On June 14th, 1940, Paris falls under German occupation. Two doctors, Jean Talairach and René Suttel, discover an entrance to the mines of the city. They start a mapping operation of the catacombs in order to help the Resistance and de Gaulle.
How did two young resistance fighters manage to find their bearings in this dark maze? How did they successfully thwart the traps and the alarms set by the Germans?
Risking their lives and driven by the hope of helping the Resistance, they returned night and night, brushing against enemy bunkers. In record time, the two anonymous heroes mapped out over 300 kilometers of galleries. Thanks to them, Colonel Rol-Tanguy, who led the Resistance, was able to establish an underground headquarter under Place Denfert-Rochereau in the heart of Paris.
This human story is partly narrated by Talairach himself, in a moving posthumous testimony, and by René Suttel’s daughter. It features gripping reenactments, historic archives, and unpublished maps drawn by hand. Follow the underground odyssey of two ordinary men who showed extraordinary courage against the backdrop of this great chapter of the history of Paris under the German occupation.
Up Next in World War Two
-
Fortress War - Liberation80: Jersey
Eighty years ago, on May 9th, 1945, British forces arrived to liberate the Channel Island of Jersey, the only part of the British Isles under Nazi occupation. Now, on the 80th anniversary of that day, Dan Snow travels to the island to explore the five long, challenging years of German rule. He di...
-
The Auschwitz House
On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Dan Snow and History Hit were given unique access to the house formerly home to the commandant of the concentration camp, Rudolf Höss.
Barely touched since the end of the second world war (and recently featured in the Oscar winning film The...
-
Stalingrad: The Last Letters
Stalingrad: The Last Letters, a History Hit Original feature-length documentary, revealing newly translated, never-before heard accounts that shed light on the agonising final moments of the men trapped in the ruins of Stalingrad during the Second World War.
Discovered and translated by renowned...
