All language subtitles for Hitlers.Steel.Beast.2016.720.NETFLIX.x264.eng

Since its existence, the train
has been an ideal propaganda tool.

On all continents,
presidents, monarchs, and dictators

have wanted their train
to crisscross countries,

promote their policies
and meet the people.

In the 1930s in Germany,

as Chancellor, Hitler decided

that he needed an exceptional train
to match his power.

It would be a titan pulled
by two locomotives,

protected by anti-aircraft batteries.

On board, men mobilized for war,
private bodyguards, railway police

and officers of the German Army.

Its name: "Amerika",

or "F�hrersonderzug":
the F�hrer's special train.

A steel beast of 1,200 tons,
430 meters long,

with state-of-the-art cars
equipped with the highest technology.

It was like an "Air Force One",
a veritable Nazi fortress on rail.

The 20-mm guns

had an upwards ground range
of 4.7 kilometers.

F�hrersonderzug is the best equipped

mobile headquarters in the world
at that time. The very best.

For each journey,
hundreds of men were called into action,

manning tracks, bridges,
tunnels and stations.

Their mission: to protect Amerika
from Hitler's enemies.

Hitler's private train
was more than a means of transport,

it was a genuine bunker,

a headquarters and a refuge.

Pages of the history of World War II
were written on board,

tragic decisions taken,
decisive meetings held.

P�tain, Mussolini

and Franco, all climbed aboard
to visit the Nazi dictator.

The strategic train was even
the target of plots against the F�hrer.

But Amerika was
an impregnable beast of steel.

70 years on and little is really known
about Hitler's train.

Yet, it shows us another side
to the dictator:

that of a paranoid megalomaniac.

We went back in time to learn more.

How was this steel beast designed?

What railway mega structures
were built to ensure its security?

These are absolutely enormous:
480-meter-long tunnels,

20 meters high.

How was life organized on board?

Why was nobody able
to attack Amerika?

And what does the train teach us
about Hitler?

We went to Germany to film what remains
of other Nazi special trains,

with their luxury cars.

We found the last surviving archives.

We retraced the routes
the F�hrer traveled,

as we tried to uncover the secrets
of the steel beast.

Now join us on board Amerika,
Hitler's private train.

Synced by chebinhdan.com

Back to the early 1930s.
Hitler was head of a political party:

the NSDAP, the Nazi Party,
which was on the rise.

On January 30th 1933,

he was elected Chancellor
and took the reins of power.

He was a modern politician
who won over large crowds.

He knew how to reach out to people:

with his appearance
and his speeches belted out with fury,

possessed with his own ideas.

But he also understood

that to reach the people,
he had to go out to meet them.

So in the early 1930s,

before any other politicians of the day,

Hitler became aware
of the importance of travel.

He crisscrossed all Germany
during his political campaigns.

Hitler likes to be seen.

He feels History his behind him,

the German people are largely behind him.

So he's happy to show himself.

As a fan of modernity,
technology and power,

Hitler wanted to be able
to move fast all the time.

At the time, another European dictator
had his own private train:

Mussolini.

In 1937,

Hitler commissioned
the Deutsche Reichsbahn

to construct a special train for him.

After two years of design
and manufacture,

it left the factory in August 1939.

It was named "Amerika".

To Hitler, America represented
the annihilation of the Indians.

He was fascinated
by this land of conquest.

Hitler plans to conquer Europe
and annihilate those who weren't Aryans.

And his train matched his ambitions:
almighty.

It traveled at speeds
up to 120 kilometers per hour.

Each car weighed at least 60 tons.

This steel beast
was a high-performance tool.

Like in a fixed headquarters, a bunker,

Amerika ensured Hitler's security,

allowed him to be surrounded
by his teams on journeys,

to be mobile on all fronts,

and to remain reachable,

something which cars and planes
were unable to provide.

It was a kind of Air Force One,
crammed with high technology.

A very impressive train to look at.

I wouldn't call it scary,

I would call it impressive
with its austerity

and its total lack of fancy trimmings.

Hitler used his train to show
he was close to the people.

He was greeted by crowds,

but each outing was strictly organized
and highly securitized.

One of the things
the bodyguards were concerned about

particularly with the train,

was when the train pulls in a station,

often mobs of people
stampeded to the train,

like as a rock star arriving,

trying to touch Hitler,
to shake his hand.

Somebody could have thrown
a hand grenade into the train

or pulled him out off the window.
Everything could have happened.

So it becomes increasingly obvious

that Hitler requires a special train

which would be cut off from the public
and indeed from the military as well.

Soon, all Nazi dignitaries were having
their own private trains built.

Hitler had launched
an out-and-out fashion.

The fact that Hitler had
his own train made all the other bigwigs

of the Third Reich,

men like G?ring,
the head of the Luftwaffe,

Himmler, the head of the SS,

also want a private train

to take them all over the country.

At the outbreak of war,

there were 25 special trains.

300 cars for the 25 trains with
poignant names inspired by "Amerika":

Asien, Afrika,
Atlas, Atlantik, Prussia...

as if the Third Reich had already
conquered the entire world.

They were all based on the model,

with cars built by German manufacturers,

and all looked alike,
both inside and out.

They were often confused,

especially the trains of Hitler
and G?ring.

Amerika would cover
thousands of kilometers

during the war years,

a steel beast which shunted
everything out of its way,

similar to Hitler's conquests.

Depending on war requirements
and the number of people on board,

the make-up of the train
varied between 10 to 16 cars,

a length of 300 to 430 meters,

the equivalent
of two French high-speed TGV trains.

Amerika was a convoy of 1,200 tons,

a town-on-the-tracks,
with sometimes over 200 people on board.

The cars in the middle of the train
were always placed in the same way

to keep circulation
between the communication cars

and the HQ car consistent.

These were regular steel passenger cars
- the height of modernity -

adapted for the F�hrer's needs.

The cars themselves weren't armored.

They were built in the 1930s

in three renowned German factories:

Henschel, Wegmann and Cred�.

The inside was furbished by a well-known

interior design company:
"Associated Workshops" based in Munich.

These workshops were well-known
because they introduced Art Nouveau

into Germany in the early 20th century.

And here's Hitler's private car,

weighing in at a colossal 63 tons,

something that gave rise to the rumor

that it was heavily armored.

But the truth is even more surprising:

Hitler had a 100% marble bathroom
installed,

But in order to do so,

a reinforced concrete sub-floor
was necessary to support

the considerable extra weight.

What's more, like in all the cars,

there was a heating and air-conditioning
system - very rare for the time -

which allowed the F�hrer
to regulate the temperature.

The highest technology
even for daily life.

This car was the third from the front,
just after the first baggage car.

You entered via an antechamber
permanently guarded by two soldiers.

The simple living area,

with its large table
and armchairs in the middle,

had veined mahogany walls.

Hitler's apartment consisted
of a bedroom with a single bed.

His famous bathroom had a bathtub
and gold-plated faucets.

Next came three guest rooms

and a washroom.

Two soldiers also kept permanent guard
at the rear end of the car.

Basically,
the style we see here in the lounge car

was fairly middle-class,

old-fashioned middle-class.

Most of the features
have a relatively functional design.

There's very little
decoration or ornamentation.

He believed
luxury belonged to the state.

As a man, he liked sobriety,

a degree of austerity, even.

September 3rd 1939.

A big day for Amerika.

The train would make
its first military journey,

from Berlin to Bad Polzin,

a small town in north-west Poland.

Hitler had just started World War II
by invading Poland.

The world entered into armed conflict,

the biggest mankind had ever known,

one of the darkest pages in our history.

62 million men, women and children
would lose their lives.

The fate of Poland and the world
would be decided in this train.

Hitler had made it
his military headquarters.

Mobile and impressive, it would now
escort the F�hrer to all fronts.

As war raged in Poland
for several long days,

Amerika, like its owner,
gave off an air of invincibility.

From the train,
Hitler dictated his military strategy.

Over the coming days,
it would become a kind of second home,

shared by high-ranking Nazi dignitaries,
his closest associates,

but also by secretaries,
cooks, Hitler's private bodyguards,

his doctor, train drivers

and the soldiers who manned
the anti-aircraft batteries.

A whole Nazi ant nest came to life.

Hitler has a very large staff
of attendants.

He has valets looking after
his every need, dressing him,

providing clean clothes,

there are chambermaids on board
to make the beds,

very carefully vetted staff

who act as waiters,

ma�tre d',
in dining carriages.

So these are some of the best waiters
in Germany

to do this.

The train offered unexpected commodities,
a touch of luxury at the height of war,

like the car entirely dedicated
to bathing with its hairdresser,

a refined area enjoyed by Hitler
and his prestigious guests.

It was presented to him
by the Reichsbahn

for his 50th birthday on April 20th 1939.

The marble
and the 11,200-liter water tank

made the car extremely heavy at 78 tons.

It was the 9th car from the front,
just after the guest sleeper car.

The first room,
with asbestos insulation,

was fitted
with two 2,000-liter water tanks.

Then a small dressing-room,

followed by five bathrooms,

two of which had bathtubs
in marble and enameled steel.

Hitler shaved himself,

but his private barber cut his hair every
two weeks in the hairdressing suite.

Finally, three shower cabins in marble...

and a washroom.

The bathroom facilities
were state-of-the-art,

the very best showers and bathes.

Hitler was somebody who enjoyed

those aspects of his life
very much so.

Hitler's days started fairly late,
around ten o'clock,

when he would go
to the command post

for discussions
with the head of strategic operations.

He would be updated
on the morning's progress.

He gave few orders,
and let the teams get on with their work.

The only demand he made was no smoking.

You have to imagine life on board
as something like the train's master:

extremely austere
and essentially dedicated to work.

He was always in his dynamic of power.

Amerika was a genuine haven of peace

as it weaved its way
across northern Poland in September 1939,

taking Hitler to support his army

as it advanced in the noise and fury
of the Blitzkrieg.

Poland was attacked

from every possible side

and it shared
many of its borders with Germany.

The Army
managed to cross all of these borders.

Hitler would immediately organize
the occupation of Poland

in an extremely cruel way
for the Polish people.

He wanted to show them

that their homeland would be germanized

and become part of the Reich.

The Soviet Union,
with which the Germans had signed

a non-aggression pact in August 1939,

invaded the western part
of Poland on September 17th.

The country was on its knees

and surrendered
5 weeks after the outbreak of war.

Hitler's dream was coming true:

the creation
of a great German Empire.

With the conquest of Poland achieved,

Hitler returned to the Chancellery,

while Amerika was parked up
in a highly guarded zone

at Tempelhof Airport,
just outside the capital.

The Nazis were obsessive
about security.

To ensure it, a meticulous system
of logistics was put in place.

The entire regiment of SS
and Wehrmacht Troops

whose only job is to protect Hitler,
to protect the train,

to protect his cars, his planes,
and the transport routes

to and from his military HQ.

The train itself has to undergo
a very thorough security check

including with sniffer dogs
for explosives.

Everything has to be
very carefully checked:

food brought on board,
everything prepared,

the staff gathered, et cetera.

Every person employed on the train
underwent very strict controls.

Aryans only,

very much like the SS trace your lineage
back to 1750:

no Jews in the blood,
anything like this.

Perhaps reliable Party people

vetting, very careful vetting.

Then, there was Hitler's bodyguard:
a special unit dedicated entirely to him.

On board Amerika,
they had a car just for them.

This would be the RSD,
the Reichssicherheitsdienst.

They are the closest bodyguards
and Hitler would carry anywhere

from about 22 to 26 SS bodyguards
on the train.

They are the only men allowed
anywhere near Hitler, who are armed.

Everybody else is unarmed,
for obvious reasons.

During his journeys, there was
always the same obsession with security,

with an absolute control
of everywhere the train would pass.

Along the tracks, one soldier
was posted every on 100 m

at vulnerable points,
such as stations, bridges and tunnels.

The train itself was protected
by heavy weaponry

contained in the highly effective
anti-aircraft cars, or Flakwagens.

At the front and back of the train,
and totally autonomous,

they provided protection from attacks
by both air and land.

Four anti-aircraft guns on a turret
at the front of the car.

In the middle, the soldiers'
living space, with beds, a kitchen,

a washroom,
and a magazine for arms and munitions.

At the rear, four more guns
identical to the first set.

The 20-mm guns were very effective

because they could be used
as anti-aircraft,

being able to fire upwards

to an altitude of about 2,500 meters.

But they could also fire

to the side at objects on the ground.

At enemy troops or light vehicles
that got too close to the train.

Here, their range was much greater,
because they could fire up to

about 4.7 km at ground targets.

And they're thought to have had a rate
of fire of about 800 rounds a minute.

The full crew of the Flakwagen
was between 25 and 30 men.

The special train
gave Hitler the possibility

of taking his entire war staff with him.

Hitler also needed to be able to travel
anywhere and quickly if need be.

For this, his armored Mercedes
followed the train and an airplane

was permanently available
along the route.

He also had his Focke-Wulf 200 Condor,

his private four-engine airliner.

So as the train went from one stop
to another, the plane preceded it

and waited at an airfield
chosen in advance, ready to take

Hitler and his staff
wherever they needed to go

depending on the situation
and the urgency.

In early 1940, with Austria,

Czechoslovakia and Poland
now part of the new German Empire,

the F�hrer began preparing
his next offensives.

Hitler worked very hard on

well-designed attack against France.
Well-designed because it was

- what they didn't say back then -
"surgical".

It was to nullify the French Army

and its weapons,

then offer generous peace terms

which France would not be able to refuse
because it had been disarmed

in the early encounters,
which had been well-calculated by Hitler.

When France was attacked
in the middle of May 1940,

it didn't resist the speed and power
of the German Army.

It laid down its arms
four weeks later.

All of western Europe was now
under the yoke of Nazism and Fascism.

Only Britain stood firm.

On June 22nd 1940,

in a train,
Hitler accepted the surrender of France.

In a spirit of pure vengeance,

the F�hrer demanded it be signed
in the Rethondes clearing in Compi�gne,

in the same car the Armistice of 1918
had been signed.

Hitler's choice of place

was far from neutral or innocent.

It was a way of telling France
that the chapter

in which the Second Reich
had capitulated

lamentably in 1918 was now closed

and that the Third Reich

had now made up for this insult.

Hitler returned victoriously to Berlin
on July 6th 1940

on board Amerika,
the symbol of his might.

A gigantic crowd gave him
a hero's welcome.

It would be the last time
he mingled with the public.

He had enormous fears
about his own security.

And he may have had fears...

that public fervor was waning.

And he needed this public fervor.

It had given him a backbone of steel
and immense confidence in the 1930s.

So he decided not to take any risks

with crowds that might not be
as accommodating to him.

The general public slowly
are pushed further and further away

from the physical being of Hitler.

Of course, this is good in many ways,

because it channels into the whole idea

of Hitler being this kind
of godlike figure,

that he is not down
among his people.

His cult of personality figure

removed from the ordinary
German citizens.

Amerika,
like the other special trains,

was pulled by two locomotives.

It wasn't because of the weight
of the train.

It was to ensure that if one
of the locomotives broke down,

the other one could continue.

But a steam locomotive needed
about eight hours of preparation

before it was ready to roll.

Coal had to be fed into the hearth
and fired, to heat

the 27,000 liters of water in the boiler
and bring it up to pressure.

The autonomy of a steam locomotive
was 250, 300 km at the most.

You couldn't get from Paris to Marseille
with just one locomotive.

After 150 km,

you had to start planning to change.
The tender was empty.

The locomotive would have consumed
its 7 tons of coal

and 30 tons of water
in the first 150 km.

You had to stop. They could hook up
a new locomotive in about 2 minutes.

The new one was ready.

They simply unhooked the empty one
and gave you a full one.

So for Paris to Marseille,
you needed 10 to 15 locomotives.

When the Orient Express
went from Paris to Istanbul,

it needed 30 or so locomotives.

So the steam locomotive
was a kind of traction relay,

a bit like the old-fashioned
postal service

where you changed your horses
every 30 km of so.

Amerika was no exception to this rule.

On a 1,000-km journey,
like Berlin to Paris for example,

the two locomotives
had to be changed four times.

In France, they were supplied
by the French national railway.

All through the existence
of Hitler's train,

all types of electric
and steam locomotives were used.

The most notable was the famous BR52,
the war locomotive,

which appeared in 1942.

The BR52, nicknamed the "Kriegslok"

reinvented manufacturing methods

because it was simple.
It was soldered together,

there was no riveting,
which is expensive.

There were no rivets studding
the boiler, it was a smooth cylinder.

It was much lighter

as everything not considered
totally useful was stripped away.

So it was very light,
but very muscular.

The BR52 was the perfect
wartime locomotive.

It was assembled quickly,

required few expensive raw materials
and little manual labor.

In all, it made savings
of 26 tons of materials

and 6,000 man hours of work.

It wasn't only built in Germany
but in all occupied countries.

There are models made at Cockerill
in Belgium,

at Batignolles-Ch�tillon in Nantes

and at Schneider in Le Creusot and Paris.

For example, Skoda in Czechoslovakia...

and companies in Alsace

also built these war locomotives.

They were built in 17 countries,

in occupied countries or in those
which used them after the war.

In the end, 6,285 war locomotives
were built, which is a huge number.

It was most probably

the largest series
of steam locomotives ever built.

Hitler began planning a journey
which would take him across France

to a meeting
with the Spanish dictator Franco,

- Spain wasn't at war -

and Marshal P�tain,
the leader of Vichy France.

He was hoping to unite their forces
against Great Britain,

the only country as yet unconquered
in Western Europe.

It was a dangerous, top secret route.

Meticulous preparation was launched.

Hitler left his residence The Berghof
on October 20th

to begin a three-leg voyage
across France.

As Amerika gobbled up the kilometers,

the Nazi security services
traveled ahead of the train

throughout the entire journey.

Stations were informed
at the last minute,

and the heads of the rail network
a few hours beforehand.

Traffic was totally disrupted.

When Hitler's train
was rolling on the network,

all other trains ahead
were parked on side tracks.

No other trains were allowed to run.

French railroad workers were
even consigned to their work buildings

so they wouldn't be on the platform
when the train passed.

And of course,

all the tracks and bridges
were checked

to make sure
there weren't any explosive devices

that could derail the train.

In the stations, all documentation
produced and used during the journey,

even the most banal service notes,
were destroyed at the end of each day.

Nobody was allowed to know where Amerika
had been or where it was going.

Plus the security services
had also put in place

an extremely effective idea.

What they would do...

Some officials would run a train

that looks quite similar
to Hitler's train:

large, Express train,
with Pullman carriages.

This would be run ahead
of Hitler's train

along the route that Hitler's train
was going to take.

It ran about 20 or 30 minutes ahead.

The idea was to thwart
a potential attack,

so that the people would attack
the first train rather than Hitler's.

And also, sometimes,
there was another ghost train

following behind Hitler's train,
so you could be pretty confused.

Which one to attack?

Hitler, en route for Hendaye
on the border with Spain,

made a first stop
to meet with Pierre Laval,

the then Vice-President
of the Vichy Council,

to prepare for the future meeting
with P�tain.

The meeting had to remain top secret
and highly securitized.

The ideal place had to be found
between Paris and Hendaye,

a place where nobody
was expecting Hitler to turn up.

It was to be Montoire-sur-le-Loir,

where Hitler would arrive
on October 22nd on board Amerika.

He was preceded by the special train
of Von Ribbentrop,

the German Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The town of 4,000 inhabitants had been
carefully chosen by the F�hrer's staff.

The station was some way off
the main Paris - Hendaye line,

and it was close to a tunnel.

The train would only have 3 km to go
to reach the safety of the tunnel.

When you were on a passenger train
during the war, even Hitler,

it was like being on the open road
and exposed to all kinds of danger.

The locomotives were kept at pressure

so that the train could immediately
depart for the tunnel,

which shows how distrustful Hitler was

and how concerned he was
about his own security.

He was convinced that the British,

and later the Americans and Soviets,

only dreamed of one thing:
to kill him in order to end the war.

Since the beginning of the month,
the town had been under pressure.

There were rumors, then more rumors,

as 500 German soldiers
began arriving in town.

And silence gradually fell on
that October 22nd of 1940.

The town was under very high security,

with lines of sentries
posted all around the station,

and German planes
standing by for air surveillance.

There were also soldiers placed
at regular intervals

between the station and the tunnel.

One soldier every 20 meters,

for a 3-kilometer section of track

equals 150 men,

which is a huge number.

All the access roads in and out
of the town were blocked off.

And there was a team monitoring

the post office's lines of communication,

ready to cut them off if need be.

The town was literally under siege.

People living close to the station
were consigned to their homes,

with shutters closed
and the electricity cut off.

Nobody could witness or know about
Hitler's imminent arrival on Amerika,

which would stop at platform 3
at 6:34 p.m.

Pierre Laval arrived around 7 p.m.

Hitler received him,
accompanied by Von Ribbentrop

and the interpreter Paul Schmidt.

The discussion was brief,
about 45 minutes,

just a few diplomatic preparations

to ensure that P�tain agreed to meet
with the F�hrer in two days' time.

Hitler's special train,
preceded by Von Ribbentrop's,

left Montoire during the night

and reached Hendaye
early in the afternoon of October 23rd,

for the meeting
with the Spanish Dictator.

The secret service were experts
at creating red herrings.

They'd report a train arriving one day.
"Oh no, it's two trains!"

They dissimulated as much as possible

so that people knew
as little as possible.

There were also guards
in all the stations,

and possibly all along the forests
of Les Landes.

And then there was the problem
of the track gauge.

The Spanish gauge was 1.76 m,

as opposed to the French 1.44 m,

and so the two trains were blocked
in Hendaye Station.

Franco arrived slightly late.

He headed straight
to Hitler's living-room car

for a meeting that would last 9 hours.

But the meeting came to nothing.

Franco had no intention of lining up
Spain alongside Germany's forces.

And Hitler did not insist,
either clearly or firmly.

The train set off for Montoire
during the night of October 24th

for the long-awaited meeting
with Marshal P�tain.

While the town center had regained
a semblance of calm,

the Germans made themselves busy.
The station,

a little away from the town center,
was once again sealed off.

The soldiers were on-alert,
air defenses at the ready.

Once again, the world seemed
to stop in this heavy atmosphere.

Nothing filtered out
about what was about to happen.

Montoire had no idea that its future
would be forever marked

by the next few hours.

Hitler's train arrived at 3:29 p.m.
and stopped at platform 3.

Fog came in, and at 6 p.m.,

the French Head of State Marshal P�tain
arrived in his car with Pierre Laval.

Hitler waited patiently
at the foot of his train,

under the shelter
between platforms 2 and 3.

The meeting between Hitler and P�tain

was sealed with the famous
- all too famous! - handshake.

Accompanied by Von Ribbentrop,
Paul Schmidt and Pierre Laval,

the F�hrer and P�tain settled down
in the saloon car.

A two-hour meeting laid the foundations
for a French-German collaboration

validated a few days later by P�tain

during his fateful speech
of October 30th 1940.

"It is for honor
and to maintain French unity,

a unity of some ten centuries,

within the framework of the constructive
establishing of a new European order,

that today, I enter into collaboration."

Amerika left Montoire that same evening
heading back to Munich.

Hitler learned that Mussolini
was planning to invade Greece.

He hurried to Florence to dissuade him
but arrived too late:

since 8 a.m.,

Italian troops had landed
on the Greek peninsula.

Six months later, April 12th 1941.

M?nichkirchen, a small town
in the Austrian Alps near Vienna,

welcomed for two weeks Amerika
and its Nazi ant nest.

The train parked up at the entrance
to a long tunnel of 2,700 m,

in a valley just outside town,
next to a small hotel.

The locomotives were kept under pressure,
ready to get Amerika to shelter

in case of an attack.

Hitler directed the attack
against Yugoslavia

which would give him access
to Greece to help Mussolini

who had been unable
to quash Greek resistance.

Hitler spent the majority of his time
shut away in his HQ on rails

directing operations.

His link with the outside world
was his communications car,

with its state-of-the-art equipment
which enabled him

to stay in contact in real-time
with his forces.

This car was the 13th from the front,

just after the one
which housed Hitler's private bodyguards.

You entered via the war room,

the strategic car with maps
which could be put up on the wall

or consulted around a table.

Next, the communications rooms
with all the hi-tech of the 1940s:

the first equipped with teleprinters
and coding machines

to cipher and decipher teletexts.

Then the switchboards for calls coming in
or going out, and internal calls.

And finally, the radio compartment
with its Enigma Machines,

which code and decipher messages.

Different parts of the armed forces

use different Enigma
and ciphering machines.

To use these machines,

they have to plug
the F�hrer's personal carriage

and the two or three communication
carriages and the bodyguard's carriages

into the postal
telephone exchange.

Every station has all these plugs ready.

They just take the leads
and plug it all in.

Within 20 or 30 minutes,
everything is up and running.

So you can start using telephones
and talking to Russia or wherever.

When he's on the move,
he can't use the telephone, the machines,

they have to use instead a great big
700 watt shortwave radio.

This is also state-of-the-art stuff.

And this stuff is being beamed out
all over the place.

Hitler broke with the monotony
of the campaign on April 20th 1941,

by celebrating his 52nd birthday
in this bucolic countryside.

During the two weeks
spent at M?nichkirchen,

he held numerous conferences
and diplomatic meetings:

with the King of Bulgaria,
the Regent of Hungary,

the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs,
and the German Ambassador to Hungary,

some of whom also arrived by train.

While Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
were already subjugated,

the Third Reich put a stranglehold
on Yugoslavia

as it was the gateway to Greece.

On April 26th 1941,
Amerika left M?nichkirchen,

and Hitler reached
the Chancellery in Berlin

the following day,
the day Athens capitulated.

From May 9th 1941,
Hitler relaxed in the fresh air

at The Berghof,
his residence in Bavaria...

before sending his country into a battle

which would ultimately lead
to its defeat: the invasion of Russia.

He's very proud of this house,

which he paid for. The Royalties
of Mein Kampf, his book.

And that is where he spent his time
with Eva Braun

playing happy families,
playing husband and wife.

Lots of children around,
not his own.

The children of the leaders
and other people.

On June 22nd 1941,

Operation Barbarossa was launched

and Germany invaded Russia.

The Eastern Front became the place
of the German Army's operations.

From that moment on,
change would set in:

Hitler became
more and more paranoid.

He cut himself off
from the world

as his hopes for a conquest
of all Russia were thwarted.

He only felt safe in bunkers.

Amerika became a train
to get him from A to B,

but never again a mobile HQ,

considered too risky,
despite its protection.

Two days after the invasion,

Amerika arrived in Rastenburg,
in Poland.

Hitler ordered the construction
of a 6-square-kilometer HQ,

surrounded by mined land.

A collection of blockhouses,
camouflaged bunkers

protected by reinforced concrete walls,
barracks for his soldiers

and log cabins
dissimulated under moss.

2,000 people lived in the so-called
"Wolfsschanze":

the Wolf's Lair.

He spent over two years
in this dark forest,

infested with mosquitoes,

enduring heat
and humidity in summer,

and deep snow
and freezing temperatures in winter.

He names it the Wolf's Lair
"Wolfsschanze"

using a name he's used many times.

He was known as "Mr. Wolf"
earlier on in his life.

Of course, the wolf is a symbol
of strength and cunning.

And of course,
"Adolf", his own name,

is an old German name for wolf.

So it's a kind of germanic myth
and everything else.

The Wolf's Lair is so important.

It becomes his kind of sealed home.

Away from the reality of Berlin.

Away from the reality

of what is happening in Europe.

He only leaves

when the Russians are almost
at the gates.

Only then it is evacuated
and destroyed.

Throughout the war
and his advances on various fronts,

he would have constructed
20 different HQs

with high-security bunkers.

Excess and gigantism were also present
600 km south

of the Wolf's Lair, at "Anlage S�d".

Two monumental bunkers,
some 30 kilometers away,

for special trains,
became operational in the summer of 1941.

They were massive tunnels,
built in 10 months

by hundreds of prisoners
from concentration camps in Poland.

Hitler and Mussolini met there
for talks lasting several hours

on the way to conduct war
against the Soviet Union.

Hitler's train was parked
in the Strzyzow tunnel,

and Mussolini's in the Stepina tunnel.

They were 480 meters long
by 8 meters wide and 12 meters high.

The walls, over 2 meters thick
of solid concrete,

were designed to do one thing:

to shunt Hitler's train
into a very secure location.

If any attack was made
on the train,

they could seal
both ends of the tunnels

and fight it out

until other German forces could arrive
and rescue them.

The crazy thing is
all this time, effort and money

for two meetings only.

These tunnels are only used twice
in World War II,

for meetings with Mussolini.

It is an absolute joke.
But it shows

the level of paranoia
surrounding Hitler.

Back at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler directed
operations on the Eastern front,

where blood was spilled
battle after battle.

This time,
blitzkrieg tactics didn't work:

the 4-month planned invasion

turned into all out war
until defeat in May 1945.

The Red Army began to advance.

The German Army had reached its limits

in terms of men and material.

It was finding it harder and harder
to reinforce its troops.

That's why they brought in

laborers from France
and other occupied countries,

to replace as many German factory workers
as possible

and to replenish the ranks
of the Wehrmacht in Russia,

which had suffered terrible losses
at the hands of the Soviets.

As defeat followed defeat,

Hitler became more authoritarian
and shell-shocked.

He was wracked with doubts.

From the summer of 1941 on,

80% of lives lost by the German Army
were in the Soviet Union.

As the military situation starts
to turn against Germany,

particularly by early 1942,
the failure to take Moscow

and then of course,
the great disaster later of Stalingrad,

Hitler becomes more isolated.

He makes less public appearances
and less speeches.

On December 7th 1941,

the American naval base
in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, was hit

by a surprise attack launched
by the Japanese Imperial Fleet.

The next day,
America declared war on Japan.

German and Italy,
which formed the Axis with Japan,

riposted with the signing
of the Tripartite Pact

and declared war
on the United States

on December 12th.

The conflict had become truly global.

Hitler declaring war
on the United States,

after the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor,

comes as a great surprise
to many Germans.

Voluntarily declaring war on America,

in the midst of all of this trouble
with the Soviet Union

seems to me...

The megalomania is out of control
by this stage.

Insanity.

There was no way the special train
could keep the name Amerika.

So it was renamed "Brandenburg",
in a return to German roots.

"Brandenburg":
like the heart of Prussia,

like the region around Berlin.

There had also been
an SS DIVISION "Brandenburg",

which was renowned for being
particularly loyal to the F�hrer.

I think that's probably
where the name came from,

because "Brandenburg" expressed
a particular relationship to Hitler.

But as history is filled
with twists and turns,

it's the generic name
"F�hrersonderzug"

- F�hrer's special train -

which has become used
and fixed in the collective memory.

Across the Channel,
Britain was desperate to find a way

to halt the Nazi machine.

Hitler was the man to kill.

In all, there were 30 or 40
failed assassination attempts

against the F�hrer
since he had been in power.

He said he was protected by something

that was beyond human control.

He said the same thing after
the failed attempt of July 20th 1944.

"Once again, I have been protected
by Providence."

So he could never imagine his orders
not being followed.

He always believed there was something
somewhere which would obey him.

In June 1944,

the British Special Operations Executive,
SOE,

launched Operation Foxley:
a top secret plan

which wasn't made public until 1998.

The outline was simple:

find a way to kill Hitler.

Two main ideas were retained
by the British agents:

the first to kill Hitler at The Berghof

by parachuting in two elite snipers.

The second:

to blow up his train.

But how to get round the surveillance
of this impregnable fortress?

Several options were studied.

Firstly, to derail the train.

But this would require
precise information

regarding where the train
was and when.

Information seemingly impossible
to obtain.

Systematic searches
and the high-level security

gave no chance
of planting a bomb on the train.

So another possibility
was looked into...

They studied very closely

the train's water supply.

And they realized that while food

and bottled drinks

were treated with maximum security.

On-board drinking water
was a weak link.

One German prisoner,
a former steward on the train,

revealed to SOE that the tank
with Hitler's water

was in his private dining car,
just above the kitchen.

They studied

ways of infiltrating an agent

who would poison the water tank.

With the movement of the train,
poison would mix with the water.

They knew that Hitler drank
lots of tea

and he took it with a drop of milk.

So they were hoping
that the milk would be poured first

and no one would notice
that the color was a bit odd.

Hitler had a food taster.

Anything that was given to him
to drink or eat

was tested first
by somebody else.

That person would have dropped dead

and it would be obvious that there was
something wrong with the water.

The poison was codenamed "I".

It was a slow-working poison.

Slow-working indeed!

Because the famous "I" poison would kill
six or seven days after ingestion.

So even if Doctor Morell,

who often tasted Hitler's food,

were to taste his cup of tea,

he wouldn't die immediately,
neither would Hitler,

and nobody would go
running around madly

looking for an antidote.

So there was a good chance
it just might work.

But in 1944,
with Nazi Germany on the back foot,

there was a fierce debate
within SOE ranks:

should we kill Hitler?

While everyone wanted him dead,

many feared that his death

by the enemy would turn him
into an idolized martyr.

The decision was taken not to kill him

because Hitler, by late 1944,

had become our greatest asset
in the West.

He was mismanaging the war
to such a degree,

making so many stupid decisions,

he was shortening the war effectively.

So keeping Hitler alive
was actually the best thing to do.

Shockingly.

From December 11th

until January 15th 1945,

Hitler directed
the Battle of the Ardennes

from his headquarters at Adlerhorst,
north of Frankfurt.

His objectives were grandiose,

but as if to give reason
to the British SOE,

he confirmed
his strategic weaknesses,

seemed to cut himself off
from the world

and lacked the means
to see his ambitions through.

The defeat of Germany would be
all the more a bitter failure.

News arrives

midway through the Battle of the Bulge.

Soviets have launched
this enormous offensive,

this gigantic offensive,

which has destroyed
the German Army

largely in the East.

They are pouring through Poland

into East Prussia.

Hitler was forced
to withdraw to Berlin.

He didn't know it yet,

but it was his last journey
on the F�hrersonderzug,

his train which had never been attacked,

his train which had taken him
rapidly towards a new European order

in the early days of war.

From the window of his train car,

Hitler became aware
of the extent of the devastation.

Berlin had been bombed to smithereens.

He realized the great new
German Empire would never be,

that the war was over,
that he had lost.

It was January 16th 1945.

Despite his capital lying in ruins,

he still had a small belief
that he should set out to attack.

He left the F�hrersonderzug
at the small station of Grunewald,

to the west of Berlin,
which had already seen

the special train several times.

But other "special" trains too:

those taking millions,

most of them Jews, to the hell of the
concentration and extermination camps.

He set up office in the Chancellery,

not right away in his bunker.

But the Chancellery in Berlin
had been bombed

so much it was pretty much unusable.

All the windows had been blown out,
and this was in winter.

Mid-April 1945.

Hitler locked himself away in his bunker
beneath the Chancellery.

He watched on, powerless,
as the Soviet Army took Berlin.

On April 20th,
he celebrated his last birthday.

On the 29th,
he married his companion Eva Braun.

During the night, he dictated

his political testament.

And the next day, at 3:15 p.m.,

they committed suicide
in their bedroom.

Their bodies were doused
with gasoline and burned.

The following week,
on the edge of a ravine in Mallnitz,

the fate of the F�hrer's private
saloon car

lay in the hands of the SS.

It was May 7th 1945.
The time: 3 p.m.

The SS decided
to blow up Hitler's private car.

So they filled the inside
with gasoline, planted dynamite

and grenades,

set it alight
and the whole thing blew up.

The Nazis didn't want
this highly symbolic car

to fall into the hands of the Allies

to be displayed as a trophy of war
in Paris, London or New York.

Not a single piece
of Hitler's private should survive,

it all had to burn into thin air.

World War II ended
on September 2nd 1945.

In defeat, Germany was divided
amongst the Allies.

But it still wasn't the end
for the F�hrersonderzug.

The Americans get wind of it,
they take over.

"Thank you very much.
That's now US Army property."

Hitler's train.

And the British say:
"We quite fancy some of that as well."

So it's divided up.

Some carriages go to the British,
some go to the Americans.

Various generals who were in charge

in the Allied occupation zones

use it as their private train.

Spoils of war, of course.

In the early 1950s, the cars
from Nazi special trains were returned

to the West German state.

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
composed his official train

with some of the remaining
F�hrersonderzug cars.

It was in this train that he made
his official trip to Moscow in 1955,

a kind of thumbing his nose
at history,

ten years after the fall of Berlin.

Then the special train cars
were updated,

refurbished,
modernized and dispersed.

In the 1960s, Queen Elizabeth the Second
and the Beatles couldn't have imagined

that when traveling in Germany,
they were in the private car

of Hitler's Minister of Transport,
who had organized

all special train journeys
during the war years.

In the 1970s, it was Chancellor
Willy Brandt who made use

of the remaining cars
from Hitler's train.

After 1980, none of the special train
cars were ever used again.

The steel beast was made
in the image of its master.

It personified one of the worst murderers
in modern history,

accompanied him on all fronts,
in all his crazy decisions,

and was a haven for him when the world
was slipping out of his grasp.

Of the F�hrersonderzug,
despite the weight of its history,

barely anything remains,
just few rail cars

sitting at the back of a museum.

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