Abandoned Engineering (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 1 - England's Abandoned Village - full transcript

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Mysterious
remains of rusting ships,

stranded in an arid desert.

It was ecological suicide.

A ghostly set of concrete
teeth high in the Italian peaks.

A very stark and strange
sight to have in the marginally

beautifully mountain landscape.

An eerie collection of buildings
hidden in a remote forest.

It's like a village
of the damned.

You can tell that
something happened here.

And a technological marvel

now rotting away
in a forgotten cove.



It's so destroyed.

It's hard to believe
there's any other reason

for that level of destruction

other than some major
cataclysmic event.

Once they were some of
the most advanced structures

and facilities on the planet,

at the cutting edge of
design and construction.

Today, they stand
abandoned, contaminated,

and sometimes deadly,

but who built them and how
and why were they abandoned?

In the southwest of
the former Soviet union

is the country of Uzbekistan.

And not far from the small town
of moynaq is an astonishing sight.

For mile after mile,



all you can see is a dry
and dusty desert landscape.

There, in the middle
of this Sandy expanse,

there are ships of every
size, from small to large.

But where is the water?

It's a very odd thing,
seeing a boat in the desert.

You think of water instantly, a
boat is indicative sign of water.

But then you look around
and there's none available.

It's like an armada of
rusting hulks in the middle

of the desert without a
shoreline anywhere in sight.

It is an intensely
post-apocalyptic image.

You don't have to be an expert
to tell that something has gone

extremely wrong here.

The town of moynaq
is virtually deserted.

But what has gone on here?

The only clue is
the symbol of a fish,

which adorns the town's sign.

There are signs that
fishing was absolutely

once very important here,

but what makes it so extraordinary
is that there's no water to be seen.

In fact, it's miles
from the nearest sea.

So, what happened?

Where has the sea gone and
why was moynaq abandoned?

The answer to this puzzle
lies more than 4,000km away

in the heart of Russia's
capital, Moscow.

In the 1950s,

Uzbekistan was part
of the Soviet union,

an empire 2.5 times
the size of the usa,

which stretched from the
baltic sea to the pacific ocean.

The country was still recovering
from the most destructive war

in human history.

The Soviet union's notorious
war leader Joseph Stalin

died in march 1953,

and he left behind a
country in very poor condition.

This was the grim situation
facing nikita khrushchev,

the new first secretary
of the communist party

of the Soviet union.

The regime responded in
the only way it knew how,

by seizing complete control.

The Soviet union ran
on a command economy,

all the decisions
were made at the top.

And they would decide,
"comrade, you will grow the wheat.

"And you will grow the cotton.

"And you will make
the iron and steel."

The individual districts and
certainly individual workers

had very little
say in the matter.

And the technocrats in charge
thought they had all the information

they needed to
make all the decisions.

Each Soviet state
had to provide goods

and raw materials to
the central government

who would in turn provide
food and other products.

Everything was
controlled by Moscow.

There was no room
for experimentation.

There was no room for anybody

to deviate from
the central authority.

So, once the order
came down from on high,

everybody got in
line and conformed.

The gaze of the Soviet
leadership fell on a new target

for exploitation, moynaq.

It's almost impossible
to imagine now

when you look at the
desert that surrounds it.

But 60 years ago,

moynaq lay at the edge
of the fourth largest inland

stretch of water in
the world, the aral sea.

Forty thousand of its citizens
were either fishermen or worked

at its fish processing plant,
the largest in the Soviet union.

Almas tovashiv was one of them.

More than 200 vessels

were engaged in
the fishing industry,

more than 100 vessels
were transporting fish

to the fish canning factory,

where 1,200 people worked
and annually produced

up to 12 million cans of fish.

The fishing industry was
able to thrive in the aral sea

because it was fairly
shallow all round.

So, it was actually
quite easy to fish.

And by its nature,

it didn't actually
freeze in the winter.

So, you could do fishing
almost all year round.

Overall, one-sixth of
Russia's annual fishing quota

came from the aral sea...

And a substantial industry
thrived on its shores.

At that time,

80% to 90% of the fish
production in Uzbekistan

was provided by the aral sea.

There were 34 species of fish,

20 of which were of
commercial importance.

Then there was one moynaq
fishing-canning factory,

12 fishing collective
farms, and 6 fishing flotillas.

The whole population
was engaged in fishing.

But by 1990, all
fishing had ended.

The sea had become a desert.

So, what was the main reason

for this extraordinary
transformation?

It was all because of
something called white gold.

We know it better as cotton.

Cotton's been grown in
the aral basin for centuries.

But this really ramped up
under the leadership of Stalin

when he announced to the
world that the Soviet union

would be the leading
producer of this crop.

It only rains about
4 inches a year

in that part of Uzbekistan.

That's about the same as
the mojave desert in the us

or even the same as
some parts of the Sahara.

So, they needed to irrigate.

They needed to get water
from somewhere else.

Where did they get it?

From the two rivers
that fed the aral sea.

They dammed them up.

They made reservoirs.

They made this huge
complex of irrigation canals,

thousands of miles
of irrigation canals.

It was a typical vast,
ambitious Soviet project.

But the crops needed
more than water to flourish.

Chemical fertilisers were
used in vast quantities,

20 times the usual amounts.

Cotton, especially the
way the Soviets grew it,

took a lot of fertiliser,
a lot of pesticides.

They sprayed this
stuff on with abandon.

It flowed out.

It polluted the ground water
so what little water that did flow

into the aral sea was
heavily polluted with toxins.

However, the Soviet plan to
concentrate on cotton production

at the expense of
the aral sea worked.

Uzbekistan became the
dominant supplier of cotton,

the dominant grower of
cotton in the Soviet union,

and remains a major
grower of cotton.

But there was a huge
environmental price to pay.

If you've got four-fifths of
your water source coming

from elsewhere and
being brought in to maintain

and sustain the sea, if
you shut that life blood off,

things are gonna
change very dramatically.

It was ecological suicide
because once they took

all the water out
of those rivers,

there wasn't enough
water to feed the aral sea.

In its hot environment,
it's sunny most of the time,

there's a lot of evaporation.

Without water
continuing to flow into it,

the aral sea began to evaporate.

People understood
that there was less water.

It was not enough

even for watering gardens
and use on the farms.

Moynaq's fishermen depended
on the lake for their livelihoods.

So, they followed
its shrinking shores.

But they soon realised there
was an even bigger problem.

The fish were dying.

Not only is the
shoreline moving away

because you're deceasing
the volume of the water,

but you're
increasing the salinity.

And it went from about 10g
per litre to over 100g per litre,

a massive jump, 10 times
more salt in the water.

And the fish can't handle that.

The fish essentially
get poisoned.

It was turning from a
thriving rich freshwater

ecosystem into a dead sea.

By the late 1980s,

the last native aral
fish had vanished,

lost to the shrinking toxic sea.

In just 34 years,

the sea level dropped by 16m

and the shoreline
receded by almost 160km.

The speed at which
this actually happened

is quite remarkable.

And it's really quite
shocking to see this Jewel,

one of the fourth largest
inland seas in the world,

suddenly just diminishing
to a few sort of isolated lakes

and really just
a big dry desert.

A third of the
seabed was exposed,

spreading 100 million
tonnes of dust and salt.

Add to that, the residue from
the pesticides at the bottom

of the sea,

and you've got a
highly toxic combination.

Ultimately, it all collapsed.

And you can only
imagine how heart-breaking

life was for the
people in that region.

This had been their culture
and their way of life for centuries.

And have it all be obliterated
literally in just a few decades

must have just been devastating.

Today, the trawlers lay rusting
at the edge of moynaq's harbour...

A ghost fleet in a town where
the sea is a distant memory.

The few remaining
people still living here

are plagued by health problems.

The aral sea has now
become the aral desert.

It's a real cautionary tale in
environmental destruction.

An economy, it's not just a
nice lifestyle or a pleasant vista

but crucial parts of economies
depend on healthy an ecosystem.

When you see such
a dramatic change,

it shows us that how delicate
the environment can be

and how much we need to be aware

that we don't flip the
switch the wrong way

and send those
environments catastrophically

into the wrong direction.

Hidden away in a forest,

50km southwest of Berlin

lies a vast complex of
abandoned buildings.

It's like a village
of the damned,

you can tell that
something happened here.

Due to its decrepit
and dilapidating nature,

it's a very unique and
creepy environment.

In one building,

there's a bathtub sitting by
itself in the middle of a room.

It's really mysterious.

What's going on here?

You can tell the amount
of care that was taken

when it was built,

with its pillars and terraces
and elaborate entrances.

It's almost palatial.

There are around 60
separate buildings on the site...

And the whole complex
sprawls across 1.5km.

But what dark secrets
does this facility hold?

And exactly how did

one of the world's most
evil men end up here?

The answer lies in this
spectacular industrial revolution

in Germany during the final
years of the 19th century.

The extraordinary pace of
progress and technology, machinery,

and transport saw a once
deeply divided country

surpass even Great
Britain to become,

by the end of the 19th century,

the world's leading
industrial powerhouse.

While technical schools turned
out great thinkers and inventors,

Germany's years of investment
in education and training

eventually paid rich dividends
in the shape of a highly skilled

and motivated workforce.

The German population
doubled between 1871 and 1910,

and its capital, Berlin, grew
by 300% in just 30 years.

Germany had its
industrial revolution

a bit later than some
other European countries.

But it more than
made up for any delay.

By the 1890s, it was thriving,
fast moving, almost chaotic.

Factories were booming,

labour was pouring in

from impoverished rural
areas into the big cities,

people were crammed
into crowded tenements,

unhealthy living situations.

And along with all those
people came a lot of diseases.

Over 120 years ago,

one disease in particular
swept through Germany.

It was responsible for one
in seven of all human deaths.

It was tuberculosis.

It's a disease that's passed
by coughing or sneezing,

germs get in the air, and
in crowded conditions,

it passes from person
to person very easily.

Hygiene back then
wasn't like today of course.

If there was a toothbrush at
all in a working class household,

it was used by
then whole family.

So many people infected
their children with tuberculosis

without even knowing it.

For more than a century,

tuberculosis was the most common
cause of death not only in Europe

but also in the United States.

At the time, there was no cure.

And 80% of those
infected eventually died.

Tb was not really
treatable in the sense

that there was a cure for it.

What people tried to do was
create a healthier environment

for people with tuberculosis.

"And the idea was,
"it's a lung disease,

"it has something
to do with air.

"Let's get them out of the city,
"out to where there's fresh air,

dry air."

It was very common
for rich people to be able

to get sent off to
one of these hospitals

in some lovely
mountainous setting.

But many of the victims of
tuberculosis weren't affluent.

They couldn't afford that.

So, a new kind of
facility was needed,

beelitz-heilstatten was
seen as the answer.

Its aim was to provide
cutting edge care

in a healthy setting,

not for the very rich
but for the very poor.

An insurance company

was behind the building
of this sanatorium.

They wanted to create
this model clinic for workers

in Berlin who had limited
access to treatment otherwise.

But would it work?

Would a patient coming
from the squalor of Berlin

actually have been helped
in a sanatorium like this?

For people who lived in
very crowded conditions,

they were many of
them factory workers,

they didn't have a lot of money,

they might not have had
a lot of people at home

who could take care of
them in their sick condition.

So, to be able to go
to this lovely retreat,

even as their prognosis

for getting better
wasn't that great,

it must have seemed
like a kind of blessing.

Building began in 1898,

and the initial construction
phase took four years.

The intricate ornamental facades
and the light spacious rooms

were in stark contrast to
the conditions the workers

were used to back in the cities.

The beelitz sanatorium isn't
really like any other hospital

where you might just
have an operating theatre,

you might have a
corridor full of wards,

and, you know, normal walls
and ventilation systems, etcetera.

What we're trying to do here
is to create an atmosphere

of wellbeing to bring
light in, to bring air in.

What's really kind of
lovely is that they designed it

to feel like a resort, like
a beautiful country town.

I think the respect they
showed to these sick people,

who were not affluent, who
weren't paying their own way,

was really something admirable.

But with war on the horizon,

there were actually darker reasons
for this apparent benevolence.

The kaiser was simply
afraid of the inability

of some of his people
to serve in the military.

Also, the economy would
have lost its cheap labourers.

That was the real reason behind
the construction of this sanatorium.

Eventually, there would
be beds for 1,200 patients,

which made beelitz

one of the largest
sanatoriums in the world.

It was also briefly home
to the most notorious figure

of the 20th century.

When the first world
war began in 1914,

the hospital found
itself in the front line.

Beelitz heilstatten
was requisitioned

as a field hospital
for the red cross.

The number of beds
increased to more than 1,500.

One of its patients
was a young corporal

by the name of Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was a patient there for
two months towards the end

of 1916,

when he was hit by a
grenade in his left leg

and was sent to
beelitz for treatment.

After the war,

there was a resurgence
of tuberculosis.

And in 1920,

beelitz heilstatten
reverted to a sanatorium.

For more than 20 years, it
continued to treat the disease.

But a new treatment for tuberculosis
was just around the corner.

Tuberculosis remained
a serious problem

in the developed world

until shortly after world
war ii when the antibiotic,

streptomycin was discovered
and turned out to be

pretty effective in
treating the disease.

By the mid-1950s,

tuberculosis had
become a curable disease

and the need for the
hospital slowly declined.

But that wasn't quite
the end of beelitz.

After world war ii,

the Russians took over
the eastern sector of Berlin

and beelitz served as
a Soviet military hospital

for the next 50 years.

The Soviets operated
beelitz sanatorium

as the largest military hospital
outside of the country's borders.

In 1991,

the Soviet troops slowly
started their withdrawal.

And in 1994, the
grounds were empty again.

Today, this once vital
hospital is a ghostly shell.

The disease it was built to
beat, now a footnote in history.

Or is it?

With the emergence in the
1980s of drug resistant strains

of tuberculosis,

beelitz heilstatten
serves to remind us

that the battle against

this potentially fatal
disease continues still.

The size of the
epidemic of tuberculosis

in the early 20th
century was large.

Its impact was felt
wide through Europe.

Sites like beelitz help
us remember that.

And with the onset and
increase of modern tuberculosis,

perhaps it's a really good reminder
of the seriousness of the disease.

More than 2,000m
up in the Italian alps

is the most extraordinary sight.

Punching through tons of snow

are rows of menacing
conical structures.

There are these strange
pyramid-like structures

that almost look like a
modern art installation.

Seeing hundreds of these
concrete teeth jutting up

out of the ground in
the alpine landscape

is almost hard to
grasp what that is.

The bizarre set of teeth are
made of concrete and iron

and range in size up to 1m tall.

They stretch out over
the remote mountaintops

in a series of long clusters.

But why were they built
at such a remote location?

And what could their
strange purpose be?

What's really odd is
where these things are,

right near the
top of a mountain.

They just don't belong there.

It looks very medieval.

It's almost exactly out
of "game of thrones",

a very stark and strange site

to have in a largely
beautiful mountain landscape.

A clue as to what these rows of
conical spikes are can be found

in the valley below.

A labyrinth of secret
tunnels that stretch deep

into the mountain itself lurk
behind a secret entrance disguised

as a rock,

which is built into
the side of the valley.

When you look at it,

it seems incredibly
solid and it blends

almost seamlessly
into the background.

Someone went to
an incredible effort

to build that here.

Who built this bizarre
alpine structure

and what was its purpose?

The answer lies in the uneasy
peace that existed across

Western Europe in the 1930s.

Germany still simmered
with resentment at the harsh

respirations imposed on it
by the treaty of versailles,

and its people turned to
Hitler, a national socialism,

for salvation.

Meanwhile, Italy fell under
the spell of the fascist dictator

Benito Mussolini.

Incredibly, less than 20
years after the end of a conflict

that killed millions,

the dark clouds of war gathered
once more over the continent.

That was why the
major European powers

looked to their borders

and began to fortify them with
a series of elaborate defences.

All of this stuff in France
where the country's

seemingly impenetrable
maginot line.

And at the same time, the Germans
were building their own version,

the siegfried line across
their western front.

All through Europe, you see
these border defence lines.

And this is a reasonable precaution
by most European countries

that had genuine threats.

In 1931,

Mussolini's engineers
began to build what was seen

as the answer to
the threat of attack.

It was a line of defences
that aimed to protect Italy

over a 1,600km front
through the Italian alps.

From ventimiglia on the
west coast to fiume in the east.

It was known as the vallo
alpino or the alpine wall.

Rows of concrete and iron
teeth crowned the ridges.

And the valleys below
aligned with gun placements

and bunkers for troops.

However, this section
of the alpine wall

faced not a hostile enemy

but Mussolini's
supposed closest ally,

Adolf Hitler's newly
annexed Austria.

Mussolini was rather
distrustful of Hitler.

He knew that Hitler had
expansionist ideas in Germany

and certainly had
ideas on Austria.

Now, this meant
problems for the Italians

because they had
annexed this one region

of south tyrol of
Austria after 1918.

Mussolini understanding Hitler,

knew that Hitler would
likely want to demand

this territory and could
attack Italy and take the tyrol.

Since world war I,

fast-moving tanks had become
the most dominant weapon

on the battlefield and Germany

was the master of this
new type of warfare.

How would the Italian
alpine defences be able

to stop Hitler's new
mechanised army in its tracks?

So, the dragons teeth
or the dente di drago

were wooden Poles that
were pounded into the ground

and then cast
cement around them,

capped off with an
iron pyramid or cone.

This creates a barrier

for which armoured
vehicles and troops

cannot pass through
and effectively funnelling

a large armoured force
into effectively kill zones.

The Italians designed
an elaborate network

of interconnected bunkers

and guns to encounter
any German advance.

The fortifications were
named defence in depth.

But would they work?

The idea of having
multiple layers of defence

is that you'll slow down
the momentum of an attack,

making it much easier to repel.

It's a series of strong points.

It will stop and delay
any enemy advance.

This gives the defender time

to move up reserves
for a counterattack.

Hidden in the side
of the mountain

is the heavily camouflaged
secret entrance

to the Italian alpine fortress.

This is the fortified door
to bunker number 20.

The door opens to reveal
a network of passages

that link secret rooms
and machine guns posts.

Local guide Ludwig schopf knows
exactly how dangerous it was.

So, we see here the
machine gun room

of the bunker number 20

and here inside we
have three soldiers.

The room is outside of the rock.

Here is beginning, the rock,
and here, outside of the rock.

And the soldiers knows

that they were the
first people to die.

The bunker's heavy camouflage
was designed to give the Italians

the best possible chance
of destroying the enemy

before they could
make an attack.

They would cover
the face of the bunker

with rock slurry material.

You could not tell
that this is not part

of a cliff face until
you're actually there

and then the guns
open up on you.

But how secure were
the bunkers themselves?

The bunkers were built using
a vast amount of concrete,

up to 13 feet deep in places.

What they did was they
actually built concrete

in and amongst the rock units

to try and utilise the fact that
you've got these strong rocks

either side of the pass
and act as a natural defence

and then build round
that natural defence

with some manmade
fortifications.

What made Mussolini think
that Hitler would attack here?

On the Austrian side of the
border, there is a simple mule track,

which wouldn't have
supported the weight of a tank.

But the Italians were worried
that Germans would construct

a road into that region, allowing
armoured vehicles, tanks,

and a large number of
troops to pass into the area.

Yes, it's quite possible the
Germans could send troops

up here because that is in fact

how they broke through
mountain defence lines.

But were the
fortifications ever used?

If we're to follow Mussolini
and the advance of the Germans,

the vallo alpino defence
structures were never actually used.

The Italians just
surrendered, and effectively,

the Germans walked
into northern Italy.

The vallo alpino was actually,

for the most part,
very lightly guarded.

And this would have been
essentially border troops.

These are not
your frontline troops.

So, it provided no
real defence at all.

The defending
soldiers just gave up.

And even though there
was these very elaborate

defence structures that
were constructed, in essence,

they were never used
and were useless.

Ironically, the
Germans themselves

later incorporated
the vallo alpino

into their own defences
against the allies,

when they were
sweeping through Italy.

But in the end,

the vallo alpino defences
were never used.

Today the rusting spikes

of the dragon's teeth still
dominate the landscape.

They show just how far Mussolini

was prepared to go
to defend his country.

So, when you see these
expansive structures now,

it's an interesting historical
throwback to a different time.

For now, they're too
expensive to remove.

So, we just sort of accept
them as historical reminders

as well as just
strange structures

stuck in the middle of the alps.

At the far eastern tip of Canada,
just visible above the waterline,

lies a rusting hulk
of corroding metal.

It's almost like this
monster of the deep.

But why is this leviathan

being gradually
reclaimed by the sea?

It lies in a forgotten cove
off the coast of newfoundland.

This partially
submerged structure

has such mystery around it.

And that is compounded
by where it sits

in this completely
idyllic setting.

This weird sort of a
sandwich of junk of rusty steel,

one chunk of it,

you can recognise as
some kind of modern trawler

or something parked alongside.

But what it's next to is
like an exploded factory.

It just doesn't belong there.

Only part of the
structure is still visible.

The rest is
completely submerged.

It's so devastated,
it's so destroyed,

it's hard to believe
there's any other reason

for that level of destruction

other than some major
cataclysmic event.

These are the remains
of hms 'calypso'.

Once, it was one of the most
technologically advanced ships

in the British fleet.

Now, it's abandoned
and rotting in the water.

The reasons for
'calypso's destruction

can be found in the job
she was designed to do.

In the 1870s, britain was
a dominant global force,

the British empire,

which at one point covered
a quarter of the globe

and included 450 million
people was at its height.

Britain's ports were
busy bustling places,

where goods from all over the
empire were processed to fuel

and feed the industrial
revolution, which was in full swing.

Britain was a wealthy nation,

a small country but with
extraordinary influence

all over the world.

All of this was thanks, in
part, to its powerful Navy.

Britain is absolutely
the world superpower

in the 1870s.

Nobody has got
a Navy like britain.

Nobody has global
reach like britain.

The royal Navy exists to
ensure that whatever difficulties

there are in the world,

nobody stops trade between
britain and her colonies.

Designed to fight
competing European powers

and pirates in the far
corners of the globe,

'calypso's design was
a quirky combination

of sail and steam.

She has a steam engine.

But 'calypso' can also
go under sail power.

That means that 'calypso'
can go on a long patrol

and just use the wind to
get where she needs to go.

This helped the vessel ply
the waters that were in vast,

distant colonies where
they may not have access

to any resources.

What we see here is design
features that actually make the vessel

more reliable and allow
it to carry out its duties.

Endurance and toughness
were the main strengths

of the 'calypso'

and at her heart was her strange
and revolutionary hull construction.

Her hull is actually composite.

In fact, it's a steel hull, steel
plates over an iron frame,

all very modern.

But then you've got this
weird addition of wood.

You can see the
timbers still sticking out

of the water today.

Now, why would you bother
putting wood over steel?

Steel, on its own,

won't protect the ship from
what's called biofouling,

which is the build-up
of barnacles and algae,

which can damage the hull
and the propulsion system.

So, the solution was to
coat the hull with copper.

But you can't put copper
plates on a steel hull

because you get
galvanic erosion.

You'll actually
corrode the hull itself

because of the reaction
between these two metals.

The only thing to do is
to have your steel hull,

put wood over the top of that,

and then copper
sheets in the same old

way over the top again.

In June 1883,

'calypso' was launched
with a great fanfare

from the chatham
dockyard in england,

built to police britain's
vast maritime empire.

She's one of the last steam
and sail ships ever built.

This wasn't an old-fashioned
and weakly armed warship.

For her size, for her speed,
she could pack quite a punch.

So, how did such a
powerful ship meet its end?

Did pirates or enemy ships somehow
overwhelm her impressive defences?

'Calypso's' design was
actually her undoing.

As soon as the royal
Navy builds a ship,

the French Navy or the German
Navy builds a comparable ship

and makes that royal
Navy vessel obsolete.

In the 1870s,

the kind of ship that
we see in the 'calypso'

is briefly very powerful,

briefly useful against
enemy vessels,

and within ten
years, is obsolete.

In 1902,

'calypso' was sent
across the Atlantic

to become a training ship

for the newfoundland
royal Navy reserve.

Sixty years later, the decision
was made to scrap her.

In 1968,

it was finally decided

that the vessel
should be abandoned.

It was towed to a small cove
outside of embree, newfoundland.

And it was burned
to the waterline.

Today, hms 'calypso'
lies abandoned

off the coast of Canada.

When I see a ship
like the 'calypso',

I see a monument
to so many people

working so hard together
to make something great.

Now, they lie abandoned.

But once, they were at the
cutting edge of engineering.

There are echoes from history
in these decaying structures.

They remind us of terror and
war but also of great innovation

and human endeavour.