All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E16.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

the top secret bases
that governments disguised

and then denied for decades,

from the government
doomsday bunker

hidden beneath
a luxury resort...

- If a bomb drops
on the golf course,

anyone behind the blast doors
would be okay.

- To the U.S. Army's
nuclear launch site

built inside a glacier.

- They put a nuclear reactor
in one of the most brutal

and difficult environments
on Earth.

[Duchovny] And Stalin hollows
out a mountain to conceal

a fleet of Soviet subs.

[Greg]
It even has a secret gate

so that subs can get in
and out.

It's something out
of a Bond film.

- These are some of
the hidden bases

built by governments
throughout history.

It's time to bring
them to light.

♪ ♪

In West Virginia,
there's a luxury hotel

for the rich and famous that
boasts over 700 guest rooms,

exclusive restaurants,
an 18-hole golf course,

and a secret underground
bunker primed for Armageddon.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] Nuclear anxiety
is peaking in the 1950s,

and the U.S. president
is concerned

about the safety
of the government

in the case of nuclear attack.

[Duchovny] Top of Eisenhower's
list of people

who need to survive
Armageddon?

Members of Congress.

This means finding a location
for a bunker that can house

1,000 government officials
and is discreet enough

to keep it hidden
from the public.

The answer? A five-star hotel.

[Hakeem] The Greenbrier
is a luxury resort

in White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia.

This place is a slice
of old-school luxury,

where the rich and powerful
come to do business and relax.

You can find presidents
or celebrities

sipping drinks at the bar.

[Duchovny] It sounds
like the perfect place

to see out World War III.

- It's far enough
from Washington D.C.

that hopefully it could
escape the effects

of a direct nuclear attack
on the capital city,

but also close enough that
people would be able

to escape to it in time.

[Duchovny]
It's shielded by mountains

for extra protection.

- Perhaps what swings it--
literally--

is the hotel's
golfing facilities.

Eisenhower is a regular
on the Greenbrier course.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The government discreetly

approaches the hotel
for their assistance,

and the management
at the Greenbrier

are happy to oblige.

The only problem
is keeping it a secret.

- An immense
construction project

on the grounds
of the Greenbrier

is sure to get
the VIP guests gossiping.

So the bunker needs
a cover story.

[Duchovny] The Greenbrier
gets a brand-new extension,

the West Virginia Wing.

Underneath,
a vast doomsday bunker

unlike any other
begins to take shape.

[Hakeem] The bunker underneath

the Greenbrier Hotel

hosts 153 rooms spread out
over 112,000 square feet.

There are two chambers

for the House and the Senate,

and there's this vast hall

for joint sessions.

It's essentially a giant
underground capital

for the government
to continue functioning

in the event of a nuclear war.

- Beyond these chambers are
the facilities you'd expect

in a top-of-the-range
government survival bunker--

high pressure shower
to rinse off nuclear fallout,

over 1,000 beds
for congressmen and women,

a hospital, a cafeteria, and
a small arsenal of handguns.

[Duchovny] Perhaps the most
impressive features

are two enormous blast doors
to seal Congress inside.

- Each door is 19 inches thick,
weighs 28 tons,

and they're strong enough
to withstand a nuclear blast

from only 2,000 feet away.

- If a bomb drops on the
eighth hole of the golf course,

anyone behind
the blast doors will be okay.

- And these doors
are hidden behind a false wall

in the exhibition hall,
just inches away

from where guests
are mingling.

- For 30 years,
the false wall stands firm

and the bunker remains
hidden from view, until 1992,

when rumors finally begin
to leak out.

[Jesse] Ted Gup is
an investigative reporter

for "The Washington Post,"
and an anonymous source

tips him off that
the Greenbrier Resort

might not be all that it seems.

[Duchovny] Gup speaks
to former employees

who confirm that something
mysterious is lurking

beneath the
West Virginia Wing.

But for a genuine scoop,
Gup needs hard evidence.

- So he decides to go stay
at the Greenbrier himself

to see if he can get
that final bit of proof.

[O'Keefe]
When Gup meets the manager,

he goes straight to the point.

He asks, is there
a government nuclear

fallout shelter
under the hotel?

Well, the manager
immediately denies this.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Gup doesn't get
the answers he's hoping for,

but he's determined not
to leave the Greenbrier

without his story.

- Gup visits the office
of a maintenance company

called Forsythe Associates,
who are supposedly

in charge of maintaining
the Greenbrier TVs.

When he gets to the offices,
he sees something strange.

[Hakeem] He sees a wall
covered with books

on nuclear war and Armageddon.

You don't need that if
you're building TV antennas.

- When he digs deeper,
he finds out

that many of the people who
work at Forsythe Associates

are former U.S. military
cryptographers

and radio specialists.

- Turns out Forsythe Associates
is just a front company.

Their real job is maintaining
the communications

for the bunker.

[Duchovny]
"The Washington Post"

runs Gup's story
on May 31, 1992.

♪ ♪

And the Greenbrier's secret
is finally unearthed.

Within days,
the government goes public

about the Greenbrier bunker

and announces
its deactivation.

- Today, the bunker is
a tourist attraction.

For about $50,
you can go tour the halls

where the American
government might have

been reborn after Armageddon.

♪ ♪

- In the event of an attack,

it's not just Congress
who needs protecting,

but the president
and the vice president too.

On 9/11, U.S. leaders
are rushed to a secret bunker

beneath the White House.

The only problem is,
it's been hidden away so long,

it's 50 years out of date.

♪ ♪

- 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.

[electrical whirring]

[Tim] 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.

- The PEOC turns out
to be a Cold War relic

no longer fit for its 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.

♪ ♪

- The Cold War gave rise to
an abundance of hidden bases,

outposts carved
into some of the most

extreme environments on Earth.

But one U.S. operation beneath
Greenland's ice hides something

far more dangerous:
a nuclear launch site

buried for nearly
three decades.

[dramatic music]

[Martin] It's 1956, and the
U.S. Department of Defense

releases a documentary
about this groundbreaking

polar research station
in Greenland,

800 miles south
of the North Pole.

[Announcer]
The United States Army

has established an
unprecedented nuclear-powered

Arctic Research Center.

[Jack] In the Arctic,
you have to contend

with sometimes minus-20
to minus-40 conditions.

It's just an
incredibly difficult

environment to operate in.

[Duchovny] An army colonel
named John Kerkering

is tasked with constructing
a polar city.

It's housed in huge,
covered tunnels

with dormitories, a hospital,

even a chapel
and a barber shop.

[Martin] The documentary
presents the polar

research station as being
well ahead of its time,

primarily because
of the fact that

it is powered entirely
by the world's first

portable nuclear reactor.

[Hakeem] The name of
the base is Camp Century.

It's an ambitious project.

They put a nuclear reactor
in one of the most

brutal and difficult
environments on Earth.

♪ ♪

As wild as that is,
that's not even

the craziest thing about this.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Although only
a few people know it,

Camp Century is
just a cover story.

♪ ♪

The real plan here
is to construct

an immense nuclear launch site
deep under the snow.

Its name: Project Iceworm.

♪ ♪

[Todd] When Project Iceworm
was envisioned,

there were a lot
of legitimate fears

that we were on the precipice
of nuclear war.

- In the 1950s,
the threat of nuclear war

couldn't be more serious.

Iceworm will give the West an
opportunity to survive it all.

- Their idea is to have
hundreds of nuclear warheads

all prepped, all ready to go
in the tunnels under the ice.

A full-on nuclear arsenal.

- If the Russians initiated

a nuclear first strike
on America,

there would be the secondary
base in Greenland

that could fire retaliatory
counterattacks into Russia.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The Camp Century
cover story is so convincing

it fools the Russians.

[Jack] They did actually do
experiments there and work

on science,
but it was basically

a test bed to see what else we
could do under the Arctic ice.

- In the end,
the real challenge

to the success
of Project Iceworm

doesn't come
from being discovered,

but from the landscape itself.

[Martin] The Greenland
ice cap is so dynamic,

you just can't maintain
a permanent structure

underneath the ice.

[Jack] The base
was being sandwiched

between the ice walls
as they constricted,

because every year,
the ice moves another 6 feet.

[Martin] You've got
600 nuclear warheads

and a nuclear reactor.

You cannot put them
in shifting ice.

[Duchovny] And so Camp Century
is abandoned in 1967.

- They end up pulling the plug
on the entire thing,

and they just walk away.

- I think the line is,
we'll just open the door

and let it snow.

And they thought it
would be permanently entombed

in this ice
and be safe in that way.

♪ ♪

- Although the nuclear reactor
at Camp Century was removed,

the material that
was left behind

is still dangerous
to the environment.

[Duchovny] The truth
stays buried until 1996,

when newly declassified
documents reveal

the shocking truth
about Camp Century,

that this Arctic research base
was no mere science lab

but a front
for a nuclear launch site

hidden beneath the ice.

♪ ♪

The same decade that the U.S.
uses the Arctic to hide nukes,

they conceal
their newest spy station

not on Earth but in space.

♪ ♪

- The U.S. develop
and test a two-man operated

scientific research station.

[Announcer] A program
designed to evaluate

man's performance in space
over extended periods of time.

[Nehemiah] It's designed
to remain in orbit

150 miles above
the Earth's surface.

It's 60 feet long with a
laboratory and a living space.

[Duchovny]
The design team comes up

with incredible innovations.

- They develop
the next generation

of flexible spacesuits.

♪ ♪

The laboratory simulator
becomes part

of NASA's future projects,
as does the MOL's

waste generation system.

[Andrew] The individuals
who trained on the MOL

later went on to be pioneers

who manned some of the early
space shuttle missions.

[Duchovny] The project's
greatest technical

breakthrough is its own
giant camera.

♪ ♪

- The camera is
the size of a car.

♪ ♪

It uses an external mirror
that is as tall as a man.

[Duchovny] It is described
as the perfect tool

for conducting scientific
studies of Earth.

[Amy] Things like
tracking tectonic plates

or air pollution
or studying the polar caps.

[Duchovny]
All to benefit humankind.

The benefits seem endless.

♪ ♪

In November 1966,
the first prototype

is ready for test launch.

[Technician 1] Launch commit
lights are green.

[Technician 2]
T minus 10 seconds.

- The MOL enters orbit
and remains in contact

with the Earth for 30 days.

♪ ♪

It's a huge success.

[Duchovny]
But behind all the excitement

hides a stunning secret.

In 2015, the military
declassifies documents

that expose
the science project

as an elaborate cover story.

♪ ♪

It's really a hidden base

designed to spy
on the Russians.

- Since 1960,
the American military

has been monitoring Russia's
nuclear capabilities

from surveillance satellites.

[Announcer]
Photographs from space

of value to strategic
intelligence

completely revolutionize
the intelligence process.

- After the cameras
take the pictures,

the film needs to be
processed back on Earth.

By that point, it could be
too late to react.

[Duchovny] What good
is intel on an enemy attack

if it arrives
too late to respond?

One solution is a spy camera
operated by astronauts.

[Andrew] The crew on
the MOL could actually

direct the camera
at exactly what they

wanted to take a picture of.

♪ ♪

- They can report what
they are looking at,

and then the crew back on Earth
knows exactly

what photos
they'll be getting.

- From its orbit
between 150 to 170 miles,

it can resolve places
and objects 9,000 feet across.

That's easily big enough
to get detail

from military installations and
other really important sites

that the United States
is trying to spy on.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The camera works,

but the price of this
hidden space base?

A whopping $13 billion.

- It was too expensive,
and the evolution of technology

was making modern day
satellites better equipped

to carry out the same operation

that the MOL was supposed to
carry out.

- The MOL is mothballed
after just one flight,

but there's one more twist
to this tale.

The cover story that the MOL
will make discoveries

for the benefit of the planet
ultimately comes true.

Technology from the MOL
would be used in Skylab,

America's first space station.

Launched in May 1973,
it proves humans can live

in space for weeks at a time.

♪ ♪

- In World War II,
the U.S. military needs

to disguise a crucial
26-acre aircraft plant

from Japanese bombers.

So they turn
to an amateur magician

and ask him to make
the entire factory disappear.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Sami] When the Japanese
bomb the U.S. fleet

at Pearl Harbor,
the United States

immediately declares war
against Japan.

[Paul] But the United States
is not particularly

well-prepared
for a war with Japan,

and in February of 1942,
about two months

after the Pearl Harbor attack,
a Japanese submarine

surfaces off the coast
of California

and shells an oil field.

And this really ramps up
American fears

of the possibility
of a Japanese attack

on the West Coast.

♪ ♪

- What the U.S. is
really concerned with

is the vulnerability
of our aircraft

and shipbuilding plants
on the West Coast.

If the Japanese bombers
were to strike there,

they could destroy
this nascent industry

and just flatten it before
it ever gets off the ground.

[Dan]
An attack on these factories

could totally cripple
America's war effort.

[Duchovny]
One location in particular

keeps U.S. generals awake
at night:

Boeing's vast Plant 2
aircraft factory.

- Boeing's Plant 2
is a state-of-the-art

million square foot
aircraft facility

in Seattle, Washington.

It employs over 30,000 workers
who churn out

over 300 B-17 bombers a month.

[Duchovny] To protect Plant 2,
the U.S. military

turns to engineer
Colonel John Ohmer Jr.

- He's the perfect guy
for this job.

Number one,
he's an expert in camouflage.

And number two, as a hobby,
he is a magician.

So who better to make
an entire factory disappear?

[Duchovny]
If Ohmer can disguise Plant 2

to make it vanish,

it will be the greatest
magic trick of his life.

But hiding
a sprawling mega factory

will take far more than
a few rolls of camo netting.

Ohmer must think bigger.

- Ohmer decides to build
an entire fake town

on the roof of the factory,
a whole 3D model neighborhood

perched right on top
of Plant 2.

- Ohmer wants to make
the entire Boeing

production plant disappear
when viewed from above.

- To any Japanese pilot,
this giant aircraft facility

will look like just
another residential suburb.

- Ohmer's plan gets approved,

but given the possibility
of a Japanese attack,

there's no time to lose.

For help, he turns
to Hollywood.

[upbeat jazzy music]

- The film business is filled
with set designers, stagehands,

carpenters,
and decorators who have made

their entire careers
building fake worlds

on tight schedules.

Ohmer realizes that they're
the perfect collaborators.

- Ohmer recruits
John Stewart Detlie,

an Oscar-nominated art director
in Hollywood who's also married

to the star Veronica Lake,
and puts him in charge

of the project up in Seattle.

- Together, they assemble
a Hollywood dream team

of 13 architects,
8 commercial artists,

7 landscape architects,
5 engineers,

and 1 soil management expert.

Nothing is overlooked.

[Duchovny] They get to work
on construction.

First, they stretch 26 acres
of netting across the roof

of the plant
50 feet off the ground,

creating an elevated
blank canvas.

On top of this, they begin
to construct their fake town.

[Amy] Next, the team
has a brainwave.

From the air, it's impossible
to tell how tall a building is.

And since they're running
a race against time,

they decide
to cut some corners.

They can build them
a third of the height

using plywood and canvas.

- Ohmer's attention
to detail is incredible.

He actually gets
Hollywood set designers

to create a special paint that
won't absorb heat from the sun

and give away the fact
that the fiberglass trees

are not authentic
organic vegetative material.

[Duchovny] Soon, a strange
miniature town appears,

53 houses,
a dozen garages, greenhouses,

a service station,
even a corner store.

Then it's brought to life.

- Detlie and his people
put in fake trees

made out of fiberglass.

And for the foliage
on the trees,

they use chicken feathers
painted in appropriate greens.

[Duchovny] Now all this
Hollywood production needs

to make it sing is a cast.

- Boeing employees
are encouraged

to spend their breaks
on the rooftop,

moving cars,
straightening laundry,

or just lounging
on fake porches.

The total cost of the
subterfuge is $3 million.

Now, at the time,
that's ten times the price

of making a major
Hollywood movie.

[Duchovny] By spring 1943,
it's finished.

Now Ohmer's grand disguise
needs to be put to the test

by top brass
back in Washington.

- They send cameras up
in open cockpit planes.

They look down, capture images,

and what they find
is startling.

The town works.

This giant factory
with thousands of workers

has completely disappeared.

[Duchovny]
Japan's bombers never make it

to the U.S. mainland,

and Ohmer's illusion
is never truly tested.

But the entire operation is
kept secret from the public

until the end of the war.

- It's only as
the Americans are closing in

on the Japanese homeland
in late July of 1945

that they feel confident
enough to tell the public.

[Duchovny] On July 23rd,
three weeks before V-J Day,

"The Seattle Daily Times"
unveils the fake town

to their astonished readers,

dubbing it
the "Boeing Wonderland."

- In the 1950s, the CIA
creates an entire country.

It's on a 9,000-acre site
in West Virginia,

and its secret purpose
is to train the next generation

of super spies.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Sami]
At the dawn of the Cold War,

the CIA realizes that
this is a conflict

that's not going to be fought
by traditional soldiers

with bullets and bombs,
but by covert agents

stealing secrets
from under the enemy's nose.

But when it comes
to training spies, though,

the Americans
are on their back foot

compared to their rivals
at the KGB.

[Andrew] The KGB has
a decades-old infrastructure

for training spies, and CIA
is relatively new to the game.

So they realize that
if they're going to keep up

with their KGB counterparts,
they have to step up big.

[Hakeem] The spy craft skills
that could save your life

and maybe even your country

isn't something that's taught
in any college or university.

The CIA brass realizes that
their agents need training

to prepare them
for the real world,

what they're gonna face
out there in the field.

So in secret, they set up
a new espionage university.

[Duchovny]
The first step is finding

the right place for a campus.

- They need a very large place,
someplace secluded,

someplace cut-off,
but someplace large enough

with infrastructure enough
to simulate the activities

of a normal city.

[Duchovny] They find it
at a former naval base

called Camp Peary.

- It stretches for 9,000 acres,

more than half the size
of Manhattan.

♪ ♪

[Sami] To the outside world,
Camp Peary

remains a regular naval base.

But behind its fences,
the site is transformed

into an elite proving ground
for spies.

- It's described as a
regular naval training center,

designed not to invite
a second look.

But trainees refer to it
as the Farm,

and generations of spies
are secretly schooled there,

right up to the present day.

♪ ♪

Training begins
when students leave

CIA headquarters in Langley
on a blacked-out bus.

- The men and women chosen for
this are among the most elite.

They've gone through rigorous
testing, psychological testing,

physical testing
to prove that they are

truly the best of the best.

[Hakeem] When a CIA trainee
arrives at the Farm,

they leave their real
identity at the door.

They're given a new cover story
that they must maintain

throughout the training.

[Andrew] They are leaving
the real world

to go into a fake world,
a fake microstate

that simulates life
in a foreign country.

And it's in this
simulated country

that their undercover
training begins.

- The whole location of
the Farm is one giant set.

There's a town square,
a shady downtown neighborhood,

suburbs, and then
the countryside.

Everyone on the site,
from visiting diplomats

to the local café owner,

is a veteran CIA operative
playing a role.

There's even
a cable news channel

reporting on the region's
fictional politics.

- The Farm really is
Disney World for adults.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In this college, lessons

aren't learned
in the classroom

but on the streets
of its fake town.

- The foundation
of undercover work

is being able to
recruit and handle

foreign intelligence sources.

You're looking for people
who have access to secrets.

- The whole time,
they're playing cat and mouse

with their rivals and enemies,
other students and operatives

who are trying
to catch them out.

[Duchovny]
Outfoxing the enemy calls for

some of the more
advanced maneuvers

that a wannabe James Bond
must learn.

- They train how to
flip a car during a car chase

and had to get in a firefight
and not shoot

unarmed, innocent civilians,

how to parachute
out of aircraft

and survive in the woods
on no food.

You learn all
the kind of things

that you would see
in a spy movie.

[Duchovny]
New recruits are pushed

to the edge of their wits.

- After six months of intense
blood, sweat, tears, stress,

strain, anxiety, the siren
blares out and signals

that the simulation is over,
and any trainees that are left

have made the cut.

[Duchovny] The government has
never officially admitted

the Farm exists,
and graduates rarely

go on the record about
this hidden base--

until 2019.

- Former CIA intelligence
officer Amaryllis Fox

actually wrote about
all of her experiences

at the Farm in her book,
"Life Undercover."

♪ ♪

The Farm is truly a journey

that's inspiring
and pleasurable

more than it is something
that's scary and terrifying.

The scary
and terrifying part is

when you have to use those
skills in the real world.

- 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
to hide his submarines.

[dramatic 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.

- 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] It's perfect.

Now Stalin's team must dig out

one of the world's biggest
nuclear bunkers

without anyone realizing.

- 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 fly-over 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 ten submarines,

including seven in one central
channel that's 500 meters long.

It also includes a dry dock,
missile storage,

command rooms, and a power
and filtration 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 six to seven 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.

- America's first president
had a Virginia estate

famously known as Mount Vernon.

Part of it is now a popular
tourist spot named Fort Hunt.

But back in World War II,
it served a much darker purpose

that was hidden
from the public for decades.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Don] The national park
at Fort Hunt

has a direct link
to America's founding father,

and was also a Confederate
stronghold in the Civil War.

- One day, a curious tourist
is walking around the site

and asked one
of the park rangers

what happened here during
the Second World War.

And the park ranger was caught
off-guard by this question

and said, well, I'm not sure,
but I'm gonna have

to look into the matter.

♪ ♪

- The park service manages
to track down the men

with the answers:
veterans who had been sworn

to secrecy their whole lives.

But 60 years after
the end of the war,

they shared the truth
about Fort Hunt.

It was a prison codenamed
after its address,

PO Box 1142.

♪ ♪

[Martin] The prisoners of war
that are being incarcerated

at PO Box 1142 were
high-ranking German officers

captured off
of the battlefields of Europe

and North Africa
who could provide

very useful
intelligence information.

[Don] That Nazi prisoners are
secretly brought to the U.S.

is surprising enough.

But what's more,
the interrogations

at this black site are the
opposite of what you'd expect.

♪ ♪

- They did the
most primal thing

that we need as human beings.
They allowed them to feel safe.

You inspire someone
to share the truth

before they have
an opportunity to lie.

And what they did to do that
is, they treated them well.

[Don] These Germans
are treated to luxury--

fine clothes, cocktails,
trips to the swimming pool

and movies because
the whole site is rigged

with hidden microphones.

The bugs are placed in
the bedrooms, the mess hall,

even the trees.

- Comfort rises, shields
come down, mouths open up.

[Don] This was a bold move.

Counterintuitive interrogation
is not new,

but there are
few examples of it

being done in quite this way.

[Robin] There's such
secrecy behind this camp

because there would have been
a complete public outcry

if the public knew how well
we were treating Nazis.

[Duchovny] The predominantly
Jewish American interrogators

are refugees chosen
for their fluency in German.

In this way,
vital intelligence

is secretly extracted
from the Nazis.

The most astonishing
is the name of a location

that changes the course
of the war for one ally--

Britain.

♪ ♪

[Martin] The United Kingdom
had survived

the Battle of Britain
and the blitz.

And then word starts
to emerge that

something worse is coming:

The V1 rocket, also known as
the "buzz bomb."

- Then, incredibly, there's
a breakthrough at PO Box 1142.

In the summer of 1943,
during a chat

between two German naval
officers in the room,

one of them lets slip that

when the work
at Peenemuende prevails,

Germany will be victorious.

- When Allied photo
reconnaissance aircraft

then fly down
and photograph Peenemuende,

they hit the jackpot.

[Duchovny] The island is home
to the secret rocket factory

where the V1 is being built.

♪ ♪

The Allies immediately hit it
with everything they've got.

♪ ♪

- 596 Lancasters hit
Peenemuende in one night

and absolutely destroyed
the entire complex.

Forced the enemy to move
all assembly underground.

And that's not
how you win a war.

[Don] This one piece
of intelligence

secretly obtained from two
chatting Nazis at PO Box 1142

delays the Nazi plans.

[Robin] This intelligence
literally saved

hundreds of thousands
of lives.

As they always say,
loose lips sink ships.

[Duchovny] When the war ends,
PO Box 1142 is decommissioned.

Every reference to its mission
is classified,

and its interrogators
are sworn to secrecy.

[Martin] Fort Hunt then
kind of packs everything up,

and this chapter of its
history is largely forgotten,

and the U.S. government kind of
wants it to be forgotten.

And that's because
the operation

that was carried out there
was something that violated

our obligations in the
treatment of prisoners of war.

We were not permitted
to eavesdrop.

[Don] However controversial
the tactics were,

they are now part
of the history

that tourists come to enjoy
at Fort Hunt.

- From deep space bases
to buried bunkers,

governments have long disguised
secret sites across the Earth.

But no matter how hidden
a black site is,

it will always be
unearthed in the end.