- [Jeff] Choosing where to travel after you've explored the must-see places on your list can be a little tricky.

Hitting popular destinations that are almost universally shared by wanderers around the planet would take even the most dedicated traveler years to discover.

But for every travel hotspot you'll find the masses blogging about online, there are tenfold the places never talked about and rarely seen that will almost always leave a permanent impression on an explorer's soul.

This is eastern France, not far from the Rhine River Valley in Germany, in a mountain range called the Vosges.

We came here to film a World War II documentary project, completely unrelated to "Outside: Beyond the Lens," not realizing the places we needed to capture would be some of the most beautiful mountain settings any of us had ever seen.

- We're the only humans on the planet right here hanging out - Where this happened.

- Where this happened.

- [Jeff] The story that brought us here is brutal, tragic, and heroic.

(inspiring music) All set against the backdrop of sublime forest scenes that frame the hope and triumph that rose from the death and ashes here in October, 1944.

I didn't know we were gonna see this kinda stuff.

(inspiring music) And here is where another lesson in the lifelong practice of travel was learned.

How much of the world holds remarkable settings like this, marred by the ax from darker times, but ready to be discovered in a new light.

(inspiring music) None of us left here the same.

Moved by the story we came to tell, forever changed by landscapes we didn't know to look for.

When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.

- Pretty incredible stuff.

- [Jeff] When you explore with friends like mine that are outdoor cinematographers, destinations definitely come to life.

(thunder rumbling) Okay, that was loud.

We share our love of travel with our cameras, telling the stories of Earth's most amazing places in every frame.

But on every adventure, (gator bellows) Dave!

the unplanned moments are the ones we remember the most.

I did bring a bag of raw chicken.

Hang on, I'll be right back.

(cameramen chuckle) Here we go, Lake Como.

I'm Jeff Aiello.

Low bridge, ooh.

And this is "Outside: Beyond the Lens."

It's not always about the obvious big view behind you.

Sometimes the prettiest things are right below your feet.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "Outside: Beyond the Lens" provided by Visit Fresno County, nature, diversity, found in the heart of California Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks.

By Hedrick's Chevrolet.

- Hedrick's Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here.

- [Announcer] By Advance Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel.

By the Penstar Group, promoting opportunity and growth for collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in the power company's infrastructure or your own?

And by visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.

(inspiring music) - [Jeff] A mid-morning drive, headed north through the Rhine River Valley in eastern France.

After spending part of this journey across the river in Germany on the Autobahn, where speed limits are suggested but not mandatory, we're feeling a lot more at ease on the French A35 as we begin another adventure in a place we've never been.

We've come here to film a segment for a World War II documentary I've been working on and decided to do double duty and shoot an episode of this show at the same time.

We are headed for the small French village of Bruyeres, nestled in the Vosges Mountains where a decisive battle happened in the fall of 1944.

A battle fought and won by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team made up entirely of Japanese American men who had been wrongfully imprisoned by the United States government after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

120,000 people of Japanese descent, most US citizens, were forced into concentration camps across American when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942.

Now, as we leave the Rhine River Valley behind us and climb into the Vosges, the rolling agricultural lands of crops and wine grapes begin to transform into thickly, wooded, hills and vibrantly green valleys dotted with castle ruins.

(inspiring music) For us, the Vosges have a welcoming familiarity, a low mountain range that tops out around 4,500 feet in elevation with a mixture of forests and wide open green fields and pastures.

(dog barks) Bruyeres is beyond the crest of the Vosges, on its western slopes, about a four-hour drive from where this adventure began in Zurich, Switzerland.

Two years after the confinement of Japanese Americans in World War II, and realizing that the threat of sabotage by people of Japanese descent against America was an overreaction to war hysteria, the US Army called on those Americans wrongfully imprisoned to fight in the war.

A segregated unit was formed consisting of Japanese American men called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and they proudly went into battle in Italy in May of 1944.

After a successful push north, defeating the Nazis faster than even their commanding officers had predicted, the 442nd was redeployed to France to help push German forces back toward the Rhine.

Liberating the town of Bruyeres from Nazi occupation became the next mission of the 442, and after several days of brutal, street-to-street combat, the Japanese American soldiers pursued the retreating Germans into the hills that surround Bruyeres.

(guns blast) After a long day of driving and stopping often to film along the way, we arrive in Bruyeres with a quickly setting sun and a short window to visit one of the hills south of the town where a bloody battle between the 442 and Nazi forces took place.

D, I don't know about you walking up here, but man, I'm feeling what these guys went through.

- Yeah.

- It's- - [David] Definitely, it's pretty crazy.

- [Jeff] The steepness is insane.

- [David] Yeah, I mean, to think they fought their way up here.

You know, it's next to, not impossible to take a hill, but they came up this thing.

- [Jeff] This is steeper than the video's showing.

And I was saying this on the way up here to myself, I could feel, like, you can feel what happened here.

You know, I've read enough about it and seen enough old World War II film footage of what happened on these hills surrounding, for years.

When you're here, man, it's hauntingly quiet right now.

We're here about the same time of the year, in October, that the battle took place.

The leaves are starting to change colors.

There's a quiet and coolness to it, but when you're here, man, you can feel it.

Our evening climb into the past is set against a stillness in the cool October air as our imaginations, armed with the stories of what we know happened here, begin to fill in images in the now empty forests, bringing late day shadows to life.

(inspiring music) At the summit of Mont Avison a tower stands, providing excellent views of Bruyeres and the surrounding French countryside.

The tower was built in 1900, but badly damaged during the Battle of Bruyeres.

Seen here in these historic film clips from the war.

Today, it becomes a useful overlook for us to become oriented with the town below and the topography that played such a big part of the fighting here in October of 1944.

All right, so we're on top of the tower and this is a great vantage point, for us especially because we just got here.

And you can look at this on Google Earth and you can look at it on maps, but until you see it from this vantage point up top, do you realize how close everything was.

How close the hills were.

These hills behind me are the hills that the 442nd fought to overtake.

The Nazi positions were on the tops of all these hills.

And so, what you're looking at behind me is the town of Bruyeres that was liberated by the 442nd in late October of 1944.

And this view gives you everything.

And it kinda helps us set the framework of where we're gonna go next, tomorrow.

With a long day of travel behind us and a better sense of how the land and cityscapes here both became important backdrops for the battle that took place, we head back into Bruyeres for the night.

Tomorrow we will explore the town further and a place sacred to the memory of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the forest just beyond this village.

Some type of, you know, I wonder if this was- - German.

- Exactly, A German vehicle.

Yeah.

- [David] I mean, there's no other reason why there would be metal here unless it was part of a vehicle that was used.

- [Jeff] It looks stamped.

So, this looks like a vehicle part.

Day two in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France, just outside the town of Bruyeres.

This morning we've come to a place where the bravery and sacrifice of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion is memorialized in a thickly wooded forest not far from town.

Monuments put in place here in 1947 by the people of Bruyeres, grateful but still shaken by the horrors of war.

(inspiring music) The surrounding forest here is on top of Hill 555, a designation given by the US Army on battle maps in 1944.

Curiosity to explore these woods not far from the monuments, reveals something not indicated on any nearby interp signs or on any maps we have.

In the still October air, as we capture scenes of the beauty of this place, we realize we are standing on hallowed ground.

This was an active battlefield in the early campaign to liberate Bruyeres.

Foxholes dug by both American and German forces still remain, stark reminders of the kind of close-quarters fighting that raged here.

You can tell too, right, when they got to this position, this was a ridge point.

So, this gave them a really good position to protect and move more guys up from the back.

Wow, man.

And you can tell this was legitimately dug.

'cause there's rock all around it.

This one over here has rock all built up around it.

- Yeah, they fortified it.

- Yeah.

This is amazing.

(ethereal music) Our walk into these woods stirs a contrast of emotions, a quiet sense of respect for what happened here while simultaneously admiring the beauty of a place we might not otherwise have ventured into if it weren't for our search to learn more about the battle here.

This is a bigger position fortified with rock.

And this would've been right at the ridge line, looking over the top of the hill and down the other side.

I mean, you're kneeling on rocks that were put there 80 years ago.

Is that what it is?

1944 October, we're just one week off from when this was going down.

I didn't know we were gonna see this kinda stuff.

(ethereal music) The battle on Hill 555 marked the beginning of the effort to liberate nearby Bruyeres, as the 442nd pushed in on German forces through this forest.

It didn't take long for the Americans to advance on the battle-weary Nazi soldiers, where intense street-to-street fighting echoed through Bruyeres.

(gun blasts) Now in town to better understand this part of the battle, we stand on the steps of the church in Bruyeres with archival still photos from October of 1944 to try and match up scenes from the past and the places we stand today.

So, the historic photograph that we're referring to is here.

This is taken in 1944, right after the liberation of Bruyeres.

You can actually see 442nd troops here, walking right in front of the fountain that's down there.

The steps are different.

So, back in '44, the steps were wrapped around and now they're just one case, but the building's still the same and the fountain obviously is still there, and the building next to this building is still there.

So, we're just gonna try to line that up as best we can now.

- [Camera Operator] We can see that, there you go.

Now, we're talking.

Yep, that's it right there.

You got the little square box?

You do.

I think you have it, bud.

- [Jeff] You're really using the control point of the fountain under that- - Under that window.

- For your left and right.

- Yeah.

- [Camera Operator] And the left.

Yeah, I think you're right about there, bud.

(inspiring music) - [Jeff] A photographic comparison between now and then.

It took three days for the 442nd to set Bruyeres free.

After the Battle of Bruyeres, German forces fled to the east toward the Rhine.

The 442nd stayed in Bruyeres to rest and recover, as the first battalion of the 141st Infantry, made up mostly of men from the Texas National Guard, was ordered to pursue the retreating Germans.

We follow the path of the pursuit now, driving through the French countryside, past farms, and small villages made up of quaint clusters of homes and small churches.

Towns like Biffontaine, France, about 10 miles east of Bruyeres.

(inspiring music) Here monuments erected during the First World War show the scars of bullets and artillery blasts from a new world war that began just 21 years later.

Signs of fighting between German forces and the US Army's 141st, in a frantic effort to catch the Nazis before they could escape this valley.

(melancholy violin music) We decide to take a break from following in the footsteps of men who fought here in World War II to explore more of the scenic beauty of the Vosges that has surprised us all and captured our imaginations about what this part of France has to offer to a group of friends on a road trip with cameras.

A little research online reveals a somewhat well-known part of eastern France we're fairly close to, called the Alsace region, famous for its white wines and home to the eighth century town of Ribeauville.

The winding drive back down off the Vosges is like a journey through a fairytale setting, and slow-going as we are literally pulling over every three minutes to capture the beauty of this adventure in camera.

- It's really pretty.

- [Jeff] On the easternmost hills of the Vosges, before they surrender to the Rhine River Valley's even lands castle ruins dot the entire drive and we find a place to get out and take a closer look.

I don't know, what would you say far distance-wise we are?

A mile?

What's your drone say?

- Well, I'm at 4,200.

- We're right at 'em.

We're getting close to a mile.

Anyway, we pulled over to get some shots.

Zack here put the drone up and you know Zack is liking the shot that he is getting by his pose.

Look at that pose.

That is a drone pilot's "I like my shot" pose.

He's all crunched over.

He's got one leg out like Captain Morgan.

- You can't get any more into this than this.

- Yeah, let's get in here and see what's going on here.

- Well, I'm bring it back right now.

I'm sure we'll show you later.

- [Jeff] Okay, the footage looked pretty good?

- Yeah, it's very nice.

- Right on.

- Yeah.

This place makes it easy for sure.

- [Jeff] Yeah, it's a beautiful little valley up here.

And you can see, actually where we're at is actually not aesthetically pleasing at all.

We're in some kind of a construction zone.

But up on the hill, let's zoom in.

- [Zack] Past all the power cables and the construction- - [Jeff] Yeah, there's a lot of power cables in here, but Zack is gonna make those two castles look awesome with his drone.

(inspiring music) One thing you discover when you travel is that you don't know what you don't know.

The Alsace region of France isn't a place I was too familiar with and I had never heard of the town of Ribeauville.

But here we are, brought here through a set of circumstances unrelated with finding this place and now forever changed by the experience of walking these historic streets.

A picture-postcard town on a perfect late fall day, filled with the joy of discovery you only get when you travel outside your comfort zone.

- What's that?

- That's your shot.

Castle right there.

- Oh, there it is.

- [Jeff] Ribeauville is an ancient town with a walk-around charm that just puts a huge smile on your face.

The castle Chateau Saint-Ulrich dominates the skyline above and adds to the complete transformation of time and space when you immerse yourself in a town like this.

The food in this part of France is a savory combination of influences from both Germany and the culinary wizardry of the French.

- What's a spatzle?

- Steer clear.

- [Jeff] For us this afternoon, it's cold, draft German beer and spatzle, a traditional pasta dish with lots of melted cheese and onion.

(waiter speaks French) - [Jeff] Jon opted for the local meat and kraut bowl.

So, I'm glad David's sitting by you in the back seat of the car.

- Yeah.

- [Jeff] With shadows growing longer along the hillsides of the Vosges, we make the two-hour drive back to Bruyeres for the night.

Tomorrow, we have one more stop in the story of the 442 that became one of the 10 most notable battles in the history of the US Army.

(dramatic music) In the final days of October of 1944, the 141st Infantry, known as the Texas Battalion, over pursued the retreating Germans, who then surrounded the Americans pinching off their supply and support chains, trapping them on this hilltop.

The men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team were called in to rescue them, after only a few days rest back in Bruyeres.

- Go for broke!

(gun blasts) - [Jeff] In some of the most intense, close-quarters combat in all of World War II, the men of the 442, whose families were still in concentration camps in America, simply because they had Japanese blood in their veins, defeated the Germans again, and saved what was left of the 141st.

(inspiring music) To see the full documentary we produced about the 442nd "Unbroken Honor," go to valleypbs.org, or stream it on the PBS app.

Our final day in the Vosges was something none of us will forget, as we move up the same hillside that saw so many of the 442 fall, a quiet washes over the forest and each of us, as the magnitude of what happened here sinks in.

(inspiring music) The forest floor where the final bonzai charge was made to rescue the Texas Battalion is still filled with foxholes.

Tank tracks are still visible in a carpet of moss.

And an unlikely discovery in a random tree well by David Boomer.

Two stones with handwritten memorials on them, honoring two members of the 442nd, left by their families long after the smoke and screams faded from this forest.

We came here to tell a story of the horrible and remarkable things human beings can do.

We leave here with a better understanding of what the 442nd Regimental Combat Team achieved and sacrificed to show its loyalty to a nation that had turned its back on them.

And we leave here with a new perspective of a place we knew little about before coming and go home with a story to tell that just might inspire someone to come here for themselves and let the mountains of the Vosges into their souls too.

(heartbeat thumps softly) (melancholy violin music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "Outside: Beyond the Lens" provided by Visit Fresno County.

Nature, diversity, found in the heart of California Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks.

By Hedrick Chevrolet.

- Hedrick Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here.

- [Announcer] By Advance Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel.

By the Penstar Group, promoting opportunity and growth for collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in the power company's infrastructure or your own?

And by visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.

(upbeat music)