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Arts & Culture

Spies Beneath Berlin

Ex-spies gather to share gripping personal accounts of a covert operation. "Spies Beneath Berlin" tells the extraordinary true story of the top secret mission to build a spy tunnel under Berlin, one of the most heavily guarded cities in history. In 1954, at the height of the Cold War, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious covert operation.
Courtesy of American Public Television
Ex-spies gather to share gripping personal accounts of a covert operation. "Spies Beneath Berlin" tells the extraordinary true story of the top secret mission to build a spy tunnel under Berlin, one of the most heavily guarded cities in history. In 1954, at the height of the Cold War, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious covert operation.

Airs Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

"Spies Beneath Berlin" tells the extraordinary true story of the top secret mission to build a spy tunnel under Berlin, one of the most heavily guarded cities in history. In 1954, at the height of the Cold War, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious covert operation.

A section of the original Berlin tunnel.
Courtesy of Allied Museum
A section of the original Berlin tunnel.

Against a background threat of nuclear Armageddon and World War III, they targeted Berlin, a city cleaved in two by East-West tensions. Their mission: to gain advance notice of a possible Soviet attack by tapping into Red Army communications.

How did the agents of MI6 and the CIA escape capture by East German and Red Army troops? How did they tunnel half a mile through territory riddled with unmapped pockets of water? And how did they keep a giant engineering project secret in this closely watched city?

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Drawing upon gripping personal accounts combined with fresh scientific and historical analysis, this film pieces together the full story of a remarkable mission.