For educational purposes
The railways were the lifeblood of the Nazi empire. It was a vast network that spread Nazi ambition and control across Europe and beyond.
Through use of drama, documentary and archive the programme reveals Hitler's personal train, unseen bunkers, massive depots, railway weapons and record-breaking engines that made up what was arguably the Nazis biggest ever megastructure - the railways.
The railways were the lifeblood of the Nazi empire. It was a vast network that spread Nazi ambition and control across Europe and beyond.
Through use of drama, documentary and archive the programme reveals Hitler's personal train, unseen bunkers, massive depots, railway weapons and record-breaking engines that made up what was arguably the Nazis biggest ever megastructure - the railways.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hitler's railways, the lifeblood of the Nazi empire.
00:08The German railways are the biggest megastructure of them all.
00:13This is incredible.
00:15The railway is in effect a weapon of war.
00:19It will be a battle of nerves.
00:22I will show the Poles that ours are stronger.
00:25The Nazi elite runs the war from a fleet of personal trains.
00:30This is pretty amazing.
00:31We're in the exact spot where Hitler spent a few days during the invasion of Poland.
00:37And drives the war effort with a powerful and efficient railway.
00:40It really is just phenomenal, isn't it?
00:43So much of the German war machine existed because of locomotives like this.
00:51Hitler demands record-breaking railway machines.
00:56No more excuses.
00:57The war must not be lost because of a transport problem.
01:03This is the story of Hitler's war trains.
01:11The biggest construction projects of World War II, ordered by Hitler to secure world
01:16domination.
01:19Now they survive as dark reminders of the purest fanatical military ambition.
01:26These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:41The 8th of June, 1942.
01:46Occupied Poland.
01:53Hitler's personal train is heading for Berlin.
01:56His bodyguards are on constant alert to potential attacks from resistance fighters.
02:11Hitler feels protected.
02:14His specially designed train is weaponized.
02:17Security is tight.
02:18And the Führer's timetable is preciously guarded.
02:22Oil will be the key to victory in the East.
02:29He must conquer the Caucasus oil field and deprive our enemies of this lifeline.
03:26In Gniezno, central Poland, conflict archaeologist Tony Pollard explores an abandoned site of
03:40Hitler's wartime rail network.
03:45This is incredible.
03:46There are buildings here of the like I've never seen before.
03:50It's like a city within a city.
03:52And it's a city devoted to the servicing of trains.
03:56And it's a phenomenal place and it's on a huge scale.
04:06This depot is one of 80 Nazi railway construction projects in occupied Poland.
04:13It covers around 350 acres of land.
04:16And evidence of the Nazis railway megastructures lies all around.
04:23This incredible device was used to move locomotives in and out of these sheds where they could
04:31be serviced.
04:33And this entire complex was capable of dealing with over 50 engines, huge steam engines.
04:40And this turntable was built by the Germans.
04:43And it could accommodate a weight of 300 tons.
04:48Now your average locomotive is probably about 150 tons.
04:52Now theoretically, if I turn this, it should start to turn.
05:03Look at that.
05:06This is amazing.
05:09The bearings on this must be perfect.
05:12German engineering at its finest.
05:15The human body at its weakest.
05:24The story of the Nazis railways begins when Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933.
05:32The Nazis want to upgrade the rail network to show the awesome power of the Third Reich.
05:40We've got this empire and it needs feeding, it needs resourcing, it needs funding.
05:45And the trains are the only viable, realistic workhorse that can provide those transportation
05:52needs.
05:56In September 1935, the railways deliver 800,000 people to the biggest Nazi rally ever staged
06:03at Nuremberg.
06:09A year later, rail facilities across the Reich are upgraded for the world's biggest show,
06:14the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
06:21And in a single year, Hitler's railways transport 9 million tons of freight and 400,000 labourers
06:28to build defences on the German western border, in preparation for war.
06:36Freight owned, the Reichsbahn is the largest commercial enterprise in the world.
06:43The whole structure of the Nazi state, the whole structure of the Nazi war machine is
06:49completely dependent on the railways.
06:55In March 1938, Germany annexes Austria.
07:00And a year later, Hitler's forces occupy the western provinces of Czechoslovakia.
07:07One of the Nazis' first actions is to take over the running of the railways, expanding
07:12Nazi control to over 40,000 miles of track.
07:17But for Hitler, the railway is much more than a machine of mass transport.
07:25It's a symbol of power.
07:30As Chancellor, he's given a train to travel the country.
07:33But as Hitler marches towards war, he orders the Führer-Sonderzug, or Führer's Special
07:39Train, codenamed America.
07:45The name is important to Hitler because it's named after a trench where he served during
07:49the First World War, and that's why it's called America.
07:54The train is the Führer's armoured stronghold on rails.
07:58And it gives Hitler a mobile command centre, which will allow him to control the impending
08:02war from the front lines.
08:10The 1st of September 1939, Germany invades Poland.
08:15Two hundred and fifty trains a day mobilise to transport troops and weapons to the front.
08:24Two days into the invasion, the Führer departs Berlin on his personal train.
08:30His destination, Poland and the front lines.
08:38The Nazi high command gather in Hitler's train, complete with telecommunications and
08:43a map room.
08:48Among them is head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring.
08:51At first, we can count on the Luftwaffe to put an end to any resistance in Poland.
08:59The Poles have underestimated the might of our new air force.
09:05The bomber is the key, and we will use it to bring Warsaw to its knees.
09:10Very good.
09:11Very good.
09:12It will be a battle of nerves.
09:15I will show the Poles that ours are stronger.
09:28Former army captain, Patrick Burey, is exploring a railway relic from Hitler's invasion of
09:32Poland.
09:34The abandoned station at Jelova.
09:39It's pretty amazing to be here, because although it mightn't look like much now, for three
09:44days in September 1939, it was the command centre of the Reich.
10:00This is the exact spot where Hitler, his Nazi elite and the army high command spent a few
10:06days during the invasion of Poland.
10:08And the reason they're here is because Hitler's train, and in particular his new command wagon,
10:13allows him to keep in constant contact with the advancing troops.
10:16And this is basically the closest railhead to the front line.
10:19And that's why Hitler wants to be here.
10:25In modern Poland, we'd call Hitler a control freak.
10:27He likes being involved in the minutiae of military operations.
10:31The only way you can do that, and travel, and move from A to B, and still be in control,
10:36is in a train.
10:38By using his train as a base, Hitler travels even closer to the front, meeting his fighting
10:44forces face to face.
10:47Please, remain at ease, Corporal.
10:51I have stood in your shoes, and understand the hardships you face.
10:58What he's trying to do, really, is show that he's a different kind of general from the
11:02generals that he served under in the First World War, where the generals were always
11:06far back and removed from the front line.
11:08He wants to show himself in front of his troops, show his troops that they care, and show that
11:12he's in charge.
11:15The invasion of Poland lasts just five weeks.
11:21With victory in Poland, Hitler's command style, which relies on his train, has proved itself.
11:28Now, with the biggest railway network in Europe at their disposal, the Nazis consolidate
11:34power.
11:44By taking control of the Polish railways, Hitler's network now expands to over 50,000
11:50miles of track.
11:53As Germany expands through its war, the Reichsbahn, the railways, become more important.
11:58And that's essentially because it allows them to move goods, weapons, tanks, troops, in
12:05larger numbers, greater distances, quicker than they could by road.
12:11The railways are the only way Germany can move its mighty war machine around the Third
12:17Reich.
12:22Without the railways, Germany simply wouldn't be able to fight a war.
12:31The railway expansion in the east is a massive undertaking.
12:36At least the latest reports of supply movements.
12:40The key man charged with overseeing the operation is head railway man Wilhelm Kleinmann.
12:48These reports are out of date.
12:50How many times do I have to tell you?
12:54Kleinmann knows that the war effort relies on the trains running on time.
12:58And that for Hitler, failure isn't an option.
13:08The problem is, after the outbreak of war, petrol and diesel fuel are prioritized for
13:14military machines, and all diesel passenger trains are grounded.
13:20The solution is the coal-powered steam engine.
13:25Germany is the largest producer of coal in Europe.
13:29So they use this to their advantage, and switch from diesel to steam engines.
13:40At the Conquered Territories, the Nazis construct 80 new rail depots, repair shops and locomotive
13:46sheds for steam trains.
13:51Tony Pollard is at the biggest railway depot in Gniezno, central Poland.
13:56Amazing.
13:57It's like a skeleton holding up the roof.
14:01But it's dead quiet.
14:04Imagine what it must have been like with those locomotives running in and out, and the steam
14:09in the oil.
14:10In fact, you can still smell the oil in the air.
14:14The residue of those huge steam-driven beasts.
14:27Locomotives would have been driven in here from the main shed, over to the inspection
14:32pit.
14:33And high up on the walls, there are steel beams on both sides.
14:38And a gantry crane would have run up and down inside here.
14:42And it was so powerful, it was capable of lifting the entire boilers off the engines,
14:48so that they could be repaired.
14:50What you've got here is a monument to industry.
15:05Rail depot construction is good news for Kleinman.
15:08He plans to exceed Hitler's expectations by massively increasing capacity.
15:20Over the next two years, the Nazis plan to move up to 480 trains eastwards every day.
15:28The railway has become so essential, it's in effect a weapon of war.
15:32It's a way for Hitler to deliver all of that manpower, all of that weaponry, to whatever
15:38front he chooses to attack next.
15:41It's absolutely vital to Nazi ambition.
15:45Now, the expanding railway network gives Hitler a chance for revenge over an old enemy.
15:51And the Nazi railway takes the war to the west.
15:59The 9th of May, 1940.
16:03With Poland secure, Hitler is heading to his HQ, the Felsen Nest, close to the Belgian
16:10border.
16:18The time to strike is upon us.
16:20The weather is ideal, and all preparations are taken care of.
16:25The invasion of Belgium, Holland, and France that he's waited so long for is imminent.
16:31We cannot fail.
16:34We did not fail in Poland.
16:37We will not fail in France.
16:44Take this to the telex operators.
16:51Hitler is in a particularly ebullient mood.
16:54He's cracking jokes, and the reason he was so excited was because this was the showdown
17:00to beat all showdowns.
17:03Hitler issues the code word that will spark the thousands of troops amassing along the
17:07frontier into action.
17:09The code word is Danzig.
17:26At 5.30 a.m. on the 10th of May, Germany launches simultaneous attacks against Belgium, Holland,
17:33Luxembourg, and France.
17:39The railway delivers troops and ammunition to the front line, but that's not all.
17:45German army engineers unleash a new phase in the railway war.
17:49The most advanced railway gun ever built, the K5.
18:01Conflict archaeologist Tony Pollard is on the Baltic coast of Poland, at what's left
18:05of the K5 railway gun test-firing site.
18:10I can hear the waves crashing on the beach, just over the back of the dunes there.
18:17But what's caught my attention is this massive structure, huge concrete bunker with three
18:23chambers in it.
18:27This is a top-secret location that the Nazis call Rügenwalde.
18:32We have very little information about what happened here, so we're going to have to piece
18:36together exactly what it was used for.
18:38What is obvious, though, is that huge chunks have been knocked out of the front of it.
18:45The K5 is 135 feet long, capable of firing a 560-pound shell up to 40 miles.
18:54And it's easily deployed.
18:57The K5 moved on railway lines and comes equipped with its own mobile turntable, enabling maximum
19:03flexibility when targeting.
19:13But this structure isn't a bunker to protect these massive railway guns, and evidence of
19:18its real purpose still remains.
19:21This wasn't an empty space, and one of the clues to that are these heavy steel nets hanging
19:28down from these iron gantries on the roof.
19:32And they would have been used to retain peat.
19:35Now peat is a very spongy, dense soil, and would have been found all around here in the
19:41bogs.
19:42The Nazis pack this entire interior with peat.
19:47The idea here is that shells are fired into the structure, not at it.
19:54The point is that the peat slows down the shell.
19:57It allows equipment to record its velocity and its behaviour.
20:03After being test-fired here, the K5 railway gun is ready for action.
20:08It's a massive piece of artillery.
20:11And the only way it can be moved around is on the railways.
20:15It's specifically designed for use on rail lines.
20:26In May 1940, Nazi army engineers move K5s by railway into strategic positions, and bombard
20:34Belgian and French fortifications.
20:37After just six weeks, France capitulates, and the French railway network falls under
20:42Nazi control.
20:47On the 21st of June, 1940, Hitler has revenge in mind.
20:53On French soil, he makes France's leaders sign an armistice, on the very same wagon
20:57that, 22 years earlier, the Germans were made to sign their surrender to France at the end
21:03of the First World War.
21:07This is a moment of extreme triumph for this man.
21:14Everything he has promised the German people has happened, and it seems on this moment
21:19that he cannot put a single foot wrong.
21:25At the beginning of July, Hitler returns to Berlin, and it's almost like a Caesar from
21:31the days of Rome returning to his capital city in triumph.
21:42So that he can maximize trains supplying the war machine, Hitler expands his rail network
21:48even further.
21:55April 1941.
21:58Hitler's special train, America, approaches a small village in Austria called Munich-Kirchen.
22:05The reason he's here is because a train tunnel in the mountains is a safe place close to
22:09the border of Hitler's next target for invasion, Yugoslavia, and the Balkan Peninsula.
22:18As in Poland, Hitler commands this invasion from his train.
22:28After just two weeks, the Nazis take Yugoslavia, and the Fuhrer celebrates his 52nd birthday
22:38by meeting troops and dignitaries outside his train in Austria.
22:43It's a show of power that proves Hitler's command of Europe's railways.
22:58Tony Pollard is exploring remnants of Hitler's special train that can still be found today
23:03in Neuenmarkt, Germany.
23:06I can't wait to have a look around here.
23:08Oh, look at this.
23:12This is what's left of the salon dining carriage that escaped destruction during the war.
23:19The whole thing is very elegant, and Hitler's obviously putting across this image as the
23:25modern cultivated European leader.
23:30It's kind of strange to think that this is a space that Hitler occupied.
23:35This train allows Hitler to project power.
23:40Everything that Hitler required on the move in this part fortress, part hotel on wheels
23:45was supplied.
23:47It's quite an incredible thing, really.
23:49It's almost a weapon.
23:54Hitler's special train is made up of 17 wagons.
23:59Two locomotives drive the train.
24:03An armored anti-aircraft flak wagon equipped with two four-barrel cannons leads the way.
24:10Then after a baggage car, there's Hitler's personal salon wagon.
24:16Behind that is the command car with a map room.
24:22Then a carriage for his security escort, which leads into the dining car.
24:29From there to eight more carriages, and bringing up the rear another flak wagon for added protection.
24:42Historian James Holland is in Bochum, Germany, to explore another surviving carriage of Hitler's
24:48train.
24:49You know, I know we all know what the swastika looks like.
24:51We've all seen this symbol many, many times.
24:54But when you see it for real like that, in the flesh, it's still pretty shocking.
25:22There's a lot of detail here.
25:24A lot of thought has been put into this.
25:29This carriage is part of living quarters for Hitler's personnel.
25:32I mean, of course, one of the advantages of being in a train is that these locomotives
25:37can pull a large number of carriages.
25:39So he can keep lots of people about him.
25:41He can have all the protection he needs.
25:43He can keep his lackeys at arm's reach, and it's a very good way of getting around the
25:48Reich.
25:49You know, it's dangerous flying.
25:50It's less dangerous being in a train.
25:53And it is really comfortable.
26:00Hitler isn't the only member of the Nazi elite who's crisscrossing the continent on a train.
26:06There's actually a fleet of trains for the head of the army, for different Nazis like
26:10Goering and Goebbels.
26:12Everyone wants one, because the Fuhrer has one.
26:14They want one, too.
26:17Hermann Goering is particularly obsessed by trains.
26:23At his country estate north of Berlin, called Karrenhall, he built himself an enormous model
26:28toy train set.
26:31Goering owns two model railways covering 400 square metres and uses them to entertain guests.
26:44In Koblenz, Germany, is the personal carriage of Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph
26:50Goebbels.
26:51Look at this.
26:56This is very plush.
26:59Lovely veneer on the doors.
27:01God, it's amazing.
27:03And look at this room.
27:07This carriage was carefully renovated after the war, and many of the features are original.
27:13Oh, what's in here?
27:16Oh, my goodness.
27:19Okay, so this is a bathtub, but you can't stretch out because it's not wide enough,
27:24so they've gone down in depth.
27:26I'm getting rather horrible pictures of a naked Goebbels sitting on that step there,
27:32dousing himself.
27:36Specially designed for Goebbels, the carriage costs over 300,000 Reichsmark, twice the cost
27:42of a regular carriage.
27:45This is the main room.
27:46Have a look at this.
27:48This is just incredible.
27:51This is how the leading players in the Third Reich moved around by train, and frankly,
27:59they did it in some style.
28:04By mid-1941, the Balkans are under Nazi control.
28:09Hitler's railway empire expands to over 89,000 miles of track.
28:16Now the Führer demands more trains than ever before to carry the Reich's military
28:21might to the front lines.
28:24The problem for Hitler is there is just simply not enough locomotives to move this war material
28:29all around.
28:34Before the war, the Reichsbahn has around 25,000 locomotives, producing around 600 engines
28:40a year.
28:42But as the war progresses, Hitler wants to increase production to 7,500 new engines every
28:49year.
28:51Locomotive manufacturers face a massive challenge.
28:58Richard Paul Wagner is one of the most respected railway engineers in history.
29:04At the beginning of the war, Wagner prototyped several versions of a new steam engine.
29:09But by 1941, it's ready for mass production.
29:16It becomes known as the Kriegsloch, or war locomotive.
29:32There she is.
29:33It's just fabulous.
29:36There's something incredibly intoxicating, I think, about big bits of engineering, and
29:42the steam locomotive just sums that up, doesn't it?
29:48The secret of the Kriegsloch's success lies in its simplicity.
29:57What makes these Kriegslochs so unique and so special is the standardisation of their
30:02past.
30:03That's why, during the war, they were able to produce such huge numbers.
30:08At the peak of production, Hitler's factories are grinding out almost 350 Kriegslochs per
30:16month.
30:23Every part of the engine is made to be mass produced.
30:30The more interchangeable parts are, the easier it is to make more of something.
30:35And this is something that the Germans never really understand, except curiously in this
30:40one area of their war production, which is the Kriegsloch, the steam locomotive that
30:45powers the Third Reich.
30:50This powerful steam engine is just what Hitler needs.
30:54Designed with ten drive wheels rather than the six favoured across Europe, the Nazis
30:59claimed the Kriegsloch can haul 40% more freight than most other existing engines.
31:06So much of the German war machine moved and operated and existed because of the Reichsbahn,
31:12because of locomotives like this.
31:20Equipped with an expanding fleet of powerful engines, the Nazis' railway is about to
31:24face its biggest test yet.
31:30The 22nd of June, 1941.
31:39Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, begins.
31:52As the Nazis push further into Russia, the supply line soon grinds to a halt.
31:58The problem is simple.
32:00Russian trains run on tracks that are five feet apart.
32:04German and most European tracks are slightly narrower, at four feet eight inches.
32:11Once they run out of German continental track, they've got to take everything off and put
32:15them onto a Soviet train instead that they've just captured.
32:18The alternative to that is to change all the tracks, which they do start doing, but
32:22just think about the colossal resources needed just to do that.
32:27It's just mind-boggling.
32:33The German army engineers rise to the challenge.
32:39In the first five months of the invasion, they refit an incredible 9,300 miles of track
32:45to German standard gauge.
32:50We are working as hard as we can to keep supplies flowing.
32:55Kleinman is under serious pressure to make the logistics of invasion work.
33:01We have not enough fuel at the front line.
33:04The Reichsbahn is endangering the war effort.
33:06We are working as hard as we can to keep our lines open, Reichsmarschall.
33:11Fix it.
33:12I do not want to be making another complaint.
33:14Heil Hitler.
33:23August 1941.
33:26As Hitler shuttles between Berlin and his bunker in eastern Poland, the Wolf's Lair,
33:31he receives regular reports on troop movements from the Russian front line.
33:35Are these up to date?
33:38As of 1700.
33:39We must stop at the next station.
33:42We must make the necessary security arrangements.
33:45Mein Fuhrer.
33:51The Fuhrer's security team know that resistance fighters operate in the area, and there have
33:56already been more than a dozen attempts on Hitler's life.
34:01Everything secured?
34:03Dismissed.
34:06The lengths which the Nazis go to for him to travel safely by train are pretty unbelievable.
34:12They picket the whole route everywhere he's going to go.
34:15The train is cleared, make sure there's no bombs.
34:17Then they send a dummy train down about half an hour before his train is meant to arrive
34:23to make sure that there's no bombs and obstacles on the track.
34:27Are all your checks completed?
34:30Yes, sir.
34:31Excellent.
34:40But protecting the Fuhrer isn't just about his train when it's on the move.
34:45In 1941, Hitler has headquarters all across Europe.
34:50The main HQs are in Berlin, the Felsen Nest in the west, the Eagle's Nest in the mountains,
34:56and the Wolf's Lair in the east.
34:59But Hitler doesn't have an HQ in southern Poland.
35:03So he makes his special train his stationary HQ and builds a facility to protect it.
35:16Historian James Holland has come to what remains of Anlager Sud, or the facilities in the south.
35:22Look at that.
35:23A massive slab of Nazi concrete surrounding a tunnel that's cut into the hill.
35:40These are the double-panel armoured doors and they're absolutely original.
35:46And weigh an absolute tonne.
35:50The weight of that is unbelievable.
36:04This tunnel is 465 metres long.
36:09It's 6.5 metres high and 9 metres deep.
36:136.5 metres high and 9 metres wide.
36:18Like so many of these German tunnels, it's a vast engineering project, it really is.
36:31Actually, where I'm standing now would have been a raised platform
36:34and then along the other side is where the railway tracks would have been.
36:43The facility is an awesome feat of engineering.
36:48Mainline tracks navigate around a mountain.
36:51But this tunnel cuts right through it.
36:55With purpose-built tracks connecting it to the mainline.
37:03Using 4,000 slave labourers, it takes a year to construct.
37:08On 27th August 1941, Hitler meets his ally and Axis partner,
37:14leader of Italy Benito Mussolini, here at Anlager Sud.
37:26I'm sure your men are eager to join the offensive in the east.
37:31But I have to tell you, it will be no easy task.
37:35The Russians fight like beasts.
37:38They would rather die than surrender.
37:43This is not like the conquests in the west.
37:48We are fighting for something more than that.
37:51The total destruction of Bolshevism.
37:56I hope your men are ready.
38:05It's just incredible the amount of effort and resources
38:09that was poured into these things.
38:13And the amazing thing is, Hitler only ever used this once.
38:24Two months later, in October 1941,
38:27Nazi forces advance rapidly towards Moscow.
38:31But there's a problem.
38:33The railway expansion hasn't reached that far,
38:36and trains come to a halt in a bottleneck 20 miles from Moscow.
38:41Supplies can't get through to the troops.
38:44The stage is set for the biggest test yet of Hitler's railways.
38:49January 1942.
38:51The Nazis have been besieging Moscow for three months.
38:58The invading forces are almost totally reliant
39:01on supplies arriving by rail.
39:03But they don't get what they need,
39:05and the Nazis fail to take it.
39:10The Germans are forced to retreat.
39:13For Hitler, it's the first major setback of the invasion,
39:17and he holds Kleinman personally responsible.
39:22The supply chain is breaking down.
39:25I have been warned about this,
39:27and yet there are still not enough locomotives
39:30arriving at the eastern front.
39:33By all measures, we have to make sure
39:36that the supply chain is broken.
39:39Respectfully, Führer,
39:41we have already increased the number of trains to the area.
39:45But the ones you have sent are forever breaking down.
39:49You must find solutions to weatherproof these trains.
39:53But my Führer, there is no...
39:55No more excuses!
39:57You will now go and resolve these issues.
40:00The war must not be lost because of a transport problem.
40:04Get out of my sight!
40:09But Kleinman is unable to solve the problem,
40:12and in May 1942,
40:14he's sacked from his role as head of the Reichsbahn.
40:23The war in the east is Hitler's priority.
40:27In the first half of 1942,
40:29he travels seven times
40:31between Berlin and the Wolf's Lair,
40:34right through occupied Poland.
40:40The 8th of June, 1942.
40:43His bodyguards are on alert.
40:46The 8th of June, 1942.
40:49His bodyguards are on alert.
41:02Everything in order?
41:04Good.
41:08The big threat would be from air attack,
41:11but that hasn't really manifested itself yet,
41:14so his real worry
41:16is going to be attacks by partisan groups
41:18or an insider attack.
41:22Further down the tracks,
41:24Polish resistance fighters disguised as German SS soldiers
41:27are waiting.
41:29They've received information
41:31that Hitler's train is moving along this line tonight.
41:44It's coming!
41:46It's coming!
42:16SCREAMING
42:36Reports say that 200 Germans are killed.
42:41But Hitler isn't one of them.
42:46The train derailed is a German troop train.
42:51Although the resistance fighters' information was correct,
42:54Hitler's train made an unscheduled stop
42:57at a nearby town
42:59before moving on along a different route.
43:05We'll be arriving in half an hour.
43:07Very good.
43:11It's a twist of fate that saves Hitler's life.
43:16At the height of the Reich's territorial gains in 1942,
43:21Hitler's railway empire utilises nearly 100,000 miles of track,
43:26stretching across Europe into Russia.
43:30It's the network of veins and arteries
43:33that send the lifeblood of Nazi ambition
43:36spreading out over Europe.
43:38From the east to the west,
43:40from the north to the south.
43:42It's that essential.
43:46The German railways are the biggest megastructure of them all.
43:51The Nazis' war aims could not have been achieved
43:55without the railways.