Original subtitles

Narrator: A coastal defence

now exposed by vanishing Atlantic sand dunes.

It might seem like the Americans were being paranoid,

I mean, who's going to attack the us on the Delaware coast,

the Jersey shore?

But, in fact, america was attacked.

The stranded remains of a town that once appeared to have it all.

They must have felt like they had found a garden of Eden,

an oasis in this dry zone.

But someone with more authority wanted it for themselves.

Ruins on a tranquil Japanese bay

with a deadly technology at their heart.

Were they doing something secret? Were they doing something dangerous?

There are stories here in these buildings.

And a network of abandoned structures that cover an entire country.

It looks as though this land has been carpet-bombed

with these mysterious-looking domes.

You find them in the roadside, in churchyards,

in people's gardens.

You have to wonder who or what

were they protecting themselves from?

Decaying relics...

..Ruins of lost worlds.

Forged through years of toil,

now haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

Albania,

a country on the fringe of modern-day Europe,

a land covered

in peculiar mushroom-shaped structures.

There are these weird little constructions

and they're all over the place,

there's no pattern to it, there's no restriction to them.

It is a bizarre situation where you have every village

and every field almost is covered with these things.

They're carved into mountainsides

and spread along the coast looking out to sea.

They're everywhere, like, I mean, everywhere.

These tiny structures appear to be fortified.

The sheer volume and positioning of them

tells you that a huge force or population

was expected to mobilise and defend this land.

Every now and again you come across a bigger structure,

one with more rooms, more defensive capability,

somehow there must be a system,

there must be a way that everything is linked.

Albania is riddled with these places.

But a post-apocalyptic landscape at the heart of this nation

suggests the worst-case scenario may have came to pass.

A vast complex covering an area

that goes as far as the eyes can see.

All that remains is just the ghost town.

This place wouldn't look out of sorts

in the dystopian world of 'mad Max' or 'blade runner'.

So what happened behind the heavy iron curtain

that once shrouded Albania?

Elton caushi, a local historian and tour guide

grew up here.

These structures made unusual playgrounds.

You could find them everywhere,

it was great to play outside actually.

But there was a serious side to them.

This is what we call mushroom bunkers.

Hundreds of thousands of these were build all around the country,

mainly focusing on the coastal areas

since d-day style of attack was expected to come this way.

Throughout the 1970s

the Albanian population was ready to mobilise

at a moment's notice

and use the mushroom bunkers to defend the nation

against the most terrifying attacks.

There was this constant genuine fear of the attack

and I do remember the trainings that they used to give us,

the adults throwing chlorine all around the neighbourhood.

People closing off the lights in the home

and families being forced into some sort of

military action

and finding shelter in the neighbourhoods bunker

where we were supposed to survive

in the case of an eventual bacteriological attack.

The Albanian fear of invasion

dates back to the end of world war ii.

In 1945, much of Europe lay in ashes,

torn apart by six years of total war.

Albania had suffered occupation by both fascist Italy

and Nazi Germany.

In many ways,

the crushing defeats and humiliation in world war ii

profoundly influenced the direction the country would take

in the post-war era.

Out of the fight for independence,

one man emerged as the country's dictator,

enver hoxha.

Despite being supported by British and American intelligence services

during the war,

hoxha was a staunch communist

and quickly aligned himself with the Soviet union.

Hoxha idealised Joseph Stalin, in fact,

the Albanian communists were the only communist groups

that openly supported Stalin after his fall from grace.

Hoxha's dogmatic attachment to Stalin

meant that when the Soviet dictator died in 1953

he severed ties with his successor, the more pragmatic nikita khrushchev.

Khrushchev wanted to lighten the heavy effects

of the Stalin reign

and hoxha of Albania thought that

this was a betraying the true communist ideal.

Hoxha could now add the ussr to his long list of enemies.

In his increasing isolation, hoxha's fear of invasion mounted

and his paranoia pushed him

to initiate his bunkerisation programme.

The bunkerisation of Albania was built on this siege mentality.

The idea that enemies are everywhere,

ready to strike at any time.

There could be as many as 700,000 bunkers in Albania,

one for every four people

and they weren't all mushrooms.

Hoxha reserved the biggest for himself

and it's found beneath the capital, Tirana.

Now we are in a completely different kind of bunker,

this monster going five floors under the ground.

Being equipped with 106 rooms

was supposed to protect hoxha and the communist leaders.

And that included also the whole directors of the army.

They needed to be secured here

against any nuclear, chemical

or bacteriological attack.

It was a monumental undertaking

and the tiny Albanian nation wasn't able to complete

hoxha's maniacal bunkerisation programme alone.

Every now and again

on some of the instruments deep in these bunkers,

you catch a glimpse of a clue

that tells you who was behind all this.

Hoxha had got into bed with a dangerous ally.

Hoxha was a true ideologue and a true believer

and so he turned to a pure form of communism

which they saw in mao's China.

Relations with other eastern bloc nations

were increasingly strained...

..And hoxha's alliance with China was not well received.

During the 1970s, Albania stepped up bunker production

to stave off the perceived threat of invasion.

Hoxha had convinced his nation

that neighbours such as Italy, Greece or yugoslavia

as well as nuclear powers such as america

and the Soviet union were on the brink of attacking them.

Their only ally, China, poured industrial resources

into the small country.

At its core, was this,

the metallurgical factory complex at elbasan.

Framed by these beautiful mountains in the background

you have a man-made environmental disaster zone.

There's chimneys, there's factories,

there's buildings in all sorts of different states of repair.

More than 500 of these giant buildings

were constructed.

Accompanied by all the infrastructure

a complex of this scale would require.

Giant moulds allowed prefabricated bunker parts

to be fitted together like a Jigsaw.

You can barely imagine the amount of noise and smoke

that must have emanated from this place.

The metal and concrete factories in the industrial zone

sped up the production of bunkers

which were rolled out across the nation.

But at the same time, the housing was neglected,

the rest of the infrastructure in the country was falling behind,

all at the expense of the bunkerisation programme.

Domestic issues were soon exacerbated by international development,

a pivotal moment in sino-American relations

threatened hoxha's rigid allegiance to communist doctrine.

First kissinger, then president Nixon

were allowed to visit China, that was all too much for hoxha,

and to him,

a sign of China's new revisionist direction.

Chairman mao died in 1976

and thawing relations culminated with the Chinese

breaking off trade with Albania two years later.

First, it was the Soviets, then the Chinese,

he was falling out with the very powerhouses

that were bankrolling Albania.

He practically transformed Albania

into what North Korea stands today to the world.

This was the most isolated country in Europe.

After hoxha's death in 1985, the regime clung on

but the people were getting wind of communist collapse

across Eastern Europe.

First, you had hunger strikes by students,

then the people Rose up and took to the streets,

they'd had enough.

Albania's marxist-leninist government fell in 1991.

Leaving behind this bizarre legacy:

Hundreds of thousands of bunkers left to decay.

Today, the many bunkers are being repurposed.

Albania is trying to build this future

and image as a tourism destination,

and is doing quite a good job.

Eventually, they will host capitalist visitors

and there will be no better punishment

for the dictatorship.

And Albania is now looking outwards

as a candidate to join the European Union.

Albania for sure is very enthusiastic

about integrating the eu,

this is the big brother that we've probably been dreaming

and it's for us like going back home somehow,

being a member of the big European family is, like,

really finding out the parents which we lost many centuries ago.

On america's eastern seaboard in Delaware,

the drifting sand dunes reveal a collection

of threatening structures.

The east coast of the us is famous for beautiful beaches,

you have people picnicking, you have surf crashing,

you could just be out for a day on the beach.

Then in amongst the dunes and the scrub pines,

you catch glimpses of something that looks completely out of place.

Closer inspection reveals a clear military purpose.

So you see remnants of bunkers and these concrete towers.

It's really in congress, because you're on this lovely beach

where, as far as most of us know,

there's never been any kind of a war.

In fact, war did come to these shores,

one that would claim thousands of lives.

On the eastern shores of the United States in Delaware,

there are distinct signs

that heavy artillery was once deployed here.

This long dark corridor cuts through the centre

of this huge bunker

and old rusty chains hang from rails.

This was clearly used for hoisting something

of significant weight.

Outside abandoned weaponry still lurks behind the dunes.

Like everything else at this site, these guns face out to sea.

But who were they afraid of?

Who were they expecting to invade the eastern seaboard?

It might seem like the Americans were being paranoid.

I mean, who's going to attack the us on the Delaware coast,

the Jersey shore?

In fact, an invasion did come,

but would this facility be ready to meet the challenge?

The desolate relics date back to the late 1930s.

Few people know what went on here.

For a long time,

their use and function was kept completely confidential.

Today historians are keen to preserve these military monuments,

and dr Gary wray is leading the charge.

When the military built this space, this place became super-secret

so you weren't allowed on the beach.

Military put the word out that nothing was to be talked about

so what you're looking at here

is america's first homeland security.

This is fort miles.

A military complex guarding the mouth of the Delaware river.

We don't usually think that Delaware is one of america's major rivers

for shipping

but it does lead to a very important harbour

in Philadelphia.

A naval shipyard as well as arsenals and refineries

preparing high octane fuel for combat aircraft

were all located up-river.

This was a key defence place and on the east coast.

This water behind me was just saturated with tankers.

So if a foreign power can get in and stop the traffic

in and out of Delaware bay

they've taken a great step toward victory.

The us military arrived at this 5,000-acre site

and installed the first large artillery pieces

in 1938.

Just over a year

before world war ii broke out in Europe.

Hitler fantasised about seeing New York City

engulfed in flames.

Hitler used to talk about his dreams

of seeing German long-range bombers attacking our coast.

One of his more over the top concepts

was that he might actually be able to do a land invasion of the us.

The threat was real,

we thought the Germans were coming over the horizon

and we were preparing for them.

The layout of the site

reflects how the us expected the Germans to attack,

with their powerful superfast battleships,

the observation towers were the first line of defence.

Tyler dreiblatt has been studying the site for years.

So this tower was here to spot for the big German battleships,

like the Bismarck and the tirpitz,

that's what we were worried about here at fort miles.

When construction began on these towers,

the us had yet to enter the war.

But they were sending cargo ships down the Delaware river

and out across the Atlantic to support their ally Great Britain.

After the fall of France in may, June 1940,

Great Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany.

The battle of the Atlantic was an attempt by the Americans

to supply Great Britain

despite the presence of the German fleet.

This was a tonnage war

and if Hitler could cut britain off from her supplies

then victory would be within his grasp.

Heavy artillery that could fire miles out to sea

protected the bay...

..And the flow of traffic heading to britain.

About late '42, early '43 the fort was ready to rock and roll.

Made of 100,000 tonnes of concrete,

battery 519 hides the Jewel in the crown of this defence system.

This corridor cuts through the centre

of this huge bunker.

Old rusty chains hang from rails,

this rail leads you to this monstrous gun.

When you see this, the towers start to make sense.

These lookout towers were intended to help the artillerymen

find their targets better.

They would take a shot, see where it landed

then the guys in the tower would say two degrees right,

two degrees left.

So this tower was one of 15 up and down the coast,

all working together to target those enemy battleships.

The fort's smaller guns also required bombproof housing,

this mighty structure is battery herring.

Herring was part of one of four batteries,

and you can still see the turntables

where the six-inch guns would have sat.

You could fire a six-inch gun, it fired 100-pound shell,

armour-piercing shell about once every 15 seconds.

And so a blizzard of shells would start coming in

on enemy ship.

And with more artillery

and fortifications installed 12 miles away

on the other side of the Delaware bay,

fort miles was complete.

Now the Americans believed they were ready to take whatever

the Germans could throw at them.

A lot of military experts had their minds in the mentality

that wars are fought between giant battleships

bombarding things on land,

giant forts on land bombarding the battleships.

Those ships are going to appear over the horizon

to attack the east coast of the United States,

so this fort was built to defend against them,

the Germans, unfortunately, outfoxed us.

The problem was Germany didn't arrive

with battleships.

The Germans arrived with something far more deadly

that would soon claim thousands of American lives.

Just when this defensive system was completed

it suddenly became obsolete.

December 1941,

Hitler declared war on the us

and dispatched five state of the art long-range u-boats

to attack america's Atlantic coast.

The stealth of Hitler's submarines had already caused devastation

in European waters.

The Americans don't really have good sort of submarine sense,

they're still thinking in terms of the fleet actions

and the open sea and they don't realise

that these German submarine wolf packs are creeping

right up to the American shore.

The lookout towers designed to help aim the big guns

turned out to be basically useless against submarines.

The result was carnage.

During world war ii,

fort miles had been built to protect Delaware bay

against Nazi attack,

but they were not prepared

for Hitler's state of the art German u-boats.

During a five-month period over 600 us ships

totalling 3 million tonnes were lost.

Over 5,000 American sailors lost their lives.

18 of these ships sank in front of fort miles

at the entrance of the Delaware bay.

In the interest of morale,

us military chiefs may have wanted

to keep this humiliating defeat secret.

But the locals knew something was happening out there

because you could hear the explosions

and see the flames at night,

and then in the morning you would see the oil

and the flotsam that would come ashore.

It was a disaster of the first order.

The German u-boat war against us shipping

on our own coast was devastating.

The German admirals and submarine skippers

referred to these early months of the battle of the Atlantic

as the happy time.

The Americans had to come up with a counter move fast,

the curiously long jetty at fort miles

was part of their response.

The decision was taken to deploy this enormous minefield

across the mouth of Delaware bay.

500 floating mines tethered to the sea bed

to stop any German submarines coming up the Delaware river.

The 6,000-pound mines were deployed in the deepest channel

of the Delaware bay where submarines could lurk.

The mine were for 1,700 feet long and it was out in deep water

and you had a minefield out in front.

It was a huge cable that went across

from the Delaware side to the New Jersey side

which blocked the mouth of the bay.

The men in this tower also worked together

to spot ships moving into the bay

where they could make the decision to set off one mine, 15 mines

or all 455 that crossed all the way across the Delaware.

With the remotely detonated mines in place,

fort miles was finally able to protect war supplies

coming out of Delaware bay.

Until 14 14th of ay 1945,

when u-boat 858 surrendered at the pier

effectively marking the end of world war ii for this region.

After the war,

the German u-boats were replaced by Soviet submarines.

And when the cold war ended fort miles finally closed in 1991.

Today this dramatic facility is preserved as a museum.

It serves as a stark reminder

of just how real the Nazi threat to america was.

In north-eastern Spain in the ancient province of aragon,

a cluster of buildings

have been left high and dry.

This place used to be really civilised,

there are balconies, a local watering hole,

a beautiful great church.

You can see where people lived and where people worked,

where people worshipped,

the only thing you can't see is the people.

The old stone buildings are completely crumbling,

the ceilings are really only being held up

by half-rotten tree branches.

At first, there's little indication as to why this place was abandoned.

What kind of evacuation gives people the time to pack up

all of their worldly goods and go down the road

and in hopes of building a future somewhere else?

Something about this site that doesn't add up.

North-east Spain is a pretty dry area

but there was water here

so it must have been an attractive place to live

at some point. Why would anyone leave?

The people who are settled here had found the garden of Eden,

but someone with an even bigger stick wanted it.

It's a David and Goliath story

but this one doesn't have a happy ending.

This is the ancient village of esco.

For hundreds of years, it was a stopping point

along the 1,000-mile pilgrimage route,

the camino de Santiago.

Thousands, millions of christians would make the pilgrimage

along this route on foot.

This place, esco village, was a very welcome rest stop

on that pilgrimage.

Esco lies in a rugged mountainous region

thanks to the pilgrims and the fruits of the land,

it thrived well into the 20th century.

Jose Luis clemente remembers that time well,

this was his childhood home.

Translation: "This is where I was born.

"I was happy here, I lived here for ten years.

"I remember it all very fondly.

"Years ago these ruins we see now

"they had a life of their own.

"There was a very strong community here.

"At the beginning of the last century,

"there was as many as 260 villagers here."

Land suitable for growing crops is scarce here,

limited to the narrow valley floor.

But the relics of irrigation channels,

terraces and orchards

show the esco farmers made the most of what they had.

Farming was clearly at the centre of village life.

Translation: "People lived off the land.

"In these groves, they grew vegetables, fruit,

"all sorts of things."

The village of esco blossomed by virtue of its geography.

This is a very dry part of Spain

but this particular region is well watered

by runoff from the pyrenees mountains.

So for hundreds of thousands of years,

this valley is nicely wetted by its favourable geology.

Translation: "There was a water channel that brought water

"from the esco river

"and that irrigated all the orchards."

But when Jose was just ten years old something happened

to change this ancient way of farming.

The very water that was the font of life

for this village

would ultimately strike its death knell.

The mid 20th century was the height of the fascist dictator

general Franco's reign.

He led Spain's drive to modernise.

In the 1950s

Spain was beginning to rebuild itself

after a series of crises.

The civil war, world war ii

and the decision was made to modernise this part of Spain.

Spanish industry starts to develop

and there is more and more need for water for farming,

for drinking water in cities,

for powering industry

and that water's got to come from somewhere

and you can't wait for the rains to come

to run a modern industrial economy.

Esco sits in the yesa valley,

an oasis in a notoriously dry region.

Here snowmelt and summer rains coursed downstream.

It was a prime target for one of general Franco's

ambitious water infrastructure schemes.

The decision was made to put a reservoir in the valley

which they did by damming the river that runs right through here.

In 1960 general Franco opened his prized yesa dam.

Towering almost 250 feet high

it created one of the largest reservoirs

in the pyrenees,

and flooded 2,500 hectares of land,

including the precious fertile pastures of esco.

But general Franco's iron grip on the people of Spain

meant speaking out was unthinkable.

Translation: "There were no protests or anything

"because they were a political crime and simply not permitted.

"Here the people were very straightforward,

"not cunning enough and they did what they were told."

Esco itself wasn't flooded

so at first Jose's family and the other villagers thought

they could survive.

So the water starts to rise,

their farmable land starts to shrink,

their bread basket was becoming a bucket.

They tried to sustain themselves on the land they had left

but it simply wasn't enough to feed everyone.

Bit by bit the villagers saw

that their livelihoods were going under the surface

of that lake.

Translation: "The reservoir flooded all the richest lands.

"It wasn't enough for all the families to live on

"so everyone of them chose to leave and live somewhere else."

Water for these farmers was the stuff of life

and it was water that snuffed it out.

Today Jose heads up the esco residents association

which campaigns to get their land back.

But their ultimate goal is to return home one day.

Translation: "It takes one drop to start a waterfall.

"So if I put down a stone and build a house

"others will start to follow and build more houses

"and the village will come back to life."

Spain has been a democracy a few years now,

so now it might be possible for people to return

and make new lives in their old village.

In kawatana, in the far southwest of Japan,

strange structures jut out

into the bay.

When you see this area it looks very peaceful.

Wooded hills, lovely bays,

it looks like maybe someplace you'd go on a yoga retreat.

But as tranquil as this place might first appear,

in truth it conceals a violent past.

As you head up one of the hills you can see up to the peak,

get the most amazing views out across the water.

And that I think is the clue as to what this place was for.

This is a very remote location.

You don't see major towns, it's not a major port,

you don't see a lot of other boats in the area.

Whoever built these buildings had a reason

to be as far away from other people as possible.

Were they doing something secret? Were they doing something dangerous?

There are stories here in these buildings.

While few clues remain,

this site was, in fact, connected to the deadly attack

on Pearl harbour.

So what secret work took place here?

And what role did it have on that fateful day?

The peak of activity dates back to world war ii.

Translation: "74 years have passed since the war

"but in kawatana there are many places like this

"leftover from that time."

Murai tatsumi is a volunteer guide in the area

and first began exploring this site at a young age.

Translation: "I happened to be born here and grew up around here.

"So this was a good area to play in,

"but it used to be like an overgrown forest here,

"nobody really knew

"what those buildings originally were."

While the history of the site was neglected for years,

from its earliest days at the end of world war I,

this location played a vital role

in improving Japan's naval capabilities.

I think today many people don't realise

just how powerful Japan was

in the first half of the 20th century.

It had taken over territory on the Chinese mainland,

it had taken over a number of formerly German island groups

in the pacific.

And they were needing bigger and bigger

more sophisticated naval facilities for this big ocean-going fleet

that was going to protect this growing Japanese empire.

The unique features still visible today

betray the specific purpose of this facility.

The key thing about this area is the pier

and more importantly that section at the end,

the cut-out section.

This site is all about the water,

but we're not looking at ships or vessels here,

it's all about weapons.

This was the location Japan used to test new torpedo designs.

This is the katashima torpedo test site:

Situated on the shore of omura bay,

a large inland body of water,

the Japanese Navy had found a quiet and secure position

to advance their weapons programme.

But how would this site go on to play a devastating role

in drawing the us into battle?

Translation: "Here are the marks

"from where the mine cart rails used to be.

"They'd put the torpedoes in the mine carts

"and then bring them here.

"And then here, there was probably a crane.

"They'd put the torpedo on the crane

"and lower it 3m to 5m under the water.

"They'd aim it at a target 2km away and fire it from here."

So the whole of the infrastructure here

is aiming at one thing and that's testing torpedoes.

You have to be able to track the thing

and that's where we've got the whole tower up on the hillside.

We can see the observation platforms

where naval officers testing the torpedoes would watch them

run across the water and, you know, note down observations about route,

speed, direction, velocity all that kind of stuff.

You've had spotters out on boats as well,

a risky business

because those torpedoes didn't always go where they thought

they were going to.

Testing facility like this they were doing a dry run

with all of their various torpedo technologies,

testing the various fuses,

testing how it would run at certain depths.

Testing whether it would explode on impact

or if the fuse would explode near the hull of the enemy ship.

Throughout the 1930s

Japan used torpedoes in pursuit of its expansionist aims.

But to perfect their weapon of choice

the land-based facilities were just as vital.

Translation: "Here you can see a channel,

"this must be the waterway.

"There are water pools for industrial water next to it.

"Over here we think there were machines

"for processing."

Little evidence remains

to determine exactly how this place ran

and the full extent of the work carried out here.

But tatsumi is certain of this building's importance

to the project.

Translation: "To fire torpedoes,

"you have to use air to burn the fuel.

"So in this room the compressed air was put into the torpedoes.

"This was the most important part of the preparations."

After years spent perfecting their weapon,

on the horizon was Japan's greatest challenge yet,

an attack on the us Navy.

To help prepare them

a specific model of torpedo was tested numerous times here:

The type 91.

This was a torpedo designed to be dropped from aeroplanes,

they specifically modified it to work in shallow water

because they had a target in mind.

They wanted to use it for the big attack

they were planning on Pearl harbour in Hawaii.

Following the successful attack in 1941,

Japan continued with its torpedo campaign

across the pacific theatre.

Japan's focus on developing torpedo technology

was very smart because at this time

many naval experts were still thinking

about battleships as the primary weapon of war.

And battleships, in fact, were almost obsolete by then.

Their strategy was to kind of draw the Americans

across the broad pacific

and whittle down the strength of the American fleet.

By taking out their big battleships and aircraft carriers

with torpedoes.

The vast majority of ships sunk in the pacific during the war

were sunk by torpedoes,

whether fired from other ships, from submarines

or dropped from aeroplanes.

With a renewed interest in this weapon,

the site here began to expand as investment flowed in,

reclaiming land from the water to turn the island into a peninsula

and expanding the facilities upwards and outwards.

Marooned in the water, lies the remains

of what was intended to be the next step.

Translation: "Torpedoes were believed to be the best weapon

"in the world at the time.

"Japan wasn't thinking about losing the war at all.

"So they need to mass-produce,

"and they built a factory here

"which was the largest one in the country."

The pace of engineering advancing during world war ii was phenomenal

and this extra building was for targeting torpedoes,

it was for research into cutting-edge sonar technology.

Translation: "This building

"is called investigating receipt test site,

"it was a testing facility for sonar.

"To help accurately determine the enemy warship's location

"and distance.

"We don't have any records of tests here

"because just after two years of building the site

"the war ended.

"So we think this was all for nothing."

On 9 August 1945

the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki

less than 20 miles away.

Within days the Japanese surrendered,

and this entire site has lain deserted ever since.

Translation: "Now we put emphasis on the war

"as something we shouldn't repeat again.

"And to keep the peace,

"we want people to come and see this place

"and think about it carefully."

Abandoned, disintegrating, reclaimed by nature.

Structures once at the cutting edge

bearing witness to the forces, pioneers and villains

that defined the world today.

Emblems of a shared past still standing in our present.

Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV