it

is a decommissioned early
warning system.

Military records say this
facility was designed for

no other purpose
than to defend

against threats posed
by the Soviet Union.

NARRATOR: The files say the site
is one of several set up

along the East Coast during
the 1950s and '60s

to scan the Atlantic Ocean for
incoming aerial threats.

Yet what puzzles some analysts
is that while the rest of

the radar networks were
destroyed many years ago,

this one remained untouched.

This one was left
because, ostensibly,

it's a good landmark for boaters
and fishermen.

At least that's what
the authorities claim.

NARRATOR: A terrifying discovery
near the site fuels

fears that the government
isn't telling the truth.

MORGAN: Somebody was out
walking, and they found

this bizarre,
hairless creature with

a beak that looks unlike any
other animal that they have

ever seen before.

MOSHER: It is a very ghastly,
strange-looking corpse,

and you can see why people might
associate it with some

secret government project.

NARRATOR: In 2019,
urban explorers

gain access to the facility.

MAN: Whoa.

Look at that.

All this stuff.

What is that?

NARRATOR: Their footage suggests
that the structure in the image

is just one part of a much
larger hidden facility.

MAN:
That's the elevator.

It has long been rumored that
beneath this giant box of

a building,
there's an extensive series

of tunnels and underground labs.

It's alleged to be the home of
the Montauk Project.

NARRATOR: The Montauk Project is
said to be a series of

CIA-backed programs,
which involve highly classified

experiments on animals
and children.

The stories are actually
the inspiration

for the TV series
"Stranger Things."

It was thought to have
included the development of

an electromagnetic ray that

could control thought,
and if you can control thought,

you can control behavior.

NARRATOR: Authorities
dismiss these claims.

Yet recently declassified
files reveal that

beginning in the 1970s,
the U.S. government

invests $20 million in a series
of paranormal experiments,

code-named
Project Star Gate.

Over a period of two decades,
the military tries to weaponize

psychic abilities by training
subjects to predict

global and domestic threats.

SZULGIT: Neuroscience was just
being explored, and it was

thought that maybe thoughts

and ideas could be projected
into a target's head to control

their minds.

ANNOUNCER: Modern technology
placed today's scientists within

striking distance of achieving

total control of
the human brain.

MORGAN: During the Cold War,
the U.S. government

spent so much money
and investigated so many

ridiculous things that ideas
like the Montauk Project just

really don't seem
that far-fetched.

NARRATOR: The documents reveal
that the government's programs

also included experiments with
hallucinogens and UFOs.

Some people say the Montauk
Project actually went further.

MORGAN: It's believed that
the U.S. government

at Montauk may have developed

a technology that
allows for teleportation.

NARRATOR: Teleportation has long
been dismissed as existing

only in the realms of
science fiction.

Yet in 2020, NASA reveals that
it has successfully teleported

quantum information over
a distance of more than

25 miles.

If this is a technology that
could be developed,

imagine the advantage that it
would give a nation.

NARRATOR: Despite intense
interest in the site

revealed from space

and the weird creature found
nearby, evidence to support

rumors of
clandestine experiments

there remains elusive.

Yet a recent sighting
suggests the final chapter

in its story
has yet to be written.

Residents woke up
and said they

saw this thing move,
this radar dish.

They were so freaked out
that they

called the police to come
investigate it.

[indistinct radio chatter]

SZULGIT: Could it be that
the U.S. military

is using this site again

for something they have
not revealed?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the forest of horrors.

This is the site
of a terrible war crime.

NARRATOR: May 9, 2018.

The GeoEye-1 satellite
passing over a densely

wooded area of southern Norway
captures this image.

It kind of looked like
the spine of something.

We've got eight of these
shapes, and they're all

perfectly aligned
in a remote area,

which doesn't really
make any sense.

NARRATOR: Analysis of the image
shows each arch of this

bridge to nowhere is 70 feet
wide and evenly spaced.

It seems like this is some
kind of military test range,

and looking at the condition
of it, it looks fairly old,

so I would assume this is
something that had to be

tied to the Nazi occupation of
Norway during World War II.

NARRATOR:
Wartime records confirm

the structure was once used by

perhaps the most feared
machines in the Nazi arsenal.

What we're looking at is
actually a tank shooting range.

They had to shoot through
the arches to be able

to hit the embankment about
1000 feet at the other end.

NARRATOR: Much like the rest
of mainland Europe,

the Nazis defeat of Norway
had been spearheaded

by the tactic of blitzkrieg,
or Lightning War.

800 aircraft
and 120,000 troops

quickly overwhelm
local resistance.

They really just couldn't
withstand the speed

and the strength
of the German attack.

Central to the idea of
blitzkrieg is the German tank,

and German tanks are recognized

as being some of the best
of the Second World War.

NARRATOR:
The success of German tanks

on the battlefields
of Europe has

its genesis in the 1930s.

As Germany secretly re-arms,
Hitler instructs veteran

World War I tank commander,
Ernst Volckheim,

to revolutionize the design
and use of these war machines.

He bucked the international
trend of trying to make lighter

and faster tanks
and went the other way.

Volckheim suggests that the tank
with the heaviest gun is,

in the end,
going to win the battle.

NARRATOR:
During World War II,

the Germans' deployment of big
heavy Panzer tanks forces

the Americans to upgrade
the Sherman's 37-millimeter main

weapon and armor.

But in 1942, the Nazis
dramatically upped the ante.

MORGAN: They then work toward
designing an 88-millimeter,

long-barreled, high velocity
gun, and they design

a turret that can accommodate it
and then a chassis, and that

eventually becomes
what we call the Tiger.

The Tiger tank is one of
the most iconic tanks

ever built --
it was a real beast.

NARRATOR: Armed with its monster
88-millimeter cannon

tested at the range

in the satellite image,
the Tiger can penetrate

four inches of armor

at a range of 3,000 feet.

MORGAN: When the Tiger
was on the battlefield,

my God, it terrified everybody
that confronted it.

It could easily zap holes
through just about

anything else.

MUNOZ:
At the height of the war,

the Tiger tank was taking out
11 Allied tanks for every one

of theirs.

NARRATOR: For all the shock
and awe of the Nazi's tanks,

in the end, they are
overwhelmed by numbers.

During the conflict,

German war factories can only

produce around
50,000 war machines.

The Allies, some 210,000.

As defeat looms
for Hitler,

the story of the structure
seen from space

takes a dark twist.

MORGAN: This is not just
a tank firing range.

This is the site
of a terrible war crime.

It's here, during the war,
that Germans will

enforce Hitler's sinister
Commando Order.

On October 18, 1942,

the fuhrer issues in order
that all captured Allied

commandos should be executed
on sight and without trial.

MORAN: The devastating upshot
of this was that almost 200

Allied military personnel were
actually executed

at this very site.

[indistinct orders called]

[gunshot blasts]

They marched them into
the forest, and while the tank

testing is going on, under
the cover of all that noise,

they gunned them down and tip
their bodies into mass graves.

WALTERS: What's really chilling
is that when autopsies

were later carried out,
they found that they were

still alive and breathing
when they were buried.

NARRATOR:
When the war ends,

many of those responsible for
these atrocities evade justice.

Yet the site
of their despicable crimes

remains a monument to
the fallen, visible from space.

To me, these arches symbolize
the tombstones of the people

that were murdered there during
the Second World War.