All language subtitles for Buried Secrets of WWII Series 1 Part 2 Hitlers Killer Rocket 1080p

Narrator:
Hitler's buried secret,

The nazis' ultimate weapon.

Pete: It's got
very long range.

Narrator: Built to
kill without warning.

Marty: You think
you're prepared for it.

Then you get here,
and it overwhelms you.

Narrator: World war ii
was fought on vast
landscapes across the planet.

Marty (over radio):
Where we're going,
we don't need roads.

Narrator: But the evidence of
that war is disappearing fast.

Pete: That is one of
the coolest things I've
ever seen in the water.

Man: That's it!

Man (over radio):
Congratulations!

Narrator: Now, technology
expert pete kelsey,

Pete: I've gotta scan this.

Narrator: And military
historian marty morgan...

Marty: Oh my god,
look at this view.

Narrator: Are using
21st century technology
to strip away the present

And reveal the buried
secrets of world war ii.

This time, why were
these buildings targeted
by allied bombers?

Marty: Oh my god this
thing is massive.

Narrator: What
dark secrets lurk in
these mysterious tunnels?

Pete: Wow, look at that.

Narrator: Can these twisted
remains reveal the truth about
hitler's vengeance rocket?

Marty: Oh my god this
thing weighs a ton.

(explosion)

(fire)

Narrator: March, 1945.

A v2 rocket rips through
smithfield market in london.

110 people are killed.

There is no warning,
no air raid siren.

Just shock and carnage.

Hitler's v2 rockets
were the world's
first ballistic weapons.

Killers from space.

517 v2s hit
britain's capital city.

Others hit paris and antwerp.

This devastating weapon went
into development in the 1930s,

But the smithfield attack
was launched only seven
weeks before hitler's death.

Germany had all
but lost the war.

Hitler's army was depleted
and starved of fuel.

The allies had
bombed every weapons
installation they could find.

So how were the germans still
building and firing the most
advanced weapon in the world?

Scanning expert
pete kelsey

And military historian
marty morgan,

Are on a mission to find out.

Marty: Is that a
bomb crater? God.

Narrator: They'll be
the first in the world
to use 3d modeling

To reconstruct the
history of the v2,

Its invention,
manufacture,
and launch.

Their search begins on
a remote island off
the baltic coast,

Near the village of
peenemünde, germany.

Somewhere in this
dense forest the nazis
developed their v2 rockets.

They cloaked this
place in absolute secrecy.

How can marty and pete find
out what really went on here?

Marty: Do we just
open the gate?

Pete: Why not?

Narrator: An old power
station is the only
significant building

Still standing on the
huge peenemünde site.

The soviets destroyed
everything else after the war.

Marty: And just
like that we're in.

Narrator: They do have
one important clue about
the rocket program.

The nazis filmed many
hours of their rocket tests.

But where did those
tests take place?

Where were the rockets
designed and built?

Pete: This place is huge.

Narrator: To unlock those
secrets, pete and marty must
first peel back the present

And reveal peenemünde
as it was 80 years ago.

They've teamed up with a group
of german researchers from the
university of osnabrück.

Together, they've set
up a make shift hq in
the old power station.

For the first time ever,
they'll use lidar data
gathered by the german

Government to create a
virtual landscape in 3d.

This amazing lidar
technology uses lasers
mounted on aircraft,

To strip away all the
trees and ground cover.

The results are astounding.

Lidar reveals the sheer
scale of peenemünde.

A complex occupying
10 square miles.

A vast array of buildings
beyond the power station.

Hundreds of miles of roads,
railway lines and piping,
criss-cross the island.

Hitler's secret
site is exposed.

But how did this place work?

There's not much to go on.

Many vital documents
were lost or destroyed.

With the model at their
fingertips, one feature
immediately stands out.

A mysterious, elliptical
shape set apart from
the rest of the site.

Pete: So, this feature,
whatever it is,

It's clearly been heavily
bombed, but what is that?

Malte: Can we maybe
zoom in on that, andreas?

Narrator: It's well connected
by road and rail and occupies
some 300,000 square feet.

It's clearly important,
but what was it for?

Using lidar as a map,
marty treks two and a half
miles north and east

From the power
station to check it out.

On the ground it's
clear that the donut is

A great bank of earth, a berm.

And in the center,
marty recognizes
something important,

That they didn't
pick up in the lidar.

He's found a key,
that may unlock the
geography of the site.

Marty: This fire hydrant was
made in magdeburg and it shows
up in much of the motion

Picture film footage and in
the still photographs taken of
tests that were conducted.

Narrator: Marty has spotted
a hydrant just like this one,
in the nazi test footage.

It crops up again and again
in shots of the test site.

Marty: The weapon was
mounted on a launch platform
protected by the arena berm,

So that personnel were
protected on the outside,

In the event that
something went wrong.

And oh my god when
things went wrong,

Things went wrong
dramatically.

It was spectacular the
failures that occurred.

Narrator: The hydrant was
essential for firefighting.

Explosions and fireballs
were everyday hazards.

And there's a huge
concrete pit here.

This is also clearly
visible in the nazi footage.

Marty: Oh wow, so this
is test stand seven.

Narrator: Test stand seven.

It's the launchpad where
prototype v2s were tested.

It was the beating heart
of the v2 rocket program.

Marty: So, in a way this
is the nazi cape canaveral.

Narrator: Lidar has
torn the lid off this site

And brought marty
to test stand seven.

It's revealed the footprints
of store rooms, observation
bunkers and even the tracks

Used to move the
rockets into place.

The scale of this
top-secret facility,

The massive earthworks and the
enormous concrete test pit,

Are clear evidence of manpower
and money invested here.

Pete and marty are
itching to know more.

The rockets were tested here,
but where were they built?

Narrator: On October 3rd, 1942,
a v2 rocket became the first

Man-made object to reach
the edge of space.

But it would take
the nazis two more
years to weaponize it.

Tech wizard pete kelsey...

Pete: I'm headed this way.

Narrator: And historian
marty morgan...

Marty: Alright, later.

Narrator: Are trying to work
out how, and where they built
their deadly v2 rockets.

Hitler threw resources
into the project.

The peenemünde v2 facility
cost the third reich,

Around $10 billion
in today's money.

The führer was determined to
smash london at any price.

He planned to
rain down rockets on
britain's capital city,

And he was demanding
production of 3,000 a month.

Launching a prototype
was a brief triumph.

But how could they build
enough to satisfy hitler?

There must be a
factory somewhere
under this vast forest.

But where?

Pete: I've been curious
about this spot right here,

That looks a lot like
a building footprint,

But it's so big.

Narrator: Lidar reveals
what might be the
foundations of a building,

Occupying an area,
815 feet by 390 feet,

Bigger than five
american football fields.

Maybe they're onto something.

It's a shadow on the lidar.

Marty needs boots on the
ground to check it out.

He's joined by
dr. Constanze röhl.

Constanze: Right, now we
are entering the building.

Narrator: Even standing among
the debris, it's hard to
imagine how it once looked

And what went on here.

Marty: To look at the rubble,
what's left of it today,

You don't really get much of
a sense of the impressive
structure that once was here.

So that must make your
job quite difficult.

Constanze: It does indeed,
so that's actually one of

The questions that
we are dealing with.

How did the building function?

Narrator: Some of the
mystery surrounding this
place may never be solved,

Most of the top-secret plans
were lost or destroyed in
the chaos after the war.

But constanze has
unearthed one architect's
drawing of this building,

Dating from 1942.

The nazis called this
hall f1 and the plan
clearly shows a factory,

Designed to
manufacture rockets.

But it's only a plan.

Constanze: With the plans and
the drawings, we can't be sure
if they actually show the

Final state of the building.

Narrator: But when the team
combine the 1942 draft plan

With the modern lidar data,
everything fits.

The old plan, the evidence
on the ground and the
lidar all match perfectly.

For the first time since
this site was destroyed,

3d imagery can reveal far
more than just a footprint.

This is the building
designed to mass-produce
hitler's killer rocket.

It's clear that every
part was made on site,
feeding into production lines.

For part of the assembly,
rockets were upright,
so the building had to be tall.

A ramp with two huge
cranes linked the
factory to the railway,

Delivering the
rockets for deployment.

The factory floor covering
320,000 square feet was
supported by two lines of

Monumental concrete blocks.

Marty: My god,
this thing is massive.

Narrator: These concrete
blocks were built to
withstand aerial bombardment.

Pete and marty are starting
to build a picture of the
peenemünde rocket site.

They've located the test
stand north and east of the
power station, and hall f1,

Two and a half miles
south, down the coast.

But hall f1 never went
into full production.

Why?

Something shook this
facility to its foundations

And jeopardized the whole
v2 rocket program.

Narrator: On the night of
August 17th, 1943, churchill
ordered one of the largest

Bombing raids the
world had ever seen.

596 royal air force
bombers filled the
skies over peenemünde.

Their mission?

To destroy the
secret rocket program.

Raf records show they
dropped almost 2,000 tons
of munitions in 45 minutes.

Polish intelligence
sources had pinpointed
the secret installation

In the spring of 1943.

For the first time, pete
and the team have combined
raf reconnaissance photos,

Taken after the raid,
with their lidar images.

And a startling truth emerges.

Malte: Well, now you can
obviously see that this

Whole place was
bombed in this mission.

But what we can see also,
is that f1 wasn't destroyed,
this bomb raid.

Pete: Right it's
still standing.

Malte: Yes exactly.

Narrator: Hall f1 was
the most important
structure on the site,

Where these deadly
rockets were about to
go into full production.

Yet the thousands of
tons of explosives
mostly landed elsewhere.

The reinforced factory,
hall f1, remained intact.

Why?

Pete probes the lidar to
see where those thousands
of bombs did their damage.

Pete: I want to move in to the
area here where the number of

Bomb craters just
jumps out of the lidar.

Narrator: Overlaying raf
reconnaissance images onto
21st century lidar scans,

Pete has pinpointed the
site of a whole village
just south of hall f1,

Now obliterated.

Malte: So, this is the
area where the scientists
and their families lived.

So, you can see the large
amount of bomb craters
that are still to be seen

In this area nowadays.

Narrator: Hundreds
of germany's top
scientists worked on v2.

So, the nazis built
a luxurious housing
complex at karlshagen.

Constanze: I imagine life here
to have been something very,

Very comfortable almost
with a holiday flair.

I mean you have your little
house close to the beach.

So probably quite idyllic.

Narrator: Lidar shows
that karlshagen took
a brutal pounding.

The bombing raid was
codenamed "operation hydra".

The objective was to cut off
the head of the monster,

The brains behind the
v2 weapons project.

Launchpads and factories
could be rebuilt,

But scientists and
technicians were irreplaceable.

Killing them would
stop the rocket
program in its tracks.

The raf bombed at night
to catch the scientists
asleep in their beds.

But they were still
toiling to meet hitler's
spiraling demands.

Malte: As you can see on this
lidar data, the research area
where the scientists have been

Working late that night,
wasn't bombed as much
as the habitations.

So, this means people
working there that night
had better chances to survive.

Pete: But they, sure,
they survived, um,

But wives and
children did not.

Y'know, they probably
wished they were dead.

Narrator: 178 people
were killed.

The peenemünde site
was compromised,

The allies had
found it and could
attack again, at will.

A $10 billion
facility that had been
running for six years,

Had to be abandoned.

Germany's war was going badly.

By 1943 the red army was
advancing from the east

And the allied forces
were landing in Italy.

But hitler remained convinced
that with v2 rockets,

He could snatch victory
from the jaws of defeat.

But only if he could find
another secret location and
build the whole thing again.

Marty and pete now
know that the v2
rockets pounding london,

Weren't made on this site.

They're heading off to find
hitler's fall-back position.

Narrator: Pete and marty
are investigating one of
the nazis' darkest secrets.

Marty has found astonishing
photographs taken by hitler's
personal photographer,

Walter frentz.

He was ordered to document
the v2 weapons project,

And he made it look like the
set of a james bond movie.

The photos were taken in
central germany, a place
called mittelbau-dora.

So why this place?

And how did the germans
hide the vital factory?

On the surface, there's
not much to see today.

Pete and marty pore over
lidar scans released by
the german government.

They're working again
with the specialist survey
team from osnabrück.

Pete: Airborne lidar
just like from peenemünde.

Malte: Yeah exactly,
but this time it shows
mittelbau-dora

And how it looks today.

Marty: So, are these railway
lines I'm seeing right here?

Malte: Yeah exactly.

They come in from the north
just right around this corner
and then they disappear.

Narrator: A network of railway,

And footprints of buildings
are scattered here.

But there's nothing
to match hall f1 or
frentz's movie set images.

There had been an
old gypsum mine here.

The train lines
disappear into the mountain.

It looks like hitler built
his rocket factory under
the kohnstein mountain.

They built a subterranean
production line.

Malte: They tried to
camouflage the whole place in
order to not be seen by aerial

Reconnaissance for example.

Pete: Right, and also,
what better place to be safe

From aerial bombardment
than under a mountain.

Malte: Exactly.

Narrator: Pete and marty
want to get inside,

To understand the scale of
what the nazis did here.

Pete: Well that's
a tunnel entrance.

Marty: Yeah that's
how we're getting in,
there's no doubt about it.

Narrator: How did it work?

How was it built?

What actually went on in here?

Marty: Oh, my god.
Look at this.

Narrator: After the war,
the soviets demolished most
of the tunnel system,

Determined to
put it beyond use.

Less than a tenth of these
tunnels can still be explored.

Marty and pete are trying
to recover a lost factory
buried 72 years ago,

By people who
didn't want it found.

Marty: This place is enormous.

I've spent a lifetime
studying about the v2 rocket

And I was prepared
for dora-mittelbau.

But I wasn't prepared for
how big the tunnel really is.

Narrator: The entire
production line is long gone,

Commandeered by allied forces
when they overran the site.

But there's still a mine
of information down here.

Marty: Oh god.

There's still v2 parts here.

Look at this.

Those appear to
be old gyroscopes.

God!

Oh my god, look at this.
That's part of a v2 fuel tank.

Narrator: The few
remaining tunnels have
never been scanned.

Now for the first time,
pete's got permission to
use 21st century tech,

To plot this vast interior.

Pete: This is a perfect spot
for the laser scanner

Because this has
very long range.

And then because there is
so much space in here

And it's such a complex sort
of labyrinth of tunnels,

I've also got the mobile scanner

That's hand-held that
I can actually walk with.

Narrator: Pete methodically
works through the accessible
tunnels using laser tools

To build high
definition 3d images.

He's creating a template
to envision the huge
area now beyond reach.

Soviet engineers mapped the
tunnel network before they
sealed it off with dynamite.

Pete combines their
map with his scans to
get a realistic picture

Of the whole intricate
web, as it was in 1945.

Connecting the
two-mile-long shafts,

Like the rungs of a ladder,
are 46 additional tunnels,

Each 600 feet long.

The nazis constructed a vast
factory, inside a mountain
and got it up and running

In a matter of months.

How they managed to do it will
take pete and marty into one

Of the darkest chapters
in the nazi story.

Marty: Right after
operation hydra, within
10 days of hydra in fact,

In August of '43 thousands of
concentration camp inmates are
sent here to convert this

Space into a factory.

Narrator: The nazis had
used slaves at peenemünde,
but at mittelbau-dora,

It was done on a
different scale entirely.

Contemporary records
show that they took them from

Concentration camps
across europe.

They put tens of
thousands to work here.

Marty: And the conditions
that they live in when

They get here early
on are hellish.

They keep them in the tunnels.

They are sleeping in
these connecting galleries.

In fact, there are some people
that stay here six months

Without seeing the
light of day outside.

Narrator: Survivor accounts
tell how the victims were

Worked to death
in these tunnels,

On a starvation diet,
with poor sanitation.

Pneumonia, tuberculosis,
typhoid, and dysentery
were everyday killers.

Ss records detail almost
3,000 prisoner deaths
in the first 6 months.

Suddenly the mechanics of the
factory seem less important.

Marty and pete will try to
find out more about the people
who worked and died here.

Narrator: In 1944 the v2
rocket factory was making
twenty rockets a day.

Crowding would impede
production so the slaves
had to be moved out.

So, what did the
ss do with them?

Lidar scans of mittelbau dora
show the valley is littered

With the footprints
of buildings.

Pete thinks they may
be part of the answer.

Pete: This is such a
great example of where
the lidar is so useful.

Without this lidar it would
be all but impossible to
understand that there are

Many, many buildings and
signs of earthwork going
all the way up this hill.

Narrator: Pete's noticed
a sewage system linking
the buildings,

So these were
probably dwellings.

Pete: Wow, look at that. 111.

So no doubt this
is barrack 111.

What's interesting is
the lidar brought us here
because of this concrete slab.

So, we really wanted to
come up here and we are
way off in the woods.

We are way up on the top
of this slope and boy,
I'm glad we came up here.

Narrator: Pete's identified
a concentration camp right
alongside the rocket factory.

Stephan: We have a report
from December '43,

Telling that there were about
20 barracks already finished.

So, the last inmate
moved out of the tunnel
around April '44.

Narrator: Ss records show that
prisoners were categorized
according to their usefulness.

Stephan: The ss decides to
separate the production

And the construction
site prisoners.

And separate the unfit and
sick prisoners from that part.

Narrator: Semi-skilled
prisoners, those actually
building the v2,

Live in the buildings
on the valley floor.

Unskilled laborers
live further up the hill.

The injured and the sick,
unfit for work,

Live at the top of the hill,
beside the crematorium.

Stephan: And this place pretty
much turned into a death zone
because the ss let them die,

Because they were not
of any value anymore.

Narrator: As they died,
more prisoners were drafted in.

At least 20,000 died
at mittelbau-dora camp.

They disposed of the
corpses as they did at
auschwitz and elsewhere.

They incinerated
them like garbage.

Marty: This is the camp's
permanent crematorium.

And it's the only original
building still standing at
mittelbau-dora today.

Narrator: The crematorium
was quite literally the
end of the road

For many of
mittelbau-dora's slaves.

Pete: If there's a
symbol of the nazi regime,

It's got to be this. Disposal.

The final solution. Um.

Wow, um.

It's a little overwhelming.

So forgive me, but I've
got to get out of here.

Narrator: In April 1945,
mittelbau-dora was liberated
by the 3rd armored division

Of the us army.

In fifteen months,
mittelbau-dora produced
over 6,000 v2 rockets,

By the blood and sweat
of 60,000 slaves.

An important question remains.

If churchill hadn't
delayed production by
bombing peenemünde,

Could the v2 have changed
the outcome of world war ii?

Narrator: Pete and
marty want to know,

Just how lethal
were v2 rockets?

March 8th, 1945.

A german base in the netherlans
has launched a v2 rocket

And hit smithfield market in
london to devastating effect.

The same battery fires
a second of these
ballistic missiles.

It's also aimed at london.

But it misses.

Marty and pete are following
up an extraordinary lead on
that stray rocket.

Only one v2 has ever been
archeologically excavated.

Not much was recovered.

This time, german and british
scientists are working togethe,

Using magnetometry.

It's a highly sensitive
technology that maps

Variations in the
earth's magnetic field.

Marty: Andreas, what do
you think that shows us
what might be down there?

Andreas: We can't say
what this really is.

It can be a soil or sediment
layer that was very,
very high temperatures.

Narrator: They've found
something strange
about the geology,

As though a small
meteor has crashed here.

Pete: Which would be
consistent with an
impact of a rocket.

Andreas: Yes.
Pete: With a warhead.

Narrator: Andreas' readings
suggest that tremendous heat
may have affected the geology.

It tallies with a 2,000
pound warhead detonation.

The british scientists,
colin and sean welch,

Think there's solid
evidence down there.

Marty: So, the germans
think that there is a
thermal anomaly.

Which I admittedly do
not know what that means.

Pete: It has to do with that
much mass, going that fast,
hitting this kind of geology.

There's going to be a
lot of heat generated.

What's interesting about that,
is obviously it points to
a high velocity impact.

Narrator: And there's
another clue, a 1946 aerial
photograph shows a mysterious

Hole in the ground.

Even if there's
a v2 down there,

Is there anything left
after detonation?

It's time to
call in the digger.

Marty: This is exciting.

The digger is scraping
away the upper-most
layer of topsoil.

Once he's done that,
we're going to see
what's in this crater.

Narrator: The outline of the
impact is plainly visible.

Only a few feet down the
digger makes its first find.

Marty: Oh brother.

So, gentlemen
what have you found?

Colin: 20th century archaeology.

Sean: Well the magnetometer
didn't tell a lie.
Marty: No?

Sean: There's plenty
of metal here.

Narrator: What the scan found
is a post-war automobile,
an old morris oxford.

But the team aren't put off by
this false dawn, and their
efforts are soon rewarded.

Colin: This part is a
small fragment of the
rocket that's been blasted

Into the wall of the crater.

Marty: This is a very
encouraging discovery
because underneath the car

We found this piece of
v2 rocket outer skin.

This proves that there's more
v2 just beneath the surface.

There's more
waiting to be found.

Narrator: As the crater wall
is scraped away, many more
fragments of v2 come to light.

Marty: I mean we can
barely keep up with the
amount coming out now.

Narrator: And they're
finding identifiable parts.

Sean: Oh, that's heavy.

Colin: Yes, I'm thinking
perhaps that is...

Sean: Combustion chamber.
Colin: Combustion chamber, yeah.

Narrator: The v2's
combustion chamber was
the rocket motor's heart,

Where the fuel was burnt.

Marty: Oh my god this
thing weighs a ton.

Colin: That's a burner cup.

There are another 17 of
these here somewhere.

So, there were 18 of these on
top of the combustion chamber

Pushing the alcohol
through these jets.

Narrator: This is
hard evidence of what
happened on impact.

Colin: The combustion chamber
was very, very strong.

It had to be to
withstand the temperature,

The force of the thrust
as it was launched.

That thing smashed
into pieces,

So it gives you a very clear
idea about the massive explosion

At the time of
the impact.

Narrator: But the massive
explosion has left a
surprisingly small crater,

Especially for a
2,000 pound warhead.

An extraordinary
truth is emerging.

Hitler's vengeance rocket
may have been flawed.

Colin: The missile was coming
down at perhaps three,

Three and a half times
the speed of sound,

Which means it's
puncturing the ground
faster than the detonation.

Narrator: Smithfield market
had a peculiar vulnerability,

Because it was built over
underground tunnels.

When the v2 slammed
into the ground at over
3,000 miles an hour,

It penetrated those
tunnels and exploded below.

The market collapsed
into the void.

So, the v2 worked
like a bunker-buster.

But on other targets it
would be much less damaging.

The warhead only exploded
several feet below ground,

Where much of its
force was wasted.

And this spot reveals another
big flaw, that hitler's rocket
scientists never overcame.

Sean: V2 was very, very
inaccurate so I mean the very
fact that we are stood here

In a field in kent,
it hasn't got to london.

Narrator: The welch brothers
have catalogued 1,119 v2's
launched against london.

Less than half hit the city.

The nazis' fixation with
the flawed v2 cost the
regime a fortune.

Each missile cost 100,000
reichmarks to make,

Around $150,000
in today's money.

It was a hugely expensive
way to deliver explosives.

A single lancaster
bomber could carry seven
times more fire-power

And could fly many sorties.

Not to mention the human cost.

Pete: It's become clear to me
anyway that far more people

Lost their lives
creating the thing

Than lost their lives
being a target of the thing.

Marty: Yeah.

Narrator: For every
person killed by a v2,
three died in mittelbau-dora.

Hitler's conviction that
his vengeance rockets would
win the war for germany,

Was a huge miscalculation.

Marty: Maybe it's a good
thing that nazi germany
made the poor decision

Of investing in the v2 program.

That's a hard sell.

It's hard to sell that to the
victims, but it certainly is,

I think, a better ending
for the allied side that
all of those resources

Went into making this thing,
which was a big fizzle and
disappointment,

Rather than making
more tanks or more fighters.

Narrator: Marty and pete
have explored hitler's v2
rocket program.

Scientific advances
may yet reveal more,
but one thing is clear.

Hitler's obsession with
this ultimate weapon was

A significant part
of his undoing.

Captioned by cotter
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