Shallow Yellow Sky

At the end of the 1930s, Hitler ordered the construction of a special train that could transport him around safely and appease his growing paranoia. A veritable fortress on rails, this armored fifteen-carriage convoy served as his mobile headquarters, and was where he met privately with Pétain, Franco and Mussolini. It was also the target of numerous assassination plots by the British secret service. Equipped with the most advanced communication facilities and a battery of anti-aircraft cannons, its construction called for a team of the biggest names in engineering, while the luxurious interior of each coach was designed by the Führer himself. We travel to Germany to discover what's left of these exceptional trains, and dig through the few surviving archives to retrace the little-known history of this special train and pierce the secrets behind Hitler's beast of steel. —Daniel Ablin