In the 19th Century, huge stone fortresses protected leaders and their people against enemy canons. As weapons technology and warfare changed, countries began to build steel and concrete bunkers, to protect their troops in battle. The first episode examines the bunkers built in Europe before and during World War II, from the Italian Franzensfeste to Churchill’s War Room. In the second episode, we go underground in the nuclear-era shelters, including the thousands built by a paranoid Romanian leader.
Seasons & Episode
Episode 1 presents four installations from the mid-19th century up until the middle of World War II. Such as the legendary fortress of emperor Francis I of Austria in today’s Northern Italy which was never put to the test. In the 1930s, the so-called East Wall was intended to shield Germany’s border against a suspected invasion from its Polish neighbour. However, when the Soviet Army advanced to Berlin in early 1945, its bunkers proved worthless. From 1940 onwards, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill coordinated the war from a bomb-proof shelter right in the heart of London. Along the French Atlantic Coast, colossal blocks of steel concrete were erected to provide shelter for the German U-Boats until, finally, they had to give themselves up.
Episode 2 presents typical shelters of the nuclear age such as Soviet missile bases in today’s Lithuania, a bunker of West Germany’s Civil Protection Service and the nuclear-proof communication center of the East German Army. The episode is rounded off by an astonishing look at Albania. The tiny country is still the site of the largest number of bunkers worldwide, the result of its dictator’s paranoia.
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