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Mysteries of the Abandoned - Season 13 - Episode 12: Churchills Shadow War
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00:00In London, England, a secret subterranean network said to have influenced a world-famous author.
00:08It's rumored that his visits here inspired Cube Branch's secret lair in his novels.
00:16An epic structure in New Jersey, where an extraordinary craft met a tragic end.
00:22The sight of this was unimaginably horrifying.
00:26Where's Tender Flank?
00:27Oh, the humanity.
00:30And an Italian country retreat, designed with a dark objective.
00:35This is a place to brainwash young people.
00:38After a stay here, they're all going to be fascists.
00:55In the heart of London is a clandestine facility built to defend against a tyrannical regime during a global war.
01:08There are shops and restaurants and commuters going back and forth.
01:12It's a perfectly typical city scene at first glance.
01:18But in one nondescript service area is the entrance to something pretty amazing.
01:24It feels like a forgotten railway tunnel, but you notice that it doesn't really add up to that.
01:32There are huge generators, rows of electronics, and even office spaces.
01:37You have to imagine that hundreds of people were down here, but why?
01:42For more than 80 years, this network of tunnels has been a key part of the protection of the citizens
01:50of the United Kingdom.
01:52At a time when Britain faced its darkest hour, these tunnels housed an elite organization.
02:00Their role was to wage a secret war against Hitler's forces in enemy-controlled Europe.
02:08If they failed, the country could fall into the hands of the Nazis.
02:12They are also said to have inspired a really important franchise.
02:17This is truly part of the life that Ian Fleming led that became the character that we know to be
02:24James Bond today.
02:31Angus Murray heads the organization that purchased these tunnels from a telecommunications company in 2024.
02:39They plan to raise more than $200 million from investors to open them up to the public.
02:46It's a vast network, almost a citadel, right in the middle of central London.
02:52But really, nobody has seen the depth and size of what is within this complex.
02:59This site was first created in response to Hitler's ruthless bombing campaign that began in September 1940, known as the
03:09Blitz.
03:11This was not just an attack on military targets.
03:15It was a terror attack on British civilians in the heart of their major city.
03:22So, the British government ordered the construction of purpose-built structures like this one.
03:29This was a deep-level air raid shelter for London civilians.
03:33In November 1940, early in the war, hundreds of workers began carving out two parallel tunnels by hand.
03:43They were more than 16 feet across, 1,200 feet long, and had space for almost 10,000 Londoners,
03:52with access shafts leading to street level at each end.
03:57They were completed in March 1942, but by the time they were finished, Nazi Germany had changed its strategy.
04:04The bombing campaign against London had lessened.
04:08So, there was no longer a need for a civilian shelter.
04:13For the next two years, the tunnels were used as troop accommodations.
04:26In January 1944, towards the end of the war, a secretive organization moved into these tunnels.
04:35They were called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE for short.
04:42The SOE was a top-secret group set up by Winston Churchill to instigate all kinds of clandestine operations on
04:52the continent against the Nazis.
04:54So, it was an organization of very brave men and women, nearly 13,000, of which about 3,200 people
05:02were women.
05:03These agents were trained to do operations in enemy-occupied territory, often parachuting in and performing acts of sabotage and
05:13espionage, or even to aid local resistance groups.
05:17But in order to do all of this, they needed specialized equipment.
05:22One branch of the SOE said to have been based here was the Inter-Services Research Bureau.
05:29They designed pistols with silencers for discrete attacks, suitcase radios.
05:36They even had something they called the Exploding Rat that was packed with explosives.
05:42Around six months after the SOE took up residence, they would be involved in the largest amphibious assault in history,
05:52D-Day.
05:54We believe they stayed for the entire period of 1944, so we assume that they were heavily involved in that
06:03particular operation.
06:05Churchill said he wanted the SOE to set Europe ablaze.
06:10By that, he meant that when it finally came time for the Allies to retake France, the ground would already
06:17be softened by these resistance groups that had disrupted rail networks, destroyed ammunition, anything they could do to degrade the
06:28Germans' ability to respond.
06:29While the exact role of the SOE agents working here is still a mystery, it's claimed their activities inspired an
06:38iconic author and a blockbuster movie series.
06:44So Ian Fleming would have been coming down to these tunnels as we were leading up to what was obviously
06:55a naval operation.
06:58There's no question that this location inspired him, along with what the Special Operations Executive was doing, to become Q
07:07Branch in James Bond.
07:10In the James Bond world, we have things like exploding suitcases, a cigarette lighter that becomes a flamethrower, coins that
07:18can track your location, the kinds of things that we can imagine being worked on or dreamed about in this
07:24underground workshop.
07:27In 1946, a year after the war ended, the SOE was disbanded.
07:35For the next six years, the tunnels were used to store official documents, until they were given a crucial new
07:43objective during an era of global crisis.
07:47The United States had been on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, and this place was called into action to make
07:54sure that didn't happen again.
08:01Beneath the streets of central London are the remains of a top-secret World War II tunnel network.
08:08During the Cold War, they were given a new purpose.
08:14The whole tunnel complex was significantly expanded between the period of 1950 to 1952, when the British government determined it
08:22needed a deep-level telecommunications exchange.
08:26In a pre-digital age, a telephone exchange provided a place to manually connect incoming and outgoing calls.
08:34In the event of nuclear war, a secure location was needed to keep the country's communication lines open.
08:43This expansion was designed to do just that.
08:48Telephone technology was advancing rapidly.
08:51They needed room for switching stations and cables and power systems.
08:56This massive facility opened in 1954 and had 5,000 cables that were handling up to 2 million calls per
09:04week.
09:06Two years later, the deep-level tunnel network became the London terminal for the world's first transatlantic telephone cable, the
09:15TAT-1.
09:17This was the first time that you could carry the human voice clearly across the Atlantic in a split-second.
09:24It was not until after the world stood on the brink of mutually assured destruction that the value of this
09:31transatlantic cable became clear.
09:33In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union had installed a battery of nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba, basically
09:43right off the U.S. coast.
09:46For the U.S., the Soviet Union had crossed a line.
09:50It was a crisis for President John F. Kennedy, who had to find a way to force the Soviets to
09:59remove those missiles without provoking a nuclear war.
10:04This required delicate negotiations with the Kremlin.
10:09But with no dedicated connection between Washington and Moscow, it could take as long as 12 hours for leaders to
10:17communicate through secure diplomatic channels.
10:20In the event a catastrophe like this happened again, a quicker solution needed to be found.
10:27So after that, a direct line of communication was established between the United States and Moscow using the TAT-1
10:35cable that ran right through here.
10:37The receivers at either end were not what you might expect.
10:42When you think of a Cold War hotline, you might envision a big red telephone sitting in the Oval Office.
10:48But it was actually a teletype machine.
10:50It was believed that a written message would be less likely to be misinterpreted than a phone call.
10:58For the next 30 years, the tunnels continued to handle millions of government and civilian communications.
11:06But after that, this set of tunnels is basically abandoned.
11:10The advances in telecommunications equipment and technology made it pretty much obsolete.
11:22Today, the tunnels are being transformed into an immersive tourist experience.
11:28The principle objective we have is to tell that story of the men and women that sacrificed so much to
11:36give us our democratic rights.
11:41In New Jersey, on the edge of the Pinelands National Reserve, is a site of extraordinary innovation and an infamous
11:50tragedy.
11:54We're in central New Jersey, about an hour south of New York.
11:59It's pretty obvious this is some kind of military base.
12:01As you enter the grounds, you see this structure which looms over everything.
12:07It's got to be longer than an entire city block and hundreds of feet tall.
12:12When you step inside, it opens up to this vast open space from floor to ceiling.
12:19There's nothing in here except storage space, but surely you wouldn't build something this big just for storage.
12:26Yet, that's exactly what this aircraft hangar was built for.
12:31What could the military be flying that could warrant a space this big?
12:36What passed through these doors was a revolutionary development.
12:40Anything airship related really has its genesis here.
12:44It was a marvel at the time and everyone wanted to see it.
12:47But with innovation came great risk.
12:50This is the location of one of the most notorious disasters in aviation history.
13:03This structure dates back to a time when the United States was completely reimagining its air power.
13:10At this time, the Navy was searching for a better way to detect submarines off the coast and scout ahead
13:18of naval fleets.
13:19Germany utilized the innovative technology of rigid airships.
13:24This was a blimp, but with a metal interior framework.
13:29They were called Zeppelin, and the German military used them for aerial reconnaissance and bombing.
13:36Their success caught the attention of the United States, and they initiated the Lighter Than Air program.
13:44In 1921, the Navy established Lakehurst Naval Air Station.
13:48It served as its headquarters, and its first major facility was Hangar 1.
13:55James Warwick joined the Air Force 37 years ago.
13:59He now serves as the historian for this joint base.
14:04The hangar was opened in June of 1921.
14:08Hangar 1 is 961 feet from door to door.
14:11It's 350 feet wide and about 200 feet tall.
14:17The Titanic could fit in here.
14:19Inside this building, naval engineers assembled the first American-built rigid airship, the USS Shenandoah.
14:28It made its maiden flight from Lakehurst on September the 4th, 1923.
14:36The Shenandoah became the first Navy ship to fly completely across the continental United States.
14:43The journey took the crew of around 40 people, 19 days.
14:47But this feat was more than a publicity stunt.
14:51It proved that airships were a valuable military tool.
14:56Having the ability to loiter for a long period of time was beneficial, especially when it comes to reconnaissance.
15:02You know, you can stay over an area for days if you are equipped properly.
15:06Despite their promise, these ships were still new and risky vessels.
15:13In 1925, the Shenandoah ran into a severe storm that broke the ship apart and killed 14 of the crew.
15:22But the Navy still supported the venture, in part due to the success of the German Zeppelands.
15:28And it wasn't just the military that were interested in these new airships.
15:31As one of the few airship ports in the world, Lakehurst was a destination for a new form of transcontinental
15:39travel.
15:40In October 1928, the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, made the first transatlantic commercial flight.
15:49It flew from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst with 40 crew and 20 passengers.
15:55The journey took four and a half days, which was considered blazingly fast by the standards of the time.
16:04In 1936, the Graf Zeppelin was eclipsed by an even bigger airship.
16:10One that made its inaugural flight as part of the newly established Nazi Germany.
16:15Three years before World War II began.
16:20At a massive 804 feet long, it became the flagship for the fleet of transatlantic passenger airships.
16:28This was the Hindenburg.
16:32So for the Hindenburg to come here during 1936, it was a major achievement for Germany.
16:38You got to figure for Adolf Hitler, it was a good propaganda tool, had the swastika on it.
16:43For the next 12 months, the Hindenburg operated a luxurious passenger service between Germany and Lakehurst.
16:52On the 3rd of May, 1937, the Hindenburg took off on its 63rd flight.
16:58It departed from Frankfurt to Lakehurst, carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew.
17:06What followed would be seared into the minds of hundreds of thousands.
17:16On May 6th, 1937, hundreds of onlookers were gathered outside the hangar at Naval Air Station Lakehurst.
17:25They were waiting for the arrival of the Hindenburg.
17:30Well, because of the weather, the Hindenburg was about 12 hours behind.
17:35And the captain of Naval Air Station Lakehurst said, no, this weather's not conducive.
17:39So the Hindenburg flew up and down the east coast a little bit.
17:41It flew over New York City.
17:44Since this was the airship's first flight of the season, a reporter called Herb Morrison from WLS Radio and film
17:52crew were also in attendance.
17:54Behind me and to my right, over where that tree line is, that's where, you know, Herb Morrison and those
18:00other film crews were, you know, standing doing video.
18:04It's starting to rain again. The rain had cracked up a little bit.
18:08And so as the Hindenburg made its approach, you know, it flew roughly from our left to our right over
18:14our heads, made a series of left turns before it came back into its final configuration of land, basically right
18:21above where we're standing now.
18:23The awestruck crowd watched on as more than 100 ground crew readied themselves to catch the Hindenburg's guide ropes.
18:48The hydrogen gas that filled the various compartments quickly caught fire.
18:52And in moments, the entire vessel was aflame.
18:56Within 34 seconds, the Hindenburg crashed in the open field just west of Hangar 1.
19:04This is terrible. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world.
19:08Oh, it's like 20. Oh, the humanity.
19:1413 passengers, 22 crew and one member of the ground staff died.
19:19But miraculously, 62 people survived the crash.
19:24An investigation followed.
19:27The leading theory was that as the Hindenburg came into land, a structural wire broke free, slashing open the hydrogen
19:34cells inside the ship.
19:36Then, a static charge caused by the stormy weather created a spark, igniting the volatile gas.
19:46The disaster of the Hindenburg really shattered the public confidence in airship travel, and that was the end of it.
19:54It remains one of the most notorious disasters in aviation history.
19:59In a tragic twist of fate, it's possible the Hindenburg's fiery end could have been avoided if it had been
20:08filled with the more stable helium instead of hydrogen.
20:11But the United States controlled almost all of the world's helium supply.
20:16The government recognized it had certain military applications, such as airships, and forbid its export to Germany in 1927.
20:26That meant that the Germans were forced to use the much more combustible and unstable hydrogen.
20:40At Lakehurst, airships continued to fly, but strictly for military purposes through World War II.
20:48After the war, their importance declined, and in 1961, the Secretary of the Navy terminated the lighter-than-air program.
20:56Hangar 1 is now a registered historical landmark, and is open for tours to educate the public on its unique
21:03place in aviation history.
21:13On England's east coast is the remnant of a proud enterprise, cut short in its prime.
21:25Towering over these misty docks is this industrial-looking beast.
21:30This complex is vast.
21:31Inside is kind of a wonderland of old technology, giant pipes and pumps and big machines.
21:41So clearly, this is a facility that was meant for moving and processing some kind of product.
21:47But what that product was isn't clear.
21:52The building's size suggests whatever was made here was being done on an epic scale.
21:58This factory didn't just serve the needs of the surrounding area.
22:02It was involved in an industry that spread across the entire North Atlantic.
22:08And at that time, Grimsby was the largest and busiest fishing port in the world.
22:14So this enabled that.
22:18The commodity being caught was cod.
22:21In the late 1950s, the dominance of Grimsby's industry, of which this building was a key part,
22:28would be drawn into a maritime conflict over a thousand miles away.
22:33At first, it was low-level sabotage.
22:36But tensions boiled over, and boats literally began to ram into each other.
22:41The situation became so tense, British Royal Navy warships were called into action.
22:48It ultimately led to a sweeping change in international law.
22:55In Grimsby, on England's North Sea coast, sprawling remains chart the rise and fall of a once vibrant industry.
23:05John Lowe is a heritage consultant and part of the team tasked with preserving the structure that helped put this
23:12town on the map.
23:14It's a Grade II star-listed building, which means it's in the top 4% of important historic buildings in
23:20the country.
23:21What it enabled was amazing.
23:23When we think about the kinds of resources upon which empires are built, we don't usually think of fish.
23:31But cod from the North Atlantic was an incredibly vital resource going back many centuries.
23:40Grimsby's fishing port can be traced back almost a thousand years.
23:44By the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution triggered a population boom, and the fishing industry rapidly expanded to feed the
23:53masses.
23:55Demand was exploding, and any fish caught out at sea had to be kept cold and preserved.
24:01And in an era before refrigeration, the only way to do that was on ice.
24:07But where are you going to get the ice?
24:10Well, the answer is shockingly simple.
24:14Boats headed for Greenland and the edge of the Arctic Circle literally carved ice off of the glaciers and brought
24:22it back to Grimsby.
24:24By the late 1800s, Grimsby's fleet of trawlers had grown so large, it was impossible to keep them supplied using
24:33the ice-harvesting method.
24:35If the fishing industry was to continue to prosper, an answer needed to be found.
24:41This is the Grimsby Ice Factory, opened in 1901.
24:47This was an ice plant on a scale never before imagined.
24:51For a time, it was the largest ice factory in the world.
24:56So we're in the compressor house, which is the beating heart of the factory.
25:00This is where ammonia gas was compressed, converting it from a gas to a very high-pressure, high-temperature vapor.
25:10And then when that pressure is released, it's cold.
25:13They use that cold to chill down vats of brine.
25:18When you add a lot of salt to water, it gets a much lower freezing temperature.
25:23Into these vats of super-chilled brine, they would lower canisters of fresh water.
25:30It's lowered into the brine, and over 24 hours, those big tanks of water get frozen into essentially very large
25:37ice cubes.
25:38The ice went up through elevators to conveyors, which took it out to the trawlers.
25:45The trawlers contained insulated holes to stop the ice from melting while the vessels were out at sea.
25:52That means the trawlers can go further afield.
25:55They can stay at sea for longer.
25:57The catch stays fresher.
25:59The catch can travel longer distances to market.
26:02It enabled Grimsby to become the biggest fishing port in the world.
26:08Demand for ice continued to grow.
26:10And by 1931, the factory was producing a staggering 1,100 tons a day.
26:17This was enough to fill three and a half Olympic swimming pools every week.
26:22But the fishing trawlers the factory supplied were headed for dangerous waters.
26:28As these boats could go out farther and catch more fish,
26:33they were beginning to impinge on the interests of other fishing nations,
26:38in particular Iceland.
26:39Fishing was absolutely crucial to Iceland's economy,
26:43and they felt increasingly threatened by larger foreign fleets over fishing in their waters.
26:51Throughout the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s,
26:55Iceland worked to ban foreign vessels from fishing off their coast.
26:59First, by expanding their three-mile limit to four miles,
27:03then 12, and then 50.
27:06In 1975, they went one step further.
27:10Tensions peaked as Iceland unilaterally extended their fishing limits to 200 nautical miles.
27:19The UK was not going to take that sitting down.
27:22They told their fishing fleets to go ahead and fish where they wanted, and the UK would back them up.
27:30But it became almost a dare for the English trawlers to break and breach into the forbidden waters, as it
27:36were.
27:37And things got quite nasty.
27:40The Icelandic coast guards chased British trawlers and ripped up their nets.
27:51In some cases, ships were ramming each other, which could be fatal out in the open ocean.
27:58The violent conflict became known as the Cod Wars.
28:03The target of the gunboat was the Grimsby trawler, Carlisle.
28:07She could only stand helplessly by as Baldur and Diomedes continued the skirmish,
28:12which ended in yet another Cod War collision.
28:16The British responded by sending out Royal Navy ships to protect them.
28:20The North Atlantic was turned into a battleground.
28:24In total, Britain deployed 37 warships to escort the country's fishing fleet,
28:30protecting a UK industry worth over a billion dollars a year in today's money.
28:36Iceland's Coast Guard and fishing trawlers were no match for the strength of the Royal Navy.
28:42But the Icelandic government had a secret weapon in their armory.
28:47These waters were critical to international security.
28:51And Grimsby's fortunes were caught in the crossfire.
29:00In the English port of Grimsby are the ruins of an ice factory that supercharged the town's fishing fleet.
29:07But when Iceland banned foreign fishing within 200 miles of their coast,
29:12it sparked an international conflict dubbed the Cod Wars.
29:16The UK sent out the Royal Navy to patrol the contested waters and protect its fishing vessels.
29:24But Iceland had an ace up its sleeve.
29:29They threatened to close the strategically vital NATO base at Keflavik.
29:35Keflavik was positioned on Iceland's southwest coast and played an important role monitoring Russian nuclear submarines in the North Atlantic.
29:45This caused serious alarm amongst Western allies, especially the United States.
29:50At the time of the Cold War, it was a very, very tense environment.
29:54And every piece of information was critical.
29:57The British government, under pressure from the United States and other NATO allies, was forced to negotiate.
30:11British fishing fleets were granted limited access to the waters, but with severe restrictions on catches.
30:20This had a devastating impact on the UK's long-distance fishing industry and the port of Grimsby.
30:27Essentially, the fishing industry was decimated almost overnight by the cessation of fishing as far afield as Iceland.
30:36Soon, most countries around the world adopted the 200-mile limit.
30:41By the late 80s, the value of fish caught by Grimsby's trawlers had dropped from around $35 million per year
30:48in 1974 to just $1 million.
30:51In 1990, the ice factory was forced to close.
30:57It was a status symbol.
30:59It represented so much to the community, and it still does today.
31:04I think a new chapter in its life is needed.
31:11Today, the port of Grimsby is finding new life in a new resource push, which is offshore wind power.
31:19This is another installment in the life of one of the great port cities of the UK.
31:26The old ice factory is set to be a part of Grimsby's regeneration.
31:31Josephine War is a member of the team working to revive the building.
31:36There is an existing legacy here of cutting-edge technology.
31:41And so the intention through the redevelopment of this space is to have this be a center and a hub
31:47for research and development into renewable energy.
31:55In northern Italy, 20 miles from the city of Genoa, a secluded forest conceals a story of vengeful retribution.
32:08There's a clearing, and we can see a massive structure.
32:12It's got wings, it's got a clock tower, and it's not the kind of thing you expect to see in
32:19the Italian countryside.
32:21The location is stunning, so you might guess it was some kind of sanatorium or a hotel even.
32:28Exploring deeper, the rest of the building is entirely bare.
32:32Many of the hints of its past life stripped away.
32:37Some rooms have the remains of showers, toilets, but the facilities feel far more functional than you'd expect in luxury
32:43accommodation.
32:45The biggest clue, though, as to its origin is the style of the architecture.
32:49The design is typical of the 1930s, and that means only one thing.
32:56It was built during the reign of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
33:02This was a site intended to indoctrinate and secure the loyalty of the next generation of Italian children.
33:10But during the Second World War, it was taken over and used against the regime it was designed to protect.
33:17In the woods around this place, rumor has it that there are hundreds of soldiers in unmarked graves buried here
33:28in the name of freedom and revenge.
33:38Giuseppe Isola is the mayor of Roveno.
33:42When he was young, this was a scenic getaway that had moved on from its unsettling beginnings.
33:51Apologies, I'm a bit emotional.
33:53A lot of people have been happy here.
33:55It's been an important part of the history of our valley.
33:59It was needed to prevent a phenomenon that afflicted youth at the time, rickets.
34:06But the building's original function was not to treat a condition that affected children's bones.
34:12It was to shape their minds.
34:18These camps were built because we must acknowledge that at that time, the regime focused a lot on youth.
34:27Fascism took root in Italy at the end of World War I, when great poverty affected the country.
34:35In March of 1919, Benito Mussolini creates the Fascist Party.
34:43And he's going to recruit unemployed war veterans and he's going to put them all in black shirts.
34:51For the next two years, Mussolini used his own personal army to terrorize political opponents,
34:58until eventually he was invited to join a coalition government.
35:02By 1925, he'd taken complete control.
35:07Mussolini relied heavily on propaganda to spread his fascist gospel to the masses.
35:13An often used slogan was, Mussolini is always right.
35:18One other way he promoted his fascist ideals was to set up holiday camps all over Italy,
35:24for young people, particularly from deprived neighborhoods.
35:29Construction on this one began in 1934 and took just five months to complete.
35:35It was called the Colonia di Ravegno.
35:41The camp was open during the summer.
35:43Children would come in shifts throughout that period.
35:47About 500 at a time.
35:50The idea was to show these young people a different way of life to what they were used to.
35:55To build character and to show them the fascist future of which they would be part.
36:03My father told me that during gatherings,
36:05they received specific information about behavior, education, respect, conduct,
36:11on how to talk to others.
36:15But perhaps more worryingly, they were indoctrinated to believe in the regime
36:20and to see Mussolini as a father figure who would always provide for them.
36:27The fact that the fascist regime did this to its own advantage
36:30and raised a generation that would be welcoming to this regime,
36:34that cannot be denied.
36:38But only six years after the site opened, its function would be transformed.
36:45On June 10, 1940, Mussolini declared war on France and Great Britain,
36:50forming part of Hitler's Axis powers during the Second World War.
37:02In Italy is the ruin of a building built by Mussolini's fascist regime
37:07to indoctrinate thousands of local children.
37:12After Italy sided with Germany during the Second World War,
37:15it would be taken over by retaliatory force.
37:20In 1943, it all goes wrong for the Italian fascists.
37:25The Allies are about to invade.
37:28In September, the new anti-fascist government signed an armistice with the Allies,
37:32but the fighting was far from over.
37:35Hitler is not going to allow the Allies to take all of Italy
37:41and to be just the other side of the Alps from Germany and Austria.
37:45And so begins the Third Reich's bloodthirsty reign of terror in Italy.
37:52Any Italian who is suspected of siding with the Allies
37:56is ruthlessly tortured and executed.
38:00The population was brutalized and the time had come to fight back.
38:06From the winter of 1944,
38:09an intense partisan movement gathered pace in northern Italy.
38:13These resistance fighters vowed to violently oppose the German occupation
38:18and fascist loyalists.
38:24They had a headquarters here.
38:26Now there are roads,
38:28but at the time there was only one road going up
38:31and it was very, very hard to reach.
38:34So it became a stronghold.
38:39It was the perfect base to hide out from Nazi soldiers
38:43and organize guerrilla attacks.
38:46It was also used to detain Italian fascist loyalists
38:50and German prisoners of war.
38:53Hundreds of these prisoners were routinely executed by partisans
38:58and buried in the woods around the camp.
39:03In those moments, of course, lines were crossed.
39:06It happens everywhere in the world.
39:09Judgments were summary and justice was violent.
39:12And it's a sad part of the history of Italy.
39:18But you can't ignore the role partisans played in the conflict.
39:21They fought doggedly to win back their homeland.
39:25The Italian partisans forced the Germans
39:30to get into a close-fought counterinsurgency campaign
39:36in northern Italy.
39:37And that is a massive suck on German combat power.
39:42On April 26, 1945,
39:46the Italian resistance movement freed the city of Genoa
39:49from German troops.
39:51This was the first time during World War II
39:54that an army corps surrendered to civilian partisan forces.
39:59When a German commander has got to surrender to partisans,
40:05Nazi Germany is humiliated.
40:09Four days later,
40:11Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker
40:13and the war in Europe was effectively over.
40:20After the war,
40:22the Colonia di Rovegno went back to being a camp for children.
40:26This time,
40:27to help those suffering from a vitamin D deficiency
40:30that weakens the bones,
40:32called rickets.
40:34Exposure to sunlight was one way to treat it.
40:38It became a happy place for the children of Genoa
40:41to enjoy the countryside,
40:43to learn new skills,
40:44and most importantly,
40:46to get access to sunshine.
40:50Imagine what it must have looked like
40:51with all the sunbeds,
40:53all these 500 children here.
40:58But by the 1970s,
40:59the funding had started to dry up,
41:01and it was also no longer needed.
41:04It became abandoned.
41:10All over Italy are a number of these deserted colonies,
41:13which occupy beautiful locations.
41:17These are places potentially worth millions
41:20for the authorities' struggle
41:22to muster the political will
41:24to either bring them back to life
41:26or knock them down.
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