[Music]
a team of experts has gathered in
northern France for a special Expedition
we've got a lot of work to
do they've come to find a secret tunnel
used in the bloodiest battle of World
War
I God it's getting more dangerous all
the time recover a forgotten weapon of
Terror trapped inside it
what that's it that's it and with the
help of the British royal Engineers good
to go when you are rebuild it it was
designed to instill the most horrific
Terror good grief that's burning my
face M
France
historian Peter Barton has come to
investigate a very special
field with him a battlefield
archaeologists Tony
Pollard and Ian Banks might pick
something up in this tunnel
here it may look beautiful today but
don't let this idilic scenery fool you
this was once one of the most dangerous
places on the entire
planet in the summer of 1916
this was at the heart of the battle of
the som the most infamous clash of the
first world war the battle raged across
this entire area but these particular
fields are very
special we've come to find a secret
tunnel that runs beneath this
field called sap 14 it stretched from
the British front line to the very edge
of the German
trenches it contained explosives that
could sh scatter German
defenses a secret hatch that delivered
troops straight into the enemy
line and the most terrifying weapon of
the war the livin's flame
projector they've had real trouble
getting into the tunnels and they've
taken the timber out of the incline what
is that we've had no indication of this
thing continuing on it's around here
close but this just is not it but the
VES are coming up by the Dozen what we
found is a toothbrush
Vaseline this is a French ban it it's
flame projector is it is it no to that's
flame projector yeah they found a key
part of the projector a valve that
controlled the flow of oil to the head
of the
weapon once it was opened hundreds of
liters of oil would race forward causing
the machine to rise up and punch through
the soil there was nothing like it on
the Western
Front yeah okay the team's convinced
more of it remains inomed beneath their
feet after carefully removing it from
the ground they've taken it to the fines
tent for a closer
look it's really cleaned up now isn't it
beautiful we're still taking some clumps
of dirt off it we don't want to do too
much to it obviously before the
conservators get to it it's hard to
believe that it's practically 100 years
old it's in such good Nick so good in
fact that if you look down there yeah
and I turn this you see the valve moving
opening and closing that's phenomenal
really after almost 100 years in the
ground which says it all really about
British
engineering well now we've got this is
immediately asks the question can we get
any more of it I'm hopeful that as we
get into that destroyed incline we will
find more pieces with just 5 days left
Tony gets back to work at the Eastern
incline from the War Diaries the teams
learned that hours before the battle of
the S began the projector was hauled
into this staircase that led to the
sap but before it could be carried into
firing position a shell hit the
incline burying the weapon Beyond
recall we've taken out the piece of the
flame projector from what we believe to
be the entrance of the incline down into
the sap and just beneath we've
encountered what looks for all the world
like a woodlin floor which is sloping
down as we would expect down under the
ground toward the sap so sitting on this
floor I'm hopeful that we will encounter
other pieces of the flame
projector as Tony continues to excavate
the incline I check in with Peter at the
front
line they came in search of the sap and
flamethrower but couldn't resist
Excavating a stretch of this iconic
trench Peter this is such a neat piece
of archaeology you've got the first
world Bo trench there and then obviously
it would have continued in that
direction and here and over there what
does it tell you about what life would
have been like for the people who were
guarding the front it's a deeply
evocative piece of archaeology here we
have an armchair it's only a sandbag to
us but it was an armchair to those
soldiers this is the only place you
could sit in this trench there's nowhere
else to go you'd have your feet
inspected you have your rifle inspected
you receive letters from home you'd
write letters from home and you wonder
when this damn war was going to end so
this was like their home really wasn't
it yeah this was your home you kept it
clean and you knew this as well as your
home here for instance you've got petrol
tin wouldn't have carried petrol though
that would have carried water that's the
only way you could bring water into the
trenches it very often tasted of petrol
down here you've got
that's a tin of jam probably Plum and
apple yeah astonishing tiny little Slice
of Life but a tiny little slice of
thousands of
life back at the Eastern incline more of
the floors revealed our piece of flame
projector was on this Step at the top on
the level now I would imagine looking at
the angle of this that anything that was
put on this there's a good chance it's
going to roll down the Chute so we may
have at the bottom of the incline I'm
not quite sure how deep a whole pile of
flame projector parts so what we've been
doing is we brought the machine in and
we're trying to
catch at a deeper
level the incline coming
down but Tony's got another reason to be
excited this is now looking like our
best bet to get down into the sa just
keep our fingers
crossed
with a key piece of the projector
recovered the team starts the second
part of this remarkable
project we don't know what this thing
looks like in action and I think to
complete the circle of this story it
would be great to be able to see this
thing actually firing or something which
resembled it actually
firing to Kickstart the rebuild Peter
travels to chattam
UK home of the royal
engineers
today's generation of Royal Engineers
come to learn how to clear Mine Fields
and build
Bridges but in 1916 the curriculum
contained some very different
lessons when they weren't learning how
to dig trenches and tunnels they trained
with poison gas and
flamethrowers almost a century ago the
inventor of our flame projector walked
these very grounds a recent Cambridge
grad and Brilliant engineer his name was
William
livens what do we know about livens uh
he joined up on the very first day that
war broke out and said I want to get
into action but he didn't get to do that
unfortunately he came here to req in
chattam where he was stuck in a
signaling section so he was just a kind
of glorified messenger really sort of
yeah sending messages by motorbike here
and there or by Telegram and he was
desperately frustrated so what was the
Tipping Point point for him well that
happened on May the 7th 1915 and that
was the sinking of the
Lucitania and livens thought that his
fiance Elizabeth was on that ship he
checked on the passenger list and there
was her name so he believed that she was
one of the 1100 who' gone down with the
ship and at that very moment he swore
that he would kill as many Germans
personally as civilians that had gone
down on that ship 3 days later he got a
telegram saying she missed the boat so
when he found out she was still alive
did he withdraw that vow he didn't what
was his plan to kill all these people in
one of these rooms around this Square he
starts experimenting with poison gases
and Flame projectors of course news of
his inventions quickly spread and in
time the 25-year-old was put in charge
of Zed section a secret unit tasked with
building
flamethrowers the prototypes under devel
velopment were death traps just as
likely to burn operators as intended
targets convinced he could do better
livens began to build the deadliest
flamethrower in
history unlike earlier models this one
could be secretly fired from a
tunnel 20 cylinders of compressed
nitrogen forced the fuel towards the
front of the
machine as pressure built the monitor
head head rose up and punched through
the
soil torches lit the fuel as it left the
nozzle the result was a weapon of
unimaginable Terror and
power now with the help of the royal
Engineers will'll try and make a working
model in some of the very shops livens
might have used in
1916
to get started Peter and Tony first pay
a visit to the Royal engineer who will
be leading the rebuild of the flame
projector staff sergeant Steve
boan Steve how do you feel about
building a working model of what we
found some of those pieces seem
incredibly complicated are you intending
to rebuild those no Tony some of the
parts we found were absolutely amazing
we're going to hopefully use modern
components It's Quickly Deployable a lot
lighter but will still do the job what
kind of propulsions system are you going
to use we're going to use a cent fugal
pump that'll be driven by a diesel
engine it's a lot safer and a lot easier
to control and manage it sounds like
this is the opposite of what you
normally do with fuels we spend 99% of
our time trying not to set a light to
fuel but this one's going to burn I'm
sure of it and after all Peter we are
the oil Engineers we can do anything as
Steve gets to work on the machine Tony
and Peter head back to site they now
have just days to finish the
dig at the Eastern incline efforts to
find more parts of the projector
continue that sounds Hollow that's
Hollow Gary can I come down of course
you can yeah yeah
yeah there is a little void underneath
what they thought was the floor May in
fact be the roof outside oh wait a
minute there's a wall here as well if
part of it still intact they may have
discovered a time capsule from June
1916 oh that's rope it is it
is Rope
Rope the head of the monitor was lifted
with
rope do you remember on the photograph
yeah had pulley
yeah in case the Hydraulics failed the
monitor head could be raised with a
pulley that's a great
sign but we got some digging today hav't
we yeah I think that's an interesting
thing
this one piece will make 52 layers watch
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required they've uncovered the shattered
top of the structure and are crossing
their fingers that the rest of it
beneath their
feet with the help of the royal
Engineers they start to uncover the
incline the epicenter somewhere here
yeah Chap's filling the Barrow faster
than I can move
it what they find is
astonishing 30 ft of shell blasted roof
and
walls a very nice job boys they hope
more of the projector will be trapped
inside and that it might finally lead to
the sap well this is really exciting and
look how it's
twisted it's just like a big roller
coaster yeah it's tremendously steep I'd
rather be carrying a a flame projector
down it than bring it back out again
yeah we've got a lot more work to do in
here we're nowhere near the bottom yet
yeah as work continues to uncover the
incline I head over to the fines tent
the fines are really starting to come up
now aren't they and we got some really
nice little insights into what they were
doing in their downtime um much of it
appears to be related to alcohol um
which is something that as archaeologist
as we can understand fully today we've
got a Johnny Walker Whiskey Bottle here
which was a real favorite of the British
soldier bottle made in kilman in
Scotland cork still in it we've got a
French perno
bottle and let's not forget we've got
both French and British on this site the
French first and then the British taking
over and I think my favorite is this
shampagne
bottle which shows some degree of high
living which still has the label visible
on it
what about the smaller finds Tony well
this is lovely this was in the Frontline
trench and it's a daddy's Source bottle
brown sauce which is still my source of
choice so men sat there overlooking the
Germans and slapping this stuff on their
bully beef then we have a beautiful
little ink
well which is very emotive I suppose
brings brings to mind the the image of
the the soldier writing letters home
from the front line beautiful made um
and it's got these little grooves in it
and the reason they're there is you can
simply rest your
pen what's that intriguing little thing
well this is actually my favorite find
from the entire dick believe it or not
and it came from the incline entrance
and it's a little love heart carved from
a pebble and some Soldier whether he
intended to give this to his girlfriend
or wife or whatever um lost it but a
beautiful little thing and brings to
mind so many other things than War
with Just 4 days left efforts to find
the bottom of the incline
continue they hoped it would lead into
the sap but after Chasing it for 40 ft
it's not looking
good that's the end that is the end so
there's nothing no more Timber Beyond
there no more Tim they've recovered
everything from here it looks that
way everything except for this incline
has been Stripped by the tunnelers and
the saps caved
in everything they could get into
they've robbed one part of this project
has come to an end it is disappointing
not to be able to get into the original
galleries the original
tunnels but another is still very much
alive we do have much if not all of our
Eastern incline which presumably within
it may well have more of our flame
projector that's it it's pull it up like
a book as the the explosions knocked it
knocked it through so anything that was
in that incline is still in
there but the team's been given one more
chance to get a glimpse of the tunnel's
world word of the Dig has spread and
we've been invited to buzen cor a
Village 12 km north of our
site during the war tunnelers expanded
medieval catacombs that run deep beneath
this church
sealed off for years the team's been
given special permission to enter armed
with a mechanical Canary that will
monitor oxygen levels they head off into
the world of the
tunnelers concrete bunker this no idea
how deep it
is in the weeks before the battle of the
S began Allied soldiers took Refuge
here far below ground they was safe from
German shells as they waited to enter
the battle is it getting narrower and
lower it's definitely getting
lower at the edge of the Catacombs they
reached the point where the tunnelers
would have begun their
work choice of directions here T TOS of
coin go left or right here was down
there should we try this way yeah okay
careful on that drop okay step these
Chambers were carved through hard rock
Comm to this
region Although our sap was dug through
CL this is what most of the tunnelers
working on the Som would have faced look
at this niches inscriptions and all
sorts on the side here loads of graffiti
there's graffiti everywhere there is
1916 it's everywhere it is everywhere
there's a Canadian Machine Gun Company
here Canadian Corporal SRC Brook 43 6128
first Canadian Machine Gun Company
late of McMinville I think
1916 that's
amazing absolutely
astonishing is that detector behaving
itself it is it's still chirping yeah
Nails in the wall for putting kit on
look at that there's 10 cans
everywhere everything beneath the grass
is Frozen in time isn't it everything oh
look at this is it a
bed it's very very probably yeah
yeah should we go through here
yeah just goes on and on and
on helmets were a good
idea yeah pair of
boots wow is that
archaeology That's
History I know we didn't get into our
own but coming into here is it's just
special isn't it it's time capsule it
leaves
breathless with admiration for those men
doesn't it their war was digging through
this stuff that's 24 hours a day 7 days
a week amazing but they had to do it it
had to be ready for the 1 of
July although they didn't get
Underground on sight they've managed for
a few incredible moments to walk in the
footsteps of the
tunnelers back at the site the hunt for
more of the projector is in real real
trouble last night the area was pounded
by a ferocious storm oh dear yes uh
quite a turnaround um well in there we
re as about 3T of water that's good I'm
wear the right boots for
us so the site really today is
unworkable and it's Wednesday today and
we've got to be out by Friday definitely
got to be out by Friday there are no
options there and we still have some key
tasks to do by then what's key what's
vital what do we need to have done by
the time we go the key the key task is
getting into that incline we've exposed
it very carefully we hope within there
we're going to find more evidence for
our flame projector but we need the
conditions to be able to do
that as we wait for the site to dry out
I head back to chattam to check in on
the
rebuild Steve and some of his students
from the Royal School of military
engineering are about to test it with
water this really is quite a big moment
for me because everyone spent so much
time and trouble researching the
flamethrower and they've pinned all
their hopes in it and now for the very
first time I can see it Steve hi Tony
wow this is something isn't it thanks
very much I'm glad you like it I didn't
say that I said it's something it is
something yeah the one thing that
strikes me is quite what I large area it
all covers it certainly is it's our
first trial with a bits and pieces with
a water and we've got a few things here
we might not actually use on the day but
we're going to tral a lot of it see what
works best then move that forward for
the uh final shot with the fuel so what
is it that you want to try and find out
today it's the first time all of this
have been put together like this we want
to see what it works we want to see what
it pumps we want to see what it produces
pressure Peter come over here for a
minute this is your
baby how are you feeling I'm just
delighted to be working with people who
know exactly what they're doing I mean
this this is an absolute monster yeah
living's machine was powered by
compressed air but our rebuild will be
driven by a massive diesel engine we've
got a big mechanical pump here basically
this is what's going to take the fuel
it's going to suck it out of our tanks
it's going to move it through the pipes
and the valves and it's going to move it
onto our larger pump
there we're going to bring it all out
from these tanks here basically one at a
time so these four tanks will hopefully
represent our four shots these bags will
soon hold fuel but today they're filled
with
water 2,000 L of it per minute is about
to be sucked from these bags and thrown
towards the nozzle at 15
m/s are we ready to go I think we're
ready to go Tony we're certainly ready
to for our first shot if you want to see
what it looks like let's go for our
first shot get out the
way with the all clear it's time to see
this thing in action
[Music]
oh There He
Go very impressive te
yeah his first e here yeah we're getting
slightly showered here aren't we we're
ping to a quite strong headwind in a
minute as well
yeah that's 2,700 l in a matter of
seconds so that's going to give L some
flame in some
heat you
down even though we weren't in the
direction of the wind we were still
being covered with a lot of spray can
imagine how dangerous that would have
been to the louds behind it especially
feeling that mist on your skin if that's
that's oil or flame it would have been
horrendous it really would have been
with the fuel it's going to be
absolutely essential that the wind is in
the right direction otherwise we're not
going to be able to use it at all
certainly and that's something what we
want to avoid on the day but you're
going have a fiddle with it we're going
to have a fiddle a tinker with it and
see what we can
do well as tests go it wasn't bad but
when I come back it'll be the real
thing when we left yesterday to check on
the rebuild the site was a
mess the team believe that more of the
projector can be found at the bottom of
the incline but to get inside they need
to remove the
water Gary why have you turned the pump
off we've got to a point where it's just
slurry so rather than clug the pump so
be slurry what we're going to do we're
going to form a human chain and just
bucket this out so as it's out of our
way okay so with just two days to go
they decide to roll up their
sleeves and get a firsthand Taste of the
infamous mud of the Som now we're
cooking on
Gus uh and so we've resorted to the old
bucket
line try not to kill him F try not to
kill
him Chain's broke down for some reason
Chain's broken down we just got to send
all these empties down now sound like
you're in the PB Peete send all the
empties
[Laughter]
down few more
chaps empty okay well
done put a bit of color in your
cheeks well in big fell well done
K it's back to the university for
me as we prepare for the final push
Peter and I head to the end of the
sap by July the 1st
1916 it was over 100 m
long we've taped out the line of the sap
and you can see it comes right to the
German line so beneath our feet here
there would have been two board mines
and they were blown on the moment of
zero 7:30 a.m. 1st of July 196 and what
was the effect of that it blew in two
German dugouts possibly containing
machine guns a snipers post and it would
have wrecked their front line completely
so what it really did was neutralize
this part of the line immediately after
that from this point here out popped a
party of men from the manhole and went
straight into the German trenches so
anybody in other dugouts coming up will
see there's British soldiers here what
what can you
do were there many casualties the
company who attacked from our line over
there a minute and a half away across No
Man's Land had no casualties at all this
seems to fly in the face of everything
that we've always learned about the Som
was it a
fluke well it appears that wherever the
saps were used with Ingenuity there is a
correlation between success and the use
of saps so all the way down the the
South here where they had clever and
intelligent use of these saps
flamethrowers mortars machine guns mines
they gained all their objectives
elsewhere
Nothing by the end of July the 1st the
Allies had grabbed the German front line
and raced deep into enemy territory for
the first time since the War Began M was
in Allied hands to the east attacks were
launched from almost a dozen saps driven
by the 183
Peter has learned that this is where the
living's flame projector saw action that
day hours before the battle three were
hauled into
saps ours was struck by a shell but the
others made it into
position just on the ridge over there
where the two trees are they managed to
get two in
use at 7:30 a.m. living's creation made
its terrifying debut on the Western
Front
it was really instilling Dreadful Terror
the machines worked and the German line
was hammered by a terrifying wall of
flame once that flame was burning across
here it drove the Germans into the
dugouts and when they came up again the
trenches were full of British
troops within hours kilometers of enemy
territory and hundreds of Germans were
in Allied hands
it was one of the most successful
operations of the war to date following
the Battle horis hickling the architect
of the tunneling scheme posed with his
men in captured German
equipment so what hickling put into
place here to assist those men was
totally
unexpected that's the key surprise
surprise surprise but it seems to me
that you're making a big assumption
which is that the difference was the
saps but there must have been other
factors at play were there less Germans
on this part of the line than elsewhere
yes that has been said but that of
course begs the question why invest so
much time effort and Ingenuity in a
place where you think it's more weakly
hell why not place it somewhere else why
not put it at a massive strong point
further north as evidence Peter points
out the fate of the 9th deers an Allied
units that went into battle to the right
of our
field despite attacking along the same
stretch of front at 7:30 a.m. they were
Torn to Pieces while trying to cross No
Man's Land the key difference between
their field and ours no
saps but Peter believes the most tragic
misuse of the saps occurred in the
northern sector of the front over 3,000
M of tunnels had been driven in the
weeks before the
battle to learn more about what happened
here Peter and I head north to to visit
the battlefield near
s we must be what 10 mil away from where
we're Excavating were there saps all the
way along this line there were we are 10
miles away exactly yes and there were
saps everywhere all the way from our
site to this point here we're in front
of s and this is the northern boundary
of the S Battlefield and what happened
here probably the worst disaster of the
entire battle there were saps here for
the Infantry to use but they attacked
over the top those saps were not planted
to be used by those troops the front
line was not captured and no man's land
was a carpet of British dead and wounded
it was a disastrous day I don't
understand why was the decision made not
to use the tunnels it seems that the
choice was the divisional commanders and
the commander here thought that the
artillery would do the job for him so he
said right we will use these tunnels but
only after we've captured the German
front line and then we can use them for
safe communication so he didn't put into
place any mines no machine guns no
flamethrowers certainly it's ironic
really isn't it all these guys were
coming out of their trenches and
underneath their feet was their
salvation that's absolutely right they
could have used those tunnels with a bit
of thought with a bit of communication
with a bit of Ingenuity with less
confidence in those guns they were there
for them it's a
tragedy the disaster was repeated
throughout the northern sector of the
front within 24 hours 60,000 men were
dead or
wounded among the hardest hit the first
New Foundland
regiment 780 men went into battle that
morning in this field just south of
s 68 reported for Duty the next
day after the 1st of July what happened
to the whole notion of digging tunnels
under the no man's land they took it up
immediately by the 3rd of July they'd
already put into place schemes for more
saps a hell of a lot more saps on the
places where they'd not made any gains
and I'm talking about quadrupling the
number so they instantly realized that
the mistake they'd made on the 1 of July
by not using them properly in the North
in the next battles in 1917 at vimi
Ridge at Aris at messine they put in
massive Russian sa schemes in order to
achieve exactly the same as they wanted
to do here on the 1st of July to help
the Infantry get into the first of
German trenches and move on from
there as day 14 comes to an end they've
now got just hours to get inside the
incline and find more of the
flamethrower the entire project has come
down to the
wire at the bottom of the incline the
team's ready to start removing the
timber in hopes of finding more of the
projector
so youve got the sling around it now
yeah what we're going to do we're going
to try and see if we can sort of extract
it like you would a tooth you know bring
it pull it straight
out hey Gary do your
wor on your
double I'm not letting you anywhere near
my
teeth it's coming now
got oh he's got it he's got it he's got
it lift lift lift lift
[Music]
oh oh
[Music]
fantastic as they remove more Timber
they spot a void in the
clay what is it
Gary is it metal it's quite
substantial it's about 8 to 10 in wide
yes in diameter looks like like it could
be a tank oh
boy it could be the firing tubes there
were seven of those it sounds Hollow
Gary do you think you're going to have
to extend that hole or do you think you
can get it out as it
is we're definitely going to have to
extend the hole and there's a flange on
the end of it
that's there's a flange right right on
the end of it exactly stands out about
that for
correct correct he knows it's correct he
can feel
it he's never felt before nobody's felt
one for 990 years
Tony Peter hopes they found another key
piece of the machine a firing
tube where they actually held the fuel
and the Piston pushed the fuel through
into the firing head if we have got what
we think it is that's going to make the
whole dig worthwhile is
completely but there's a catch the rains
destabilized the banks and they can't
risk digging here for
long given us a bit of concern on this
side so we don't want to waste too much
time just be careful
mate with time running out they launch a
final effort to retrieve the piece would
be fantastic to get that one
out thanks
J nicely done
sir it's like a an ancient Cannon coming
out of the
[Music]
seabed right give him
[Music]
room okay that's it set it there can you
identify the part I
[Music]
can part number 321 injection pipe plain
hey F
time amazing really given what we faced
this morning I never thought we' get
here it's incredible well done Peete
well done guys with the artifact out of
the ground there's just one last job to
do Royal Engineers come on and the honor
is given to a very special part of the
team on you
there it's rather touching that 90 years
ago their predecessors brought that
through the trenches and carried it down
and now it's Royal Engineers from 2010
carrying it out then makes you feel
rather tearful any a way it really does
I think as day 15 comes to a close it's
time to end this remarkable
excavation as far as I'm concerned
that's mission accomplished we've got
various pieces of the machine we've
exposed and recorded the structure we
understand what's happening with it as
far as we can so as far as I'm concerned
I do not see the need to go into that
any further don't you want to get
further in Peter I'd love to but I agree
with Tony I think uh I think we have
found what we need and we've come up
with the goods we have found the parts
of this extraordinary unique machine
they may exist nowhere else on
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Earth with the excavation over it's time
to head back to chattam for the first
time in history we'll try to fire a real
rebuild of a massive first world war
flamethrower as the Dig continued the
Royal Engineers have been hard at work
on the
rebuild while they' never used such a
horrifying weapon in battle it's finally
ready for the test range it's a lot of
work g into it though isn't it it's much
bigger than it was before this
construction is very sturdy thick heavy
pipe um an ibeam behind it and we
certainly don't want to move so how are
you going to ignite the fuel as it comes
out through the nozzle we've got two
welding torches and we've got the Flames
crossed and we're going to fire the fuel
through them Flames you've got a new
nozzle as well that's tighter is it than
the other one yep we've got a nozzle on
there it's very true to to Levan's
original um system we've copyed the
original one uh and hopefully it'll do
the job that's the valve then Steve
that's the fast acting shut off valve
yeah y That's the fast acting shut off
valve it's very key it's operated by air
and his job is to slam shut for supply
of fuel also to open it but it's a key
piece of equipment this dead man's
switch is critical to the team's safety
after each firing this valve will be
slammed shut instantly cutting off the
fuel this should keep the flame from
traveling down the pipe and igniting
5,000 L of fuel if it fails the entire
sight could go up but it's just one of
the problems Steve's facing I'd be
embarrassed if we can't set a light to
it if we can't it light uh you know a
lot of caraz in were welding torches we
haven't done our job so sleepless nights
for you then for the past few weeks I've
got a bet on it I'm confident it'll go
but that would be my biggest Bo he
doesn't ignore good luck front gate
Cordon can you please close the gate
over after all this work the team's
anxious to see this thing in action this
is from Gate C gate Clos over but once
again Mother Nature refusing to
cooperate this wind must be quite on the
Ed
the winds picked up and if it gets any
worse they'll have to cancel the test
but that's the thing about these weapons
and gas and stuff the wind's got to be
in the right direction all the
conditions got to be
right finally as it dies down for a
moment Steve decides to go for it what
are they using it oxy acetylene torches
yeah it's a very very peculiar feeling
to be here this has been in my head day
and night for
years it's as if everything up to now
has been academic and now it's become
something very
different Steve hopes these torches will
ignite the fuel as it Rockets from the
nozzle I can feel my blood pressure
Rising but he's not sure if it'll work
the jet of fuel May simply blow the
Torches out like
candles off start a
pump to increase his odds Steve's
decided to go with a shot of pure kosene
it burns easily but there's one drawback
at this volume it may turn into a giant
ball of burning gas and not a controlled
burst of
flame good to go where you
are
with this valve
open there's no turning
back here we go
right oh astonishing feel the heat stand
back
Tony that's exactly like the photographs
God that this good grief that is hor
that's burning my face even at a safe
distance the Heat's tremendous
we'll burn out the world good Lord
wow exactly like the
photographs oh God
SM brings tears to your eyes isn't
it I'm that was very
uncomfortable that is
horrific incredibly it's worked but now
they want to see if they can get it
closer to the real thing in 1916 livens
added diesel to his fuel the Diesel's in
there to give it extra thickness and
carry and also to make sure it stays
alike when when it reaches the German
trenches so some of it's Al light as
it's going over there it lands in the
trenches and then it catches fire so
whoever's in the The
Trenches if they can get a mixture of
diesel and kosine to ignite this is as
close to the original as anyone's ever
going to get
okay Parky good to go in you
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are oh dear dear
dear at that with the added diesel the
results are even more
incredible getting that's getting
afterburn with the gas that's reiting
isn't it it
is Lego my
eyebrows dear God
Almighty
wow just a bit extra diesel you see what
that does that's exactly what he wanted
to achieve in
1916 anything landed on which would burn
would burn well everything is so there's
no escape from
that my lips are
burning with the test of success it's
time to dismantle the projector forever
well I think the the sapper should be
very proud of themselves don't that's
great job isn't it amazing I'm surprised
by the actual heat coming off of it it
is quite a frightening
object I think one of the lessons we've
learned this afternoon watching this
firing is how effective this weapon
would have been we've seen through the
archaeology how good the trenches could
have been but protecting you from
machine gun fire and even to a degree
from artillery but the thing with the
flame projector is it's it's delivering
flame down on top of you and what is
supposed to be a means of Defense
effectively becomes a death
trap for Peter it's given him a
firsthand view of a war He's only seen
in photos the most impressive thing
thing was to see a moment in time or a
few moments in time of the First wall in
color and that's what we got here today
every image you look at is black and
white but today we can replace the color
in those amazing archive
images we can see exactly what this
weapon would have done it also
highlighted the engineering feat pulled
off by The Machine's inventor William
living within 25 weeks it's gone from
the page the first first pencil sketches
on a page to being deployed on the song
so that's devising designing building
testing training transporting rebuilding
and using it on the 1st of July
1916 that's an unbelievable
achievement but despite its performance
on July the 1st his invention would be
used only twice more in
battle as the war grew more mobile his
massive projector became obsolete you
needed very specific conditions to use a
weapon like this the front had to be
static and once it started moving
forward there was very very few
opportunities the advance had to stop
for you to reuse it as the war dragged
on livens continued to develop
weapons in 1918 3 years after making his
vow to avenge the Lucitania he returned
home to his
wife he didn't stop designing but one of
the most bizarre things about this
really bizarre life is the next thing he
designed was nothing to do with weapons
it was an electric
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dishwasher we came in search of secret
tunnels but in the end we found so much
more after moving a mountain of dirt we
stood in the front line of the Som found
key pieces of a top secret weapon and
for a few moments saw the first world
war in Vivid terrifying
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color
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