Browse all episodes of Nazi Megastructures

This is the story of the greatest fortification project of the 20th century, Hitler’s ambitious Atlantic Wall, and the ultimate test it faced on D-Day.

The Atlantic Wall

This episode relates the development of the first ever space missiles used by the Nazis as destructive wonder-weapons to bomb the Allies into resignation and the rocket engineer who set the groundwork for the moon landing.

V2 Rocket Bases

This episode describes the immense and impenetrable concrete and steel submarine pens that the Nazis built to protect their precious and deadly U-boats from Allied attacks.

U-Boat Base

The story of Nazi engineers tasked with fulfilling Hitler's megalomaniac demand for the construction of a land battleship weighing 1,000 tons.

Super Tanks

Explore the story behind one of the most advanced aeroplanes of WWII, the Messerschmitt Me 262, and the subterranean bat-cave where it was built.

Hitler's Jet Caves

April 1945. Safe in his heavily fortified Führerbunker in the center of Berlin, Hitler prepares for the Allies' final attack.

Fortress Berlin

A secret headquarters of concrete and steel is the heart of Hitler’s plans for domination and the key to a Nazi conspiracy - the Wolf’s Lair.

The Wolf's Lair

The Bismarck and Tirpitz were battleships of record breaking proportions, ultimate status symbols of the Third Reich and hunted by the Allies.

Hitler's Megaships

In a quest for world domination, the Nazis built some of the biggest, deadliest pieces of military hardware and malevolent technology in history.

Himmler's SS

In retaliation for Allied bombing raids, Hitler ordered the development of the V1. The first cruise missile, it changed the face of war forever.

V1: Hitler's Vengeance Missile

As America closes in on Japan in 1944, the Japanese turn to desperate new tactics: killer planes and super torpedoes guided by human pilots.

Kamikaze Suicide Bombers

The campaign to breach Hitler's 400 mile-long Siegfried Line took more than six months and cost the American forces 140,000 casualties.

Hitler's Siegfried Line

Hitler transformed his Alpine retreat in Bavaria into a fortified fiefdom, home to 2,000 SS troops and protected by a high level security system.

The Eagle's Nest

It’s June 1940 and the Nazis have taken the Channel Islands, where Hitler orders some of the most fortified structures in the Third Reich.

Hitler's Island Megafortress

Ruins across Europe tell the story of Blitzkrieg, a revolution in warfare which almost gave Hitler the chance to create his Thousand Year Reich.

Lightning War Machine

Hitler planned a submarine to outperform all others. The Type 21 was the world's most advanced submarine: Hitler's sea-faring super weapon.

Hitler's Killer Subs

In the 1930s the Japanese begin designing the Yamato, the world's most powerful battleship, 30 per cent larger than anything their enemies have.

Pacific Megaships

In 1945 Japanese generals construct a network of defences and tunnels on Okinawa, creating a devastating killing ground for American troops.

Japanese Superfortress

The Nazi empire ran on trains, from the personal trains of the leadership to the locomotives and service depots that serviced the network.

Hitler's War Trains

Railways were key to the planning and implementation of the Final Solution, used to bring victims to the death camps from all over Europe.

Hitler's Railways of Death

The fortifications the Nazis built in northern Italy were meant to slow the Allied advance. Now the team reconstructs their extent and depth.

Hitler's Italian Fortress

After invading Norway in the spring of 1940, Nazi armed forces proceeded to fortify the entire country for war against Britain and the Soviet Union.

Hitler's Arctic Fortress

The war was lost long before it ended, but the Nazi propaganda apparatus was designed to keep that truth from its subjects for as long as possible.

Hitler's Propaganda Machine

The German air force was the most powerful and largest in Europe at the beginning of World War II, and it played a key part in Hitler's conquests.

Hitler's Luftwaffe

From a bold idea through months of preparation, training, innovations and clever ruses, this is the story of Japan’s surprise WWII attack on Hawaii.

Pearl Harbor

June 1944, Japanese fighters are preparing for a battle. But if they lose, a deadly weapon will be aimed at their country for the first time.

Japan's Warrior Code

Spring 1944 and the Germans know an attack is coming but what they get is a fascinating game of cat and mouse all the way up to 6th June, D-Day.

D-Day

September 1944 on Peleliu, Japanese soldiers build an island-wide structure creating a killing zone that lead to the death of thousands of Americans.

Japan's Island of Death

Hitler’s final attempt to win the war was a surprise winter attack. What resulted were some of the worst war crimes ever committed against America.

Hitler's Final Offensive

This is the story of Japan's final months in WWII - when America threatened to invade and Japan unleashed a terrifying new weapon, suicide bombers.

Fortress Japan

May 1940 and the Nazi war machine reaches the English Channel. Hitler plans to destroy Britain's air power and land troops in southern England.

Hitler's British Invasion Plan

Hitler's fight for the skies sees the Reich adopt a policy of 'Total War'. With every man woman and child pushed into producing ever more aircraft and munitions. The result is one of the most effective air defence systems the world has ever seen. One that came very close to destroying the might of the US 8th Army Airforce.

Hitler's War in the Skies

Guadalcanal is the glittering prize of the Pacific. Japan are determined to seize the island and build an airfield on it. But the US have their eyes on it, too. Whoever controls Guadalcanal will dominate the region and, with it, potentially win the Second World War. It's the catalyst for one of the most bloody and brutal episodes of World War Two.

Hell Island

1942, Japan has captured oil rich Burma to secure its growing empire's future. But with its navy decimated at the Battle of Midway it needs a new supply route. The result is a 258 mile railway cut through the toughest terrain known to man. All built using the blood and guts of 200,000 Allied POWs and local laborers. Half of them will die on the tracks or in the terrible camps nearby.

Japan's Death Railway

place in the deserts of North Africa. Armed with one of the most famous generals of WWII, Erwin Rommel, Hitler takes on the Allies across Tunisia, Libya and Egypt - in a brutal campaign that pushed the British to their limits and would dictate the course of the war.

Hitler's Desert War

When allied spies plant false documents on a corpse, they are carrying out one of the most audacious deceptions of World War II. Operation Mincemeat ensures that the allied invasion of Sicily takes the Nazis totally by surprise. With few reinforcements, German troops must now make clever use of the island's rugged landscape to attempt a fighting retreat to the Italian mainland - and safety.

Hitler's Mediterranean Fortress

In a quest for world domination, the Nazis built some of the biggest and deadliest pieces of military hardware and malevolent technology in history. This is the stories of the engineers who designed them and how these structures sparked a technological revolution that changed warfare forever.

All Episodes of Nazi Megastructures

Season 1

The Atlantic Wall

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 11/18/2013

V2 Rocket Bases

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 11/18/2013

U-Boat Base

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 11/25/2013

Super Tanks

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 12/2/2013

Hitler's Jet Caves

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/2013

Fortress Berlin

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 12/16/2013