All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S05E01.Jungle.of.the.Damned.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

Narrator: a desert ghost town

Poisoned by
An unnatural body of water...

It looks like some kind
Of apocalyptic vision.

Something happened here,
And it wasn't that long ago.

Narrator: ...A derelict
Settlement in the czech republic

That disguises a dark past...

We're talking billions of
Dollars of environmental damage.

Narrator: ...And a jungle
Compound with a shameful secret.

It really is hell on earth.

It really is hell on earth.

Narrator: decaying relics,

Ruins of lost worlds,

Forged through years of toil,
Now haunted by the past,

Their secrets waiting
To be revealed.

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

*

*

Norway -- 80 miles west
Of the capital, oslo.

Perched high
On a mountain precipice

Sits a structure that could've
Changed the course of history.

This place would become
The subject

Of a major
Hollywood blockbuster.

Woman: so you've got this
Imposing, huge building

With these giant windows
Overlooking the valley.

It's definitely built
With purpose.

It's definitely built
With purpose.

What was it for?

You can see this is a large
Factory-type,

Industrial installation,

And I'm thinking the effort
To have built this is enormous.

Narrator: the remote position
And barbed-wire fences suggest

Whatever was made inside
Was of great value.

It's obviously under tight
Security, even today.

Narrator: but the grand exterior
Of this striking facility

Masks a dark past.

Masks a dark past.

The rubble in front is all that
Remains of a different structure

That once dominated
This mountain enclave.

What went on here that --

You've got one building
That has lasted and will last

And one building
That obviously hasn't.

Narrator: in the surviving
Subterranean levels

Is a tangled mass of steel.

Inside, there are signs
Of immense destruction.

Something happened here
With great force.

Narrator: the story of this
Commanding industrial complex

Dates to the beginning
Of the 20th century.

In the years to come,

An elite fighting force
Would risk their lives

Attempting to wipe this place
Off the face of the earth.

Evidence
In the surrounding terrain

Offers clues to the surviving
Building's purpose.

There are clear connections
Between the landscape

And particularly the waterfall
And the building

Because there are vast pipes
Coming off the mountain

Because there are vast pipes
Coming off the mountain

And into the building.

Narrator: this is the vemork
Hydroelectric power plant,

Constructed by
Norsk hydro in 1911.

Gunhild luras is an expert
On the history of the facility.

Luras:
This is the machine hall,

Where the hydroelectric power
Was made.

When it was finished,

It was the biggest
Power plant in the world.

Narrator: the colossal building
Was built in response

To the world's
Growing need for fertilizer

To the world's
Growing need for fertilizer

To feed a rapidly
Expanding population.

One of the many challenges
For scientists

In the early 20th century

Was to find more fertilizer
For food production.

And for fertilizer,
You need nitrogen.

Narrator:
But the chemical process

Needed to extract nitrogen

Required an enormous amount
Of energy.

Well, one thing norway
Has in abundance

With mountains
And rivers is hydropower.

Luras: so the waterfall will hit
The turbines with high speed,

And then it will turn around,

And then it will turn around,

And you produce electricity
In the generators.

Narrator: yet in the basement
Of the now-destroyed building

Was a room
Of specialized equipment

That made something
With the power to destroy.

Luras:
This place started out producing

Something very good
For human beings,

But it turned out
To have deadly potential.

Scott: so this whole
Manufacturing of the fertilizer,

This fixating of the nitrogen,

This fixating of the nitrogen,

It ended up producing
A by-product,

And this by-product
Was heavy water.

Corum:
Heavy water is very complex.

It's very difficult to produce,

And it's very expensive
To produce.

Narrator: like ordinary water,
Heavy water contains

Two hydrogen atoms
And one oxygen atom,

But the hydrogen contains
An extra neutron

That increases its weight
By 10%.

And this type of hydrogen
Is known as deuterium

And this type of hydrogen
Is known as deuterium

Or a heavy form of hydrogen.

Narrator:
On its own, it poses no danger.

However, its unique
Atomic structure

Made it a vital ingredient

In the production
Of nuclear weapons.

And when hitler led the world
Into war in 1939,

It was no surprise
He was desperate

To get his hands on it.

Selwood: hitler's scientists
Needed the heavy-water plant

To slow down and sustain
A nuclear reaction,

To slow down and sustain
A nuclear reaction,

Which was a key stage in the
Development of an atomic weapon.

Luras: this site, it was
The only place in the world

Where they produced heavy water
At a commercial scale,

So this was very important
For the german nuclear program.

Narrator:
Nazi troops captured the plant,

And within months, production of
Heavy water increased 50-fold.

Allied forces were
Increasingly nervous.

If hitler won the nuclear-arms
Race, the war was lost.

If hitler won the nuclear-arms
Race, the war was lost.

For norwegian scientist
Leif tronstad,

The burden of responsibility

To defeat the nazi leader's
Plans was enormous.

Selwood: tronstad knew the site
In minute detail

Because he had helped design it.

He was able to explain
To the british

That simply dropping ordnance
From the air onto the site

Would do nothing
As the heavy-water plant

Was in the basement

And bombing it would simply
Destroy the buildings on top.

And bombing it would simply
Destroy the buildings on top.

Narrator: tronstad proposed
A riskier solution,

One that had to work,
No matter the sacrifice --

Infiltrate the facility

And destroy vital equipment
From the inside.

There was just one problem --

Vemork was a heavily
Guarded natural fortress.

It is very mountainous terrain.

You simply can't get up there
By road.

It is very easy to protect
This plant in a conventional way

Because it is isolated up
On the mountainside.

Because it is isolated up
On the mountainside.

Narrator:
That concern was realized

After a four-man norwegian
Reconnaissance team

Were parachuted in and were
Later followed by british forces

Trained in explosive demolition.

Selwood: the first attempt ended
In complete disaster.

On the 19th of november, 1942,
Two gliders of british soldiers

Landed on the top
Of the mountain,

But one crashed,

And the other was found
By the germans and the men shot.

Narrator: allied forces
Were left with no option

Narrator: allied forces
Were left with no option

But to try again.

At any price, hitler's nuclear
Ambitions must be stopped.

On february 16, 1943,
Under the cover of darkness,

Operation gunnerside began.

Six norwegian commanders
Were parachuted in,

And they were dressed
In british uniforms,

So that, if captured,

The germans
Wouldn't take revenge

On the local
Norwegian population.

Narrator:
The plan was to rendezvous

With the original team,

Which had survived unaided
For three months

Which had survived unaided
For three months

In the subzero wilderness.

Selwood: they landed safely but
Far away from the target.

This was a supplies
And logistics disaster

Because they simply
Didn't have rations.

Narrator:
If the mission failed,

The consequences
Would be unimaginable.

But after five grueling days,
Trekking through knee-deep snow,

The two teams
At last made contact.

Now they were united.

They could finally attempt
The seemingly impossible task

They could finally attempt
The seemingly impossible task

Of entering the site and
Halting hitler's nuclear plan.

There was a discussion
Among the saboteurs

About how they should
Enter this place,

And one possibility was to cross
The suspension bridge,

But it was guarded.

Narrator:
Following the failed attack,

The nazis had already
Strengthened

The facility's defenses.

The norwegian soldiers had
To find another way in.

Operation gunnerside
And the fate of the world

Operation gunnerside
And the fate of the world

Hung in the balance.

*

Narrator: in the heart of norway
Are the remains of a building

With the power
To change the course of history.

The heavy-water plant
In the basement of vemork

Was key to hitler's plans
To develop an atomic bomb.

Norwegian commandos were tasked
With the mission to destroy it,

No matter the cost.

It was one of the most
Extraordinary operations

Of the war.

Of the war.

Narrator:
The main access to the plant

Is along a narrow
Suspension bridge,

But it's heavily guarded.

Only two death-defying
Options remain --

Approach through a heavily
Fortified mountain pass

Littered with land mines...

...Or scale a 500-foot,
Steep-sided ravine.

Luras: so they decided that they
Were going down the gorge,

And they had to climb
Their way down

And up again on the other side
Where there was a railway.

And up again on the other side
Where there was a railway.

And on the railway,
There were no mines.

Selwood: once at the site,

They knew
How to enter the building

And exactly where to place
The explosive charges

Because tronstad had given them
Such detailed instructions.

Narrator: yet once inside,
There was no guarantee

The mission to thwart
Hitler's nuclear plan

Would succeed.

In this room,
The sabotage action took place.

The leader of this operation
Placed the charges

The leader of this operation
Placed the charges

On the heavy-water stands.

Narrator: the team set
Short 30-second fuses

On the electrolysis chambers
That produced the water.

As they rushed out
Into the night,

The explosives detonated
Behind them,

Destroying around 1,000 pounds
Of hitler's heavy water.

Their story of daring was
Forever immortalized

In the kirk douglas
1965 blockbuster,

"The heroes of telemark."

It was one of the most important

It was one of the most important

And significant operations
Of world war ii.

If the vemork plant
Had not been destroyed,

Hitler could have been able to
Go on to develop atomic weapons.

Narrator:
In the years to come,

The remains of the heavy-water
Plant were demolished.

Today, what is left is being
Turned into a museum,

A lasting memorial
To the courageous men

Who fought to resist
Hitler's nazi empire.

Who fought to resist
Hitler's nazi empire.

Luras:
The saboteurs are heroes.

They are maybe one of
The biggest heroes of norway.

Just imagine if operation
Gunnerside

Hadn't been successful.

The world could be a rather
Different place.

Narrator: 150 miles
Southeast of los angeles,

In the middle of
The barren californian desert,

Is an unusual inland sea.

*

*

When you look at this body
Of water, it looks off.

Something's a little bit wrong
With it.

Narrator:
Dotted around the water's edge

Are crumbling remains
Of a long, forgotten past.

Meigs: it looks like some kind
Of apocalyptic vision.

There's all these signs
Of human settlement,

But everything is broken down
And decrepit.

Instead of being
A vast, living place,

It's almost death-like.

It's almost death-like.

Narrator: derelict buildings
And rusting relics

Are reminders of a community

That once depended
On the eerie-looking waters.

Meigs: you can see the remnants
Of a motor home,

A broken-down, old motel.

So something happened here,
And it wasn't that long ago.

Narrator:
Possible clues as to the cause

Of the apparent mass exodus

Are visible
In the surrounding terrain.

And as you look around,
The land is alive.

There's bubbling mud coming up

There's bubbling mud coming up

From gases deep
Within the earth.

Could that have something
To do with it?

Is this a natural phenomenon?

What changed, and what is going
On with this body of water?

Narrator: only 60 years ago,

This region
Was full of bustling towns

Built to accommodate tens
Of thousands of people.

Today, a small fraction
Of that number remains.

John kariotis moved here
In the 1970s.

John kariotis moved here
In the 1970s.

It was very nice because
There were markets

And gas stations
And restaurants,

And it was a big community that
Lots of people were a part of.

To see it depressed
Like this hurts.

And the people that are here
Are probably going to be here

Until the day they die.

Narrator: in the 1960s, this was
A booming holiday resort,

Regularly attracting over
One million tourists every year.

Regularly attracting over
One million tourists every year.

Only a 2-hour drive
From los angeles,

It soon became
A favorite playground

Of hollywood's rich and famous.

So back in its heyday,
The rat pack was here --

Sammy davis jr.,
Frank sinatra, dean martin,

Streisand,
A whole lot of other people.

It's before palm springs
Was what it is now.

Narrator: bathers crammed
Onto the sun-soaked beaches

And anglers filled their nets
With a bounty of plentiful fish.

And anglers filled their nets
With a bounty of plentiful fish.

There were regatas.

There were more boats out
On that sea

Than you could shake a stick at.

The fishing was wonderful.

Barratt: it's hard to imagine
Those luxury times.

The fact that all of these
Communities are down

On their luck,
It's not just one

Or two suffering
From lack of investments,

Point to a much,
Much bigger problem.

The thing that connects all
Of these sites together,

The problem is the water.

Narrator: these are the ghost
Towns of the salton sea,

An accidental lake
That transformed the fortunes

Of this dusty desert region
For better and for worse.

But how does a giant lake appear
From nowhere in the middle

Of one of the driest
Regions in the world?

And why does this place
Now resemble

An apocalyptic wasteland?

*

Narrator: in california, the
Fate of a crumbling community

Appears bound to
An inexplicable inland sea.

But how did a lake of such
Magnitude form

In the middle
Of a dry desert valley?

Could it be some kind of natural
Disaster was the culprit,

Or is another simpler reason
To blame?

In the early 1900s, everybody
Wanted to use the colorado river

In the early 1900s, everybody
Wanted to use the colorado river

To irrigate farms
In the surrounding desert.

Narrator: the colorado begins
High in the rocky mountains,

Winding its way
Along 1,500 miles

To the gulf of california.

To irrigate the golden state's
Imperial valley,

Engineers constructed a canal
To divert water

Away from the powerful river,

Yet trying to tame such a mighty
Beast was asking for trouble.

Yet trying to tame such a mighty
Beast was asking for trouble.

Barratt:
Engineers like to be in control.

But when you're up against
The force of nature,

You can never actually
Tell what's going to happen.

Narrator:
In 1905, after torrential rains,

The colorado swelled

And breached
The newly built embankments.

The river changed course
And started flowing west

Into what was
A dry desert valley.

Six billion cubic feet of water

Discharged into
The unplanned lake

Every 24 hours, causing it
To rise by 7 inches a day.

Every 24 hours, causing it
To rise by 7 inches a day.

Meigs: it took two years
For the engineers to figure out

How to stop the flow of water,

And by that time, it had largely
Filled this vast inland basin.

The lake itself
Essentially then

Created all of the things
Around.

Money started coming in
With the tourism.

People started wanting
To tap into that.

Meigs: they started
Building motels

And beachfront facilities,

And people started to drive out
From los angeles

And people started to drive out
From los angeles

To check out
This brand-new inland sea.

They called it
The salton riviera.

Narrator: spanning nearly 400
Square miles, the salton sea

Became california's
Largest freshwater lake.

In addition to the thriving
Tourism industry,

The engineering disaster

Transformed
The once-inhospitable land.

The water in the desert meant
That the land became fertile.

It became a huge
Agricultural area.

John: farming is very important
To the area.

John: farming is very important
To the area.

Imperial county is known as
The breadbasket to california.

If you want fruits
And vegetables,

All the way through the midwest,

They very likely came from here
In the imperial county.

Meigs:
At first, it was great.

You had this barren, dry desert

All of a sudden filled
With fresh mountain water,

And it was this lovely
Kind of oasis

In this otherwise
Pretty brutal desert.

Narrator: what began life as
A catastrophic mistake

Soon became known
As the miracle in the desert,

Yet the popularity of this
Man-made californian lake

Was short-lived,

And before long, the miracle
Turned into a nightmare.

John: well, here we are
In the center of town.

This used to be the bank,

The building that
We're in here right now.

In its heyday, you could expect
That there were traffic jams

Out here in the street,

People crossing
In the middle of the street

And not really caring who they
Stopped and what they did

And not really caring who they
Stopped and what they did

Because they were here
For a good time.

Narrator: little did
The fun-loving tourists know

An ecological
Time bomb was ticking.

Barratt:
Looking at the beach today,

You don't have to be
A specialist to know

That it doesn't look right.

It doesn't look natural.

There's something alien
About the landscape.

Everything is covered
With this fine layer

Of kind of
A white, dusty powder.

Narrator:
The once-pristine beaches

Now resemble a vision of hell.

Now resemble a vision of hell.

John kariotis' wife, amari,

Has witnessed firsthand
The devastation

Wreaked on this region.

Amari: you know, people think
This is sand.

This is millions of fishes,
Fish bones, vertebrae.

There's barnacles in here.

It looks really pretty,
But it's just dead fish,

Millions and millions
Of dead fish.

You begin to start to think,
"Is there a natural disaster?"

Well, this is a very active part
Of the earth, geologically.

It's very near
To the san andreas fault

It's very near
To the san andreas fault

And many other faults.

One of the stranger things
That you find

Is this kind of area

Where there's all
These mud pots bubbling up.

Jerram: it's almost like
An alien landscape.

Could it be that something
Like this

Happening suddenly changed
The environment around

And caused many
Of the problems?

Narrator: what caused the death
Of this once-bountiful lake

And the towns
That depended on it?

*

Narrator: the salton sea is
California's largest lake.

The accidental creation was once
A thriving holiday resort.

Do geological features
That bubble and boil all around

Offer a clue to
What caused its sudden demise?

Well, at first impression,
You might assume

Some sort of natural disaster
Has caused the problems here.

But when you delve in,

But when you delve in,

There's something more sinister
Is going on

Because it's not
A natural disaster.

It's a man-made problem.

Narrator: the salton sea's
Only source of new water

Comes from the half a million
Acres of agricultural terrain

That surround it.

It appears
The industrial farming

That brought riches to many
Came at a terrible cost.

Because it's the lowest place
In the landscape,

There's no in and out
Like a normal lake might have.

So what goes in to the system
Stays in the system.

So what goes in to the system
Stays in the system.

It's constantly getting saltier
And denser

As the water evaporates.

You see that in the dead sea
In israel.

Here, the problem's compounded
Because what water is flowing in

Is flowing through
These various irrigated farms,

So it's highly polluted
With pesticides and fertilizer.

And what we're left with in
The lake is this chemical soup.

The fish can't breathe,
And they die,

And then they end up
On the shore.

And then they end up
On the shore.

We've had half a mile in
Of dead fish.

And it was just...
It was horrific.

The smell was horrific.

No one wanted to be
On the beach.

Narrator: tourists quickly
Abandoned the dying salton sea

And the towns that it supported,
Yet even worse was to come.

Over the past 15 years,

The water level has dropped
By almost 8 feet,

Exposing 20,000 acres
Of desiccated lake bed.

In that region of the desert,
There's almost no rainfall,

So the salton sea
Started to dry up.

So the salton sea
Started to dry up.

And it's now exposing this
Flying dust with lots of salt,

But also lots of these poisonous
Pesticides

And so on concentrated in it.

The winds pick up sand
From desert,

And it will pick up
The chemicals and transport them

Hundreds of miles
Across the rest of america.

It's a huge risk
To public health.

Narrator: where once sunbathers
Packed the beaches,

Now toxic sludge
And the stench of death

Drifts from the shore.

Amari:
It has a whole impact.

We have the highest asthma rate
Because of this.

There are people who are ill
Because of breathing this.

Barratt:
Behind every tourist town,

There's a population of people
Whose home it is.

That's where they bring up
Their children.

That's where they live
And they die.

And for people here,
It's very, very sad.

Narrator: today, the hotels
And restaurants

Narrator: today, the hotels
And restaurants

Once so full of life
Lay abandoned,

A fading memory
Of a once-golden age.

You used to think that this was
Gonna be a place

That was gonna come back

To the way it was
In the '60s and '70s.

And I'm sadly mistaken.

It's not going to happen.

*

Narrator: in french guiana,

On the northeast coast
Of south america,

Is a remote amazon settlement
With a shameful past.

Is a remote amazon settlement
With a shameful past.

*

Some of the buildings here
Look relatively pleasant,

Colonial buildings with
The traditional wooden shutters.

But as you move
Farther into the site,

You encounter a different
Type of building.

It's clear that people have been
Here before, and lots of them,

And they've left their mark,
Quite literally, on the walls.

Selwood:
The more you look around,

It becomes apparent it's tinged
With suffering and sadness.

It becomes apparent it's tinged
With suffering and sadness.

The walls feel like
They're closing in.

It's getting more
And more unpleasant,

And the dark history
Of this place

Is beginning to dawn on you.

Narrator:
The oppressive structures

Appear intended to contain.

And for one man exiled here,
His story of misery

And daring escape became
An international best-seller.

Auerbach: but was it true?

Was it really his story
Or was it embellished?

Clearly, there's a lot here
Worth investigating.

Clearly, there's a lot here
Worth investigating.

Narrator: the intriguing story
Of these crumbling buildings

Begins over 4,000 miles away
In 19th-century france.

The french were facing an issue
With their prisons.

They were crowded,
And they were expensive.

And slavery is about to be
Abolished around the world

In the colonies.

Narrator: to combat the
Combination of rising crime

And a shortage of workers
To maintain foreign territories,

And a shortage of workers
To maintain foreign territories,

Napoleon iii hits
Upon a drastic solution.

The french began exploiting

Their colonial territories
Abroad

By sending their
Very worst criminals there.

This removed dangerous prisoners
From france,

Took the strain off
The french prison system

And gave the french colonialists
A free workforce abroad.

Narrator:
Established in 1852,

This penal colony
Located along the maroni river

Was the first stop
For convicts sentenced

Was the first stop
For convicts sentenced

To prison and hard labor
In french guiana.

Auerbach: it's no coincidence
That this type of punishment

Was often used
In some of the most inhospitable

And remote territories
In any given european's empire.

Narrator:
By 1946, 70,000 convicts

Had been shipped
Across the atlantic

To south america,
Yet it was another two decades

Before this place
Became truly infamous.

On the walls are names
And signatures,

And one of them in particular
Leads you to realize

And one of them in particular
Leads you to realize

What an incredible story
This place has to tell.

So there's a very famous inmate
Here -- papillon.

The man is a legend,
The mysterious prisoner

With a large butterfly
Tattooed on his chest.

Narrator: in 1969, his account
Of suffering was published,

Becoming an international
Best-seller.

Four years later, steve mcqueen
And dustin hoffman

Brought the story
To an even wider audience.

Brought the story
To an even wider audience.

This is the notorious
Saint-laurent-du-maroni prison,

Part of a brutal complex of
Penal colonies in french guiana.

Local guide ronnie
Is an expert on this site.

At the age of 27,

Henri charrière,
A.K.A. Papillon,

Entered the gates
Of this daunting penitentiary.

His journey began here
But would end at a place

With a reputation
Even more fearsome.

How would papillon survive
Devil's island?

*

Narrator: in french guiana

Are the remains
Of a brutal penal colony.

Papillon's dramatic story
Laid bare the suffering

Inflicted
In the remote jungle prison

And his final destination,
Devil's island.

Henri charrière was sentenced
To life imprisonment

With 10 years' hard labor
For a murder

He claimed he never committed.

He claimed he never committed.

As well as the usual
Brutalities of hard labor,

There was also a very hot
And difficult tropical climate

With all the diseases
That it brings --

Malaria, dysentery, fever,
Typhus, even leprosy.

Narrator: 40% of new arrivals
To the colony

Perished within the first year.

Violence between inmates
Was disturbingly frequent,

And only the strongest survived.

Discipline and beatings
By guards were widespread,

And if prisoners attacked them,
The penalty was severe --

Death by guillotine.

In the open space between
The two rows of barracks,

The public executions
Were performed.

Auerbach: it's no coincidence
That these prisons

Have large graveyards
Attached to them.

For most people sent there,

It was going to be
A one-way trip.

Barratt:
Part of the uproar

About the prisons
In french guiana

Was that these places
Were never about rehabilitation.

It was about using vulnerable
People in society

As slave labor.

Narrator: against this
Background of brutality,

Narrator: against this
Background of brutality,

Escape attempts were common
But rarely successful.

Barratt: the architecture
Of the prison

Is like prisons worldwide.

But in this place, the
Environment was also a prison.

Auerbach: in the jungle,
You've got spiders,

Poisonous snakes, venomous
Centipedes, flesh-eating ants.

You think, "Oh, well, I'll
Escape the heat in the river."

You don't want to do that either
Because it's full of piranhas

And cayman.

Narrator: despite the odds
Stacked against him,

Papillon refused to give up

Papillon refused to give up

And tried numerous times
To break out.

And for those escapes,

He was finally sentenced
To devil's island,

Which was considered
The most inescapable

Of all of the colonies.

Narrator: devil's island
Was the most feared place

In the french guiana
Prison complex.

Located 10 miles offshore,
The bleak, rocky outcrop

Was surrounded
By shark-infested waters.

Sentenced to two years
In solitary confinement,

Papillon had nothing but time
To plot his next move.

Papillon had nothing but time
To plot his next move.

Auerbach:
Solitary-confinement quarters

Have to be one of the worst
Aspects of the site.

Imagine being shut
In completely on your own,

No ventilation,
No window, nothing,

Just you alone
With your thoughts.

Narrator:
After 13 years of imprisonment

And nine daring escape attempts,

Papillon finally breaks free.

Using a bag of coconuts
As a raft,

Charrière escaped
And eventually made it

To venezuela,
Where he started a business.

To venezuela,
Where he started a business.

He became a restaurateur

And then wrote a book
About his experiences.

Selwood:
But after all this time,

The mystery still remains

As to how much of it
Actually is true.

Narrator: whether papillon's
Account was fact or fiction,

One thing is certain --

For the people sent here,
This was hell on earth.

There's some thought
That his book is a mix

Of other people's stories
As well as his own.

Actually, when it comes
Down to it, the truth is,

This was a harsh environment.

This was a harsh environment.

Narrator: in time, reports

Of the barbaric
Treatment of prisoners

Made their way back to france.

And once news about
The inhumane conditions got out,

The french conscious was stirred
By these revelations,

And the lease on life for
These places was short indeed.

Narrator: a century after
The penal colony opened,

Its doors were finally closed

And the remaining
Prisoners repatriated,

Except for 300 men
That refused to leave.

Except for 300 men
That refused to leave.

They instead remained
In french guiana.

It was the only life
That they remembered

And the only one
That they could imagine.

Narrator:
Today, the people may be gone,

But the pain
And suffering remains,

The empty cells
A haunting reminder

Of colonialism's true cost.

The czech republic,

40 miles northeast
Of the capital, prague,

40 miles northeast
Of the capital, prague,

A vast wilderness extends
As far as the eye can see.

Selwood:
It's a spectacular area.

It's rural, quiet.

It feels like the ideal place
For a day's hiking.

Scott: when you start
To investigate farther,

You've also got settlements
That hint

That there's been populations
That have lived in this area

For rather a long time.

Narrator:
A short distance away

Narrator:
A short distance away

Are structures
That appear to date

To more recent times.

You can see that this area
Has been developed

Over a fairly long time,
And there are

Different buildings
From different eras here.

There's something of a mix.

Narrator: any trace of the
Inhabitants that once walked

The ghostly stairwells
Has long since vanished.

But strangest of all is a
Building with a very creepy air.

There's a large bath, showers,
And a contraption

There's a large bath, showers,
And a contraption

That's big enough
To walk through.

Narrator:
Outside, the mystery deepens.

Bullet cases, pockmarked walls,
And twisted metal

Offer haunting clues
This area has a dark past.

Scott: it makes you wonder
What is wrong with this place.

People keep on coming,
But then going.

What is happening?

Narrator:
The intriguing structures

Are located in a region
Of the czech republic

Are located in a region
Of the czech republic

With a complex history.

Could this provide a clue
To the building's purpose?

When the communist party
Came to power in czechoslovakia

After world war ii,

The country effectively became
A satellite state of the ussr.

Czechoslovakia was on the border
With west germany.

That was the front line
Of the cold war.

Narrator:
This sprawling site in ralsko

Was once the biggest soviet army
Base in czechoslovakia.

Was once the biggest soviet army
Base in czechoslovakia.

When it was built,
Only the red army soldiers

Were allowed to enter
The top-secret facility.

In modern warfare,
You need large training areas,

Not just to base the troops,

But you need large
Tracts of land

Where you can fire artillery.

Narrator: even today,

Access to all areas of the site
Is restricted.

Retired local vaclav bilicky
Worked nearby in the 1970s.

His job was to tackle
Hazardous materials

His job was to tackle
Hazardous materials

That spilled out
From the confines of the base.

Interpreter:
I came here in 1976.

I was working for
The police force,

At the time called
The national security corps,

As a bomb-disposal expert.

Within this area,
We had a blasting hole

For destroying ammunition.

Narrator: but why were the
Soviets so desperate to conceal

What they were doing inside?

And what disaster lay in wait
For this land?

And what disaster lay in wait
For this land?

*

Narrator:
At ralsko in the czech republic

Is a secretive cold-war base
Used by the soviet army.

But why did they choose
This location,

And what were
They really doing inside?

A clue is found in the location
It sits,

A place born out
Of terror and conflict.

Throughout the 20th century,

This border region
Was the front line

Of a european
Territorial dispute.

Of a european
Territorial dispute.

First it was occupied

By the austro-hungarian
Military for training

And then the nazi luftwaffe
During the second world war.

This part of europe was home
To thousands of ethnic germans,

And hitler very much wanted
To bring them

Within his concept
Of greater germany.

Corum: after the war,
The czechoslovakian government

Will then brutally expel
The germans

And seize their land,
Seize their property.

And seize their land,
Seize their property.

Narrator: the stage was now set
For the czechoslovak army

To unleash a new wave
Of destructive power.

All the homes,
Schools and churches,

They used them
For target practice.

With heavy munitions,
They flattened the lot.

So those little quirky houses
Built into the rock face,

They were just cellars.

The houses actually
Were aboveground,

And those houses
Were blown to smithereens.

Narrator: this was the beginning
Of the area's rapid expansion

Into a czech military zone,

But with the threat of soviet
Control creeping ever closer,

Darker days loomed large.

Until then, czechoslovakia
Had been

The only warsaw pact country
Not to host soviet troops.

Interpreter: they were
Everywhere else -- in germany,

Poland, hungary and bulgaria,
Everywhere but here.

Narrator: in 1968, amid a wave
Of anticommunist protest,

Narrator: in 1968, amid a wave
Of anticommunist protest,

That was all set to change.

Corum: the soviets sent in

A quarter of a million troops
Into prague

And the core cities
Of czechoslovakia.

And the number doubled
Over the next couple of days.

After the soviet invasion,
There was a treaty signed,

And that stated
That 75,000 soviet troops

Could be stationed
In this region.

Narrator:
The legacy of that invasion

Narrator:
The legacy of that invasion

Are these
Oppressive-looking structures.

Interpreter: these buildings
Were intended

For the families of the pilots,

Officers of the soviet army.

Narrator:
At a time when east and west

Stood on the brink
Of mutual annihilation,

This site's strategic location
On the german border

Would be critical in the event
Of all-out war.

Up to 20,000 soviet troops
Were living there

In a full military town
With schools,

In a full military town
With schools,

Shops, apartment
Buildings, work spaces.

Narrator: the existing airfield
Was rapidly expanding

And bunker-like structures
Built to conceal

State-of-the-art
Attack aircraft.

The soviets were preparing
For a new kind of war.

Corum: the mig-23 was
A big step forward.

It was very capable,

And it would've made
A pretty good opponent.

Narrator: yet much of the
History of this military site

Is still a dark secret.

After the collapse
Of the soviet union,

The true scale of weapons
Stockpiled

Became disturbingly clear,

And more alarming discoveries
Were yet to come.

Scott:
So with the military gone,

You've now got
A city-sized grassland

Absolutely strewn
With live ammunition.

How do you go about making
A place like that safe again?

How do you go about making
A place like that safe again?

Narrator: around 130,000 pieces
Of unexploded ordnance

Were left dumped
Or crudely buried in the ground.

Vaclav was part of the team

Tasked with the hazardous
Clear-up.

[ speaking czech ]

Interpreter: this was probably
The most dangerous piece

Of ammunition here.

If it remained in this condition
And someone had found it

And wasn't careful enough,
It was quite a blast.

Narrator: inside one
Of the surviving structures

Are signs the soviets
May have been developing

Even more sinister
Weapons of war.

Scott: as you go in, you can see
This weird-looking machine,

And it's now thought that
That machine is an autoclave,

And they're used
To decontaminate

And sterilize equipment.

Whatever they were up to
With that equipment,

It was serious business.

Narrator: in all, 50 million
Cubic feet of soil

Narrator: in all, 50 million
Cubic feet of soil

Was found to be polluted
By dangerous contaminants.

Corum: when the soviets left,

It cost millions of dollars
Of environmental damage.

Narrator:
Despite the terrible impact,

The russians claimed
The buildings left behind

Were adequate compensation
For the devastation caused.

Although much of the land
Has been cleared,

There remains always the danger
Of undiscovered munitions.

So work still has to be done
To make it 100% safe

For the local people.

For the local people.

Narrator: to this day,

The russians
Have never acknowledged

What took place behind closed
Doors on this shadowy base,

And until cold-war-era
Archives are opened,

The site will remain shrouded
In mystery.