02x03 - Buried Secrets

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on "secrets declassified"...

Government projects so
daring or so dangerous,

they're hidden underground,

like an experiment to
hide a nuclear expl*si*n

under a Mississippi forest.

The effects are immediate,
and they are dramatic.

What did they expect?
It's a nuclear b*mb.

Or a high-stakes mission
to spy on the Nazis

by hiding British soldiers
inside the rock of Gibraltar.

The entrance will be bricked up.

No one will be allowed to leave

under any circumstances.

Even a military experiment
on the New York subway.

Just five minutes after
bacteria are released,

spores are detected at every station

between 14th street and 59th.

These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible things

done by governments and
the people who work for them.

It's time to bring them to light.

The thought of being buried
alive in a sealed-off cave

would strike most people with terror.

In world w*r ii, six British officers

volunteered to do exactly
that on the rock of Gibraltar.

In 1941, it seems like
Hitler is winning the w*r.

Europe has fallen, but britain
maintains the naval advantage.

Key to its success is a peninsula

on the southern tip of
Spain known as Gibraltar.

Although it's small,

Gibraltar has been one of britain's

most important overseas outposts

for over two centuries.

This is because it's
strategically important.

It guards the only gateway

between the mediterranean
and the Atlantic seas.

From the rock of Gibraltar,



an observer is in a perfect position

to note the comings and goings of ships

entering the mediterranean
or departing the mediterranean.

The rock is so vital,
Hitler plans to seize it.

For britain, it's unthinkable.

And one naval officer is called to action.

John Godfrey is britain's
director of naval intelligence.

What he realizes is that British forces

are unlikely to repel a
German as*ault on Gibraltar.

Losing the rock could
mean losing the w*r.

So Godfrey devises a last-ditch plan,

which will remain
classified for over 50 years.

He decides to build a secret hiding place

inside the rock of Gibraltar.

So, when the Germans attack,

a small crew of officers
will seal themselves inside

and continue to monitor
the shipping Lane,

even after the rest of the British forces

have been defeated.

It's a truly bold idea.

Godfrey codenames it operation tracer.

His first challenge...

finding the perfect hiding place.

Gibraltar has been
used as a military outpost

for 250 years.

Carved into the rock is a
maze of tunnels and chambers.

Godfrey's team locate a
closed-up section of tunnel

in an abandoned part of the rock.

It's perfectly positioned...

high up and overlooking
both sides of the rock,

east towards the mediterranean,
west towards the Atlantic.

So the spies can monitor
movements of German shipping

in both directions.

It's got a great view.

But to make it habitable,

they must give it a radical renovation

without giving away

the tunnel's secret location to anyone.

Secrecy is Paramount,
so workers are blindfolded

when they're brought to the location

and then shipped back to Great Britain

upon completing the job.

The top secret bunker they carve out

is truly remarkable.

The living quarters include bunk beds,

a chemical toilet a


There's a small radio room

so that they can transmit
their intel back to britain.

They actually have a radio antenna

that can be poked through
a hole in the rock face

under the cover of night.

Now, electricity for the radio

will be produced by using a bicycle

rigged with a silent leather belt,

which doubles as the
men's only form of exercise.

The most extreme feature

of this underground safe
house... There's no way out.

The men won't just
be hiding in this bunker.

The entrance will be bricked up,

and they will be sealed inside.

No one will be allowed to
leave under any circumstances.

Staying inside is so crucial
to the mission's success

that one corner of the bunker

is reserved to be used as a cemetery

should any of the officers die on the job.

For the volunteers, this
mission is the end of the line.

I think if Gibraltar falls,

they're saying goodbye for good.

For operation tracer to work,

Godfrey needs help
finding the right men.

So he turns to an expert
in extreme survival.

George Murray levick
is quite the character.

He's an explorer who
once survived a whole winter

in Antarctica by living in an ice cave

and eating penguin meat.

Levick scours the Navy

and eventually selects six officers.

To see if they can survive in the bunker,

levick puts them to the test.

The men live in an isolated hut

on a remote marsh for weeks.

To prepare for life underground,

one final sacrifice is required...

Surgery.

All of the men have their
tonsils and appendix removed.

And this is done to reduce the possibility

of them developing a
life-threatening infection

during the mission.

Once they pass their training,

their reward is to go
home, see their families,

and say goodbye.

In the summer of 1942,

six British naval officers
are shipped to Gibraltar

with top secret orders.

The men are placed
in Gibraltar under cover

of regular military postings.

But in secret, they
sneak off and run checks

on the secret bunker,

always waiting for that order
that will seal them inside.

But the order doesn't come.

The German march across
Europe never reaches Gibraltar.

And the secret bunker
is permanently sealed up

with nobody inside.

The bunker is quickly forgotten about.

It becomes a footnote
to world w*r ii history.

Operation tracer remains
a secret for 50 years,

until a chance discovery in 1997.

A team of cavers

exploring Gibraltar's vast
underground labyrinths

find a mysterious sealed-off bunker.

They believe they've stumbled

across the legendary
operation tracer cave.

One of the original volunteers

confirms that this was really the place

that he was prepared to die in.

Rumor is, the British government

has other stay-behind
caves across the world,

waiting to be deployed.

Burying people underground
is one thing, but in 1964,

the U.S. government
tries to Bury something

a little more ambitious...
a nuclear expl*si*n

right in the middle of
america's heartland.

By the early 1960s,

there has been something
like 500 nuclear tests

that have taken place
in the earth's atmosphere

around the world.

And there's been a buildup
of public anger and concern

about what damage
these tests have done.

So the U.S. and the Soviets
reached the first agreement

to limit nuclear testing.

But this historic treaty
has one giant loophole.

It forbids nuclear
tests in the atmosphere,

outer space, and underwater...
But not underground.

The reason underground
nuclear testing remains legal

is simply because no
one knows how to detect

and therefore police it.

And a ban can only work if you can verify

that people are breaking it.

As far as the U.S. is concerned,

the Soviets might be
exploding nuclear devices

under the arctic waste,
and they are none the wiser.

U.S. officials are desperate to know

if nukes can be covertly
detonated underground.

There's only one way to find out.

In 1963, the American
atomic energy commission

decide to conduct a series of
underground nuclear explosions

to see if and how they can be monitored.

The operation's code name

plays down the potential
for armageddon...

project dribble.

Its first challenge...

find the best hiding place
for a nuclear expl*si*n.

The scientists working
on the project theorize

that the most effective environment

to conceal an underground
test would be in a salt dome.

Salt domes are geological formations

deep under the earth's
surface where rock salt

has risen up to form
a dome-like structure.

And those domes of
salt can be 6 miles deep.

The thought was that
the salt dome would have

the effect of containing
the force of the expl*si*n.

And it was also thought then, too,

that the fallout, the radioactivity

that was produced by these explosions,

would remain inside the salt dome

and would not be hazardous
to people above ground.

And they find this ideal patch

underneath a pine forest

in Lamar county in southern Mississippi.

It's called the Tatum salt dome,

and it's about 1,500
feet under the surface.

The one catch is a nuclear test

might not go down well
with the local population.

Mississippi is not the Nevada desert,

where the U.S. has
typically tested their weapons.

This salt dome is close

to the town of hattiesburg, Mississippi,

and is by far the most densely
populated atomic test site

the U.S. has ever chosen.

Fearing local protests,

the government decides
to promote the positives

of living near a nuclear test site.

Mississippi's governor
assures the residents,

everything's gonna be okay.

That salt dome, that's
going to hold in the radiation.

It's going to protect them.

And more than that...
it's important to do so.

This is how Mississippi contributes.

It does its small part for uncle Sam

to fight against communism.

In the fall of 1964, the
operation to explode a nuke

under Mississippi begins.

The U.S. atomic scientists create a shaft

that's half a mile deep.

And into it, they put down a device

with a yield of 5.3 kilotons.

That's about a third
the yield of the device

that was dropped on Hiroshima.

They fill the borehole with concrete,

and then they place scientific
devices around the area

to record seismic waves
and measure any radiation

that may leak into the atmosphere.

Nobody really knows
how this test will go down.

So about 400 people are
evacuated as a precaution.

Adults are paid 10 bucks
for the inconvenience,

and kids are paid half.

On October 22nd,

the scene is set for
the nuclear detonation

inside the salt dome.

Will it be truly undetectable
or split the earth apart?

One of the strangest
nuclear tests on American soil

happens under Mississippi in 1964.

Scientists want to know,

can you detonate a
nuclear b*mb underground

and hide it from the world?

On the morning of October 22nd,

the local residents find out.

The expl*si*n carves out a huge cavity

deep inside the salt dome.

The ground lifts.

A shock wave ripples
across the landscape.

Small buildings collapse.

Homes are severely damaged.

Wells suddenly go dry,

and some creeks start
to run black with silt.

Locals file hundreds of damage claims

almost immediately.

But for project dribble,

the test results are priceless.

It sends waves, seismic
waves out 5,000 miles.

Finland picks up the fact

that this test was done in Mississippi.

Clearly, while the test has done its job,

it's demonstrated that, in fact,

there's no way the Soviets are
doing any underground testing.

A happy ending for the U.S. government

but not for the locals
living near the salt dome.

A lot of residents start
reporting illnesses.

Soon, cancers and birth
defects start to show up...

all symptoms that locals believe

are caused by nuclear contamination

from the salt dome tests.

The atomic energy commission

claims the site has
successfully contained

the radiation

and illness rates in
the region are normal.

But in 2015, a local journalist

requests official information
regarding payouts

made in the aftermath
of the nuclear test.

By the early 2000s,

the federal government has paid out

about $16 million in settlements

to people that were
exposed to radioactivity

as a result of project dribble.

What began as a step
towards nuclear control

remains a source of anger
for the local community

that continues to this day.

While many n*zi officers
end world w*r ii on trial,

one German spymaster plans to secure

his postwar future

by trading a cache of buried
secrets for his freedom.

In early 1945, the
German army is crumbling

and outnumbered on all fronts.

The collapse of the third
reich looks inevitable.

So many of the top n*zi commanders

shift their focus from winning the w*r

to surviving the collapse
of the n*zi regime.

One German fearing for
his life is reinhard gehlen.

Reinhard gehlen is the n*zi
head of military intelligence

on the eastern front,

where the Germans
are fighting the Soviets.

He's been running a network of spies

in Soviet territory for years.

Gehlen has files

on all the Soviet union's dirty secrets.

And if the invading
Russians get a hold of him,

he could be spending the rest of his days

in a siberian gulag.

That's if they let him live.

Gehlen spots one potential escape route.

Gehlen sees what many others don't,

which is that after the w*r,

the Soviets and the United States

will be rivals, not allies.

He knows that the Americans

are going to be interested in
what he knows about Russia.

Key to gehlen's survival

is his archive of Soviet secrets.

This is his bargaining chip.

This is his get-out-of-jail-free card.

Gehlen has to think fast.

His solution... Hiding
his files underground.

He's going to go Bury
his treasure like a pirate

and then go work out his
deal with the Americans.

Burying an entire archive is no easy task,

especially in the dying
days of a global w*r.

First, gehlen asks his staff
to begin the mammoth task

of transferring his files onto microfilm

and then storing them
in watertight steel cases.

Over 4 days, they fill 50
cases with priceless treasure.

But he realizes that the best
place to secure these documents

would actually be all the way down

by the border between
Germany and Austria,

down in the bavarian alps.

So he's going to travel 300 miles

to Bury his documents

and hopefully hash out a
deal with the Americans.

In early may 1945, gehlen
and his staff skip town

in a truck loaded with
secrets and head for the alps.

Gehlen and his party
reach this isolated forest hut

in a remote valley.

He decides to Bury his cases here

before the Americans can catch him.

To avoid the possibility
that the entire archive

is discovered or destroyed,
he splits the cases

and buries them in eight different spots.

Then gehlen waits...

For a month in the bavarian wilderness,

until American forces arrive
in full and he can surrender.

Gehlen is sent to an interrogation center,

where he is questioned
by a U.S. army officer

named captain John boker.

The meeting with boker is
a make-or-break moment.

Gehlen has just one
opportunity to play his hand.

And luckily for him,
boker shares his view

that the Soviets are a
threat to the United States,

and he wants to know
everything that gehlen knows.

The United States didn't
have a lot of information

about the Soviet military.

Someone like gehlen was the goose

that could lay golden eggs.

Captain boker can't just strike a deal

with a high-ranking n*zi official,

at least not without knowing he's for real.

He needs to dig up
gehlen's buried secrets.

So he assembles a team
that's going to essentially follow

the treasure map, if you will,

and head on out to the cabin.

And they find exactly
what gehlen's described.

They are able to dig up in the spots

where he said he buried the documents,

and they find seven out
of eight of the deposits.

Gehlen delivers on his word.

In return, boker removes
gehlen's name from the system.

Gehlen is not listed
officially as being a pow.

Gehlen has played his cards perfectly.

The Americans aren't
going to arrest him.

They're gonna use him as an asset.

So gehlen flies out to Washington, D.C.

And working with the Americans,

he strikes an astonishing deal.

He's going to return to Germany

to lead a covert agency
that's spying on the Russians.

While other n*zi leaders
face trial for w*r crimes,

reinhard gehlen
returns to west Germany.

He reconnects with
his old network of spies,

and they continue their operation,

not for n*zi Germany
but for the United States.

For the next 23 years,
gehlen's organization

is the number-one
supplier of Soviet secrets.

Gehlen's vital importance

to U.S. intelligence
agencies stays classified,

until the year 2000.



the CIA releases thousands of files

detailing their relationship with gehlen...

A partnership that grew
from a trove of secrets

buried in the mountains.

For millions of new yorkers,

heading underground
is part of everyday life.

But in 1966, what seems like
a regular morning commute

is actually part of a
secret military experiment,

where passengers catch
more than a ride to work.

In the 1960s, New York City's subway

is the busiest transport
system in the United States.

At rush hour, millions of Americans

are using it to crisscross the city.

The U.S. military is worried

that this incredible feat of engineering

is also an achilles' heel in
the nation's infrastructure.

It might be a weak
point vulnerable to attack

from america's enemies.

There's one specific kind of warfare

that has the U.S. army on high alert.

At this point, both the United States

and the Soviet union
have bio weapons programs.

American officials are worried
that the New York subway system

would be a prime target for an attack.

Not only does it move
millions of people every day,

it moves them throughout the city,

potentially spreading a virus easily

throughout the whole population.

It's a doomsday scenario

the U.S. army wants to prepare for.

So they decide to
conduct a chillingly named

"vulnerability assessment."

In 1966, U.S. army scientists

conduct a mock bioweapon attack
on the New York subway system.

Their plan is to release
an airborne bacteria

named bacillus subtilis

that is considered harmless to humans,

then monitor its spread
through the subway.

Safe or not, New York commuters

might object to inhaling
unknown bacteria.

So, to sidestep the
thorny issue of consent,

the U.S. army decides to
run this experiment in secret.

At the time, the army decided
to just go forward anyways.

And they didn't tell
anybody, no local authorities,

not even the transit police.

On June 6th,


as everyday commuters

head underground

to stations along the


To deploy the bio agent secretly,

each operative carries special light bulbs

hidden inside boring-looking paper bags.

Packed inside each of those light bulbs

is a gas inoculated with 175 grams

of bacillus subtilis bacteria.

That's about 87 trillion
organisms in each bulb.

The scientists wait on the platform

for the train to come.

When the doors open, they walk inside,

and they discreetly drop the light bulbs

in between the train and the platform.

The glass shatters on the tracks,

and the bulb releases its contents.

And with each passing train,

the bacteria gets
pulled through the tunnel

to the next station.

From what's been pieced together,

it appears that some commuters
did notice clouds of gas

rising up from the tracks.

But there are no descriptions
of widespread panic.

These people just
brushed off their clothes

and went on with whatever
they were doing that day.

For millions of commuters,

it just felt like a normal Monday morning.

With the bacteria

now silently passing through Manhattan,

the scientists secretly track it

through dozens of miles
of underground tunnels.

To monitor the air and
trace the bacterium,

the scientists have devised
these clever covert gadgets

that can take readings
without passengers noticing...

air samplers disguised as cameras,

detection devices hidden in pocketbooks.

For five days, millions of commuters

remain completely
unaware of the experiment.

When results are tallied,
the conclusion is horrifying.

They show that just five minutes

after bacteria are released
at the 23rd street station,

spores are detected at every station

between 14th street and 59th.

According to military calculations,

more than one million Americans
were exposed to the bacteria.

So, if that had been Anthrax,
with a million people exposed,

the math is not complicated.

Anthrax is 90% to 97% lethal.

It would have been
an unmitigated disaster.

The army's conclusion is stark.

The subway system
cannot be safeguarded

against this type of attack.

It would put New York
out of commission.

For nine years,

new yorkers remain unaware
they have been subjected

to a bioweapon experiment.

Then in 1975, the U.S. military

is dragged in front of
the church committee

to answer questions on
ill*gal or unethical activities.

One of the skeletons
they bring out of the closet

is the New York subway vulnerability test.

The most frightening
revelation is still to come.

The bacterium the scientists
used, bacillus subtilis,

isn't as benign as they thought.

It can be a harmful pathogen.

It can cause lung infections,
meningitis, even death.

And people with
weakened immune systems

are especially vulnerable.

At the time, the scientists
don't do any research

into the physiological effects of the test

because they assumed it was safe.

But it's highly likely this
attack wasn't just unethical

but physically harmful, too.

When German bombs rained
down during world w*r ii,

London's most vulnerable
residents are rushed to safety.

Children are sent to the country,

while priceless works of
art are sent underground.

At the start of world w*r ii,

the UK's national gallery holds one

of the world's greatest collections of art,

including over 2,000 masterpieces.

This is not just a collection
of cultural significance.

We're talking tens of billions of dollars.

The gallery's director,

esteemed art historian Kenneth Clark,

is determined to save these paintings

from the incoming
blitz of German bombs.

Clark's first priority is
to get all the paintings

out of London as quickly as possible.

And he does this in an ingenious way.

They're hidden in post office vans

and cadbury's chocolate delivery trucks,

and they're transported

to a number of remote
buildings in wales.

Now, the government believes

that it's here in western
britain that they're gonna be

safely out of range of luftwaffe bombers.

But they are wrong.

In September 1940, the blitz begins.

By November, the German luftwaffe

have hit targets in liver pool,
which is north of wales.

It becomes apparent

that the Germans can hit any target

throughout mainland britain.

These priceless paintings
could be erased in a moment.

They have to be moved.

Churchill wants to keep
them in britain, announcing...

"Not one picture shall leave this island."

So Clark must find a
b*mb-proof solution.

And he decides the safest
place is underground.

It must be remote and secure,
accessible by road and rail,

and, most importantly, suitable
for housing delicate artworks.

The national gallery

launches a covert sweep across britain

to find the ideal underground vault.

And in late 1940, they
strike gold... or rather slate.

In a windswept valley

near one of britain's tallest
mountains out in wales,

they find manod quarry,

which was a slate
mine back in the 1800s.

It's no longer in use,

but it's got all these carved-out chambers

deep down underneath
hundreds of feet of slate...

Natural defenses that
should be able to keep

this art safe and sound.

With the clock ticking,

the UK government
secretly rents the mine.

But the art collection can't
be rushed in overnight.

You can't just stick
paintings in a wooden crate

and Bury them in an old mine.

They are highly sensitive

to all sorts of environmental damage.

If they're going to keep
these paintings safe,

they're going to need to
manage the environment.

Otherwise, one of the greatest
art collections in the world

won't be destroyed by bombs,
it'll be destroyed by mold.

Deep inside manod quarry,

a state-of-the-art storage
facility is constructed.

Six airtight brick bungalows are built

right in the heart of the
mine to protect the paintings.

To protect them against dust and damp,

a series of electric fans are installed.

These fans pass air
over trays of silica gel

that absorb all of the ambient moisture.

This keeps the moisture
level in the mine in check.

After a six-month breakneck renovation,

the secret vault is ready

to welcome its first masterpieces.

The collection is transported

by covert convoy deep
into this Welsh mountain,

all in total secrecy.

Only a handful of officials
know where it's gone.

There's just one slight oversight.

Some of this art is enormous.

Van dyck's painting of Charles I

measures 12 feet in length.

So, as the truck carrying it

is winding through these small roads,

there's a low bridge that
these trucks have to pass under.

Well, Charles I is too
big to make it underneath.

They have to lower the road that's going

underneath this bridge
just to get Charles to safety.

Back in London, the blitz
continues to cause carnage.

The national gallery ends
up being hit nine times,

but its prized assets...

well, they're safely tucked
away under a mountain.

One of the world's most
important art collections

narrowly dodges incineration.

But manod quarry doesn't
just protect the paintings,

it improves them.

The conditions in the mine are so good,

the paintings actually fare
better than if they'd been left

in the national gallery.

When the w*r is over,
when it's finally time

to return this art back
to the national gallery,

they actually bring with them

what they've discovered and learned

about painting preservation.

The national gallery

reopens to the public on may 17, 1945.

But the mountain vault is kept secret

long after the w*r is over.

The full story of manod
quarry is buried for 78 years.

Back in 2018, the national gallery

mounted an exhibition
revealing photos and documents

from inside the quarry for the first time,

unveiling the extraordinary tale

of ingenuity and secrecy

that saved this priceless collection

from obliteration.

It's the cold w*r,

and underground nuke-proof
bunkers are all the rage.

Every world leader has one.

For Stalin, though, protecting
his government is not enough.

He wants a shelter big
enough for his submarines.

By 1953, Stalin is growing
incredibly concerned

by america's increasing nuclear arsenal.

And he fears that a single strike

could knock out a
large part of his military,

in particular his submarines.

At this time, the Soviet submarine fleet

is the largest in the world,
boasting over 300 vessels.

And each one of these submarines

is worth over $10 million.

Stalin wants his billion-dollar fleet

hidden away from prying eyes
and safe from falling bombs.

Stalin orders something

that has never been attempted before...

a nuclear-proof underground stronghold

with a secret gate to let subs pass

into and from the ocean in total secrecy.

To find a location for his super base,

Stalin turns to one of
the few people he trusts...

lavrentiy beria.

Lavrentiy beria is the
head of the Soviet kgb.

He's in a position of
great authority and power

and a confidant of Stalin's.

Stalin turns to beria to identify a place

for a reinforced submarine base

that can survive a thermonuclear attack.

Beria and his team spend months

scouring the coastlines,
looking for an ideal location

that will afford maximum security

and natural protection.

They find a remote bay on the black sea

called balaklava.

Balaklava is home to a twisting inlet

around 200 meters deep.

It's sheltered from storms,
with a narrow entrance

that's impossible to
spot from the open sea.

It's also just 9 miles

from the Soviet naval port at sevastopol,

which houses Stalin's black sea fleet.

The sheltered cove is perfect.

Now Stalin's team must dig out

one of the world's biggest
nuclear bunkers in secret.

It's gonna take years to build.

And it's happening
right around the corner

from a regular old fishing town.

So keeping it secret is
gonna be a huge challenge.

The Soviets immediately
declare balaklava is closed

and effectively remove it from the map.

Then they secretly bus in workers

to start building the facility.

During the night,
materials are brought in.

And during the night,
debris that is being created

as they tunnel out a
mountain is taken out.

Meanwhile, any entrances
and ventilation shafts

are covered with netting.

This will protect the Soviets
from any flyover surveillance

that might see what's going on.

It takes eight years

to extract nearly 120,000
tons of rock from the mountain,

carving out a cold w*r
marvel in the process.

The finished base can
hide 10 submarines,

including 7 in one central channel

that's 500 meters long.

It also includes a dry dock,

m*ssile storage, command rooms,

and a power infiltration system...

all of it under 130 meters of rock

with 4.5-meter-thick concrete walls.

It's designed to withstand
a direct nuclear-b*mb strike

of up to 100 kilotons.

That's 6 to 7 times that
of the Hiroshima b*mb.

It can be completely sealed

with a set of colossal underwater gates

made from 150 tons of solid steel.

They are 7 meters high, 10 meters wide,

and provide the final line of defense,

guaranteeing protection
for the submarines inside.

The most secure room
in the heart of the complex

is where the nuclear
warheads are stored.

The base isn't just designed
to withstand an atomic blast.

It's fully prepared for retaliation.

In the event of a nuclear w*r,


in here for up to 30 days.

This place is virtually indestructible.

Basically, it's something
out of a bond film.

Despite extreme
efforts to avoid detection,

rumors about the balaklava
base start to leak out.

The area around
sevastopol is photographed.

The area of balaklava is photographed.

U.S. spies piece together
small fragments of intel,

but the base is so effectively hidden

that its full nature remains
shrouded in mystery.

Only after the collapse
of the Soviet union

is this secret site deactivated.

In 2003, this cold w*r labyrinth

is open to the public as a museum.

For several years,

its tunnels echo with
the footsteps of tourists

rather than military officers.

But after putin's invasion of Ukraine,

the base is back in the conversation.

And the rumors are,
it's being reactivated.

When the U.S. comes
under attack on 9/11,

the government relocates
to an emergency bunker

for the first time in history.

The only problem is,
it's 50 years out of date.

In 1950, the white house is undergoing

a massive expansion.

President Truman is overseeing
renovations of the east wing.

Truman decides that in the
atomic age, the white house

needs a nuke-proof emergency shelter...

one to be used in the event
of a Soviet attack on D.C.

The $11 million investment
under the east wing

is called the presidential
emergency operations center.

The p-e-o-c, or peoc, is
an underground bunker

meant to protect the
president and key personnel,

meant to ensure
continuity of government

and also meant to act as a
command and control center

in a time of crisis.

It's accessible from an
elevator in the east wing.

Behind these heavy steel
doors, there's a shower room

for washing off any nuclear fallout.

This then leads to a number of rooms,

including a food store,

living quarters for the
president and the first lady,

and, most importantly,
the communications center,

which has direct telephone
lines to the Pentagon.

Truman's peoc is a
cutting-edge hideaway,

ready and waiting for a
threat to the white house.

But the threat never comes.

And for 50 years, it lies
dormant... Until 2001.

- My god.
- My god.

When the twin towers are hit

and the United States is under attack,

president bush is in Florida.

But the first lady, Laura bush, is in D.C.

Laura bush was at the congress.

She was at the capitol.

The secret service...
they sent her to the peoc.

The secret bunker is called
on for the very first time.

Laura bush had never
been to the peoc before.

She describes walking
through a tunnel...

Going through these metal
doors into the secure facility.

Who was there but
vice president Cheney

and Mrs. Cheney.

President bush is in the air,
flying back to Washington.

So the vice president is running things

from underground.

The peoc is suddenly the
most important room on earth.

Immediately things start going wrong.

Cheney can't get
through to key personnel.

And there's another problem.

The TV screens can play
live news programming,

but then they can't hear

the internal video teleconferencing.

It's not just the
communications that are failing.

There is an air problem.

The room is sealed, it's crowded,

and carbon dioxide levels are rising.

With co2 levels rising,

the evacuated staff
start to feel the pressure.

The vice president has to choose.

He can either stay in the safety

of this subterranean b*mb-proof shelter,

or he can go upstairs

into the unfolding
chaos and take control.

Cheney is instructed
to stay underground.

So he's in the failing operations center

for the whole day.

The bushes were asked
by the secret service

if they wanted to spend the night there.

Neither one wanted to.

It was a pretty crammed

and not terribly inviting place to be.

The peoc turns out to be a cold w*r relic,

no longer fit for purpose.

The details of what happened
down there are kept hidden

for nearly a decade.

In 2010, Laura bush
publishes her memoir,

in which she reveals her experience

in the outdated bunker.

Just months later,

diggers start pulling
up the white house lawn.

In the wake of the peoc's failings,

a massive renovation project
takes place underground.

A new and improved


is installed five stories
below the white house,

so hopefully something like
this never happens again.

From hidden experiments
to buried bunkers,

governments have long concealed
secrets deep under the earth.

But no secret stays buried forever,

even the most surprising.