All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

[Duchovny] Tonight
on "Secrets Declassified"...

government projects so daring
or so dangerous,

they're hidden underground,

like an experiment to hide a
nuclear explosion

under a Mississippi forest.

- The effects are immediate,
and they are dramatic.

What did they expect?
It's a nuclear bomb.

- Or a high-stakes mission
to spy on the Nazis

by hiding British soldiers
inside the Rock of Gibraltar.

- The entrance
will be bricked up.

No one will be allowed
to leave

under any circumstances.

[David]
Even a military experiment

on the New York subway.

- Just five minutes
after bacteria are released,

spores are detected
at every station

between 14th Street and 59th.

- These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible things

done by governments and
the people who work for them.

It's time to bring them
to light.

♪ ♪

The thought of being buried
alive in a sealed-off cave

would strike most people
with terror.

In World War II,
six British officers

volunteered to do exactly that
on the Rock of Gibraltar.

[crowd chanting in German]

[Sami] In 1941, it seems like
Hitler is winning the war.

Europe has fallen, but Britain
maintains the naval advantage.

♪ ♪

Key to its success
is a peninsula

on the southern tip of Spain
known as Gibraltar.

[David]
Although it's small,

Gibraltar has been
one of Britain's

most important
overseas outposts

for over two centuries.

[James] This is because
it's strategically important.

It guards the only gateway

between the Mediterranean
and the Atlantic seas.

[Martin]
From the Rock of Gibraltar,

1,400 feet
above the water level,

an observer is
in a perfect position

to note the comings
and goings of ships

entering the Mediterranean
or departing the Mediterranean.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The rock is so vital,

Hitler plans to seize it.

For Britain, it's unthinkable.

And one naval officer
is called to action.

- John Godfrey is Britain's
Director of Naval Intelligence.

What he realizes
is that British forces

are unlikely to repel
a German assault on Gibraltar.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Losing the rock
could mean losing the war.

So Godfrey devises
a last-ditch plan,

which will remain classified
for over 50 years.

[Sami] He decides to build
a secret hiding place

inside the Rock of Gibraltar.

So, when the Germans attack,

a small crew of officers
will seal themselves inside

and continue to monitor
the shipping lane,

even after the rest
of the British forces

have been defeated.

[David]
It's a truly bold idea.

Godfrey codenames
it Operation Tracer.

His first challenge--

finding the perfect
hiding place.

- Gibraltar has been used
as a military outpost

for 250 years.

Carved into the rock is a maze
of tunnels and chambers.

[David]
Godfrey's team

locate a closed-up section
of tunnel

in an abandoned part
of the rock.

- It's perfectly positioned--

high up and overlooking
both sides of the rock,

east towards the Mediterranean,
west towards the Atlantic.

So the spies can monitor
movements of German shipping

in both directions.

[David]
It's got a great view.

But to make it habitable,

they must give it
a radical renovation

without giving away

the tunnel's secret location
to anyone.

- Secrecy is paramount,
so workers are blindfolded

when they're brought
to the location

and then shipped
back to Great Britain

upon completing the job.

[Duchovny] The top secret
bunker they carve out

is truly remarkable.

[O'Keefe] The living quarters
include bunk beds,

a chemical toilet
a 10,000-gallon water tank.

[James]
There's a small radio room

so that they can transmit
their intel back to Britain.

They actually have
a radio antenna

that can be poked through
a hole in the rock face

under the cover of night.

Now, electricity for the radio

will be produced
by using a bicycle

rigged with a silent
leather belt,

which doubles as the men's
only form of exercise.

[David]
The most extreme feature

of this underground
safe house...

there's no way out.

- The men won't just be hiding
in this bunker.

The entrance
will be bricked up,

and they will be sealed inside.

No one will be allowed to
leave under any circumstances.

♪ ♪

- Staying inside is so crucial

to the mission's success

that one corner
of the bunker

is reserved to be used
as a cemetery

should any of the officers die
on the job.

- For the volunteers, this
mission is the end of the line.

I think if Gibraltar falls,

they're saying goodbye
for good.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
For Operation Tracer to work,

Godfrey needs help
finding the right men.

So he turns to an expert
in extreme survival.

♪ ♪

[James] George Murray Levick
is quite the character.

He's an explorer who once
survived a whole winter

in Antarctica
by living in an ice cave

and eating penguin meat.

- Levick scours the navy

and eventually selects
six officers.

[Duchovny] To see if they
can survive in the bunker,

Levick puts them to the test.

- The men live
in an isolated hut

on a remote marsh for weeks.

[Duchovny] To prepare
for life underground,

one final sacrifice
is required...

♪ ♪

Surgery.

- All of the men have their
tonsils and appendix removed.

And this is done
to reduce the possibility

of them developing
a life-threatening infection

during the mission.

- Once they pass
their training,

their reward is to go home,
see their families,

and say goodbye.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In the summer of 1942,

six British naval officers
are shipped to Gibraltar

with top secret orders.

- The men are placed
in Gibraltar under cover

of regular military postings.

But in secret,
they sneak off and run checks

on the secret bunker,

always waiting for that order
that will seal them inside.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
But the order doesn't come.

The German march across Europe
never reaches Gibraltar.

And the secret bunker
is permanently sealed up

with nobody inside.

♪ ♪

- The bunker
is quickly forgotten about.

It becomes a footnote
to World War II history.

[Duchovny] Operation Tracer
remains a secret for 50 years,

until a chance discovery
in 1997.

♪ ♪

[James]
A team of cavers

exploring Gibraltar's
vast underground labyrinths

find a mysterious
sealed-off bunker.

They believe they've stumbled

across the legendary
Operation Tracer cave.

[O'Keefe]
One of the original volunteers

confirms that this was
really the place

that he was prepared to die in.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Rumor is,
the British government

has other stay-behind caves
across the world,

waiting to be deployed.

♪ ♪

Burying people
underground is one thing,

but in 1964,

the U.S. government
tries to bury something

a little more ambitious--

a nuclear explosion

right in the middle
of America's heartland.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem]
By the early 1960s,

there has been something
like 500 nuclear tests

that have taken place
in the Earth's atmosphere

around the world.

And there's been a buildup
of public anger and concern

about what damage
these tests have done.

So the U.S. and the Soviets
reached the first agreement

to limit nuclear testing.

[Duchovny] But this historic
treaty has one giant loophole.

It forbids nuclear tests
in the atmosphere,

outer space, and underwater...

but not underground.

♪ ♪

- The reason underground
nuclear testing remains legal

is simply because no one knows
how to detect

and therefore police it.

And a ban can only work
if you can verify

that people are breaking it.

- As far as the U.S.
is concerned,

the Soviets might be exploding
nuclear devices

under the Arctic waste,
and they are none the wiser.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] U.S. officials are
desperate to know

if nukes can be covertly
detonated underground.

There's only one way
to find out.

- In 1963, the American
Atomic Energy Commission

decide to conduct a series of
underground nuclear explosions

to see if and how
they can be monitored.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The operation's code name

plays down
the potential for Armageddon--

Project Dribble.

Its first challenge--

find the best hiding place
for a nuclear explosion.

- The scientists working
on the project theorize

that the most effective
environment

to conceal an underground test
would be in a salt dome.

[Dan] Salt domes
are geological formations

deep under the Earth's surface
where rock salt

has risen up
to form a dome-like structure.

And those domes of salt

can be
6 miles deep.

[Martin] The thought was
that the salt dome would have

the effect of containing
the force of the explosion.

And it was also thought
then, too,

that the fallout, the
radioactivity

that was produced
by these explosions,

would remain
inside the salt dome

and would not be hazardous
to people aboveground.

♪ ♪

[Sasha] And they find
this ideal patch

underneath a pine forest

in Lamar County
in southern Mississippi.

It's called
the Tatum Salt Dome,

and it's about 1,500 feet
under the surface.

♪ ♪

The one catch is a nuclear test

might not go down well
with the local population.

[Hakeem] Mississippi
is not the Nevada desert,

where the U.S. has typically
tested their weapons.

[Dan]
This salt dome is close

to the town
of Hattiesburg, Mississippi,

and is by far the most densely
populated atomic test site

the U.S. has ever chosen.

[Duchovny] Fearing
local protests,

the government decides
to promote the positives

of living
near a nuclear test site.

- Mississippi's governor
assures the residents,

everything's gonna be okay.

That salt dome, that's going
to hold in the radiation.

It's going to protect them.

And more than that--
it's important to do so.

This is how Mississippi
contributes.

It does its small part
for Uncle Sam

to fight against communism.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In the fall of 1964,

the operation
to explode a nuke

under Mississippi begins.

- The U.S. atomic scientists
create a shaft

that's half a mile deep.

And into it,
they put down a device

with a yield of 5.3 kilotons.

That's about a third
the yield of the device

that was dropped on Hiroshima.

They fill the borehole
with concrete,

and then they place scientific
devices around the area

to record seismic waves
and measure any radiation

that may leak
into the atmosphere.

- Nobody really knows
how this test will go down.

So about 400 people
are evacuated as a precaution.

Adults are paid 10 bucks
for the inconvenience,

and kids are paid half.

[Duchovny]
On October 22nd,

the scene is set
for the nuclear detonation

inside the salt dome.

♪ ♪

Will it be truly undetectable

or split the Earth apart?
[siren wailing]

- One of the strangest
nuclear tests on American soil

happens under Mississippi
in 1964.

Scientists want to know,

can you detonate
a nuclear bomb underground

and hide it from the world?

[siren wailing]

On the morning
of October 22nd,

the local residents find out.

[wailing continues]

[explosion]

- The explosion carves out
a huge cavity

deep inside the salt dome.

The ground lifts.

A shock wave ripples
across the landscape.

Small buildings collapse.

Homes are severely damaged.

Wells suddenly go dry,

and some creeks
start to run black with silt.

[Duchovny] Locals file
hundreds of damage claims

almost immediately.

But for Project Dribble,

the test results
are priceless.

- It sends waves,
seismic waves out 5,000 miles.

Finland picks up the fact

that this test was done
in Mississippi.

Clearly, while the test
has done its job,

it's demonstrated
that, in fact,

there's no way the Soviets are
doing any underground testing.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] A happy ending
for the U.S. government

but not for the locals
living near the salt dome.

♪ ♪

- A lot of residents
start reporting illnesses.

Soon, cancers and birth defects
start to show up--

all symptoms
that locals believe

are caused
by nuclear contamination

from the salt dome tests.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The Atomic Energy Commission

claims the site has
successfully contained

the radiation

and illness rates
in the region are normal.

But in 2015,
a local journalist

requests official information
regarding payouts

made in the aftermath
of the nuclear test.

- By the early 2000s,

the federal government
has paid out

about $16 million
in settlements

to people that
were exposed to radioactivity

as a result of Project Dribble.

[Duchovny] What began as
a step towards nuclear control

remains a source of anger
for the local community

that continues to this day.

♪ ♪

While many Nazi officers
end World War II on trial,

one German spymaster
plans to secure

his postwar future

by trading a cache
of buried secrets

for his freedom.

♪ ♪

[Don] In early 1945,
the German army is crumbling

and outnumbered on all fronts.

The collapse of the Third Reich
looks inevitable.

So many of the top
Nazi commanders

shift their focus
from winning the war

to surviving the collapse
of the Nazi regime.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] One German fearing
for his life

is Reinhard Gehlen.

- Reinhard Gehlen is the Nazi
Head of Military Intelligence

on the Eastern Front,

where the Germans
are fighting the Soviets.

He's been running
a network of spies

in Soviet territory for years.

Gehlen has files

on all the Soviet Union's
dirty secrets.

And if the invading Russians
get a hold of him,

he could be spending
the rest of his days

in a Siberian gulag.

That's if they let him live.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Gehlen spots
one potential escape route.

- Gehlen sees
what many others don't,

which is that after the war,

the Soviets
and the United States

will be rivals, not allies.

- He knows that the Americans

are going to be interested
in what he knows about Russia.

[Duchovny]
Key to Gehlen's survival

is his archive
of Soviet secrets.

- This is his bargaining chip.

This is his
get-out-of-jail-free card.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
Gehlen has to think fast.

His solution...

hiding his files underground.

- He's going to go bury
his treasure like a pirate

and then go work out his deal
with the Americans.

[Duchovny]
Burying an entire archive

is no easy task,

especially in the dying days
of a global war.

- First, Gehlen asks his staff
to begin the mammoth task

of transferring his files
onto microfilm

and then storing them
in watertight steel cases.

Over 4 days, they fill 50 cases
with priceless treasure.

- But he realizes that the best
place to secure these documents

would actually be
all the way down

by the border
between Germany and Austria,

down in the Bavarian Alps.

So he's going to travel
300 miles

to bury his documents

and hopefully hash out a deal
with the Americans.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In early May 1945,

Gehlen and his staff skip town

in a truck loaded with secrets

and head for the Alps.

- Gehlen and his party reach
this isolated forest hut

in a remote valley.

♪ ♪

He decides to bury
his cases here

before the Americans
can catch him.

♪ ♪

- To avoid the possibility
that the entire archive

is discovered or destroyed,
he splits the cases

and buries them
in eight different spots.

♪ ♪

[Don]
Then Gehlen waits...

for a month
in the Bavarian wilderness,

until American forces arrive
in full and he can surrender.

[camera shutter clicks]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Gehlen is sent
to an interrogation center,

where he is questioned
by a U.S. Army officer

named Captain John Boker.

[Sami] The meeting with Boker
is a make-or-break moment.

Gehlen has just one opportunity
to play his hand.

And luckily for him,
Boker shares his view

that the Soviets are a threat
to the United States,

and he wants to know
everything that Gehlen knows.

- The United States didn't have
a lot of information

about the Soviet military.

Someone like Gehlen
was the goose

that could lay golden eggs.

♪ ♪

- Captain Boker
can't just strike a deal

with a high-ranking
Nazi official,

at least not without knowing
he's for real.

He needs to dig up
Gehlen's buried secrets.

- So he assembles a team that's
going to essentially follow

the treasure map, if you will,

and head on out to the cabin.

And they find exactly
what Gehlen's described.

They are able to dig up
in the spots

where he said he
buried the documents,

and they find seven
out of eight of the deposits.

[Duchovny]
Gehlen delivers on his word.

In return, Boker removes
Gehlen's name from the system.

- Gehlen is not listed
officially as being a POW.

- Gehlen has played
his cards perfectly.

The Americans
aren't going to arrest him.

They're gonna use him
as an asset.

[Greg] So Gehlen flies out
to Washington, D.C.

And working
with the Americans,

he strikes
an astonishing deal.

He's going to return
to Germany

to lead a covert agency
that's spying on the Russians.

[Duchovny] While other
Nazi leaders face trial

for war crimes,

Reinhard Gehlen returns
to West Germany.

He reconnects
with his old network of spies,

and they continue
their operation,

not for Nazi Germany

but for the United States.

- For the next 23 years,
Gehlen's organization

is the number-one supplier
of Soviet secrets.

[Duchovny]
Gehlen's vital importance

to U.S. intelligence agencies
stays classified,

until the year 2000.

♪ ♪

55 years after the Nazis
were defeated,

the CIA releases
thousands of files

detailing their relationship
with Gehlen...

a partnership that grew
from a trove of secrets

buried in the mountains.

♪ ♪

- For millions of New Yorkers,

heading underground
is part of everyday life.

But in 1966, what seems
like a regular morning commute

is actually part of
a secret military experiment,

where passengers catch
more than a ride to work.

♪ ♪

[Dan] In the 1960s,
New York City's subway

is the busiest transport
system in the United States.

At rush hour,
millions of Americans

are using it
to crisscross the city.

The U.S. military is worried

that this incredible feat
of engineering

is also an Achilles' heel
in the nation's infrastructure.

It might be a weak point
vulnerable to attack

from America's enemies.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] There's one
specific kind of warfare

that has the U.S. Army
on high alert.

- At this point,
both the United States

and the Soviet Union
have bioweapons programs.

American officials are worried
that the New York subway system

would be a prime target
for an attack.

Not only does it move millions
of people every day,

it moves them
throughout the city,

potentially spreading
a virus easily

throughout
the whole population.

[Duchovny]
It's a doomsday scenario

the U.S. Army
wants to prepare for.

So they decide to conduct
a chillingly named

"vulnerability assessment."

[Don]
In 1966, U.S. Army scientists

conduct a mock bioweapon attack
on the New York subway system.

Their plan is to release
an airborne bacteria

named Bacillus subtilis

that is considered harmless
to humans,

then monitor its spread
through the subway.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Safe or not,
New York commuters

might object to inhaling
unknown bacteria.

So, to sidestep
the thorny issue of consent,

the U.S. Army decides to run
this experiment in secret.

- At the time, the Army decided
to just go forward anyways.

And they didn't tell anybody,
no local authorities,

not even the transit police.

[Duchovny]
On June 6th,

21 Army scientists disguised
as everyday commuters

head underground

to stations along the 7th
and 8th Avenue lines.

- To deploy
the bio agent secretly,

each operative carries
special light bulbs

hidden inside
boring-looking paper bags.

Packed inside each
of those light bulbs

is a gas inoculated
with 175 grams

of Bacillus subtilis bacteria.

That's about
87 trillion organisms

in each bulb.

- The scientists wait
on the platform

for the train to come.

When the doors open,
they walk inside,

and they discreetly
drop the light bulbs

in between the train
and the platform.

The glass shatters
on the tracks,

and the bulb releases
its contents.

And with each passing train,

the bacteria gets pulled
through the tunnel

to the next station.

[Dan] From what's been
pieced together,

it appears that some commuters
did notice clouds of gas

rising up from the tracks.

But there are no descriptions
of widespread panic.

These people just brushed off
their clothes

and went on with whatever
they were doing that day.

For millions of commuters,

it just felt
like a normal Monday morning.

[Duchovny]
With the bacteria

now silently passing
through Manhattan,

the scientists
secretly track it

through dozens of miles
of underground tunnels.

- To monitor the air
and trace the bacterium,

the scientists have devised
these clever covert gadgets

that can take readings
without passengers noticing--

air samplers
disguised as cameras,

detection devices
hidden in pocketbooks.

♪ ♪

- For five days,
millions of commuters

remain completely unaware
of the experiment.

When results are tallied,
the conclusion is horrifying.

♪ ♪

[Don] They show
that just five minutes

after bacteria are released
at the 23rd Street Station,

spores are detected
at every station

between 14th Street and 59th.

- According
to military calculations,

more than one million Americans
were exposed to the bacteria.

So, if that had been anthrax,
with a million people exposed,

the math is not complicated.

Anthrax is 90% to 97% lethal.

It would have been
an unmitigated disaster.

- The Army's conclusion
is stark.

The subway system
cannot be safeguarded

against this type of attack.

It would put New York
out of commission.

[Duchovny]
For nine years,

New Yorkers remain unaware
they have been subjected

to a bioweapon experiment.

♪ ♪

Then in 1975,
the U.S. military

is dragged in front
of the Church Committee

to answer questions on illegal
or unethical activities.

♪ ♪

One of the skeletons
they bring out of the closet

is the New York subway
vulnerability test.

♪ ♪

The most frightening
revelation is still to come.

- The bacterium the scientists
used, Bacillus subtilis,

isn't as benign
as they thought.

It can be a harmful pathogen.

It can cause lung infections,
meningitis, even death.

And people
with weakened immune systems

are especially vulnerable.

- At the time, the scientists
don't do any research

into the physiological effects
of the test

because they assumed
it was safe.

But it's highly likely this
attack wasn't just unethical

but physically harmful, too.

- When German bombs rained down
during World War II,

London's most vulnerable
residents are rushed to safety.

Children are sent
to the country,

while priceless works of art
are sent underground.

[dramatic music]

[bell tolling]

[Don]
At the start of World War II,

the UK's National Gallery
holds one

of the world's greatest
collections of art,

including
over 2,000 masterpieces.

This is not just a collection
of cultural significance.

We're talking tens
of billions of dollars.

[Duchovny]
The gallery's director,

esteemed art historian
Kenneth Clark,

is determined
to save these paintings

from the incoming blitz
of German bombs.

- Clark's first priority
is to get all the paintings

out of London
as quickly as possible.

And he does this
in an ingenious way.

They're hidden
in post office vans

and Cadbury's Chocolate
delivery trucks,

and they're transported

to a number of remote buildings
in Wales.

Now, the government believes

that it's here in western
Britain that they're gonna be

safely out of range
of Luftwaffe bombers.

[explosions, sirens wailing]

[Duchovny]
But they are wrong.

[O'Keefe] In September 1940,
the Blitz begins.

By November,
the German Luftwaffe

have hit targets in Liverpool,
which is north of Wales.

It becomes apparent

that the Germans
can hit any target

throughout mainland Britain.

[Duchovny]
These priceless paintings

could be erased in a moment.

They have to be moved.

- Churchill wants to keep them
in Britain, announcing...

[imitating Churchill]
"Not one picture shall leave

this island."

[normal voice] So Clark must
find a bomb-proof solution.

And he decides the safest
place is underground.

- It must be remote and secure,
accessible by road and rail,

and, most importantly, suitable
for housing delicate artworks.

[Duchovny]
The National Gallery

launches a covert sweep
across Britain

to find
the ideal underground vault.

And in late 1940,
they strike gold--

or rather slate.

[Greg]
In a windswept valley

near one of Britain's tallest
mountains out in Wales,

they find Manod Quarry,

which was a slate mine
back in the 1800s.

It's no longer in use,

but it's got
all these carved-out chambers

deep down underneath hundreds
of feet of slate...

natural defenses
that should be able to keep

this art safe and sound.

[Duchovny]
With the clock ticking,

the UK government
secretly rents the mine.

But the art collection
can't be rushed in overnight.

- You can't just stick
paintings in a wooden crate

and bury them in an old mine.

They are highly sensitive

to all sorts
of environmental damage.

- If they're going to keep
these paintings safe,

they're going to need
to manage the environment.

Otherwise, one of the greatest
art collections in the world

won't be destroyed by bombs,
it'll be destroyed by mold.

[Duchovny]
Deep inside Manod Quarry,

a state-of-the-art
storage facility

is constructed.

[Amy] Six airtight
brick bungalows are built

right in the heart of the mine
to protect the paintings.

To protect them
against dust and damp,

a series of electric fans
are installed.

These fans pass air
over trays of silica gel

that absorb all
of the ambient moisture.

This keeps the moisture level
in the mine in check.

- After a six-month
breakneck renovation,

the secret vault is ready

to welcome
its first masterpieces.

♪ ♪

[Don]
The collection is transported

by covert convoy
deep into this Welsh mountain,

all in total secrecy.

Only a handful of officials
know where it's gone.

[Duchovny] There's
just one slight oversight.

- Some of this art is enormous.

Van Dyck's painting
of Charles I

measures 12 feet in length.

So, as the truck carrying it

is winding
through these small roads,

there's a low bridge that these
trucks have to pass under.

Well, Charles I is too big
to make it underneath.

They have to lower
the road that's going

underneath this bridge
just to get Charles to safety.

[explosions, sirens blaring]

[James]
Back in London,

the Blitz continues
to cause carnage.

The National Gallery
ends up being hit nine times,

but its prized assets--

well, they're safely
tucked away under a mountain.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] One of the world's
most important art collections

narrowly dodges incineration.

But Manod Quarry doesn't
just protect the paintings,

it improves them.

- The conditions in the mine
are so good,

the paintings actually fare
better than if they'd been left

in the National Gallery.

- When the war is over,
when it's finally time

to return this art back
to the National Gallery,

they actually bring with them

what they've discovered
and learned

about painting preservation.

[Duchovny]
The National Gallery

reopens to the public
on May 17, 1945.

But the mountain vault
is kept secret

long after the war is over.

The full story of Manod Quarry
is buried for 78 years.

♪ ♪

[Don] Back in 2018,
the National Gallery

mounted an exhibition
revealing photos and documents

from inside the quarry
for the first time,

unveiling
the extraordinary tale

of ingenuity and secrecy

that saved
this priceless collection

from obliteration.

- It's the Cold War,

and underground nuke-proof
bunkers are all the rage.

Every world leader has one.

For Stalin, though, protecting
his government is not enough.

He wants a shelter big enough
for his submarines.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] By 1953, Stalin is
growing incredibly concerned

by America's
increasing nuclear arsenal.

And he fears
that a single strike

could knock out a large part
of his military,

in particular his submarines.

♪ ♪

At this time,
the Soviet submarine fleet

is the largest in the world,
boasting over 300 vessels.

And each one
of these submarines

is worth over $10 million.

[Duchovny] Stalin wants
his billion-dollar fleet

hidden away from prying eyes
and safe from falling bombs.

[O'Keefe]
Stalin orders something

that has never been
attempted before--

a nuclear-proof
underground stronghold

with a secret gate
to let subs pass

into and from the ocean
in total secrecy.

[Duchovny] To find a location
for his super base,

Stalin turns to one
of the few people he trusts--

Lavrentiy Beria.

♪ ♪

- Lavrentiy Beria is the head
of the Soviet KGB.

He's in a position
of great authority and power

and a confidant of Stalin's.

Stalin turns to Beria
to identify a place

for a reinforced submarine base

that can survive
a thermonuclear attack.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] Beria and his team
spend months

scouring the coastlines,

looking for an ideal location

that will afford
maximum security

and natural protection.

They find a remote bay
on the Black Sea

called Balaklava.

[Don] Balaklava is home
to a twisting inlet

around 200 meters deep.

It's sheltered from storms,
with a narrow entrance

that's impossible to spot
from the open sea.

It's also just 9 miles

from the Soviet naval port
at Sevastopol,

which houses
Stalin's Black Sea fleet.

[Duchovny]
The sheltered cove is perfect.

Now Stalin's team must dig out

one of the world's
biggest nuclear bunkers

in secret.

- It's gonna take years
to build.

And it's happening
right around the corner

from a regular old
fishing town.

So keeping it secret
is gonna be a huge challenge.

- The Soviets immediately
declare Balaklava is closed

and effectively remove it
from the map.

Then they
secretly bus in workers

to start building the facility.

[Greg] During the night,
materials are brought in.

And during the night,
debris that is being created

as they tunnel out a mountain
is taken out.

Meanwhile, any entrances
and ventilation shafts

are covered with netting.

This will protect the Soviets
from any flyover surveillance

that might see what's going on.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
It takes eight years

to extract nearly 120,000 tons
of rock from the mountain,

carving out a Cold War marvel
in the process.

- The finished base
can hide 10 submarines,

including 7
in one central channel

that's 500 meters long.

It also includes a dry dock,

missile storage,
command rooms,

and a power
infiltration system--

all of it
under 130 meters of rock

with 4.5-meter-thick
concrete walls.

It's designed to withstand
a direct nuclear-bomb strike

of up to 100 kilotons.

That's 6 to 7 times
that of the Hiroshima bomb.

♪ ♪

[Don]
It can be completely sealed

with a set
of colossal underwater gates

made from 150 tons
of solid steel.

They are 7 meters high,
10 meters wide,

and provide the final line
of defense,

guaranteeing protection
for the submarines inside.

- The most secure room
in the heart of the complex

is where the nuclear warheads
are stored.

The base isn't just designed
to withstand an atomic blast.

It's fully prepared
for retaliation.

- In the event
of a nuclear war,

3,000 people can hide in here
for up to 30 days.

♪ ♪

This place
is virtually indestructible.

- Basically, it's something
out of a Bond film.

[Duchovny] Despite extreme
efforts to avoid detection,

rumors about the Balaklava
base start to leak out.

- The area around Sevastopol
is photographed.

The area of Balaklava
is photographed.

[Duchovny]
U.S. spies piece together

small fragments of intel,

but the base
is so effectively hidden

that its full nature
remains shrouded in mystery.

Only after the collapse
of the Soviet Union

is this secret site
deactivated.

- In 2003,
this Cold War labyrinth

is open to the public
as a museum.

For several years,

its tunnels echo
with the footsteps of tourists

rather than military officers.

[Duchovny] But after Putin's
invasion of Ukraine,

the base is back
in the conversation.

And the rumors are,
it's being reactivated.

- When the U.S. comes
under attack on 9/11,

the government relocates
to an emergency bunker

for the first time in history.

The only problem is,
it's 50 years out of date.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- In 1950,
the White House is undergoing

a massive expansion.

President Truman is overseeing
renovations of the East Wing.

Truman decides
that in the atomic age,

the White House

needs a nuke-proof
emergency shelter--

one to be used in the event
of a Soviet attack on D.C.

[Duchovny] The $11 million
investment under the East Wing

is called the Presidential
Emergency Operations Center.

- The P-E-O-C, or PEOC,
is an underground bunker

meant to protect the president
and key personnel,

meant to ensure continuity
of government

and also meant to act
as a command and control center

in a time of crisis.

[Sami] It's accessible from
an elevator in the East Wing.

Behind these
heavy steel doors,

there's a shower room

for washing off
any nuclear fallout.

This then leads
to a number of rooms,

including a food store,

living quarters for the
President and the First Lady,

and, most importantly,
the communications center,

which has direct telephone
lines to the Pentagon.

[Duchovny] Truman's PEOC
is a cutting-edge hideaway,

ready and waiting for a threat
to the White House.

But the threat never comes.

And for 50 years,
it lies dormant...

until 2001.

- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.

♪ ♪

[Sami]
When the Twin Towers are hit

and the United States
is under attack,

President Bush is in Florida.

But the First Lady,
Laura Bush, is in D.C.

♪ ♪

- Laura Bush was
at the Congress.

She was at the Capitol.

[sirens wailing]

The Secret Service--
they sent her to the PEOC.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The secret bunker is called on

for the very first time.

♪ ♪

[Tim] Laura Bush had never
been to the PEOC before.

She describes walking
through a tunnel...

♪ ♪

going through these metal doors
into the secure facility.

♪ ♪

Who was there
but Vice President Cheney

and Mrs. Cheney.

- President Bush is in the air,
flying back to Washington.

So the vice president
is running things

from underground.

[Duchovny]
The PEOC is suddenly

the most important room
on Earth.

♪ ♪

- Immediately
things start going wrong.

- Cheney can't get through
to key personnel.

And there's another problem.

The TV screens can play
live news programming,

but then they can't hear

the internal
video teleconferencing.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] It's not just
the communications

that are failing.

[Sasha]
There is an air problem.

The room is sealed,
it's crowded,

and carbon dioxide levels
are rising.

[Duchovny]
With CO2 levels rising,

the evacuated staff
start to feel the pressure.

[Sasha] The vice president
has to choose.

He can either stay
in the safety

of this subterranean
bomb-proof shelter,

or he can go upstairs

into the unfolding chaos
and take control.

♪ ♪

[Sami] Cheney is instructed
to stay underground.

So he's in the failing
operations center

for the whole day.

[Tim] The Bushes were asked
by the Secret Service

if they wanted to spend
the night there.

Neither one wanted to.

♪ ♪

It was a pretty crammed

and not terribly inviting
place to be.

[Duchovny] The PEOC turns out
to be a Cold War relic,

no longer fit for purpose.

The details of what happened
down there are kept hidden

for nearly a decade.

[Sami] In 2010, Laura Bush
publishes her memoir,

in which she reveals
her experience

in the outdated bunker.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
Just months later,

diggers start pulling up
the White House lawn.

In the wake
of the PEOC's failings,

a massive renovation project
takes place underground.

♪ ♪

- A new and improved
21st-century operations center

is installed five stories
below the White House,

so hopefully something
like this never happens again.

♪ ♪

- From hidden experiments
to buried bunkers,

governments have long concealed
secrets deep under the Earth.

But no secret stays
buried forever,

even the most surprising.

♪ ♪