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00:00In England, the nerve center of a heroic rescue operation that remains the pride of a nation.
00:07You cannot overestimate the effect this had on the country's morale.
00:13A dilapidated mansion in Virginia that found itself perilously close to the front lines.
00:20Until one day the fighting arrived right at the doorstep.
00:26And a palatial ruin in Estonia that hosted a formidable empress.
00:32She would make it her mission to uncover the secrets of its wealth.
00:49Overlooking the English Channel is an ancient stronghold with a modern secret buried below.
01:01We're on the south coast of England, looking out over the white cliffs of Dover towards France.
01:07There is a medieval castle that stands out on a promontory and commands the entire terrain.
01:17There are holes carved out of the cliff face.
01:20Concrete and metal constructions.
01:23These windows offer a glimpse into a subterranean labyrinth.
01:30And as you get into the chambers underneath the ground,
01:36you see desks, you see typewriters, you see all the things you need to run an office.
01:44There's electrical equipment, huge machinery.
01:48It's like a time capsule.
01:52One wonders, what's happening here?
01:55Why is all of this infrastructure under the ground?
01:59You feel like you're seeing something that had to be protected.
02:04The nerve center of something very, very big.
02:08This facility was called into service during a moment of national crisis.
02:14The survival of Britain's army and Britain itself hung by a thread.
02:25Dover Castle has been standing guard over Britain's southern coast since the 12th century.
02:32It's been adapted for defense through the ages.
02:35And by the late 1700s, Britain was at war with Napoleon Bonaparte's France.
02:42Tunnels were excavated to meet the threat of invasion.
02:47So the original tunnel was constructed about 1797.
02:51And were designed really just to be extra accommodation for lots of troops.
02:57There were about 2,000 soldiers living down here at the end of the 18th century.
03:02But that invasion never came, and they were soon shut up and abandoned.
03:08That was until the arrival of a new threat from Europe in the 1930s.
03:14War with Nazi Germany seemed inevitable by 1938.
03:18So the Dover Castle tunnels, safe from aerial attack, were converted into naval headquarters.
03:25Retired Admiral Bertram Ramsey is brought back into service to organize the defense of England.
03:38He had his own quarters here, but also he had this amazing view right out to the harbor beneath us
03:46and into the channel.
03:50Ramsey and his team's job was focused on controlling the channel.
03:55But very soon, the workers in this facility found themselves directing a rescue mission.
04:01This operation would become famous around the world, known simply by the name of the French town where it took
04:09place, Dunkirk.
04:12In 1940, very rapidly, the German armed forces encircle the British and French armies in and around Dunkirk.
04:26Loin and Calais had already been taken, and they found themselves more or less surrounded.
04:32Nearly half a million British and Allied soldiers found themselves marooned on the beaches.
04:40The British and French armies are about to be annihilated by the Nazis.
04:47If they didn't get the men off those beaches, the remaining Allied forces would be destroyed,
04:53and Britain would be defenseless to Nazi invasion.
04:58Ramsey is ordered to plan and organize Operation Dynamo to bring back across the channel as many soldiers as possible.
05:08With less than a week to prepare, Ramsey and his team worked around the clock, making plans, gathering resources, and
05:17mobilizing ships.
05:18The main docks had been destroyed, and the beaches were shallow.
05:23Even at high tide, British destroyers could get no closer than a mile from shore.
05:29Troops would have to be ferried out to the big ships on small boats, under constant artillery fire and aerial
05:36attack.
05:38Ramsey's team scrambled for solutions.
05:43But they soon ran out of time.
05:46On May 26, 1940, the order came in to commence Operation Dynamo.
05:53The first few days were disastrous.
05:57Only a small number of soldiers were actually able to escape those beaches, less than 8,000 on the first
06:03day.
06:03But a discovery soon offered hope.
06:07In Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, the title of the first timeline in the film was The Mole.
06:14It's actually the name of a concrete breakwater which provided a vital lifeline back to England.
06:22Built to protect the harbor from rough seas, it was more than 4,000 feet long, heading out into deeper
06:29water.
06:29You could pull destroyers alongside the mall, and you could get soldiers to walk out onto the end of the
06:39mall and get aboard the destroyers.
06:42For the troops waiting in line, however, they were sitting ducks for the Luftwaffe.
06:49Diary entries described the psychological terror as the soldiers anxiously awaited the dreaded scream of the German Stukas.
06:59When they really are a harrowing reed, they speak of the desperation, the fear of the potential danger that was
07:06coming their way.
07:08Despite these Stuka raids, the mole was working, and the numbers of rescues began to swell.
07:14So Ramsey desperately requested more destroyers.
07:19The Admiralty were worried about the fact that they were losing ships out there.
07:23They didn't want to lose those ships.
07:25Ramsey actually had to persuade the Admiralty that the larger ships were necessary.
07:33But Nazi forces were closing in, and Ramsey knew he couldn't rely on the mole alone.
07:40He called on the seafaring people of Britain for help.
07:45Ramsey decided to enlist the support of the little ships.
07:49Some of them civilian boats, some of them commercial boats and ferries, who had a shallow enough draft to be
07:57able to get close into the beach.
08:01Gradually, troops began to see more and more rescue vessels on the horizon.
08:06The British people had rallied to Ramsey's call.
08:10Fishing smacks, lifeboats, sailing barges, watercraft of all kinds,
08:16crewed by volunteers, bravely ventured into enemy territory to pick up stranded soldiers.
08:25In just over a week, Ramsey's operation had been able to rescue 338,000 Allied troops.
08:33A remarkable feat.
08:35This was over ten times what they'd hoped, and in large part thanks to civilian boats.
08:4190,000 men are left behind, but it's seen as a great victory and proves to be a pivotal turning
08:49point in the war.
08:50The next day, Churchill gave his famous speech.
08:54We shall fight on the beaches.
08:56We shall fight on the landing grounds.
08:58We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.
09:01You cannot overestimate the effect this had on the country's morale.
09:10In the months that followed, the Royal Air Force repulsed Hitler's aerial assault
09:15and secured victory in what became known as the Battle of Britain.
09:22The island was now safe from Nazi invasion,
09:25and when the U.S. joined the war in December 1941,
09:29it could be used as a base from which to launch the biggest seaborne invasion in history.
09:37From 1942, Dover Castle functioned as a center for Allied headquarters
09:42to direct the invasion of Europe,
09:44and it would involve using one of America's greatest generals as bait.
09:56Beginning in 1942,
09:59a network of tunnels under Dover Castle was used in the planning of D-Day.
10:04So the space would have been known as Q-Dover,
10:07and it was part of an elaborate hoax.
10:12Q-Dover was set up as a communications base
10:15to direct a hugely ambitious deception plan.
10:19In the run-up to D-Day,
10:21Operation Fortitude was set up to feed false intel to the Nazis.
10:27The Allies are going to convince the Germans
10:30that they're going to go across the channel from Dover to Calais,
10:35shortest distance.
10:37Meanwhile, the Allies are going to land in Normandy.
10:42There has got to be a convincing picture
10:45of an Allied army properly positioned
10:50to cross from Dover to Calais.
10:54George Patton is selected to lead this army.
10:58He was the leader the Germans feared the most.
11:01They considered him the Allies' best general.
11:05So while Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery
11:09and Dwight Eisenhower are running the real invasion,
11:16George Patton is put in command
11:18of 1st United States Army Group,
11:21which doesn't exist.
11:24Fake tanks and trucks, as well as fake camps,
11:27are created as part of an entirely fictitious army,
11:31positioned in the east of England
11:33to support the idea of a Dover-Calais crossing.
11:37They create fake radio networks
11:41communicating all around the fake unit
11:46and the center for coordinating
11:49all of the deception operations
11:52of Operation Fortitude
11:54is right here in these tunnels.
11:58June 6th, 1944.
12:02D-Day.
12:04Operation Fortitude has completely deceived the Nazis.
12:08German commanders hold back
12:11from committing against the Allied invasion in Normandy.
12:16They're still waiting for the real invasion
12:19to come across from Dover to Calais.
12:24Two months later,
12:26some German commanders still believe
12:28that Patton's Phantom Army is real.
12:31It was one of the greatest deceptions in history
12:34and the Nazis bought it hook, line and sinker.
12:44Much of the complex is still empty
12:46and closed to the public.
12:48But it's possible to visit parts of the tunnels
12:51and stand in the spaces that were so crucial
12:54to Britain's survival and Europe's salvation.
13:03near the town of Farmville, Virginia,
13:07nestled among poplar trees,
13:09is an unusual relic of the Old South.
13:16The classic grand tome in Virginia
13:19would be, you know, white wood, columns.
13:23This is different.
13:25It's got an elegant turret,
13:27an ornate slate roof,
13:28and a beautiful arch welcoming you in.
13:31When we move inside,
13:33the rooms have pretty much been stripped bare,
13:35but there are still the trappings of wealth on display.
13:38But when the nation split apart,
13:41this mansion was caught in the crossfire.
13:45And the fortunes of the war went, you know,
13:47back and forth until one battle
13:50changed the entire direction of the war.
13:52It was the largest cavalry clash in American history,
13:56and the man who lived here
13:58was right in the thick of the action.
14:02And the family waited uneasily
14:04for news from the front lines
14:05until one day,
14:07the battle arrived right at their doorstep.
14:17Ann Stone spent her childhood summers
14:20visiting this old mansion.
14:22It was overwhelming as a child
14:25because this house scared me.
14:26It was dark.
14:28And I can remember sitting on the floor
14:30and playing with the little soldiers.
14:34My brother, the oldest one,
14:36this is where he found the Civil War uniforms.
14:40Constructed around the 1830s,
14:43Ann Stone's great-great-grandfather moved in
14:46when the nation was on the cusp of war.
14:49John Hughes Knight, Jr. was a prominent planter and lawyer
14:53born just 30 miles away.
14:55In 1860, he bought this place
14:57and moved his wife and three children here.
14:59The mansion was just part of a vast estate
15:03that covered 1,000 acres.
15:05They had stables for the horses,
15:07a smokehouse for preserving meat,
15:09even an ice house
15:10to keep themselves cool in the summer.
15:13The Knight family lived here in ease and luxury.
15:17But this privileged lifestyle
15:19was built on the backs of the oppressed.
15:24Thirty enslaved workers ensured
15:26they were weighted on hand and foot.
15:29The country was increasingly divided
15:31over the issue of enslavement,
15:33with the abolitionist movement
15:34gathering pace in the north.
15:38With some states wanting to suppress
15:40the spread of slavery
15:41and other states wanting to perpetuate it,
15:43the battle lines were drawn
15:45and both sides prepared for war.
15:47Virginia joined the Confederacy,
15:50and like much of its population,
15:52the Knight family supported the cause.
15:56On April 12, 1861,
15:58the first shots of the American Civil War are fired.
16:02John Knight immediately signs up to fight.
16:05As a relatively wealthy man,
16:07he can supply his own horse and tack,
16:09so he joins the cavalry as a sergeant.
16:13His Confederate regiment immediately skirmishes
16:17with Union forces,
16:18who had crossed into Virginia.
16:20In the Civil War,
16:21cavalry played an outsized role
16:23because of the huge spaces of North America.
16:26Basically, cavalry units had the mobility
16:29and the range to raid and to forage
16:31and to strike terror into the other side.
16:34And the South generally had the better cavalry units
16:37at the beginning of the war.
16:38So John Knight is in one of the elite units
16:42of the Confederate Army.
16:44John's family back at Poplar Hill
16:46would have little idea what was going on
16:49or whether John was even still alive.
16:52This was a time when press accounts
16:55of the war were very sketchy.
16:57The Knight family relied on letters from John,
17:00which would wend their way very slowly
17:02back from whatever front line he was on.
17:05Anne recalls reading her great-great-grandfather's
17:08accounts from the front lines.
17:11I remember the feel of it.
17:13There was a lot of personal, you know, recollection.
17:17Kiss the babies for me.
17:19Very personal.
17:20Where you could see it had to have been agony.
17:25He wrote about the meager rations,
17:28living on one meal of crackers
17:31and poor-quality beef a day,
17:33and the difficulties sending and receiving mail from home,
17:37which left men feeling isolated, hungry, and cut off.
17:43In 1863, General Robert E. Lee's thrust northward
17:47threatens to take John, now a lieutenant,
17:50further from his family.
17:51This Gettysburg campaign,
17:53which is Lee's bold foray into the north
17:56to try to win a great victory on Union soil,
17:59John Knight is part of this.
18:00His Virginia Cavalry Unit marches with Lee's army.
18:03But Knight's campaign is soon cut short in dramatic fashion.
18:10On the night of June 8th,
18:12John Knight and his men are camped near Brandy Station, Virginia,
18:15a hundred miles north of the Poplar Hill Mansion.
18:18But little did they know,
18:19they were being watched.
18:26On the night of June 8th, 1863,
18:30Lieutenant John Knight is camped near Brandy Station,
18:33one hundred miles from his home,
18:35when he's woken by a cacophony of noise.
18:40Bugles rent the air and gunshots
18:43sounded as 11,000 Union cavalry
18:46charged Confederate positions.
18:48Knight and his comrades are caught totally off guard.
18:53Startled, they leap onto their horses,
18:55many half naked and without saddles.
18:58And it becomes intense, brutal,
19:02close-range combat fought with sabers and pistols.
19:06Brandy Station was, you know, 14 hours of mayhem.
19:09The biggest cavalry battle of the American Civil War
19:14and the biggest cavalry battle ever fought
19:16on the North American continent.
19:19Confederates claim victory,
19:20but a vastly improved and more organized Union cavalry
19:24proves they can finally compete.
19:27And it's kind of a morale turning point.
19:30Afterwards, the Union cavalry forces feel
19:33that they can contest with their Confederate opposites
19:37on nearly even terms.
19:39In the aftermath, Knight falls sick with a fever
19:43and is sent home to Poplar Hill.
19:46While the Knight family waited to see
19:48whether John would recover,
19:50word of the disastrous Confederate defeat
19:52at Gettysburg reached the house.
19:54The news only motivated Knight
19:57to return to the heat of battle.
19:59Once fully recovered, he rejoined his regiment.
20:03But they were forced on a long retreat
20:05by the new Union commander, Ulysses S. Grant.
20:10After Gettysburg, when Grant takes command
20:12and starts pressing on Richmond
20:14and pushing into Virginia,
20:16Poplar Hill Mansion finds itself near the front line.
20:20Eventually, they were pushed back to Appomattox,
20:23just 20 miles from his home at Poplar Hill.
20:27You can just imagine the Knight family
20:29holed up in this house, watching the horizon.
20:32And it was all women hustling around
20:35to get the valuables out and all that.
20:36And I wondered, were they up here?
20:39And, you know, on the watch out,
20:41were they on the lookout?
20:43One morning, the children living in the house
20:46look out the window and they see smoke.
20:49And out of that smoke emerges grizzled men
20:52in blue uniforms marching towards them.
20:56Hungry stragglers, cut off from the main Union army,
20:59arrive at the front of the house,
21:01where the family has gathered.
21:04They're standing outside with six children,
21:07including a baby wrapped in a comforter,
21:09as the men start ransacking the house.
21:12And they start looting the place
21:14and looking under furniture and beds
21:16and taking anything of value.
21:19The men leave the house a mess,
21:21but intact, and the family unharmed.
21:25These Union soldiers are merely hungry and desperate.
21:32John Knight is present at Appomattox
21:35for General Lee's Confederate surrender
21:36on April 9th, 1865.
21:40Knight rushes back to his family,
21:43possibly that same day.
21:46And then after the war,
21:48Poplar Hill Mansion and its surrounding estates
21:50and kind of returned to normal.
21:53But, you know, what was normal after the Civil War?
21:55Because Poplar Hill Mansion
21:56had been the center of a slave economy.
21:59And suddenly all these enslaved people
22:01were technically emancipated.
22:03And yet the losers of the Civil War,
22:07you know, they don't really admit that.
22:09And they expect, you know,
22:10that they're going to retain control
22:11over these people,
22:13if not through formal slavery,
22:14through some kind of indentured servitude
22:17or sharecropping arrangements.
22:19There was a lot of debate
22:21among the political leaders
22:23of the country and the victorious Union
22:25at the end of the war.
22:27And really the watchword
22:28was Reconstruction and Reconciliation.
22:30So there was not much push at all
22:34to ensure that the formerly enslaved population
22:37was treated with any level of respect,
22:40let alone equality.
22:42Many African Americans did migrate north
22:45where they had a chance to start a new life.
22:47But for those who didn't,
22:48their options were extremely limited.
22:52The mansion remained in the family for generations.
22:56And Anne recalls how they clung to the old ways.
23:00The great-grandmother died in 1960.
23:03And they had maintained this antebellum lifestyle
23:06right up to the day she died.
23:08And when you realize
23:10these people really did live like that,
23:12there's a level of embarrassment and guilt.
23:16The last enslaved man born at Poplar Hill
23:20doesn't die until 1935.
23:22And one wonders what would have been more amazing
23:26or disappointing to them,
23:28how much things had changed
23:30or how much they'd stayed the same.
23:33Life at Poplar Hill was reflected in the wider region,
23:37which was hugely resistant to change.
23:40In fact, the county in which this house resides
23:42was one of the very last in the country
23:45to integrate its schools.
23:46And they only did so after a Supreme Court ruling
23:50forced the issue in 1964.
23:53Anne's family sold the estate in 1960.
23:56And since 2000,
23:58it's been left to gather cobwebs and dust.
24:06A local preservation group has been established
24:09with aim to secure funds to buy it and protect it.
24:13If successful,
24:14they hope to turn it into an education center.
24:21In Estonia,
24:2330 miles from the capital Tallinn,
24:25is a grand ruin that once hosted a formidable empress,
24:30stamping her authority on her new kingdom.
24:35The forest stretches out in every direction
24:37and you can see a smattering of villages in the distance.
24:41Then you notice a settlement.
24:43There are compounds that could have been farm yards or stables.
24:46At the heart of this complex
24:48is this huge, grand building
24:50with tall, imperious columns
24:53rising up around the entrance.
24:56And when you go inside,
24:57oh my God,
24:58I mean, these rooms are just absolutely palatial.
25:02High ceilings,
25:03beautiful mouldings,
25:05fixtures for, like, enormous chandeliers.
25:08Whoever built this place was certainly wealthy,
25:11but where did all this money come from?
25:14During a moment of great upheaval
25:17across a vast empire,
25:19this lavish building drew the attention
25:21of one of history's most powerful women.
25:24She would make it her mission
25:26to uncover the secrets of its wealth.
25:36Nele Rael is a local historian
25:38who grew up in the shadow
25:40of this extravagant structure.
25:43When I was a kid,
25:45this was my playground.
25:47I had no idea
25:49that the great world leaders
25:51stayed here
25:52or the decisions that changed
25:54hundreds and hundreds
25:56of people's lives
25:57were made here.
26:00This manor house
26:01is one of the oldest in Estonia,
26:04with roots going back
26:06to the 13th century.
26:08By the mid-1700s,
26:11it fell into the hands
26:12of a man called Karl Magnus Stenbock.
26:15Karl Magnus and his descendants
26:17would build one of the grandest
26:20and certainly the largest
26:22manor complexes in Estonia.
26:26So now we have entered
26:28to the welcoming hall.
26:30All the walls were covered
26:32with the portraits
26:33of the ancestors.
26:35The Stenbock family's
26:37rise to prominence
26:38coincided with an era
26:40of great change
26:41in the Russian Empire
26:42and the arrival
26:44of a now iconic empress.
26:47In 1762,
26:49the Russian emperor's wife
26:51launched a rebellion
26:52against her own husband.
26:55She forced him
26:56to abdicate
26:57and possibly even ordered
26:59his assassination.
27:01And almost overnight,
27:03she becomes the ruler,
27:05the autocrat
27:06of the entire Russian Empire,
27:07including this wedge
27:09of Estonia.
27:11She would become known
27:12as Catherine the Great.
27:15In 1764,
27:18Catherine embarked
27:19on a tour
27:20of her new kingdom.
27:22High on her list
27:23was this complex,
27:26Colga Manor.
27:27With Catherine coming,
27:28you had to put on
27:29a good show.
27:31They had to really
27:32put out the best silverware
27:33and the best food
27:34and drink.
27:35The white wines
27:36and the champagne
27:37had to be chilled
27:37in the cellar.
27:39There were 20 different
27:41kind of meat.
27:43You only name it.
27:44They had it.
27:46But the Russian leader
27:47wasn't only here
27:49to enjoy lavish banquets.
27:52Catherine was an extremely
27:54enlightened czar,
27:56western-looking,
27:57reform-minded,
27:58who was determined
27:59to import a lot
28:01of foreign technology,
28:02foreign practices
28:03into Russia
28:04to modernize it.
28:05So she would go
28:06on these trips
28:06around different regions
28:08of the empire.
28:10The manor
28:10and all the land
28:11around it
28:12were making
28:12a huge amount
28:13of money
28:13and Catherine
28:14wanted to know
28:15how they were doing it
28:16and whether it could
28:17be replicated
28:17across her empire.
28:19She found
28:20a vast estate
28:21sprawling across
28:23130,000 acres
28:24and stretching out
28:26to the coast.
28:27Within it
28:28were various
28:28profitable industries.
28:30She wants to see
28:31the farming operations,
28:33she wants to see
28:33the forestry operations,
28:35she wants to go out
28:36to the coast
28:37and see the ship building.
28:39But it was all
28:40based on an ancient
28:41system of exploitation.
28:45The manor
28:46was super wealthy
28:47because on this land
28:49were living
28:51around 10,000 serfs
28:54who were working
28:56for free.
28:58Serfdom
28:58was a form
28:59of forced labor
29:00which tied peasants
29:02to the land
29:03they worked on
29:03and the nobles
29:04who owned it.
29:05These sermons
29:07had no real freedoms
29:08to speak of,
29:09could be bought
29:10and sold
29:10and lived in
29:11extreme poverty.
29:13For the nobles
29:14like the Stenbock family,
29:16it was incredibly lucrative.
29:18It's not hard
29:19to make a fortune
29:20when you don't have
29:21to pay the staff.
29:22On taking the throne
29:23a few years earlier,
29:25in 1762,
29:27Catherine had given
29:28serfs certain rights
29:30and even considered
29:31plans to emancipate them.
29:33However,
29:35having seen the riches
29:36on display
29:37at places like
29:38Colga Manor,
29:38the empress
29:39had a change
29:40of heart.
29:42Realizing the support
29:44of powerful nobles
29:45was crucial
29:45to her empire,
29:47she would go on
29:48to strengthen
29:48the system
29:49she had once
29:50condemned
29:50as inhuman.
29:53By the time
29:54of her death
29:54in 1796,
29:56she personally
29:57owned
29:58half a million
29:59serfs
29:59and enabled
30:01landowners
30:01to sentence them
30:02to hard labor
30:03in Siberia.
30:05These serfs
30:06get poorer
30:07and poorer,
30:08the Stenbachs
30:08and other such
30:09landlords
30:09get richer
30:10and richer.
30:12In the mid-1800s,
30:14Catherine's
30:15great-grandson
30:16finally seemed
30:17to offer hope
30:17to the impoverished
30:19peasants
30:19across the empire.
30:21In 1856,
30:23Alexander II
30:24declared his intention
30:25to abolish
30:27serfdom.
30:28But the peasants
30:30at Colga
30:30quickly grew frustrated
30:32at how slowly
30:33these reforms
30:34were being put
30:35into place.
30:36By the summer
30:37of 1858,
30:39they'd had enough
30:40and refused
30:41to work.
30:42The landlord
30:43responds
30:45by bringing
30:46in 450
30:48soldiers.
30:50The serfs
30:51quickly backed
30:52down.
30:53A man called
30:54Mick Keevey
30:55was identified
30:56as the leader
30:57of the uprising
30:58and singled out
30:59for special punishment.
31:02So, in this spot
31:04in front of
31:04the big barn,
31:06200 soldiers
31:07formed two lines
31:08and Mick Keevey
31:09had to run
31:10four times
31:11through this
31:12corridor of men,
31:14each man
31:14beating him
31:15with a wooden stick.
31:17They deport
31:19this barely-living
31:20Mick Keevey
31:21to a penal colony
31:22in Siberia.
31:23So, you see
31:24what happens
31:25if you try to, like,
31:27you know,
31:27buck the system.
31:28And so, really
31:29little changes
31:30for the peasants
31:31there until
31:32the Russian Revolution
31:33in 1917.
31:35The emancipation
31:37laws of the
31:371860s
31:38did little
31:39to improve
31:40daily lives
31:41of peasants,
31:42but crucially,
31:43it gave them
31:43the freedom
31:44to organize.
31:45And in 1917,
31:47the floodgates
31:48opened.
31:50In the wake
31:51of the Russian
31:52Revolution
31:52and the First World War,
31:54Estonia won
31:55its independence,
31:56but peace
31:56at Kolga
31:57wouldn't last.
31:58The estate
31:59was soon caught up
32:01in the biggest
32:02military campaign
32:03in history.
32:09During the carnage
32:11of the Second World War,
32:12Kolga Manor
32:13was captured
32:14by Hitler's
32:15Nazi army
32:15and turned
32:16into a military
32:17hospital.
32:19With Germany's
32:20defeat in 1945,
32:23Estonia fell
32:23once more
32:24under Russian control,
32:25this time
32:26the Soviet Union.
32:29The Manor House
32:30was converted
32:31into a state farm
32:32until Estonia
32:33won its freedom
32:34in 1990.
32:37Amazingly,
32:37in 1993,
32:39the Stenbok family
32:40actually managed
32:41to regain possession
32:42of Kolga Manor,
32:44but by that time
32:45it was really
32:46in a terrible state.
32:54Today,
32:55the Manor House
32:56has a new owner
32:57who is looking
32:58for the funds
32:59to restore it
33:00to its former glory.
33:01And Nelle works
33:02for a museum
33:03on the site
33:04dedicated to preserving
33:06the story
33:06of nearly
33:07a thousand years
33:08of life here.
33:11Kolga Manor
33:12tells a great story
33:13of how Estonian
33:15people preserve
33:16their folklore,
33:18their culture,
33:19their language
33:19throughout the
33:20different oppressions
33:22so it can be
33:23also a symbol
33:24of the resilience
33:25of the people
33:26working for the
33:28Manor.
33:34In the heart
33:35of America's
33:36Motor City,
33:37a commanding structure
33:39stands watch
33:40over the Detroit River.
33:46Right in the middle
33:47of this area
33:48is this huge
33:48looming building
33:49made out of
33:50substantial stone blocks.
33:53As you get closer
33:54you can see
33:55a faded red sign
33:56that says
33:57Marine Corps
33:58Reserve Center.
33:59So clearly
34:00this is a military structure.
34:02Despite its stark
34:04functional exterior,
34:06inside is a riot
34:08of color
34:08and artistry.
34:10Several rooms
34:11have some really
34:12interesting ambitious
34:13artwork.
34:14Most military bases
34:16are not decorated
34:17in this way
34:18so what is this
34:19wonderful artwork
34:20doing here?
34:21This building
34:22has a legacy
34:23that goes well
34:24beyond its
34:25original purpose.
34:27It becomes a
34:28launching point
34:28for America's
34:29longest serving
34:30president
34:31and is a part
34:32of the origin story
34:33of one of its
34:34greatest boxers.
34:37Nowhere is anyone
34:39celebrated like
34:40my father
34:40is in the city
34:41of Detroit
34:41and that all
34:42started in this
34:43building.
34:48In the late
34:491800s
34:50the U.S.
34:51government
34:51was expanding
34:52its global reach
34:53and turned
34:54to the citizens
34:55of states
34:56like Michigan
34:56to provide support
34:58in times of war.
35:00Detroit became
35:01a center
35:02for naval training.
35:03It seems kind of
35:04incongruous.
35:05Detroit lies
35:06hundreds of miles
35:07from the ocean
35:07but the Great Lakes
35:10region has been
35:10part of America's
35:12naval history
35:13going back really
35:14to the founding
35:15of the republic.
35:17Several Great Lakes
35:19states formed
35:20naval militias
35:21and these were
35:22the forerunners
35:23of the U.S.
35:24Marine Corps
35:25and naval reserves.
35:26With their numbers
35:28growing,
35:28a modernist-style
35:29facility was constructed.
35:31It would become
35:32known as
35:33the Broadhead
35:34Naval Armory.
35:36This armory
35:37opened in 1930
35:38but almost
35:39from the start
35:40it was more
35:41than just a place
35:42for military training.
35:44The Great Depression
35:45which hit the Detroit
35:46area especially hard
35:48forced its owners
35:49to adapt the site.
35:51To raise money
35:52to maintain the armory
35:54it became a premier
35:55civic event site.
35:57Its popularity
35:58was such
35:59that it was chosen
36:00as the locale
36:01for a seminal moment
36:03in the lives
36:04of two great Americans.
36:06The first
36:08was a charismatic
36:09politician
36:09determined to solve
36:11the country's
36:12economic turmoil.
36:14Franklin Delano Roosevelt
36:16a liberal reformer
36:18was running
36:19against
36:20the incumbent
36:21president
36:21Herbert Hoover
36:22who many people
36:24saw as responsible
36:25for this Great Depression.
36:27In October of 1932
36:29both candidates
36:30came to Detroit
36:31to give speeches.
36:32Roosevelt chose
36:33the armory
36:34as the location
36:35for his address.
36:36Roosevelt of course
36:38won the election.
36:39He also won
36:40the state of Michigan.
36:41Roosevelt's promise
36:42of a new deal
36:43had won him
36:44the election.
36:45Now it was time
36:46to take action.
36:48Broad
36:50executive power
36:51to wage a war
36:54against the emergency.
36:56In his first
36:57100 days
36:58the new president
37:00passed an astonishing
37:0177 laws
37:03through Congress
37:04and signed
37:05an unprecedented
37:0699 executive orders.
37:11FDR was able
37:13to push through
37:13a whole host
37:14of public policies
37:16aimed at getting
37:17people back to work.
37:18There were massive
37:19public works projects
37:21building infrastructure,
37:22bridges, highways.
37:23However,
37:26the new deal
37:27didn't just support
37:28blue-collar jobs.
37:30The program involved
37:32something called
37:32the Federal Art Project
37:34which employed
37:35some 10,000 artists
37:37across the country.
37:38That project
37:40would transform
37:41the country's
37:42public buildings
37:42including
37:43the Broadhead Naval Armory.
37:46The Federal Arts Project
37:47employed artists
37:48like David Friedenthal
37:49and Edgar Jaeger
37:50to decorate
37:51the armory's
37:52mess halls,
37:53bars,
37:54corridors,
37:54staircases.
37:56The large halls
37:57were also used
37:58to host sporting events
38:00and a future icon
38:02would literally
38:03make his name here.
38:05The day my father
38:06walked in this building
38:07he didn't know
38:10the future
38:11he was about to embark on.
38:19In 1932
38:20Detroit's
38:21Broadhead Naval Armory
38:23would host
38:23the debut
38:24of an American icon.
38:28Joe Louis
38:29Barrow II's
38:30father
38:30is considered
38:31one of the country's
38:32most celebrated
38:33athletes.
38:36My father
38:37relocated
38:38with his family
38:39to Detroit
38:40because
38:41Detroit offered
38:42a future
38:43that Alabama
38:43just simply
38:44could not.
38:45Long before
38:46Black Lives Mattered
38:47anywhere else
38:48Black Lives Mattered
38:48in Detroit, right?
38:49You could get
38:50a job at Ford.
38:52You could
38:52become a part
38:54of the automation boom.
38:56Joe's mother
38:57was worried
38:58he might fall
38:59into the wrong crowd.
39:01So she was giving him
39:02money to go
39:03and take violin lessons.
39:05Every day
39:06he would leave
39:07house for school
39:08with his violin case
39:10but never
39:10turned up
39:11as a violin teacher.
39:13Young Joe
39:13told a little fib
39:14to his mother
39:15instead of going
39:16to his violin lessons
39:17he enrolled
39:17at a program
39:18to learn boxing.
39:21In 1932
39:22age 17
39:24he entered
39:25his first amateur
39:26fight here
39:27at the armory.
39:29Perhaps he was
39:30trying to hide
39:31this activity
39:32from his mother
39:32but Joe Louis
39:34Barrow
39:34had himself listed
39:36on the card
39:37simply as
39:38Joe Louis
39:39a name
39:40that would go down
39:41in history.
39:42He was knocked down
39:43I think seven times
39:44but he kept
39:45getting back up.
39:46He kept getting back up.
39:47The judges
39:48unanimously ruled
39:50that he lost.
39:51And the result
39:52of that
39:52was a newfound
39:53determination
39:54and discipline.
39:56Defeats bring about
39:58the character
39:58that is required
40:01to be a great champion.
40:04Louis would go on
40:05to become
40:06heavyweight champion
40:07and held the title
40:08for nearly 12 years.
40:11But December 7th
40:131941
40:14changed all that.
40:15Pearl Harbor
40:15changed all that.
40:17My father was
40:18at the height
40:18of his career.
40:19He knew he needed
40:19to go
40:20and so he enlisted.
40:22Being heavyweight
40:22champion of the world
40:23didn't alleviate
40:24that obligation to him.
40:27He was asked
40:28to fight
40:28segregated exhibitions
40:29because he said
40:30I'll fight exhibitions
40:31because they will
40:32not be segregated
40:33and that was
40:34the introduction
40:35for the armed forces
40:36to integrated audiences.
40:39While Joe Lewis
40:40toured the front lines
40:41as part of the
40:42special services division
40:44the armory
40:45spent the war
40:46serving on the
40:47home front.
40:48After World War II
40:50and the Vietnam War
40:51the U.S. military
40:52began reducing
40:54its footprint
40:55across the nation.
40:56The armory
40:57ultimately closed down
40:58in 2004.
41:05After decades
41:07of neglect
41:08there's finally hope
41:09for the Broadhead Armory.
41:11Plans are underway
41:12for the non-profit
41:14behind Detroit's
41:15Thanksgiving parade
41:16to restore the building
41:18providing a space
41:19for veterans
41:20and bringing
41:21marching
41:22and drilling
41:23back to this
41:24grand old hall
41:25once again.
41:26You
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