All language subtitles for [English] Most Amazing Unexpected Military Finds [DownSub.com]

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Since the dawn of humankind,

there's always been conflict.

And while war is a terrible thing,

it often leaves behind traces,
discoveries, and stories

that are straight-up mind blowing.

From terrifyingly destructive devices

found carelessly discarded to
eerie underwater graveyards,

get ready for battle as we charge through

some of the most amazing and
unexpected military finds.

(upbeat music)

Uncovering the Unbelievable.

While a soldier's job
is to serve and protect,

sometimes they make pretty
good detectives too!

This picture was reportedly
taken in May, 2003

near Kirkuk, Iraq after the
173rd US Airborne Brigade

discovered 999 gold bars hidden in a truck

during a routine traffic inspection.

The shimmering stockpile
was reported to be worth

close to a quarter of a billion dollars

according to a Pentagon official,

and this isn't the only
time a military find

has struck gold.

The internet is full of wild stories

about people finding abundant
riches in strange places,

and out of the stories that are true,

you'd be surprised how
many of these discoveries

have a military connection.

One of the wildest stories
starts with Nick Mead,

a military enthusiast and tank collector

who owns the aptly-named tank
driving experience school,

Tanks Alot, in Northamptonshire, UK.

While perusing eBay

looking for his next tank
trinket in early 2017,

Nick stumbled across a
Chinese Type 69 battle tank

for $38,000.

Built in the early 1980s,

the tank was a Chinese copy
of the Russian T-54 design,

which has been touted

as the most-produced tank in history

with almost 100,000
having been manufactured.

Unlike its inspirer,

a Chinese Type 69 is
considered quite the rarity

in the tank world.

With less than 4,500 manufactured

since its introduction in 1958,

it's safe to say Nick was
more than a little excited.

When the Chinese Type 69
arrived at Tanks Alot,

Nick got to work on it right away,

examining the tank's condition

and setting about replacing damaged parts.

As part of the process,

the Tanks Alot team search
every nook and cranny

of newly recruited tanks
for safety reasons.

These are armored vehicles,

many of which with explosive
capabilities, after all!

During the search on their
newly-arrived Chinese tank,

Nick and team found something rather odd.

It looked as though one of the
fuel canisters was jammed up,

and what was more,

it looked like something very
different to fuel was inside.

As one of the Tanks Alot
team members reached in,

no one knew what to expect,

but what came next was
beyond unbelievable.

After struggling with the
weight of whatever was inside,

Nick's colleague pulled out

what at first looked to be
a brick, a very gold brick.

Further examination revealed

that this looked to be
a brick of gold bullion.

Tanks Alot had quite
literally struck gold!

And it didn't stop there.

Like a magician pulling
rabbits from a hat,

every time a hand went into the canister,

it emerged brandishing
yet another gold bar.

And they kept coming

until there were five
gold bullions in total,

with a value of $2.7 million.

With a seriously life-changing
amount of money on the line,

the question of whether or
not Nick could keep the gold

was on everyone's lips.

Unfortunately, the
concept of finders keepers

isn't always true

when it comes to valuable
discoveries like this.

Nick had to turn over his
bullion batch to the police,

who, as per standard protocol,

are then supposed to take steps

in finding the rightful owner of the gold.

While it might put a dampener

on treasure hunters everywhere,

the aim of the rule is to make sure

that important archeological
items are preserved correctly

and not destroyed through
improper use or storage.

The question of how exactly
the gold stash ended up tanked

was never definitively answered,

but this treasure did leave
one main trail to follow.

The main theory goes that the gold bars

were stolen from Kuwait

during the invasion of the nation in 1990.

During the conflict,

Iraqi soldiers notoriously looted

billions of dollars' worth
of valuables from Kuwait

during the occupation,

only some of which were returned.

What's more, it's widely documented

that the Chinese Type 69 was
used in the Persian Gulf War

after China sold more than
2,000 of the tanks in the 1980s.

But one year after the incredible

tank-full-of-gold discovery,

it was reported that the question

of whether or not Nick would
be allowed to keep the gold

was still unanswered.

And with no recent
updates, we can only assume

that he is still in millionaires' limbo.

If Nick does get to keep the gold, though,

he can forget calling
his company Tanks Alot.

A more suitable name
would be Tanks a Bullion!

Back In Time Bombs.
(gentle music continues)

While the Vietnam War ended in 1975,

it's estimated that there
are still around 800,000 tons

of unexploded bombs
scattered across the country

just beneath the ground.

Also known as unexploded ordnance,

leftover bombs from days of conflict

pose a significant danger to civilians

going about their daily activities.

In April 2021, local farmers
in Vietnam's Sung Nhon commune

found a 750-pound live bomb

while working in a rice field.

The bomb was an M117 Destructor,

a type of mine that uses what's known

as a magnetic proximity fuse.

This fuse is intended to be triggered off

by the presence of metallic objects

like tanks and submarines,

and it's a miracle that no
farm equipment had triggered it

in the five decades
it'd been laying there.

With lurking hazards like this
found disturbingly commonly,

countries with a history of war
need to be extremely careful

when taking on new construction projects.

In December 2020,
construction workers found

what looked to be a bomb

at Bangladesh's Hazrat
Shahjalal International Airport.

The discovery took place as the
workers set about excavating

the airport's third terminal
in preparation for renovations.

Upon being notified,

the Air Force Bangabandhu
Base Bomb Disposal Unit

rushed to the scene to
painstakingly extract

the unexploded ordnance,

and gladly managed to
without any explosions!

While the airport itself
began operating in 1980,

it's likely that the bomb was dropped

during Bangladesh Liberation
War against Pakistan in 1971.

Terrifyingly, it was built
over completely unknowingly,

and it sat lurking under the feet

of countless unwitting
airport goers for decades.

So, if the thought of a bomb at an airport

wasn't scary enough, just
think how you'd feel knowing

you were walking over one that
had been there for 49 years,

and could have gone off at any moment!

We've already witnessed how scary

finding one unexploded bomb can be,

but what about one big bomb

filled with hundreds of little bombs?

In 2006, this nightmarish
bomb was found in Lebanon

on the outskirts of a small
village called Ouazaiyeh.

It's a cluster bomb, which
are usually fired or dropped,

opening up mid-air to release hundreds

of deadly bomblets.

Many varieties have the
capacity to cover areas

similar in size to
several football fields.

Because of their capability
for mass destruction,

including of civilians,
the use of cluster bombs

is considered highly controversial,

which gives the locals
of that small village

all the more reason to be grateful

that this one didn't go off as intended!

Underwater Graveyard.

Located 1,000 miles north
of the island of New Guinea,

Chuuk Lagoon was Japan's main
and most formidable naval base

in the central Pacific
Ocean during World War II.

The lagoon is a part of the 607 islands

that make up the Federated
States of Micronesia,

which receives an average of
just 19,000 visitors per year,

making it one of the least
visited countries on the planet.

Despite not having many visitors,

the lagoon has a lot of secrets,

but you'll have to swim to find them.

During World War II, Chuuk,

along with the many other Pacific islands

played an important role in
the Asia-Pacific conflict,

which pitted the Allies against Japan.

In February, 1944, the US navy
launched a massive air, ship,

and submarine offensive on Chuuk Lagoon

that resulted in the
destruction of a large portion

of the Japanese fleet.

In fact, the destruction of the attack,

dubbed Operation Hailstone,

was so vast that Chuuk Lagoon became known

as the world's largest
underwater graveyard.

After the war, the sunken
Japanese ships and aircraft

were left to rust at the
bottom of the lagoon.

The world moved on and
the underwater graveyard

at Chuuk Lagoon was forgotten.

These days, only scuba divers
can fully submerge themselves

into the lagoon's deep military history.

The abandoned underwater
battleground at Chuuk

is chock filled with a whole
host of wartime relics,

and that's not all.

Over 4,000 Japanese soldiers
were killed or wounded

during Operation Hailstone

and many of their remains lie
alongside the sunken wrecks,

and many scuba divers have
actually recovered skulls.

For this reason, despite
its historical significance,

Chuuk Lagoon is one of the
eeriest places to go diving,

especially given that divers never know

exactly what, or who, they're
going to find down there.

This underwater find in Chuuk Lagoon

must have had scuba divers
jumping out of their wetsuits,

given that it looks like
some kind of ghostly

deep-sea military diver
that perished in battle.

Thankfully, the rusted humanoid figure

is actually a pump attached
to one of Chuuk Lagoon's

most famous shipwrecks, the Fujikawa Maru,

a colossal armed cargo
ship that lies 110 feet

beneath the lagoon's surface.

The sinking of cargo ships
like the Fujikawa Maru

meant that a whole host
of other land artillery

also found itself in a new watery home,

like these tanks that were
likely being transported

to or from a naval base.

This area of the South Pacific

is overloaded with military history,

and it doesn't stop with Chuuk Lagoon.

1,000 miles to the west of Chuuk Lagoon

is the island nation of Palau,

another hotspot for
military relic discoveries.

One of the most impressive recent finds

was discovered by
tourists who were kayaking

around Palau's coastline in August 2017.

There, found in a dreamy pool of paradise,

was not a tropical bird, but a plane!

This particular World War II plane

has been in a picturesque lagoon in Palau

for more than 75 years,

and mother nature has
well and truly taken hold,

covering it with moss,
coral, and sea life.

Given Palau's tropical
paradise appearance,

the thought of its
history as a conflict site

in World War II's Pacific theater of war

is almost hard to believe,

even with the evidence in front of us.

Swamp Ghost.
(gentle music continues)

While the pilot of the plane in Palau

didn't live to tell their tale,
this next aviation anecdote

is one of survival against all odds.

While on a routine flight
over Papua New Guinea in 1972,

soldiers from the Australian Air Force

spotted an unusual object
lurking within the greenery.

After touching down their
helicopter for a closer look,

they found the old wreckage

of a World War II B-17E
Flying Fortress plane

bogged down in a swamp
in the forest lands.

Despite being caked in
swampy mud for three decades,

the B-17 was amazingly
very well preserved,

with the machine guns still
in place, and astoundingly,

old coffee still inside thermoses onboard.

But how had the plane ended up here?

And what became of its passengers?

The mystery of how the
bomber ended up bogged down

takes us all the way back
to February 23rd, 1942.

On this particular day,

Captain Fred Eaton was out on a mission

to take down a 10,000-ton
enemy Japanese freighter.

As he lined up to take aim,
his B-17 bomber malfunctioned,

and enemy aircrafts quickly
swooped in to wipe him

and his squadmates out of the sky.

After a thundering aerial battle,

the B-17 had taken quite a beating,

and Captain Eaton realized
that there was fuel

leaking from damage to one of the wings.

Miles from the nearest refueling port,

the only option was to go down,

into the boggy bowels
of the Agaiambo Swamp

in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea.

Amazingly, Captain Eaton and
the six other soldiers onboard

survived the rough landing,

but they found themselves stuck in the mud

of the remote swamp.

Facing an impossible situation,

the soldiers' survival
instincts kicked in,

and it was time to put their
crisis training into action.

It took two days of hacking
through thick, sharp grass

until the group reached
the edge of the swamp

and emerged onto dry land.

By that time, they were completely ravaged

with mosquito bites and
infected with malaria,

but against all odds, they
stumbled across a group of locals

who took them to a
nearby village for help.

After a night of rest, they
traveled downriver in canoes

where they were met by
Australian officials for rescue.

The nine soldiers arrived at
Port Moresby on April 1st,

a full 36 days after their crash

and returned to duty after
just a week in hospital.

Due to its remote location,

the plane wreck remained in place,

and its eerie appearance left
locals severely creeped out,

so much so that they
dubbed it the Swamp Ghost.

Unlike its passengers,

it took the Swamp Ghost a
lot longer to escape the bog.

After hearing of the
B-17's rediscovery in 1972,

military relic enthusiasts
Fred Hagen and David Tallichet

decided to set out into
the treacherous swamp

to find out more.

The crocodile infested Agaiambo Swamp

is known to be very dangerous

and few dare to enter
its depths willingly.

In fact, the inaccessibility
of the plane's location

contributed to the
preservation of the bomber,

and it was widely considered

that it was going to be
impossible to salvage.

The goal was considered so impossible

that while the project to
recover the Swamp Ghost

began in the 1980s, it
took more than two decades

for a plan to get off the ground.

In 2006, Fred and David
organized a salvage operation

in which the B-17 was cut into sections.

These were flown by
helicopter to a nearby port

where the parts were
eventually transported

to Hawaii in 2010.

To this day, the remains of
the Swamp Ghost are on display

at the Pacific Aviation Museum

at another wartime hotspot, Pearl Harbor.

If that's not a fitting end

for this piece of wartime
history, I don't know what is!

Abandoned Salvation.
(gentle music continues)

This is Camp Hero, a creepy
abandoned military base

on the outskirts of Montauk
in Long Island, New York.

Once the home of an Army
base in World War II

and an Air Force base during the Cold War,

Camp Hero was finally
decommissioned in 1981

and is now owned by the U.S.
state parks organization.

These days, it's only brave hikers

that discover the compound's
unnerving exterior,

and while it may look
haunted on first glance,

things are a lot more
scientific than that.

This place is seriously creepy,
but the cherry on the cake

is the radio tower looming
above the Montauk horizon.

Constructed during the
height of the Cold War,

the antenna, which broadcasted its signals

to a network of towers
along the USA's East Coast,

was intended to give the US
military a 30-minute warning

in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

But this morbid purpose
wasn't the only creepy thing

about this place in its prime.

In 1992, author and conspiracy
theorist Preston Nichols

published a book entitled

"The Montauk Project:
Experiments in Time,"

in which he wrote about the
alleged kidnapping of children,

who were taken to the facility

and endured mind-altering experiments

conducted by the government.

If all that sounds just
a little too familiar,

then things are about to
get even stranger for you.

Crazily enough, Camp Hero
is the real-life inspiration

behind the spine-chilling
Hawkins Laboratory

in Netflix's smash hit, "Stranger Things."

But while Preston Nichols' book

has been interpreted as truthful online

due to its authentic feeling,

it is in fact a work of fiction,

though that doesn't stop many
online theorists speculating

that various untoward activities

occurred at Camp Hero in its heyday,

and that Nichols' book

is more grounded in reality than fiction.

These claims are uncorroborated
by any official sources,

but the eerie conspiracies
surrounding Camp Hero

are enough to make you think
twice before paying a visit,

even if you're joined by
Eleven and co. for backup.

Tanks a Million.
(gentle music continues)

Since its wartime debut in 1916,

the tank has been one
of the ultimate tools

used by the armed forces to fight wars.

But have you ever wondered
what happens to tanks

once their military careers are over?

Designed to be almost
indestructible by nature,

disposing of tanks is a weighty job.

Usually, tanks recovered from battlefields

are stripped for their valuable parts

and then taken to scrap metal yards,

but clearly, some get left behind.

While this may look
like an ancient fossil,

this is a 20th-century tank

that dates back to the Second World War

and was discovered

by the Norwegian Heavy
Engineering Battalion

in August, 2007 in Norway.

After the Second World
War, the Norwegian military

obtained a surplus of
German tanks called Panzers

that were given up in light
of the Axis power's defeat.

And let's just say the
Norwegians put these tanks to use

in an interesting manner.

In 1953, the Norwegian
army built a defensive fort

very close to Bardufoss
airport and airfield

in northern Norway.

The purpose of the fort

was to have readily-available
heavy weapons

with the range to cover all
entrances to the airfield

in case of enemy forces
moving in to take over

as Germany had done in 1940.

For the ultimate defensive barrier,

the Panzer tanks were
half buried in concrete

and a hole was cut into the bottom

for use with a tunnel
that would funnel ammo

in and out of the tank in
the event of a standoff.

By the 1960s, however,
the fort had expanded,

and extra fortified
positions had been created,

rendering the Panzers redundant.

So the tanks were fully
covered with concrete

and were forgotten after
the fort was disbanded

in the 1980s, that is, until
they were dug back up in 2007

after rumors of their
existence re-emerged.

Dang, when I try to dig up something cool,

all I ever find is boring,
old, ancient treasure troves.

Is it so much to ask for a tank or two?

From concrete to countryside now,

this eerie snap of an abandoned
tank in a beautiful field

was taken on the island of Shumshu.

Shums-who, I hear you ask?

Well, Shumshu is part of
the Kuril Island chain

in the north-western Pacific Ocean

and was the site of a Soviet offensive

to occupy the islands in August 1945.

While you might be fooled into thinking

that tanks like the ones in
the flower fields of Shumshu

are a thing of beauty, the
battles they were a part of

drew a heavy toll in human lives.

So the tanks remain in stark contrast

with the surrounding greenery

as a haunting and solemn
reminder of the horrors of war.

Submarine Madness.
(gentle music continues)

They say that things often turn up

where you least expect them,

but this next military discovery

takes unexpected to unprecedented.

Check this out.

(submarine crashing)

(sirens wailing)

On October 1st, 2013,
residents of Milan, Italy

woke up to what looked to be
an utterly baffling catastrophe

right on their doorsteps.

There, in the middle of
the street, was a submarine

that had burst through
the pavement from below.

While this might look like

one of the messiest military
missions of all time,

things weren't what they appeared to be.

The elaborate stunt turned out

to be a clever advertising campaign,

dubbed "Protect Your Life,

or in this case, protect your car,

set up by the agency M&C Saatchi Milano

for insurance company Europ Assistance.

The point of the advert was
meant to show the importance

of protecting your possessions,

as you never know what unforeseen events

might take you by surprise.

While the reality behind
that street submarine

turned out to be less than
historically accurate,

there are plenty of real-life
submarine discoveries

that give a true glimpse
into military history.

During World War II,

a recorded 52 U.S. submarines were lost,

with a total of 3,506
personnel going down with them.

One of these missing submarines
was the USS Grayback,

which despite its eventual disappearance,

was one of America's most
successful submarines

of the Second World War.

Throughout its ten sea patrols,

it's credited with sinking 14 enemy ships

totalling 63,835 tons,

including an Imperial
Japanese Navy submarine.

But despite its success,

this sub didn't get a very happy ending.

The mystery began on January 28th, 1944,

when the USS Grayback
sailed out of Pearl Harbor

for its tenth combat patrol.

By the time March rolled around,

the Grayback was three
weeks overdue for its return

and was ultimately declared missing

along with the 80 crewmembers onboard.

After the war, the Navy
tried to piece together

exactly what happened to
the submarine, and by 1949,

all they could deduce was
an approximate location

where they thought USS
Grayback had met its end.

Post-war Japanese records
documented an incident

in which a Nakajima B5-N bomber aircraft

recorded the sub's coordinates

to be around 100 miles
southeast of Okinawa, Japan.

But when efforts were made to locate it,

the Navy found nothing.

It seemed that the USS Grayback

had vanished off the face
of the Earth, or had it?

Well, that question was
eventually to be answered

by Tim Taylor, a bona
fide submarine hunter

who made it his mission to locate all 52

of America's missing submarines.

Dubbing the initiative
the Lost 52 Project,

Tim and a team of experts
began the search in 2006.

Needless to say, it wasn't
a quick or easy task.

But things began to change in
a pretty crazy way in 2018,

when Japanese systems engineer
and military enthusiast,

Yutaka Iwasaki, contacted
the Lost 52 Project team,

who were hot on the trail of USS Grayback.

While studying Japanese navy archives,

Yutaka came across a transcript
of a radio transmission

made on February 26th, 1944.

His analysis of this revealed

that the original translation
of the Japanese documents

referencing the Grayback
had included an error

in the coordinates of
the Grayback's location.

One of the digits were incorrect.

With the correct coordinates now revealed,

more than half a century after
the initial mistake was made,

the team set sail in June 2019

and with the aid of underwater drones,

began scouring the ocean
floor for the Grayback.

Despite now being in possession
of the correct coordinates,

the total search for the
exact location of the Grayback

was expected to take up
to a year to complete.

However, on June 5th,

the team were reviewing
some of the sonar data

collected from the underwater drones,

and to their astonishment,

the Grayback appeared before their eyes.

With the help of these high-tech drones

and their ability to build
a digital image using sonar,

not only was a 74-year-old mystery solved,

but it also meant closure

for the families of the
80 American soldiers

who went down with the submarine.

As of November 2022, the Lost
52 Project and others like it

have located 14 out of
the 52 lost submarines,

and I for one can't wait to find out

what they'll find in years to come.

(energetic music)

Have you ever found any
military relics of your own?

Let me know down in the comments
below. Thanks for watching!

(energetic music continues)