0:00:31 > 0:00:38On 1st November, 1887, this ship, The Helvetia, was struck
0:00:38 > 0:00:43by a terrible storm which swept along the coast of South Wales.
0:00:47 > 0:00:53Now the skeletal ribs rise from their watery grave every low tide
0:00:53 > 0:00:57to reveal the remains of a hull once laden with a cargo of wood.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02The Helvetia was an honest trader that fell foul of the weather.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07The same wild shores which wrecked Helvetia were used by other vessels
0:01:07 > 0:01:11for a much more sinister and profitable purpose -
0:01:11 > 0:01:14smuggling.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17I'm searching for hard evidence of the smugglers
0:01:17 > 0:01:19who once stalked this coast.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Surely they couldn't cover their tracks completely?
0:01:25 > 0:01:32Contraband travelled by sea, and so am I, with the crew of the Olga.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Boats like this were built for speed.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38She's a Bristol Channel pilot cutter
0:01:38 > 0:01:41whose legal trade was to guide bigger ships safely to port.
0:01:41 > 0:01:47But such sleek lines and yards of sail also made boats like this
0:01:47 > 0:01:50ideal for a profitable sideline.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55How suitable would a pilot cutter like this have been to smugglers?
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Very good. There's a lot of space down below, lot of contact
0:01:59 > 0:02:04with all the trade ships coming in, and it would have beached nicely
0:02:04 > 0:02:07because it's got a nice flat bottom,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12and the boat actually has legs which it uses to stand on the beach.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13This is actually the Olga.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16- So the legs are stopping the ship from falling over?- Yeah.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Although the boat was capable, if it was muddy,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22to stand on her own without the legs. She'd stand upright.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25But that means pilot cutters could use any part of the coast they wanted.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Any part of the coastline they wanted to, yeah.
0:02:28 > 0:02:34Flat-bottomed vessels like this were perfectly suited to the bays and coves of Gower,
0:02:34 > 0:02:35which has plenty of spots
0:02:35 > 0:02:37to beach a boat with an illegal haul.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41The peak years for smuggling were around 1800.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47To fund the Napoleonic Wars, communities were heavily taxed on everyday goods.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52Smugglers' boats bulged with basics like salt, soap and tea,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55as well as alcohol and tobacco.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58In lawless areas like Gower,
0:02:58 > 0:03:03violent criminal gangs roamed and the customs men were heavily armed too.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05Museum curator Steve Butler
0:03:05 > 0:03:09has brought some of the tools of the trade.
0:03:09 > 0:03:10- My goodness.- This is a blunderbuss.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13This is a very vicious-looking weapon.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16The blunderbuss was designed to fire shot over a short distance
0:03:16 > 0:03:19in a broad spread.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23- You wouldn't want to be hit by anything coming out of this. - Absolutely not.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27We have your flintlock pistol, and once they were fired, of course,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31at which point, what else could they do with them?
0:03:31 > 0:03:32In close-quarter fighting,
0:03:32 > 0:03:37- they'd use them as a club, hence they were so strongly-built. - That way round?- That way round,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41- big butt-end here on the end of the handle.- This is all bound in brass.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44And for very obvious reasons, that could do some serious damage.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48And what you're describing here, Steve, you're describing a war zone.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51It is largely a war zone, and it was almost out of control.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Armed to the teeth in fast boats, you can see how the smugglers
0:03:56 > 0:03:59kept one step ahead of customs.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01But they couldn't stay at sea for ever.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05They had to land their contraband somewhere.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10Surely the smugglers had to have hidey-holes along this coast.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15Perhaps one of the storerooms is in a secluded cliff near Port Eynon.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Below me is one of the most mysterious structures on the coast of Wales.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Wow, look at that.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37This is Culver Hole.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42It's so tightly-packed into the rock, it almost looks natural.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50As front doors go, this is fairly inaccessible.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52I've never seen anything quite like it.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57It's built like a castle. We've got these very strange-shaped windows above.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00There are no floors in it.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Look at these stone niches, lots of them.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17I'm hoping to find out more from National Trust warden Sian Musgrave.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20- Hi, Sian, very good to meet you. - Hi, Nick, and you.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Now, can you tell me, what is this peculiar building?
0:05:24 > 0:05:27It's very inaccessible, so it's a great hiding place.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Would it have been used by smugglers, do you think?
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I think there's a high degree of probability that it was used by smugglers.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36When the tide comes in, you can get a boat right in.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41And inside, there's what appears to be a tunnel leading out from the back wall.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Yeah, there's a small tunnel and a little chamber,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49which again leads us to think that it could have been used to keep things
0:05:49 > 0:05:51out of the customs men's reach.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54The highpoint of smuggling was about 200 years ago.
0:05:54 > 0:06:00But this structure looks much older, medieval even.
0:06:00 > 0:06:06And the old English name Culver Hole suggests an earlier use.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Culver is an old word which means pigeon. It's a pigeon house.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13It's actually a medieval dovecote.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16So that's what those rectangular niches are?
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Yeah, they were built as an integrated part of the structure
0:06:19 > 0:06:24so that the pigeons could go in and nest, so they'd encourage the populations to multiply
0:06:24 > 0:06:26and then it would serve as food,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28and they'd take the eggs as well as the meat.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33So Culver Hole was originally a coastal larder many centuries ago,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35when pigeon meat was a prized foodstuff.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39But there's layer upon layer of history here.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41I can easily believe that much later on,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46it was converted to a hidey-hole for contraband.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Giant pigeon loft, or secret smugglers' lair?
0:06:49 > 0:06:52A bit of both, I reckon.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Hard evidence, it seems, is always elusive.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Smugglers take their secrets to the grave.
0:07:07 > 0:07:13Gower has seen bad guys circling around its seas for centuries,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16but in 1940, the bandits were airborne.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21Dogfights raged in the skies above the Bristol Channel.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Ports and munitions factories in South Wales were tempting targets
0:07:25 > 0:07:31for German bombers, so Pembrey became an important Battle of Britain airfield.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34It wasn't unknown for famous fighter aces
0:07:34 > 0:07:38to land here at Pembrey, but on June 23rd, 1942,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41the surprise arrival of one flyer caused quite a stir.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48A German pilot landed at this Welsh airfield in a very special plane.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54The airman was Oberleutnant Armin Faber, an experienced Luftwaffe pilot.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Following a dogfight over the Bristol Channel,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Faber put his top-secret plane down at Pembrey.
0:08:00 > 0:08:06Bold as brass, the enemy fighter was taxiing along this tarmac,
0:08:06 > 0:08:11causing Sergeant Charles Jeffreys to spring into action.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13It's said that Sergeant Jeffreys
0:08:13 > 0:08:16grabbed the first weapon that came to hand - a flare gun, as it happens.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19He dashed down the steps of the control tower over there
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and out onto the runway, where he threw himself
0:08:22 > 0:08:26across the wing of the German fighter, thereby capturing the pilot
0:08:26 > 0:08:30and, more importantly, his plane.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34And what a prize it was - this terrifying new weapon of war,
0:08:34 > 0:08:39the Focke-Wulf 190, the scourge of the Spitfires.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Despite their dominance early in the war,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Spitfires no longer had the upper hand.
0:08:49 > 0:08:55The FW 190 was christened the Butcher Bird by the allied pilots, and it lived up to its name.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00In the early months of 1942, the RAF lost scores of Spitfires.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The Butcher Bird was on a killing spree.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09What made the Focke-Wulf 190 such a formidable foe was a mystery,
0:09:09 > 0:09:15so the Allies couldn't believe their luck when Armin Faber landed one on the Welsh coast.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18To understand what the RAF pilots wanted to learn about
0:09:18 > 0:09:23the captured German fighter, and to appreciate the performance edge
0:09:23 > 0:09:29that made Faber's plane so deadly in his dogfight over the British coast, I'm going up myself.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37- Is it looking safe, Chris? - Hey, Neil, it's looking great, yeah. Good to see you.
0:09:37 > 0:09:43Yeah. So, what will a plane like this teach me about the Focke-Wulf?
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Well, what it's going to simulate
0:09:45 > 0:09:49is the agility and the speed of the Focke-Wulf.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Although it's not as big an aeroplane,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56it's got that agility and it's got that punch and speed that the Focke-Wulf had
0:09:56 > 0:10:01that was making it special and making it a real competitor, you know -
0:10:01 > 0:10:03better than the Spitfires at the time.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13So my pilot will fly to mimic the performance of a Focke-Wulf 190 up against a Spitfire.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27For me, it's just a game. For airmen in the Second World War, it was a fight to the death.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29- How are you feeling? - I feel fine.- Brilliant.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34Well, it's a combination of fine and terrified.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36My plane's manoeuvring like the FW 190 -
0:10:36 > 0:10:43faster, and better in a roll or dive, compared to my opponent flying like a Spitfire.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46We're in the Focke-Wulf and we're trying to shoot this guy down.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51Here we go, we're going to pass down his right-hand side.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Oh, I can take him, I can take him.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55This is the fly-through.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Even in this mock dogfight,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04I can see how the superior agility, firepower,
0:11:04 > 0:11:09and visibility from Armin Faber's plane gave him a deadly advantage.
0:11:09 > 0:11:10- I've got him.- One visual.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Here we go, next pass.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Visual. Guns, guns, guns.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22There he is, follow him down.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26In 1942, Luftwaffe pilot Faber
0:11:26 > 0:11:29did a wing-waggle over Pembrey airfield
0:11:29 > 0:11:34to celebrate victory. And then, to everyone's astonishment,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38his Focke-Wulf 190 landed on Welsh tarmac!
0:11:45 > 0:11:48So why would an experienced German pilot
0:11:48 > 0:11:51gift his top-secret fighter plane to the Allies?
0:11:51 > 0:11:55There were theories that Armin Faber had switched sides,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59or that in the heat of battle he was disorientated and lost his bearings.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03In a dogfight over the English Channel, he'd shot down a Spitfire.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Then Faber drifted towards the Bristol Channel,
0:12:06 > 0:12:07downing another Spitfire.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Confused by combat, thinking he was back over occupied France,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Faber mistakenly landed at Pembrey.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Or so one theory goes.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Time to draft in Peter Murton from the Imperial War Museum.
0:12:21 > 0:12:28How likely do you think it is that an experienced pilot would get lost under those circumstances?
0:12:28 > 0:12:32I have to suggest that an experienced Luftwaffe fighter pilot,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36who is well used to doing aerobatics
0:12:36 > 0:12:40and high joule manoeuvres in a dogfight would not
0:12:40 > 0:12:44become disorientated quite so quickly as perhaps you've experienced today.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48So as far as you're concerned, what really happened?
0:12:48 > 0:12:51He realised there was no chance of him backtracking
0:12:51 > 0:12:55and getting back across country and across the English channel.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57There was an umbrella of Spitfires
0:12:57 > 0:13:00waiting to hack him out of the sky or forcing him lower and lower
0:13:00 > 0:13:05to the ground, but apart from that, he was short of fuel.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08So, really, it was pure self-preservation?
0:13:08 > 0:13:13Yeah, most certainly. He decided that the only way that he was going to survive
0:13:13 > 0:13:20was to pick the nearest aerodrome on UK territory and land.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Fighter command have captured a nice new specimen of Germany's latest fighter, the Focke-Wulf 190...
0:13:25 > 0:13:26Armin Faber's plane
0:13:26 > 0:13:30was repainted in RAF colours and tested to destruction.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35As a result, future Marks of Spitfire were designed with modified wings
0:13:35 > 0:13:40and bigger engines, to regain their edge in the skies.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48Armin Faber became a prisoner and survived the war after landing here at Pembrey.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The events of that day in 1942 also meant countless
0:13:52 > 0:13:57Allied pilots survived, thanks to their improved planes.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
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