Secret Bunkers

PBS: Monday 9 – Tuesday 10 October at 8.40pm

After the murderous trench warfare of World War One, several European nations sought to secure their borders and protect their troops with vast concrete structures, modern equivalents of medieval castles.

Ironically, although the Nazis’ Blitzkrieg tactics would render this form of defence all but obsolete, they themselves built more bunkers than almost anyone else. And in the post-war era, the threat of nuclear conflict gave the military bunker a renewed relevance. Once top secret, many are now in ruins.

This two-part series tells the stories of some of these imposing structures, tracking down examples from the inter-war period, World War Two and the Cold War, and also explores how the paranoia of a dictator would see Albania become the bunker capital of the world.