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00:11History is full of killer stories.
00:14People, places, and events so lethal, so downright shocking, that we just can't forget them.
00:21Tonight, a medieval siege launches the world's first biological weapon.
00:30Who could guess that it would end up devastating Europe, killing tens of millions of people?
00:36Hitler unleashes revenge from the sky.
00:40No one hears the V2 before it arrives.
00:43There is just a massive explosion.
00:46And the bomb's so powerful, it ends World War II.
00:50For July 1945, there was nothing like it in the world.
00:57These are the weapons so destructive, so disastrous, and so devastating,
01:03they can only be among history's deadliest.
01:13It's 1415.
01:15French fighters are about to meet English warriors in a game-changing battle in the Hundred Years' War.
01:22The French have the numbers, but the English have something else.
01:27The English longbow.
01:32We are deep into the Hundred Years' War, which is a conflict over the crown of France.
01:37And Henry V of England has come to claim the crown of France, and he's trying to take land in
01:42northern France.
01:42And he's not very successful at it.
01:45As Henry is marching towards Calais to return home, the French stand in his way.
01:51And he is forced to fight at a place called Agincourt.
01:55From the French perspective, they have every reason to expect victory at Agincourt.
01:59They have enormous numbers of mounted knights who are heavily armored.
02:03The English, they have a seemingly simple weapon.
02:08By appearance, the longbow isn't all that special a weapon.
02:11It's just a bow.
02:12It's big.
02:12It's about six feet tall, but it's just a piece of wood and a string.
02:16But it is actually a very powerful weapon.
02:19It can hit targets and destroy them at over a thousand feet away,
02:24before you can even feel the hoof strike of the charging cavalry.
02:32The longbows are made from yew wood.
02:34Yew actually turns out to be a wonderful wood for making bows.
02:37It's kind of a natural composite.
02:39It gives you both rigidity and springiness, both of which you need to have an effective bow.
02:44The best English archers can unleash up to 12 arrows a minute.
02:49And this is at a velocity of 150 feet per second.
02:53Nothing else on that battlefield has anywhere near that velocity.
02:57It's terrifying.
02:58But the longbow isn't a weapon for everyone.
03:02Using it requires enormous upper body strength.
03:06An English longbow has a drawback force of between 100 to 180 pounds.
03:14You don't just need fearsome strength.
03:16You need to practice doing this your entire life to be any good at it.
03:2252 years before Agincourt, King Edward III makes this decree.
03:26Every Englishman has to practice the longbow every Sunday.
03:29And he bans all other forms of entertainment, essentially.
03:33It means that huge numbers of men, from young men up, are being trained to shoot these longbows
03:38and building the strength that it requires to shoot these longbows.
03:43At Agincourt, the French have no clue what they're about to face.
03:48And then the fight begins on a battlefield slick with mud.
03:53As the French knights charge downhill, their steeds slip and fall in the mud and the muck.
04:00Imagine for a second you have spent your entire life training to fight on horseback in armor.
04:05You have been told from your earliest childhood about the glories of a knightly charge across open ground.
04:12Then you go to do it, and what you find instead is that the field is muddy.
04:15The sky is growing dark from thousands upon thousands of arrows falling on you.
04:19You get hit by an arrow.
04:20Another one's coming within maybe three seconds.
04:22You can imagine the frustration of being a French knight, knowing that I am supposed to be so much more
04:27powerful a fighter,
04:28but he can kill me long before I can get to him.
04:31The French soldiers are dying.
04:33English longbows are slamming arrows through their armor, through their chest, through every weak point,
04:41at the neck and the armpits of their jerkins, into their legs, into their thighs, into their groin.
04:48They are bleeding to death, and they haven't even seen the enemy's faces.
04:53You hear screams.
04:55You hear the clang of arrowheads hitting off of armor, swords banging off of shields.
05:00You hear injured animals.
05:07It's a quick and decisive win for the English.
05:11In that 120 minutes, Henry V loses several hundred soldiers.
05:16The French lose 10,000 soldiers.
05:20The day is one for Henry V, and the reason?
05:24The English longbow.
05:25It truly is a turning point in the Hundred Years' War,
05:28so much so that the French will sign a peace treaty and declare that Henry V is heir to the
05:34throne of France.
05:38The longbow turns English archers into killing machines.
05:43But there's a 19th century leap in firepower that's even deadlier.
05:48And it starts with an awed inventor.
05:52Hiram Maxim is a prolific inventor.
05:55He's always looking for that invention that's going to make him rich,
05:57including literally inventing a better mousetrap.
06:03One day, Maxim has an aha moment while sports shooting with friends.
06:08When you fire your gun, it kicks against your shoulder,
06:10and then you have to use some sort of action to chamber another round.
06:15And it occurs to him, that force that causes that kick, that's energy.
06:20The Maxim gun uses the energy from the previous shot to recharge the weapon for the next shot.
06:28So it is literally an automatically firing weapon.
06:31Maxim takes the further step of adding a cloth belt containing ammunition.
06:36And the rounds are individually loaded into these sleeves and the cloth,
06:40and that is fed into the machine gun, almost like a sewing machine.
06:48Maxim has created a gun that can fire an astonishing 600 rounds per minute.
06:55But he's also got a problem.
06:57It's developing a lot of heat in the system that cannot be dissipated effectively through air cooling.
07:03Water can do it better.
07:04And so what does he do?
07:05He takes a big fat cylinder, and he puts a little under a gallon of water inside that cylinder,
07:10and the barrel of his machine gun is inside of that cylinder.
07:15Maxim tours the world with a high-energy sales pitch,
07:19looking to get orders for his new gun.
07:21Maxim is having success, or in his new invention around Europe and trying to sell it.
07:27But the question that always comes up is, is it battle-tested?
07:30That's left to the British in a fight against Matabili warriors in Zimbabwe.
07:39First place it really gets tested is in 1893,
07:43and it's actually the British South Africa Company come against a native force.
07:47They're vastly outnumbered, but they have five Maxim guns.
07:49The Maxim guns just mow down the enemy troops, just like cutting grass.
07:551,500 native troops killed.
07:57The South Africa Company men take four losses.
08:00That is how powerful the Maxim gun is.
08:03And from then on, every army wants a Maxim gun.
08:07The Maxim is so efficient that when World War I breaks out in 1914,
08:13generals have to change their battlefield strategy
08:17or lose whole companies in just minutes.
08:21Traditionally, there had been cavalry charges or direct assaults on each army,
08:26and now that is actual slaughter.
08:29Because of the overlapping fields of fire with multiple Maxim guns,
08:34there's no way that you can make it across an open field
08:38without suffering massive casualties and or a total loss.
08:46The Maxim contributes to horrific casualty rates during the Battle of the Somme.
08:51In the Battle of the Somme, 1916,
08:54a British machine gun battalion has six guns firing
08:58over one million rounds in just 12 hours,
09:01and none of the machine guns fail or break down.
09:07The first time in human history, we're measuring casualties in the millions.
09:11It's estimated that there are approximately 8.5 million deaths
09:14as a result of combat during the First World War.
09:17Some sources believe that as much as 40% of those
09:20are the result of machine gun fire.
09:22Today, the Maxim gun is still used on the battlefield.
09:27It also inspires countless other weapons.
09:30And most modern machine guns are really built upon
09:33the exact same principle of a Maxim gun.
09:35When you consider that the most widely used assault rifle on Earth
09:40is the Kalashnikov's AK-47,
09:42you have to understand that it owes a dark debt to Maxim.
09:52It's 1942, and in Egypt,
09:55the Allies are about to unleash a new deadly weapon,
09:59and it'll be a game-changer.
10:02The British Eighth Army is up against Erwin Rommel's Africa Corps.
10:07The prize?
10:08Control of Egypt, the Suez Canal,
10:11the oil fields of the Middle East,
10:12and the southern Mediterranean.
10:16The British need a win and turn to a weapon
10:19their American Allies have developed.
10:23The Sherman M4 is a massive upgrade
10:26from the Eighth Army's previous battle tanks,
10:28the Matilda II and the Stuarts.
10:30These are very fast tanks.
10:32They're great in the soft sand.
10:34However, their armament is painfully small.
10:38Sherman, heavier armor,
10:39massive 75-mil main armament,
10:4230-cal machine gun, 50-cal machine gun.
10:45That's a whole lot of don't argue.
10:48When the Sherman makes its debut
10:50on the sands of El Alameen,
10:53it shows its prowess.
10:55The battlefield turns on its head
10:57with the arrival of the Sherman tank.
11:00The balance is tipped in the Allies' favor.
11:03During this battle,
11:04250 Sherman tanks
11:06help you destroy about 500 German panzers.
11:09With the Shermans spearheading the attack,
11:12they kill 2,300 Germans
11:15and wound another 5,500.
11:21The Sherman proves its worth here.
11:25But as the war goes on,
11:27there are debates about how it stacks up
11:30against German panzers.
11:32It can never be said
11:33that it's the best tank of World War II,
11:35but it is the most produced tank of World War II.
11:38And we exhaust the resources of our opponent
11:41by just rolling thousands of Shermans on them.
11:44The Germans, on the other hand,
11:46are building their panzers
11:47the way you'd build a bespoke sports car.
11:49Unique parts have to be shipped
11:50from Germany to North Africa.
11:52So a damaged German tank is a dead tank.
11:56A damaged Sherman tank
11:58is five minutes away from rejoining the battle.
12:00If you look at the Panzer IV,
12:02there are 8,500 of those made,
12:04whereas the Americans make 50,000 Sherman tanks.
12:10The Sherman tanks roll into Europe
12:12during the invasion of Sicily.
12:15But during D-Day,
12:17the Shermans come up short
12:18against Normandy's hedgerows,
12:21farm barriers of earth and brush
12:23that can seal Nazi positions
12:26and turn every field into a death trap.
12:31One enterprising young American soldier
12:34comes up with the idea
12:35of putting these sort of metal tusks
12:37on the front of the Sherman tank
12:38so that instead of coming up
12:40over the top of the berm,
12:41they can kind of just plow right through it.
12:45They dig out every single Nazi position
12:47and turn them into ash and dust.
12:51The Sherman tank.
12:53Its devastating firepower,
12:56maneuverability, reliability,
12:58and longevity
12:59makes it the most formidable battle tank
13:02in war history.
13:05It's all four horsemen of the apocalypse in one.
13:12The Sherman tank isn't the first deadly weapon
13:16to blend power and speed.
13:18Over 3,000 years ago,
13:20a military genius turns the horse
13:23into a terrifying weapon.
13:28In 331 BC,
13:30Alexander the Great is several years
13:32into his campaign
13:33to conquer the Persian Empire.
13:35This is an incredibly ambitious goal
13:38that he's set for himself.
13:39The Persian Empire
13:40is the superpower of its day.
13:42The great Persian Empire
13:43that Alexander opposed,
13:45they are a military powerhouse,
13:47the likes of which
13:48no one thinks can ever be defeated.
13:50Alexander meets the Persian forces
13:53and their leader, Darius,
13:54on the plains of Gargamel.
13:57Darius III, the emperor,
13:59has as many as 250,000 troops
14:01on the plains of Gargamel.
14:02And there's Alexander
14:04with maybe 50,000 troops.
14:09Alexander's army may be smaller,
14:11but he knows he has
14:13a secret weapon and tactic
14:15that is made for this situation.
14:17He calls it his companion cavalry,
14:19but it's more commonly known
14:21as his shock cavalry.
14:25It's an entirely new idea of a weapon.
14:28These are men, they're mounted,
14:29they have a 16, 17-foot spear.
14:31They're on these massive warhorses.
14:34They're excellent horsemen.
14:35They don't have stirrups yet.
14:37They don't have bridles.
14:38They are steering this massive horse
14:39with just their legs.
14:41It is their job
14:42to strike the decisive blow
14:44at the decisive moment
14:45on the battlefield.
14:46At Gargamel,
14:48Alexander plays a deadly game
14:50of high-stakes chess,
14:51and his cavalry
14:53is his most essential piece.
14:56Alexander understands
14:57how Darius fights battles.
14:59So he knows
15:00that if he stretches his line out,
15:01that Darius is going to stretch
15:02his line out
15:03trying to flank him.
15:04And so he deliberately
15:05creates some gaps
15:07between his troops
15:08in order to get Darius
15:09to buy into this weak spot.
15:11And that draws his troops in.
15:13That's what allows Alexander
15:14to see exactly where he has to hit
15:16with his companion cavalry.
15:17It creates a gap
15:18at precisely the point
15:20that he wants to strike at
15:21because in the center
15:22is Darius.
15:28Alexander slices through
15:29Darius' lines
15:31like a surgeon with a scalpel.
15:33This force is just
15:34this irresistible blow,
15:35these mighty horses
15:37pounding down,
15:37this thundering of hooves.
15:39They are able to just
15:39rip through where they need to
15:41so that even a fairly small amount
15:43can shatter your cohesion
15:45and go right for the throat.
15:47Alexander has Darius
15:49right where he wants him.
15:51Darius has a choice
15:53at this point.
15:54He can either stand and fight,
15:56probably lose and die,
15:58or he can run
15:58and live to fight another day.
16:00He decides to run.
16:04It's a massive victory
16:06for Alexander.
16:08As many as 40,000 Persians
16:11are killed on the battlefield.
16:12Alexander loses
16:13as few as 500 men.
16:15It is an incredibly
16:16lopsided victory
16:17against what was before that
16:19the most powerful empire
16:20in the known world.
16:21The use of shock cavalry
16:23doesn't end
16:24with Alexander the Great.
16:26What Alexander started
16:27ends up taking over the world.
16:29Shock cavalry
16:30becomes the most devastating
16:32weapon of every army
16:34in Eurasia
16:35until gunpowder is invented.
16:38There is no stopping.
16:44It's 1346
16:45and the Mongols
16:47are attacking a city
16:48on the Black Sea.
16:49They're using a siege weapon
16:51and the results
16:52will be killer.
16:56The port of Kaffa
16:58is one of the western endpoints
17:01of the Silk Road.
17:02This is the major trading route
17:04that goes east and west
17:06through Eurasia.
17:07If you control Kaffa,
17:08then you control the endpoint
17:10of the most lucrative trade route
17:12in the world.
17:13You boil down most conflicts.
17:15You always find competition
17:17for resources
17:18at the bottom of that.
17:19And this leads to a conflict
17:21between not just the Mongols
17:23but a very specific subset
17:24of them known as
17:24the Golden Horde
17:25who lay siege
17:27to the city of Kaffa
17:28that is defended
17:28by the Genoese.
17:30The Mongols are coming here
17:32with this mighty army
17:32but they're up against
17:33the walls of the city.
17:35The siege of Kaffa
17:37begins like any other.
17:39The goal is
17:40getting through that wall,
17:41getting through that gate.
17:42When the defenders
17:43have the leisure
17:44of getting the shot lined up
17:46with their bow
17:46and firing down on you,
17:48it really favors
17:48the defenders.
17:50Days turn into weeks
17:51and the Mongols
17:53start to come down
17:54with a mysterious illness.
17:56They start to get swelling
17:57in their armpits,
17:58swelling in their groin,
17:59high fevers.
18:01Today we understand
18:02what this is.
18:02These are the classic symptoms
18:04of the bubonic plague,
18:06the Black Death.
18:07And that gives the Mongols
18:09an idea for a new way
18:11to use the foremost
18:13siege weapon of the day,
18:15the trebuchet.
18:17The trebuchet really is
18:18a different kind of beast.
18:19It's using a counterweight.
18:21And when you put a counterweight
18:22at the end of a lever,
18:23that allows you to throw
18:23a very large weight
18:24a very long distance
18:26so that you could throw
18:27a 200-pound boulder
18:28at something like
18:291,000 feet
18:30with a great degree
18:31of accuracy.
18:32At Kaffa,
18:33a Mongol leader
18:34named Johnny Begg
18:36decides to load
18:37the trebuchet
18:38with something
18:39other than boulders.
18:41Johnny Begg
18:42has a new twist on it.
18:43Instead of firing
18:44huge stone projectiles,
18:45Johnny Begg
18:46is going to send
18:47the bodies of people
18:48who have died
18:49from the plague
18:49into the city.
18:52These bodies,
18:53it's not like they just
18:53sort of land
18:54with a thump.
18:55You know,
18:55they've been thrown
18:56a great distance
18:57and so when they hit
18:57they splatter.
18:59It would have been horrifying
19:00for the citizenry.
19:03Throwing diseased bodies
19:05into a tightly packed city
19:07where sanitary conditions
19:08are already not great
19:09is only going to speed up
19:11the spread of the bubonic plague,
19:14of the Black Death.
19:14This is one of the earliest examples
19:16of biological warfare
19:17that we know of.
19:18The siege ends
19:20when the Genoese flee
19:21and soon the plague
19:23moves beyond Kaffa.
19:26As Genoese sailors
19:27and refugees left Kaffa,
19:30we can track
19:31the movement of the plague
19:32with them
19:33as they reach
19:34to other ports.
19:34We know that it hits
19:35Constantinople next,
19:37then it reaches Sicily
19:38and then from there
19:38it reaches the rest
19:39of Western Europe.
19:41It's really hard
19:42to overstate
19:43how devastating
19:44the Black Plague was
19:45to Western Europe
19:46and we're talking
19:47by some estimates
19:48between 30 and 50 million people
19:50and by some accounts
19:51something like 25 to 60%
19:53of the population.
19:55That is a scale
19:57beyond any disaster
19:59any of us
20:00have ever known.
20:01A trebuchet seems
20:02like a powerful weapon
20:03throwing a 200-pound rock
20:05but who could guess
20:06that it would end up
20:07devastating Europe,
20:08ruining entire cities,
20:10killing tens of millions
20:11of people,
20:12a weapon so much more powerful
20:13than you could
20:14ever have imagined.
20:19Add a little gunpowder
20:20to the trebuchet
20:22and the weapon
20:23gets even deadlier
20:24as troops found out
20:26in World War I.
20:30February 21st, 1916,
20:33the defensive positions
20:34of Verdun are silent
20:36until the German field artillery
20:38set the sky on fire.
20:42Modern warfare has arrived
20:44and nothing can stand
20:46in its way.
20:47Much of the dirty work
20:48being done
20:48in this preliminary bombardment
20:50is being done
20:51by German 105-millimeter
20:53and 150-millimeter
20:54howitzers.
20:55While a howitzer
20:56may look like a cannon,
20:58it operates
20:59slightly differently.
21:00Prior to the howitzer,
21:01you've got a cannon
21:02and you shoot straight
21:03at things that you can see.
21:04A howitzer uses
21:05a shorter barrel
21:06and it shoots up
21:07in a ballistic arch
21:08so that if you're hiding
21:09behind a wall,
21:10it goes over the wall.
21:11If you're hiding
21:11in a trench,
21:12it comes down from the top,
21:13not from the side.
21:15The word howitzer
21:16is derived
21:17from the Czech word
21:19meaning catapult.
21:20In the same way
21:21that tanks
21:22are the new cavalry,
21:23howitzers
21:24are the new catapults
21:25and trebuchets.
21:28Gunpowder replaces
21:29the counterweight system
21:31for lobbing a projectile
21:32over the walls
21:33of some sort
21:34of a fortification.
21:37Ever done,
21:38the howitzer
21:39unleashes death
21:40on a scale
21:41never seen before.
21:43In the first 24 hours,
21:44the Germans fire
21:45a million shells.
21:46That's about 12 shells
21:48a second.
21:51Raining down on you
21:52and they are coming down
21:54with this extreme accuracy
21:55so that even the massive
21:57fortifications of Verdun
21:58are no defense.
21:59The ground rumbles
22:00with the firing.
22:02And the howitzers
22:03aren't done yet.
22:05They keep firing
22:06for 10 months,
22:08inflicting damage
22:09on the battlefield
22:10and off.
22:13It's during the
22:14First World War
22:15that we are beginning
22:16to see for the first time
22:17what they will eventually
22:18call shell shock.
22:20Even if it doesn't hit you,
22:21it shakes.
22:22It shakes your body,
22:23it shakes your brain.
22:24When that goes on
22:25for a long period of time,
22:27it causes massive amounts
22:28of stress,
22:29physiological damage,
22:30even if you don't hit them
22:31with the shell.
22:32By dropping so many shells
22:33nearby,
22:34you break the enemy
22:35and their will to fight.
22:37When the battle has ended
22:39and they're attempting
22:40to recover remains,
22:41they're finding body parts
22:43and they're blown
22:44to pieces like this
22:45because of modern artillery.
22:47Of some 800,000 casualties
22:49in that battle,
22:50three quarters of them,
22:52600,000,
22:53are caused by artillery,
22:55like the heavy howitzers.
22:56After Verdun,
22:57the howitzer remains
22:58a fixture in warfare.
23:02The howitzer is still
23:04an important piece
23:04of weaponry.
23:06And it is more or less
23:08the same weapon
23:08that causes the same terror
23:10as the weapon
23:11that was used
23:11in the First World War.
23:16It's the summer of 678.
23:19The Byzantine Empire
23:20is under attack
23:21from a Muslim enemy,
23:23but they have a surprise.
23:25A weapon that gives new meaning
23:27to the phrase firepower.
23:30This new weapon
23:31has the name Greek fire.
23:33And it's this low-density liquid,
23:35which means it can float
23:36on the surface of water,
23:38but it's also highly flammable
23:40and it can stick to things.
23:41The inventor of Greek fire
23:43is a guy named Kalanikos
23:44of Heliopolis,
23:45who is from Syria
23:47and he is from a place
23:49that has already been overrun
23:51by the Umayyad Caliphate,
23:53the longtime enemy
23:54of the Byzantine Empire.
23:55He wants revenge,
23:56so he gives his invention
23:58of Greek fire
23:58to the Byzantines.
24:00But Kalanikos
24:01doesn't just create Greek fire.
24:03He also engineers
24:04a deadly delivery system.
24:07Now, this emulsified liquid
24:09is deployed in multiple ways,
24:10but perhaps the most significant way
24:12is through a projecting tube
24:13known as a siphon.
24:15He comes up with this system
24:17that can be mounted
24:18on the side of a ship
24:19and spray this incendiary liquid
24:2270 to 80 feet.
24:25Kalanikos provides his new invention
24:27to the Byzantine Emperor,
24:28who sees the utility of it immediately.
24:30After all, ships are wood.
24:32Wood burns really well.
24:34If you have a way
24:34of setting ships on fire,
24:35well, that's a pretty
24:36dang effective weapon.
24:41The Umayyad Caliphate
24:43has besieged Constantinople
24:46for the past four years.
24:48The estimated 1,800 ships
24:51surrounding the city
24:52have no idea
24:53what the Byzantine fleet
24:55has in store for them.
24:57You're approaching an enemy ship,
24:59and from the prowl of this ship
25:01spurts a jet of flame
25:03that hits your own ship,
25:05igniting everything,
25:06lands on the skin
25:08of your comrades
25:08who are now screaming.
25:16You can be the mightiest warrior
25:17in the world,
25:18the most brilliant tactician,
25:19the bravest, the strongest.
25:21Against Greek fire,
25:22the only thing you can do
25:23is get out of the way.
25:27A single Byzantine ship
25:30outfitted with Greek fire
25:31can take out a huge chunk
25:33of the Umayyad fleet.
25:36The Umayyads lose
25:38hundreds of ships,
25:40thousands of men,
25:41and this weapon
25:41saves the Byzantine Empire.
25:44Because Greek fire
25:46is so deadly,
25:47everyone wants it
25:49in their arsenal.
25:50The Byzantines
25:51are very good
25:52at keeping it a secret.
25:54The recipe remains unknown.
25:56Nobody really knows
25:57what this was made of.
25:58Historians and chemists
25:59have come up with
26:01what they think
26:02is an ingredient list.
26:03Petroleum, sulfur,
26:05quicklime,
26:06and some other ingredients.
26:07What we do know
26:08is that it killed
26:09a lot of people.
26:13Greek fire helps
26:14the Byzantines
26:15fend off another siege
26:17in 717.
26:19Fast forward 1,200 years,
26:21and that's when
26:22the United States
26:24tries out
26:25a new version
26:26of Greek fire.
26:33They're fighting
26:34a blistering campaign
26:35across the Pacific.
26:37The battle for Iwo Jima
26:38is happening.
26:41There are hard-fought battles
26:43for Guam
26:43and ongoing
26:44in the Philippines,
26:45and the question arises
26:47of how much
26:48is going to have
26:49to be sacrificed
26:49in order to get
26:50the Japanese to surrender.
26:53The Allies realize
26:54that they need
26:55to do something
26:56to strike Japan directly.
26:59And that is
27:01Operation Meeting House.
27:02Operation Meeting House
27:03is the bombing raid
27:05that takes place
27:06over at the city of Tokyo
27:07on March 9th and 10th, 1945.
27:09In this raid,
27:10they will begin
27:11making use
27:12of the M69
27:13incendiary cluster.
27:16When the cluster drops,
27:17it opens at 2,000 feet,
27:20releasing 38 M69 incendiaries,
27:24each a six-pound pipe
27:26built to kill.
27:28They're designed
27:29to land fused first,
27:31igniting the real nightmare,
27:34napalm.
27:35Napalm actually has
27:36a really interesting
27:37discovery story.
27:38There's a shortage
27:39of rubber in World War II,
27:40and this chemist decides
27:42they're going to produce
27:43a synthetic form of rubber.
27:45So what they do,
27:46they grab naphenic acid,
27:47they grab palmitic acid,
27:49put them together
27:49to form napalm.
27:51It's a weapon
27:52that is designed
27:53to stick to any surface
27:55it touches
27:56and burns
27:57at up to 2,000 degrees
27:59and is incredibly hard
28:01to remove
28:01from the surfaces
28:02it contacts.
28:04This isn't just
28:05one or two
28:05M69 pipes
28:07hitting Tokyo.
28:08Each of the 279 planes
28:11raiding the Japanese capital
28:13is carrying 1,500 of them.
28:16Part of what makes
28:17this weapon so effective
28:18has to do with
28:18the way Tokyo is constructed
28:20and the building materials
28:21that are used.
28:22There's a lot of wood,
28:24but also the interior walls
28:26in many of the buildings
28:27are made out of rice paper.
28:28The bombers target
28:30the most densely populated
28:32parts of Tokyo.
28:40In three hours,
28:4216 square miles
28:44of Tokyo
28:45is reduced
28:46to ash.
28:47The Japanese call it
28:49the night of black snow
28:50because there's so much
28:51ash and soot
28:52in the air
28:52that it's just raining down.
28:54Over 100,000 people
28:56die.
28:57It is the greatest
28:59loss of life
29:01in a bombing mission
29:02in military history.
29:03Next,
29:05the military
29:05seeks out
29:06new targets
29:07for the M69.
29:09This weapon
29:10isn't just used
29:10in Tokyo.
29:11They're bombing
29:12all industrial cities
29:13all across Japan.
29:15Osaka,
29:16Kobe,
29:17Nagoya.
29:20Fire has been used
29:21as a weapon of war
29:22since ancient
29:23military history.
29:24The reason that
29:25the M69 incendiary
29:27submunition
29:27is remembered
29:28to this day
29:29is because
29:30it is such
29:31an extremely effective
29:33weapon of war.
29:34It produces
29:35an appalling
29:36loss of human life
29:37that offends us
29:38even to this day.
29:42During World War II,
29:44Hitler unleashes
29:45a new kind of weapon,
29:46one so fast
29:48and so quiet
29:49you don't know
29:49it's coming
29:50until it's too late.
29:57In 1944,
29:58a schoolgirl
29:59named Pamela Pullen
30:01hears the air raid siren
30:03go off in London.
30:04At 4.25 a.m.,
30:06they begin to hear
30:06this droning sound.
30:09But then,
30:10silence.
30:13And then the next
30:14thing they know,
30:16a blast occurs.
30:18It kills six,
30:19injures 30,
30:20and leaves 200 people
30:21homeless.
30:22And this is just
30:24the first of what
30:25will be thousands
30:26of strikes.
30:27Pamela and her family
30:28survive,
30:29but they are among
30:30the first
30:31to ever witness
30:33Hitler's new
30:34pilotless weapon,
30:35the V-1
30:37flying bomb.
30:38The V-1s are launched
30:40from German-occupied
30:41France
30:42off these
30:42150-foot metal ramps.
30:45It takes them
30:45over the English channel.
30:47The V-1 flying bomb
30:48is ultimately
30:49nicknamed
30:50the buzz bomb,
30:50and that's because
30:51it produces
30:52a very distinctive
30:53sound in flight.
30:57Perhaps what is
30:58most telling
30:59about this new
31:00innovative weapon
31:01is its name.
31:03V-1
31:04is the designation
31:05that was given
31:06to the weapon system
31:07by the Germans.
31:07The V standing
31:08for
31:09or vengeance weapon.
31:12Hitler is looking
31:14for revenge
31:14because the D-Day
31:15landing has already
31:16happened.
31:17Germany is being
31:18sandwiched and
31:19closed in by the
31:21Soviets on one side
31:22and the other
31:22Allied forces on the
31:23other, and he's
31:25having a moment
31:26of desperation.
31:27Hitler's goal
31:28is to strike terror
31:30into the people
31:31of England.
31:32London,
31:33which has been
31:33largely insulated
31:35from aerial attack,
31:36is now under attack
31:38again.
31:39And Hitler
31:40doesn't just
31:40target the
31:41United Kingdom.
31:42He also
31:43bombs Belgium.
31:45Over the course
31:46of months
31:46spanning June 13,
31:481944,
31:49through the last
31:50launch,
31:51which is in
31:51March of 1945,
31:53V-1 buzz bombs
31:53killed 12,000 people.
31:56The V-1
31:57is just the beginning.
31:59Next in Hitler's
32:00arsenal of vengeance,
32:02the deadly
32:02V-2.
32:06The V-2
32:07rocket represents
32:08a quantum leap
32:09in technology.
32:10The V-1 moves
32:11at 400 miles an hour,
32:12the V-2 moves
32:13at over 3,500
32:15miles per hour.
32:16It is humanity's
32:18first vehicle
32:19to travel at
32:20supersonic speeds
32:21and the first vehicle
32:23to enter space.
32:24To reach its
32:25terrifying speeds,
32:27the V-2
32:28uses liquid fuel
32:30sourced from
32:31something no one
32:32would expect,
32:33the potato.
32:34You have to have
32:3530 tons of potatoes
32:36to launch a V-2 rocket
32:37and that's because
32:38the alcohol
32:39that's being used
32:40to power that weapon
32:41derives from potatoes.
32:43The harmless potato
32:45can be weaponized.
32:47A consequence
32:48of being supersonic,
32:50which means moving
32:50faster than the speed
32:51of sound,
32:52is that no one
32:54hears the V-2
32:55before it arrives.
32:56There is just
32:57a massive explosion
32:58and people have
32:59no idea
33:00what just happened.
33:02Initially,
33:03the newspapers
33:04report that they
33:05believe that there
33:06are frequent gas lines
33:07being ruptured
33:08in the city
33:09and that's because
33:11they have no other
33:12explanation for what
33:13just happened.
33:14On December 16,
33:171944,
33:18the V-2
33:19zeroes in
33:20on its most
33:21crowded target yet,
33:22a packed movie theater
33:24in Antwerp.
33:31Injured people
33:32are everywhere.
33:33It is just
33:34complete chaos
33:35and destruction.
33:36Injuries that are
33:38created by V-2 attacks
33:39are typically
33:40to the eyes
33:41and it's because
33:42the weapon's so fast
33:44that you can't hear
33:44it coming
33:45and you don't react
33:46until debris
33:47has already hit you
33:48in the eyes.
33:50567 people
33:52are killed
33:52in that one strike.
33:56During a six-month
33:57campaign,
33:58they fired
33:593,000 of these
34:00rockets across Europe.
34:01By some estimates,
34:02the V-2
34:03kills between
34:045,000 and
34:056,000 people.
34:06Surprisingly,
34:07what makes
34:08the V-2
34:09incredibly lethal
34:10isn't just
34:11the explosion
34:12it creates.
34:13The manufacturer
34:14of the V-2 rocket
34:15depends on
34:16slave labor.
34:17We're talking about
34:18people in forced
34:18labor camps
34:19and concentration camps.
34:21They're working
34:21on this weapon
34:22under the worst
34:23possible conditions,
34:24underground
34:25in the bitter cold
34:26and it's also
34:27damp in those tunnels
34:28and the workers
34:30begin dying off
34:32in vast numbers
34:33very quickly.
34:34It's estimated
34:35that 10,000 people
34:37die building
34:38V-2 rockets.
34:40More people die
34:40making it
34:41than die
34:41as a result of it.
34:43Although
34:44incredibly effective,
34:46Hitler's revenge
34:47weapons
34:47don't succeed
34:49in their mission.
34:50Hitler's revenge
34:51is designed
34:52to erode
34:53British public
34:53support for the war
34:55but in some ways
34:55it has the opposite
34:56effect.
34:57It reinforces
34:57British national
34:58identity
34:59and brings people
35:00closer together.
35:03But Hitler's
35:04real revenge,
35:05his developments
35:06created the blueprint
35:07for some of
35:08today's
35:09deadliest
35:10weapons.
35:1112 months
35:12following the launch
35:13of the first V-1
35:14we enter into
35:15the Cold War
35:16between America
35:17and the Soviet Union
35:18and central to that
35:20is an arms race
35:21based around
35:23delivering
35:24devastating weapons
35:25on rockets.
35:28The V-1 flying bomb
35:29gives us the era
35:31of the cruise missile.
35:32With the V-2 rocket
35:33you have what is
35:34effectively the first
35:35ballistic missile.
35:36It's a short-range
35:37ballistic missile
35:38with the improvement
35:39of technologies
35:40you will get
35:41in the late 1950s
35:43the introduction
35:44of the intercontinental
35:45ballistic missile.
35:50There's only one
35:51weapon in history
35:52so deadly
35:53that it forces
35:54the world
35:55to play by
35:55new rules
35:56the atom bomb.
36:01Just as Europe
36:02and North America
36:03are on the brink
36:04of World War II
36:06a group of scientists
36:07including Albert Einstein
36:09send a letter
36:09to President
36:10Franklin Roosevelt
36:11and they inform him
36:13that Germany
36:14is working on
36:15a weapon
36:15unlike any other
36:17a weapon so devastating
36:19that it can destroy
36:19a city in seconds
36:21and Franklin Roosevelt
36:23you need to get
36:24ahead of this.
36:25This might be
36:26the most incredible
36:27call to action
36:28in human history
36:29when Albert Einstein
36:31writes a letter
36:32and says
36:32if you don't do this
36:33now
36:34you are going
36:35to suffer.
36:36This letter
36:37sets in motion
36:38the creation
36:39of the Manhattan Project
36:41our top secret
36:42program
36:43to create
36:44an atomic bomb.
36:45Scientists are working
36:46around the clock
36:48to try to figure out
36:49if they can split
36:50that uranium atom
36:51and then harness
36:52that energy
36:53to build
36:54a nuclear weapon.
36:56America invests
36:57over $2 billion
36:58into this project
37:00in today's dollars
37:01that's like
37:02$35 billion.
37:04There's 130,000 people
37:06working on this
37:06top secret project
37:08it's pretty amazing
37:09they were able
37:09to keep it under wraps
37:10for so long.
37:11Since this is
37:12a brand new science
37:13this is an unexplored
37:14area of research
37:15so truly
37:16these scientists
37:17do not know
37:17what's going to happen
37:18when they add
37:19A to B
37:20to get C.
37:21On July 6th
37:221945
37:23they're ready
37:25to test their new weapon
37:26in the New Mexican desert.
37:31When it's detonated
37:32the fireball
37:33reaches temperatures
37:34that are hotter
37:35than the surface
37:36of the sun.
37:36A towering mushroom cloud
37:38is created
37:39that goes almost
37:4040,000 feet
37:41into the sky
37:42and the blast wave
37:44is felt
37:44up to 100 miles away.
37:47And with the blast
37:48comes a silent killer
37:50nuclear radiation.
37:52This is a little bit
37:53of a pipsqueak
37:54of an atomic explosion
37:55compared to things
37:56that will later be done
37:57but for July 1945
37:59there was nothing
38:00like it in the world.
38:01While the bomb
38:02is still being tested
38:03the war in the Pacific
38:05drags on
38:06one island
38:07at a time.
38:08over 240,000 people
38:11die on Okinawa
38:13another 26,000
38:15on Iwo Jima
38:17and next up
38:18a full scale invasion
38:20of Japan's
38:21home islands.
38:23So you think
38:23things were bad
38:24on Iwo
38:25and Okinawa
38:26an invasion
38:28of the home islands
38:29is going to be
38:29much worse.
38:30That would have
38:31produced a million
38:32Japanese civilian casualties.
38:34The allies know
38:35that they're going to
38:35have to come up
38:36with something extraordinary
38:37to get the Japanese
38:38to do what they're
38:40in condition
38:40for centuries
38:41not to do
38:43and that is
38:44to surrender.
38:45President Truman
38:46makes the call
38:47to use the world's
38:48deadliest weapon
38:49on Japan.
38:50Its top secret target
38:53Hiroshima.
38:54On August 6th
38:56a B-29 super fortress
38:57drops the atomic bomb
38:59called Little Boy
39:00from a height
39:00of about 31,000 feet.
39:02When it reaches
39:031,900 feet
39:05it detonates.
39:08This explosion
39:09produces a fireball
39:10that is 14,000 degrees
39:13Fahrenheit.
39:14It has the effect
39:15of cooking
39:16human beings
39:17into the landscape
39:18of the city.
39:19Famously a person
39:21is waiting
39:21for the bank
39:22to open
39:22for the business day
39:23and that person
39:24sat down
39:25on the stairs
39:25in front of the bank.
39:26The profile
39:27of that person
39:28is then burned
39:29into the entrance
39:30to the bank.
39:31There's a shockwave
39:32that radiates outwards
39:34leveling 70,000 structures.
39:36It even shatters windows
39:38that are 10 miles away.
39:40The death toll
39:41is staggering.
39:4370,000 to 80,000 people
39:44are killed
39:45in the explosion
39:45and that's just the start.
39:47Radiation sickness
39:48and injuries
39:49cause tens of thousands
39:51of more people
39:51to die
39:52in the following days
39:53and weeks.
39:54By the end
39:55of 1945
39:56140,000 lives
39:58are lost
39:59in Hiroshima
40:00alone.
40:03Radiation sickness
40:04is one of the most
40:05horrible ways to go.
40:06Ask any cancer survivor
40:08what it feels like
40:09and they'll tell you
40:10it is brutal
40:11and that's under
40:12the control conditions
40:13of radiation therapy.
40:15Despite the heavy losses
40:17Japan
40:18does not surrender.
40:20On August night
40:21a second bomb
40:22known as Fat Man
40:23is dropped
40:24on Nagasaki.
40:25That atomic bomb
40:26kills another
40:2770,000 people.
40:28The combined devastation
40:30from these two events
40:31prompts Japan
40:32to surrender
40:34unconditionally
40:34and brings an end
40:36to World War II.
40:38These bombs
40:39are so powerful
40:40it doesn't just
40:41reset how we view
40:43warfare
40:43it literally changes
40:44the way politics
40:45are viewed
40:46around the world.
40:47Today is vastly
40:49more dangerous
40:49than the world wars
40:51when I was born
40:52because we have
40:53so many players
40:54that are nuclear
40:55capable now
40:56it has been 80 years
40:58since one was used
40:59in combat the last time.
41:01I hope that
41:0280 years pass
41:03without a nuclear arm again.
41:07All weapons
41:08are made to be lethal
41:09but some are in a class
41:10of their own.
41:12They change tactics
41:13and can help decide
41:14who wins
41:16and who loses
41:17on the battlefield.
41:18From the longbow
41:20to Greek fire
41:21in the atomic bomb
41:23these game-changing weapons
41:25rank
41:25as history's
41:27deadliest.
41:28.
41:28.
41:28.
41:28.
41:28.
41:29.
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