00:00♪♪
00:09♪♪
00:19♪♪
00:29♪♪
00:39♪♪
00:49♪♪
00:54And now, design for war.
00:59♪♪
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02:00♪♪
02:05War has begun.
02:07Ships are sinking.
02:09Men are dying.
02:11It is September 1939.
02:17While German Panzer Divisions race toward Warsaw,
02:20the German Navy, powerful, efficient,
02:23its morale high, prepares for a greater, more decisive struggle.
02:28The Battle of the Atlantic.
02:30Hitler's admirals know that command of the sea
02:32means the death of Great Britain and victory in Europe.
02:36They also know if the stronger Royal Navy
02:38bars the way on the surface,
02:40victory may be won in the depths.
02:44At the outbreak of war,
02:45they begin expanding their U-boat fleet
02:47by as much as 1,000 percent a month.
02:49Germany's ablest scientists and technicians
02:51concentrate on perfecting the submarine,
02:54multiplying its range and deadliness.
02:57For fascism to survive, it must kill.
03:04The time has come,
03:05and Hitler hurls his U-boats into the Atlantic
03:07to ravage and destroy.
03:09The elite of the Nazi Navy,
03:11its best commanders,
03:12its most highly trained crews,
03:14command the submarines.
03:16To them falls the crucial mission of isolating Great Britain,
03:20of severing the arteries that feed her.
03:24If enough of England's ships are sunk,
03:26the issue will not be in doubt.
03:29England starves.
03:31Europe dies.
03:33As war begins,
03:34England expands her now hopelessly inadequate merchant marine.
03:38In addition, hundreds of escort vessels
03:40are desperately needed to protect the cargo ships.
03:43For months to come,
03:45they will be pitifully few.
03:54Patiently, doggedly,
03:57Englishmen build the ships
03:59which make so little showing in the statistics of naval strength.
04:03The ships without which England cannot live.
04:24Canada's men and material
04:26enlist in the cause of decency and survival.
04:29Canada is quick to act with all her means.
04:32Precious goods from her farms and arsenals
04:34are loaded aboard ancient, poorly armed merchant ships.
04:54The early makeshift convoy set out for the perilous crossing
04:57under the patchwork protection of converted yachts,
05:00the fishing fleet,
05:01and, if they are lucky,
05:04a ship or two of the hard-pressed Royal Canadian Navy.
05:08The sailors are sustained chiefly
05:10by the knowledge that the sea is wide
05:13and the U-boats cannot cover every meter of the sea.
05:17The sailors are sustained chiefly
05:18by the knowledge that the sea is wide
05:21and the U-boats cannot cover every mile of every route.
05:26It's a pitiful, feeble way of making war,
05:31hoping and praying to dodge the enemy.
05:47© BF-WATCH TV 2021
06:18© BF-WATCH TV 2021
06:26War can be tedious, boring.
06:31Weeks of monotonous routine
06:33become almost unbearable for sailors
06:35who live under the constant threat of an enemy attack.
06:39Theirs is a cruel death should they be torpedoed.
06:44The convoy cannot stop.
06:46It must go on until it reaches England
06:50or until it's spotted by the Germans
06:52whose submarines are prowling, shadowing,
06:55waiting to move in for the slaughter.
07:16© BF-WATCH TV 2021
07:47Feeble escorts fight back, but it's seldom effective.
07:51How can World War I equipment cope with World War II submarines?
07:56But the sub must be fought.
08:17If the war at sea is deadly, the war on land seems phony.
08:22The Sitzkrieg is on,
08:24fought with propaganda balloons and leaflets,
08:27slogans and serenades.
08:39The Maginot Line seems impregnable
08:42and the French soldiers relax.
08:44But the Germans are not dancing.
08:46Their strength is building.
08:48Their plans are laid.
08:50Hitler's finger is on the trigger.
09:09Holland is crushed.
09:15Belgium is smashed.
09:34France is broken.
09:45England is crushed.
09:59Dunkirk.
10:01What man can know that this is the prelude to England's finest hour?
10:06Britain's sea power rescues Britain's army,
10:09but at a cost of abandoning all its equipment and all its stores,
10:13the British stand stripped of their armor,
10:16their weapons struck from their hands.
10:28It is the hour of catastrophe.
10:33It is the hour of the Brown Triumph.
10:43The path of glory leads to the forest of Compiègne.
10:51With Volga, Hitler, and his army,
10:54the French army is ready for battle.
10:57It is the hour of the Brown Triumph.
11:00It is the hour of the Brown Triumph.
11:03It is the hour of the Brown Triumph.
11:06It is the hour of the Brown Triumph.
11:10With Volga histrionics,
11:13the Nazis stage France's humiliation in the same railway car
11:17where the Germans capitulated 22 years earlier.
11:22The French surrender,
11:25and it is Hitler's turn to dance.
11:40But conquest ends at the English Channel,
11:43where sea power blocks the way.
11:46Yet with the French ports in German hands,
11:49the striking power of the Nazis grows enormously.
11:52The enemy moves into powerful new positions
11:55that menace England's very shores.
11:58Now the submarine bases are a mere night's run
12:01from the ship lanes that sustain England's life.
12:04Now the U-boats are in England's throat.
12:07Made them 10 times as dangerous as before,
12:1020 times as potent.
12:22And from newly acquired air bases on England's threshold
12:25comes something new to warfare,
12:28new to history.
12:30An attempt to pound the world power into submission
12:33by bombardment from the sky.
12:36Coolly and brilliantly, the English organize their defenses,
12:40meeting the new menace with new methods.
12:43But the Nazi squadrons come over around the clock.
13:36By caring not how she expends her blood,
13:39sweat, and tears,
13:42England stands firm.
13:45Hitler does not force her to her knees.
13:48A democratic people wins the Battle of Britain.
13:51But for Britain's leaders, the situation remains desperate.
13:54If freedom is to survive in the old world,
13:57it must be in the new world.
14:00But for Britain's leaders, the situation remains desperate.
14:03If freedom is to survive in the old world,
14:06the new world will have to act.
14:13In America, public opinion is slowly, surely forming.
14:18The issues are becoming clear.
14:23Congress moves boldly to safeguard American security
14:26by forthright aid to Great Britain.
14:30♪♪
14:41The British Navy needs destroyers, needs them badly.
14:45America has many left over from World War I.
14:48Stopgap strategy in the Battle of the Atlantic
14:51calls for an exchange of destroyers for British bases
14:54in the Caribbean and the Atlantic.
14:57Step by step,
15:00America begins forging her armor.
15:03The absolute necessity for naval strength
15:06is demonstrated by Britain's plight.
15:09America needs not one, but two navies.
15:12One to guard the Atlantic,
15:15the other to counter aggression in the Pacific.
15:18The shipyards begin working travel ships.
15:21Merchant ships, warships, auxiliaries
15:24begin sliding down the waves in increasing tempo.
15:27All our production becomes the gold throughout the land.
15:30The pace of preparedness quickens.
15:33♪♪
15:51But materials by themselves are no longer enough.
15:54From coast to coast, the barracks go up by the thousands
15:57to receive draftees by the hundreds of thousands.
16:00♪♪
16:04Far off areas become vital to the United States.
16:07Greenland lies at the crossroads of the North Atlantic.
16:11In May of 1940, she asked United States protection.
16:15Her creolite mines and weather stations are denied the Germans.
16:19♪♪
16:23American Marines move into Iceland a year later,
16:26relieving the British garrison there.
16:29The Leathernecks forestall the German threat.
16:32Whoever possesses Iceland holds a pistol pointed at England,
16:36the United States, and Canada.
16:39♪♪
16:51In midsummer 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt meet off Newton
16:55to proclaim the Atlantic Charter.
16:58The four freedoms, freedom of speech and of worship,
17:03from want and from fear.
17:09But these are the realities that support the ideals.
17:13The ships, the men, the supplies on which all depend.
17:18The ships plod along the North Atlantic convoy routes
17:21at dangerously sluggish speed,
17:24their pace regulated by the slowest merchantmen in the convoy.
17:28And the slower the convoy,
17:30the easier it falls into the trap of roving U-boats.
17:34♪♪
17:42♪♪
17:52The shortest course to Europe lies across the North Atlantic.
17:55Concentrated here is the flow of Allied ships and enemy submarines.
18:01While convoys are underway, Royal Canadian Control Centres
18:04keep them instructed and informed
18:06on the basis of coordinated intelligence.
18:09♪♪
18:22At sea, protection is weak.
18:25The menace, grave.
18:27Around the rim of the convoy, the escort vessels keep station,
18:31herding the merchantmen toward their destination.
18:34In September 1941,
18:36the United States Navy joins the British and Canadians
18:39in protecting the convoys half their way across the Atlantic.
18:43American sailors are in the shooting war,
18:47though their country is not.
18:50♪♪
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19:14Soon, too soon,
19:17a lone U-boat spots the convoy.
19:20♪♪
19:25Its mission is to plot the convoy's course and speed
19:28and relay the information by radio
19:30to German naval headquarters on the French coast.
19:33♪♪
19:42Admiral Dunitz, the genius of German submarine warfare,
19:46orders his submarines off for the kill.
19:49♪♪
20:05The U-boats in the area of the convoy are alerted
20:07and directed to an assembly point
20:09where they coordinate into a unified striking force
20:12known as a wolf pack.
20:15Wolf pack rendezvous for the attack.
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20:40♪♪
20:51The convoy is on guard.
20:53Sonar, ASDIC as the British call it,
20:56sends a sound wave into the depths,
20:59searching for a return echo from the enemy.
21:02♪♪
21:07All hands on all ships are alerted in these dangerous waters
21:11where sinkings are routine.
21:14♪♪
21:38♪♪
21:51Contact.
21:53Too late.
21:55♪♪
22:06Man your battle stations.
22:09♪♪
22:38♪♪
22:53♪♪
23:13♪♪
23:33♪♪
23:58The battle is over.
24:01Home are the victors.
24:03Home safely from the sea.
24:06They have brought England a little closer to starvation,
24:09closer to defeat.
24:12Triumph and glory are theirs.
24:15♪♪
24:33Outstanding heroes are flown to their capital, Berlin,
24:36for further celebration.
24:38The victories against England prove to the Germans
24:41the invincibility of the Third Reich.
24:44All Germany rejoices.
24:46All Germany honors its undersea sailors.
24:50♪♪
25:20Death and destruction are the cause of the celebrations.
25:26Even before the United States enters the war,
25:30the bottom of the Atlantic is a formidable cemetery of Allied ships.
25:36But there are no tombstones in the sea,
25:40only the drifting remnants of disaster.
25:45♪♪
26:06And this is just the beginning.
26:10♪♪
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