All language subtitles for Buried Secrets of WWII Series 1 Part 4 Island Under Siege 1080p

Narrator: A beautiful
and historic island

In the heart
of the mediterranean...

A mecca for tourists
from across the globe...

And in world war ii
the most bombed place
on earth...

An entire country under siege.

So how did tiny malta
hold back the might of
the axis war machine?

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 2 (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: Can a deep-sea
wreckage reveal how malta
fought off the luftwaffe?

Marty: That's a stuka!

Narrator: Will pete unravel
the mystery of how malta's

Civilians survived
constant bombing?

Pete: I have got to scan this!

Narrator: And, can the
latest lidar technology

Rediscover general
eisenhower's lost airfield?

Military historian marty
morgan and tech expert pete
kelsey are traveling straight

Into malta's main harbors.

Past the huge
fortifications of
its capital valletta.

Pete: Everything about
this harbor says don't
even think about coming

In here without permission.

There's walls and cannons
and stuff everywhere.

Marty: And the presence
of these fortifications
testifies to the

Island's strategic importance.

Pete: Fortress malta.

Narrator: When
world war ii began,

Malta had been
held by the british

For more than a century.

Marty: Pete, look right there.

That observation position
was constructed during
the second world war.

And there's another one.

And there's
another one behind.

Narrator: So why
did this apparently
insignificant island,

Miles from any
major frontlines,

End up at the heart
of one of the bitterest

Campaigns of the war?

Pete and marty want
to use 21st century
technology to find out.

To start their investigation,
they are setting up their
tech hq inside malta's wartime

Command center; the
lascaris war rooms.

Their first task
is to see whether malta's
location affected its fate.

A satellite map shows that
malta is situated at the very
center of the mediterranean;

Just sixty miles from the
italian island of sicily.

Marty: This is all starting
to make sense to me.

We got up this map
of the western mediterranean
and it's helping me now

To recognize the situation.

Narrator: In June 1940,
as France and north africa
were falling to hitler,

Mussolini wanted to
extend his own empire.

Allied-held malta suddenly
found itself isolated;

Surrounded by the
huge axis war machine.

So why did this tiny island
in particular fall into
mussolini's crosshairs?

Pete: Well, I have the lidar,
why don't we switch to that.

Marty: There we go.

Narrator: Using
geodata gathered by
the maltese government,

Pete has created a 3d lidar
map of malta's islands.

He thinks he's found
a promising lead.

Marty: Wow!

This is, this is
your best work.

Look at this.

Narrator: It clearly
shows the distinctive
valletta peninsular flanked

By malta's main harbors.

And one area shows
particularly bad bomb damage.

It's called manoel island.

This is a pre-war
picture that shows a
building on manoel island

Known as the lazzaretto.

Built in the
17th century,

It was originally
a plague hospital.

Now overgrown and deserted,

It's hard to see what is
decay and what is war damage.

Contemporary accounts
say it was a huge
target for axis bombs.

But why?

Records show that
in world war ii

These buildings were used
by the british royal navy.

Marty has secured special
access to the dangerous ruins.

He's looking for any
remaining traces of the
royal navy activity.

Man: Okay, just
check your wind.

Narrator: Taking
a different approach,

Pete is joining a
specialist dive team

From the university of malta.

They want to show
him something extraordinary
in the waters beside

The lazzaretto and scan it.

Timmy: Gas is on.

Pete: 3,000 pounds.

Timmy: Perfect.

Narrator: The divers are
led by marine archaeologist
professor timmy gambin

Who has spent decades diving
the waters around the island.

(inaudible chatter)

Pete: This is the perfect
camera rig for doing
underwater photogrammetry.

Now what the heck is that?

Photogrammetry allows
anyone with any camera to
take a series of pictures of

Anything, including
things underwater, and
create exceptional,

Three-dimensional,
photo realistic
models of that thing.

Narrator: Pete follows the
divers into the murky waters.

The first thing
he sees is yet more
traces of the bombing.

Pete (over radio): Whoa,
look at all this rubble.

Narrator: Back
inside the lazzaretto,

Marty is hunting for
clues about what the royal
navy were doing here.

To help him navigate this
deserted building, marty
is joined by conservation

Architect edward said.

Edward: We've got this
massive complex of buildings,

The old quarantine
establishment of malta

And it served such a purpose
right until the early 1940s,

When the war broke out.

And in fact, there is quite
an interesting labyrinth
of spaces just behind here.

Marty: Could we see them?
Edward: Absolutely.

Narrator: Records show
that these tunnels were
carved into the bedrock by

Royal navy engineers.

Marty: What are
these chains for?

Edward: These
supported the beds.

Marty: Oh, there
were bunks in here?

Edward: There were
bunks in here.

Marty: So what's in here?

Oh my god.

There's something you
don't see every day.

Edward: What is it, marty?
We think it's a torpedo.

Marty: It looks like the
center section of a torpedo.

There's a tank here.

You've got these extra
compressed air tanks,
for powering it.

Edward: There are twelve of
these, in fact lying around.

Marty: Wow.

That, that's amazing
to see it's still here
after all these years.

Narrator:
Pete's investigation in
the waters just outside

Is also showing
positive results.

Timmy (over radio): We
should be coming up to
the wreck anytime now.

Pete (over radio): Yeah,
the visibility's not great,
but I see something.

Wow, it's big!

Sitting on this crazy
forty-five-degree angle slope.

Timmy (over radio): I
want to show you something
a bit further down, pete.

Follow me.

You can clearly see
big structural damage
on this side here.

Can you see these twisted
pieces of metal right here?

Pete (over radio):
That's from a blast.

That steel is peeled back.

Timmy: The rest of the
structure is pretty intact.

Pete (over radio): This is
really going to be amazing
in the photogrammetry model.

Narrator: Finally, back
on dry land in the tech hq,

Cutting edge
software is stitching

Together thousands of
photos from the dive.

Pete hopes they can help
reveal why the lazzaretto
was such a prime target

For axis bombers.

Pete: Timmy, the dive we did
the other day on the ship.

Let's have a look.

Timmy: Oh wow.

I mean during the dive the
visibility was pretty dismal,

But at least now
through this model we
can see the entire site.

Pete: Clearly something
really bad happened there.

Timmy: It looks to me as
though it's a direct hit from
a dive bomber and the reports

Tell us that this must
have happened sometime
in the spring of 1942.

Narrator: The vessel
is clearly not a warship; it
has no guns or torpedo tubes.

So why would the luftwaffe
have targeted it?

Marty: So what kind
of vessel is this?

Timmy: It looks to as though
as if it's a supply barge.

You can see that
from the shape.

Narrator: The scan has
identified the wreck
as a fueling barge

Called the x-127.

It was used by the
royal navy for a critical
purpose in world war ii.

Supplying fuel for submarines.

Timmy: They needed vessels
like this to supply oil, water
and whatever else the crew and

The submarine needed to run.

Narrator: Added to the
find of the torpedo in
the subterranean tunnels,

The presence of this barge
points to one explanation.

This was a royal
navy submarine base.

Timmy: So this wasn't just
a building, but also these
vessels and this sort of

Marine complex that
would have also been the
target for the germans.

Narrator: Pete has
also used laser scanning
technology to map

The lazzaretto's interiors.

Now for the first time ever,

The team combine
the scans with the
underwater scanning.

Timmy: This is the
first time that I'm able to
see the entire base,

Because if I'm working
from out at sea,
I just see the arches,

If I'm standing
in a courtyard I'm
surrounded by four walls,

But this is
absolutely incredible.

Marty: Well the structure
itself was incredible.

Narrator: All the essentials
for a submarine base
were in bomb proof tunnels,

Carved into the hill
behind the lazzaretto.

Timmy: So this warren was
just a hive of activity.

Marty: At first the
germans didn't realize that
this was a submarine base.

But then they put
two and two together.

Narrator: Records show that
over a million tons of axis
shipping was sunk by the

Twenty-six allied submarines
which operated from the base.

Marty: This was the beating
heart of the most concentrated

Submarine campaign
in military history.

Pete: Wow and no wonder
it was so heavily bombed.

Narrator: The allies had
turned malta into a thorn in
the side of axis shipping,

Which stopped their domination
of the mediterranean.

Hitler and mussolini were
desperate to destroy it.

Over the next two years,

They would
drop 15,000 tons of
bombs on the island.

How could this tiny
country fight back?

How the tiny island
of malta survived the

Most concentrated bombing
campaign of world war ii.

He is trekking to a location
that commands the entrance
to valletta's harbors.

Pete: I love this
bit of my job,

Where all the signs say
risk of injury or death.

Brings out the
adventure in it.

And it's the perfect
spot for a drone.

Narrator: Today this area
is completely overgrown and
closed off to the public...

In world war ii this
spot guarded valletta's
harbors and submarine

Bases from axis planes.

Pete's searching for evidence
of lost allied air defenses.

Pete: I've got the
drone up in the air.

And it's flying a
photogrammetry mission.

Now that's a mouthful.

But all it really means
is we can make really rich
3-d models from photographs.

Narrator: Within hours
pete has a photogrammetry
model of a huge area.

And straight away
pete spots an array
of concrete platforms;

Barely visible on the ground.

He heads to the largest one.

Pete: This is a
gun emplacement.

I'll bet everything I own
that's an anti-aircraft gun
emplacement.

Because it's perfect, for
the entrance to the harbor.

Because, if I'm the germans,
I'm coming in this way.

The entrance to the harbor,

Which means I gotta
get right by that which
is going to be murder.

Narrator: The guns
may have gone, but as
an ex-us artilleryman,

Pete identifies traces of
the air defenses everywhere.

Pete: Yeah.

We're on the high ground.

We've got 360 view here.

And here you would expect
an ammunition elevator.

Meaning you'd keep the
dangerous stuff, the shells
and the powder somewhere safe.

Way down there.

And now this is great.

This is really great.

So, what you've got
here are sectors.

This sector is 206
degrees, that's sector d.

Sector e, 210 degrees.

Fuze type, powder type
so how this would work.

Oh my god there's
incoming germans.

Sector e!

And they would know.

Fuze 8.4.

Charge whatever.

And could let fly in no time.

Because it's all about speed.

Narrator: Pete has
found the site of a massive
3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun.

Records show that,
extraordinarily,
it was just one of

1,400 located
across the island.

But how effective
were these defenses?

To find out, the team are
heading to one place where
traces of the air war still

Lie undisturbed more
than 70 years later.

These waters are
directly under the enemy
flight-path from sicily.

Just 2 miles from malta's
coast, timmy has located
an unexplored wreck.

It's 350 feet
below sea level,

Far deeper than
any typical scuba
diver can descend.

Dave: So, we're
doing the new wreck.

We're not sure what it is,
or how it's going to lie.

Maximum depth is 104 meters.

Pete: That is impossibly deep.

I mean these guys
are technical divers, which
means it's a bit dangerous.

It is far beyond my
capabilities as a scuba diver.

Narrator: Because
of the extreme depth,
the divers have to carry an

Unusual amount of gear.

The wreck is so far
down, they use a line
to guide them to it.

Pete: At this depth
they might have twenty
minutes, maybe, tops.

Then they have to come up.

Narrator: Ascending to
the surface too quickly could
be fatal for the divers.

They will need at least
two hours to decompress
as they return.

Pete: There he goes.

Might as well be
going to the moon.

Narrator: This team are
one of the very few in
the world with the skills

To perform photogrammetry
at this depth.

It takes them over
twenty minutes to descend
to the site of the wreck.

Very little light can
penetrate this far down.

But amazingly, out of
the gloom, a tangled
wreck emerges.

It's almost unrecognizable,
but the team spot a propeller.

A tail fin is also
clearly visible.

Having completed their
scans, the team will
return to the surface.

But two hours later, they
are still underwater.

Pete: There's only one
reason that they would
have taken this long

To decompress and
that's that they stayed
longer on the bottom.

Which I hope means
they found something
really interesting.

Defended itself against two
years of daily bombing raids.

Having processed the data
from the sunken wreck,

They hope the first
ever virtual model

Will provide some clues.

Pete: Timmy,
considering this aircraft
wreck is so deep,

Look at the fidelity
of this model.

It's just great.

Narrator: Marty
recognizes it instantly.

Marty: That's a stuka.

That's a ju-87 stuka.

Look the
horizontal stabilizer,

The very distinctive
square boxy shape?

That's a stuka.

Narrator: The stuka was
one of the luftwaffe's
most infamous planes.

Diving at almost 400 miles
an hour, it delivered a
bomb with deadly precision.

It even had what was
called a 'jericho trumpet'

Which emitted a terrifying
howl as it dived.

But can the scan reveal
why this one crashed?

Timmy: One of the
incredible things that
we can tell from this

Crash site is
that it's got no bombs.

Narrator:
The stuka carried a single,
easily identified bomb,

Measuring almost seven feet
and slung under its fuselage.

The scan shows that the plane
had delivered its payload.

Timmy: So, this means
that the bombs were dropped
over the harbor area and,

This thing was, this pilot
was trying to get home.

Something dramatic
happened because this
plane clearly hit the water

At terminal velocity.

Marty: How can you tell?

Timmy: Well, one of
the key indicators is
this propeller here.

You can see that it's bent
back which means that

This propeller
was spinning and

The plane hit the
sea out of control.

One can only assume
that either the pilot
bailed out, or was dead

Inside the cockpit.

Narrator: The fact
that the plane crashed
having dropped its bomb leads

Marty to one conclusion.

Marty: He's pulling
out at low altitude,

Where his speed
had been chopped and
he's most vulnerable.

He's trying simultaneously
to gather speed and altitude,

While passing through one of

The most heavily
defended air defense
zones in the entire war.

The area over the
grand harbor at malta.

Narrator: As pete's
scan revealed,

Malta was bristling
with anti-aircraft guns.

Mapping this stuka
alongside other axis
wrecks he's located,

Timmy has shown
that they could be deadly
effective against the enemy.

No wonder luftwaffe
pilots called the island,

“the hornet's nest.”

Timmy: Although malta
was heavily bombed,

This is evidence that
the island did fight back.

Marty: This was a tough
target and this cracked
up ju-87 is proof of that.

Narrator: Even so,
this stuka, had managed
to deliver its payload.

In 1942 alone, the island
was bombed for more
than 150 days straight.

(explosions)

Yet malta survived
with relatively few
civilian casualties.

Marty wants to find
out how they evaded the
relentless axis bombing.

He's tracked
down local world war ii
expert mario farrugia.

Mario: Here we've got
a unique document.

It was made by a london
based engineering firm,
which specialized in mining,

As a plan to provide the
island with an extensive,

Underground air
raid shelter system,

Which would have offered
protection for nothing
less than 140,000 people.

Narrator: Mario's plan
is from early 1940.

It shows the british
authorities were already
planning for the attack.

Marty: So, these red lines
are the tunnels they proposed.

Mario: Yes, they are.

If you happened to be
around the main gate of the
city and there was a raid on.

You could rush down
into one of the exits.

Narrator: But was this
unbelievably ambitious
plan ever realized?

Was there time before
the bombing began?

Using the plan, marty and
pete locate one entrance
in the heart of valletta.

How much lies beneath?

They are guided by local
engineer marc zimmermann.

Marty: Whoa.

We're going into that?

Pete: Now, I know what
the boots are for.

Narrator: Directly under
the bustling streets of
valletta the team discover

Long forgotten tunnels,

Virtually sealed
off since the war.

Marty: Oh god, look at that!

Marc: That would have
been one of the typical
tools of the time.

Marty: So all of this
is hand dug then?

Marc: Almost all
of it was hand dug.

Narrator: Was this amazing
tunnel network big enough
to save malta's civilians?

Marty and pete descend
deeper underground to
find out.

A,

Marty morgan and pete kelsey
are exploring tunnels that have

Been sealed off to the public
for more than seventy years.

They want to discover
the real extent of these
underground air-raid shelters.

Over time the limestone
has become unstable.

Marc: And sometimes the
bedrock just doesn't hold up.

Narrator: Their guide through
these dangerous caverns
is engineer marc zimmermann.

Marty: My god, this
place just goes on and
on and on, doesn't it?

Narrator: Because the tunnels
are so unsafe to access,

They're also a time capsule,
virtually untouched.

Pete: Wow, this looks
like a crossroads.

Marc: One of the major
intersections here that
matches the roads above.

Pete: Wow, is that the
same name as the street?

Marc: It is exactly,
santa lucia street.

So, you have merchant street
heading in this direction,
and santa lucia street here.

Pete: Lined up the same
way over our heads.

Marc: Exactly.

A city under the
city, following the
street grid above.

Narrator: Coming off these
underground streets are
dozens of small cubicles.

Marc: And just like now
there's very limited
lighting, in 1941, 42,

There wouldn't have been
electricity, so it would
have been kerosene lamps,

Some candles.

Maybe just an empty tin
with oil and a wick.

Narrator: One cubicle
in particular grabs
pete's attention.

Pete: Wow, look at that.

Marc: It's quite
amazing really.

These tiny cubicles would
have been made much more
homely and comfortable

By individual families
living in there.

Pete: I want to see,
I want to see.

Marc: It's amazing that,
you know, such a small dash of
color would just give people a

Bit more hope and tell them,
you know, this is where we
live and have to shelter from

The incessant air raids.

Pete: And if you've got
time to make your home
beautiful that suggest

You're gonna be
down here a while.

Marc: For some time,

Air raids were so
incessant and so intense

People barely
had time to get up top

To breathe before they
had to dash down again
and often spend the

Night in these shelters.

Narrator: But not all
of this subterranean
city was dug during

World war ii.

Pete: Wow.

Marty: Oh my god,
look at this thing!

This is like a
gothic cathedral!

Narrator: These
forty-foot-high water cisterns
date from the late 1500s.

But in the war, they
were incorporated
into the shelters.

Marc: Picture a time
when these were at
their most intense.

People leaning
against the walls.

Sitting here in small groups.

Children crying.

Some people trying to find
some respite and sleep.

Prayer going on.

Pete: I have got to scan this.

Marty: Yeah, for sure.

Pete: This is right
out of a movie.

Narrator: Pete has been
granted exclusive permission
to produce a high-resolution

Scan of these tunnels, the
first ever of its kind.

Using a handheld lidar
scanner, he can instantly
generate a 3d model of the

Shelter complex.

The data in pete's scans
reveals an extraordinary
underground network.

The medieval cisterns
are connected to passages
which perfectly mirror

Valletta's street grid.

Coming off
the streets are 80,
9 by 5 feet cubicles.

These were
numbered individually,
so every family would have

Their own designated space.

There are 6 entry and exit
points, some to the street,

Some even into
government buildings.

The data reveals that these
shelters measured well
over 5,000 square feet...

Enough space for
countless families.

And this was just one
shelter in valletta.

Across the whole country,
the people of malta dug
in wherever they could.

Railway tunnels were turned
into air raid shelters,
caves carved into the cliffs;

Malta was honeycombed
with tunnels.

30,000 buildings were
destroyed, whilst malta's
people huddled underground.

But air raids weren't the
only threat to their survival.

The germans
were hell-bent on starving
islanders into submission.

Dependent on convoys
to bring in food,
fuel and munitions.

Allied ships crossing
the mediterranean
were relentlessly

Attacked by the axis.

By summer 1942, the island
was close to surrender.

But the germans weren't
just using planes and ships
to blockade malta's ports.

Pete kelsey has found
evidence of how the nazis
deployed one of the war's

Most feared naval weapons.

Pete: Here is a german chart
of minefields that we've
actually overlaid over a

Terrain model of
malta that shows all these
minefields right offshore.

Marty: Yeah, they've turned
the sea lanes approaching
valletta into a very

Inhospitable place.

Timmy: Absolutely,
there's a massive, massive
concentration of minefields,

Which focus on the entrance
to the two main harbors.

The grand harbor and
marsamxett harbor.

Narrator: But marty
and pete have already
discovered that the

Harbor was bristling
with allied defenses.

How could the germans
have laid mines so
close to the shore?

The team are heading to
a new wreck site that
may hold an answer.

Timmy: The site's about
a nautical mile northeast.

And as you can see the
shipwreck is actually
very close to the coast.

Narrator: With sonar locating
the site, timmy's team prepare
to descend over 200 feet.

They'll use deep
sea photogrammetry
to scan the wreck.

In clear mediterranean
waters, they make their
way to an eerie shipwreck.

It must have had
a wooden hull, which
has now disappeared,

Leaving a metal skeleton.

The divers identify a
distinctive feature.

A set of torpedo tubes,
one of which amazingly
is still loaded.

There's even a depth
charge on the deck.

Too dangerous to
approach closely they
scan the 115 foot hulk.

Back at the hq, the team
start to piece together a
virtual model of the wreck.

Marty: D'oh my gosh!

Timmy: You can clearly
see that she's broken and with

You know, evidence for a
catastrophic explosion.

Right here in the middle.

Marty: But what caused it?

Timmy: If you look at the
deck and superstructure,

That have actually
been separated,

You can see this powerful
explosion coming up
from the sea and exactly

Breaking the ship upwards,

Before she sunk
to the seabed.

To me, everything points
towards a sea mine.

Narrator: This is a victim
of the german sea mines.

But, confusingly this
is a german ship.

Marty and pete
have identified it
as a schnellboot,

Or speed boat,

Capable of traveling
at speeds of over
40 miles per hour.

Records show that
the wreck was known as s31
and sunk in the early hours

Of may 10th 1942 and now
they can see exactly where.

Timmy: The s-31
sunk right here.

In this, in this
minefield, or in this area.

Right, right here.

Pete: That's right
in the thick of it.

Narrator: The only conclusion
is that this lightly armored

Torpedo boat must
have been laying mines.

Pete: Does that mean it
would have hit its own
mine, a german mine?

Timmy: Or one of the
mines of her fellow ships.

Pete: That's bad luck.

Marty: And that can happen,

Maneuvering in a
minelaying operation in
the pre-dawn darkness.

Narrator: S-31 was a
speed boat designed for
hit and run attacks.

But in a desperate move,
the germans were using it to
offensively deploy sea mines.

For two years, the allies had
clung onto this tiny rock,
desperately holding off the

Axis onslaught.

As the siege drove malta
to the brink of surrender,

The united states
came to the rescue.

In August 1942, a
severely damaged american
ship, the ss ohio,

Maneuvered through the
minefield to malta.

The blockade was over.

Now, with american help,
it was time for malta
to go on the offensive.

America's entry into
the mediterranean was
turning the tide of war.

Now the allies wanted
to take the fight
to the axis in Italy;

The soft underbelly of europe.

That July, malta would
be the launchpad for the
biggest amphibious assault

Of the war so far:

Operation husky and
the invasion of sicily.

The allied armies
desperately needed air cover

For a mammoth invasion
force of 2,700 ships.

But where on malta's
rocky and crowded terrain
could the us army

Possibly build an airfield?

Marty has found one
clue inside malta's
national library.

It's a 1961 recording
of none other than the

General dwight d. Eisenhower.

Eisenhower (over computer):
The americans needed a new
fighter field, right close by.

The only spot that was
possible to use was an island,
and I think it was named gozo.

This was nothing
but a mountain.

From the time the equipment
reached there, thirteen days
later our first fighter flew

On and off the field.

Marty: Okay.
This is incredible.

Here we have
the former president
of the united states,

Dwight d. Eisenhower,

The former supreme
commander of the allied
expeditionary force in

World war ii,
and he's talking about the
construction of an airfield

To support the allied
invasion of sicily in 1943.

The army needed
more fighter strips,

So they built one on the
island near malta called gozo.

I wonder if there's anything
left of that airfield today.

Narrator: Marty and pete head
four miles northwest from the

Mainland to
the island of gozo.

They're on the hunt
for eisenhower's airfield
built by the americans in

Just thirteen days.

Pete: So where do you
put on airfield on
an island like this?

Marty: That's a good question.

Because, if you want to fly
high-performance fighters,

You're gonna need
at least 5,000 feet...

Pete: Of flat runway.

Marty: Yeah.
Pete: That's not flat.

Narrator: Where on gozo
could the us army possibly
build an operational airfield

In less than two weeks?

Marty can't find
any allied film or aerial
photographs of the airfield.

But in the winding
streets of gozo's capital,

Victoria, he's meeting
a historian called

Charles bezzina.

Charles: Here is
the projected plan of
the airfield in gozo.

So, these were
two airfields of 4,000
feet by 200 feet.

Narrator: The two
runways were just earth,

And records show that
the us air force flew

75 spitfires from here
for just five weeks.

Marty: So, was the
airfield built just to
support operation husky?

Charles: That was all.

On 6th of August 1943,

The airfield was abandoned.

Marty: So, there's
nothing left, not a trace?

Charles: Nothing.

Narrator: It will be a
challenge finding an airfield
that was never tarmacked and

Which was only operational
for five weeks in 1943.

They'll have to rely
on local knowledge.

John: Yes, it was
back over here.

Behind my house.

Over here behind my house.

Narrator: All that's
visible today are ordinary
fields and a few buildings.

But by using modern
remote sensing technology,

Pete hopes to peel back
80 years of history and

Discover if this
really is the site.

He combines his scans
of gozo with lidar
data gathered by the

European union and
the maltese government.

As the data is
processed, pete creates
a digital terrain model.

But what will it reveal?

Pete: You remember,
we went to gozo,

Trying to find
this mysterious airfield.

All we need is proof
and I've got this cheshire
cat grin on my face

Because here it is.

That is
irrefutable evidence...

Marty: You can still
see it, look at that.

Pete: From two runways.

There's no doubt that
is manmade earthworks
going in this axis and

One in this axis.

Marty: That's grading and
earth moving from 1943 that
is still only visible to

Technology in
the 21st century.

Pete: I have to say,
this feels good, because
this is actual discovery.

Marty: You found
the missing runway.

Pete: We did, we did.

Narrator: For the first
time in almost eighty years
the lidar has revealed the

Footprint of gozo
airfield's two lost runways.

From here,
in 1943 american fighters
provided vital air support

For the successful
invasion of Italy.

Three years after
mussolini dropped the
first bomb on malta,

His fate was sealed by an
operation launched from
the very same island.

It was the beginning
of the end for the axis.

Marty: In July 1943,
seventy-five british spitfires
flown by american pilots,

Took off from this airfield
to be a part of the

Air support for
the invasion of sicily,

Which opened
the road to rome,

Which opened the road to
berlin and brought about the

Final collapse of
the third reich.

Narrator: Malta fought
a war on all fronts...

On land, in the air, on
water and even underground.

Its people had been
tested like nowhere else.

Pete: What I
love about the story of
malta in world war ii

Is that this tiny
little island nation,

Stopped the german
juggernaut in its tracks.

You know, what a
great testament to the
spirit of these people,

Who just refused to give up.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.