All language subtitles for Expedition.Unknown.S14E04.en

[Frode Lindgjerdet] I think
we got something here.

-You see something?
-[Frode] Yeah.

-[Josh Gates] What do you see?
-It looks like wreckage.

[David Morris] More than 2,600
built for the Royal Navy,

but not a single one
exists today.

We are at the start point
of a massive project
to rebuild the Barracudas.

You need to find tens
of thousands of components
from crashed planes...

-Yes.
-...and then reassemble them.

That's right.

-That's it. You're nuts.
You're officially crazy.
-[chuckles]

[Archie Liggat] A guy who had
been a maintenance worker
here during the war,

he witnessed Barracudas
being buried on the airfield.

Being buried?

So there might actually
be something here?

Oh, no, there's definitely
something here.

Sheet aluminum,
definitely potentially
aircraft material.

Metal! Right there!

-[Frode] Yeah, metal.
-That's metal for sure!

This is the paint scheme
on a British plane.

This is definitely aviation.

-This is a plane.
-Yeah.

Ha-ha! Unbelievable.

[Josh] For Great Britain,
World War II arrives by air.

The lethal German Luftwaffe

conducts relentless
bombing campaigns
on the island nation

as their navy stalks
the waters that surround it.

To bring the fight
to the Nazis,

the Brits design
a new generation of planes,

including
a revolutionary aircraft
called the Barracuda,

the first ever
all-metal carrier-based
torpedo bomber.

The Barracuda
has a deadly bite,

capable of carrying
a game-changing
1,600-pound bomb.

The plane's greatest victory
comes in April 1944,

against the Nazis' version
of the Death Star,

the fiercely armored
battleship Tirpitz.

It's in a daring attack,
a squadron of Barracudas

managed to cripple
the dreaded ship,

clearing the way
for the Allied invasion
of Normandy on D-Day.

After the war,
as the world soars
into the jet age,

most of the era's
historic planes

are decommissioned
and sent to museums.

But in the chaos of
cleaning up the continent,

the Barracuda is overlooked.

Out of 2,600 Barracudas
manufactured,

not a single plane
survives today,

The bomber that helped
save Europe went extinct.

At this moment, however,

a team of aviation specialists
is trying to do something

that many think is impossible:

to reconstruct
an entire Barracuda

using only its original parts,

right down
to the very last rivet.

If they can pull it off,

they will have saved
an aviation treasure,

the only one of its kind.

But to complete the world's
hardest jigsaw puzzle,

they'll need to uncover
long buried secrets

and scavenge ultra-rare
crash sites from Scotland

to the Arctic Circle.

So join me
on a mission like no other,

to raise a legendary phoenix
from the ashes

and bring a hero
of World War II back to life.

[Josh] The past
is all around us...

Oh, this is crazy.

...a world of mystery...

-This is a plane. Ha-ha!
-Yeah.

...danger...

We are about to be underwater.

Whoa!

...and adventure.

It's just straight down!

[exclaiming in fright]

I travel to the far corners
of the Earth

to uncover
where legends end...

[screams, laughs]

...and history begins.

Okay, let's punch it.

I'm Josh Gates,

and this is
Expedition Unknown.

We are back
in the United Kingdom,

non-EU edition,

and it is just as glorious
as I remember it.

Rolling green fields,

a threat of rain at any moment

and, of course,
very, very narrow roads.

[exclaims]

Just cut these hedges back,
for the love of Churchill.

The quest
to resurrect the Barracuda

begins in Somerset, England.

During the Second World War,

this beautiful countryside
was home to a crucial
Royal Navy base.

Today, the Navy has left,
but in its old hangars stands
the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

The number
of priceless aircraft
in here is astonishing.

It's hard to believe
there could be anything
missing from this collection.

But there is.

Here to tell me about
a special project to bring
a lost legend back to life

is curator David Morris.

-Josh, good to meet you.
-Good to meet you as well.

What an awesome museum.

Let's start with that.
This place is cool.

It's the biggest collection
of historic naval aircraft
in Europe.

We've got 103 aircraft
in the collection in total...

-And a Concorde.
-And a Concorde.

And while this Concorde
is very cool,

it's not the plane
I've come here to see.

-You wanna see the Barracuda?
-I want to see the Barracuda.

You wanna see the Barracuda.
Well, we're standing
next to the Barracuda.

Wait. Where is the Barracuda?
This is it?

This is the Barracuda.
This is the Barracuda.

This is our latest project.

The Barracuda Live:
The Big Rebuild.

We are at the start point
of a massive project

to rebuild an aircraft
which doesn't exist
anywhere else in the world.

This just doesn't
make sense to me

that there isn't a single
one of these planes
left in the world.

More than 2,600 built
for the Royal Navy
during World War II,

more than any other
Naval type of aircraft,

but not a single one
exists today,

either shot down,
crashed or scrapped
immediately after the war.

So the other thing to me
that's mind blowing,

or if I'm being
less diplomatic, crazy...

-[chuckles]
-...is that you're
attempting this at all.

How many individual components

would you guess
were in a Barracuda?

It's got to be
tens of thousands.

-Tens of thousands?
-Tens of thousands.

And you need to find
each and every one of those

from crashed planes...

Yup.

...and then reassemble them?

-That's right.
-That's it, you're nuts.

-[chuckles]
-You're officially crazy.

And if that doesn't sound
hard enough, get this.

The original blueprints
for the plane are also lost,

meaning engineers
have to write

their own instruction manual
as they rebuild.

And these are real pieces
from real Barracudas?

Real pieces
from real Barracudas.

-At the moment...
-[chuckles]

...that is probably
the best version

of a Barracuda I can show you.

[Josh] Let's scale up
the model.

Meet the Fairey Aviation
Barracuda,

a carrier-based
three-man bomber

with a 40-foot wingspan
and matching length.

The Barracuda
also had numerous
unique design features,

including a high wing
and prominent tail elevators,

as well as an observer cabin

for the bombardier
below the tail.

To be instantly identified
by friendly aircraft,

the Barracuda featured
not a Union Jack,

but this distinctive display
of British colors.

More importantly,

the plane was powerful enough
to carry heavy ordinance,

bombs weighing
up to 1,600 pounds.

And it takes part in
a fairly legendary operation
in World War II, right?

It was used in a number
of theaters of war,

not least the attack on
the German battleship Tirpitz
in northern Norway.

So this is a real hero
of World War II?

It is. An unsung hero.

Now it just
needs to be revived.

Show me how you're doing it.

-Please come this way.
-Come on.

[Josh] David brings me
to the workshop

where the team spends
painstaking hours

salvaging the pieces
they'll need

to put the Barracuda puzzle
back together.

Josh, meet Will and Tony.

-Hey.
-Hello.

Will, nice to meet you.

-Tony.
-Hi.

-Nice to meet you, Josh.
-How's it going?

What do we got going on here?

So we're disassembling
this rear fuselage

from a Barracuda
that crashed in Scotland.

[Josh] The Barracuda
they're working with
crashed in 1944,

but with some hard work,

many of its pieces
can be put to good use.

The whole thing's gonna
have to come apart,

and that's so that
we can find...

-Every rivet?
-Every rivet, every part,

so that we can
find all the little
tiny bits and pieces

that we can reuse
in the build.

I mean, there are thousands
upon thousands of rivets
on the skin of this plane.

-[David chuckles]
-[William] Yep.

All right. Well,
don't let me hold you up.

You've got a lot of rivets
to punch here.

Please.

Once the parts
that can be saved
have been identified,

they need to be restored
before being marked
for reassembly,

delicate work that happens
in a machine

that the team here
lovingly refers to
as the Blaster,

which they let me
take a crack at.

Just be ready when it goes.

Ooh, yeah. Okay.

It's like a power washer

if your goal is to
take the siding
clean off your house.

An abrasive
aluminum oxide grit

is propelled at the metal
at about 80 pounds
per square inch.

Needless to say,
It's important
to watch your fingers.

Eat your heart out, Mike Rowe.

You've found
your new career now.

This is it.
I'm never leaving here.

Why do you think I'm here?

[chuckles]

Open the door.

And there's
your blasted piece.

Look at that.

Like new.

The team here
has plenty of work ahead,

but they have painstakingly
restored a Barracuda's engine,

an immense piece of machinery
known as a Merlin,

which I helped them
wheel into position
at the front of the plane.

-It's starting
to look like a plane.
-It is.

Now, in terms of parts,

do you have more
than what I've seen
in the workshop here?

We've got a lot more.

-You've got a lot more?
-A lot more.

What's a lot?

As to the other
tens of thousands of parts

in the world's
most challenging Lego set,

David leads me
to the nearby reserve hangar.

David, this place is a wreck.

[both chuckle]

I mean, it is a literal wreck.

This is outrageous.
Is this all from Barracudas?

This is Barracuda wreckage
that we're working from
for the project.

Okay. If you were to take
all of this material

and fuse it all back together,

could you reconstruct
a Barracuda?

-No.
-No.

It doesn't give us
enough material
to do a Barracuda.

What are the big ticket items
you're missing
to finish this project?

[David] Wing parts
and tailplane parts.

[Josh] To find those,
they need more Barracudas,

and they've been hard at work

in researching
where to locate them.

We have a lead
at the moment on one

that could actually
be a Barracuda wreck

that we would dearly
like to explore further.

I'd be happy
to go look at it for you.

That sounds great,
but that's easier said
than done.

It's in a challenging place?

Very much so.

Perfect.

For David's team,
this is clearly
a labor of love

as they honor
an unsung hero
of World War II.

Me? I've just been drafted.

While David continues
to supervise the rebuild,

I'm being dispatched
to hunt for a Barracuda,

eight hours to the north,
in St. Andrews, Scotland.

St. Andrews
is an idyllic seaside town

that's world famous
as the ancestral home
of the sport of golf.

And for the sake
of our ratings,
I will not be golfing.

It ain't pretty.

Instead, I drive
outside of town

and pull over
near a lonely ruin

standing in the middle
of empty farmland.

Here to explain
how this is going to help

our search
for Barracuda parts,

is a true aviation expert,

former Royal Air Force
jet pilot Archie Liggat.

-Archie!
-Josh.

-Beautiful weather.
-Oh, fantastic.

Welcome to Scotland.
[chuckling]

Yeah, exactly.
What else would you expect?

All right, Archie,
why have you marched me

all the way
out here in this field?
Where are we?

Well, Josh,
this may look like
just farmland,

but once upon a time,
this was a big, busy airbase.

You can see an old
control tower behind us.

-[Josh] This was
a control tower?
-Control tower here.

So back in 1946, this place
would have been reverberating

with the noise
of big aero engines.

So what was this place?

Well, this place was initially
Royal Air Force Dunino...

Okay. And there would have
been Barracudas out here?

Oh, definitely
Barracudas here.

Many types of aircraft here.

-Yeah?
-Yeah, but mostly Barracudas.

So why are we here?

What's this story that
there might be something here?

-Back in the 1980s...
-Uh-huh.

...I met a guy
called Johnny Paul,

who had been
a maintenance worker here
during the war.

-Okay.
-And Johnny confided to me

that he witnessed Barracudas
being buried on the airfield.

-Being buried?
-Being buried. Yeah.

[Josh] This airfield was once
teeming with Barracudas,

but after the war,
the Navy decommissioned
and disassembled them,

discreetly burying the parts

along with other
military surplus,

on the grounds
of the airfield.

And maintenance worker
Jonny Paul
witnessed everything.

And did anybody
notice him watching that?

-Oh, he did.
He was arrested, yeah.
-He was arrested?

He was arrested
by the military police

and told he must never
tell anyone about this.

-Wow.
-Yeah.

So where did he tell you
it was buried?

It happened
right close to a cluster
of maintenance hangars.

Okay. So how do we figure out
where that was?

Well, it's not gonna be easy,

but I think the best way
would be from the air.

-From above?
-I think so.

You got a plane
around here somewhere?

-We got a helicopter.
-That'll do.

Our ride is waiting nearby

to give us a bird's-eye view
of Dunino Airfield.

Let's rock and roll.

The pilot
gets light on the skids
and we lift off,

determined to scour
this forgotten terrain
for a buried Barracuda.

Hundreds of feet
above farmland outside
St. Andrews, Scotland,

pilot Archie Liggat and I
are looking for evidence
of a burial.

At the end of World War II,

a maintenance worker
named Johnny Paul

claimed to witness
the disposal

of several legendary
British bombers
known as Barracudas

after they were
decommissioned.

Not one Barracuda
survives today,

so resurrecting one would mean

saving a priceless
aviation treasure.

[Josh speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Josh] With our historic
bearings established,

we fly to the area
described by the former
maintenance worker.

At the edge
of the old airfield,

Archie notices
some very unusual topography.

[Josh speaking]

[Archie speaking]

[Josh] We return to earth
near the mysterious bump.

To find out
what's underground,

I've called in an old friend,
who happens to be a local,

geophysicist Dickie Bates.

Dickie Bates.

Oh, Josh.

[Josh chuckles]
How are you, man?

-Great, Josh.
Great to see you.
-Aw, good to see you.

-Good man.
-This is Archie Liggat.

-Hello, Archie, how you doing?
-How are you doing?

-This is Richard Bates.
-Hi.

We've worked together
in a lot of far flung places,
you and I.

-Mainly hot ones,
though. Yeah.
-[Josh] Mainly warm ones.

You finally got me
to St. Andrews.

Yeah. I'm glad you could come

and see
this wonderful countryside.

Oh, beautiful weather, too.

Fantastic, aye.

I'm thrilled that we're here
in your backyard

because this is
a perfect case for you.

We're searching for these
potentially buried Barracuda,

and from above,

we do see something
kind of strange here
on the landscape.

And you can see it
from down here.

Oh, absolutely.
I mean, as you come down
along by the wee burn...

-I'm sorry, the what?
-The wee burn.

[in Scottish accent]
The wee burn?

-The small river!
-[in normal voice]
Small river. Sorry. Sorry.

I need a translator up here.

[chuckles]

And you need a kilt, too,
if you're gonna stay
much longer.

All right, all right.
Fair enough. All right.

-So, down by the wee burn...
-[Josh] Yes.

...you see the smoothness
of the contours,

-and that's what
hill slopes will do.
-Right.

But then,
superimposed on that,

you've got
these humps and bumps,
and that's not natural.

So you think there could be
something buried here?

Absolutely, there could be.

The plane we're talking about,
the Barracuda,

is the first British
all-metal aircraft.

-So tons of metal.
-Right.

That's great
for a geophysical signature.

And to do that, we're using
this equipment behind you?

Yeah, we'll use
this electromagnetic sensor

and we'll control it with GPS.

And that can look underground
about how far?

So, the instrument
can look down about 20 feet.

[Josh] Wow. Okay.

-[Archie] Hmm.
-So if something's
buried here...

-We should see it.
-We should see it.

-Let's get into it.
-[Richard] Okay.

So, Josh, why don't you
do the honors this time,

'cause I'm getting old
and my back's getting bad.

That, when you say
things like that,

it makes me feel like
the equipment's not safe,

and that's why
you want me to wear it.

[Richard grunts]

You've had
all the children you want?

[Archie chuckles]

[Josh] The electromagnetic
conductivity meter

will map beneath
the ground's surface

by measuring variances
in conductivity,

allowing it
to identify water, metal
and other anomalies.

Okay, Josh, we're gonna
have you go and do

a series of parallel lines
to the river.

[in Scottish accent]
The wee burn?

-Aye, you could do that too.
-Aye, okay.

-[in normal voice] You ready?
-Go for it.

Parallel lines. Here we go.

I feel like
I work at the circus.

[Richard] Okay, Josh.
At the end of the line there,

turn to your left two paces
and come back parallel.

That's it.

-Here?
-Yeah.

Now, come back parallel
to your old line.

Okay. It's starting to get
a little heavier now.

I continue my tightrope act

until I've completely
covered the hill

and completely compressed
my spine.

Now it's time
to examine the data

and see what
I've been walking on top of.

Okay, the big question:
Does your machine work?
Do we have data?

Absolutely. It works.

Not only do we have data,

but we have data
from all the sensors on it.

Okay, so a lot of
material here?

A lot of material down here.

So here you can see
a map of the site.

[Josh] These are targets?

[Richard] So all of these
are targets I've put in.

-[Josh] Whoa.
-And those are
the most obvious ones.

I think there are probably
even more.

Do you see the change
in coloring?

-[Josh] Yes.
-In the plot in here?

[Richard] It's almost
certainly something
like buried metal.

-You think it's metal?
-Absolutely.

Can you tell
how big these spots are then?

Well, you can see,

the area extent
of some of these patches
is 10, 15 feet across.

So there might actually
be something here?

Oh, no, there's definitely
something here.

What exactly it is,

we're gonna have to
scrape the soil off
and start digging it.

Okay, so now we've got to
turn some earth.

So I brought
a trowel along with me.

Yeah, I brought a trowel
with me too.

Can I get the trowel?

The excavator will help us

get down to the layer
of our newly discovered
targets.

Also helping us
is an archeologist

who's extensively researched
Dunino Airfield's role

during World War II,
Steve Liscoe.

Here we go.

The operator
uses the huge machinery

to delicately
cut into the ground
over the first anomaly,

shaving soil away
one layer at a time.

It's like watching King Kong
repair a watch.

-[Richard] Stop!
-[Josh] Right away something.

-Oh, look.
-Is this brick?

-[Steve] That is a brick.
-[Josh] That is a brick.

-Look at that.
-[Steve] Indeed it is.

Yeah. I'd give it
a wipe there.

[Josh] Oh,
there's something stamped.

[Steve] "W-E-M."

And if that was complete,
that would say "Y-S-S."

It's from
the Weems Brickworks,

which is
a 20th century product.

-Would this be contemporary
with World War II?
-Oh, indeed, it would.

If you looked at
any of the buildings

that we've got
on the site here,

they'd be made
with the same bricks.

-Okay, so...
-So we're looking at
some sort of deposition

from the time of the airfield.

-[Josh] This is a great start.
-[Steve] It is.

And it tells us
that Bates kind of knows
what he's doing,

which is surprising,
I know, to all of us.

Well, I mean, I'm stunned.

[laughter]

[Josh] While the backhoe
continues working
on the first site,

Dickie focuses
on other anomalies
from his data nearby.

Okay, Paul.
Next spot is right here.

[Josh] And those hits turn out
to be just as productive.

[Richard] Oh, what's that?
That's got a shape to it.

What have you
found there, Josh?

[Josh] I thought
it was a wrench at first,
but I'm not sure.

It could be a tool.

A tool of some kind?

[Archie] Something here, guys.

Something here?

-[Steve] Well, what is that?
-[Josh] It's in a canister.

Looks like a battery.

It has terminals on the top,
and it is heavy as hell.

I mean,
could this be aviation?

If it's aviation,
I suspect somebody's going
to be able to recognize that.

All right. We'll get
this cleaned up a little bit,
take some photos of it.

-Okay.
-And whatever this is.

-And that as well.
-That's a tool, I think.

A tool.

This is more than just
some ceramic and brick.

We're now getting
into maintenance
or workshop material

and possibly aircraft parts.

The battery
is a tantalizing clue,

but something else
in this location

is about to spark
our interest.

There's something in here.

Is that a spark plug?

[Steve] That is a spark plug.

That's an aviation spark plug.

-[Steve] No question.
-[Richard] That's aviation.
That's big.

[Josh] Oh, my Lord,
that's incredible.

And why do we know
that's from a plane
and not from a vehicle?

[Steve] This pattern
is out of an aerial engine.

Score.

-No question?
-No question. Absolutely.

[Josh] At a former Royal Navy
airfield in Scotland,

I'm with a team
looking for evidence

of a British aircraft
from the Second World War,
the Barracuda.

We're hoping to find parts
which can be used

to reconstruct
the legendary bomber.

So, probably from an aircraft.

-[Richard] Mm-hmm, yeah.
-[Archie] Yeah.

Potentially from a Barracuda?

-Potentially,
till proven otherwise.
-Potentially, yeah.

Let's get this
cleaned up as well,

and I'm gonna send
some photos of this
back to the museum

to see if they can identify
what this is.

-Yeah.
-'Cause if this is
a Barracuda part,

then, mission accomplished.
We're in, right.

Okay, let's carefully
keep digging here. Great find.

In the layers below,
we're amazed to find
more aviation machinery...

-More stainless steel, yeah.
-More bits of airplane.

[Archie] Those are
aircraft parts.

I would think they're
aero engine linkages
of some kind.

Got another piece of alloy
casting down here.

Almost certainly
off an aircraft.

That should
be able to match up

to a parts inventory
somewhere.

[Josh] ...along with
other stuff.

-[Josh] Oh.
-Keep that for lunchtime.

Look at that. That's a beauty.

-It's got
a government stamp on it.
-[Archie] Oh, right.

This is definitely
from the airfield.

-This is a government spoon.
-Government spoon.

So it's government property.

-You keep your hands off it.
-You wanna give--

Gentlemen, I apologize.

You ought to
give it back now, Josh.

I'm keeping this.
This is for all the taxation
back in the colonies.

[laughter]

This is mine now.

[Josh] So we continued
to move around the site,

following our map
of geophysical variances,
and soon enough...

[Steve] Paul, stop!

-[Josh] Aluminum?
-[Steve] It looks
very much like it is.

Yep, sheet aluminum.

Definitely potentially
aircraft material.

[Josh] So now we are right
in the money of airplane skin.

And by the right gauge
as well.

[Josh] That's right.

So potentially something
off a Barracuda here,

or maybe just
raw material for repairs.

I think we've certainly
verified Johnny Paul's
story here, right?

We are, no doubt,
at this old airbase.

We are, no doubt, near these
old maintenance facilities.

And we're finding stuff
that looks aviation.

-Mm-hmm.
-Yeah.

-Absolutely.
-What we're not
finding are big parts.

You know,
these guys at the museum
are desperate for a wing.

-They're desperate
for the tail of a plane.
-Yeah.

No sign of any of that yet.

But this is
a hugely important place
to keep looking.

I keep thinking back
to that black and white photo.

-Hundreds of Barracudas
parked out in this field.
-[Archie] Yes.

So, I think, no question,
we keep digging here,
we keep looking here.

-Great work, guys.
-Thanks.

[Josh] We photograph
all of our finds

to send back
to the Barracuda team
for identification,

excited to report
that a larger excavation
here at Dunino Airfield

could reveal even more parts.

However, larger pieces
of the Barracuda

may be hiding in places
other than Scotland.

A recent discovery by hikers

may point to the wreckage
of a Barracuda

near the site
of its greatest victory.

So, from St. Andrews,
I make my way north,

far north, to 500 miles
above the Arctic Circle

and a small city

perched at the end
of the inhabited Earth.

Welcome to Alta, Norway.

Home to a population
of about 15,000,

this is one of
the northernmost cities
in the world.

In fact, we are closer
to the North Pole right now
than we are to Paris.

And did I mention
how warm it is?

[exclaims]

But the cold weather does come
with a silver lining.

Alta's quaint villages
and fishing bays

sit at the mouth of one of
Norway's stunning fjords,

and it's known as
the aurora borealis
capital of the world,

where the sky often puts on
a dazzling display.

If the town center
looks a little modern,

that's because of the Nazis,

who invaded Norway in 1940

and burned
every single building in Alta

in their retreat
four years later.

And, as it happens,
the Nazis are why
I'm here as well.

It was in the Alta fjord

that they parked
the fearsome battleship
Tirpitz in April of 1944.

Today there's a Tirpitz museum
in Alta

where I hope to uncover clues
about lost Barracudas.

Assuming, that is,
I can find this place
in the dark.

Well, it is 2:00 p.m.
in the afternoon here in Alta,

and it is literally
pitch black outside.

Welcome to Polar night
above the Arctic Circle.

For a few months of the year,

Alta gets zero sunlight
altogether.

This time of year,
there's about four
or five hours a day.

GPS gets me to my destination,

where I find author
and expert on the Tirpitz,
Frode Lindgjerdet.

Frode.

Oh, hi.

[Josh] Frode is a historian

from the Norwegian
Defense Museum,

as well as an active member

of the country's
civil defense service.

Thank you for taking the time.

As you know,

I am investigating
the Barracuda.

Yeah.

And here in Alta,

this is the scene

of the biggest moment of glory
for this plane, right?

And this is the Tirpitz
right here, right?

-Let's take a look at this.
-Yeah.

This is, like,
a really imposing ship.

[Frode] Yeah.

[Josh] This is like
the Death Star of its day.

This thing is a beast.

[Josh] The Tirpitz,

sister ship
of the vaunted Bismarck,

was the largest battleship
ever built by the Nazis,

and the single
greatest obstacle

to an allied invasion
of Norway.

With a huge complement
of anti-aircraft guns

as well as
anti-submarine mines,

it was a one-boat armada
in the Baltic Sea.

If the Allies were going
to win World War II,

sooner or later,

they knew they'd
have to take the Tirpitz
off the board.

How many attacks
were carried out
on the Tirpitz?

-Twenty-five
different attacks?
-Yeah.

Before she was
even out in the water?

-The mission that
succeeded in crippling her...
-Yeah.

...was the one
using Barracudas.

-So that was
called Operation...
-Tungsten.

[Josh] In April of 1944,

the British decided
on a new approach
to sink the Tirpitz.

The Barracuda
would lead the attack

because it was the only
carrier-based bomber

capable of deploying
the 1,600-pound bombs

necessary to penetrate
the ship's foot-thick
armor shielding.

Forty Barracudas
surprised the Tirpitz

in two waves of heavy bombing,

and when the smoke cleared,
the battleship was so damaged,

it was taken out of service
for six crucial months.

In June, only two months
after the Tirpitz raid,

the Allies landed
on the beaches of Normandy
on D-Day,

beginning their liberation
of Europe.

And this is one of the reasons

-that this Barracuda
belongs in a museum...
-Yeah.

...that this plane really
should be recognized

-as a real hero of the war.
-Yep.

So let's talk about
this wreckage that
I've heard about.

What do we know here?

-Some hikers
have given us a location.
-Okay.

It could be
the wreck of an aircraft.

Do you think it's possible
that it is a Barracuda?

It's possible,

but there's also a lot of
other types of aircraft
in those mountains.

-There are?
-Yeah.

And this place is reachable?

It's a tough hike,
but it's possible.

-So you're up
for a little walk?
-Uh, sure.

-Tomorrow morning?
-Tomorrow morning.

-I'll pick you up.
-Yeah.

Little walk.

The next, I guess
we're calling this morning,

Frode and I
hit the road before dawn

to drive to the mountain
where the airplane wreckage
was spotted.

-Good morning.
-[Frode] Good morning.

Or good evening.
I don't know anymore.

-[chuckles]
-So where are we headed?

It's about a 45 minutes drive
into the mountains.

And the sun is going to
come up, right?

Yeah, I'm told so. [chuckles]

"I'm told so."

Oh, boy.

During winter in Norway,
even the sun sleeps in.

We drive on lonely,
snow-covered roads

until the leisurely hour
of 9:00,

when daylight begins
to creep over the horizon,

and we arrive at the mountain.

Okay.

Okay, so take me back in time.

It's April, 1944,
and the Tirpitz is anchored
just around the corner,

further up the fjord.

So the Barracudas
would've been coming

from aircraft carriers
over these hills...

-Yeah.
-...bombing the Tirpitz,

and then heading back
this way?

-Yeah, in that
direction, yeah.
-Okay.

So it's possible
one of those Barracudas
didn't clear the mountain?

-Yeah, especially if it was
hit by anti-aircraft fire.
-Right.

And the wreckage coordinates
are where?

They're up
in the mountains over there.

-Should we check it out?
-Yeah.

Let's do it.

We leave our car
at the side of the road...

Don't worry,
it's a safe neighborhood...

...and using
Frode's coordinates,

we set out for the wreckage
one icy step at a time.

Okay, into the mountains.

This is straight up, isn't it?

[panting]

Up, up, up.

A thousand feet up,

there could be nothing for us
but ice, snow and frostbite.

Or there could be a Barracuda.

-This is a creek here?
-Yeah.

-But be careful if--
-Yeah.

[Frode] You can
snap an ankle pretty quickly
if you go through that.

[Josh] Absolutely.
I'm not sure
how solid that is.

[Frode] No,
that's not solid at all.

[Josh] The higher we get,
the steeper the grade becomes,

and the less sure
our footing is.

Exhibit A.

[bleep]

[Josh grunts]

[Josh] This all
looks like ice.

[bleep]

[Josh grunts]

-[Frode] Are you okay?
-I'm good.

I'm good.

-Bruised my ego.
-[Frode chuckles] Yeah.

Here we go.

On a frigid mountain
500 miles north
of the Arctic Circle,

historian Frode Lindgjerdet
and I

are climbing
to the coordinates

where a hiker
may have found the wreckage

of a lost British bomber
known as a Barracuda.

Well, we're getting there.

It is not warm.

And there's not exactly
a direct path to follow here.

We're basically zigzagging

back and forth
around this creek.

A few hundred feet up,

and we get our first view
of the water

where the Nazi
super battleship Tirpitz
was stationed.

Look at that.

Yeah. Quite a view.

Beautiful.

And you can imagine
the Tirpitz just anchored
right out there.

[Frode] Yeah, it'll definitely
blend right in.

[Josh] Yeah, exactly.

Okay. GPS, how far are we?

Yeah, uh, it's about
half a mile in that direction.

-Uphill.
-Uphill.

-Yeah.
-All right. After you.

The coordinates
are still higher,

so we resume our climb
into a frozen world,

With icicles
along the rock face
as tall as we are.

This is like another world.
Look at this.

Yeah.

[Josh] Incredible.

You know, the last time
a Norwegian and an American

were out
in this kind of weather

was in John Carpenter's
The Thing.

Yeah, well, I'm not the alien.

That's exactly
what an alien would say.

We'll see.

-Yeah.
-We'll see.

-I packed a flamethrower.
-Yeah.

Just, you know, gotta be safe.

Okay, so we should be
almost there?

[Frode] Yeah.

And we also have
only a couple of hours
of daylight left,

so we have to move quick.

Copy that.

We're racing against
the clock even at 10:00 a.m.

At this time of year
in Norway,
the sun sets at 2:00,

and you do not want to risk
being in these conditions
after dark.

-Oh, careful. That's ice.
-[Frode] Yeah, I know.

-This is like
a waterfall here.
-Yeah.

[Josh] Okay,
what's our distance now?

I got 130 feet.

So let's fan out.
You go left, I'll go right.

Where are you?

-[Frode] I think
we got something here.
-You see something?

-[Frode] Yeah.
-What do you see?

Uh, looks like wreckage.

-[Josh] Metal! Right there!
-[Frode] Yeah, metal.

That's metal for sure!

-That is metal!
That's a wreck!
-[Frode] Yeah.

-That's a wreck.
-Oh, my word.

This is riveted.

This is riveted,
and it's aluminum.

-Ooh, and look
at the aluminum cutouts.
-Yeah.

This is aviation.

This is definitely aviation.

-This is a plane.
-Yeah.

Ha-ha! Unbelievable!
Look at this!

And look further up the hill.

-More?
-Yeah.

-Where? Oh!
-Everywhere.

-Metal there, and there,
and here, and there.
-Yes.

There is literally
a debris field

stretching the entire way
up the hill.

-Yeah.
-This must have been
a violent crash.

A violent crash.
Probably an explosion.

Now we know it's a plane.

-But the question is,
what kind of plane?
-Right, okay.

So let's dust
as much of this off as we can,

see if we can find
something diagnostic.

-Yeah.
-Okay?

All right, let's get into it.

We split up to try to uncover
as much wreckage as we can,

and we only have
a couple of hours of daylight
left to do it.

I think I got
part of the fuel tank here.

-[Frode] Really?
-Yeah.

[Frode] I think
I have the engine.

-You found the engine?
-Yeah.

Oh, yeah, you got it.
You got it!

That's it!

Okay, let's take a look.
Let's get this thing clean.

Yes, this looks like the top.

I got a serial number.

-[Frode] Yeah?
-Yeah.

Looks like 0-1-6-7-F-D,
or zero again,

and then
a smaller number here.

And this looks like
writing as well.

So we'll photograph all this.

-Yep.
-That's huge.

The serial numbers
on these parts

can be used
to identify a plane,

including its make, model,
and even its crew.

-More numbers!
-[Frode] Yeah?

[Josh] Yeah.
More serial numbers here.

-[Frode] Yeah.
-Look at these stamps.

Can we see the cylinders?

No, but you can see them
definitely arranged in a "V."

-[Josh] Right.
-Right there. Yeah.

-So this is a piston engine.
-Yeah.

You know what this is?

Most likely a Merlin.

It's a Merlin, right?
Okay, this is a Merlin.

The Rolls Royce Merlin engine
was first designed in 1933

and quickly became
Britain's foremost
aviation advantage.

Fifty different versions
were made

over the course of the war.

Now, the Barracuda
was outfitted
for Merlin engines.

Yes, it was.

-But...
-I know.

Yeah, there's
a lot of aircraft

having the exact same engine.

This was like
the workhorse engine

that helped win World War II.

But it still keeps us
on the track of the Barracuda,
right?

-Yeah.
-If we'd found some big
radial engine here,

-we would've been in trouble.
-Yeah.

So, so far, this could
still be a Barracuda.

We take meticulous photos
of the parts

with their serial numbers,
for identification,

even as we continue to uncover
more pieces of the plane
beneath the snow.

I think I got
part of the wing here.

-Really?
-Yeah, for sure.

Let me grab that iPad,
see if we can ID what this is.

We're hiking with a tablet
loaded with Barracuda specs
from the team back in England.

I'm hoping the photos
can help us make

a preliminary ID of the parts.

This piece right here.
See that?

This piece right here
with that support,

-I mean, is that
not identical to that?
-[Frode] Yeah.

Holy [bleep].

But so many of these planes

have a similar
internal design structure.

-We need more to prove
it's a Barracuda.
-[Frode] Yeah.

But, boy, is it adding up.

If this is a Barracuda wing,
it's a crucial find.

The restoration team
back at the museum

is missing wing parts
and wants them desperately.

So we sift through
every piece of twisted metal
we can see.

-Ooh, I got paint.
-[Frode] Yeah.

Red paint. Look at this!

[Frode] Wow.

That's paint.
So this is an exterior piece.
What is this?

-Is that paint?
-Yeah, that's paint.

-That's blue paint.
-Yes, blue and red.

Holy [bleep]!

-This is the paint scheme
on a British plane.
-[Frode] Yep.

[Josh] They say
that everything is relative,

which is exactly
the perspective you need
during winter in Norway.

Out of curiosity,

what constitutes
a cold day here in Norway?

Like, what does
the temperature have to be

for you to say,
"Kids, it's cold outside."

Negative five, around.

-Yeah.
-[scoffs] Negative five,
that's the threshold.

Negative four, negative three,
beach weather.

-[chuckles] Yeah. Yeah.
-Warm out.

Negative five.

That's when
you put a sweater on.

That's when
I put a sweater on,
maybe some gloves.

-Maybe, at negative five.
-Yeah.

Norwegians.

So now, no question,
we have a plane,

and no question,
we have a British plane.

I've traveled 500 miles
above the Arctic Circle

to find wreckage of
the legendary British bomber,
the Barracuda.

A restoration team in England
needs original parts
to bring one back to life.

Remarkably, against all odds,
we may have some.

-And this is the rudder.
-This is the rudder!

Yeah. It would have
fitted into this slot.

-Yes, it would have!
-Yes. Yeah.

-This is part
of the tail of the plane.
-Yes.

These are the right colors
in the right location.

Let's see if this looks
like the Barracuda tail.

I bring the iPad out
to see if I can place the part
we found on our missing plane.

So here's our Barracuda,

and here's our tail.

-[Frode] Yep.
-Look at that.

-[Frode] Yeah.
-I mean, is that
a beauty or what?

-[Frode] That's a match.
-That's a perfect match.

-It's a perfect match. Yeah.
-Hey, that is...

That is unbelievable!

But here's what bothers me.

Where is this?
Where is this whole horizontal
section of the tail?

It's the one very weird
design element on this plane,

and it's like the fingerprint
of the Barracuda.

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Where's that?

It's not here at all.

The high elevators on the tail

are a signature
of the Barracuda's design,

and a part of the plane
that the team back in England

is specifically
hoping to acquire.

-If we can find that,
we can close the case.
-Yup.

-Let's find it.
-Let's find it.

-Come on.
-Yeah.

[Josh] We're one piece away

from solving
an 80-year-old jigsaw puzzle.

So we hit the debris field
one more time with new urgency

as the sun begins to set,
and a deadly cold creeps in.

Hey, Josh, come over here.

-See something?
-Yeah.

I think this is
a part of the elevator.

[Josh] Is this
that high piece of the tail?

Yeah, I think it is.

I mean, if it is,
then this is a Barracuda.

[Frode] Yeah.

I'm quite sure. Yeah.

Then these are the parts
that they're looking for.

These are the parts
that could complete
this lost aircraft...

-Yeah.
-...back at the museum.

That's unbelievable.

I'm speechless.

I am utterly speechless.

The elevator pairs perfectly
with the tail piece
that we found earlier.

Together, we may have found

a complete
Barracuda tail section
for the very first time.

This is a piece
of World War II history
right here.

Right here.

But the idea
that we are standing

in front of the wreckage
of one of these lost planes

is so humbling.

I am awed in this moment.

This plane crashed,
saving the world
from an unimaginable evil.

And now, it is lost no more.

We look at the violence
of this crash,

most likely, people died
in this accident.

So we are also on a kind of
hallowed ground here.

Yeah. This is a war grave.

It is a war grave.

-But I think this is exactly
what we came for.
-Yeah.

Hey, put her there.

Thank you
for coming up here with me.

My pleasure. This was awesome.

-It was amazing.
-Yeah.

[Josh] Here,
far above the Arctic Circle,

a plane that helped
turn the tide of World War II

has been rediscovered,

and in time, may serve
its nation once again

in the rebuild
of the Barracuda.

We perform a 3-D scan
of every inch of the plane.

Then, in the frigid darkness,

we undertake the long
and treacherous hike downhill

with our data
clutched tightly in hand,

excited to share it
with the team back in England.

The reconstruction
of the Barracuda

is a project
unlike any attempted
in aviation history.

And when David sees
what we've found,

he knows it's just taken
a giant leap forward.

-[David] Wow, look at that.
-[William] Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah.

That's the fin.

-It is the fin, right?
-[William] Yeah.

-Yeah. Hundred percent.
That's a Barracuda.
-[Josh] Hundred percent.

That's the tail fin
from a Barracuda.

[David] That's the tail fin
from a Barracuda.

[Josh] Using
the serial numbers
on the parts we found,

David was able
to uncover the identity
of not just the Barracuda,

but also the crew
that flew her.

Around the corner
from the museum

is the Fleet Air Arm
Memorial church,

where the names
of fallen soldiers

are inscribed
in a book of remembrance,

including two members

of our Barracuda's crew,

Sub-Lieutenant
Hubert Horace Richardson

and Sub-Lieutenant
Andrew George Cannon.

Only Gunner E. Carroll
managed to bail out.

Captured by the Nazis,

he was a prisoner of war
until 1945.

And soon,
we can honor their service

with the only example on Earth

of the plane that they flew.

The newly-discovered pieces
will help complete the puzzle

and transform the Barracuda

from a monochrome
wartime memory

into this,

a phoenix risen from the ashes
in living color,

restored for a new mission:

to tell her story,

and the story of those
brave men who flew her,

for generations to come.