Episode 1 Dig WW2 with Dan Snow

In the telling of the story of the Second World War,

Ireland is rarely mentioned.

But scattered across this landscape and in the waters off these shores,

are the relics and reminders of the greatest conflict in modern history.

As a military historian World War Two is a story I thought I knew.

But now I've come to Northern Ireland

where I'm discovering all sorts of incredible stories

of secrets, heroism, suffering and valour.

This is the untold story

of how Northern Ireland played a pivotal role in the war

and how its people helped shape the outcome.

In the waters off the north coast of Ireland...

There was very heavy loss of life.

..we're diving on extraordinary wrecks.

-It's a Sherman tank.

-That's unbelievable.

We visit Northern Ireland's wartime airfields.

And tell the story of a Spitfire that never made it home.

It's still got air in the tyre.

"Instructions for use."

What we have out so far is six Browning 303 machine guns.

This weapon gave the Spitfire its teeth.

We discover a farm in County Down

which gave refuge from the Holocaust.

And an island in Lough Neagh where the US troops left their mark.

And how shipbuilders Harland and Wolff

provided the blueprint for our most successful tank.

We're piecing together wartime tragedies

of those who volunteered

and didn't return.

I just knew that he was in the war and he was a soldier and he died.

The person who shot this was aiming for the person in this bunker here.

He was trying to kill him.

He died in battle and that's the way it happened.

From the flying boats built in Belfast factories

we return to Fermanagh with the airman who flew here.

What's it like flying in one of these after 65 years?

It's marvellous. It seems like yesterday.

And how the Londonderry-based warships

took the fight to Hitler's U-boats.

Preserved for 70 years, this is the story of Northern Ireland's war

told with what's left behind.

The archaeological heritage of World War II in Northern Ireland is unique.

70 years after the conflict began,

over 350 sites still survive.

Many lie derelict, slowly disappearing into the landscape.

These are the extensive remains of RAF Limavady,

an air station just east of Derry.

It was the first of 20 new airfields rushed into service

by the RAF in Northern Ireland during World War II.

It might not look like much now,

but this was at the frontline of the massive struggle

during World War II for control of the supply routes across the Atlantic Ocean.

The shells of the buildings and hangars

are all that remain at RAF Limavady.

and tell of a time when battles raged over the sea off Northern Ireland

and deep into the Atlantic.

During World War II,

the United Kingdom relied heavily on imported goods, particularly food,

most of which came in large convoys of ships from the other side of the Atlantic.

The Germans' answer to this was the U-boat, submarines which

they believed would torpedo the United Kingdom into starvation

and ultimate defeat.

It was from wartime airfields like Limavady

that planes would leave to make sure that defeat would never happen.

This is all that remains of the airfield's control tower.

I've come here to meet two historians

who can tell me the significance of Limavady during World War II.

This is where day to day operations would have been run from.

They would have controlled takeoffs and landings.

It's sited to overlook the three runways, the best seat in the house.

They get an unrestricted vision of planes coming and going.

What were these flight operations about? Why was it such a busy base?

This is one of the coastal command bases for the area.

They were out, proactively taking the attack from the Allies

to the Germans, hunting the U-boats

by day and by night to protect the important convoys coming in

carrying fuel, munitions and other war-related equipment that was needed.

Squadron leader Terry Bulloch from Lisburn

was based in Northern Ireland during the war.

He would become the most successful U-boat hunter in coastal command,

attacking 19 submarines.

First of all, they're a very small target

and we didn't really know the exact location of them.

You could pick out the U-boat itself or the track it's making

like a ship.

What pilots like Terry Bulloch looked for

was low cloud to conceal their aircraft as they approached the unsuspecting U-boat.

You had to manoeuvre your aircraft,

'get it into position where you could attack it.'

When we actually attacked them, we were flying down at 50 feet

above the sea, running in and dropping depth charges.

They worked very well, they were quite lethal,

but you had to get very close, within 10 feet of the U-boat hull

to be lethal.

On one 16-hour sortie alone,

Terry Bulloch would attack seven U-boats.

He would end the war as one of the most highly decorated pilots in coastal command.

Remnants of the RAF's presence at Limavady are everywhere.

What a cavernous space!

This vast hangar, hastily thrown up in wartime,

serviced Wellington bombers.

In its first year alone, aircraft from Limavady

would fly 25,000 hours, patrolling the Atlantic searching for U-boats.

The very presence of these aircraft did much to ensure that the convoys

gained safe passage to the ports of Londonderry, Belfast and beyond.

Unbelievable, isn't it? What is that black substance on the outside?

This is, like, a bitumen to keep it weather tight.

'On the edge of the airfield

'is, perhaps, Limavady's most extraordinary wartime building.'

I've never seen anything like it.

Jim, what on earth goes on in this building here?

This is what is 1940s high-tech, er, version of a simulator.

It's called an anti-aircraft gunnery dome

and what it did was it allowed people to be taught, on the ground,

how to shoot anti-aircraft guns

without actually expending ammunition.

-ARCHIVE NARRATOR:

-One side of the dome serves as a cinema screen

on which films of aircraft in flight are projected,

the targets being followed in the gun sights by the practise gunners.

It's like big planetarium, essentially.

They'd project a picture of a plane flying across the sky

and the gunner would use a dummy gun

and fire, using a ray of light, at this target.

And then you have an instructor, with a clip board,

telling him how good or bad he did.

'Noise effects are produced to simulate battle conditions.

'At the end of the exercise all results are recorded.'

Jonny, this is YEARS ahead of its time, surely? It's space age.

Yes, you can see why... We've all got our modern, you know, games consoles now

and we think this is very amateurish by those standards

but looking back, this was cutting-edge at the time.

And is this unusual? I've never come across ANYTHING like this.

This is the only one in Northern Ireland

and its importance is recognised in archaeological law.

So, therefore, it's a scheduled monument.

Limavady was one of five RAF airfields in County Derry built during the war.

At nearby Eglinton a squadron of Spitfires protected city of Derry.

And it was one of those Spitfires

which would lead us to a windswept bog just to the north of the city.

BEEPING

It's not just wartime airfields that Jonny is interested in,

it's also crashed aircraft.

'This is where the parts were.'

Some parts to the right, some parts to the left.

DETECTOR WHINES

As well as researching the airfields and airmen,

in the past 20 years Jonny has also visited

nearly 90 Second World War crash sites in the north-west of Ireland.

Today he's been given a tip-off that there might be something here -

buried in the bog.

So, he's assembled a team of aviation archaeologists

to see if they can find evidence of a fighter plane,

which crashed here during the Second World War.

-Still got paint on it, hasn't it?

-In fact, yeah, there is.

There's a wee bit of the green paint. Hang on. This bit might come out.

And after many hours of searching, things are looking promising.

And that's complete. If you look, that's immaculate.

Definitely our Spitfire! 100%.

In 1941, RAF Eglinton was the home of 133 Eagle Squadron -

made up of American pilots who had volunteered to fly with the RAF

before the United States had entered the war.

And it's one of those Eagle Squadron Spitfires,

which crashed here into the bog.

Now that Jonny's found the crash site,

what he wants to do is get whatever remains of the aircraft

out of the ground.

But that's easier said than done!

The ground penetrating radar survey that we did in February

showed at least 10 metres of peat and no sign of...

He's enlisted the help of World War II aviation experts

Steve Vizard and Gareth Jones.

We think there might be the undercarriage legs,

-which in border, in border the guns.

-Uh-huh.

-SQUELCHING

-Nice, isn't it?

-THEY CHUCKLE

-Like a blancmange!

Because the ground is soft

it means that, hopefully, the aircraft will have survived

much better than if it had hit hard ground.

I'm aware that the downside is that soft ground means

that it's extremely difficult for the 20 tonne digger

to operate without sinking into the bog itself.

-All right, thumbs up, then.

-Thumbs up!

The pilot of our crashed Spitfire

was 23-year-old Bud Wolfe from Nebraska, in America.

He'd been in Northern Ireland with his squadron for just over a month.

Our pilot was out flying top cover,

over the convoys that are coming from America

bringing military supplies in to the UK.

Derry Port very important in receiving those supplies, so they need protection.

While he was out flying he noticed that his engine was rapidly overheating.

Er, temperature about to boil over and his engine seized up.

So, he said, "I'm heading for home, folks."

And his last reported words were, "I'm going over the side,"

and away he went.

So, he managed to bail out, he managed to pull his chute

and landed down there, did he?

We know that it was about 12.30 on a Sunday, a very foggy Sunday.

People coming out of Mass heard the aircraft,

you know, screeching down through the skies. Couldn't see anything.

So, it was a very foggy day

and he landed about three quarters of a mile away.

What about the plane itself?

The plane, as you can see in the surrounding moorland,

just buried itself.

And a small, v-shaped crater was all that was left.

Do you want to get round there

and make a start on the spoil heap, then, everybody?

We've, er, got our first bit of wreckage now.

Just little bits of aluminium from the airframe.

Gone into the bucket now.

The rest of the team are going to sift through that spoil pile

and make sure that they don't miss a single piece.

That's just a piece of wing skinning there, Dan.

Is that the original paint there?

-That's the original paint, yes. That's the camouflage.

-No way!

'Every single scoop is like opening a Christmas present.'

It's so exciting, you've no idea what you're going to find, what it uncovers.

-Right, guys, what have we got here?

-That's a Browning.

-That's a Browning?

-Yep.

That is one of how many machine guns that would have been on board?

-One of eight.

-One of eight machine guns.

-Look at that! That's extraordinary!

-Good grief!

-That is the original colouring.

-Hmm.

That's in very good nick, isn't it?

-This was the weapon that really gave the Spitfire its teeth.

-It will have done.

This is the recoil buffer off the back of the Browning,

still with the safety latch. Still working after 70 years.

In working condition?

Look at the quality of that,

that paint and that metalwork after 70 years.

That is staggering.

-And we've been digging for five minutes?

-We have, yes.

And there should be another six of these.

Each of the Browning machine guns in Bud Wolfe's Spitfire

would have been loaded with 350 rounds of ammunition.

So rapid were the guns' rate of fire

that the pilots had just 15 seconds of ammunition to hit their target.

GUNFIRE

Oh, my goodness!

'Because of the lack of oxygen in the peat,

'it's meant that our finds are remarkably preserved.'

That is absolutely extraordinary. I've never seen anything like that.

I haven't got me glasses on, Dan, what are the dates?

-"1941".

-1941.

-I've never seen anything like this.

-Yeah, 1941.

I mean, it's like this was put underground yesterday.

The Army has been called in

because of the danger of uncovering live ammunition.

With the machine guns in such good condition

they are taking no chances.

Each gun will be carefully checked

before being removed for deactivation.

So, Jonny, what did the authorities come and take away with them back in 1941?

We understand from the historical records

that at least two Browning machine guns were removed

and about 1,200 rounds of ammunition.

There's a few maps and things were also recovered

but that's essentially it.

Because, I mean, this is a bog in November.

-It's a difficult place to dig.

-It is.

That whole year was one of the wettest years on record in Ireland

and the 20 soldiers that came the day after the crash

dug down approximately 10 feet and soon realised that they

were on a hiding to nothing and gave up after retrieving what they did.

And then, amazingly, from the growing crowd of onlookers

an eyewitness from 1941.

The only thing I remember is we were at Mass in Ballinacrick

and before we went into church this plane was hovering about.

And we were all looking at her and we thought she was in trouble.

And after some time, don't know how long, the man bailed out.

The pilot bailed out.

ENGINE SCREAMING

-And did you see the plane crash into the moor then?

-We did, aye.

We saw the plane go out of the sky, we saw the man coming out.

Though it was the man we were looking at,

it wasn't the plane then,

to see where this man went, but the man came out all right.

As well as the local interest,

our dig is beginning to attract the attention of the national media.

What we have out so far is six Browning .303 machine guns.

We have worked with the Department of Defence

because of the munitions and the armament,

and I'd say you've seen them here today.

'Well, we must be 15 metres down now.'

It's taken five hours

with the best 21st century heavy lifting equipment we've got.

And, look, they're really starting to unearth, now, the guts of this aircraft.

'Even though Bud Wolf's Spitfire ploughed into the bog at over 300 mph,

'as the wreckage is prised apart

'it's still possible to identify individual pieces

'of the wartime fighter.'

-We can see the...

-Incredible!

-..we can see the Dunlop.

Still got air in the tyres.

Still got air in the tyre. That is incredible!

There you go, "Type...

"Type, Spitfire."

'And there, in tiny letters,

'one of the most famous names in aviation history.'

So, just between type and serial number here,

you can see etched, "Spitfire," there.

We know we've dug up the right plane.

Whoa!

Oh, wait, wait, you've got documents here!

'Even in the ferocity of the crash,

'something as delicate as paper has survived.'

You can just see, "period of use," there.

Easy to distinguish.

Look at this, "Instructions for use."

'And then, something that shows that our Spitfire

'was in fact a gift to the nation.'

Oh, look at that! Look at that!

-Garfield!

-Isn't that good? I said it would be on there.

The letters E-L-D are part of the name of Garfield Weston,

who was member of Parliament for Macclesfield during World War II.

'This is a very significant find.'

Garfield Weston, during one of the roughest days of the Battle of Britain,

gave £100,000 of his own money to the RAF to buy aircraft.

The first number of these were Spitfires.

Our aircraft is a presentation aircraft from Garfield Weston

and it's Garfield Weston number one.

So, tremendous to see that in such a fantastic preservation.

Proof that this aircraft is one given by Garfield Weston, flown by Bud.

Yes, this, this is our aircraft.

Tremendous result.

Did you expect to start the day and find this kind of stuff?

No, this is all your Christmases come at once. This really is.

One of the reasons today has been an exciting, celebratory event

is because this, of course, was a Spitfire crash in which no-one died.

The young Nebraskan managed to bail out of his plane

and he landed about three-quarters of a mile away.

As he landed on his parachute

he heard the plane crash into this hillside

but his troubles weren't at an end.

Even though he was just a few miles from his base,

just over in Derry,

he'd actually landed in a different country.

Rather than being in the UK, he was in neutral Republic of Ireland.

It should have taken Bud Wolfe less than an hour

to drive the 26 odd miles back to his squadron at Eglinton

but, by landing on the wrong side of the border,

Wolfe was now an internee.

He was also at the start of a 220 mile journey south

to internment at a place called the Curragh, not far from Dublin,

where he joined other RAF airmen

who had accidentally come down in neutral Ireland.

These rather cosy looking cottages are, in fact, all that is left of the internment camp

that Bud Wolfe and his RAF compatriots were sent to.

With the corrugated iron huts,

it was, effectively, a prisoner of war camp.

But it wasn't your average prisoner of war camp.

JOLLY SWING MUSIC

To start with, there were the fellow inmates.

Right next to the RAF contingent were the Germans.

Sailors and airmen from the German Navy and Luftwaffe

who'd also strayed onto neutral Irish territory.

GERMAN MALE SINGING

Then, there was the security.

Now, the Irish guards did have rifles

but they were loaded with blanks

and the inmates were allowed to come and go as they pleased.

The town of Naas is about 10 miles from the camp.

'It was here that both Allied and German prisoners

'often came for the day.'

Some of the conditions in which the internees were kept

seem so far-fetched that it's hard to believe.

-Hello!

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

'I've come to one the oldest pubs in Naas

'to meet Sergeant Charlie Walsh of the Irish Army.'

So, what was life like in this internment camp?

The conditions inside the camp weren't too bad.

In the Officers' Mess they actually had their own private bar.

They would have had beer, Irish whiskeys, French wines,

liquors, Scotch, stuff like that, port.

The Irish Guinness

and Irish whiskey was actually free.

So, as long as you are drinking local stuff it was free booze?

That's correct, yes.

Quite a number of marriages

between the internees and local people then as well.

There was actually one wedding in the Curragh camp itself,

in the local church, there.

-Was there trouble between the Allies and the German prisoners?

-There was.

The Germans would, actually, cycle six abreast on their bicycles on the roads,

so everyone would have to get out of their way.

And, obviously, the Allies, if they were out,

they wouldn't wish to move off the road either.

So, there was some fisticuffs and that there.

Despite the obvious comfort of being interned,

Bud Wolfe had no intention of sticking around.

As far as he was concerned,

he was heading back to join his squadron and fight.

This is the old guard house at Curragh camp

and it was here, on 13 December, 1941,

that Bud came and signed a parole, which is basically a piece of paper,

promising that he was going to pop out to town

but that he would come back.

Then he returned to the camp

on the pretext that he had forgotten his gloves.

He checked himself back in.

Later, though, he snuck out without signing a parole.

Bud Wolfe had no intention of going back to Curragh camp that night.

He was now on the run.

He went first to Dublin, where he caught the train north to Belfast

and then back to the RAF airfield

where he and his ill-fated Spitfire had taken off two weeks earlier.

You can just imagine the excitement of Bud Wolfe's fellow pilots

when the 23-year-old Nebraskan arrived back here at RAF Eglinton

but that excitement was to be short lived.

In one of the most truly bizarre episodes of the Second World War,

the British Government decided that, rather than antagonise the neutral Irish,

that they would send Bud Wolfe back to the Curragh and internment.

In the Donegal Hills, the final pieces of Bud's Spitfire

are being unearthed after 70 years.

'Just when you thought it couldn't get any better,

'the massive piece that is the engine is coming out.'

It's actually too big for the bucket, it's vast.

You can put it over there. Right over where the...

What, how, what state is this in?

It's actually in quite good condition.

Well, obviously, it's well preserved.

This is fuel running out of the engine, down here.

Look at that.

That's fuel running out of the engine. Been in there 70 years.

This is the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.

One of the classic bits of British engineering history.

It powered the Spitfire, it powered the Lancaster bomber.

We were worried it might have shattered

as it went through the bog and hit the clay

but, actually, it's in pretty good condition.

It's almost perfect, look.

Absolutely as good as the day it went in 70 years ago.

On here you'll have...

"Merlin."

But some artefacts provide an even closer connection to Bud Wolfe,

the young American pilot who flew our Spitfire.

That's the leather back of the seat there, look.

And, er, there's the remains of the instrument panel

with the two oxygen gauges.

This is my favourite find so far, I think.

This is on of the, erm, harnesses from the cockpit

and he, Bud Wolfe, would have pulled this bit here

seconds before he ejected.

Absolutely incredible.

Just here, I think you'll find we've got a lovely flying helmet.

No way!

-That is about as good it is it gets, isn't it?

-That's extraordinary!

This is something I never believed that we would find.

Bud Wolfe's original flying helmet.

Worn by him on that sortie,

still attached to the original oxygen mask,

survived underground for 70 years.

Removed by him just before he bailed out.

Just...speechless.

Right, stop.

-Hey, grand slam!

-Thanks very much!

That's unbelievable. That is unbelievable.

'When you come to a hillside like this

'and dig these objects out of the ground.'

The straps that held the terrified pilot into the cockpit as his plane failed,

the engine that overheated and forced him to bail out.

Those things take you back to a moment in time.

They allow you to touch the past, they allow you to smell the past.

Even though that event happened 70 years ago.

On the day he crashed, Bud Wolfe had been providing cover

for convoys steaming along the coast north of Derry.

In the first few months of the Second World War,

Northern Ireland remained relatively isolated from the war

as most of the Atlantic convoys reaching the United Kingdom

used the relative safety of the south-western approaches.

But, with the fall of France, in June 1940,

the Atlantic convoys were rerouted around the top of Ireland.

Which is why Northern Ireland and her coastal waters

were thrust into the heart of the action.

What came as a complete surprise to me

was just how many wrecks from the Battle Of The Atlantic there are

off the north coast of Ireland.

Both of the hunters and their prey.

We've joined a dive vessel off the north Irish coast

and a team who, over the course of the week,

are hoping to dive some of those wrecks

from the Battle Of The Atlantic.

Over the past decade,

diving techniques have improved enormously,

meaning that it's now possible to get down deeper

and to stay there for longer.

Ready to go! If you just line up!

And this has led to some extraordinary discoveries.

Just over 70 metres below the surface,

lies the wreck of the German World War II submarine U-155.

It's still in remarkable condition.

And it's just one of over 100 German U-boat wrecks

to be found off the north Irish coast.

U-155 was just one of over 1,100 U-boats built by the German Navy

and used with spectacular results.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

said that the U-boat campaign was what frightened him most

during the Second World War.

And for a time it looked like a battle the U-boats would win.

Our prime job was guarding the convoys

and preventing them from being sunk by U-boats.

That was our job.

John Cumming, from Newtownards, served in Royal Navy escort ships.

There was some of them there, there was about 30 or 40 ships

and usually about three or four rows of ships.

And then the destroyers would be nipping up and down in between these

and round them, like.

It's like a sheep dog looking after sheep.

That was the basic idea, really.

Sometimes the U-boat themselves got in among the convoy

and so we'd have to steam up in the middle of the merchant ships as well

trying to detect these U-boats that had succeeded in doing that.

One of the most successful German submarines was U-155,

which now lies 17 miles off Malin Head

in some of the clearest waters in the world.

With a crew of 50 and armed with 22 torpedoes,

each mission could cover 15,000 miles.

In just over nine months,

U-155 commander Adolf Piening would sink 23 Allied ships.

BOOMING EXPLOSION

It was the merchant ships that really got it rough.

I mean, they didn't stand much of a chance when they got torpedoed.

Well, particularly on the way up,

with all the cargo that they carried and that.

THUNDEROUS EXPLOSION

HE EXHALES

Sometimes it's a bit harrowing to think about it, you know?

Especially when you...

See, the destroyers, there's no question of them,

sort of, remaining behind, stationery,

to pick up survivors and so forth

because they then themselves would've become a sitting target for the U-boats.

So, we didn't always, I'm afraid, wait to pick up survivors.

In fact, there were times, there, when you saw these men in the waters

but there was nothing you could do about it.

Our job was to, to look after the merchant ships

and to get back to them as soon as possible.

But the U-boats didn't have it all their own way,

as Reg Mason from Derry witnessed from his Royal Navy corvette.

You could have a full pattern of depth charges

and for all those exploding at the one-time...

maybe 100 feet or 150 feet down below.

So, the next thing you know, there's the water spouts just shooting up.

And if you made contact and actually damaged a U-boat,

U-boat would just come up, like that, and then straight down.

If that happened they were just lost with all hands.

I've seen that happen once or twice.

During the Second World War,

70% of U-boat crews perished with their submarines.

Adolf Piening survived but his U-boat was not so fortunate.

At the end of the war it was handed over to the Allies

and sunk off Malin Head.

It was not just the convoys

that needed protection from the enemy threat.

In the early years of the Second World War there was a genuine fear

that German troops would invade both the Irish Free State

and Northern Ireland itself.

In January 1941, a plan was proposed to Hitler

where 20,000 paratroopers and 12,000 airborne troops

would drop on an area between Lough Neagh and West Belfast.

They would capture RAF airfields,

enabling the Luftwaffe to fly in with reinforcements from France.

This is one of the strangest pieces of airfield defensive architecture...

The RAF's response was to beef up their airfield defences.

You've got firing positions at the front and back

and there's an access way just here, which, be my guest, please go down.

That's a small hole. After you, I think!

Thank you, you're too kind! Right. Let's see.

-That's going to be quite a squeeze!

-It's going to be...

AND it's water filled as well! Lovely.

'This underground bunker at Limavady is an extremely rare example

'of an airfield Battle headquarters.

'It's a series of interconnecting chambers, tunnels and fire points

where senior officers would come in the event of an attack.

So, "bijou", I think is the word!

Yeah, so what are we looking at down here?

This is one of the fortified firing defence points in this battle HQ

and just behind you, there,

you'll see one of the original wartime gun mounts.

-Oh, that's what this is!

-Yes.

So, there would have been the heavy machine gun on here.

One there, one directly facing you to give you covering fire

on both sides of the airfields.

There's one over here, to my left, that you can see,

still with the original fixtures and fittings.

And this will provide protective fire this side of the airfield

and the one behind you will cover the runway

in the event of a parachute attack by the Germans.

-ARCHIVE NARRATOR:

-"On their toes," well describes

the state of preparedness of troops in Northern Ireland.

To keep them at concert pitch, an antitank battery takes to the road

to deal with German troops

supposed to have landed further along the coast.

On the order, the men dismount

and within 30 seconds their guns are in action.

With that little spot of bother dealt with,

the battery's next job is to cross a shallow river...

While the newsreels were painting an upbeat picture,

the reality was that all along the beaches and inland waterways,

defensive bunkers were being hastily constructed

in anticipation of the German invasion.

'There would have been two guys in here,'

armed with machine guns and antitank rifles.

You can see exactly why it's here, look at that incredible view down the river there.

So, if the Germans were advancing inland from the sea,

this was a key place to try and stop them.

What I really like about this particular bunker,

it's got some evidence up here that gives you a real personal connection

with the guys that served in here during the war.

They wrote up, "1st Peter, 5th chapter, 8th verse."

That obviously refers to a letter by St Peter in the New Testament.

Here we are, OK,

"Awake! Be on the alert!

"Your enemy the devil, like roaring lion,

"prowls around looking for someone to devour.

"Stand up to him!"

MEN SINGING

In the summer of 1940, at the height of the invasion threat,

while German troops were storming their way through France,

in Belfast, ship builders Harland and Wolff

were putting the finishing touches to a non-maritime project.

Harland and Wolff were asked to design a tank.

They came up with one which they called the rather unglamorous name

the A20 but this tank would go on to become

one of the most successful British tanks of the Second World War.

The A20 would evolve into the Churchill Tank.

I've come to Dunmore Park, in Belfast,

the home of the North Irish Horse.

A regiment, which during World War II,

would become closely associated with the Churchill.

The North Irish Horse, as the name suggests,

was a cavalry regiment raised from the northern counties of Ireland.

By the Second World War they'd swapped their horses for the Churchill Tank

and the men served with huge gallantry

through North Africa and Italy.

The trouble with the Churchill Tank at Dunmore Park

is that it's a bit static, a bit of a museum piece.

-Nigel!

-Welcome.

-What an extraordinary thing to have in your shed!

-I know.

'Belfast born Nigel Montgomery knows quite a lot about Churchills.

'Not only was his father in the North Irish Horse in World War II

'but he actually owns the only working Churchill tank, of its kind,

'anywhere in the world.'

Right, so, this is the turret up here.

There's some scars on here - is this battle damage?

That's battle damage and we don't know for sure where it came from.

It's probably shell splinters or mortar fire that burst on the deck.

-And how many crew would have served in this tank?

-Five in total.

Three in the turret and two at the front.

And the three in the turret were divided between the guy here,

who was the loader and operator,

so he did the radio and he loaded the main gun.

And in here, amazingly, two people.

Front, way down there, a gunner and in here the commander.

Gerry Chester joined the North Irish Horse in 1942.

He was a driver-operator in Churchill Tanks.

The Churchill Tank was the best British tank in World War II,

no question about it.

We felt safe in it, which was important.

It was a great tank to be aboard.

My role, as driver-operator, was to take charge of the radio

and also to load the heavy gun.

That's it. Slide in.

I don't fancy trying to get out of here in a hurry!

Not sure it's designed for a tall person.

Wow.

The Churchill Tank was not as tight as the ones we did training in

at the Tank Regiment, it was more roomy,

but, yes, it's a tight fit, that's a sure, yes!

And, driving wise, obviously, a nice big window here

but, unfortunately, it's facing towards the enemy.

-You'd want this closed, wouldn't you?

-Yes.

And the moment there's a chance of battle that closes

and once it closes you're reliant on that single periscope.

-That tiny little letterbox of vision.

-It's this thing here?

-Yes.

Ah!

So, this is, I'm in the turret now!

-So, this is the commander's position here?

-That's the commander's position.

The man in charge, the man who made all the decisions.

It's a great view, isn't it? But you do feel quite exposed.

It's quite nice being down there.

I had my head out sometimes but it depended on the circumstances.

If there was a lot of shelling going on,

of course, you put your head down!

If you move forward a little bit

-you'll be sitting where gunner would be.

-OK.

Just in front of your commander's position you were in a moment ago.

Wow, so you're really close to the commander, aren't you?

Oh, literally, by his kneecaps.

But the best thing about Nigel's tank is that it actually works.

It was in Churchill Tanks, like this one,

that men like Gerry Chester and his comrades in the North Irish Horse

were to go into action in the battle of The Hitler Line,

in Italy, in May 1944.

Being in this tank is really an assault on the senses!

The sound and smell of the engine and being jolted around

is like being at sea and it's a strange feeling.

On the one-handed you feel very secure and protected

but you also feel that you're in a lumbering, slow machine

that would attract lots of enemy fire

and that day, attacking the Hitler Line,

the tanks took terrible casualties.

And it's that action that has brought me here to central Italy

to find out about a heroic battle

in which the North Irish Horse would play a key part.

In 1943, Allied troops invaded Sicily and Italy

and began heading north, towards the Italian capital of Rome.

If Rome fell it would be a huge boost to Allied morale.

But they would become bogged down 75 miles south of the capital

at a place called Monte Cassino.

There, at the foot of the Benedictine monastery,

in five months of bitter fighting,

the Allies would try to dislodge the Germans who controlled the higher ground.

In so doing, the monastery was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Having taken Monte Cassino, only one obstacle lay in their way,

the Hitler Line -

a massive fortification which blocked the road to Rome.

And it's here that the North Irish Horse would face the toughest battle in their history.

From up here it is easy to see what was going on in 1944.

This is the Liri Valley.

Now, if you want to march an army up from the south of Italy towards Rome, just up there,

you've GOT to bring them up this nice flat valley

and that's why the Germans built what they hoped

would be an impregnable line of steel and concrete,

which stretched from this side of the valley, here,

right across there, to that great big mountain.

Yeah, the Hitler Line, they had all sorts of stuff in there.

I mean, all sorts.

Not only dug in Panzers, it had machine gun nests,

and mobile anti-tank guns, and there were also Panzers running around.

So, there was a lot of opposition!

A lot of opposition.

A group of Italian historians

has been investigating the remains of the bunkers and emplacements

which make up the Hitler Line.

Bunkers which have been swallowed up by the undergrowth

in the years following the Second World War.

MEN SPEAKING ITALIAN

This shows how this would have looked back in 1944, doesn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-And that's a Panzer turret?

Yes, this is a Panzer turret, yes.

-This is a very strong position, isn't it?

-Very strong, yes.

These Churchill tanks look...

This could've been the North Irish Horse

cos they were attacking this part of the line, weren't they?

The Churchill Tanks of the North Irish Horse,

along with other British units, would support the Canadian Infantry

who were leading the assault on the German bunkers and machine-gun nests.

The actual battle started off at six o'clock on May 23.

Of course, there was a constant barrage going on

but at eight o'clock a huge bang, cos the whole Canadian artillery,

a lot of Eighth Army artillery,

loading down a tremendous barrage and we advanced in behind that.

We were working through this wood and in there the Germans had snipers in trees

and we lost a few fellas,

tank commanders were killed by these snipers.

STRIMMER WHIZZING

MAN SHOUTS IN ITALIAN

So, this group believe that just behind all this foliage

there is a concrete bunker built by the Germans in World War II

and, actually, I think you can see the outline of it now,

as they start to thin it all out.

And, of course, this was just one of hundreds of bunkers,

gun emplacements, concrete and steel structures and machine-gun pits

that spread right the way across this valley, here.

The so-called Hitler Line.

And the Germans built this line

intending it to be absolutely impregnable.

They'd lost Monte Cassino

but they were NOT going to give this up without one heck of a fight.

When we first went into action, most of us, well I was, dead scared.

"What was going to happen?" You know!

-18, well, you know, I was 19, you know?

-HE CHUCKLES

There was so much gunfire, and things, that we couldn't see

because there was dust everywhere.

Our visibility was estimated to be no more than 10 yards.

We didn't see that Panzer turret, we didn't see it.

I mean, it was so close to us.

Walking across this fairly flat wide-open, lush Liri Valley,

the troops would have felt very, very exposed to the German machine gunners, just there.

And, of course, they would have been cut down instantly

were it not for the fact they weren't alone.

They had the support of their tanks.

The tanks were behind them

blasting high explosive shells towards those German positions,

forcing the Germans to keep their heads down.

And there's shrapnel all over these fields,

like these pieces of shell casing here.

And it allowed the infantry to get nice and close to this German bunker.

That's better...

At the time of the assault, the bunker would have been surrounded

by minefields and barbed wire.

Now uncovered by the team, it's possible to climb up inside it.

Wow, that's pretty cosy!

And another bunker like this may be just a few hundred metres...?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very close.

-Very strong position.

-Very strong position.

Excavating the ground in front of the bunker,

what the historians are finding

is evidence of a robust defence by its German occupants.

-German?

-German.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's German.

-Machine gun?

-Yes, machine gun.

-A German machine gun round.

-That's fine, that's fine.

-OK, another one!

These were fired in the heat of battle

on that one day at the end of May 1944.

-Oh, look at that.

-Yeah!

That was the belt on which all bullets would have been stored.

Incredible, eh?

I cannot believe this was fired 70 years ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Oh!

-Oh!

-So, now, what's this? Cos this is...?

-303!

-This is a 303 bullet?

-The bullet...!

That is, that is just extraordinary.

Well, these German casings are from bullets going that way,

this is what's coming back the other way.

This is actually a bullet, a British Allied bullet

and it's been battered because it's hit this concrete wall,

the concrete's done its job,

and it's split and twisted this bullet into all sorts of different shapes.

This is incoming fire. This is the proof we need.

This is outgoing, this is incoming, no question.

DETECTOR BEEPS

Again?

The battlefield is giving up its secrets before my very eyes.

Our team are now using metal detectors

to see if the ground in front of the bunker

can reveal evidence for the assaulting troops.

DETECTOR BEEPS

And whether the tanks provided enough cover

for the infantry to reach their objective.

OK.

So, the bunker's about 10 metres away, just over there,

and this is where an attacking force would have tried to come,

tried to outflank the bunker,

get in the shelter of this cover here

so that they could carry out the final assault on the bunker.

Oh!

-British?

-British. 303.

-303?

Amazing. So, that's it.

This is a casing of a bullet fired right here.

We're 10 metres away, now, from this bunker.

This is not long-range duelling, this is the final assault.

Putting down fire on that bunker, trying to kill the inhabitants

or, perhaps, trying to get them to surrender.

MEN SPEAKING IN ITALIAN

Another one.

We've been looking here for two minutes max,

and there is these casings coming out of the ground every few seconds.

This is evidence of a huge firefight.

-Another one.

-Another one.

-Again?

This is a fight that would have lasted for no more

than just a few minutes 70 years ago.

It's absolutely extraordinary the archaeological material remains

of that split second in time, yet here we have them here.

No way. Is that a German shape?

-Hm, no, from the shape, no.

-Very early to say but it looks like it's a jagged hole

and it could be the helmet of a Canadian infantryman who was killed

in the assault on this bunker.

MEN SPEAKING IN ITALIAN

Oh my God!

-It's definitely a Canadian, a Canadian helmet? Yeah.

-Yeah.

Wow.

'We advanced, and through all the smoke and dust,'

and then we got hit on the starboard side three times.

Skipper gave the order to bail out.

We got out. My driver was badly

cut almost in two and he died.

A further shot hit the turret, which shot fragments of red-hot all over,

one of which seriously wounded the tank commander, Gordon Russell.

Took a large piece out of his skull...

and we thought he was going to die.

He didn't, fortunately.

By the end of the day the Hitler Line had fallen

and its German defenders, who had believed it to be impregnable,

were taken prisoner.

It was a battle in which Gerry Chester

and his comrades in the North Irish Horse had played their part.

It was a battle which was also captured in a remarkable painting.

This is obviously one of these turrets blown completely off.

And we are...

in the same position of the painting.

This is the mountain.

Oh, that, yeah, look, it's exactly the same shape!

-So, this...?

-The same mountain.

-Same mountain and very same field.

-This could be the field where all the Churchill tanks were knocked out.

-The same place.

-And we know this is based on reality because this turret is the same thing, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Exactly the same angle, it's incredible.

-Yeah, exactly.

There's Churchill Tanks here. This was the North Irish Horse.

-There was a lot of fighting. There's five or six knocked out tanks.

-Yeah.

And, at the end of the day, we had 15 tanks totally destroyed

and were not recoverable.

The ones which were damaged were recovered and came back to service.

It was a tough day for the regiment.

The toughest we've had in...either war.

And it was the, it was the...

Catastrophic as far as losses.

More than 70 men from the North Irish Horse were killed or wounded that day.

With the dead buried here, below the monastery of Monte Cassino.

The Canadian Infantry, who they had supported,

also suffered heavy losses.

After the battle, the dead of the Canadians and the North Irish Horse

were buried alongside each other.

This was entirely fitting for men who had fought and fallen together.

Men who had broken the Hitler Line.

Was I feeling proud when I took part?

In a way, yes.

In a way.

Most of us thought, during the war, that the war was worthwhile.

You know, it was a war that we felt had to be won. It was the right war.

But it was an inward pride that we fought a battle,

a good battle, and we'd won.

Simple as that. Simple as that.

In our story of Northern Ireland's role in the Second World War,

I've got one last trip to make.

It's been six months

since we dug up Bud Wolfe's Spitfire from the bogs of Donegal

and, in the meantime, something remarkable has been happening.

The machine guns from the crashed Spitfire

were taken away by the Irish Army

to be stripped down before being deactivated.

But when they were dismantled,

they were found to be in much better condition than anyone had imagined.

And that raised an interesting possibility.

-Hi there.

-Hi, Dan, how are you?

-How are you doing?

-Good to see you.

'So, I've come to meet Lieutenant Colonel Dave Sexton,

'Ordnance Officer in the Irish Army,

'and, hopefully, actually fire the machine gun.'

So, the last time I saw that machine gun I was pulling it, with my hands,

out of a bog in Donegal. What have you done to it since?

Well, we've been doing a lot of work on them

but, basically, the work has been 95% just cleaning up the weapons.

Stripping them down, cleaning them out, checking and measuring them

and adjusting them for firing but no repairs. No repairs at all, really.

These machine guns hit the ground at well over 300 miles per hour.

I mean, surely... Why weren't they all bent and twisted and unusable?

Well, the short answer is we don't really know!

We had assumed that we would be picking up bits and pieces

and collecting up the ammunition, etc.

So, when we took them out of the bog, I got a call on that day

to say that they were actually in one-piece.

And, of course, that set the cogs in motion as regards,

"Well, how far can we go with this if they're in one-piece?"

You know, could they actually fire?

So, you're telling me

that every single part of that weapon over there

was recovered from that aircraft wreck?

Yes, I am, yes.

Absolutely. Every single piece.

-Protection.

-Protect the good bits!

-Protection.

-That fits.

That's cocked.

I'm extremely excited.

It's been 70 years, to the month,

since Bud Wolfe's plane crashed into Donegal

and now we are going to try and fire that machine gun again.

-OK?

-OK!

-Got your target in front, in your own time.

OK, here we go, 70 years on.

Standby! Firing!

That was the sound of a Spitfire.

'It's a testament to the engineers

'that put that weapon together

'more than 70 years ago

'that after decades under a bog,'

having hit the ground at over 300 miles an hour,

that weapon is working like the day it was made.

But what happened to the RAF pilot

who flew the Spitfire where the guns had come from?

Bud Wolfe was eventually released from Curragh Camp

and got back in the cockpit.

This time with the American Air Force,

in time to see service at the end of World War II.

The last time this gun was fired in anger

the Second World War had been raging for just over a year.

In the years to come things would get even more intense

and, yet again, Northern Ireland and its people

would be right at the heart of the action.

Next time on Dig WW2,

off Malin Head,

the sea bed covered with tanks bound for Normandy.

In County Fermanagh, Lough Erne veterans fly 60 years on.

And in Arnhem, the Belfast family still searching for a loved one.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd