Abandoned Engineering (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 4 - Germany's D-Day Fortress - full transcript

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The towering remains of
a mountainside structure

built to withstand
a colossal force.

What is it? What happened to
it? What caused it to explode?

A sprawling cityscape that's been
deserted and left to the elements.

It's like a giant been brought
to its knees. But by what?

Strange military platforms that

harbour secrets of
an underwater war.

Suddenly 200m from us.

Du, du, du, du.

We were really like
"oh, what is this?"

And a heavy-weight structure in
the eastern European countryside.



You'd be very confused
if you came across it, this

almost alien structure plopped
down in the middle of the woods.

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 Europe, high up in
the mountainous region

of the central Italian alps stands
a large cathedral-like structure.

Towering 140ft above

the valley floor, this structure
looks almost alien in the landscape.

It's like a fortress

from 'lord of the rings'
that's been brought to life.

The eerie grey concrete
alongside the windswept mountains



makes you shiver inside.

This huge structure set in
this glorious natural setting,

there's mountains,
there's lakes.

As you move round the
side of it you look and go

"uh oh, what happened here?"

If it were complete it would
stretch from one side of the valley

right across to the other.

But there's a massive
gap in the middle.

Years ago, the central section
of this great wall was ripped out.

Was it bombed?
Was it an earthquake?

This would have been an event
that caused a whole lot of disruption

and death.

How could something
that appeared so solid

have failed so spectacularly?

So, what happened? And is new
evidence changing our understanding

of its calamitous demise?

The story began in the unstable
years before the first world war

when Italy was struggling to
catch up with Europe's major

industrial powers.

Progress, such as it was,
was mainly focussed in

the north of the country.

While the south was still blighted
by severe economic stagnation.

As a result, many working class
Italians moved to big cities such as

turin and Milan which quickly became
overpopulated and overcrowded.

What was more between the year
1900 and the beginning of the first world

war, some 9 million, mainly
southern Italians, migrated to

the usa in search
of a better life.

Meanwhile, to speed the
growth of new factories

wealthy capitalists invested in
hydroelectric power stations in

the mountainous
region of the alps.

These are the remains
of one of those projects,

the gleno dam.

But it was built in troubled times,
when anarchists were occupying

factories and some were even
planting bombs at targeted sites.

Italy in the north was a
place of great political unrest.

You had the capitalist who
were effectively under siege from

a communist movement that had a
whole different direction and mind.

Turmoil and violence, those
were a day-to-day occurrence.

The man who financed the
project was from the vigano family,

a family of wealthy
industrialists from Milan.

Vigano constantly criticised

the local workers
that he did employ.

His preference
was to use milanese

workers instead of local workers
which caused a lot of bad feeling.

If the people that are trying
to put this structure together

are not working together

in unison, then you are gonna get
a problem in the actual end product.

Building began in 1917

when the first world
war was in full flow.

But a few years into construction
soaring costs saw drastic design

changes and the vigano family
decide to cut corners by using cheaper

lower grade materials.

Construction of the dam
used poor quality concrete,

reinforced with first world
war anti grenade netting,

neither of which were
appropriate for this kind of structure.

Whenever any of those workers
complained about those materials,

they were immediately fired.

Foundations are
critical to all structures.

If you start to put in scrap
metals, you don't really know

what the composition
of those metals are.

They may have rusted and
so then when you're pouring

concrete around that, you
might not get a very good bind

between the metal and the
concrete and that is really, really

important to maintain the
strength of the structure.

So, was it a disaster
waiting to happen?

In October 1923, with
the dam finally built,

the reservoir was filled to
capacity for the first time.

But problems had
already begun to arise.

In the Autumn of the year there
was an extremely heavy rainfall

and this caused some minor leaks
in the dam that should have served

as a warning but in fact
they were regarded as

"mm, that's not a problem."
As the downpours continued,

the water levels soon crept
above the maximum permitted depth

testing the dam's structural
capacity to the very limit.

By the 1st of December, it seemed
to have reached breaking point.

It was just another day when
the caretaker was carrying out

his routine checks on the
dam. And then he felt a tremor.

45 minutes later,
the whole dam burst.

According to news
reports at the time

there was a
violent blast of air.

Then water rushed
down into the valley below.

Over a billion gallons of water
suddenly forced its way through

the breach at a speed of 70km/h.

A tragedy was inevitable.

The water would have been
like a giant tidal wave, a Tsunami,

with debris just rushing through

the valley below causing
devastation wherever it went.

The flood wave took
about 45 minutes to crash

its way along down the valley.

The flood destroyed three villages,
five power stations and countless

numbers of isolated buildings
and factories along the valley.

By the time waters settled,
over 350 people had been killed.

The vigano family and the
dam's engineers were blamed,

but they protested
their innocence.

There followed a court case
highly influenced by politics

at which conflicting

and inconclusive evidence about
the cause of the disaster was heard.

Eventually on appeal, the
defendants were acquitted.

For almost a century this was
how the story was put to rest.

That was until bernadetto
banomo, the current mayor of one of

the destroyed towns uncovered
startling new evidence.

Just after
the collapse of the dam

in the prison at cremona, an
inmate made a very important claim

saying that he was the head of
a group of subversives who were

putting bombs everywhere in what
was the rising business community.

A recently discovered court
document from the trial suggests that

the breach in the dam was
actually caused by a targeted attack.

I quickly found the document
that says that the judge had

actually asked the most renowned
expert in the world to do a survey

which showed that a
bomb had exploded there.

The survey proved

that water pressure alone could
never have caused the collapse.

It was then revealed that 75kg

of dynamite had also recently
been stolen from the construction site.

It seemed that sabotage was
the only realistic explanation.

Because of this lack of
integrity between the materials

and the foundations, it's possible
that these explosives actually

caused a much bigger event than
the saboteurs actually intended.

It could have been a
disgruntled worker who wanted

revenge for the vigano family

or it could have
been an anarchist.

Because they were blowing up sort
of power stations and power plants

all around the north
of Italy at that time.

But a final theory suggests that

completely destroying the dam
might not have been the intention at all.

The plan could have been to create a
small leak which would force the dam

to be decommissioned.

So no-one knows for sure but
all we do know is an explosion

of that kind should not have had
the devastating effect that it did.

The cover up certainly
spared the government a great

deal of embarrassment
and criticism.

A spate of bombings in the area
meant they should have provided

a guard at the dam.

Telling the truth 95 years
later is something that hurts.

People looked death in the eyes,

a whole district was completely
swept away. Whole families were

erased and the full story of a
small village was buried forever.

Although over the years there
has been much talk about repair

and reconstruction, the financial
backing has never materialised

and the gleno dam remains as it
was, a reminder of a terrible disaster.

When you look at the dam today,
you're reminded that it serves

as a huge memorial, a memorial
for ambition, but more than anything,

a memorial for the hundreds of
people who died when it burst.

Near the centre of Detroit, Michigan
is a sprawling landscape of deserted

buildings which have been
left to crumble for decades.

Towering above abandoned
streets, this line of structures stretches

for more than a kilometre.

What's most striking about
this structure is its size.

It seems to go on forever.

It looks like some kind
of industrial Metropolis,

a relic from a world
that's long been forgotten.

It is complete devastation,
block after block after block.

Roofs have fallen in,
water is flowing on the floor,

there is no glass in
any of the windows.

Nature has taken its course.

Something big happened here,
almost out of a horror movie.

Inside are vast,

desolate open spaces which
have been ravaged by the elements.

There's something about
these cavernous, empty rooms,

it's like a film set from 'blade
runner' or 'the walking dead.'

it is an incredible place and
clearly has really suffered

over the years.

But what was this collection
of buildings used for?

And what caused this
devastation and their downfall?

The answer lies in
the history of a product

that changed the face of
the United States forever,

the motor car.

Until the early 1900s most travel
between cities was done by rail road

by carriage or by steam boat.

But American entrepreneurs
identified a huge new mass market

for an affordable
alternative means of travel.

At first, development was
confined to small local areas

but it soon became apparent
that mass production was needed

to fully realise the potential
of the exciting new invention.

In the early 20th century the
American automotive industry

was very much in its infancy.
Only one in every 10,000 Americans

owned a car and most of
those were powered by steam.

With its vast land
area and scattered

isolated settlements, the us
needed cars more than anyone.

The problem was how to
manufacture enough cars.

Previously factories were
cramped, dingy and dirty places.

It's hard to believe
now but this facility

was the start of something new.

This design completely
revolutionised

the space in which you could
actually manufacture the cars.

The workers had better
conditions and actually it improved,

their morale and
also their productivity.

The us led the way in production
in terms of number and volumes of

automobiles, largely because
of the factory improvements

and the ability to crank out lots
of cars in a short amount of time.

The pioneering company
leading the charge was packard.

Look to packard for the
easiest handling car ever built.

This brilliant new facade all
but drives itself thanks to packard

power steering, automatic
drive and packard power brakes.

American's new choice
in the fine car appeal.

This was packard's
automotive plant.

Construction began in 1903 and it
soon grew beyond all expectations.

The packard car plant was the most
advanced auto factory in the world.

It was built over
35 acres of land

and had over 3.5 million
square feet of space.

It became the gold standard
for car factory design

throughout the us and
production rates skyrocketed.

And the secret of its success
was the use of reinforced concrete.

It was a material that transformed
how a factory could be laid out,

as local tour guide
Jacob Jones explains.

We are on the ground where
the packard assembly line

would have been, moved through
this entire space here at its peak,

going up to the floor above us,
as well as the two floors below.

The blend of the steel

and the concrete added
that extra support of strength

as nearly unbreakable.

This is where some
of the finest luxury cars

in modern history were built.

The ones that al Capone
and franklyn Roosevelt drove.

They came off of this stretch
of concrete and steel right here.

But there was a
problem, the price.

A packard car could
cost over $3,000

when a Ford vehicle
came in at just $850.

So how would packard compete?

Once again, it was down
to the design of the plant

with the focus on high quality
to justify high prices, practically

every part of every packard
was built somewhere on this site.

The 80 skilled trade departments,
an absolutely massive number,

everything was so compact here
at packard, that it was really easy to

move parts, people and
cars, really, from place to place.

At its peak, the complex
employed up to 40,000 workers.

The company became known
as producing some of the highest

quality luxury
vehicles in the us.

It created what was
called the grey wolf, the first

race car that was commercially
available in the United States

and ultimately became a
symbol of packard's success.

During its early years, packard
went from strength to strength.

But the market changed in 1929

when the wall street crash
shattered the economy.

Suddenly the
money was drying up.

Would they be able to adapt to
compete with the likes of Ford?

So, in the 1930s

packard began to try its hand
at the production of cheaper cars.

Then suddenly,

the outbreak of the second world
war put the whole industry on hold.

In 1942, like other car factories,
it stopped producing cars

and instead focussed
on manufacturing

rolls Royce aircraft and naval
engines for the us and its allies.

These automotive factories
shut down car production for

a few years, building just over
100 cars during world war two

throughout the entire country.

In many ways the
packard car plant

and other factories
like it were very, very

integral into the winning
of that conflict for the allies.

The post war years
were highly competitive.

The big three,

Ford, general motors and Chrysler
still dominated the mass market.

But the designs of luxury cars
were rapidly changing and packard

found itself left behind.

Popularity of packard cars
declined due to its ability

to not compete with other
luxury car manufacturers.

They started to get a
bit of a reputation for

their cars not being as attractive as
perhaps they could be. Some were

called pregnant elephants,
some were described as bath tubs.

The cars were not
popular with the public now.

With falling sales

and its reputation taking a beating,
a desperate bid for survival in

the mid-1950s saw packard
move off this site for good.

This great facility which
had enabled it to thrive

was left abandoned and
the company soon folded.

Ultimately, Ford style and price
had won out against packard's more

expensive models.

From what remains today,
it's hard to imagine that this

facility forever changed
the way cars were built.

After packard's closure,
another company occupied

part of the building for a time.

But without a solid ownership
group overseeing the entire site,

much of it soon
fell into disrepair.

You look at what it's become
now and it really is a shadow

of the world it once knew.

It's a good example of how
the mighty can easily fall.

In Eastern Europe, just over
48km from Estonia's capital, Tallinn,

is a bizarre construction
lying just off the coast.

Stretching out across the water
is a set of long concrete platforms.

Tucked away in a
secluded corner of the world,

no-one really knew
what went on there.

It was all very top secret.

When we were young
playing on the beach

and suddenly 200m from
us, du, du, du, du, du, du, du.

We were really like
"oh, what is this?"

Almost no clues
remain to indicate

what this strange structure on
the edge of the sea once was.

It's like a carcass been stripped
bare by the harsh baltic winds.

Something fairly serious, something
fairly major was installed there.

This wasn't just your typical
industrial commercial port.

I don't know exactly what was
the buildings meaning but it goes

three floors under the water.

But why is this place
still shrouded in secrecy

and what finally caused
it to be abandoned?

The answers are linked

to the tension-filled
years of the cold war.

It began with the
Truman doctoring,

announced in 1947 by
president Harry s Truman,

which stated as foreign policy
the usa to counter Soviet expansion.

What followed were years
of suspicion and mistrust

between east and west, all of which
were played out against the backdrop

of the threat of nuclear war.

The cold war's most

dangerous moment came in 1962
when the Soviets deployed ballistic

missiles on the island of Cuba
just 140km from the us mainland.

As the crisis unfolded, the Soviets
deployed submarines, some armed with

nuclear missiles, to hold tactical
positions in the Atlantic ocean.

One of the hottest parts
of the whole cold war

was the undersea war,

the submarine war.

The submarine is one of
the original stealth weapons

effectively. By going
under water it can remain

invisible and then get very close
to an enemy shoreline, enemy naval

base, launch
some kind of attack.

The world was teetering on
the brink of all out nuclear war.

But the waters around Cuba
weren't the only place feeling the heat.

Just over 8,000km
in the baltic sea,

the action was
already well underway.

The baltic was still a really
intense area of activity.

That the Russians needed this

baltic area to train up
and practice with their

submarines and to develop better
submarines and better techniques.

In Soviet-occupied Estonia
this site was built to enhance

the capabilities
of the Soviet fleet.

This was hara submarine base.

Completed in the late 1950s
it was once a state of the art

top secret facility.

But the battle in the baltic was
not all focussed on fire power.

It was also about
secrecy and strategy.

Unlike a surface vessel
where you designed that

for speed and efficiency, a
submarine you designed for silence.

The baltic was the forefront
of intelligence gathering.

Submarines were
creeping along the coast,

morning, noon
and night, to spy on

the military capabilities,
to tap into communications.

They were both equipped with
missiles that could be used to

target land sites, plus they had
torpedoes for attacking warships.

But I think their spying
role was probably critical.

Today the site is a
shadow of its former self.

But local politician artur talvik
can still picture what it used to

look like.

Everything here
was full of cables.

Those two quays were united
by Bridges with special cranes

moved here, back and forth to
cover the ships with the cables.

Hanging huge quantities of
cables across the submarines

is an unusual practice.

This is not part of standard
repair and maintenance work.

So, what was going on here

and how did the base help
with spying in the baltic?

The whole thing about the
submarine is making it difficult to find.

The problem is its made of steel

and any steel object moving
through the water is gonna generate

a magnetic signature,
and that can be detected.

Hara was built to
solve this problem.

It's essentially a base
that demagnetises,

that reduces the magnetic signature
of Soviet submarines so that they

can sneak up quite close to
NATO naval bases and still

remain effectively invisible.
The actual demagnetising

is actually a pretty quick
and efficient process.

Getting the
submarine into the lock

and lifted up, that
takes all the effort.

So, the submarines came in here

and then they were checked,
what is the magnetic field situation.

You establish your
cable system around it,

you run the currents through
that and that will lower the magnetic

signature of the submarine
which can then go on its merry way.

With this process completed,

the submarine would now
be much harder to track.

But this wasn't only to help it
avoid detection by the enemy.

These waters also
contained other deadly threats.

The first need for
the base like this

was because of
the magnetic mines

not far away from here.

1941 was one of the biggest
sea battles in all history.

It's called,
the mine battle.

It's estimated that during

the second world war, almost 70,000
mines and other explosive obstacles

were laid in the nearby
area of the baltic sea.

And it's likely that a number
of the magnetic versions were

still there.

A magnetic mine can sit there
dormant, not being affected by

anything until a ship comes.

Its trigger mechanism is set to
respond to the magnetic signature

of a vessel coming within
range and this detonates.

The demagnetisation

only lasted for so long before
the signature built up again.

And the process
had to be repeated.

So, could this one base really
cope with the Soviet's needs

or is there more to the site
than first meets the eye?

The demagnetisation
doesn't happen only here in

the quay, but also
in the bay area.

There were 18km of cables here,

they spent maybe a week
or even more just moving

back and forth and then they came
into the harbour and measured each

ship enough demagnetised or not.

As the cold war progressed,

hara played a key role in the secret
battle for position and information

that took place beneath
the waters of the baltic.

But today, with the collapse of
the Soviet union more than 25 years

in the past, why is there still an
air of mystery surrounding the site?

The Russians were quite paranoid
about anybody finding out about

their submarines.

No foreigners were allowed
within any distance of this.

No-one was supposed
to see what was going on.

The fact that it was doing
this crucial role in trying

to reduce the magnetic signature,
make submarines harder to detect,

meant that it really had to be
a very top secret installation.

But these concerns didn't
end with the cold war.

As the Russians withdrew and
the occupation of Estonia ended,

bases like this were stripped of
their assets to prevent the leak

of military secrets.

The little that remains at
hara today offers only a glimpse

into the past
life of the facility.

The full story of
this submarine base

and its capabilities will
continue to remain a mystery.

In central Europe in
the northeast of Poland,

is a giant concrete structure

hidden from view by the
surrounding woodland.

Deep in the rural hinterland,

this decaying object
sits frozen to the ground.

You'd be very confused
if you came across it.

It'd be very incongruous.

This almost alien structure plopped
down in the middle of the woods.

You've got all of that
green countryside,

you've got that
beautiful still water,

why is there this enormous
block sitting on top of it?

Whatever was once trapped
inside here wasn't getting out.

When you look at it from above
you realise one thing, it's a mystery.

The centre is
effectively a vast pool.

Is it some kind of cooling tank?

Is it some kind
of power station?

Outside, it's a water
course running up it,

that might be a clue.

So why build this
heavy weight structure

out here in the
Polish countryside?

And why was it left in the
woods, abandoned and forgotten?

The first clue to
solving the mystery

can be found carved into
the face of the concrete.

When you're looking
at the structure

you see the concrete's been

bleached by time but in the
middle of it is the outline of an eagle.

Now that can only mean on thing,

this building is
from the third reich,

it's a Nazi eagle.

In 1934, the Nazi's began
to seize control of Germany

as Hitler dreamed
of his new empire.

In late June and early July that
year came the bloody Nazi purge of

the sa, its only
paramilitary wing.

In a series of executions
which became known to history

as the night of the long knives.

No mercy was shown as
Hitler consolidated his power,

even Ernst rohm, a long standing
friend, supporter and ally of Hitler

was ruthlessly murdered.

In August, president
hindenburg died.

Hitler took on the
combined roles

of chancellor and president
and assumed the title of fuhrer.

The new empire was
about to become a reality.

It began with the agricultural
region of east prussia

which was marooned on its own
and which the Nazis recognised

was highly vulnerable as tensions
across the continent began to rise.

When Hitler decides that
he wants his new empire

to be self-sufficient, suddenly it
becomes really important to grow

a lot of grain in east prussia.

But east prussia is the part of
Germany that's closest to Russia.

This land was the place
where the opposing sides

had gone head-to-head
only two decades earlier.

It was a very intense area of
conflict and a very fought after

and sought after region.

If Germany is going to control
its own food supply in time of war,

it has to be able to
defend this territory.

But the inland areas barely had
enough people to work the land,

let alone defend it.

Despite the wishes of the
Germans to have this big population

east prussa, population
didn't want to live there.

A lot of them were moving
out and moving away.

It was a depressed farming area.

So how do you populate an area?

Well, you build
an infrastructure.

And I suppose if you
build it they will come.

By day I was to build the canal

which connect masurian
lakes with the baltic sea.

It was just a transportation
channel to move the goods.

East prussia needs
transport infrastructure

to get industrial farm machinery

and fodder in and
agricultural produce out.

This mass of concrete was to be
a lock on the new masurian canal.

These are the remains
of lesniewo gorne.

The canal was planned
to run a distance of 48km

from lake manry
to the lyna river.

But there was a huge difference
in height between those two points.

So locks, like this
one, were needed.

There's ten total locks along
the canal and they could handle

craft up to 25ft wide, being raised
and lowered as the craft would move

through the canal.

The remarkable thing
about the lock system here

is that it rises up 300ft.

When you think
about that, that is

a boat going up a hill and over
the top and down the other side.

That is what locks give
us, the ability to traverse

geographical obstacles
that water wouldn't normally

be able to flow on.

Of all the locks
along the route,

this was the largest with a
level difference of over 15m.

The lesniewo gorne
lock works like this.

We have two different
heights of water,

the boat goes through into
the lock, the gates are closed.

Water is then flooded into
the lock, raising the level of

the boat to the next passage,
and then the gate is opened

and the boat passes through,
proceeding along the canal.

But today there only appears to
be water on one side of the lock.

Were the Nazis ever
able to complete the route?

It turns out they weren't
the first to attempt it.

People first tried to build a
canal connecting east prussia

to the baltic sea in the 1800s

but it's never
economically feasible

and there's never enough
government money to make it work.

Picking up where the
previous efforts had left off,

the construction also helped solve
another of the regions problems.

It's really a works project,
this is probably a scheme that's

going to work for all of those
farm labourers that were really

living on the subsistence level.

But even with an army of workers

already busy on the project,
the outbreak of war in 1939

took Hitler's ambitions
to a whole new level.

Hitler's vision goes from
making Germany self-sufficient

to building a
continent-wide empire

so swiftly

that the impetus to keep building
a canal in east prussia is wiped out.

The masurian canal
is just left behind.

A few years later in December
1944 when the tide of war had turned,

the Soviet army was
pushing the Germans back.

In a desperate bid to slow the
approaching enemy, the Nazis

began blowing up the Bridges
over the unfinished canal.

The masurian
canal is meant to be

a piece of transport infrastructure,
it never becomes that.

Instead, for a very short while,
it just becomes a barrier against

the red army and
not a very good one.

Today, this abandoned structure

is hidden amongst the trees,
deep in the Polish countryside.

But with the outline of the
Nazi eagle still carved above

the entrance, the memory of
those dark years is ever present.

Hitler's ambition to
impose his concrete

industrial will on
the world failed.

I am seeing an attempt to dominate
the green countryside of Poland

turned to ruins.

Hitler's thousand year empire
didn't even last long enough

to finish a canal.

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.