Discover the world’s most secretive and abandoned military bases—hidden under mountains, buried in ice, and sealed by their own armies! These ten sites are packed with wild stories, forgotten tech, and epic fails. Which base blew your mind the most? Subscribe for more crazy history, and drop a comment telling us your favorite part! #history #military #secrets #bunkers #top10
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction to Abandoned Military Bases
1:40 - Stanley R. Mickelson Complex
3:41 - Naval Base Olavsvern, Norway
5:30 - Plokštine Missile Base, Lithuania
7:01 - Fort Tilden and Željava Air Base
10:03 - Titan I Silos and Camp Century
13:00 - Saint Nazaire & Balaklava Submarine Base
15:54 - Wolf’s Lair and Reflections
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction to Abandoned Military Bases
1:40 - Stanley R. Mickelson Complex
3:41 - Naval Base Olavsvern, Norway
5:30 - Plokštine Missile Base, Lithuania
7:01 - Fort Tilden and Željava Air Base
10:03 - Titan I Silos and Camp Century
13:00 - Saint Nazaire & Balaklava Submarine Base
15:54 - Wolf’s Lair and Reflections
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:01Underneath this mountain is a base designed to survive a direct nuclear bomb blast.
00:07It was built for 14 submarines.
00:10Now only darkness and stagnant water can be seen here.
00:15Another one was completely sealed off by its own army using concrete, so that no one,
00:20not even its own military, could return and use it again.
00:23And there is another one that became the exact place where a person escaped an attack by
00:28just a few seconds that almost changed the history of the whole world.
00:34Ten military bases.
00:36Ten instances where people built monuments to their fears and then abandoned them.
00:44For many decades, entire governments spent enormous amounts to build places that they
00:49hoped would never have to be seen.
00:53Bunkers under mountains, missile silos beneath the desert, bases dug into the Arctic ice,
01:00in the rocky terrain of the Soviet Union, and in the forests of the Pacific.
01:05Today, we will visit ten of these bases, real locations that have been proven to exist and
01:11still stand to this day.
01:14Some are destroyed, some are flooded, some have mines, and others were simply abandoned
01:20and completely deserted.
01:23Silent monuments to the fear that people themselves created.
01:28But before we start, if you're new to our channel, please click the subscribe button and
01:33also hit the notification bell so you'll always be updated with our new videos.
01:40Number 10, Stanley R. Mickelson Complex, The Pyramid, North Dakota, United States.
01:47In the middle of the vast and almost endless plains of North Dakota, where it seems like
01:52there's nothing to see except wheat fields and plains as far as the eye can see, there's
01:57a structure that seems out of place.
01:59A concrete pyramid, more than 30 meters tall, standing in the middle of an almost deserted area.
02:06It's not a temple, nor is it a work of art.
02:10It's a radar and missile defense facility built by the United States Army with a single main
02:15purpose.
02:16To detect an attack by Soviet nuclear missiles just seconds before they hit, and to give
02:22the United States a final chance to prepare and respond.
02:26It's part of a complete defense system designed to destroy nuclear warheads while they're still
02:33in the air before they hit.
02:37The project cost hundreds of millions of dollars at that time.
02:41It required many years of engineering, thousands of workers, and a strong belief that a nuclear
02:48war was only a matter of time.
02:51What's even more unusual is that the United States Congress voted to shut down the facility
02:56just one day after it was officially declared operational.
03:00This was one of the most expensive nuclear defense systems ever built by the United States, but
03:06in actual operation, it didn't last more than 24 hours.
03:10Today, the pyramid still stands in the very place where it was left.
03:15Unuses.
03:16Unguarded.
03:17Alone in the middle of vast fields.
03:21It is a concrete monument to the paranoia of an era when countries spent enormous amounts
03:26to prepare for an apocalypse that, at that time, did not happen.
03:32And if you think that such a huge amount was wasted, wait until you see what Norway has
03:38hidden inside an entire mountain.
03:419.
03:42Naval Base Olivesvern, Tromsø, Norway
03:45Above the Arctic Circle, inside a mountain in Norway itself, NATO built one of their most
03:51tightly kept secrets during the Cold War.
03:53This is not an ordinary base.
03:55It's a complete underground harbor carved right into the rock.
04:00It's not easy to spot from the air nor from the sea, and even some Norwegians living just
04:06a few kilometers away don't know the full extent of the facility.
04:11Its purpose is simple but terrifying.
04:14To hide western submarines from the surveillance of the Soviet Union.
04:18In one of the most strategic places in the world, the Arctic border between two superpowers,
04:24both armed with massive arsenals.
04:27Security here is so tight that even now, much of its operational history has not been fully
04:34declassified.
04:36Norway spent an enormous amount to dig thousands of meters of tunnels beneath the Arctic rock.
04:42A surprising detail is that its construction cost the equivalent of approximately 3.8 billion
04:50dollars in today's value.
04:52But when the Cold War ended, the base lost its former strategic importance.
04:56And what happened was, the Norwegian government sold it to an oil company for only 5 million
05:03dollars?
05:03An extremely small and almost embarrassing amount compared to the cost spent to excavate
05:09and build it inside the mountain.
05:11Now the tunnels inside the mountain are still there, it's quiet, and almost no one knows
05:16everything that happened here.
05:17And if you think that huge amount of money was already wasted, wait until you see what
05:23Lithuania built for the end of the world.
05:26Number 8.
05:27Plakstein Missile Base.
05:29Lithuania.
05:30Underneath what seems to be a quiet forest in the heart of Lithuania, a massive missile silo
05:36was dug during the time of the Soviet Union.
05:39This is where nuclear missiles aimed directly at Western Europe were placed.
05:44Around 10,000 workers helped build it.
05:48Many of them didn't even know what they were actually building underground.
05:53Meanwhile, the nearby villages continued their daily lives, completely unaware that just a
06:00few meters beneath their feet was part of one of the most dangerous arsenals ever created
06:05by mankind.
06:06To protect the facility, it was surrounded by a specially designed electrified fence.
06:13To immediately paralyze or injure anyone who approached without permission, with no warning
06:19and no room for error.
06:21A shocking detail.
06:23The electrical perimeter could have extremely high voltage, enough to severely electrocute
06:29anyone who tried to cross it.
06:32When the Soviet Union collapsed in early 1990, the base was quickly abandoned.
06:38Almost as quickly as the brutal way it was built.
06:41Now, visitors can walk through the same concrete tunnels.
06:46Where weapons were once hidden.
06:48Arms that could have caused destruction to vast parts of the world.
06:53And if this place is already terrifying.
06:55In New York, it was the army itself that decided to bury its own weapons.
07:01Number 7.
07:03Fort Tilden, New York, United States, on the Atlantic coast of New York, hidden among the
07:09sands and vegetation of the town.
07:12There were cannons so powerful that the government decided it was safer to bury them permanently
07:17than to leave them above ground.
07:21Battery Harries had cannons that could fire projectiles over 45 kilometers away.
07:27It had enough power and accuracy to destroy enemy ships before they could even approach the
07:33shore.
07:33But military technology changes quickly.
07:37The weapons that was once considered one of the most modern defenses of the country could
07:41become a dangerous and outdated technology after just a few years.
07:47And the cannons became a problem.
07:50They were too dangerous to just leave idle.
07:52So they weren't simply dismantled.
07:54The solution?
07:55They were literally buried.
07:57They were covered with so much concrete as if they were too dangerous to leave even
08:02when no longer in use.
08:04The United States military itself sealed the cannons with concrete.
08:08Not because of a foreign enemy.
08:11But because these weapons, capable of hitting targets over 45 kilometers away, were finally
08:17surrendered to silence by the very same hands that once built them.
08:22Now, Fort Tilden is now little more than a ruined stretch of coastline covered in rust
08:28and moss as the Atlantic Ocean continues to crash against what was once one of the most feared
08:33defenses on the entire east coast.
08:35And if that sounds disturbing, wait until you hear about the base that the army itself tried
08:42to completely blow up.
08:44Number 6.
08:45Zeljevo Air Base.
08:47Bosnia-Croatia border.
08:49Deep inside a mountain in the Balkans is hidden one of the largest underground military bases
08:55ever built in Europe.
08:57It was built during the Cold War with a specific purpose, to survive a nuclear attack and continue
09:04operating fighter jets.
09:06Even after the explosion, Zeljevo was not completely destroyed by a foreign enemy.
09:12Instead, it was its own side that destroyed it during the brutal civil war that devastated
09:17Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
09:20As the troops retreated, they decided it was better to destroy the base than to let it fall
09:26into the hands of their enemies.
09:29Approximately 50 tons of dynamite were used in an attempt to completely destroy the base.
09:35All the explosives that were placed detonated, but they did not completely destroy the entire
09:41facility.
09:42The result?
09:43Until now, there are still parts of the base that are still active minefields.
09:47It's been more than a few decades since it was built, but walking through Zeljevo isn't
09:53just stepping into an old military ruin.
09:56It's entering a place where it seems like the war never truly left underground.
10:03Number 5.
10:04Titan-I-Missile Silos, Colorado, United States.
10:0950 meters underground in Colorado.
10:11Hidden underground, there is a place that now seems completely empty.
10:15During the Cold War, the United States built three missile silos with walls over 4 meters
10:21thick, made of reinforced concrete and strong steel.
10:25Each one was designed to contain one of the most destructive nuclear warheads of that time.
10:32It was ready to launch within just a few minutes if an attack was detected.
10:38The complex was operated 24 hours a day.
10:41There were personnel living underground and working in different shifts.
10:47They were trained to carry out an order that, if it came, could mark the beginning of the end.
10:53Each nuclear warhead stored here had a yield of approximately 3.75 megatons.
11:00That's equivalent to about 200 atomic bombs, like the one dropped on Hiroshima contained in a single missile.
11:08And it could be launched within just a few minutes from deep within the desert.
11:12Now, the silos are empty.
11:15Some are partially flooded.
11:17Others are covered in rust and dampness.
11:20But the cold reality of the apocalypse that was once stored in this place is still hard to imagine as
11:26you descend into the dark, concrete structures.
11:29And if this place already feels like the end of the world, wait until you see what the United States
11:35buried beneath the Arctic ice.
11:38Number 4. Camp Century Greenland
11:41Deep beneath the ice of Greenland, the United States built a fully functional military base during the Cold War.
11:49It had its own portable nuclear reactor for electricity.
11:53It was hidden under so many layers of ice that, at the time, they thought it would stay there forever.
11:59The idea of the project was simple.
12:02The entire base would gradually be covered by ice and hidden forever.
12:06This included the materials and nuclear waste that were left behind.
12:10The problem was, it turned out the ice wouldn't actually stay there forever.
12:15It actually had an expiration date.
12:18That's something people back in 1960 never even thought of.
12:22What's shocking here is that the army left behind radioactive waste, unprocessed wastewater, and a huge amount of diesel fuel.
12:30Lot then would love behind, but the belief that the ice would cover and hide them forever.
12:37But now, the rapid melting of ice in the Arctic threatens to expose all these toxic materials in the coming
12:45decades.
12:47Camp Century is not just a frozen military ruin beneath the ice.
12:52It is an environmental time bomb that climate change is slowly exposing.
12:57It is literally melting right before our eyes.
13:00And if this story sent chills down your spine, in France there is a bunker that even the most powerful
13:06bombs of the Allied forces could not destroy.
13:14During the time of Nazi Germany's occupation of France, German engineers built this massive underwater bunker.
13:22They believed that nothing could destroy it, not even the strongest air force of the Allied forces.
13:27And surprisingly, they were right.
13:30For many years, the Allied forces bombed it repeatedly.
13:33Several tons of explosives were dropped directly on its structure.
13:37The city of Saint-Nazaire was almost completely destroyed by the attacks around the bunker.
13:43But the bunker remained standing, almost unaffected by the countless bombings.
13:49The bunker is so sturdy that even today, it would be more expensive to completely demolish it than to just
13:57let it remain where it is.
13:58That's why, even today, it remains a part of the city's urban landscape.
14:03Almost 80 years later, war was the reason this was built.
14:08Saint-Nazaire is literally a monument that no one wanted to build.
14:12But an entire city learned to live with it.
14:15Every day, generation after generation.
14:20And if you think it's impossible to destroy this bunker, wait until you meet the bunker that was specifically designed
14:27to survive an event.
14:292. Balaklava Submarine Base
14:32Object 825-825-GTS
14:35Crimea
14:36Directly excavated inside a mountain in Crimea during the Cold War, this top-secret Soviet facility was designed to hide
14:43up to 14 submarines at the same time.
14:45It was protected against almost any kind of conventional attack, and even against nuclear attack.
14:51It was not only built to serve as a military base during wartime, it was specifically designed to survive the
14:57war itself.
14:59The entire complex was designed to operate completely independently for several months, with its own supply of water, energy, food,
15:07and personnel.
15:08If the worst-case scenario happens, it can be completely cut off from the world and continue to operate without
15:14any outside help.
15:15A surprising detail is that it was designed to withstand a direct hit from a 100-kiloton nuclear bomb at
15:23its very entrance, and remain operational after the explosion.
15:28Inside it are armed submarines ready to respond at any time.
15:32Now, its tunnels are flooded, and its doors are rusty, they still stand as silent remnants of a plan made
15:40for safety.
15:41A plan that, fortunately, never had to be used, and if you think this is as advanced as bunkers get,
15:50Our number one is not just an ordinary military ruin, this is the place where the fate of millions of
15:56people once hung in the balance.
15:57Number one. Wolfslaer, Kentish Town, Poland.
16:03For more than 800 days in the middle of a seemingly quiet forest in eastern Poland, there stood a massive
16:10fortified complex.
16:11This was Adolf Hitler's personal headquarters.
16:14This was not just another military base among the many bases during World War II.
16:18It was within these very concrete walls that military operations were planned, operations that affected the course of the entire
16:26war.
16:26And it was also here that administrative decisions were made.
16:29Decisions that directly contributed to the systematic horror of the Holocaust.
16:32The entire complex was surrounded by minefields, electric fences, and multiple security perimeters.
16:39Because the people inside knew how many people around the world wanted to see Hitler killed.
16:46A surprising detail.
16:48In July 1944, Hitler survived an assassination attempt known as the July 20 plot.
16:56A large table made of thick oak helped absorb much of the shockwave from the bomb that was placed inside
17:03the headquarters.
17:05This was one of the closest attempts to kill Hitler.
17:09But the plan failed, and in a strange twist, a large part of the reason was a simple piece of
17:15furniture.
17:17The wolf's lair is not only the darkest ruin on this list.
17:21It was the true physical epicenter of evil that changed the course of the 20th century.
17:29And to this day, it still stands in the middle of a quiet forest, as if the forest itself knows
17:35exactly what happened inside these walls.
17:40Ten military bases.
17:42Ten instances where humans themselves built with their own hands places that could serve as the site of their own
17:49apocalypse.
17:51And then, they just left it behind.
17:56Hidden underground, beneath the ice, or inside massive mountains.
18:01Some were sealed off by their own creators, because they were afraid of the power of what they had made.
18:09Others were sold for almost nothing, just the symbolic amount compared to the enormous cost it took to build them.
18:17And even one of these literally became part of a decision that affected the fate of millions of people around
18:24the world.
18:26But there is one thing that all these places remind us of.
18:30These were built because humanity tried to prepare for the worst that could happen.
18:36And in the end, humanity survived the darkest part of itself.
18:42Now, these bases are abandoned, rusting, flooded, or completely empty.
18:49They are a silent reminder that the worst moments are often closer than we would like to believe.
19:27And we now have a situation that can happen.
19:27They are the ones that have been INV and needs a sense of just something around them within the world
19:27around the world.
19:27That's a relationship to life.