Spike Island’s Dark History – Abandoned Engineering – S04 EP20 – Engineering Documentary

Explore the haunting remnants of a Pacific stronghold, witness the rise and fall of Spike Island’s role as a prison fortress, and unravel the mysteries of Corbera, a Spanish ghost town scarred by the savagery of the Civil War. From fortified caves to rebel uprisings, delve into the untold stories of these abandoned engineering marvels. Join us on a journey through history, where relics of war and the echoes of the past reveal the resilience and tragedy of these once-thriving places.

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Explore the captivating world of abandoned engineering as we delve into the forgotten remnants of the past. Join us on a thrilling journey through the intriguing stories and engineering marvels of yesteryears. From derelict architecture to forgotten industrial sites, our urban exploration documentary uncovers the hidden gems of industrial history and unravels the engineering mysteries behind these abandoned places around the world.

Discover the secrets of historical engineering and witness the remarkable feats of craftsmanship that shaped our industrial heritage. Step into the realm of industrial archaeology as we unveil the fascinating tales of forgotten structures and delve into the depths of engineering secrets. Our captivating engineering documentaries bring to life the engineering marvels of the past, showcasing the incredible achievements and the enigmatic allure of these abandoned sites.

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The remote Pacific site where a strange  collection of structures caught American   forces unaware the Japanese military  fortified everything they could cave   systems tunnel systems so that when the Allied  Forces finally landed they would be entering   into a meat grinder the derel Irish prison  where the inmates struggled to break in as  

Well as out a lot of very higher risk inmates  arrive and this place simply isn’t designed to   hold them a massive complex in France with an  explosive past no one knows what happened for   sure everything disappeared in one huge bang was  it deliberate was it accidental was it sabotage  

And the Spanish ghost town where us freedom  fighters fought to the death for a better   world we see a lot of graffiti which itself  has some real significance in solving this mystery decaying relics ruins  of lost worlds forged through   years of toil now haunted by the  past their secrets waiting to be

[Music] revealed in the Western Pacific forboding ruins scattered   across the Japanese island of  eima make for a confounding sight this island is so unusual looking it’s  almost entirely flat but then you have this   bulging Mountain standing right in the middle  of it looking down it it looks almost like an  

Aircraft carrier and someone has built three  runways here you’ll see some old airfields   with weeds growing up you know through cracks in  the pavement it’s not immediately clear who was   flying in or out of this place the modern-day  Town hides the first clue there’s a building  

That looks completely out of place in in a 21st  century context it looks battle scarred it’s got   gaping holes in it structures hidden below  ground and no less intriguing and it has a   lot of naturally occurring caves some of which  could be engineered into excellent defensive  

Positions they’re pretty well sheltered from  the outside you have no idea of what a large   complex exists behind those entrances what  links the disused runway to the blown out   building and the Fortified caves that lie below  this [Music] island a torn out concrete shell  

Hiding in the modern-day town of e is the only  building on the island that survived the second   world war local guide Tama a takamichi  knows exactly what this place once was this building is the remains of the municipal porn  shop it was built before the war and made out of

Concrete the one old concrete building left  on this island from the old days is the pawn   shop the pawn shop is pretty much the local  bank and that means that it’s got to be a   strong safe place it has been Torn to  Pieces it has clearly been in a fight  

The big holes are damaged from artillery  and the small ones these are from rifle fire a, miles from Tokyo eima is part of the  Japanese archipelago since we’re here in the   Pacific Ocean a very contested space near the  home islands of Japan this place obviously had  

Military sign ific eima has got some nice long  runways that go straight out over the Pacific   Ocean that means it’s easy to take off it’s  easy to land it’s a big safe airport during   the second world war these overgrown airfields  were among the largest in Asia the Japanese had  

Built them to Aid their expansion in the Pacific  but by 1944 they’d been forced to change their   tactics the Japanese had learned they didn’t have  the resources to stop the Americans anymore so   instead of going out to meet in battle out  over the ocean they dug in they they went  

To ground meanwhile from across the Pacific  the Americans envied eima airfields if you   don’t have eima then you don’t have that clear  path that takes you from the American Mainland   to Hawaii and step by step across the Pacific to  take Japan eima is the ideal place to land heavy  

Military equipment the island itself has got  some nice neatly shelving beaches around its   perimeter then around the island you can see a  whole bunch of entrances to little caves these   Coastal caves lie below the flat stone Plateau  that covers this place punctuated only once  

By Mount gusuku the spectacular Peak at its  heart the island itself is Pretty Natural as   a defensive position C the Pinnacle in the middle  of the island enable an allaround [Music] defense   on home turf the Japanese knew just how  to defend this peculiar place what the  

Japanese wanted to do ideally was to make it  difficult for the Americans to land by using   artillery and defend the island in depth using  infantry who were comparatively poorly prepared   the Japanese smashed the airfields built pillbox  positions and laid mines but most importantly they  

Made full use of Mount gusuku below ground this  Limestone Peak is riddled with tunnels and caves   which the Japanese plan to use to move around  undetected they secured the tunnel entrances   built machine gun positions and fortified caves  some three stories high with Lookouts across the

Island they fortified everything they  could from cave systems tunnel systems   so that when the Allied Forces finally  landed they would be entering into a meat grinder aima’s civilian population  took refuge in the caves around the   coast local residents like T  takamichi still Revere this

Place it’s a sacred place on eima and during  the war many people sought Refuge here this   place received many Mort shell attacks from  the sea so people came here because it was safe with no idea what was going  on Underground when the American  

Forces finally arrived they weren’t  prepared for an unseen and deadly foe the 16th of April 1945 the US Army invades  eima the Americans had spent the whole second   world war learning how to conduct amphibious  operations but the thousands of Japanese  

Soldiers installed in Mount gusuku could see  their every move the American Advan to the   town of e was under constant Ambush and they  couldn’t tell civilians and Japanese soldiers apart during the battle for eima  civilians also took up arms some  

Civilians were told by the Japanese Army  to fight with guns but they mainly used grenades slow progress and the unexpected loss of hundreds  of men meant the Americans had to take The High   Ground of Mount gusuku which lay beyond the  town of e the grueling conflict was witnessed  

By the famous US War reporter Ernie pile Ernie  pile was an American newspaper columnist who   was beloved for his Devotion to the Troops  he was one of the these War correspondents   with a with a human touch he really knew  the gis pile was traveling with the troops  

Near the town of E when they came Under Fire  a sniper hit him in the head pile was killed instantly true to his nature he was pressing   right up close to be near the  action when he was killed on

Eima with pile gone the American am an were  determined to get the job done Beyond pile’s   Memorial today there’s one other remnant of  the bitter battle that played out the shell   of the concrete porn shop this building did  not necessarily serve any strategic purpose  

For the United States but it was caught in the  crossfire they pulverized this pawn shop on the   way to pulverizing the Japanese headquarters  the Americans eventually took mount Kuku but   traces still lie below this place that suggest  for the people of e the full horror of the war  

Was not yet over the Japanese military had  convinced the population that the American   forces would be like wild animals and and no  one would survive their Onslaught on E Island   they actually issued people hand grenades if  all else fails they were to kill themselves  

Rather than suffer the disgrace of surrender  in aima’s coastal caves hundreds of civilians   took their own lives those in the niatia cave  didn’t believe the propaganda and chose not to many died inside these caves however at this particular  cave that tragedy didn’t

Happened after a grueling Six-Day battle the  Americans took eima in total almost 5,000   Japanese and more than a thousand American  soldiers lost their lives in the fight for Aima and some claim that Japan’s  Resolute defense of this tiny Island  

Led the US to drop the atomic bombs  that finally ended the war in this region but eima still had one more role to play at the end of the war the Japanese  went to the Philippines via here after taking off from eima the delegation  agreed peace terms in Manila before submitting  

To a public display we’ve all heard about the  Japanese surrendering to General MacArthur on   the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay but in fact  the initial surrender happened here at one   of these air strips this is an almost  forgotten part of the history of the

[Music] war today little remains of  the bloody battle for eima but the   memory of the thousands of soldiers  and civilians who died here lives on this place is one of the few places left from   the war not only for eima but also  for okanawa so we are preserving it

Carefully marooned in the chilly  Waters of the Celtic Sea a cluster   of structures guards Island’s biggest Harbor this island unambiguously has pride of  place it’s exposed it’s windy it’s isolated   there are ditches fences and walls this says  security and [Music] strength it’s really quite  

Clear that this place was a fort so there’s also  a sense that there was something else happening here this part is dark it’s quiet there are  bars on the Windows there’s a sort of oppressive   feeling and the Darkness just swallows you up the  further you go inside it feels like something of  

A time machine there are parts that are quite  obviously several centuries old and other bits   that only seem like 20 years old at the center  of the complex is a long building that appears   to offer up some Clues there’s clearly evidence  of fire having swept through this place at some  

Point it feels like something actually quite  violent happened here it’s those burnt out ruins   that really draw you in and make you wonder what  happened [Music] here this is Spike Island today   it sits in Irish Waters yet these defensive  structures were built by the British more  

Than 200 years ago local historian Tom O’Neal once  worked here the four tier was built by the British   because they were always afraid that an enemy of  theirs would invade Ireland and use Ireland then   as a base through which to attack the mainland  UK building this strategically vital Fort cost  

Almost 100 million pounds in today’s money this  was a really significant project they started   in 1806 and it took 60 years to build across a 24  Acre Site and it’s cuttingedge military technology   from here we can actually get a perfect idea  of how clever the design was to make this fort  

As strong as possible deep trenches surround the  fort which is built in a distinctive star shape   to protect it from every [Music] direction the  design worked no enemy ever attacked the fort but   that doesn’t mean it’s going to escape violence  altogether much later in its life it’s going to  

Be attacked from within the defensive role wasn’t  the only thing this place was used for there’s   more than one story to tell about this place bars  on Windows security spikes and reinforced Gates   show how the British retooled their surprised  Bastion to control the Irish instead being on  

An island with fortified High walls and excellent  observation and Lookout possessions that also made   this site ideal to be a prison in 1845 the Great  Famine hit Island and this imperious star-shaped   Fort became a pora’s prison people became more  desperate and some were even willing to be  

Arrested and imprisoned just to get some food the  situation was so dire that these fortified walls   soon held thousands of prisoners additionally  with the British government using Spike Island   as a stopover for convicts on route to criminal  colonies the population swelled and the numbers  

Kept on Rising because of the numbers that were  being arrested and imprisoned until eventually   we’re 2 and a half thousand here and that 2 and  1 half thousand made one of the largest prisons   in the world at the time eventually the famine  passed and the prison closed in 1883 but this  

Would not last for long in 1916 when the Irish  Republicans rebelled against Britain’s oppressive   military rule the fort again proved invaluable  during the Irish war of independence this site   was brought back into use again as a prison and  some of the rooms have changed very little since

Then this was where the convicted Republicans  were held this would have been their living   quarters their sleeping quarters their dining  quarters their Recreation quarters with British   soldiers guarding Republican internees hostility  between them was inevitable there was some pretty  

Serious tension between these prisoners who  had fought on one side and the guard were their   enemies obviously there was friction these were  the individuals that had been attempting to kill   Crown forces anyway the famous revolutionaries  who came through this place ran rings around the  

British there was one particularly important  individual here with the prisoners and his   real name was Tom Malone he made a name for  himself attacking and destroying R Barracks   he was fairly near the top of the crown Force  most wanted list and he was arrested in Cork  

City on Christmas morning 1920 Malone was a  commander in the Republican Army he was once   described as Island Houdini when he escaped this  Fortress jail helped by the prison’s Catholic chaplain his comrades had to remain  inside until Irish independence in

1921 but modern cell doors locks and partitions  suggest Spike Island’s role as a prison wasn’t   yet over in 1985 the fort was again used as a  prison but a civilian prison this time there   had been a Spate of increased crime and so  Spike Island was opened up again to absorb  

Some of these extra inmates this time it was  the Irish themselves who put the prison Fort   to use this area was converted into mod cells  in 1985 there were 25 Forman cells in total   and that then gave the Civil prison a capacity  of 102 other blocks were less well secured the  

Plan was to send fairly lowrisk inmates to  spike Island and if that had been followed   through there wouldn’t have been a problem but  when prison Governors got the opportunity to   get rid of some prisoners as well naturally  enough they got rid of their troublemakers if  

They possibly could a lot of very high risk  inmates arrive and this place simply isn’t   designed to hold them damage found at one part  of the makeshift jail points to the consequences   as you look closer and you see the damage you  see the fire damage the charred Windows you  

Realize that there was some final dramatic  event that was the last chapter of this site Spike Island a fort turned prison in the  Republic of Island tasked with housing a   number of high-risk offenders in an ill  equipped cell block violence soon erupted  

Tom O’Neal was a guard here at the time  he witnessed the chaos that ensued this   was one of the dormitories where prisoners were  held in 1985 on the night of the 31st of August   just before midnight the ride started the  prisoner simply broke up the wooden floor  

And set fire to it and when the fire was on  they simply kicked down the wooden doors and escaped they even managed to get as far as  the pier but they couldn’t get any further and  

That’s why you build a prison on an island they  can’t get off so they decide to do the next best   thing they decide to break back into the prison  and destroy all the records there but the fully   Bastian british-built Fort wasn’t that easy to  break into the prisoners had to use an excavator  

To break down the doors the riot was just a simple  want and destruction photo copers turned upside   down and smacked off the ground tins of paint  opened and scattered all over the place to just   the the want and destruction of it really the riot  was eventually contained Spike Island was used  

As a prison for another 20 years the prison was  remodeled and made much more secure they’d learned   their lesson eventually it closed fully in 2004  primarily because of the cost of keeping prisoners here having spent nearly 200 years off limits  to civilians Spike island is now open to the  

Public its colorful history preserved for  generations to come but what we really have   here is a place that provides snapshots of  Ireland’s history at crucial moments and the   conflict that could characterize that history  and and the violence that was there as [Music]

Well in Spain the remains of a Hilltop Ghost  Town reveal that this site is steeped in religion this place has been inhabited for  centuries at least since the knight’s Templar in   the Middle Ages these little towns in the Spanish  Hills were always on the very edge of survival the  

Most prominent building is the church and was  clearly the center of this community but as you   get a little closer you can see it’s in Ruins this  is a place that has been torn to pieces and here   we’ve got buildings that look like they’ve been  scorched and crumbled a lot of these structures  

Have been leveled by artillery we see the  stonework pock marked with shell fragments bullet   holes that sort of thing but there are traces of  who was at War here we see a lot of graffiti which   itself has some real significance in solving this  mystery then if we poke around a little more we  

Come across this plaque to Robert hail maramman  that does not sound Spanish and when I read   further and I see the name Abraham Lincoln I know  that America an have done something significant here a band of Freedom Fighters once came   to this desolate site and left  their idealism smashed in these

Ruins this is corbera De today there’s little  left of the thriving Community where Joanne   Montana’s father was born in the [Music]  1920s we are in one of the main streets of   the Old Town you have to imagine it was all  houses here you can even see the remains of  

The original Cobble Street and these are the  foundations of the house where my father was born back then the residents of  Cora lived as they had done done   for centuries the church and  the land owners held all the power the main church was built here back in the  

13th century and the nerve center of  this rural community was the church square Once Upon a Time this  little Spanish village might   have been filled with poor people but they  were poor people who were strong in their   Christian faith and they understood  themselves as subjects of a Catholic

Monarchy yet the damage wrought  on this church suggests something changed in 1931 a new left-wing government sought  to rest control from the Catholic land owners who   ruled Spain but it faced strong opposition  there was an extreme rightwing military  

Click who felt that they had a chance to save  Spain you have senior army officers you’ve got   some very wealthy people and you’ve got the  Catholic church and that is the Nationalist party in 1936 led by the f fist General Francisco   Franco the nationalists staged a  coup and a bitter civil war broke

Out the rubble of corbera reveals  how the conflict soon reached the town here we can make out the  traces of a series of historical marks original this graffiti from the time reads  seized Cente the CNT it’s the Spanish acronym for  

The National Labor Confederation what that  meant in that place in that time was that   these guys were anarchists the anarchists  had taken advantage of the conflict one   armed faction swept into corbera when the CNT  anarchists occupied this Village they saw the  

Village priest as part part of the nationalists  the fascists the enemy and so they did them in the anarchists killed Cora’s priest and  his assistants but when they left the town   itself was still standing meanwhile the  rest of Spain was swept up in the uneven  

Fight between the fascist nationalists and  the left-wing Republicans the Republicans   the government side in the Spanish Civil  War have to fight throughout with one hand   tied behind their back they have no  American Aid no British Aid against   this big organized nationalist Army completely  funded and supplied by fascist Italy and Nazi

Germany in the 1930s there were plenty of  young idealists who were willing to fight   for democracy 2,800 Americans volunteered to  fight on the Republican side in the Spanish   Civil War and they came to be known as the  Lincoln Brigade some of the most important  

Writers and thinkers of the day wanted to go sign  up to fight Ernest Hemingway covered the war as   a newspaper correspondent and George Orwell  spent time fighting with the Republicans the   cause attracted lesser known Freedom Fighters  too Robert hail merman the commander of the  

Lincoln Brigade and he gives up his studies to go  over and Lead this brigade in the Spanish Civil War by the start of 1938 corbera had so  far escaped the Carnage of Spain’s vicious   Civil War but pockmarked houses and SES of deric  ground suggest that this would soon change Cora’s  

Proximity to the Ebro River meant the conflict was  fast approaching if the nationalists can take the   Ebro River and push to the Sea they’re they going  to drive a wedge between the Republican stronghold   so it’s vital for the nationalists to win there  and it’s vital for the Republicans to hold

There on the outskirts of corbera merryman and  the exhausted Lincoln Brigade dug in with the Republicans by March 19 38 we know  soldiers were camped here very close to ca these soldiers were members of the  international Brigade and they were  

Suffering a lot they were being defeated  and they’d come to the vicinity of Cora to regroup merryman believed if he could just reach  the Republican held town he and his men would   be sa safe but unbeknown to him the fascist  nationalists had seized Cora marman was now  

Trapped Behind Enemy Lines and in April 1938  just outside Cora he unwittingly walked into   a nationalist camp and maramman and his second in  command are captured by their enemies and so far   as we can tell they were probably put up against  a wall and shot right there on the spot the  

Republicans fought on eventually they recaptured  corbera but this bare Hill once covered in houses   took the brunt of the fascist [Music] Revenge  the very day the Republicans reconquered Cora   the bombing started and continued almost daily  melini sends troops to Aid the nationalists led by  

General Franco the Germans send the Condor Legion  this Advanced Air Force Franco says I’m going to   destroy the Republicans in a battle of attrition  and that battle is focused on this Village of corbara in August 1938 corbera was occupied  by Republican forces putting it firmly in the  

Crosshairs of General Franco’s fascist [Music]  Army this place was protected from artillery   fire so some Soldiers made makeshift shelters  here they dug in and took advantage of the house wall and after the bombing stopped the  strafing started we can still see the  

Impact on this war when the battle of the  river EO finally ended most of Cora had been destroyed they call Cora the  Eternal Flame nails and other   metallic things are melted and fossilized here we can even see the key that  was used to open a tin of

Sardines just a glance at the Village  of corbera and the destruction there it   points again to the savagery of the Spanish  Civil War General Franco’s nationalist party   took control of Spain in 1939 and ran the  country as a dictatorship for almost 40  

Years when Spain was again peaceful but a  dictatorship the villagers came back and   the place had been pounded to Smither  they rebuilt their Village down by the Road today corbera remembers those who fought  to the death for a better world they came to   stop the kind of fascism that was going to  be the ruin of Europe in the years to come   these are people who were killing Nazis at a  time when governments weren’t ready for that  

Yet the first people to do that are these  idealistic Volunteers in [Music] [Applause] Spain near the border between Germany and  France in the long disputed region of Al   ass lies a mysterious complex with an explosive past there’s a big central building where  all of the glass has been shattered blown  

Out something violent happened here when you look  up you’ve got these crazy structures just perched   high up there above looking down on everything  whatever was being made someone went to great   efforts to transport it out of here it has a  train line running through that’s completely  

Overgrown it’s clearly not been used in decades  and there on the tracks is a train that’s just   been left this in congruous collection of  deric buildings seems to make little sense   there’s something here that people are willing to  kill over it’s that precious and that essential

The first clue to what’s  going on here lies half a mile underground they were digging for some  valuable commodity here but it wasn’t   gold it wasn’t diamonds it wasn’t silver  this sprawling plant is Caro Rudolph it   was built to extract a precious mineral  from deep underground Jean missano once  

Worked here I spent 30 years working for  this Enterprise where working conditions   were incredibly tough this is the elevator that  carried the miners both up and down we’re at the   top of the Rolf one shaft which went down 750  m it was nasty work down in the mines it was  

Hot and cramped and if you hit a pocket of gas  it could trigger a deadly explosion it’s very   dangerous here and expensive trying to get  this mineral out more than 600 people lost   their lives here during a century of operation  what precious mineral was worth this level of

Risk Caro Rolph at the beginning  of the 20th century was a strategic   place for the production of a mineral  called potach potach is one of the   best ferti F izers going and Caro  Rudolph was sitting on top of the

Motherload the first mine opened here in 1913  to extract the mineral the whole world wanted   at the beginning of the 20th century have  a big explosion in population we need to   very quickly grow more crops and better crops  and for that you need fertilizer and a major  

Part of fertilizer is potassium and here potach  buried underground contains that magic ingredient   this site lies in alas a region that France  and Germany had long fought over the opening   of this place made it even more desirable carry  Rudolph was one of the only potach mines in the  

World outside of Germany but that put a huge  Target on its back when World War I breaks   out in August 1914 in that initial German rush  into France they overrun the Carol Rudolf and   they take this mother load of potach even more  worrying is that potach is a key ingredient in

Gunpowder this overgrown railroad once headed  towards the battle trenches of World War I and   it wasn’t only carrying the ingredients for  gunpowder intelligence reports suggested that   was seen leaving this industrial complex from  1914 to 1915 the Germans installed a Narrow  

Gauge Railway starting here at Caro Rudolph  the Munitions were transported to the front   by train now that it was key to the German war  effort both the British and many French locals   wanted to destroy this place so who got there  first New Year’s Eve the last day of 195 15  

This whole pot ash facility is just ripped apart  by a tremendous explosion the entire complex was   reduced to Rubble the munition secretly stored  at the factory only added to the blast it shook   houses and rattled Windows 20 miles away from the  site but the mystery persists who did it it would  

Make sense if it was an Allied aerial bombing  attack on the mine but if you asked the locals   they didn’t believe it attacking on the 31st of  December is symbolic since it’s New Year’s Eve   and everybody celebrates then so they might have  celebrated this Victory too it’s an interesting  

Date to have an industrial accident you’d normally  expect that to happen when everything was in full   flow we’ll never know whatever caused it the blast  meant the mine was out of action until long after   the first world war ended by which time Caro  Rudolph was back under French control it didn’t  

Actually open again till 1929 but then it was into  full flow because the world still needed potach   the crazed collection of structures that litter  the site were all built to Supply this pressing   need the thing that fascinates me most about this  site is of course the headstocks these huge sheds  

That you see up in the sky the mine relied on  lifting hundreds of tons of rubble out of the   ground it was brought to the surface on a cable  system which ran through enormous pulley Wheels   attached to the structures over the coming decades  500 million tons of potach were mined here but  

As they dug even deeper the cost of extraction  grew eventually in 2003 the last M shaft [Music] closed today the dormant mine stands empty it  may have seen out two world wars but the Hulk   of the machinery and what’s left behind tells  the story of the actual people that worked

[Music] here abandoned disintegrating  reclaimed by Nature structures once   at The Cutting Edge bearing witness  to the forces pioneers and villains   that Define the world today emblem  of a shared past standing in our Present