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00:01Allied special forces are on the ultimate secret mission.
00:05To capture Adolf Hitler and his Nazi generals.
00:09Come on, General!
00:11Hollywood blockbusters celebrate them as desert rats and inglorious bastards.
00:18Now, teams of experts follow in the footsteps of these wartime commandos.
00:24From the rugged island of Crete...
00:25There is marks that they could have used for orienteering.
00:28To the remote deserts of Libya in North Africa.
00:32We're driving along the edge of a minefield.
00:34If we go off this road, anything could happen.
00:37Their mission? To find out why only one capture operation succeeded,
00:41while others led to outright disaster.
00:48This is the story of the real inglorious bastards.
01:05A team of British commandos have infiltrated German-held Northern Africa.
01:09The operatives penetrate deep behind enemy lines.
01:25Their plan? To capture or kill one of their toughest enemies.
01:31Nazi General Erwin Rommel.
01:36For months, his Africa Corps has struck blow after blow against the Allies,
01:40pushing them back hundreds of kilometres.
01:45The man has become a myth.
01:49The invincible desert fox.
01:56The British soldiers are part of an elite commando team,
01:59devoted to hunting down Hitler and his generals.
02:03They are raiding Rommel's headquarters in Libya.
02:06But here, things are about to go horribly wrong.
02:15Some 70 years later, this man is determined to find out what really happened.
02:20Historian and ex-special forces officer Michael Asher has come to modern-day Libya.
02:30With the help of locals, he wants to trace the route of these so-called inglorious bastards.
02:35To find out the secrets of the raid on Rommel,
02:41and piece together how this undercover mission fell apart.
02:44For me, there's always been a great mystery overhanging this case.
02:49We know that once the commandos arrived at Rommel's headquarters,
02:52there was a terrific shootout, and the commander of the British commandos was killed.
02:58But yet, we don't know exactly what happened.
03:00There are many eyewitness reports,
03:02but it's still a big black spot about what actually happened.
03:13The operation to capture or kill Rommel started with a secret landing operation.
03:23From submarines, the British commandos set out in dinghies to reach the shores of Libya held by the Germans.
03:34To trace the exact route of the commandos, Asher gets help from Fawzi Tahir,
03:39whose grandfather supported the operation.
03:48His family helped a British agent, who was disguised as a Bedouin.
03:52The British intelligence officer positioned himself on the top of this escarpment here,
03:58in a high position.
04:00With him was a guide who'd been sent by Fawzi's grandfather, Hussein Tahir,
04:05in order to vector in the submarines.
04:09It was a morse code signal, which they'd agreed on, which would bring the submarines in.
04:17There!
04:20The landing situation couldn't have been worse.
04:24They arrived in the eye of the storm.
04:27There was a terrible storm blowing.
04:29The sea was very, very high.
04:31It wasn't at all what they'd expected.
04:33And when they got out on the decks of the submarine,
04:36many of them were just washed off the decks.
04:42Come on!
04:43Let's go!
04:50So the submarines could only launch half the raiders before having to return to base.
04:55A bad start for the rest of the team.
05:02Gator, Lord, cover me.
05:10Some 70 years later, Michael Asher believes he has identified where the commandos landed that night.
05:19This certainly looks like the place, but it's hard to be sure
05:22because there are hundreds of these sort of coves along the Libyan coast.
05:26What we do know is there was an old ruined building very near to the beach.
05:34And what I want to do now is look for someone to show us if there is such a building
05:38here.
05:39From Libyan Coast Guards, the team learns of a shepherd
05:41who has been living in the area since the 1940s.
05:49If they are lucky, he may know the exact landing beach
05:52and where the commandos crossed the coastal mountains.
06:01The shepherd leads the team a kilometre further east,
06:01What is this guy?
06:02No, he is.
06:03He is a man.
06:05He is a man.
06:06He is a man.
06:06He is a man.
06:07He is a man.
06:07He is a man.
06:08He is a man.
06:09He is a man.
06:10He is a man.
06:12His father told him the whole story
06:14about how British commandos landed on the beach at Kashim al-Kalb,
06:18and it's well known that they spent some time there.
06:21The shepherd leads the team a kilometre further east,
06:24to the original site of the landing operation.
06:34From his father, the Libyan knows the commandos lit a fire in this ruin
06:38to dry off after the landing.
06:42I think we are very lucky to find this old shepherd,
06:45and we are very lucky to find this house,
06:47which he says is a Roman house going back hundreds of years.
06:51And this establishes, without a shadow of a doubt,
06:55that this is actually the landing beach.
06:57A perfect hidden cove for the landing.
07:04The next challenge for the commandos?
07:06To penetrate inland to Rommel's HQ without being spotted by the Nazis.
07:14Local guides lead the soldiers through an area called Jebel al-Aqdar,
07:18the Green Mountains.
07:20How did they overcome the escarpment that was protecting Rommel's headquarters?
07:26Following in the commander's footsteps,
07:28Michael Asher wants to find out how difficult it was for them to cross here.
07:32He discovers a wadi, a dry riverbed.
07:36Definitely, they would have gone through the wadi.
07:38That would have been their easiest access.
07:40I mean, eventually, it would have been quite a steep climb.
07:44But there was a sort of gentle lead-up to it.
07:48On the morning after the landing,
07:50an enemy aircraft drones only 250 metres above the commandos.
07:55The soldiers are lucky. The wadi gives them cover.
08:01Today, even for a fit ex-commando soldier like Asher,
08:05and in daylight, the hike is a challenge.
08:18The commandos had to be alert at all times to the danger of enemy patrols.
08:25They were travelling at night. It was pitch dark.
08:28They had very heavy loads to carry.
08:31They were always in fear that they might be spotted by the enemy,
08:34there might be enemy patrols about.
08:36So, you know, it was a very, very arduous task for them.
08:44It's a 200-metre climb up the riverbed.
08:48And in this wadi, the mission almost ended in disaster.
08:54The commandos were actually very lucky
08:55that they didn't come this way a day later.
08:58If they had have done,
08:59they'd have run into the worst rainstorm
09:00in northern Africa for 40 years.
09:03And just look at this wadi, you see how steep it is.
09:08Torrential rainstorm here would have sent flash floods
09:11coursing down the wadi, and it would have washed away the whole patrol,
09:14and no-one would ever have heard of the Rommel raid.
09:18Asher's discovery confirms that the commandos
09:20chose the perfect route to avoid enemy contact.
09:24Eight kilometres from Rommel's headquarters,
09:27the operatives reach their final base for the attack,
09:29a secret cave.
09:33Here we can see for them, mate.
09:41Locals have supplied them with intelligence on the rough layout
09:43and security situation of Rommel's HQ.
09:46Hey, guys.
09:48Here's something.
09:51So, this is the main crossroad of the headquarters.
09:56Are there any patrols, German patrols around?
09:58Well, they are here, and here.
10:03But they won't be expecting us.
10:06How has General Erwin Rommel become the Allies' public enemy number one?
10:11The myth of his military invincibility
10:13was born in the battles around the city of Tobruk.
10:18Today, as then, Tobruk is Libya's easternmost deep sea harbour.
10:23It was crucial for Rommel's supply lines on his advance
10:26to push the Allies further into Egypt.
10:33Asher takes a temporary detour from retracing the commander's route
10:36to see what the area around Tobruk can reveal about Rommel himself.
10:42The capture of Tobruk was Rommel's greatest victory,
10:46and it was the greatest disaster of the war so far for the Allies.
10:50Here we can get an idea what made Rommel the most feared of all German generals.
10:57To discover the sites of Rommel's battles,
10:59Asher has to leave the city and travel kilometres into the desert.
11:09Here, Asher is looking for bunker defences where severe fighting took place.
11:21He told me that the bunker fortress of Ras Madawa is about 15 minutes from here.
11:30To get an idea why the Allies feared Rommel,
11:34the historian meets General Suleiman Obeidi,
11:36retired commander of the Libyan forces of Tobruk.
11:41The general explains the defences, where Rommel had later forced his way into the Allied-held fortress.
11:50The general is telling me that these defences were built in the shape of a circle to provide all-round
11:57defence.
11:5834,000 Allied soldiers were hiding in two rings of bunker trenches, secured by an outer line of desert forts.
12:05The trenches in between were communication trenches,
12:08so people could move between them without being seen or shot at by the enemy.
12:13For their raid on Rommel, the commandos avoided this bunker zone,
12:17because German troops were everywhere.
12:26That's amazing.
12:28Historian Asher inspects the trenches.
12:37At a former machine gun post, a discovery.
12:40Do you see these names here?
12:42I found here the names of some, what looks like British soldiers,
12:47but they could be Australian,
12:48because we know the Australians occupied this place in 1941.
12:52The date is very clear, 1941.
12:54This could be Australian expeditionary force.
12:58And his name's Barrel, Fraser, looks like Mallory.
13:04Evidence of fierce fighting is scattered everywhere.
13:07This is mortar.
13:08Still dangerous.
13:10Still dangerous?
13:11Yes, should be.
13:13This should be artillery.
13:15And that should be German, I think.
13:17Should be 88 millimetres.
13:1988.
13:21So that would be German, yeah.
13:23Because the British didn't have 88.
13:27With his Blitzkrieg victories,
13:29Rommel became one of Hitler's favourite generals
13:31and an icon of Nazi propaganda.
13:35Killing him would be more than a German defeat in Africa.
13:39It would be a disaster for the Third Reich.
13:42What really happened when the Allied commandos reached Rommel's HQ
13:46deep behind enemy lines?
13:561941, German-held North Africa.
14:02Allied commandos set out on a mission so dramatic Hollywood could never have scripted it.
14:08To capture or kill the Desert Fox, Nazi General Erwin Rommel, in his headquarters deep behind enemy lines.
14:17Before the raid on Rommel, the hit squad takes cover in a cave eight kilometres from the Nazi HQ.
14:27This will keep your spirits up.
14:30Preparing for the attack, the commandos' leaders issue a special kind of drug.
14:36We know that Special Forces units were actually issued with Benzedrine, as were these commandos.
14:43Benzedrine is a kind of amphetamine and it would have given them tremendous energy,
14:47it would have kept them awake and it would have really have, you know, speeded them up.
14:51But, of course, there's a tremendous crash which follows a few days later.
14:55And I think that had quite a serious effect on Special Service troops that really isn't known about.
15:03Their leader, Captain Geoffrey Keyes, had a very personal motivation to lead this raid,
15:08one that cast a shadow on the operation.
15:10Geoffrey Keyes' father was a hero of World War One.
15:13He was also Admiral of the Fleet and also Commander of Combined Operations,
15:18which meant that he was Geoffrey Keyes' boss.
15:22Now, Keyes definitely came here seeking glory that would gain him the kind of fame that his father had.
15:29He wanted to go down in history as the man who killed or captured the Desert Fox, Rommel.
15:36And that's always dangerous.
15:42What really happened in Rommel's headquarters remains a mystery to this day.
15:53Michael Asher's retracing of the Commander raid continues further east, close to the Libyan border with Egypt.
16:03He's searching for the headquarters where the assault on Rommel took place.
16:07But it's a dangerous journey.
16:09The Libyan military has to guide him through minefields left over from the war.
16:13We're driving along the edge of a minefield, which is still live.
16:17And if we go off this road, anything could happen.
16:21A sudden stop. Mines in the way.
16:36The military engineer resets the wires supposed to warn passers-by.
16:41Captain Ramadan told me that the reason they planted so many thousands of mines here
16:47was to provide an invincible protective war against the troops advancing against them
16:55and to protect this line of fortresses they built across the desert.
17:00Thousands of locals have been killed or injured by these mines since the war.
17:05Even people who have driven off the road in their cars have been killed when mines exploded.
17:10And many people walking, or whether there are animals, have been killed or injured in this area.
17:16So it's very important we stay strictly on this road.
17:20The convoy moves on deeper into the Libyan desert.
17:31Finally, ruins of wartime buildings.
17:36A severe battle has obviously taken place here.
17:44Being here, you really do get the feeling of what it must have been like 70 years ago.
17:50There's still shell holes, bullet holes in the walls.
17:53There are still artefacts lying around, you know, shell cases and bits of old jerry cans.
17:59You really do have the feeling of what it must have been like defending this place against the Germans.
18:05Is this the site of Rommel's headquarters where the British raid took place?
18:10Throughout the campaign, the Desert Fox used different HQs to confuse the enemy.
18:17Historian Asher inspects the site's layout.
18:24It doesn't look like Rommel's modern style HQ where the capture mission took place.
18:30Asher gets new information.
18:33The Allied commandos are said to have attacked Rommel's headquarters in an area further west.
18:48Green Square in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
18:51Ex-Special Forces Officer Asher passes into the Medina, the old city, for an important meeting.
18:58He has learned that the location of Rommel's wartime HQ now lies on restricted state property.
19:04At the National History Centre, he seeks special permission to enter the site.
19:13Finally, he's allowed to enter the restricted property of the former Nazi HQ with his Libyan witnesses.
19:18There are many differing reports about what happened on that day that Geoffrey Keyes was killed.
19:24And I think only by coming to the place itself and by examining it can we really find an answer
19:31to what actually happened on that day.
19:36Asher believes that the original locations will reveal their own story.
19:44The British commandos are following intelligence that Rommel has recently been spotted at these headquarters.
19:54To celebrate his 50th birthday with a small dinner party.
20:06Security is low. The German forces don't expect their enemy so far behind the lines.
20:26Today, historian Asher meets an important eyewitness, a Libyan who worked as a cook for the German forces.
20:35Aysa Bugraim witnessed the events at Rommel's headquarters a few hours after the raid.
20:42When he came here early in the morning of that day, the place was full of people.
20:46There were officers, Italian, German. They were very excited about something.
20:51There were vehicles here. There were guards standing around here.
20:56So at first he couldn't go in through this door.
20:57He went round the side here and he found the bodies of three German soldiers lying there.
21:06On the night of the raid, the commandos wanted to gain entrance from the back.
21:10But forcing the back door open would have alerted the Germans.
21:17So they chose a much more dangerous approach, attacking the HQ's entrance.
21:22What will be waiting for them in the lair of the Desert Fox?
21:31Libya in North Africa.
21:33British operatives are attacking the headquarters of Nazi General Erwin Rommel.
21:45Inside, a fatal gunfight erupts, leaving commando leader Captain Geoffrey Keyes dead.
21:58Some 70 years later, historian Michael Asher investigates with Libyan witnesses what really happened in the Nazi HQ.
22:10Aisha Bougraim, then a 22-year-old cook, arrived at the HQ shortly after the attack.
22:17When he came in here, the first thing he saw was Geoffrey Keyes lying just here at the bottom of
22:23the stairs.
22:24He was dressed in British military uniform.
22:27He had blood coming from underneath the ear, which is soaked through his uniform.
22:34Asher inspects the layout of the house for clues to where and how the commando leader died.
22:40He discovers the room where the fatal shootout is supposed to have taken place.
22:473D graphics help reconstruct the conflicting scenarios as to how the commander's leader may have died.
22:53The official report states that Keyes moves over towards this door.
22:57He opens the door, looks inside, he sees 10 German soldiers here who are taken by surprise.
23:05He then closes the door, tells Campbell to prepare grenades, opens the door again, moves inside and is promptly shot
23:13by one of the German soldiers.
23:18At this point, Sergeant Terry, who is behind Keyes, armed with a Tommy gun, fires a burst of bullets at
23:26the German soldiers.
23:28And over his shoulder, Captain Campbell throws one or two grenades inside.
23:35Asher believes something is terribly wrong with this official version.
23:39The official version of events just doesn't make sense.
23:42No professional soldier is going to open the door of a room, expose himself to the enemy, close the door
23:48and then open it a second time, knowing for certain he's just going to be shot.
23:53Is the official British version a big cover up?
23:58Internal German wartime documents now reveal one of the Germans reports that the first British soldier into the room was
24:05carrying a machine gun.
24:07This couldn't have been Keyes, who only carried a pistol.
24:11The Germans see a man coming towards them dressed in British military uniform with a Tommy gun.
24:18I believe this was Sergeant Jack Terry who was carrying a Tommy gun.
24:21I believe at this point Keyes is already down.
24:24So how did Keyes really die?
24:26The German report states that when they entered this door, they found standing here a very big, very tough German
24:34rifleman, rifleman Jamatta.
24:37And Keyes began to wrestle with Jamatta, at which point Captain Robin Campbell tries to shoot the guard, but ended
24:45up shooting Geoffrey Keyes by mistake.
24:48A dark mystery is revealed. It appears that the commander's leader may have actually been killed by friendly fire.
24:58One question remains. If this is what happened, why such a cover up?
25:03I think there was a deliberate cover up. I think Geoffrey Keyes was a privileged officer. He was the son
25:11of the commander of combined forces, a British naval hero.
25:16And I think there was a very serious attempt to cover up what had happened, which most probably was an
25:23accident, but was turned into something very heroic and honourable.
25:30The mission's last stroke of bad luck was the ultimate irony. Rommel wasn't even there.
25:35Due to engine trouble with his plane, the Nazi general was still stuck in Greece and returned to Libya only
25:41hours after the raid.
25:44Paying respect to the courage of the commandos, Rommel orders his men to bury Captain Keyes with full military honours.
25:58But this was far from the last commando raid behind enemy lines.
26:02Allied operatives prepare more daring missions to capture top-level Nazi leaders.
26:07One of the most exotic plots targets Hitler's commander on the Greek island of Crete.
26:13This time, will they strike a big blow against the Third Reich?
26:23On the Greek island of Crete, an expert team investigates another allied kidnapping operation that took place here back in
26:31spring 1944.
26:35The mission of that commando team, to capture Nazi general Heinrich Kriper, commander of the German occupying forces on Crete.
26:46Just a few months before D-Day, British Prime Minister Churchill approved the mission as a piece of misdirection, trying
26:52to trick the Germans into believing the Allied invasion would not attack in France, but in Greece.
26:59Cretan resistance fighters and British agents were to capture the Nazi general and to escape through the island's wild mountains.
27:06There had been other missions to grab German generals, but they were not successful. This was the one and only
27:11time that it was a success.
27:13The big question to me is, why was this mission so successful?
27:17How did these men get here and snatch a German general right from under his command's noses?
27:24April 1944. To land on the Nazi-held island, the British used the hidden coves on Crete's south coast.
27:36More than 65 years later, an ex-airborne ranger investigates how the agents overcame this rugged coast.
27:42Derek Campbell served on secret captor missions in Asia during the 1970s, but saw nothing like this.
27:48It staggers me, it impresses me that these men were able to do this, in this type of terrain, at
27:55night.
27:56To me, it's mind-boggling. It really is. With the training that I had,
28:02I think people would need at least another six months training just doing this specific thing.
28:09You know, just looking at this, it's a bone breaker.
28:13With him are Katerino Anagnostaki and Nikos Gigotakis, two historians from Crete.
28:19Is this Maridaki? Yes.
28:21Oh, here was the place then.
28:24They are searching for the beach where the British commandos landed in their hunt to capture the Nazi general.
28:31From the moment of occupation, British boats from Allied-held areas in North Africa secretly traveled to Crete's southern coast
28:38to supply a network of resistance fighters against the German enemy on the island.
28:47Now, Derek and his team are looking for landmarks which suggest the right spot for a commando landing.
28:55Looking at it from here, from the ocean side, there is marks that they could have used for orienteering.
29:01The information is that the British submarines, they could land exactly in this place because the water is deeper than
29:0920 metres, exactly in this place.
29:11Is this also the place where the hit squad landed with their dinghies?
29:17This is like the part that sticks out.
29:20And that right there would be a good landmark.
29:23Once they saw this rock formation, the jut out here, coming in the other way, all they would have to
29:30do would be to make a right.
29:34Some three years before the commandos raid, Crete has been conquered by German forces, but this mountainous south coast remains
29:41hard for them to control.
29:50Having inspected this particular beach area, Derek Campbell now believes the kidnapped commandos would have tried to land on a
29:57flatter spot.
29:58Because it's a very long and steep trip to get up into the mountains to get towards where the general
30:04was.
30:05I mean, they had to look for the easiest way to be able to move fast.
30:09In this area here, it would have been impossible.
30:13The team now suspects the landing beach of the wartime commandos may be further east along this coast.
30:20In a village nearby, the expert team finds an old man who's been living here since the war.
30:30Manolis's father witnessed where the British commandos landed in their attempt to kidnap Nazi General Kriper.
30:36It says that the Germans were up there.
30:38The exact point was over there, where the rocks are.
30:43As you go behind this rock that is at the end of the beach, you could see the place where
30:47they landed.
30:55For ex-Airborne Ranger Campbell, the challenge for these agents was much harder than his own modern-day mission experience.
31:01We would not have come in on dinghies. We would probably have come in with helicopters.
31:06We would have a couple of Cobra gunships that come in first.
31:11They would take out the searchlight that was down that way.
31:15Our motto was always get in, get out, get on.
31:18That's the difference. We had technology. These operatives did not.
31:21They had their own homemade technology for the times, which was using the local population,
31:29blending in with the local population, and avoiding contact at all costs with the Germans.
31:40Leader of the operation on Crete was Lieutenant Patrick Lee Furmer, not the classic type of soldier.
31:46Paddy was an adventurer. He had survived walking across Europe. He survived crossing borders.
31:53He walked from northern Europe right somewhere to Greece.
31:57He was the ideal man. He'd go and prove to the Greeks that the Brits were there backing them.
32:05Lee Furmer's adventures continued on Crete and its rugged landscape.
32:12Today, Derek Campbell is wrecking his own team's mountain expedition,
32:17while historians Nikos and Katharina examine a one-of-a-kind archive treasure.
32:24Photos taken by the Operation Second-in-Command Captain William Moss.
32:33Photographs taken during the actual undercover mission.
32:40These photos provide crucial clues to the agents' mountain route.
32:45Let's connect the photos with this route.
32:48Probably Moss shot the first photo when they were all together.
32:51And then they climbed out in the top of the mountains through the snow fields.
32:59They were in a very misery situation.
33:02It was a lot of raining. They were wet, without food.
33:05They had to follow this route.
33:09And they had no information about what happened exactly behind them.
33:18But the historians can only follow the photo trail so far.
33:22Moss stopped taking photos when they were hunted by German troops through the mountains.
33:29How could the British agents snatch Hitler's general right from under the noses of the Nazi enemy?
33:40They had no idea.
33:41Our explorers are in the Cretan Mountains, where the British agents are said to have had a secret HQ
33:46for planning the capture of Nazi General Heinrich Kriper.
33:49From the island's landing beach, the agents had sneaked further north to a hideout in the mountains.
33:57Historians Nikos and Katerina are guided by a shepherd whose grandfather helped to hide the British.
34:05In 1944, the area was a perfect retreat, a stronghold for Cretan resistance fighters, but not far away from the
34:11Nazi General's HQ.
34:16Mr. Sifakis told me that this tree was the observation point in a big area around,
34:25because they could see everybody that could come from every direction.
34:31Finally, the historians discover the commando team's mountain headquarters.
34:40Wartime photos identify the stone hut, also used by Cretan rebels, who support the capturing plot.
34:57With the help of local resistance fighters, British agents Patrick Lee Firmer and William Moss
35:02are looking for the weak spot in Kriper's defences.
35:10How do we get our way through the mountains?
35:13Anybody waiting for us?
35:14The resistance fighters will help the British agents get away after the kidnap.
35:18We don't have any Germans on our way.
35:24Their first plan is to snatch the general in his headquarters, just south of the city of Heraklion.
35:30The German staff is secured by a garrison of 15,000 German soldiers.
35:36The British agents spy on the headquarters and the general's private villa, a few kilometres north of them.
35:46More than 65 years later, on the site of the former German headquarters,
35:50historian Katarina meets Despina, whose father worked undercover at General Kriper's casino.
35:56Did he help bring the commando team inside?
36:00She says that Kriper used to come here every evening.
36:03He played piano when he liked to, or he played cards.
36:07One night, Lee Firmer went to her house to her father,
36:11and he asked him how could he get into this house where the general Kriper was.
36:18She says that there were many guards over here, in front of this door,
36:22and another one over there on the square.
36:25It was very difficult for somebody to come here who was not German.
36:29The security at the general's HQ was too tight.
36:32The operatives had to find another way to capture him.
36:36Paddy recognised the best way to catch somebody is to be disguised,
36:41stop the car, picking their top general.
36:47Now they plan to attack Kriper on the road.
36:50You're looking good.
36:50Disguised as German military police.
36:55Being a commando carries a fatal risk.
36:58If they're caught, it will be the death sentence.
37:01In October 1942, Hitler gave the order,
37:04all enemies on commando missions, whether armed or unarmed,
37:08are to be slaughtered to the last man.
37:10It was one of those Hitler's brutality ideas.
37:14If you find an enemy in plain clothes, you can say he's a spy.
37:20And under that, you can say, I'm executing spies.
37:25That's one way of doing it, by killing them.
37:28And by killing others, or letting them know,
37:31if you dare to come, you'll get shot.
37:35The best spot to stop the general's car turned out to be a road junction
37:38between Kriper's HQ, south of Heraklion, and his private villa.
37:44Historians Nikos and Katharina are visiting the original site
37:47the British agents chose to ambush the general's car.
37:55in this place, I think, in this was a place.
37:58In this place, I think, in this was a place.
37:58And this was the direction of the car.
38:12Good!
38:14Good!
38:19Good!
38:20Good!
38:21Prater, consider yourself my prisoner of war.
38:36The commanders use the general's car to trick the Germans.
38:40Nazi control points have orders not to stop their general's linozine.
38:48While Captain Moss walks the general into the mountains,
38:51Lee Fermer drives the German car to the north coast.
38:56The agent leaves a letter to the Germans,
38:58pretending he has already taken the general off the island.
39:02He ends with typical British humour.
39:04P.S. We are very sorry to have to leave this beautiful car behind.
39:12The trick doesn't last.
39:14Soon, thousands of German soldiers are hunting the agents,
39:17who have to cross the island's inner mountain range
39:19to a pick-up area on the south coast.
39:25Today, the expert team is on their way to Mount Ida.
39:28Ex-Special Forces' Derek Campbell wants to find out
39:31how the operatives managed in this extreme terrain.
39:34They came through this little cut that's right here between these two peaks.
39:38So they stayed along this ridgeline here.
39:41They followed this route to the south.
39:43So this peak, is that one?
39:45Yeah.
39:46They were doing this at night, correct?
39:48Yes.
39:49Okay.
39:50Just looking at this terrain here, as it's coming through here,
39:54it's very rocky.
39:56They had to be in shape to do that.
39:57This photograph is after they have left the first hideout.
40:01Of course, they walk in the dark, and there is snow all around.
40:06It was April, and it's quite high.
40:11During daylight, the commando team have to be alert
40:13to German planes sent out to spot them.
40:21With the help of Cretan rebels,
40:23Agents Moss and Lee Fermor are rushing through the foothills of Mount Ida,
40:27the highest on the island.
40:32They have to meet up with other rebels,
40:34who can lead them over the mountain ridge to the south coast.
40:41In two days, they are supposed to be picked up by British speedboats.
40:50The 48-year-old general now becomes a heavy burden.
40:54He seems to be trying to slow down the commando's escape.
40:59Command general!
41:05To cross Mount Ida for the rendezvous in the south,
41:07there is only one shortcut,
41:09a narrow passage at almost 2,500 metres.
41:16Today, the expert team follows the exact route of the commandos.
41:20Now, was there a trail that they had used?
41:23In this period, there was not a road like this.
41:28It was just the landscape, as you can see around.
41:32This is the only path to the south.
41:34The Germans only thought that people brought their shepherds up here.
41:38That's why they didn't come here, correct?
41:41Because there's nothing here.
41:42It was a long way.
41:42It was very difficult.
41:43They had to walk and start controlling everything in their passage.
41:49They had to control houses.
41:51They had to control hideouts, like little valleys.
41:54They walked beside each other in a distance of 50 metres.
41:58They could not come very fast.
42:02Six or seven hours.
42:03So the British agents safely crossed Mount Ida
42:07to a hidden wireless station.
42:08To a hidden wireless station.
42:10Here they face a new challenge.
42:13They will not make it in time to meet the speedboats for their escape to Cairo.
42:22They cannot contact their pickup boat and are stranded on the enemy's island.
42:32The Germans are closing in.
42:34For three days, the commandos are completely surrounded by Nazi troops,
42:38who want to cut them off from the coast.
42:41One setback follows another.
42:44On a steep descent, General Kriper injures his leg.
42:50Is that okay, General?
43:00Their food supply is running out.
43:02Morale is low.
43:03Their mission is only one step from disaster.
43:09May the 12th, 1944.
43:11German forces catch up with the agents.
43:14A fierce battle erupts.
43:21Today, the expert team debates what happened in that fierce encounter.
43:26At the point where they almost got captured,
43:28there was a German convoy that came.
43:30Yes.
43:31And the partisans stopped this convoy with machine gun fire grenades
43:35that gave them almost a clear shot to get down to the escape beach.
43:40The mission is coming to a climax.
43:43The Nazi troops are completely taken by surprise.
43:48The Germans really did not know what they were up against,
43:51where the British knew how to deal with each situation,
43:55simply because the months of training for guerrilla operations.
43:59The diversions took the heat off them for a while.
44:03Out in a secret bay,
44:04the British agents push their dinghies into the sea.
44:08One of the Navy soldiers,
44:10who was to evacuate them by speedboat,
44:12tells his story on camera for the first time.
44:16I was a driver.
44:17I was told we got some brown jobs.
44:20They used to call the army.
44:21There are some nutters.
44:22Just make sure that they get on...
44:24get off there.
44:29Finally, the agents escape the German-held island.
44:33What happened was even scaring, to put it bluntly.
44:38When you have to go,
44:39you push your engines up and you go like the clappers.
44:41The speed of these boats is quite good.
44:44In their headquarters in Egypt,
44:46the British present General Kriper to the press
44:48as a major propaganda coup over Nazi Germany.
44:53It was a morale buster for the Germans,
44:56realizing that one of their generals could get taken
44:58from right under their noses.
45:00It gave the Allies a deceptive move,
45:03knowing that it would keep the Germans' troops here,
45:05and not having them sent to the Normandy beaches,
45:09where the eventual large-scale invasion did take place.
45:13The success of the capture mission struck the Nazis
45:16just 23 days before the final invasion.
45:21In the lead-up to D-Day,
45:23British commandos set out one last time
45:26to capture or kill Nazi General Erwin Rommel
45:29in his Castle HQ in France.
45:33Meanwhile, US Rangers first have to knock out
45:36a giant enemy gun battery covering Omaha Beach.
45:40Will Allied commandos finally beat their old enemy?
45:49Normandy, 1944.
45:52On the eve of D-Day,
45:54Allied agents plan an ultimate mission
45:56to kidnap or kill an old enemy.
46:00General Erwin Rommel is now in charge
46:02of fighting back the invasion.
46:04The Allies were obsessed with Rommel.
46:07I think, you know, they feared Rommel.
46:08They thought he was, you know,
46:11by far the most able of all the Nazi generals.
46:16Before the British could reach Rommel,
46:18US Rangers had to face an almost overwhelming threat.
46:21The gun batteries of Poin du Arc.
46:24Six 155-millimeter cannons high on a cliff.
46:31Looking down on Utah and Omaha Beach.
46:39These guns could range in both directions.
46:44So it was absolutely critical that these guns be knocked out
46:47in order that we have success on Omaha Beach.
46:50Dwight Anderson, director of the Normandy American Cemetery,
46:53knows how Ranger veterans assaulted the cliff guns
46:57to ease the way for the ultimate mission to get Rommel.
47:03The Rangers had special devices
47:05that would rocket-propell the hooks up here.
47:09The Germans were, in fact, throwing hand grenades down.
47:12There was a German machine gun back over here to our right,
47:14which had them under fire.
47:18And as you can well imagine,
47:19the Germans were trying to cut some of the ropes
47:21as they were coming up.
47:23The Germans had pulled back the guns with wagons
47:26from the clifftop into a hideout.
47:28But the Rangers tracked them down.
47:31The Germans' artillerymen were not, in fact, on the guns.
47:35They were coming out of their hide position,
47:38realizing that the naval bombardment was over,
47:40and they were getting into formation.
47:42And they were about 200 meters, in fact,
47:44from where 1st Sergeant Lommel discovered the guns.
47:48It was at that point he would have taken,
47:49opened the breach, as you see here,
47:51and placed a thermite grenade inside.
47:54Once that happens, the cannon is essentially useless.
47:59The Rangers' triumph over the Nazi shore battery
48:02at Pointe-du-Arc eases the way for British paratroopers
48:05to hunt down General Lommel.
48:11In a small village west of Paris,
48:14Hitler's general is hiding in a medieval castle.
48:17In 1944, they were looking for a chance to kill Lommel,
48:22because they thought getting Lommel in this medieval castle
48:25in France could have made a difference.
48:28to the outcome of the war.
48:30It seems impossible to knock out Lommel inside his castle,
48:34because he could easily retreat down into the dungeons.
48:39But the French resistance radios the Nazi general's weak spot,
48:43his frequent walks in the local woods.
48:47The SAS paratroopers are led by Franco-American Lieutenant Jack Lee,
48:52but fate plays a trick on them yet again.
48:56The irony is, by the time the SAS operation went into the field,
49:03Lommel had already been badly injured by a spitfire in his car
49:07while driving along the road.
49:15So this was the irony, Lommel was really finished
49:18and never went back into action.
49:24The myth of Lommel's invincibility faded
49:27while the courage of the special forces of World War II became legion.
49:37Their wartime missions left a legacy of daring and determination
49:41emulated by the special forces of today.
49:44LOMEL
49:46LOMEL
49:47LOMEL
50:06Oh, hey!
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