Web Animation / Unclassified Encounter

"A series of horror stories, all set against the backdrop of World War II. Tales of horror and suspense, inspired by real-life stories of bravery and valour. History that you won’t find inside any textbook....."

—-Series description

Unclassified Encounter is a horror channel by Simon Andrews, the primary writer for Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel). Like its sister series, it focuses on various paranormal and supernatural encounters. Unlike the former, though, this channel's episodes are set primarily during World War II, though some side stories do visit other wars and eras.

Compare with Wartime Stories, a sister channel that also occasionally focuses on horror-themed paranormal and supernatural encounters set during wartime.

Unlike the other two channels, which usually leave it up to the viewer as to whether the stories are true or not, Unclassified Encounter is entirely fictional.

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This series contains examples of:

• Acid Pool: Corporal Bulgan in "PURGATORY: DUTY" forces the Nazi Lieutenant into one of the acid vats after finally getting his hands on him. A few of the zombies were already lurking in other vats, but it only made them more dangerous.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In Episode 6: "ANIMUS", Wenck's last words to Magda are a plea for mercy. He doesn't get it. Given that he was about to shoot her less than a minute before, it's hardly surprising.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The alien being encountered in "Episode 3: Nerthol" clearly does not value human life, seeing them as pests that need to be either exterminated or studied.
• Alternate History: World War II as depicted in this series wasn't just between the Allied and Axis Powers, but also against a number of alien, subterranean, and supernatural beings threatening the existence of not only either power, but the entire world. Also, both the Allies and Axis get their hands on both alien and powerful ancient artifacts that would possibly help them turn the tide of the war in their favor.
• Always a Bigger Fish: In "Short Story: HUAKA'I PO", the Japanese soldier has outfought Billy, and has him dead to rights... and then a column of Night Marchers shows up and carries him away.
• An Arm and a Leg: The Soviet veterans in Dudinka in 1946 are often missing limbs; many wounded veterans were sent to the tiny, remote port village by their government to keep them out of the public eye. The town’s doctor has lost both his legs, and the two murderers among them are missing their right arms.
• Ancient Evil: Quite a few of the horrors in the series are at least several hundred years old:
  • Father Camus' diary claims the demon from Episode 2 was confronted by French knights centuries ago, but it may be far older than that.
  • Exactly how old the Morgen is, or where it came from, is never mentioned, but Alonzo Molina was far from its first victim even back in 1585.
  • The immortal cannibalistic Serial Killer Lucius first learned about his immortality almost two thousand years ago.
  • Blight takes the cake, it has been around since long before humanity, from a time of "Mighty dragons".
• Ancient Order of Protectors: Father Camus in Episode 2 was the last in a long line that stretched back to the Middle Ages. Somehow, the first of them struck a Deal with the Devil to keep the nearby town safe from harm from a demon, with each priest handing the responsibility down to the next.
• And I Must Scream: The short story "Oubliette", a follow-up to "Episode 7: Morgen", is a Perspective Flip from the zombies' point-of-view, showing how their minds and vision remained intact but their bodies were reduced to mere puppets of the creature that captured and drowned them, until either its or their destruction.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Lt. Mallinson begins turning into a Wendigo at the very end of Episode 4, but he’s immediately given a Mercy Kill by Johnny Graywolf before he can attack anyone.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: In his childhood, Johnny Graywolf was this to his older brother Alexander, sitting down after less than an hour of walking and whining about being too tired to continue… unless he gets to carry his older brother’s axe.
• Anyone Can Die: Being set in the middle of a major global conflict, expect many of the servicemen mentioned in the episodes to bite it even before the halfway point of an episode.
• Apparently Human Merfolk: Beneath their armor, it turns out the Atlanteans closely resemble tall, eerily pale humans, but with blank Prophet Eyes, webbed fingers, and gills in their necks. They also do not speak, and it’s implied they communicate with some form of telepathy.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Graf Von Stalheim from "Short Story: ANATHEMA" was a member of old German aristocracy who somehow ingratiated himself to the Nazis. He also was behind the nightmarish plan to use escaped POWs to spread a magic green fire among the Allied bases. 
• Armor Is Useless: One of the undead in "Episode 7: MORGEN" is wearing rusted, antique Spanish armor. WWII military-grade firearms punch right through it, but they also go through the undead without doing any damage.
• Asteroids Monster: The creature from "Ministerial Briefing: OPERATION VANGUARD" is split in half at one point, but both halves simply become autonomous organisms that quickly start attacking people again.
• Atlantis: Heavily implied to be where the mysterious submariners and their craft are from, given their tridents and equipment.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Nobody mourned the German Major who was killed by the demon, considering he had ordered a reprisal and massacre of French civilians despite them being innocent and had refused to heed the parish priest's warnings.
    • In addition, the demon's first two human victims were a pair of lowlife poachers with a very bad reputation.
  • The Nazis killed by the Golems during the Dresden bombings were responsible for a number of heinous crimes both prior to and during the war, including the burning down of the city's old synagogue.
  • Col. Alexander sees the live test subjects of the Hengis weapons experiments as this, as they were taken from high-security prisons, serving life sentences. That said, it's shown in-story that at least one of them was an innocent man deliberately framed as a murderer after killing a monster, leaving it up in the air as to how many were actually Killed to Uphold the Masquerade.
  • Col. Alexander himself, who's been absolutely horrible to everyone under his command from the get-go, is killed by Nazi spy Billy Schmidt during his getaway.
• Badass Native: Johnny Graywolf, a huge, tough native of the Pacific Northwest who proves to be The Big Guy of his battalion in Episode 4.
  • In "BOQ", several Chinook from Johnny Graywolf's village go out to kill the Boq – and though they lose a couple of their number, they succeed, giving them the honor of the first generally-happy ending in an Unclassified Encounter Short Story. Extra props go to Henry Swiftwater, a World War I veteran who leads the party.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. "Episode 5: ELAH" ends with Captain Krancke of the Admiral Scheer being successful in sinking most of the British convoy he was targeting, ultimately escaping and evading the convoy's escorts to continue terrorizing Allied convoys again in the future. His real-life counterpart will go on to be awarded for sinking the Jervis Bay. However, the immortal Serial Killer either drowns, or is trapped at the bottom of the ocean, unable to die.
• Bait the Dog: Occasionally, the Morgen would make its victims bodies swim towards the surface, only to pull them back down.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Billy Schmidt's goal in Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt. 2) was to retrieve the new British superweapon. By the end, he’s the new host for the Clingy Costume that controls it, and it’s heavily hinted he’s going to go through a similar horrible experience as Brudenell… unless, of course, the aliens who created them both show up first.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Jack the Ripper was an immortal cannibalistic former Roman legionnaire, who gave Elizabeth Bathory some ideas, was the Man from the Train, was part of the Sawney Bean clan, and was responsible for many more infamous unsolved murders and deaths besides. And then he was finally stopped in WWII.
• Beware the Living: The reason the Lazur Facility is so dangerous: a Nazi Lieutenant engineer, having watched his entire squadron fall to the undead, began retooling the place, making the zombies even more dangerous and rigging it up with Booby Traps.
• BFG: A few examples thus far.
  • The MG42 wielded by the Fallschirmjager squad in "Episode Two: Covenant", is the largest of the small arms brought by the Germans to deal with the demon threat. It proves its worth when it effortlessly shreds the creature apart in a few bursts.
  • The M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun wielded by the members of the 551st PIR are even bigger, capable of killing dozens of Wendigos in only a few bursts. And it's thanks to the gunners of these weapons that the monster threat is contained.
  • The German Grenadiers in "Morgen" make use of a Panzerschreck to terminate the swamp creature controlling the zombie horde with extreme prejudice.
    • Earlier in the same episode, one of the British paratroopers brings a vehicle-mounted turret to bear against the undead. It rips through their numbers, but the heavy recoil quickly snaps the tethers connecting it to the plane and it rolls into the water.
  • The Svalbard Kriegsmarine Black Site in "Short Story: JIG" has four massive howitzer turrets aimed into the bay directly in front of the base. Together, they manage to obliterate an Atlantean sub in less than two minutes.
  • BFS: Katsuro’s main weapon is an oversized katana. Later, he also employs a pair of huge Tanto blades against the swamp creature.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: "Short Story: BOQ" features a creature called the Boq, which, while similar to the Sasquatch in terms of physical appearance, is a much more malicious Blood Knight compared to its more timid relative, killing and challenging anyone or anything in its way.
• Big Bad Ensemble: "Episode Five: ELAH" has two major threats that the British crew are dealing with, a Serial Killer terrorizing the ship and taking out random crew members over a period of days, and the Captain of the German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Scheer, who intends to sink as many British merchant ships as possible before returning to friendly waters. Both parties are not cooperating whatsoever in their shared goal of killing the British, and both remain unaware of the other's existences throughout the episode.
• Bilingual Bonus: The third episode's title, "NERTHOL", translates to "mighty" in Welsh.
  • "Brucke" means "Bridge" in German, apparently a reference to a "Bridge" to the past.
  • And "Zyklisch" means "cyclic", a reference to the episode's Stable Time Loop.
• Bittersweet Ending: Each episode ends with the paranormal or supernatural threat dealt with, but at the cost of dozens to hundreds of men's lives, and given the format of the episodes, their stories will remain untold for some time.
• Blatant Lies: While conducting "Operation HENGIS", Col. Alexander gives Dr. Owens some human victims of the alien weapons systems to dissect and analyze, claiming they were already dead by the time the weapon was used on them. Dr. Owens knows better, but doesn’t know who they were or where they came from.
• Blob Monster: The creature from "Ministerial Briefing: OPERATION VANGUARD" seems to be some kind of giant amoeba, which sucks the life out of victims and grows to a massive size with frightening speed.
• Blood Knight: A few of them. The most obvious is probably the Boq; it roams the land and beats anyone it meets to death for fun.
• Body Horror: The Borda turns a Brazilian POW into a shambling mass of shifting flesh with Combat Tentacles, dragging the Italian soldiers into itself and absorbing their biomass. It's heavily hinted that the horror took the form of one of the Italian soldiers after the rampage was over, and did same to a group of retreating German soldiers.
• Bookends: Lucius' career as an immortal, cannibalistic Serial Killer began after a successful German raid, by attackers who never learned what they had unleashed. Nearly two thousand years later, it ended with a successful German raid, by attackers who never learned what they had helped to put down.
• Boom Head Shot: Lt. Bohm delivers one to the killer in "Short Story: CAEDES". Too bad it doesn’t stick... because the killer is Lucien.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In “PURGATORY: THE OATH”, Dr. Reische and the Medical staff in a German First Aid camp outside Stalingrad want to stay at their position, even as the Russians approach, to try and find a cure for the undead plague that is destroying the German army. Meanwhile, Officer Otto Kleist and the SS argue for pulling out immediately, as they will not be kindly received if the Russians reach their position.
• Boxed Crook: The four German spies in "Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt. 2)" were formerly members of a criminal ring in Brandenburg, who now use their talents at the orders of the Nazis.
  • Subverted in "Short Story: GEDROCHT". The Ensington Strappers - the remains of a small criminal gang from England - volunteered to join the army en masse in an attempt to stick together. Their leader, Carl Anslow, has his weak-willed commanding officer wrapped around his finger at the start of the story.
• Black Site: The RAF Drem base in northeast Scotland, where experiments were being run on the alien costume, the alien spacecraft codenamed Hengis, and Brudenell.
  • On the other side, the Nazis have a Kreigsmarine research base in Svalbard, where the researchers are reverse-engineering captured Atlantean tech, and holding a few captured Atlanteans prisoner as of late 1941.
• Blatant Lies: In "Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt.1)" Rumors were going around the Luftwaffe about a new British superweapon that had been decimating their forces. The Nazi higher-ups denied these rumors outright… but they’re doubling the number of fighter escorts for the latest raid on London.
• Call-Back: Ralf Kohler from "Episode 6: ANIMUS" is the father of Ernst Kohler, the U-Boat captain from the very first episode.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The ship's doctor in "ELAH" is a serial killer who has been alive since the Roman Empire, who consumes the flesh of his victims to maintain his youth. Moreover, the doctor - Lucius - unknowingly took this power from another man, named Dorn, when he ate part of him in desperation centuries before. Dorn lost his ability to fully heal in the process, and began hunting Lucius down in an attempt to regain it.
• Cannibal Larder: Dr. Wynn keeps several preserved human organs in his fridge. While this might not be THAT odd for a doctor, it later becomes clear to the viewer that he’s probably saving them for another reason.
• Cannibal Tribe: "Short Story: GEDROCHT" features an ersatz one made of soldiers who went insane from the horrors of WWI, they're all eerily thin and emaciated, and live in the sewers beneath Courtrai, Belgium.
• Can't Take Anything with You: Zigzagged with the Time Travelers on Project Juncture: they are Naked on Arrival, but they have strange subdermal implants that are meant to aid them somehow.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Dr. Reische is the last survivor of his German First Aid Camp outside of Stalingrad. His studies of the undead plague’s effect on the body, and the bare-bones hints of finding the first suggestion of a cure, mean that the Russians spare him when they wipe out the rest of the camp, and make it abundantly clear that he only lives so long as he continues his studies and gives them useful information.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: In "Episode 8: APEX", a group of paratroopers from Fort Bragg storm the area when Officer Mitchell calls in an emergency. By the time they arrive, though, Katsuro has already been killed by the swamp creature.
  • In "Short Story: HUAKA'I PO", the American soldiers who were summoned by Billy's message on the radio at the beginning don't turn up until after the Night Marchers leave.
• Clingy Costume: Neither Brudenell nor the RAF could figure out how to remove the alien costume from his body. He could not eat, drink, sleep, or use the bathroom while inside. While the suit apparently took care of these needs, his Sleep Deprivation caused some Sanity Slippage. His trips up in the Hengis made things worse, bordering on Cybernetics Eat Your Soul. By the end, he was Driven to Suicide.
• Combat Pragmatist: In "BRUCKE", Private McIlhenney survives his encounter with the WWI-era German soldiers by pretending he's unarmed and trying to surrender. When they decide to toy with him by dropping their firearms and substituting melee weapons, he pulls his pistol and turns the tables on them.
• Compelling Voice: Odin and Loki use this on Private Mitchell and Commander Zobel, respectively, to get them to listen to what appears to be some random civilian giving them suggestions.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Justified. In "Episode 5: ELAH", the ship's doctor examines the corpse of a sailor who was stabbed repeatedly in the stomach with a screwdriver and declares it a suicide brought on by inebriation. The problem is that the doctor himself is the murderer.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: For some reason, one of the Germans who found Blight sealed beneath the Abbey wrote the word "Reiter" on the wall in blood. This means "Cavalry" in German. It's all but confirmed that Blight was the inspiration for a horseman of the Apocalypse. 
• Cruel Mercy: In "PURGATORY: SPIRAL", a Russian fighter pilot over Stalingrad makes sure his German counterpart's plane ejects him after he's shot down, and buffets him with a slipstream to make him drop his gun... so that he can be delivered, alive and unharmed, into the grasp of the undead horde waiting below.
• Crying Wolf: In "Episode 8: APEX", Old Man Oliver has been calling the local police about once a week since the war started, reporting on incoming subs, ships, planes, paratroopers… and none of them turned out to exist. Then he called to report an approaching submarine… but by the time Officer Mitchell reluctantly arrived at his house, a man from the submarine had already killed him.
• Dangerous Deserter: Enzo has become this after the Wendigo incident in Belgium; he's desperately trying to get himself and Luca back home, even though Luca is starting to turn into a Wendigo.
• Dark and Troubled Past: James Nolan, the glider pilot in "Episode 7: MORGEN", had a pretty brutal upbringing courtesy of an abusive father, absent mother, and a crime-infested neighborhood. This makes him a grump at the best of times, but also the most ferocious fighter in the group.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Especially when it’s specifically designed to do so: Katsuro's long-term memory has been wiped from his conscious mind by the mind-altering drugs given to him by Unit 731. Katsuro wasn’t even his original name, and only very vague memories will occasionally surface of his early life as an unassuming farm boy.
• The Dead Have Eyes: The Night Marchers are explicitly mentioned as having rotting or missing eyes, but they still have no problem "seeing" Billy and the Japanese soldier.
• Deal with the Devil: The second episode's titular Covenant is a relatively harmless one. Once upon a time, the parishioners of the French village succeeded in making a deal with the demon - keep it fed in exchange for staying quiet in its cave. Once a week, the local priest purchased a lamb and left it for the demon to consume. However, he died in a bombing run without ever telling anyone the details. While the next priest found his diary and tried to arrange for a continuation of the covenant, it's made abundantly clear the demon considered the deal broken the instant it felt hungry and there was no food for it to consume.
  • Episode 15: BES features a more gruesome one. The titular demon makes a bargain with a desperate and doomed German priest about to be killed by Cossacks on the eastern front in northwestern Russia, promising a long life if he submits to it. After he's killed a minute later, it brings his body back to life and goes on a rampage against the Cossacks in the area.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: No single item in the blessed armory of the Chinook does much damage to the Boq, but the moment it’s visible, the hunters swarm the monster and quickly hack and beat it to death.
• Despair Event Horizon: In "Episode 6: ANIMUS", Inspector Kohler's wife was broken after both their sons were killed in the war, and apparently withered to nothing shortly after.
• Dire Beast: The Attack Animal from "Episode 11: CUSTODIAN" turns out to be an Angry Guard Dog-Savage Wolves hybrid, but larger than either and wearing a set of custom-made armor. It's so insanely strong and aggressive that it barely registers shots from a Luger, and survives an insane amount of damage before finally going down.
• Disintegrator Ray: The alien spacecraft Hengis is equipped with one, capable of frying humans and Spitfires alike.
• Distinguishing Mark: In "Short story: GEDROCHT", Anslow is deeply disturbed to see the cannibal leader has a tattoo on his shoulder he recognizes as the symbol of a Midlands football team… meaning the lunatic grew up not very far away from himself.
• Don't Look At Me: Zigzagged. Billy remembers old stories that say he shouldn't look at the Night Marchers, even as they begin to try to force him up to look at them. It seems to work, since they eventually let him go.
• Doomed Predecessor: At the beginning of Episode 4, two previous American forces sent into the forest never came out. They left evidence of a ferocious fight, but were either killed by the Germans, eaten by the Wendigos, or became Wendigos themselves.
• Double Tap: Lt. Sheppard bayonets the downed body of the first sub-mariner encountered in "Episode 1: MENDACIOUS", just to make sure.
• Dramatic Irony: Captain Hampshire of the Bickleigh Bridge in "ELAH" assigns Jessica the stowaway to act as an assistant to the ship's doctor, both so she can earn her keep and so the doctor can make sure nobody tries to do anything unpleasant to her. Jessica turns out the actually be the Sole Survivor of a family murdered by a serial killer, who found out the serial killer was a member of the crew and snuck aboard to track him down. The doctor turns out the be the serial killer himself.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Part of the plot of "Short Story: TOD" involves the Germans using a recently-captured RAF Spitfire as a sort of Judas Goat to pose as a damaged aircraft and lead Luftwaffe planes in to wipe them out. The ghost of the Spitfire's original pilot proved to be a Spanner in the Works for that, though...
• Driven to Suicide: In "Episode 12: PURGATORY", two German tanks are immobilized in the rubble and surrounded by the undead horde. After three days of being surrounded, the people inside end up shooting themselves.
• Drowning Pit: The reservoir behind the dyke in "Episode 7: MORGEN" acts as one, courtesy of the undead horde. They drag their victims under the surface to drown and become more of them.
• Dug Too Deep: The monster from "Ministerial Briefing: OPERATION VANGUARD" was brought to the surface when a newly-established Nazi base in Antarctica drilled into the ice and found an underground lake that apparently hosted it.
• Dying as Yourself: In Episode 15, after its mortal body is eventually slain by the combined efforts of a group of Russian Partisans, the demon Bes offers their dying leader a bargain: his life in exchange for his submission, the same deal it offered a German priest before taking over his body. Said leader wisely ignores the demon's words in favor of this trope.
• Electronic Telepathy: The alien from Episode 3 can remotely control the craft it came to Earth in, facilitated by its strange suit that gives it a Brain/Computer Interface. After it dies, the suit bonds with Brudenell and proves to give him the same ability to control the craft.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: American paratroopers, British Airborne, and their German counterparts, the Fallschirmjager, are depicted. And unlike most soldiers who are killed immediately by the various paranormal and supernatural threats stalking them, these troops manage to hold their own and succeed in killing their otherworldly assailants.
• Elite Zombie: Some of the undead in the Lazur Facility have been marinating in deadly acid, making their bodies horribly corrosive and their grasp potentially deadly in its own right. Others have had helmets bolted to their heads and snow goggles over their eyes, and made to wear heavy winter jackets – light armor that neutralizes the fast, efficient bayonetting tactics of the Siberians and forces them to switch to firearms.
• Enemy Mine: "Episode 1: MENDACIOUS" has the surviving German sailors of the stricken U-Boat team up with the British sailors of the titular patrol boat in taking down the mysterious men in diving suits attacking them.
  • This happens a couple times, with Axis and Allied forces occasionally banding together to take down mutual immediate threats. It happens again in "Episode 7: MORGEN".
  • In “PURGATORY: PERSPECTIVE”, a Russian sniper briefly warns some of his German counterparts about the undead approaching them from behind on a different rooftop by shooting the approaching ghouls.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Fallschirmjager squad leader who ultimately kills the demon terrorizing the French village may be working for the cruellest of all fascist dictatorships, but even he knows that bringing back the demon's corpse to Berlin to be studied is a terrible idea, so he orders his men to torch the corpse without second thought, which they do. Even his immediate superior, the German Captain, agrees to this, and keeps the details regarding the operation classified so as not to attract unwanted attention.
• Evil Laugh: The Borda has a distinctive, creepy "Wicked Witch" cackle that creeps people out even before they know what she really is.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: When the demon Bes brings a German priest back to life and takes over his body, it quickly transforms him, giving him sharp teeth, ruby-red eyes, and short Horns of Villainy.
• Evil Versus Evil: In "PALADIN", the Eldritch Abomination known as Blight ends up facing and being defeated by Lucius, the cannibalistic Immortal Serial Killer from "ELAH". Lucius is a horrible, extremely dangerous person, but Blight is a more immediate threat that won't even pretend to play nice with the Romans.
• Evil Gloating: Lucius will occasionally do this to victims who are on their way to discovering who he truly is, right before he kills them. This proves to be his undoing when he does it on the deck of the Bickleigh Bridge.
• The Extremist Was Right: Soviet NKVD Col. Sorokin from "PURGATORY: Contingency" takes some pretty major steps to ensure the undead horde doesn't leave Stalingrad during the seige, including sinking Russian ships trying to rescue their possibly-infected comrades - and ones that ignore his orders out of horror at what he's willing to do. That said, it's at least partly due to his actions that the living dead never escape Stalingrad.
• Eye Scream: In "Episode 8: APEX", Lavinia manages to use a shotgun to put out Katsuro's eye. It’s only a temporary setback thanks to his Healing Factor, but it’s the first time he’s actually been hurt since coming ashore, and he decides It's Personal with her.
• Faceless Goons: The Atlantean sub-mariners wear One-Way Visor-type helmets that cannot be seen into, and neither the characters nor the audience ever see their faces. This gives them an unsettling, mysterious appearance.
• Face-Revealing Turn: The first Wendigo in Episode 4 is encountered sitting in a clearing, begging for help with its back turned to the battalion. When Pvt. Davis approaches, the Wendigo turns, revealing its real face.
• Failed a Spot Check: A pretty major one in "Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt.1)". The Germans have been made aware that SOMETHING is completely wiping out entire Luftwaffe squadrons over the English Channel, and have deployed boats and subs around the British coast to watch as Hengis retreats, in order to see where it goes after battle. Brudenell is so mentally taxed from his time in the suit he doesn’t even notice them.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Detective Heide in "Short Story: CAEDES" actually tried to defend the mysterious young man the posse found, pointing out that the evidence of him being the killer was circumstantial and wobbly at best. When the young man comes back to the hotel room after the posse apparently killed him, Heide is the only one who isn’t killed immediately, but that’s only because he’s Forced to Watch the other three die, and then the killer claims he has even more gruesome plans for him.
• Fate Worse than Death: Assuming he is unable to drown, the serial killer in "ELAH" ends up being hand-cuffed to the bridge of the sinking ship, meaning he is trapped at the bottom of the sea until his immortality runs out... if it ever does.
• Fantastic Racism: The alien being attacking the RAF airbase is revealed to look down on humans and their technology, seeing them as subjects to be studied by his superiors at best, and as vermin that need to be eliminated at worst.
• Fiery Cover-Up: Johnny Graywolf burned the remains of the Wendigo horde in the camp medical tent for reasons unknown.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: In "BRUCKE", Private McIlhenney is a bit confused by his arrival into the trenches of WWI, but he manages to survive long enough to return. The German soldier he brings back with him as a POW seems even more baffled, having been thrown from 1918 to 1944.
• Flash Fiction: Several of the videos are "Ministerial Briefings" or "Personnel Correspondence", which are even shorter than the short stories and serve to give context and plot points for longer future videos.
• Fog of War: The Kriegsmarine base in "Short Story: LORE" has artificial fog generators that make it almost impossible for Allied bombers to target.
• Follow the Chaos: The Boq leaves a big area of broken and uprooted trees all around it. The hunters find it easy to track, as a result.
• Foreshadowing: In "Episode Eight: APEX", An American civilian, upon seeing the silhouette of the Japanese super soldier, is reminded of the local legends of there being a Swamp Monster lurking in the woods. Said monster ends up being the one to kill the super soldier.
• From a Single Cell: As long as one insect in the Blight swarm survives, it can reproduce and regrow.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Katsuro is heavily hinted to have started his life as an unassuming farm boy in a rural community. By the time the story takes place, he’s become a hulking behemoth of a superweapon.
  • It's heavily hinted that Corporal Anslow from "Short Story: GEDROCHT" became the mysterious hermit seen in "Custodian" who sicced a massive hybrid dog on the Nazis.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Private McIlhenney in "BRUCKE" runs into a few after walking through the strange mist. Justified, since they're German stormtroopers from late WWI.
  • Inverted in "Short Story: GEDROCHT"; the leader of the lunatics is the only one of them wearing a gas mask. Said mask is decorated with a pair of short horns. John Gregory apparently developed a fixation on his gas mask when he was the only member of his company who could get it on in time to survive a gas attack. Years later, he seldom takes it off.
• General Ripper: General Zhukov has no qualms about using the undead as a last-ditch resort to take Stalingrad back; when it succeeds, he's only annoyed that it took them longer than he expected to finish the job. Several comments on the video claim that this is very much something the real Zhukov would have done.
• Ghostapo: Defied Trope in "Episode 2: COVENANT". Both the Fallschirmjager who kill the demon and the German commander of the nearby garrison know that sending the demon's corpse back to Berlin to be studied and possibly used against the Allies is a terrible idea given the large number of deaths, so they cover up the whole incident by burning the demon's corpse to a crisp and downplaying the report.
• Ghost Ship: In Episode 1, the HMS Walsall has become this by the time the Mendacious arrives, badly damaged by a mysterious submersible and the crew slain by the sub-mariners.
• Glamour Failure: It turns out the Boq's invisibility is the result of the monster psychically messing with peoples' perception of it, and it's neutralized for anyone touching one of the medicine shields prepared by the Chinook medicine man. When one man manages to hit it in the shoulder with a spear, it’s distracted by the pain and drops the magic, letting everyone see it.
• Glowing Eyelights of Undeath:  The undead in "Episode 7: MORGEN" have eerie blue glowing eyes, and the Morgen's eyes have the brightest glow of all.
• God Was My Copilot: In "Short Story: LORE", Odin was Private Mitchell's, and Loki was Commander Zobel's, quietly giving divine aid to both, with Loki posing as a German sympathizer and Odin as a member of Milorg.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Wendigo spell is treated as this; a last resort for only the most desperate or dishonorable warriors. It turns the invoker into a monster with supernatural speed, strength, and endurance, in order to destroy those responsible for its creation. Unfortunately, the change is irreversible, puts the user through some intensely painful Transformation Horror, and subjects them to an overwhelming Horror Hunger that wipes out their higher brain functions and eliminates their ability to know or care who their friends are… and that’s before the fact that biting a victim passes the curse on.
  • Even after the Nazis besieged Stalingrad for three solid months, the Soviets only deployed the living dead once it became clear that the city was about to fall anyway. Given that the undead are shown to be a threat to any living thing once they’re turned, they’re clearly an extreme danger to use as a weapon.
• Golem: Several are summoned by a mysterious Jewish girl during the events of "Episode 6: ANIMUS" in order to exact revenge on a number of Nazi officials running the city of Dresden.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Justified in "Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt. 2)"; the British guards are relatively lazy because, as a Black Site, they’re not allowed much leave at all, and they’re getting bored – especially since months have gone by and nothing’s happened.
• Haunted Technology: "Short Story: TOD" features an RAF Spitfire haunted by the ghost of its original pilot.
• Healing Factor:
  • Katsuro's Super Serum, when injected into his system, heals all of his injuries and suppresses his pain in mere minutes.
  • "PALADIN" reveals that Lucius the cannibal from "ELAH" has one, which he takes advantage of by allowing Blight to try and devour him from the inside before dousing himself in flammable oil and setting himself alight. When the fire goes out, all that remains is a charred corpse, but he quickly recovers.
• Hearing Voices: Some time after bonding with the alien's suit from "NERTHOL", Brudenell starts hearing the suit relay messages from the alien's superiors; in a terrifying case of Thoroughly Mistaken Identity, they think the original wearer has been captured, and they've notified Brudenell they're coming to get him.
• Hellfire: The mysterious fires from "Short Story: ANATHEMA" are heavily hinted to be this; they're summoned with a magic spell, colored a brilliant green, burn and spread at horrifying speed, and absolutely will not go out until whatever they're burning is completely charred... or until a pastor begins to recite Latin prayers over them.
• Here We Go Again!: After the Borda killed several Italian fascist soldiers in "BORDA", it's heavily implied she intends to inflict the same fate on a group of retreating German soldiers.
• Hero Antagonist: The Jewish girl responsible for the deaths of the Nazi officials in "Episode 6: ANIMUS" is revealed to have noble intentions when its revealed all the Nazis she's killed were responsible for a number of heinous crimes prior to the outbreak of the war, including the burning of Dresden's old synagogue.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Episode 2, Bertram Engel distracts the demon from killing Father Masson, and is promptly killed for his efforts, but it gives Father Masson enough time to flee with only minor injuries.
  • In Episode 5, the HMS Jervis Bay, a merchant cruiser and the convoy’s only real defense makes one. While she’s completely outmatched and quickly destroyed by the Admiral Scheer, she manages to throw up a smokescreen and during her struggle, one lucky shot smashes her opponent’s radar tower, reducing the warship’s ability to fight and letting most of the convoy's ships escape.
    • Immediately after, the crew of the cargo vessel Beaverford. After the Jervis Bay is sunk by the Admiral Scheer, she sees the Bickleigh Bridge is a sitting duck, steaming obliviously ahead towards the warship for no apparent reason. She uses the smokescreen thrown up by the Jervis Bay to her advantage, weaving in and out of the smoke while firing to be as much of an annoyance to the Admiral Scheer as possible. While she's ultimately also destroyed, several other cargo vessels managed to get further away, and the Bickleigh Bridge managed to launch her lifeboats.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The second parish priest of the French village in "Episode 2: COVENANT" ends up becoming this to the rest of his village after the Fallschirmjager kill the demon rampaging the area, as he and the Germans both made an agreement to keep the whole matter a secret amongst themselves until the day they died. To the local populace, they only remember his as a German collaborator and sympathizer, especially since he allowed the bodies of several fallen Germans to be buried in the church's cemetery.
• Hidden Depths: The deserter Enzo is a bit more sympathetic than one might expect, apparently he and Luca had survived the slaughter of most of the rest of the battalion by dragging a wounded Captain off the field, and he's doing his best to get Luca home even as the Wendigo curse starts taking him over. That said, he's still not totally sympathetic, since he doesn't even try to pretend he's not deserting.
• History Repeats: The situation in "Short Story: GEDROCHT" starts off eerily similar to the events of Episode 11: CUSTODIAN, with a series of nocturnal attacks in northeastern Belgium on sentries some distance from the front lines… but almost thirty years earlier. It’s eventually shown that the two incidents are indeed connected.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: This turns out to be very much a thing, to the point where a number of time travelers went back to the 1940s to prevent at least one of the many, many assassination attempts on his life from being successful. Moreover, at least some of them were caused by a rogue time-traveler’s attempt to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by assassinating Hitler... Not to prevent the holocaust or the war, but to stop the war partway through and elicit a more comfortable deal for Germany and prevent its division during the Cold War.
• Hive Mind: Blight is the collective intelligence of a carnivorous insect swarm, an ancient entity with a long memory. 
• Hollywood Acid: There’s quite a lot of it, in various huge vats all over the Lazur Facility. Worse, the majority of it has long since spilled in the events of the last few months, rendering the area a Polluted Wasteland and making the floor into weak, vaguely-traversable Swiss cheese.
• Holy Burns Evil: The Chinook are far more familiar with using guns than the old ceremonial spears, bows, and tomahawks that the medicine man gave them, and initially default to using them when the Boq attacks. Unfortunately, the guns don’t seem to do much damage against the invisible beast, and the older ceremonial weapons end up being far more effective. A spear stuck in the monster’s shoulder is the first thing that actually seems to hurt it, as it can’t maintain its invisibility after that point.
• Hope Spot: 2nd Lieutenant Mallinson in "Episode 4: MALEDICTION" awakens after the fight, tremendously thirsty. Unfortunately, as he discovers when he fruitlessly empties his canteen, the thirst and hunger only grow, revealing him as the last infectee of the Wendigo curse, and forcing his squadmates to put him down. He feebly hopes he managed to thank them for releasing him, but it's implied the curse robbed him of even this meager satisfaction.
• Humanoid Aliens: The alien attacking the British airbase in "Episode 3: NERTHOL" is revealed to have a humanoid figure and shape, though it's not revealed initially if he looked human underneath the suit he wore. A subsequent "Operation Hengis" video goes into more detail. Dr. Owens claims the alien is humanoid in appearance, with the same size and proportions of an adult man, but is very different internally. Not only are parts of its body robotic, but several of its systems – in particular, what are believed to be its respiratory, digestive, and sensory organs – have atrophied to be almost useless. Dr. Owens thinks they’re the result of the alien suit taking over for all these functions, but isn’t sure if it’s a trait of the species, or of this individual.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: In "Short Story: GEDROCHT" and "The Ghoul", there are no explicitly supernatural or otherworldly horrors at play; simply people whose minds were among the casualties of WWI.
• I Have Many Names: Lucius has gone by many names and aliases over the years.
• Immortality Immorality: Lucius. An ancient, cannibalistic Serial Killer nearly two thousand years old, whose acts of cannibalism fuel his immortality.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • The mysterious submariners in "Episode 1: MENDACIOUS" use tridents that double as harpoon guns, instantly impaling anyone caught in their sights.
  • The alien in "Episode 3: NERTHOL" ends up with a piece of metal debris in his chest after underestimating his foes, dying shortly afterwards despite his suit's attempts to heal his injuries.
• Impeded Communication: The RAF Drem Black Site was chosen due to strict limits on radio communication, keeping the Germans from finding out about HENGIS. Unfortunately, this means that there’s almost no oversight on the project, and a flight sergeant had to smuggle a confession of the Awful Truth about how bad things really were in a letter to his mother.
• Insane Admiral: The Drem base commander leading Operation HENGIS, stubbornly refusing to believe the risks associated with Britain's acquisition of the alien artifact (up to ignoring Brudenell's and his treating doctor's warnings of the horrid mental cost and the messages the artifact's makers keep sending), stuck in the notion he deserves more funding and skilled scientists than the very few he's been assigned, and obsessed with using the machine at its fullest capacity against the Germans. Worse, he uses it exclusively as a One-Man Army, making it clear to the enemy that not only is it unique, he has no concept of operational security.
• In-Universe Nickname: Lt. "Mules" Mallinson from Episode 4. His men have a few stories as to how he got the name – ranging from his stubborn attitude to a football career back home – but in truth, it’s just an extension of his real name, Lemuel.
• Invisible Monsters: The Boq influences the hunters’ minds to make itself invisible when it first encounters them, and it takes advantage of this to ambush two of their number.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: "Episode 5: ELAH" ends with the Sole Survivor of one of the immortal cannibal's rampages successfully snapping handcuffs on him just as the ship they are on starts sinking, leaving him to helplessly drown.
• Keystone Army: The moment the Morgen is finally killed, the monster’s undead horde collapses, dead for good.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • The US M2 Flamethrower is used to devastating effect not on German or Japanese soldiers, but on a pack of Wendigos attacking a group of American paratroopers in Belgium.
  • Fire and smoke are the most effective weapons the Romans have against the creature known as Blight in PALADIN, usually employed by setting fire to fields and grasslands. It is also stated to be unable to move through heavy rainfalls, which the Romans note is a good thing, as they can't employ their normal tactics during such storms.
• La Résistance: Odin (Yes, THAT Odin) claims to be part of Milorg, the Norwegian resistance movement against the Nazi occupation, as part of his human guise.
• Latin Is Magic: In "Short Story: ANATHEMA", a Latin phrase is found among the papers in the escaped prisoners' clothes: "Et nunc flammam advoco qui percutiet omnes ante me states et nunquam exstinguant". In English, it means "And now, I summon forth a flame that shall smite all who stand before me, and never extinguish". When recited in Latin before the specially-tattooed POWs, they immediately burst into a horrifying green flame.
• Last Stand: While cornered by hordes of undead in a sinking glider in the middle of a reservoir in "Episode 7: MORGEN", James Nolan disconnects the glider’s cockpit, and vanishes beneath the water, fighting the undead with a bayonet and knuckle dusters fully expecting to die. Surprisingly, he somehow survives long enough to haul himself out of the reservoir when it’s all over and the undead collapse.
• Les Collaborateurs: Loki (Yes, THAT Loki) claims to be a German sympathizer as part of his human guise.
• Literal Disarming: An unusual example from two men in Dudinka: both had already lost their right arms in WWII, but a mysterious woman who lived with them apparently gave them invisible, magical arms that only existed so long as she chanted out a spell. When she’s shot, the arms cease to exist.
• Living Shadow: In "Short Story: CHATTEL", arms dealer and former Waffen SS agent Horst Starke uses murderous ones to protect himself from would-be assassins after the war's end; they're summoned by bloodying a mysterious green magical gem to kill whoever threatens him, and they're basically unstoppable. However, once their victim is dead, they will turn on him if he cannot banish them by completely cleaning the gem quickly, each use of the gem weakens him a little more, and the shadows are made of those he has killed using the gem - meaning every time he summons them, there are more of them. As of 1957, he's hoping interest in him runs out soon, because otherwise, it's only a matter of time before they overwhelm him.
• Loners Are Freaks: In "Episode 11: CUSTODIAN", nobody in the nearby town knew anything about the hermit, he was something of a social misfit. Zigzagged a bit in that, while he bred a horrifyingly powerful, dangerous breed of attack canine and kept the younger ones in a cramped underground kennel, he only tested the animals on the occupying Nazi forces and seemed to otherwise keep a tight leash on the test animal.
• Loose Floorboard Hiding Spot: Jessica still has Lucius' ancient gladius, and she hides it under the floorboards of her new house.
• Love Hungry: The Sea Witch's modus operandi seems to be taking drowning men from the surface and forcing them to live under the ocean with her. If they try to flee, she brings them back whether they like it or not.
• Magical Native American: Averted with Johnny Graywolf in Episode 4, who had heard of the Wendigo legends, but never put any stock into them himself. Played Straight with the unnamed native soldier, who, when faced with imminent death at the hands of the Germans, transformed himself into a Wendigo to turn the tide.
  • Played straighter with the Chinook medicine man from "BOQ". He recognizes the Boq's handiwork, and provides the hunting party with ceremonial spears, shields, arrows, blades, and light armor to fight against the Boq.
• Making a Splash: The Atlanteans in "Short Story: JIG" use some kind of technology to slam a Giant Wall of Watery Doom into the Kriegsmarine base, which is built into the side of a mountain. The tunnels inside are subjected to Rising Water, Rising Tension as the Atlanteans invade, wiping out the guards. When their sub is destroyed, the water drains out of the mountain fairly quickly.
• Manipulative Bastard: Lucius' involvement with the Scottish Bean Clan turned out to be part of an elaborate plot: he somehow manipulated a lowly clan of brigands and thieves into becoming a Cannibal Clan, supplying him with a number of bodies in the process. Then, he went to the authorities, and offered to take care of the problem in exchange for a plot of land in England. He singlehandedly wiped most of the clan out, brought the remainder to justice, got his land, and then vanished from history again.
• Meaningful Name: The British Q-ship in the first episode is named HMS Mendacious, an adjective that means "not telling the truth", a fitting name for a repurposed fishing boat meant to fake engine trouble to draw in and then sink U-Boats.
• Mercy Kill: 2nd Lieutenant Mallinson in "Episode 4: MALEDICTION" is shot in the head by one of his surviving subordinates as he is dying, just before he can fully turn into another Wendigo.
  • An unwitting one in "Short Story: OUBLIETTE". When Alonzo Molina, one of the undead enslaved by the Morgen, is beheaded by a Grenadier during the events of Episode 7, he is overjoyed that he finally gets to die. He considers the undead who meet their end before him to be fortunate.
• Mobile Fishbowl: The water-breathing Atlanteans' armored, hooded suits are compared to diving gear, with hoses designed to pump seawater into their helmets. The suits are covered in strange symbols, hinted to be part of an unknown language. Their massive submersible vessel apparently works as a giant one of these, partly rising above the water at one point.
• Muggles Do It Better: Quite often, the supernatural and otherworldly threats in the series are countered by WWII-era military hardware, and a bit of know-how or luck.
  • The Demon in Episode 2 is literally cut in two by an MG42.
  • The water-breathing Atlanteans are terrifyingly effective against Navy vessels of all stripes, but are hopeless against an aerial attack. The Luftwaffe bomb one of their super-subs into oblivion with ease.
  • The Wendigo horde in Episode 4 are wiped out by the first somewhat-prepared military company they face, with flamethrowers proving particularly effective.
  • The Morgen is destroyed by a well-aimed panzerschreck, ending its control of its undead "puppets".
  • The ancient Worm That Walks Hive Mind insect horde named Blight is released from its sealed cave smack into a German artillery bombardment, and quickly obliterated.
  • An entire horde of living dead infesting Stalingrad are wiped out by two companies of elite Siberian soldiers with training to destroy the undead quickly and effectively.
  • Probably the most stunning example comes at the end of "Short Story: JIG", where the commander of a Kriegsmarine base foresees an Atlantean rescue mission, and deliberately plans for it. The commander waits until the majority of the rescue force has already entered the mountain base, sacrifices a token force to keep them from getting suspicious, stays inside the command center far away from the Atlantean prisoner’s holding cell, and finally pulls a Wounded Gazelle Gambit so the Atlantean sub would grow complacent and surface in range of four hidden howitzers. The sub is obliterated, and the Atlanteans inside the base find themselves surrounded and becoming new prisoners to be studied. What’s more, it’s all but stated from the events of other episodes that the Nazis succeeded in reverse-engineering the Atlantean tech to make at least one super-sub of their own, along with a platoon of super-advanced frogmen.
• Mundanger: After several episodes of explicitly supernatural and alien beings, the threat in "Episode 11: CUSTODIAN" turns out to be comparatively more grounded: a vicious, gigantic wolf-dog hybrid in custom armor.
• Mysterious Antarctica: The monster from "Ministerial Briefing: OPERATION VANGUARD" is found in a lake under the ice of Antarctica's Queen Maude Land. 
• Mysterious Mist: In "BRUCKE", Private McIlhenney runs into a spooky mist that's somewhat disorienting. Then it starts turning a Mysterious Purple, and things get really weird...
• Nazi Hunter: Magda, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette who worked at the city's train station. She was suspected by the Nazis of helping Jews flee the city by quietly giving them illegal train tickets. Somehow, she figured out how to animate golems from the ruins of the Semper Synagogue. During the bombing of Dresden, she used them to kill the Nazi officials responsible for the synagogue's destruction.
• Nazi Zombies: The Nazi officers besieging Stalingrad, upon hearing of a horde of cannibalistic Russians attacking with their bare hands, believe that the Russians have been driven to desperation and are about to collapse. They send their own soldiers to press in harder than ever... a lethal mistake. The mindless undead swell their ranks with the German soldiers.
• Necromancer: The Morgen compels its undead horde to drag victims into the reservoir, where they drown and it brings them back to life as more of its ghoulish servants.
• The Neidermeyer: The German Major commanding the local garrison turns out to be this, as he refuses to listen to reasoning from both the French police and the local parish priest, and immediately assumes that the perpetrator who killed a few of his men are members of the French resistance hiding out in the nearby village despite the police chief and priest having come to him for assistance in solving several murders only a few days ago. He eventually pays for these actions with his life, when the demon actually responsible for the killings makes him the next victim.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: the backstory for "Episode 10: EXTIRPATE". The initial Allied bombardment of the abbey was intended to soften up the place in their imminent struggle against any Axis soldiers that dwelt within. Unfortunately, they only succeeded in wiping out the unarmed refugees who were actually holed up within, and the Axis soldiers walked right in AFTER the bombardment, since the ground around it had been reduced to a barren waste without any cover, making it harder to take. Oops.
• Nightmarish Factory: The Lazur Facility. It started off dangerous as a chemical weapons factory in Soviet Russia. It got worse when the Nazis invaded Stalingrad, and the workers abandoned it, and then it was overrun by zombies. Finally, a Nazi Lieutenant engineer retooled the entire place into a giant death trap for anyone coming in.
• Noble Demon: Police Inspector Ralf Kohler. Despite working for the Nazis, and having assisted in crowd control during the destruction of the old synagogue, he's more interested in helping people survive the firebombing above all else, and he's harboring enough self-doubt about his own actions that, when Wenck is about to shoot Magda as she's controlling the golem, he shoots Wenck and surrenders to her.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Boq's modus operandi: beat the target into a bloody pulp with its bare hands.
• No Name Given: The Japanese soldier from "Short Story: HUAKA'I PO" is never named, given a ranking, or any information about him.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The swamp creature from "Episode 8: APEX". It stays in the swamp outside a farm, will occasionally kill coyotes looking to hassle the farm’s livestock, and ultimately comes to the rescue of Lavinia Burnett.
• Noodle Incident: In "Short Story: PALADIN", Lucius mentions a tussle with the sub-mariners in the past, and a blood-drinking demon in Germania.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Not even the narrator of "Short Story: TAG" knows exactly what happened to Lt. Boone, or what the "Chindi" really were - he's effectively told You Do Not Want To Know whenever he asks someone. It's heavily hinted the bodies of the two native American soldiers shredded his face, but beyond that...
• Not Quite Dead: In "Episode 8: APEX", after getting slammed against the side of his patrol car, Officer Mitchell is knocked out and badly injured. He comes to after Katsuro leaves, and radios in for backup.
  • Later,Katsuro actually seems to beat the swamp creature, and leaves it motionless as he turns to finish off Lavinia… only it seems the monster was Playing Possum, and it takes the opportunity to attack him from behind.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: The living dead in "Episode 10: PURGATORY" and the short stories around the events of that episode are pretty standard Hollywood-fare zombies, but neither the narration nor the characters ever use that term. Justified in-universe, as it's still decades before non-voodoo zombies become familiar in pop culture.
• Off with His Head!: The swamp creature in "Episode 8: APEX" pulls Katsuro’s head completely off after a brutal fight.
• Oh, Crap!: In "Episode 6: ANIMUS", when Kohler tells Wenck that the last two murder victims were two of the three city officials who were responsible for the destruction of the old synagogue, Wenck realizes he's probably next... since he was the third official.
• Older Is Better: In "Short Story: BOQ", the much older spears, shields, and tomahawks wielded by the Chinooks and their White hunter allies prove to be much better at dealing lethal blows to the Boq than the modern rifles they were also using against it. It probably helps that these older weapons were blessed by the tribe's medicineman against supernatural threats like the aforementioned Boq, as well as the larger and much deeper wounds they can inflict.
• Ominous Fog: In "Episode 7: MORGEN", it causes the glider to crash in the first place, and obscures everything around.
• One-Man Army: The alien being in "Episode Three: NERTHOL" makes quick and easy work of every single British tank, plane, and soldier sent against it, destroying an entire RAF airbase. Eventually, an entire battalion is sent against it, and the alien ends up wiping out their artillery support effortlessly. The "Operation: HENGIS" follow-ups show that the Drem commander took to using Brudenell, the man who bonded with the alien's suit after its death, in the same capacity, to his physical and mental detriment.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: One of the Nazis who raids RAF Drem in "HENGIS" is a former heavyweight boxer who insists on being called by the nickname Stier ("Bull"). None of his comrades can remember his real name anymore.
• Orichalcum: The Atlantean technology is crafted using a lightweight, but extremely sturdy metal that Dr. Hoch cannot identify.
• Origins Episode: "Short Story: GEDROCHT" is this to "Episode 11: CUSTODIAN". It was confirmed in the comments that Anslow eventually became the mysterious hermit from that episode, and the puppies from the end of the episode presumably became the ancestors of the hybrids he was breeding. "The Ghoul" is one for GEDROCHT, showing the mysterious cannibal leader’s backstory.
• Our Demons Are Different: The main antagonist of "Episode Two: COVENANT" is a red, winged demon that lives in a cave in the French countryside, regularly offered cattle by the local parish priest. However, when the current priest is killed in a British bombing raid, the demon begins attacking pets, livestock, French civilians, and German occupation forces at random.
• Outside-Context Problem: While one could argue the entire series is this, four stand out the most:
  • "Episode 1: MENDACIOUS" has a British Q-Ship hunting U-Boats end up having to team up with the surviving crew of a U-Boat to fight a mysterious third faction targeting ships from both sides.
  • "Episode 5: ELAH" has a cargo ship in an Atlantic convoy have to deal with an immortal serial killer on-board while the convoy is under attack by a German ship.
  • "Episode 6: ANIMUS" has a German police captain dealing with a Golem that is hunting down specific Nazis as revenge for their crimes against the Jews during the Bombing of Dresden.
  • "Episode 7: MORGEN" has a group of British soldiers fight off a swamp creature and its zombie army after their glider crashed into a dyke, with a group of German Soldiers soon entering the same area and being forced to fight the same threat.
  • "Episode Eight: APEX" focuses on a Japanese Super-Soldier wreaking havoc on the West Coast of America, killing civilians and cops to cause chaos. Then a Swamp Monster shows up and kills him.^note The Swamp Monster was mentioned as a local legend briefly earlier in the video, with a civilian being reminded of the stories when she sees the super soldier at night
• People Puppets: The Morgen has complete control of its victims’ bodies at all times, and they cannot even move without its control.
  • Blight can crudely make the bodies of its victims stand and move, by manipulating them from within.
• Physical God: Odin and Loki are both this, manipulating events in Norway like two players with a chessboard.
• Police Brutality: The three officers in "Short Story: CAEDES" are champing at the bit to get at the killer… even if they don’t have very good evidence of who the killer actually is. Lt. Bohm runs a brutal and brief interrogation on their suspect before killing him and claiming he gave them no choice.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: A few characters (it is the 1940's), but Sgt. Castillo from "Personal Correspondence: DIAVOLO INCIDENT" calls Luca, Enzo, and Johnny Graywolf by some rather insensitive terms, even though in the latter it sounds like it's meant as a term of endearment.
• Power Armor: The alien's strange full-body suit is an unusual example; it appears to be made of some kind of "smart fibers" or nanotechnology that can knit together wounds, gives the wearer enormous amounts of information about the surrounding area, and is tough enough to protect them from weapons up to and including firebombs with the wearer barely noticing. That said, a strong, abrupt attack CAN overwhelm it and kill the occupant.
• Power Glows: The alien from Episode 3 and its craft are both constantly glowing brightly, for reasons unknown. They’re also horrifyingly powerful, and the craft singlehandedly burns a RAF base to ashes.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The Italian Fascist troops in "BORDA" kept a Brazilian POW as comfortable as possible despite their dire situation, since they knew the South American troops had less of a personal stake in the war than the other Allies, and their only hope was for better treatment if they surrendered to them with a comfortable POW.
• Pretend We're Dead: The unnamed Nazi Lieutenant in the Lazur Facility seems to have kept himself safe from the undead by adopting their shambling gait. He’s given away when the Siberians start winning, and one of the "zombies" at the back of the horde suddenly bolts for safety.
• Prongs of Poseidon: The Atlanteans wield what are variously described as "pronged spears" and "harpoons", but the artwork clearly shows them as something more akin to a trident, albeit with much smaller side-prongs. They can be thrown, and then recalled to the warrior who threw them with a gesture.
• Psychic Block Defense: The Clamon worn by several members of the hunting party in "Short Story: BOQ" is designed to keep the Boq from using undefined psychic abilities to mess with their heads. They may or may not help when the Boq shows up, but the Medicine Shields sure help – anyone touching them will be able to see through the Boq's invisibility.
• Pummeling the Corpse: The Boq apparently beat its first victim into a pulp long after he was dead, purely to intimidate anyone who saw it.
• Puny Earthlings: A single alien and its small craft prove to be a One-Man Army that devastates an entire RAF base in Episode 3.
• Rage Helm: Katsuro has a samurai-styled one, complimenting his armor.
• Really 700 Years Old: Lucius' exact age is never mentioned, but the German victories in the Teutoburg Forest occurred about 9 AD. This means he'd be over 1,950 years old by 1940.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Following the German Major's death, his replacement, a Captain, and his second-in-command, a Lieutenant, turn out to be far more willing to listen to the local parish priest regarding the attacks on both the locals and the German troops stationed nearby. It's thanks to them that the demon threat in the French town is eventually dealt with.
• Redemption Earns Life: When Kohler shoots Wenck and saves Madga's life, then surrenders to her, she has the Golem position itself over Kohler as the Allied bombs come down to destroy the remains of the synagogue, protecting him from the falling rubble. This costs her own life, as she has no such protection.
• Red Herring: For the first half of "Episode 5: ELAH", it looks like Jessica may be responsible for the strange deaths and disappearances. Turns out she’s trying to find the real killer…
• Right Hand Attackdog: Two gigantic ones with nail-studded leather armor are the mysterious cannibal leader’s last line of defense in "Short Story: GEDROCHT".
• Robbing the Dead: Lt. Boone, from "Short Story: TAG" was in a company that was put to work prepping American soldiers from the front lines for burial. He had a hustle going on where he'd rob the bodies he was supposed to be working on.
• Saved by Canon: Several short stories, including "CAEDES", "PALADIN", and "Personal Correspondence: Project Aeturnus" tell of Lucien's past exploits in his career over history. Since the reader knows he won't be stopped until WWII, most of the suspense lies in knowing The Bad Guy Wins.
• Scars Are Forever: Dorn, an immortal cannibalistic Serial Killer who originally had Lucius' power, but lost it when the Roman soldier ate part of him in the Teutoburg forest out of desperation. Dorn lost his ability to fully heal, and while he has a similar Healing Factor, he's accumulated many, many scars all over him over the centuries since.
• Scenery Gorn: "Episode 6: ANIMUS" takes place during the firebombing of Dresden, and the narration spends quite some time depicting the horror of the carnage going on. The golem attacks almost pale in comparison.
• Schizo Tech: The mysterious submariners attacking the Mendacious crew and their German captives wield tridents and harpoons as their main weapons, but also use diving suits far more advanced than any present day nation's and use a submarine that is decades ahead of both the Allied and Axis forces combined.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Lt. Boone, from "Short Story: TAG" is from a wealthy family; his father was enough of a big-shot of some kind that he never had to face any kind of punishment despite everyone knowing of his crimes. It didn't save him from the Chindi, though...
  • This is also how Enzo manages to get back to the coast from Belgium, he has contacts and family all across the Allied forces in Europe.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Blight was sealed beneath the Monte Cassino Abbey for centuries by the ancient Romans. It still wants out, but it can't open the heavy doors to its underground prison by itself. 
• Send in the Search Team: The 551st in Episode 4 is the THIRD group of soldiers sent into the forest; the first two never came back.
• Separate Scene Storytelling: The "PURGATORY" short stories take place during the events of Episode 12, which tells the much longer story of how the Soviets unleashed the living dead on Stalingrad to wipe out the Nazi invaders.
• Serial Killer: "Episode 5: ELAH" deals with a serial killer haunting the crew of an Atlantic ship. He claims to have been a soldier in Caesar's army and having participated in the invasion of the Germanic lands, having gained immortality from eating human flesh, and later going on to have been part of the infamous Sawney Bean crew of cannibals and gone on to become Jack the Ripper and the Man from the Train.
• Sickly Green Glow: Victims of the Borda's magic tend to have this flowing out of their eyes and orifices, as well as any wounds they receive.
• Skewed Priorities: In "Episode 6: ANIMUS", While Kohler is trying to get rescue efforts and firefighting squads underway, he's constantly being dragged away by Wenck, who's insistent that Kohler solve a series of strange murders taking place around the city... during the firebombing of Dresden.
• Spoiler Title:
  • The Borda is a real mythological figure, a murderous old crone from the legends of the Po Valley in Italy. Anyone reading the title of "BORDA" and knowing of her will almost certainly know the real identity of the mysterious old woman the Italians take captive.
  • Likewise, the Huakaʻi pō ("Night Marchers") are real figures from Hawaiian mythology, the ghosts of ancient warriors who walk on old Hawaiian trails at night. When Billy Kekoa and the Japanese submariner start hearing strange sounds in the Hawaiian forest at night, people who've read the title "HUAKA'I PO" and heard the stories of the Night Marchers will probably know who's approaching right away.
• Start of Darkness: John Gregory from "The Ghoul" apparently lost his mind while trapped in barbed wire for days, watching his company die in agony in front of him.
• Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: Billy's group in "Episode 9: HENGIS (Pt. 2)" successfully infiltrates the base, but they’re caught when Billy enters the hangar, and Brudenell sees him through his connection with Hengis. After that, Billy needs to use the explosive distraction he had Fischer prepare to try and escape with the Hengis, and everything falls into chaos when the Hengis powers up automatically.
• Stable Time Loop: Short stories “BRUCKE” and “ZYKLISCH” form one. An American soldier in the trenches of WWI witnesses another American in a strange uniform materialize out of a strange purple fog. The stranger manages to take down a number of German Stormtroopers, then vanishes into the fog once more with a German prisoner, leaving behind an old pistol. The soldier who witnessed all this takes the pistol for himself, and in the years that follow, is disturbed when his son grows up to eerily resemble the stranger, and then enlists in the army. His last act before his son leaves is to give him the old pistol the stranger left behind. His son goes off to WWII, and finds himself wreathed in a strange purple fog during one battle. In the fog, he suddenly comes across a number of German stormtroopers dressed like those from WWI…
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler:
  • It becomes clear by the end of "Short Story - BRUCKE", that the strange purple gas seen by the US Private and his German prisoner is a top-secret Nazi wonder-weapon, given that a German half-track is seen deploying canisters of the substance near the frontline as a field test, with a Luftwaffe Officer taking down notes on the events that had just transpired.
  • Subverted in the "Ten Wonder Weapons that helped Germany lose World War II" episode, where the Nazis develop several novel and revolutionary ideas and concepts that ultimately prove useless for different reasons. Unlike other episodes, this one is entirely non-fictional.
  • It seems the Nazis had more success handling the sub-mariner tech than the British had with the alien tech; the armored frogmen that sank the HMS Ellice have clear Nazi tattoos and symbols on beneath their armor.
• Suicide by Cop: By enemy soldier, actually. Brudenell, nearly driven mad by the alien suit's attempts at communication and by the messages the associated ship keeps sending, manages to tear apart the suit enough to allow a German soldier to shoot him... leaving said soldier as the next pilot of the ship.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: The Wendigo have eerie yellow, glowing eyes visible from a distance.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: The Sea Witch can breathe underwater, but can also extend this ability to those she likes, taking men back to her undersea home.
• Super-Soldier: "Episode Eight: APEX" features one created by the infamous Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army. Katsuro, as he was now known, was given heavy surgical, mental, and medical modifications to his body, including a reliance on a Super Serum that granted him a Healing Factor. To top it all off, he was given bulletproof body armor, and a massive katana as his weapon. He would be deployed in early 1945 on the US East Coast, in an attempt to wreak havoc on US military bases and/or assassinate high-ranking US politicians.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: In "Short Story: Oubliette", Alonzo Molina was ambushed by a Swamp Monster he never even heard of before while trying to refill his canteen, and quickly drowned.
• Suspiciously Stealthy Predator: Despite being big enough to go toe-to-toe with Katsuro, the swamp monster from "Episode 8: APEX" manages to hide for some time for the paratroopers combing the swamp for him afterwards, and somehow hides Katsuro's armor the same way. Apparently, he’s been hiding very well for a very long time.
• Swamp Monster: The creature that infested the dyke in "Morgen" and "Oubliette" appears to be very much this, with the added twist of being able to turn its victims into zombie puppets.
  • Another one shows up in APEX to confront the Japanese Super-Soldier deployed in the United States, killing him and dragging his remains into the swamp.
• The Swarm: Blight is a swarm of hundreds of small, flesh-eating insects that burrow into flesh, incubate and eat what they please, and then burst out again in far greater numbers, killing the host.
• Tagalong Kid: Alexander Graywolf joins the hunting party in "Short Story: BOQ". Nobody thinks he’ll be any good in the actual fight – and he isn’t – but he is the first to figure out the medicine shields let people who touch them see the Boq, and brings this to Henry’s attention.
• Take Me Instead: In "The Sea Witch", one deeply unhappy soldier volunteers to go with the titular monster instead of her intended victim, having tired of the war and all it entails. She accepts, and takes him below the waves with her.
• Taking You with Me: The German Captain and his British counterpart blow up the Mendacious in order to take down the unidentified submarine and soldiers attacking them, at the cost of their own lives.
• Tele-Frag: This was the fate of several time travelers sent back to an army base in Wolverhampton in the 1940s. The first apparently arrived high in the air and fell to his doom. The second got dropped in a canal and drowned. The third materialized inside a fence. The fourth turned up underground. The fifth finally made it alive and well, but only because a number of people working at the base figured out what was going on, and cleared a space for the next arrival ahead of time.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The most common solution to taking out any of the paranormal or supernatural threats attacking the soldiers is to use heavy weapons such as flamethrowers, machine guns, and even artillery pieces. Justified, considering the various supernatural and paranormal threats encountered in the series are either stronger than an average soldier or sailor, or wield technology that is decades ahead of their own, so carrying weapons capable of killing in one hit are absolutely necessary.
• Time Travel: The purple gas in "Short Story - BRUCKE" is eventually revealed to allow individuals to travel in-between time periods, with the Nazis apparently planning on using the gas for nefarious reasons.
  • Later, it turns out several people have been trying to get to the Wolverhampton airport from the distant future.
• Trail of Blood: Katsuro from "Episode 8: APEX" leaves these behind after his attacks on two local houses… largely because his brutal methods leave so much of it that he tends to track it out of the house for a bit on his way out.
• Transformation Horror: Anyone killed by a Wendigo will themselves turn into one, and it is not pleasant. First, the victim's skin turns pale white. Then, their arms become longer, with their nails become sharp claws. While this is happening, the victim begins looping in and out of consciousness, developing a Horror Hunger in the process. And finally, their vision becomes bright yellow. And the worst part? The victim is completely aware of their loss of humanity and turn into a vicious cannibalistic monster.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Lucius discovered his abilities when he was a Roman Legionnaire, after a devastating German ambush in the depths of the Teutoburg Forest. Weakened by hunger, mortally wounded, and trapped under a fallen warrior, he began eating the dead man on top of him out of desperation. To his own shock, he discovered that the act rejuvenated him and healed his wounds. This also counts as his Start of Darkness, as he started doing it again and again.
• Tunnel Network: The army of lunatics in "Short Story: GEDROCHT" have made their home in the sewers and underground tunnels beneath Courtrai.
• Two-Part Episode: "Episode 9: HENGIS" is one.
• The Undead: In "Episode 7: MORGEN", A horde of them lurk beneath the surface of the reservoir, controlled by the Morgen. Some seem to have been down there for a very long time.
  • In "Episode 10: PURGATORY", the Soviets unleash a Plague Zombie horde into Stalingrad to stop the approaching Nazi forces. They follow modern Hollywood Zombie rules, being mindless shambling Flesh-Eating Zombie-types who are slowly decaying and can only be put down by Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain. They stop the Nazi advance in its tracks, as they have absolutely no experience with the monsters, and by the time they do, the city is already overrun. They're finally taken down by elite Siberian soldiers with training for dealing with them. Where they came from is a mystery, though a later video mentions they were first encountered by the Russians during the 1929 Sino-Soviet Conflict.
• Underestimating Badassery: The alien in "Episode 3: NERTHOL" is ultimately killed thanks to underestimating the tenacity and determination of the so-called "insects" he was ordered to study.
• Unintelligible Accent: In "Episode 7: MORGEN", James Nolan's thick Black Country accent makes him hard to understand even for the others in the company, and a German officer who speaks English finds it completely impossible.
• Uniqueness Value: The Kriegsmarine captain leading a mission to steal the NERTHOL alien weapons muses that, had it been the Nazis who had captured the device, they would have protected it at all costs, contrasting with the British commander's Suicidal Overconfidence in using the alien ship as a lone attacker.
• Unknown Rival: Dorn is one to Lucius. He's been pursuing the immortal man for centuries in an attempt to regain his power, but Lucius was completely unaware of it until 1911.
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: Apparently, the bottom of the Morgen's reservoir is lit by an eerie blue glow at all times, presumably due to the creature's magic.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • A formation of British Vickers Wellington bombers are attacked by a Luftwaffe night-fighter squadron, and end up off-course and forced to drop their payload over the French countryside outside of Paris. These stray bombs kill several locals, including the parish priest watching over a town. Unfortunately, this priest was the only thing keeping a demon from going on rampages against the local populace, and without him, the demon soon turns its sights onto both the locals and the Germans...
  • An unnamed Native American soldier is caught in an ambush by Waffen-SS grenadiers. Out of desperation, he recites a magical phrase that ends up turning him into a Wendigo, allowing him to wipe out his attackers. Unfortunately for the soldier, the Curse cannot be reversed, anyone bitten or scratched by him also turns into a Wendigo, and the Wendigo spirit itself doesn't distinguish between friendly and enemy.
• The Virus: Anyone bitten by a Wendigo will become one themselves. By the time the 551st finds the horde, they’re well over 50 strong, and it’s implied they may kick off something like a Zombie Apocalypse if they’re not stopped.
  • The Living Dead from Episode 12 work the same way, transforming their victims into another of their number after killing them.
• Voice Changeling: As with other works based on the legend, the Wendigos encountered by the 551st PIR can perfectly imitiate both American English and German accents perfectly.
• War Is Hell: The entire series has this attitude, but "Short Story: GEDROCHT" and "The Ghoul" slam it home even more than others in the series; the fact that so many people were driven mad by the horrors of WWI, that they grouped into a single nightmarish cannibal horde without any other prompting whatsoever, speaks volumes.
• Weak, but Skilled: In his duel with Lucius in “Short Story: ATTACCARE”, Dorn proves to be this. He originally held Lucius’ Cannibalism Superpower, which Lucius somehow “stole” from him after partially eating him in the Teutoborg Forest. Dorn retained some of it, but his Healing Factor was far weaker afterwards. Lucius had no idea he still existed, so when they meet once more in Libya in 1911, Dorn – who had been training specifically for this battle – initially overwhelms the unprepared Lucius, who had largely relied on his Healing Factor for ages. Lucius only comes out on top by turning it into a Mutual Kill, which he recovers from more quickly.
• We Have Reserves: The Morgen in Episode 7 hangs back in the deeper waters some distance away in the reservoir during the battle, sending wave after wave of undead against the British and Germans while staying well clear of rifle fire itself.
• Weight Loss Horror: The people of the horde in "Short Story: GEDROCHT" are constantly rail-thin and starving, as their diet generally consists of whatever soldiers they can find and overwhelm.
• Weird Historical War: The series is set smack-dab in the middle of World War II, with both Allied and Axis forces encountering and often falling victim to various paranormal and supernatural threats.
• Wendigo: Several are encountered in "Episode 4: MALEDICTION". Unlike most depictions, they're encountered all the way in Belgium (no thanks to a Native American soldier turning himself into one out of desperation), and they can turn their victims into other Wendigos immediately upon killing them.
• Why Am I Ticking?: The escaped POWs in "Short Story: ANATHEMA" were prepared for their escape by the Nazis, who had their persons prepared to become the source of a magic green fire that would kill them and devastate the Allied camps.
• Wicked Witch: The Borda, an eerie old crone with a Sinister Schnoz and Blindfolded Vision, as well as terrifying supernatural powers.
• The Worm That Walks: Blight can coalesce the bugs composing itself into a roughly humanoid figure, enough to make visible gestures. 
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: When Detective Heide and the killer in "Short Story: CAEDES" are finally alone in the hotel room, Lucius claims he’ll show the detective EXACTLY what happened to the Hinterkaifeck murder victims…
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The HMS Mendacious' main strategy, as a Q-Ship. The vessel is essentially a disproportionately well-armed, refitted fishing trawler. It would fake engine trouble on patrols, and when a U-Boat would surface to try to capture it, they’d be met with a fearsome amount of gunfire.
• Yandere: The Sea Witch. She murders several soldiers while searching for her runaway human "companion", and expresses neither doubt nor fear about the whole thing.
• You Killed My Father: In "Episode 5: ELAH", Jessica stowed away on the Bickleigh Bridge after following a killer onto the ship, determined to avenge his murder of her entire family. In the end, she handcuffs him to a rail as the tanker goes under, leaving him to drown.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: The young Spitfire pilot who helps kill the alien attacking him and the other British servicemen ends up accidentally acquiring the alien's advanced spacesuit, which latches onto him, heals all his wounds and injuries, and gives him full control of the alien's ship.
• Zombie Apocalypse: One is at risk of happening in the Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, except, instead of actual zombies, it's from Wendigos capable of turning their victims into more of the creatures. Thankfully, members of the 551st PIR prevent the monsters from breaking out of the wooded area they're holed up in.
  • Later, in "Episode 12: PURGATORY", it's revealed that the Soviets deliberately unleashed a small horde of zombies on Stalingrad in November 1942 as the city fell to the Nazis. The Nazis, completely unfamiliar with their undead foes, lost the city to the zombies in a matter of weeks. The Soviets then took the city back with a relatively small number of elite Siberian troops who knew how to dispatch the undead with incredible efficiency.
• Zombie Infectee: Luca got bitten by a wendigo during the incident in Belgium. While Enzo is desperately trying to bring him back home to his family, he's slowly starting to change...

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