All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Throughout time, governments
and the people who work

for them have done strange
and even terrible things

in the name of
national interest,

including launching missions
so extreme,

they seem to defy belief--

like trying to extract
a 1,750-ton Soviet submarine

from the ocean floor

using a giant claw,

in secret.

- No one has ever attempted
such an audacious

salvage operation
like this before.

- Or sending paratroopers
on a secret mission

strapped to a nuclear bomb.

- Set off a nuclear bomb
and run.

That sounds insane.

- And even stealing
Soviet secrets

400 feet below the waves.

- If the men are caught,
they are under orders

to blow up everyone on board.

They cannot be taken alive.

- Now it's time to bring
these extreme secret missions

to light.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- It's the late 1960s,
and the Cold War is raging.

A Soviet nuclear sub has sunk
1,500 miles from Hawaii,

and a race is on to find it.

Can the US locate the sub
and recover its secrets

before the enemy does?

That's the impossible mission
assigned to one American team.

On March 1, 1968,
Soviet sub K-129

disappears from Soviet radar
deep in the Pacific,

with 98 men aboard,

a prize hidden
at the bottom of the ocean.

The Russians are frantically
searching for it.

So is the US.

- K-129 could be the Holy Grail
of intelligence.

Think about what
we would have access to--

their code books,

their code-breaking machines,

guidance systems.

We would even get our eyes
on their nuclear missiles.

This is completely worth
the effort and the cost.

- To locate it, the Navy
checks their acoustic data

for any sign of the sub.

- If a submarine sinks, it'll
make a distinctive noise.

So when K-129 sunk,

they were able to locate where
the sub might have gone down.

So the US Navy sends out
their best reconnaissance sub,

the USS Halibut.

♪ ♪

After more than 11 weeks
of painstakingly searching,

Halibut's camera finally
captures the submarine.

It's 1,500 miles
northwest of Hawaii

and 16,500 feet deep.

- But retrieving the sub
seems like an impossible task.

The vessel lies three miles
deep underwater

in a totally black environment.

- To figure out if they could
pull off the impossible,

the CIA put their head of
science and technology,

John Parangosky, in charge.

He comes up with
the suggestion

to raise K-129 to the surface

using a giant metal claw,

like the one you'd find
in an arcade game,

but attached to a ship.

No one has ever attempted
such an audacious

salvage operation
like this before.

And what makes this
even more challenging?

It all needs to happen
without the Soviets knowing.

- Despite the odds,
the CIA and the Navy

decide to go for it.

On July 1, 1969, the covert
mission is launched.

It's codenamed
Project Azorian,

and the first step is
designing the claw.

- The claw design needs
to be 179 feet by 31 feet.

No one has ever built one
big enough

to lift a 1,750-ton submarine

from the ocean floor.

- Creating the claw
is the easy part.

To use it, the US needs
to anchor a huge ship

for a month-long
salvage operation

that's sure to gain
Soviet attention.

So the CIA
needs a cover story.

- They come up with
an interesting idea.

If the mission is masked as
a privately-owned

business venture,

no one should suspect that
the government is involved.

- So they enlist the help of
the celebrity industrialist

of his day, Howard Hughes.

It made such a good cover
story because everybody knew

that Howard Hughes
was kind of half nuts.

And he agrees
to build this ship.

- They set up this
fake press release.

They announce that they were
going to mine magnesium nodules

from the bottom
of the ocean floor

from a ship called
the Glomar Explorer.

- Six years after
the US found K-129,

it's finally go time.

♪ ♪

- The Glomar arrives
at the mission site.

They're ready to go.
They're gung-ho.

But just as
they're about to deploy,

here comes a Soviet ship.

- Once the Soviet ship
arrives,

the Glomar crew
is very concerned

that this operation is about
to go up in smoke.

- A helicopter takes off
from the Russian ship

and starts circling around.

And the Glomar's crew
are on tenterhooks.

The CIA has invested hundreds
of millions of dollars here,

more than a billion
in today's money.

Is this the end
of the mission?

- The captain of
the Glomar Explorer

radios the captain
of the Russian ship.

He explains to him,
we are a mining operation.

We're Howard Hughes's
corporation.

Well, fortunately, a few hours
go by, the Soviet ship leaves.

♪ ♪

- Once the Soviet ship
leaves the area,

they lower the claw
into the water,

unwind three miles of cable.

It descends to the bottom,

connects to the Soviet vessel,

and then they begin
to lift it up

from the bottom of the ocean.

♪ ♪

- You don't want to
pull it up too fast,

because if you try to
raise it up too quickly,

it might break apart.

It's already a damaged vehicle,

and it might fall
back to the ocean floor,

and then you're left
with nothing.

- It was very nerve-wracking

as they tried
to pull this thing up.

They were about
2/3 of the way up,

and then the K-129 fell apart.

About 2/3 of it broke off and
fell back to the ocean floor.

♪ ♪

- It takes eight days to haul
the remaining section

of the K-129
back to the ship's hull.

- But before they even
have a chance

to analyze the wreckage,

the secret spills out.

Both the "LA Times"
and "New York Times"

break the story
of this top secret mission.

- The papers' front pages
are covered with pictures

of Hughes's Glomar Explorer,
detailing rumors

of a Soviet sub recovery

and the Howard Hughes-CIA
connection.

- So it turns out
that Howard Hughes's office

was burglarized.

The burglars find this memo

about the Glomar Explorer.

They sell it to the "LA Times"
that publishes it.

This is the CIA's
worst nightmare.

- Neither the US government
nor the CIA

comment on the matter
until 1992.

Only then is the mission
publicly acknowledged

for the first time,
when the CIA

hand delivers a video
to the Russian president,

Boris Yeltsin.

- After the collapse
of the Soviet Union,

as a show of goodwill,

the American government
presents a video

to Yeltsin
of the burial at sea

of the Soviet sailors
whose remains were found.

It made international news
around the world.

♪ ♪

- Whatever secrets
Project Azorian unearthed

remain a mystery to this day.

That mission was
obviously daring.

But consider something
even more extreme--

elite US paratroopers
assigned to jump into darkness

carrying small nuclear bombs.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- In 1970, a top secret
US Army mission is underway.

Two members of an
elite special ops unit

leap out of the cargo bay of
a US Army transport aircraft

into the black of night.

♪ ♪

- The team parachutes down
to their drop zone.

And they are about to deploy
one of America's

most dangerous weapons
in an operational environment

for the first time in history.

- They always went
in two-man teams.

So if you can imagine
jumping out of an airplane,

hurtling towards Earth with
a bomb strapped to your back.

It was a huge challenge.

♪ ♪

- But this is
no ordinary bomb.

It's an entirely new
portable nuclear weapon.

And it can only
be detonated by hand.

- Once on the ground,
the men have to carry the nuke

on their back for two days,

constantly dodging
enemy patrols

and navigating rugged terrain.

♪ ♪

- The drawback of
this operational setup

is that the detonation code
is split between two people.

And so the bomb must be
jointly armed to prevent it

being detonated,
maliciously or accidentally.

The problem is, if either of
these soldiers don't make it,

it's mission failure.

♪ ♪

- Seems entirely insane,
right?

Set off a nuclear bomb and run.

Why would anyone do that?

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Because, thankfully,
the bomb doesn't explode.

And this daring mission

wasn't carried out
in enemy territory.

It was actually a training run

taking place in the mountains
of New Hampshire,

part of an audition

to join one of the most
classified Army units

to ever exist--

the Green Light Team.

- The idea
of the Green Light Team

comes about because
it's thought

that the Soviets possess
more tactical nuclear weapons

than we do.

So the solution is to just
hand-carry nuclear weapons.

♪ ♪

Brilliant, right?

- It also means that
there's no signal in space

for the enemy to pick up on.

So in many ways, it's clever,

it's clean, it's sophisticated.

♪ ♪

- It has to be delivered
right on the target

and delivered by hand.

So they needed to recruit
commando types.

♪ ♪

- These elite soldiers
are handpicked

from the Green Berets,
the US Navy SEALs,

and the Marines, all of whom

are no strangers to covert
missions behind enemy lines.

♪ ♪

- But in this case, it's only
when the Green Light Teams

begin training that they
realize their missions

will be different
from previous ones.

- It's believed that there was
an obligation

to stay with the weapon and
protect it until it triggers

its initiating sequence,

ensuring that the mission
is being completed.

But in so doing,
they've also turned this

into a suicide mission.

That would then leave no time
for the men to escape

the blast radius.

- Inside the world
of intelligence

and special operations,
we have a joke.

We call ourselves
"too dumb to quit."

Because when we're given
an assignment,

no matter how crazy
or suicidal it sounds,

it's also exciting.

- For a quarter century, these
incredible special ops teams

and how they operate
stays a secret.

- It comes to public knowledge,
in 1984,

when journalists
discovered details

of the plan inside
of a scientific journal.

The article describes
that there are

bomb-carrying teams on standby

in case they're called upon
by NATO.

But thankfully,
that never happens.

- The Green Light Teams are
maintained at high alert.

And yet,
they're never used in combat.

♪ ♪

- Cold War Berlin is
a divided city of secrets.

To gain crucial intelligence,

governments are willing
to greenlight

what seem like
impossible missions.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Berlin, during this time,
you've got British,

American, and Soviet spies
all flocking to the city

to try to get their hands
on any sort of information

that can give their country
just a little bit of an edge.

♪ ♪

- Berlin had become
a vast network

of underground
communication channels

with various agencies,
various intelligence groups

trading information.

It's a vast network.
It's amazing.

- In 1954, the US and Britain
decide to collaborate

on an audacious plan.

- The CIA, with MI6,
want to build a tunnel

to tap into phone lines

so that we could listen

to what the East Germans
were talking about.

- This is a high-risk
operation.

East and West
are butting heads.

The Soviets want the
Americans out of Berlin.

If they discover this tunnel,

that will be their excuse
to kick them out.

- They need to build the
tunnel without being detected.

But to add to the challenge,

the CIA and MI6 operatives

are constantly being monitored
by enemy watchtowers

and armed guards.

- The area that they select
to do this

is just 1,500 feet away
from East Berlin.

But on the East Berlin side,

where the phone lines
are located,

there are prying eyes
and military patrols.

So they're going to need
a cover story

if they're going to get away
with it.

♪ ♪

So they come up with
a plan to build

a two-story structure over
where the tunnel will begin.

It provides a cover
for unloading equipment,

and then also removing the dirt

that's going to be pulled out
of the tunnel itself.

And this two-story structure
will then be disguised

as a facility associated

with one of the airfields
in the city.

They had to spend seven months
laying the groundwork

for this building.

Once that was done,
they began advancing the tunnel

toward the East German
side of the border.

It took three teams working
around the clock in shifts,

backbreaking work.

- The tunnel operation
was very dangerous.

German patrols are
going back and forth.

In order to prevent
the discovery of the tunnel,

the Americans have a lookout

that signals the people
doing the tunnel

to stop work when the
German guards get too close.

- They move 3,000 tons of soil

and then replace it
with 125 tons of steel

to reinforce the walls
of the tunnel.

- Six months later,
that 1,400-foot tunnel

is ready to go.

And it's installed with
these teleprinters

that are attached
to switchboards

that record
and print communication.

It's a pretty
remarkable achievement.

- This wiretap discovers
some very interesting things

about the establishment
of the East German army

and the training of that army.

It also reveals
some controversies between

the border police and the army.

- At the time,
the CIA and MI6 believe

this tunnel will provide
a continuous flow

of intelligence for years.

But Mother Nature
has other ideas.

- 11 months and 11 days
after the completion

of the tunnel,
a freak rain event

strikes the city of Berlin.

And as a result
of very heavy rainfall,

the phone lines go out.

A crew is sent to repair
the phone lines.

♪ ♪

- And what did they find?

They found a tap
on their lines.

♪ ♪

And that wouldn't take
any time at all

for them to figure out

that it was
the Allies underground,

listening to their
intelligence operations.

- The following day,
Soviets called

a press conference,

revealing the tunnel
to the world.

They hoped that the exposure
will both embarrass the West

and deter them from carrying
out any future operations.

♪ ♪

- After the Soviets hold
their press conference

to reveal the discovery
of the tunnel,

other Western nations are not
downtrodden at the discovery.

They're impressed
by the technology.

They're impressed
that we were capable

of something quite so bold.

- The West's clandestine
mission is blown.

But the operation remains
one of the CIA's

most celebrated successes
of the '50s.

While the CIA declassifies
a report

on the top secret mission
in 2007,

it has never fully disclosed
the intelligence gathered.

The rest within the vaults
remains top secret.

♪ ♪

- Sometimes the hardest part
of a mission

isn't gathering intelligence,
but getting out with it alive.

In 1961, that challenge
inspires the use

of an unusual invention.

[dramatic music]

- This US Navy pilot is flying
over a remote section

of Arctic pack ice.

And he looks down
on an ice floe,

and he sees an abandoned
Soviet research station.

- This is an exciting
opportunity,

because if the Russians have
left intelligence behind,

it could be a huge win
for the US.

The only way to find out
is to send in a covert team.

- There's just one problem.

The research station
is over 600 miles

from the nearest US air base.

Dropping operatives in
won't be easy.

But getting them out
seems impossible.

Enter a guy called
Robert Fulton.

- The CIA has been developing
a piece of kit

called the Skyhook system.

But the tech's top secret,

and it's still in development
by its inventor, Robert Fulton.

- Robert Fulton was
an eccentric inventor

and aviation enthusiast

who invented all sorts
of different things.

But he also got obsessed
with the notion

that if he crashed into
a really remote,

austere location,

how could he potentially get
extracted out of there?

- If you could imagine
James Bond meets WWF Wrestling,

that's what the Skyhook was.

It sounds exciting,
and it sounds sexy,

but in reality it was ugly,
and it was violent,

and it was sloppy.

- The device is
incredibly complicated.

The agent on the ground
has a suit

and a harness that connects
to a giant balloon

that's sent up into the air.

And the idea is, an airplane
flying over 100 miles an hour

will swoop in,
intercept the line,

and yank the guy

right off the ground.

I mean, what could possibly
go wrong?

- It is a scary,
terrifying experience

because you are going from
a sitting position

to flying through the air
at 140 miles an hour

almost instantaneously,

captured by an airplane over
a balloon hook in the sky.

It is absolute insanity.

- Despite extensive testing,
the Fulton device

hasn't been deployed
in a live mission until now.

- So considering that
they want a small team

to land on a ice floe

that's actually floating
in the Arctic Ocean,

conduct their mission,
and then get out of there,

the Fulton extraction system
becomes kind of the only way

to get out there and back.

- The covert mission is made up
of a small specialized team,

and two elite operatives
are chosen for deployment.

♪ ♪

- Military intelligence
officers,

Major James Smith and
Lieutenant Leonard LeSchack,

parachute 1,200 feet down
to the abandoned

Soviet research station.

♪ ♪

- The two agents
that have dropped in

spend 72 hours on the ground

at this abandoned
Soviet research station.

And during that time,
they recover documents,

they recover equipment,

they recover 150 pounds
of material

that will be useful

to the Central
Intelligence Agency.

- And they call back
to headquarters

that they're ready
to be extracted.

But now some inclement weather
is moving in,

and it becomes kind of sketchy
whether or not

they're going to be able
to get out of there.

The team get their balloons
up in the air,

but the winds are
batting them around.

And so they're having to
dig their heels into the ice

so that they don't
get dragged across.

The aircraft finally comes in,
and it picks up LeSchack.

- As he's picked up,
he's flipped to face

the 140-mile-an-hour wind.

He can barely breathe.

It's a fight for survival.

♪ ♪

- But both of the
American officers

are successfully extracted

for what is one of the most
Hollywood missions ever.

- The mission, codenamed
Project Cold Feet,

is only revealed decades later

when the Navy publishes a book
in 1996.

The big news--

it's a huge success.

- The team recover
83 documents

and 21 pieces of equipment

relating to the Soviet
Arctic activities.

- The single most important
piece of intelligence

that was gathered
from this operation

was that we now understood
how the Soviets

were tracking our subs under
the ice throughout the Arctic.

That allowed us to devise
new ways of obfuscating

or silencing our engines
so that the Soviets

wouldn't be able to track our
next generation of submarines.

- The Skyhook system
is considered so useful

that it's used during
dangerous mountain rescue

missions up until 1996.

But whether it was used again
in covert missions,

well, that's classified.

♪ ♪

- When an undercover spy
in Russia is compromised,

the chances of his survival
look slim.

That is, until a real-life
Miss Moneypenny

is given the mission
to extract him.

[dramatic music]

- The Soviet Union
doesn't end with a bang.

It ends with a slow collapse.

Their secret services
are depleted.

Secrets are sold
to the highest bidder.

And there are suspicions
that a mole

has infiltrated the ranks
of the KGB itself.

And it turns out that those
suspicions are correct.

♪ ♪

- It's early evening
in Moscow,

and there's a gentleman
walking down the street,

just an ordinary guy
carrying a Safeway bag.

♪ ♪

- Neither the bag nor the man
holding it are ordinary.

Meet KGB double agent
Oleg Gordievsky.

- The Safeway bag is a signal
to his British handler

that he is in some trouble.

The fact that
it's a plastic bag

from a British grocery store

is basically telling
his handler

that he has been
completely compromised,

and he needs to get out
and needs to get out quickly.

- He'd been a British spy
for almost a decade.

He'd been recruited
in Denmark,

and he had provided
valuable information.

But now Gordievsky was
fearful for his life.

Because if you betray the
Motherland, you pay for it.

♪ ♪

- So on the other side
of the street,

there's a British safehouse
keeping an eye out

for the gentleman
with the Safeway bag,

always anticipating
that he might show up someday

with that bag in his hand,
with that signal.

- The MI6 handler,
without talking,

without phone,
has to show Gordievsky,

I see what you're trying
to communicate,

and we are going to enact
this plan.

So he takes a Harrods bag,

and he walks in the direction
of Gordievsky

eating a Mars bar
so that the two of them

make that contact
without talking.

And that agreed-upon code
between the MI6 handler

and Oleg Gordievsky
really starts

this whole
exfiltration process.

- But the problem
the British face

is how do you extract
a high-ranking KGB officer

across one of the most heavily
policed borders in the world?

- That evening,
Gordievsky goes home.

Something unusual happens.

He takes out
from his bookshelf

a book
of Shakespeare's sonnets.

♪ ♪

He's been instructed,
in the event of an emergency,

to dip the pages in water.

♪ ♪

The pages,
once dipped in water,

will reveal
a secret coded message

as to how his escape
will transpire.

- It's the first stage of one
of the most extraordinary

and extreme missions
in Cold War history,

Operation Pimlico.

The full details remain
a secret for 35 years.

♪ ♪

- Back home in Britain,

we've got his handler,
Valerie Pettit.

Pettit has developed
this escape route

for Gordievsky to follow.

It'll take him some 900 miles
from Moscow to Vyborg,

which is a town
near the Finnish border.

♪ ♪

So Gordievsky usually
does an evening jog.

♪ ♪

Well, this evening, he
doesn't take his usual route.

He blends himself into the
crowded streets of Moscow.

♪ ♪

Once Gordievsky realizes
he's lost his KGB trail,

he boards the train.

♪ ♪

Meanwhile, back in London,

Pettit is organizing and
structuring this escape route.

Part of the plan
is to put Gordievsky

in the back
of the diplomatic trunk.

Diplomatic cars are less likely
to be searched and stopped.

Therefore, it's a better plan
to get him across

the Finnish border.

♪ ♪

- Over the next three days,

Gordievsky is making his way to
the rendezvous point at Vyborg,

which is about 12 miles
from the Russian border

with Finland.

He hitchhikes,
he takes trains,

he takes automobiles
to get out safely.

♪ ♪

Four people arrive
in a diplomatic car

at this rendezvous point,

two MI6 agents and their wives,

as well as a baby.

- Miss Pettit knew
that they were using

heat-seeking devices

when they were letting those
cars go through at the border.

And so she had planned to have
an aluminum

heat-blocking blanket
prepared.

- Gordievsky's wrapped up
in this tin foil blanket.

He's put back into the trunk,
and the car drives away.

All of this takes
eight seconds.

There's no pleasantries
that are being exchanged.

♪ ♪

- So the car pulls up
to the border,

and they realized,
oh, my god, sniffer dogs.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- One of the wives
takes the baby

out of the vehicle
at the checkpoint

while the vehicle's stopped

and changes its diaper
on the trunk,

the trunk in which
Gordievsky is under.

And the hope was that this
would confuse these dogs

and throw them off the scent
of Gordievsky.

♪ ♪

- The distraction works,

and the guards just wave
the car through.

When they get into Finland,
they pull over,

and Valerie Pettit is waiting
to greet the car.

- Back in Russia, authorities
charged Gordievsky

with treason in his absence.

He's found guilty
and sentenced to death.

He will never be able
to return to Russia.

- His arrival into London is
headline news around the world.

- But no one will talk about
the actual escape.

In fact, Pettit keeps the
details of her plan secret

for the rest of her life.

♪ ♪

- Inspiration for
the impossible

can come from unlikely places.

In 1970, one man taps into
his childhood memories

to access Soviet naval secrets.

[dramatic music]

- For years,
James F. Bradley,

the undersea warfare director

for the US Office
of Naval Intelligence,

he's been trying
to devise a way

of being able to secretly tap

into Soviet
communication lines.

- The story goes that
during childhood vacations,

the family went out boating
on the Mississippi River,

and he noticed how sometimes
there were signs

that cautioned boaters
to stay away from that area

so that they wouldn't
drag their anchor

through underwater cables.

- He had this thought
that somewhere

around Soviet naval bases,

there would be these
communication cables

that connected
the Soviet high command

to the submarine bases.

He thought,
that must exist somewhere.

- And then we can tap into it

and intercept their messages.

- Bradley proposes
a top secret mission

to use a submarine
to search the Russian coast

for signs
warning of underwater cables.

♪ ♪

This seems like a crazy idea

because they'll need to scour
about 600,000 square miles

of ocean for something
they're not even sure exists.

But nevertheless,

Bradley does get
the green light.

And in December of 1971,

Operation Ivy Bells
is launched.

♪ ♪

- To accomplish this
impossible mission,

the USS Halibut is once
again brought into action

to lead the operation.

- Like so many intelligence
collection operations,

there's no smoking gun.

There's no proof
that there's actually a cable

for them to find
in the first place.

- But beyond that,
you're sending

nuclear submarines well within
Soviet territorial waters.

You're putting an American
submarine and crew

at risk to find this.

- You're talking about
a single submarine underwater

for prolonged periods of time
in freezing cold waters

that were controlled
by Soviets.

This was not an operation
for the faint of heart.

- Halibut's been at sea
for over a month.

And during that time, they
had to dodge the Soviet navy.

It was with fingers crossed
that the captain extended

the periscope

and then scanned the island

that was in front of him.

♪ ♪

And if that was detected,
it's game over.

The mission's blown.

♪ ♪

- They had to find this sign.

And they did.

They found the sign.

So they had an idea
of where this cable

might cross into the water.

So they start searching
the seabed to try and find it.

They could see, kind of,
humps on the seabed

where they thought
it might be.

And then they found the cable
that they'd been looking for.

- It's got to be a moment
of jubilation.

But it's also got to be
a moment of sheer terror

because you realize that you
have stumbled across a secret

that the Soviets want
desperately to protect.

- But there's one big problem.

The cables lie 400 feet
below the surface,

nearly four times deeper
than a standard scuba dive.

That's a depth that will push
the limits of human survival.

- But James Bradley
has planned for this.

♪ ♪

Even before
the Halibut had set sail,

the Navy had been
experimenting

with deep sea
diving techniques,

one of which is a mixture
of helium and oxygen

that allowed divers to go down
to very deep depths.

- Thanks to this innovation,

Bradley's team can move
forward with the mission.

- The divers finally leave
the compression chamber.

- This is the first time
that they're doing it

in enemy waters.

So their divers go down
to very deep depths.

- If the men are caught,

they are under orders
to blow up everyone on board.

♪ ♪

They cannot be taken alive.

- They have to fumble around
in the darkness

for about an hour
before they find the cable.

They then have to wrestle this
20-foot-long listening device

into position onto the cable.

- This is the pre-digital age.

Once this piece of equipment
is on the cable,

the magnetic tape that's in it
has to start to run.

So what do the divers
have to do

before they return to the sub?

They have to hit
the Record button.

♪ ♪

- Just a few months later,

Naval intelligence receive
the first recordings.

And they realize
they've struck gold.

- One incredible piece
of intelligence

that they discovered was that
the Russians had a strategy

that in times of war,
they would actually retreat

their submarine forces north
under the Arctic cap.

What that meant is that the
United States now could predict

what the Russians would do
in the event

of a full-scale conflict
against the Americans.

- As a result
of this operation,

the Americans now know where
to intercept the Soviet fleet

in the event of World War III.

♪ ♪

This is a very, very
dangerous mission.

It's not just
a one-time operation.

They do this continuously
over a nine-year period.

They have to send divers down.

They have to exchange
the tapes.

So each time
they do this mission,

it's a life or death scenario.

- But then in 1980,
satellite images

show this fleet
of Soviet warships

over the tap's exact location.

When they finally leave
the site,

the USS Parche is deployed
to check things out.

And the tap is
nowhere to be found.

♪ ♪

- In the end, Operation
Ivy Bells is compromised.

And with that,
it brings to an end

one of the most successful
maritime surveillance

and signals intelligence
recovery operations

ever conducted.

♪ ♪

- No one questions
how the Russians uncovered

the operation until 1985,

when officials learn a National
Security Agency staffer

named Ronald Pelton
has been selling secrets

to the Soviets.

♪ ♪

- It was during
the Pelton trial

that NBC News
reveals the details

of this covert, top secret
operation to the public.

- But much of the intelligence
gathered during the operation

remains classified.

- But it is believed
that the knowledge gained

from the mission became central
to the project

of nuclear disarmament in 1979.

♪ ♪

- It's Europe, 1945.

The Allies are slowly
marching their way to victory.

But 150,000 enemy troops
remain in Norway.

If they escape,
they can regroup in Germany.

To stop them, the Allies opt
for an impossible mission.

[dramatic music]

- It's 1945.

We're nearing the end
of World War II,

and the Allies have been
successfully fighting their way

through Europe
and have liberated

France, Belgium, and Italy.

They're preparing
for that final showdown

in Germany itself to rid it
of the Nazis once and for all.

But there's still a sizable
German force in Norway.

Now, they're trying
to escape back home.

But to do so,
they need to cross Norway

to reach ports on the coast.

- To prevent them
reaching Germany,

the Allies target one route,

the Nordland Railway Line.

- If you could prevent them
from using the one

and only rail line,
you could prevent them

from being a part of
the final defense of Germany.

- The man tasked with creating
a plan is Major William Colby.

- He was very experienced
in the overall landscape

of special operations warfare.

He had planned to hijack
a train that would then

allow them to move
from point to point,

blowing things up as they
retreated toward the south.

And then they would get
the heck out of Dodge

by covering a distance
of about 40 miles

to cross the border
into Sweden,

neutral territory
where they would be safe.

- The plan is
certainly ambitious,

and it's named Operation Rype.

- March 24, 1945,
Operation Rype is ready to go.

Colby and his team
are secretly parachuted

into Norway's mountains,
deep behind enemy lines.

- What should have been
a relatively

straightforward
sabotage mission

soon becomes
impossibly difficult.

- Right from the start
of the mission,

things are going wrong.

To begin with,
American planes are

forced to operate at the
very edge of their range

and navigate under impossible
weather conditions.

And one aircraft accidentally
makes its airdrop in Sweden.

- This means
only 20 of Colby's men

are successfully
dropped off on target,

just outside
the Norwegian city Trondheim.

- It's a grueling 72-mile trek
just for them to reach

the vantage point
overlooking the bridge,

where they're going to hijack
the train.

- When they get
to their location,

they keep watch of the bridge
while they wait

for reinforcements to arrive.

But what they don't know is
that the reinforcement flight

is not coming

because it's crashed
into a mountain,

and all 12 on board
have instantly died.

So no one's coming
to help these guys.

- Colby and his men realize
that it's a race against time.

They see that
there are already Germans

that are evacuating.

And so they're going to
lose out on the opportunity

to prevent a larger force
from joining the battle

in Germany itself.

- Colby opts for
a change of plan.

He and his men immediately
get back to work,

laying all the explosives
they have with them,

180 pounds of TNT,
under the bridge.

- They move out to
a minimum safe distance

and watch the bridge explode--

♪ ♪

Which I'm sure was
a pretty good feeling

that they all knew that
they had accomplished

their mission at that point.

- But their ordeal
isn't over yet.

Now they have to get back
to safety.

- They're ready to move on
to the next phase

of the operation,
which is exfiltration.

Get out.

They have to cover 40 miles
across Norwegian tundra

to reach the safety
of the Swedish border.

And they have just
blown up a bridge.

So every German
in Norway at this point

begins pursuing them.

They're pursued on land,

and they're also pursued
in the air.

♪ ♪

- In freezing conditions,

this team are hiking
and skiing

through
just super harsh terrain.

And they're reaching the limit

of what they're physically
capable of.

♪ ♪

- Colby and his team
are not new to this.

They know exactly what
they're up against.

If the Germans find us,
we already know

that they're going to kill us.

They realize, we're not going
to be able to stop to rest.

And so they brought
amphetamines.

They take pills
that sort of amp them up.

And it's a good thing
that they did

because that journey took them
three days to complete,

only because
they never stopped to rest.

♪ ♪

This was one of the most daring
missions of the entire

Second World War,
carried out by people

who exhibited the greatest
possible bravery.

- Despite this being
the only US military operation

on Norwegian soil
during World War II,

it remained under
a cloak of secrecy for decades,

with the men unable to speak
about it for many, many years.

♪ ♪

- In 1973, Colby becomes
the director of the CIA.

When he retires
three years later,

he publishes
his autobiography,

which includes a firsthand
account of the operation.

♪ ♪

Few people are brave enough
to take on extreme missions.

But when they do, the outcome
can change the world.

I'm David Duchovny.

Thanks for watching
"Secrets Declassified."