Nazi Megastructures "Season - 4" (6/6) : Hitler's Luftwaffe
For educational purposes
The Luftwaffe, a revolutionary German air force, created from nothing and fast-tracked by Hitler to annihilate the enemy from the skies.
From the factory where the deadly Heinkel HE111 bombers were mass-produced, to the Baltic and the ruins of the Luftwaffe's top-secret torpedo test facility to the most technologically advanced jet bomber of World War 2, Nazi Megastructures lifts the lid on Hitler's war from above.
The Luftwaffe, a revolutionary German air force, created from nothing and fast-tracked by Hitler to annihilate the enemy from the skies.
From the factory where the deadly Heinkel HE111 bombers were mass-produced, to the Baltic and the ruins of the Luftwaffe's top-secret torpedo test facility to the most technologically advanced jet bomber of World War 2, Nazi Megastructures lifts the lid on Hitler's war from above.
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00:00A revolutionary German air force, spearheaded by Hitler to annihilate the enemy from the
00:08skies.
00:09And here she is, magnificent, deadly and mean.
00:16Scattered across Europe are the astonishing remains of what was, at its height, the most
00:21effective combat air force of the Second World War.
00:25It's really like something out of a Bond movie.
00:29Created from nothing, developed in secret, and fast-tracked by Hitler, pushing innovation
00:37and technology to new heights.
00:41It is not enough to simply catch up with the rest of the world.
00:45Germany must surpass it.
00:47The AR-234 is the first and last jet bomber of the Second World War.
00:54This is the story of Hitler's Luftwaffe.
01:01The biggest construction project of World War II, ordered by Hitler to secure world
01:06domination.
01:09Now they survive as dark reminders of the FĂŒhrer's fanatical military ambition.
01:16These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:28May 1944.
01:31In the skies high above central Germany, 26-year-old Luftwaffe fighter ace Gunther Raab is hunting
01:37down enemy aircraft in his Messerschmitt Bf 109.
01:52In the distance below, Raab spots the largest formation of Allied bombers he's ever seen.
02:06Gunther Raab puts his fighter into a steep dive.
02:13The fearless fighter ace is taking on a supersized Allied air force.
02:19But Hitler's Luftwaffe is outnumbered by the Allies eight to one, and Gunther Raab is fighting
02:33for his life.
02:37Today, evidence of the Luftwaffe's former military might still scars this forest in
02:43northeast Germany.
02:47Conflict archaeologist Tony Pollard is exploring what remains of Recklin, the Luftwaffe's top
02:52secret testing facility.
02:57This is no normal forest, because every now and again you come across these spectacularly
03:02strange constructions.
03:04Look at that spectacular scar.
03:07It's like a special effect from a movie.
03:11I would normally say that the projectile that hit this section of wall landed on the other
03:18side, but it didn't.
03:20It came through from this direction, and it's come in, and it's exploded as it's entered
03:28into the structure itself.
03:30They're experimenting here with a particular kind of bomb.
03:33The idea was that this would be dropped from a stuka dive bomber, and it's been pretty
03:41good at penetration.
03:43It's opened this thing out.
03:44It's almost like the petals of a flower have just opened out.
03:48Despite the strength of the impact, it hasn't managed to break through, but it does show
03:53great potential.
03:54In fact, I'm going to step back a bit, because there are huge chunks of concrete just hanging
03:59there in the air.
04:03The story of the Luftwaffe can be traced back to the early 1920s, less than a decade after
04:08Germany's humiliating defeat in World War I.
04:12After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the Germans could not have
04:17an army greater than 100,000, which in 1920 standards is very small indeed, and also that
04:22it couldn't have an air force at all.
04:25The aims of all this was to ensure that Germany never went to war again.
04:32But soon a number of civilian gliding clubs appear across Germany.
04:39Seemingly innocent, their true purpose is to spot young talent for a new forbidden air
04:44force.
04:46By the early 1930s, Germany's secret rearmament is well underway.
04:52Then, in January 1933, Hitler comes to power.
04:59One of his first acts as Chancellor is to appoint his great friend and supporter Hermann
05:03Goering, a World War I flying ace, to create a brand new German air force.
05:12Goering is an absolutely key Nazi and colleague of Hitler's.
05:16He is charismatic, flamboyant, Machiavellian, ferociously clever.
05:24He is someone who makes things happen.
05:27He's a living, breathing dynamo, and that's exactly the person you want when you're trying
05:32to start a new air force.
05:35In July 1934, Hitler asks Goering to meet him at a Wagner festival in northern Bavaria
05:42for an update on the still-clandestine Luftwaffe.
05:46A wonderful festival, don't you agree, Hermann?
05:53Yes, magnificent.
05:56How is the rejuvenation of the Luftwaffe progressing?
06:00Very well, mein Fuhrer, very well.
06:03I have recently approved a program for the production of over 4,000 aircrafts by September
06:08next year.
06:09It is not enough.
06:12There must be an immediate increase in our production.
06:15If the Western powers intervene to prevent a rearmament, it will be a disaster.
06:20Of course, mein Fuhrer.
06:22It is not enough to simply catch up with the rest of the world.
06:27Germany must surpass it.
06:32Goering immediately sets about increasing the Luftwaffe's capabilities.
06:37He orders new planes and puts into motion a major recruitment drive for trainee pilots.
06:42Then, in March 1935, Goering sensationally reveals the existence of the previously top-secret
06:50Luftwaffe to the world.
06:54When Goering and Hitler announced the birth of the new Luftwaffe, they were expecting
06:59an absolute global outcry, particularly from the old allies from the First World War.
07:04Well, actually, no one barely batted an eyelid at all.
07:08It was 16 years since the Treaty of Versailles.
07:11There wasn't the political will between the old allies to do anything about it.
07:18With military production now at full capacity, Hitler and Goering travel to the Luftwaffe's
07:23secret testing facility at Recklin.
07:28Here they witness a demonstration of their latest weaponry and watch Germany's newest
07:33aircraft designs in action.
07:37Evidence of the pioneering work that took place covertly across the 58-square-mile site
07:43still survives.
07:47Having fought my way through this forest, I can only describe this part of the site
07:52as a mess.
07:54It's very difficult to make sense of.
07:55There's rubble everywhere, evidence of underground bunkers and chambers, bits of walling.
08:02But what has jumped out at me is this little boat-shaped concrete room.
08:09It's got walls on either side, and there's another one just over there.
08:15If it wasn't for a photograph, you'd probably never guess what these were.
08:19But we know that they sat at either end of a hangar-like building.
08:23On top of this structure sat an aeroplane engine.
08:28And this is where it was tested.
08:29There'd be scientific instruments in the cell underneath, monitoring its performance.
08:35This dates from 1931, but it was illegal for the Germans to be dabbling in any way with
08:42an air force.
08:43So they're breaking the treaty, and this is really heavy-duty scientific experimentation
08:49of really high-tech German engineering.
08:53And this is just one of 12 of these test sites just in this area.
08:59By August 1938, the Luftwaffe has taken delivery of thousands of new aircraft.
09:06All Goering needs now is skilled pilots, and the next generation are beginning to receive
09:11their flying wings.
09:15Among them is 20-year-old Gunther Rahl.
09:20Born in the last year of World War I, his father served on the Western Front.
09:25The military is in his blood.
09:29After graduation, we were given a choice of which career path to follow.
09:32I knew immediately, but my answer would be fighter pilot, sir.
09:39By August 1939, the new German air force has over 4,000 planes and nearly 400,000 personnel.
09:49Hitler's Luftwaffe is ready.
09:52It's about to be put into action with devastating effect.
10:03September 1939, Germany invades Poland.
10:08Hitler's air force, the Luftwaffe, unveiled just four years ago, now spearheads the attack.
10:16Using their highly accurate Stuka dive bomber to destroy ground targets, the airborne artillery
10:21paves the way for armored forces to punch through Polish defenses with ease.
10:28This unstoppable combination of speed and firepower becomes known as Blitzkrieg, or
10:35lightning war.
10:40The German Luftwaffe leads the path so that the infantry and the panzers and the mechanized
10:44forces can follow up and take land.
10:47The Luftwaffe completely destroys all of the targets that it needs to, including the Polish
10:51air force.
10:53Poland ceases to exist as an independent country within about three weeks.
10:58Hitler now turns his attention to conquering Western Europe.
11:02The Netherlands, Belgium, and France are soon in his sights.
11:07The plan is to bypass the Maginot Line, the French barrier of armed fortifications that
11:12snakes along its border with Germany.
11:16By invading through neutral Belgium, the Nazis hope to draw the Allies into battle.
11:23A simultaneous panzer attack to the south will then cut the Allied armies off and surround
11:28them.
11:29But there's one major obstacle in the way, the fort of Eben Emael.
11:36Built by the Belgian army after World War I to keep Germany out, its massive guns protect
11:42three bridges across the Albert Canal.
11:46Only by taking control of these key bridges can the Nazis mobilize their army in force
11:52and commence a blitzkrieg attack on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
12:01So here we are at fort Eben Emael, one of the bunkers poking out of the woods.
12:07It was a series of 17 bunkers harboring guns of different sizes, different calibers, all
12:14interconnected by a tunnel network with a garrison of about 1,200 men.
12:21In October 1939, Hitler summons Lieutenant General Kurt Student of the 7th Air Division
12:27to Berlin.
12:29A former glider pilot and now commander of Germany's airborne forces, Hitler believes
12:34Student is the man to launch an audacious assault on the fort.
12:40You see, it has external fortifications, heavy artillery, casements, and a number of machine
12:51guns.
12:52A land-based attack on the heavily armed fort from any direction would be catastrophic for
12:57the German forces.
12:59But Hitler has noticed a flaw in its defences and has hatched an ingenious plan.
13:06Could a glider land there?
13:12Ja, mein FĂŒhrer.
13:17Good, I thought so.
13:20On the 10th of May 1940, 11 German transport planes, each towing a single 40-foot-long
13:27Luftwaffe assault glider, take to the skies and set course for Eben Emael.
13:34Inside the armada of gliders, a commando force of 85 paratroopers.
13:40At 8,500 feet, less than 20 miles from the fort, the gliders are set loose.
13:52Look, this is it, the top of Fortress Eben Emael.
13:58You can see the bunkers dotted around all over the place.
14:02A flat terrain, the ideal landing site for gliders.
14:07So this was the weak spot of the fortress.
14:10Overall, nine gliders landed here and caught the Belgian garrison totally by surprise.
14:18Now on the ground, the paratroopers must disable the monstrous rooftop guns.
14:24They're housed beneath solid steel, cupola-domed turrets.
14:28But the Germans have come equipped with a secret weapon.
14:32Called the Holodom, or hollow charge, it's a 50-kilogram explosive designed to clamp on
14:39and blast through any known military armament.
14:43But they've never been used in war.
14:46Until now.
14:48This was cupola 120, the most powerful gun position of Eben Emael.
14:56450 tons of steel, half of it rotating.
15:01Here they are, the guns.
15:0459 centimeters thick.
15:07Here you can see the Germans tried to penetrate it with the hollow charge.
15:13In the end, it didn't work.
15:16So they pushed down smaller charges down the barrel of the guns,
15:20thus rendering the entire position inoperable.
15:24Within 15 minutes, the German paratroopers disable all of the key rooftop guns.
15:31Then they prepare to destroy the one and only exit to the fort,
15:35trapping the Belgian soldiers inside.
15:39We are now 25 meters below ground.
15:42Here you can see another trace of a hollow charge.
15:46The Germans placed it here with a time fuse, and it sent out massive shockwaves.
15:52Look at the result it did.
15:54This would have been the exit, the ammunition elevator, and the stairs.
16:00Totally smashed up.
16:03As the German infantry arrives, the trapped Belgian soldiers have no option but to surrender.
16:09Thanks to the Luftwaffe, the bridges into Belgium and the Netherlands are now under Nazi control.
16:17The ensuing battle of the Netherlands lasts just four days.
16:22Victory for the Germans is followed by the early capture of Belgium.
16:27Then Hitler invades France.
16:32Spearheading the attack once more is the Luftwaffe.
16:36In the skies above central France, pilot Gunther Rahl hunts for French fighters.
16:42The aircraft he hopes will earn him his first kill is the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
16:51James Holland is at Biggin Hill Airfield in south-east England
16:54to examine a rare survivor of this legendary fighter.
16:59One of only two airworthy Messerschmitt 109Es in the entire world.
17:05And here she is.
17:07Magnificent and deadly and mean-looking.
17:12The Bf 109 first flew in 1935.
17:16Its speed, agility, and firepower will make it one of the most feared fighters of the Second World War.
17:24In 1940, this could do the three things that you needed above all to be able to do in air-to-air combat.
17:31It could climb faster than any other aircraft.
17:33When it got into the battle zone, it could pack a much bigger punch than any other aircraft.
17:38And it could dive out of the way faster than any other aircraft.
17:41That's what you needed to do.
17:43And that's what this could deliver in spades.
17:48For the thousands of newly qualified German fighter pilots like Gunther Rahl,
17:52taming the mighty Messerschmitt was a daunting task.
17:57It's really wonderful to be sat here.
17:59And, of course, you kind of imagine what it must have been like
18:02for a young pilot going out on his first ever flight in one of these.
18:06There was no two-seater Messerschmitt 109s in 1940.
18:09When you finish your flying training, you've done everything you possibly can.
18:13You've learned the cockpit layout.
18:15You've been warned about any potential hazards.
18:17But ultimately, it's a leap of faith.
18:22From the cockpit of his Messerschmitt,
18:24newly qualified Gunther Rahl spots a formation of French fighters.
18:29This is it, I thought. This is our chance.
18:32It's the French. I honed in, locked onto his tail, and fired.
18:37Rahl notches up his first kill.
18:40But the excitement is short-lived.
18:43I didn't consider to think that someone might be on my tail firing at me.
18:48Gunther's aircraft is badly damaged in the attack.
18:51But incredibly, he makes it back to base.
18:55I had engaged the enemy, fought, and won.
19:01As the Luftwaffe clears the path for German ground forces to power through France,
19:07the relentless firepower of Blitzkrieg pushes the Allies back to the French coast.
19:13Under heavy air assault from Stuka dive bombers,
19:16over 300,000 Allied troops flee Dunkirk for Britain.
19:23On the 22nd of June, France surrenders.
19:27Hitler is delighted with the Luftwaffe's success.
19:31But it's about to be sent into a new arena of war.
19:35And in the skies over Britain, it'll face its toughest test yet.
19:43With France now under Nazi occupation, Hitler turns his attention to Britain.
19:49And once again, the Luftwaffe, non-existent just over five years earlier,
19:54is at the heart of a plan, codenamed Operation Sea Lion.
20:01With intensive bombing raids over Britain,
20:03Hitler plans to destroy its air force, the RAF, and claim air superiority,
20:09clearing the way for an amphibious invasion.
20:14The aircraft which is to form a vital part of Hitler's bombing campaign is the HE-111.
20:21The brainchild of aeronautical designer Ernst Heinkel, it's a fast, medium-sized bomber.
20:29Heinkel wants vast numbers for his Luftwaffe.
20:32So to meet demand, Heinkel builds a brand new factory.
20:38James Holland is exploring the ruins at Oranienberg in northeast Germany.
20:43Well, this looks like some kind of guardhouse here.
20:46Oh, yeah, sort of pillbox.
20:48You can see it's got the embouchure there where you'd had a rifle or machine gun.
20:53And over here must have been the main entrance, the main guardhouse.
20:58My goodness, look at that.
21:00That is absolutely enormous.
21:05I certainly wasn't expecting that.
21:07I don't know quite what I was expecting, but certainly nothing on that scale.
21:11I can't get over the size of it.
21:14This monstrous structure is the Einflughalle.
21:21Here HE-111s were assembled and tested before entering service with the Luftwaffe.
21:28My mind is being filled with visions of Heinkel 111s rolling out of this
21:33and sort of taxiing out way to the runway a little bit over there.
21:38And now look at it, just abandoned.
21:42At its height, over 12,000 people were employed here at the Heinkel works.
21:48More than 2,000 HE-111s rolled out of these doors,
21:53452 in the first year of the war alone.
21:59The whole construction is basically steel girders.
22:03Hanger doors on the other side as well, so you can imagine you could open up the whole place.
22:09And to think that it's just empty now and completely still.
22:13This must have just been a hive of activity from the 30s right through to pretty much the end of the war.
22:22On 30 June 1940, Göring orders the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF.
22:29But Heinkel's bombers need fighter escorts for protection.
22:34At airfields across northern France, Messerschmitt pilots like Gunther Rahl
22:38prepare to cross the English Channel for the first time.
22:43There, they'll take on the RAF in Die Luftschlagsturm England,
22:49or what becomes known as the Battle of Britain.
22:57When we were issued our life jackets and dinghies,
23:00we knew we were about to cross the Channel and take on the British in their own backyard.
23:05There was a great sense of anticipation and obviously some anxiety at the prospect.
23:14On 10 July, the first wave of German aircraft leaves northern France for Britain.
23:21The Luftwaffe's aerial assault begins with attacks on shipping convoys,
23:26ports and radar stations.
23:29Then they target RAF bases.
23:33The Germans start the Battle of Britain with enormous amount of confidence
23:36because they've just swept everyone before them up to that point.
23:39Göring was pretty sure that he was going to be able to destroy the RAF in four days.
23:45But the Luftwaffe's formidable Stuka dive bomber proves an easy target for the faster RAF fighters.
23:53After six weeks, the Stukas withdraw from the battle.
23:58But the aerial bombardment of RAF bases by aircraft like the HE-111 continues.
24:05Then, on 24 August 1940, a single incident completely changes the course of the war.
24:13The Luftwaffe bombs central London.
24:17The first bombs to fall on London were accidental
24:20and it was just a crew that lost its way.
24:23But the British war cabinet then demanded a retaliation the next night
24:27and so bomber command trooped off and hit Berlin.
24:31And Hitler was absolutely outraged.
24:35We cannot allow this to go unpunished.
24:37Jawohl, mein FĂŒhrer.
24:39Of course, mein FĂŒhrer. Our bombs will land on London instead of fighter airfields immediately.
24:45In September, the Luftwaffe commence mass bombing raids over London and major cities across the UK.
24:53But Hitler and Göring's new strategy will prove to be a catastrophic mistake.
25:00The Germans fail to knock out Britain's radar tracking system
25:04so the RAF are able to predict exactly where the Luftwaffe formations are heading.
25:10If you've got lots of different formations attacking different airfields, it's quite difficult to be in all places.
25:16But if you've got a big formation heading up through Kent, quite obviously to London,
25:21then it's much easier to organise your defence.
25:24And that was the real advantage to the RAF.
25:28On 15 September 1940, the Luftwaffe launch their biggest bombing raid on London.
25:35They're met by an unrelenting RAF.
25:3961 German aircraft are destroyed in a single day.
25:43Many more are damaged.
25:46Unable to sustain such heavy losses, Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain.
25:52It's Germany's first failure of the war.
25:55And Hitler holds Göring personally responsible.
25:59Göring would massively underestimate British strength.
26:03He had no idea there was the first fully coordinated air defence system the world had ever known.
26:09And he completely discounted the huge advantage that the British had of fighting over home soil.
26:16The loss of the Battle of Britain is the first great turning point of the war.
26:21The Luftwaffe now finds itself on the defensive against Allied attacks.
26:27The threat of annihilation will inspire some of the most revolutionary and controversial designs of World War II.
26:38By spring 1941, the RAF increases its bombing raids over Germany.
26:44With civilian casualties rising daily, it falls to the Luftwaffe to develop new forms of protection for the masses.
26:52Evidence of their pioneering work still litters this forest at Reckling, the Luftwaffe's secret test facility.
27:01I can see something looming out of the forest, and I think this is what I've been looking for.
27:06These are known as the White Houses, and they're experimental bomb shelters.
27:12They would sit within tower blocks and tenements and provide protection within the building rather than underneath it,
27:18which was a kind of traditional form of air raid shelter.
27:22As I get close to them, what's really attracting my eye is this pile of rubble around them,
27:27which on closer inspection we can see were once buildings.
27:32Unlike the towers, which have survived almost perfectly intact, this has been absolutely levelled.
27:38And it's been levelled by bombing.
27:40And that's the important thing about Reckling.
27:43The Luftwaffe are doing all sorts of experiments,
27:46and to my mind this is a totally unique example of the sort of ingenuity that was being worked upon here.
27:56The pioneering Luftwaffe is now just six years old.
28:00It's been at war for half of its short existence, and it's about to start fighting on two fronts.
28:07While maintaining its bombing campaign on Britain, the Luftwaffe will also lead Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
28:17Here, 2,000 German aircraft, supported by ground forces, return to familiar and proven tactics.
28:25Blitzkrieg.
28:28The Luftwaffe is able to lead the German military and the Combined Arms Operation offensive
28:34throughout the first six months of Operation Barbarossa, the attack into the Soviet Union.
28:40They're great at blowing up airfields and destroying Soviet airplanes on the ground and in the air,
28:46because the Soviet air force is so obsolete, and they just get shot out of the sky.
28:53Among the fighter pilots enjoying unprecedented success in the skies above Russia is Gunther Raab.
29:01After just three years of flying, he clocks up his 100th kill.
29:08In November, the battle-hardened fighter ace is invited to the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's Polish command center,
29:14to receive an award from the Fuhrer in person.
29:20We'd been fighting the Soviets for nearly six months, but we were assured the invasion would be over in just eight weeks.
29:26We were all desperate to get home to Germany.
29:30Mein Fuhrer, how long will the war on the Eastern Front last?
29:36I don't know.
29:39The Luftwaffe may have claimed air superiority over the Russians,
29:43but the sheer size of the country is proving a problem for the Nazi air force.
29:49Whereas the Western Front and the attack on France in 1940 is about a 50-mile front,
29:54the attack into the Soviet Union is about 1,500 miles long.
29:59The German Luftwaffe has to cover all of that airspace,
30:03and still maintain the offensive against the Soviet Union.
30:08By November 1941, the Luftwaffe is heavily overstretched.
30:13It's failed to suppress Soviet fighting power, which grows in strength daily.
30:19The Luftwaffe needs to target Soviet industry, but the factories are out of reach of German bombers.
30:28Since his success with the He 111, Ernst Heinkel and his team have been working on a new long-range heavy bomber,
30:35the Heinkel He 177 Greif.
30:40To meet strict Ministry of Aviation demands, it must carry two tons of bombs over vast distances.
30:48But it must also dive bomb, like the much smaller and nimbler Stuka.
30:53It's an almost impossible combination to achieve.
30:57When the Nazis tell you that they want something, you sort of have to do it.
31:03But what that means is completely restructuring the whole body of the aircraft.
31:10In order to achieve the range, speed and altitude demanded,
31:14Heinkel's bomber needs the power of four engines.
31:18But when dive bombing, the stress on the wings from the outer engines could rip them clean off.
31:23So Heinkel couples two engines together.
31:27Four engines will now power just two propellers, creating a far stronger streamlined design.
31:33But the pioneering engine arrangement has a fatal flaw.
31:37It generates intense heat, and the engines regularly catch fire.
31:43When the Heinkel 177 finally took to the air, everyone recognised immediately that this was a death trap.
31:49It became known as the flying coffin.
31:51Goering actually went to see one of the trials and witnessed one of these take off and then explode in mid-air.
32:00We had great hopes for your new aircraft, but this does not live up to them by a long shot.
32:07The minimum requirement is that your aircraft must take off and land without the pilots risking every bone in their body.
32:18Despite his frustrations, with no time to create a new aircraft from scratch, Goering sticks with the flawed bomber.
32:26The few that make it into action in the skies above Russia fail to make any impact.
32:32And with America now in the war following the attack on Pearl Harbour,
32:37the Luftwaffe needs a game-changing wonder weapon if it's to achieve Hitler's dreams for the Third Reich.
32:49By January 1942, the onset of winter scuppers any chance of the Nazis claiming a quick victory in Russia.
32:57The Luftwaffe has failed to destroy Soviet opposition and Hitler holds Goering as head of the air force personally responsible.
33:08By the middle of the war, Goering is a jaded, faded figure who has lost influence because of the failures of the Luftwaffe,
33:17who has let the excesses of greed and an extravagant lifestyle get the better of him.
33:24And Hitler is not particularly impressed with this. Goering has become an irritant rather than a close confidant.
33:34Having lost faith in Goering, Hitler begins to direct Luftwaffe operations himself.
33:41His latest plan is for it to target the Atlantic convoys, starving Britain of the essential materials it needs to keep fighting.
33:49Key to Hitler's plan is a new wonder weapon, the aerial torpedo.
33:55Carried by aircraft, dropped into water and propelled to its target by an on-board motor.
34:08Tony Pollard is heading to the Luftwaffe's top-secret torpedo testing facility off the coast of northern Poland in the Baltic.
34:16This structure is just looming out of the sea. It's really like something out of a Bond movie.
34:22This artificial island with a tower which was for observation of the launching of the torpedoes.
34:29And it's quite clearly now derelict. I can see right the way through what were the windows and the seabirds are inhabiting it.
34:36So it's quite ghostly really, but very spectacular.
34:39This mass of concrete and steel is strategically located well out of range of the Allied bombers.
34:46Here the Luftwaffe develop and test the torpedoes' engines and perfect their launching techniques.
34:53This is really the business end. This is where the torpedoes were launched from tubes out to sea.
35:00Their engines engaged and then driving off.
35:03And of course, observation of that operation, very important.
35:06You can see you'd get a great view from the various floors of this structure here.
35:11At its peak, this place was firing about 200 torpedoes a week.
35:152,000 people working here, both on this structure and on the mainland.
35:20All under top-secret, hence its location here in the Baltic.
35:25There's enough of this stuff to make you feel like you're in the Baltic.
35:29Hence its location here in the Baltic.
35:32There's enough of this megastructure left to tell us that the Germans were really serious about the arms race related to airdrop torpedoes.
35:41At the start of World War II, they were losing that race.
35:44But here in the Baltic, they were determined it was a race they were going to win.
35:50From its standing start in 1942, Germany produces over 10,000 aerial torpedoes before the war is over.
35:58But delivering this deadly payload is a challenge for the Luftwaffe.
36:04The problem of delivering a torpedo from an airplane is that you have to slow down enough and be low enough so the torpedo doesn't simply break up when it hits the water.
36:16But when the plane comes in low and slow, it makes it a prime target for ships' anti-aircraft defences.
36:26By the late summer of 1943, Hitler's latest wonder weapons have failed to stop the Atlantic convoys reaching Britain.
36:37And relentless bombing raids by the Allies continue to devastate German industry.
36:43The once mighty Luftwaffe is now more dependent than ever on its few skilled fighter pilots, like Gunther Rahl.
36:53Having now clocked up his 200th combat kill.
36:59In September 1943, he's once again invited to the Wolf's Lair.
37:05Here, Rahl is confronted with a very different Hitler to the man he first met just over a year earlier.
37:15Things have changed. He has changed.
37:25If only we already had the wonder weapons, victory would surely be ours.
37:31If only.
37:33Hitler's dream of world domination is crumbling.
37:37But he refuses to give in.
37:40And the Luftwaffe has one more secret weapon to unleash.
37:50By 1944, the once mighty Luftwaffe is massively outnumbered by the combined Allied forces.
37:58Intensive bombing by the US Air Force cripples German aircraft manufacturing.
38:04And the Luftwaffe is running out of planes and pilots fast.
38:10The Luftwaffe is the one part of the German armed forces that is in combat the entire war.
38:16And it simply cannot cope with that level of continuous action.
38:22On May 12th, 1944, the US Air Force launches its largest ever air raid.
38:28Close to 900 bombers and nearly a thousand fighters take to the skies.
38:33Their mission? To obliterate Germany's fuel industry.
38:39After four years of aerial combat and 273 kills, Messerschmitt pilot Gunther Rahl is now one of the Luftwaffe's few surviving fighter aces.
38:50But nothing can prepare him for his next encounter.
39:03High above central Germany, Rahl spots the largest formation of Allied aircraft he's ever seen.
39:12Undeterred, he puts his fighter into a steep dive.
39:19Keep a good distance from each other.
39:24Rahl sets his sights on an American P-47 fighter and fires.
39:31He scores a direct hit, quickly followed by a second.
39:39The Luftwaffe ace is now under attack himself by four chasing Allied fighters.
39:45The bullets from the American P-47s tear through his Messerschmitt.
39:49One bullet severs his thumb.
39:54With his aircraft terminally damaged and losing height fast, Rahl has just seconds to bail out.
40:05The Luftwaffe is losing aircraft faster than it can replace them.
40:09But Hitler has one more secret weapon up his sleeve.
40:15It's called the Arado AR-234.
40:19And it's the world's first operational jet bomber.
40:26This is fantastic. This is the last remaining example of the Arado AR-234,
40:32the German jet bomber built at the end of the war in an attempt to turn the tide of the war back in the Germans' favor.
40:40The AR-234 is the first and last jet bomber of the Second World War.
40:47This is the revolutionary part of the airplane, the jet engine.
40:51During the Second World War, piston engines were reaching the limits of their design capabilities
40:57and could only push planes so fast and so high through the air.
41:00Jets are the answer.
41:02They can fly higher and faster than anything that the Allies have,
41:07making the German jets the most technologically advanced airplanes of the Second World War.
41:14The AR-234 is in a league of its own.
41:17But the Luftwaffe's latest wonder weapon has emerged too late.
41:24Even though the Germans can put about two dozen Arado AR-234s in the air in operational status before the end of the war,
41:31it pales in comparison to the thousand bomber raids that the Americans are launching against the Germans every day.
41:37The Germans simply cannot produce enough to change the air war.
41:43By April 1945, the once formidable Luftwaffe is on its knees.
41:49It's now desperately short of pilots, planes and fuel and can fight no more.
41:57Despite the ultimate failure of the Luftwaffe and its many low points,
42:01you still have to stand back and admire what they achieved in such a short period of time,
42:06from a standing start in 1935 to the first operational jet.
42:11That is growth of unbelievable rate of speed.
42:17With Hitler now facing imminent defeat, surrounded by the Russian army in Berlin,
42:23Goering attempts to fulfill a lifetime's ambition and assume control.
42:29Believing the move to be an act of treason, Hitler orders Goering's arrest.
42:35It's one of the FĂŒhrer's last commands before he finally admits the war is lost and commits suicide.
42:43When Germany surrenders, Goering hands himself in to American soldiers.
42:48He's put on trial in Nuremberg and found guilty of war crimes.
42:52He's sentenced to death by hanging.
42:56Somehow he managed to persuade either his American doctor or one of the US guards to slip him a cyanide pill.
43:02Just a matter of minutes before he's due to go to the scaffold, he takes the pill,
43:07and when the guards find him, there he is, stone dead, but winking with one eye open and one shut.
43:15It's quite extraordinary.
43:19The Luftwaffe sent 20,000 fighter pilots into combat during World War II.
43:24Just 2,000 made it back alive.
43:28Gunther Rahl was one of the lucky ones.
43:31He survived bailing out of his Messerschmitt.
43:34After the war, he remained in the military and rose to the highest position,
43:39becoming chief of the modern German air force.
43:43He died in 2009, aged 91.
43:46With 275 kills to his name, Gunther Rahl remains the third most successful fighter ace in history.