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00:00December the 4th, 1944. A deadly delivery to a secret rendezvous.
00:16This is the start of a mission designed to change the war's outcome.
00:21Operation Caesar will prompt a unique underwater confrontation. A duel to the death between two submarines.
00:36I have control of the submarine. Action stations. Look for target.
00:47It's a question of who makes the first mistake.
00:51It's the loser.
00:54Fire one!
00:57Hard backboard! Up 40 meters!
01:04Fire three!
01:11Today, a broken wreck could hold vital clues to the denouement of this battle of wits.
01:17There is the tragic part of this. You know that inside this metal coffin, there are a significant number of people.
01:23Edith Wetzler has come to pay tribute to a man she once loved, and lost.
01:28It's more than 60 years of death in the dead, and lost.
01:38The end of the day is the end of the day, and the end of the day is the end of the day.
01:43The end of the day is the end of the day.
01:44Edith Wetzler has come to pay tribute to a man she once loved and lost.
01:56It's more than 60 years since she last saw the face of her fiancé.
02:05Willy Transeer was barely 18 when he left Edith.
02:10This all happened 60 years ago, and the fact that I can still remember it proves that
02:20we really loved each other.
02:24It still hurts, but I'm so thankful that we had those few years together, otherwise
02:34he would have had nothing from life.
02:37At least for those couple of years he knew real happiness, and he lived our love.
02:50Willy's other great love was the sea.
02:53In October 1942, he joined the German Navy as a volunteer.
02:59He worked his way up from personnel clerk and became a submarine mechanic.
03:04His first mission was on the U-boat U-864.
03:18By December 1944, the tide of war had turned against Hitler and Germany.
03:27Heavy attacks on land, in the air, and on the sea had pushed the Germans back.
03:33They were hemmed in on all sides.
03:44One of the last possible operational routes was through the North Sea.
03:55It was from Kiel that U-864 prepared to try and escape the Allied stranglehold.
04:01The commander in charge, Captain Ralph Reimer Wolfram, had limited experience.
04:08Life was short for submariners.
04:10In the fifth year of the war, the German Navy was running out of veterans.
04:17The U-864 was not just a normal U-boat.
04:20The 9D-2 class boat was very large, almost 90 meters long, and capable of 20 knots.
04:29It had been filled with a secret cargo.
04:38And just as precious, a human cargo, German and Japanese scientists and engineers.
04:46They were Hitler's last hope to change the war's outcome.
04:52Wolfram's orders were clear.
04:54At any cost, these men and their cargo had to reach Japan's production sites.
05:01On the early morning of December the 5th, 1944, Captain Wolfram set out into the open sea.
05:08Operation Caesar would take U-864 from Kiel, around Africa, to Penang in Asia.
05:21The men on board knew it would be a dangerous voyage.
05:26They were prepared for a trip that would last many months.
05:29Captain!
05:30All right.
05:31We could have a little bit of luck.
05:36We could have a little bit of luck.
05:43He said to me, this mission is a mystery.
05:45Nobody knows where it's going or how it will end.
05:50Traveling through northern waters had become a risky venture.
05:54The Allies had seized command of the seas.
05:57The once successful wolf packs were becoming easy prey.
06:02The Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy were on constant lookout for German U-boats.
06:09Sixty years later.
06:11The tiny island of Feijer in Norway.
06:15German scientist Wolfgang Lawenstein has come to inspect a mysterious wreck.
06:20The subject of many rumours.
06:24He was contacted by a fisherman who found a strange object in his nets.
06:29It seems to be a valve, probably from a German submarine.
06:34Speculation abounds about the find.
06:37The less information people have, the more they make things up.
06:44We don't know what's in this mystery U-boat.
06:47People are spinning all kinds of weird stories.
06:50Some even say Hitler's last will could be in there.
06:58But Lawenstein's research is founded on hard facts.
07:02Like the record of the last radio message that was sent to U-864.
07:07It's for a rendezvous with an escort ship near the lighthouse of Feijer.
07:12A rendezvous U-864 never made.
07:28Almost a week into its mission, U-864 was crawling along the southern coast of Norway.
07:37It travelled submerged in daylight.
07:40The danger of being detected was great.
07:43From time to time, Captain Wolfram risked his periscope.
07:48No contacts were logged.
07:49The records show no problems for Operation Caesar and U-864 until the 29th of December.
08:18In Feijer, the German scientist Wolfgang Lawenstein is reviewing yet more documents.
08:46The archives have yielded previously lost details about the secret cargo of Operation Caesar.
08:51The archives have yielded previously lost details about the secret cargo of Operation Caesar.
08:57When U-864 accidentally ran aground, Captain Wolfram's first time
09:16his task was to check his U-boat was still watertight.
09:19Once the boat reported back, it was time for his guests to check if their secret and delicate
09:25load had suffered any damage.
09:27It was time for him.
09:28It was time for him.
09:29It was time for him.
09:34Inside the crates, wrapped in straw, the prize.
09:44Jet engines for the first successful jet fighters developed by Junkers, BMW and Messerschmitt.
09:54The German and Japanese scientist checks revealed no damage to these fragile engines.
10:07Germany's technically superior Messerschmitt jet fighters were eagerly sought by the Japanese
10:13air force.
10:14They were a last desperate resource to turn the tide in the Pacific War.
10:19The Japanese High Command believed they could disrupt the American bombers and win back aerial supremacy.
10:37The transportation of the Messerschmitt planes was top secret.
10:41But as Herr Lowenstein's research has proved, little about this mission remained hidden from the British.
10:48The codebreakers at Bletchley Park had seen to that.
11:00Hundreds of staff worked in shifts to crack the codes of the German Enigma machine and reveal the hidden messages.
11:07The British Ultramachines meant that almost all radio traffic was deciphered, especially the U-boat communications.
11:23One intercepted message spoke about the cargo of U-864.
11:32The British codebreakers discovered and reported every detail.
11:36Even the names of the German and Japanese scientists and the cover name of this secret mission, Operation Caesar.
11:44After the grounding, U-864 put into the city of Bergen in Norway.
11:56The vessel was brought into dry dock inside the U-boat pen, Bruno.
12:05The last massive beachhead of the German Navy in the North Atlantic.
12:17This stopover in Bergen was not on the original itinerary of U-864.
12:25Drawing on their unexpected leave, the crew were allowed ashore.
12:29Captain Wolfram and his guests visited the officers' mess at naval headquarters in Bergen.
12:38The captain, his officers and guests all recorded their visit in the mess guestbook.
12:44Wolfram wrote the motto of all German U-boat captains, heart of gold, clear horizon.
12:51Referring to his grounding, he wrote, we were lucky again.
12:56This luck ended just hours later.
12:59British Lancaster bombers launched a massive air raid on Bergen.
13:03Their target, the U-boat pen, Bruno.
13:06One enormous tally-boy bomb hit the reinforced concrete walls of bunker number three.
13:12Inside lay U-864.
13:15The crew of the U-boat had to extend their stay in Bergen for repairs.
13:19All this confirmed the growing apprehension of the German mechanic, Willy Transier.
13:31He had his doubts about this voyage even before it started, and now saw his misgivings confirmed.
13:38Just before departure, he wrote a last message to Edith Wetzler.
13:45This is the last photo of my fiancé, which he dedicated to me with the words,
13:51farewell greetings and kisses, your Willy.
13:55Just before Willy left Germany, he and Edith had become engaged.
14:02He said, pray for me that we come through this in one piece.
14:08And he said to his mother, Mama, don't be sad if I don't come back.
14:13I know you're too old to have another child.
14:16Or I would have said, have another child so you won't be alone.
14:23And he said to me, should you be pregnant, please, please let me know.
14:29But I wasn't.
14:31It didn't turn out that way.
14:46The intercepted radio messages were forwarded to the submarine base in Lerwick, Shetlands,
14:52the home base for submarines like HMS Venturer.
14:59Action stations!
15:03This 740-ton V-class submarine had already sunk 13 vessels in the North Sea and North Atlantic.
15:11Fire one!
15:15She was under the command of Lieutenant Jimmy Launders.
15:30John Watson was navigating officer in HMS Venturer.
15:36We knew we were in a weapon, a war weapon, and it was one that we knew was very effective,
15:42beautifully built, and that our objective was to do the job and then get back alive.
15:4925-year-old Lieutenant Jimmy Launders was a rising star among Royal Navy submarine commanders.
15:56Target range 2,500 yards.
16:00Able seaman Harry Plummer, the torpedo man, also has fond memories of his captain.
16:05Fire one! Fire one!
16:07Hit confirmed! Well done boys!
16:19I think he knew his job and he got on with his job. Nothing interfered.
16:26And we trusted him. We knew he was a good commander.
16:31We would have gone to the end of the earth with him. Because he was that good.
16:36The 11th patrol of HMS Venturer saw her ordered to the island of Feija.
16:43The waters around this island were strategically important.
16:48German positions dotted the landscape to protect the area from allied naval attack, lying just off occupied territory.
16:55This mission had brought them into the lion's den.
17:02We received a lot of death charges in the course of the patrols.
17:06And we realised that it was a sort of rebate coming back again for what we'd done.
17:13In Feija, the Norwegian research vessel, Geobay, is ready to cast off.
17:30On board, Wolfgang Lauenstein and Dr. Eric Grove, the leading British naval historian.
17:36This trip will bring them to the site of the still unnamed wreck.
17:48This was the main path to the open sea of the U-boat base at Bergen back there.
17:53And so if German U-boats were going to move and going to be operational, they had to move through these waters here.
17:59And this meant that if you wanted to interdict that, if you wanted to stop the movement, then here was where, or just off here,
18:04was where you concentrated your anti-submarine assets.
18:08For three days, Venturer lay off the Norwegian coast, but with no contacts.
18:13On February the 5th, Launders received a message sent by the Admiralty.
18:22Message to send, sir.
18:25It suggested that Launders position the Venturer near the lighthouse of Helisoy, on the southern coast of Feija.
18:32U-864 had finally relaunched Operation Caesar, and set out to continue her journey from Bergen.
18:44Her way out to the open sea would take her close by the island of Feija.
18:50The recently repaired engines were reporting no problems.
19:05The German crew didn't know that Venturer was so close, and on the lookout.
19:23Up, Periscope!
19:25Up, Periscope!
19:36Launders made careful use of his Periscope.
19:39But how to detect a U-boat?
19:41On the 6th of February, U-864 passed this critical point undetected, and continued its way north.
19:55Despite the messages and information from base, the search area was vast.
20:00Thousands of square miles of ocean.
20:03Finding a submerged submarine would not prove an easy task for the Venturer.
20:08By means of sonic waves, it was possible to locate other vessels.
20:14But the noise of this ASDIQ could also give away their own position.
20:21To avoid alerting the Germans, Launders decided not to use the ASDIQ sound waves,
20:27just to monitor the headset for the sounds of distant propellers.
20:31February the 8th, 5.20am. Panic in the engine room of U-864.
20:55Willy and his fellow mechanics were called to try and repair the damage.
20:59But it was soon clear, one of the engines had a serious problem.
21:04What's going on?
21:06Willy, we have a problem.
21:08Either with the cylinder or with the compressor.
21:11Let's turn it off.
21:17Hey!
21:33Hey, KapitÀn!
21:36Hey, ist ausgefallen.
21:38Wir können den hier nicht mehr reparieren!
21:42Kommandant an alle.
21:44We're going to go back to Bergen to repair the damage.
21:48135 degrees, keep the boat on the sea-rohr-tiefe.
21:56After radioing the bad news into headquarters, Wolfram received an immediate answer.
22:14We'll wait until 10.04 in Helisoy.
22:23Near Feijer, the research vessel GeoBay scans the bottom of the sea with its sonar.
22:34The first pictures of the seabed appear on the monitor in the control room.
22:39Two pieces of a submarine lie close to each other.
22:42That's good, that's good, yes. That's excellent.
22:44It blew the U-boat apart completely.
22:46And each part went its own way.
22:48Absolutely.
22:49Yes. And I can't understand at the moment that we shall find the bow in a distance to the aft of about 40 metres.
22:59A long way away. And indeed, it's been turned round, hasn't it?
23:01Yes, yes. Turned round.
23:03Yes, yes.
23:05The images reveal that one of the pieces of the hull is stuck, nearly upright in the silt.
23:11One hundred and fifty metres below the surface of the freezing water.
23:16February the ninth, 1945.
23:26On board the Ventura, the Azdic man was carefully monitoring for nearby vessels by hydrophone.
23:34Suddenly, at 9.23 in the morning, he reported a new sound. A different tone.
23:41John Watson was the officer on watch.
23:44Diesel off the starboard bow. Off the periscope.
23:48I could not see what was causing this noise.
23:51He said it sounded a bit like a fishing vessel starting and stopping its engines, you see, as if it was doing something with its fishing.
24:00And I should have been able to see it. The other fishing vessels were further away. And he said, no, they're much further away. This is closer.
24:10So I was concerned about that because I couldn't see it.
24:13Nothing inside.
24:23On his way back to Helisoy, Captain Wolfram was worrying about the engine noise. As he well knew, making noise underwater could be fatal.
24:33Ali, Captain. How far are we going to hear the generator?
24:39Very far, Captain.
24:41See you here. This is our position. And in this circle we are going to hear.
24:51Again, Wolfram checked for the enemy and, above all, for his escort. It meant risking the periscope.
24:59John Watson's watch ended at 10 a.m.
25:04Last contact, sir.
25:05His replacement was First Lieutenant Andy Chalmers.
25:10What's going on?
25:11Pursuing noise to the north. Seeing every other ASDIC contact. This one definitely suspicious.
25:15Very good. I have the watch.
25:18Got periscope.
25:21He noted that, but he had to keep a sharp eye on the fishing vessels that we were moving towards.
25:26And he also kept a sharp eye on the bearing where the noise had been.
25:37Once again, Wolfram checked his periscope. A dangerous tactic.
25:43His rendezvous with his escort was in just a few hours.
25:46But the periscope could give him away.
25:57Nothing in sight. ASDIC report.
25:59Regain contact. Green 1-0. Possible diesel engine.
26:03The noise started to get louder when he was on watch.
26:06And started to travel across ahead of us.
26:12Stop the periscope. Look for the target.
26:15Briefly, in the distance, Chalmers sighted a thin mast.
26:20Mast in sight. Bailing 3-4-0. Captain to the control room.
26:24Captain to the control room.
26:26Mast in sight, sir. Range 4,000 yards.
26:28I have control of the submarine. Action stations.
26:35Action stations. Action stations. Action stations. Action stations.
26:43ASDIC report. Contact. Possible diesel engine.
26:46And we all realised that we were dealing with a submerged U-boat.
26:56We felt a bit shaky.
26:58Because he could sink us.
27:01The same as we could sink him.
27:04The hunt was on now for the German U-boat with the secret cargo bound for Japan.
27:09On board the Geobay.
27:22Lauenstein is discussing another item on the cargo list with the Norwegian crew.
27:28Because if this wreck really is U-864.
27:31It has 60 tons of mercury in 1,857 flasks on board.
27:41An ecological time bomb.
27:44The real reason for the Norwegian team's search mission.
27:50I think it's important that something is done about it as quickly as possible.
27:55I think the problem really is that here we have a war grave below us.
27:59But equally it's a war grave that could bite back.
28:04Geobay has the latest state-of-the-art tools on board.
28:08It is equipped with a huge remote operated vehicle, or ROV.
28:13Its onboard cameras will help resolve the wreck's identity.
28:20Slowly, the ROV is lowered into the water.
28:23And begins its 150-metre descent towards the wreck.
28:28The scientists monitor the screens in the control room.
28:33On board U-864, the noise of the engines would be terrifying for the crew.
28:48Even the scientists on board couldn't fail to notice that something had to be wrong.
29:02It's not in order for us.
29:04Please stay in your cabin.
29:05There's no real excitement.
29:10But Wolfram himself knew this was not so.
29:13On his shoulders rested the lives of 73 men.
29:17Meanwhile, Watson and Launders were following every move of the unknown U-boat.
29:25The hunt was on, and it was clearly not the usual prey.
29:28It was unbelievable, because normally we go to action stations.
29:35And the action is over in a matter of minutes.
29:43But we were called to action stations.
29:46And we didn't go to action until about three quarters of an hour later.
29:59As Dick reports.
30:01We were hoping that she would surface, and then if she surfaced, we would be able to torpedo her straight away.
30:24We get much more accurate information about her, and for the director angle and all the rest of it.
30:31But there's no sign of her doing that.
30:33As Dick reports.
30:45He was underwater.
30:46We were underwater.
30:48He had no instructions on how to deal with it.
30:52Target in sight, bearing 0-6-0, range 1,000 yards.
31:00Zero, sorry.
31:02Range.
31:061,000 yards.
31:08Starboard 15.
31:11Steer 1-4-0.
31:18As Dick.
31:20Altering course.
31:21Possible zigzagging.
31:23We soon realised after quite a half an hour that he was actually zigzagging.
31:27He came up straight away on the plot.
31:29Up periscope.
31:31Look for target.
31:33The next problem was to work out what the zigzag was.
31:36You know, which were the short legs and which were the long legs.
31:40We knew that the chances were he was probably zigzagging on a complicated pattern.
31:45They told us that he was very nervous of us, of the chances of there being a British submarine there.
31:57Moving in a straight line would get Wolfram back to Bergen faster.
32:00But it would also make his path predictable.
32:05Lieutenant.
32:0740 Grad.
32:08Backboard.
32:10With no escort, Captain Wolfram's only hope was to be a moving target.
32:16All he could do was change course as often as possible.
32:19But every periscope manoeuvre from Wolfram gave Launders more detailed information about the course of the U-boat.
32:31One mast sighted, bearer, zero, nine, one.
32:44If we ever saw anything of his periscope, not his radio mast but his periscope, he had a chance to see us.
32:51So there's that risk.
32:53You want to get the torpedoes away in case he got his torpedoes away.
32:59HMS Venturer had been silently stalking U-864 for more than two hours now.
33:05With only four torpedo tubes to the German sub-6.
33:09Her only advantage was that U-864 might not know that it had company.
33:14Once detected, the hunter could very quickly become the hunted.
33:21Every time he turned and when he turned away, if you like, there's a little bit of tension in the control room
33:28because in the ideal position for him to fire back at us.
33:33Launders set to work.
33:36Through a combination of estimates of distance and course,
33:40based on the ASDIC operator's trained ear and periodic periscope sightings,
33:45he calculated the German U-boat's path.
33:47It was the fact that he had a mathematical brain and he was able to take in all the information very, very quickly
33:58and process it and then make his decision.
34:02And it was very obvious sitting at the table with him that his mind was going all the time
34:08and thinking about the problems of attacking and what he would do.
34:12And of course, he discussed a lot of this with us.
34:16Never before had a submerged U-boat been torpedoed.
34:21But that's exactly what Launders had in mind.
34:24The problem was, he was forced to fire blind.
34:27Launders' solution was to try to predict the next move of the German U-boat.
34:36Attention. Intend altering to firing course.
34:41Port 15, steer 097.
34:54Once he decided that he felt confident that he knew what she was going to do next,
35:00then we moved away to attack.
35:03If his calculations and estimates were right, Launders' torpedoes would sink the U-boat.
35:09If he missed, then Wolfram had 22 torpedoes at his disposal.
35:13Four ends closed up at action stations.
35:18Stand by. One, two, three and four tubes. Open bow.
35:23In Geo Bay's control room, everybody has their eyes fixed to the monitor.
35:38From the frozen depths, objects materialize on the screen.
35:42Mm, that's good, that's good, yes.
35:46That's excellent.
35:49Slowly, the silhouette of a submarine becomes clear.
35:56That's the two-millimeter, yes.
36:00That's heavy calibers.
36:02That's a twin 20, that's a 20-millimeter gun, I think.
36:05Yes, that thing, yeah, that's right, yeah, 20-millimeter, I think.
36:07It seems very likely that this is the wreck of U-864.
36:16And the gun on the forecastle, yes, there we are.
36:18Seems to have corroded quite badly.
36:20Or else it's marine life on it, is it?
36:23And then, final confirmation.
36:26After hours of probing, submerged in the seabed,
36:30one of the flasks of mercury that have provoked the search.
36:37It is carefully raised to the surface.
36:41Scientists also take samples of the seawater
36:45and the sediment nearby and under the wreck.
36:48Back on shore, the scientists examine the flask, still full of mercury.
36:58It does indeed belong to U-864.
37:02After 60 years in salt water, corrosion has pitted the steel.
37:21The metal has started to deteriorate seriously.
37:25The water and sediment samples are alarming.
37:33The contamination with mercury is far above safe levels.
37:38U-864 has left a deadly legacy.
37:41On board the Venturer, Jimmy Launders has brought the boat into attack position.
37:49It's 12-12 on February the 9th, 1945.
37:53Firing intervals at 17 and a half seconds.
38:11Fire one!
38:13Fire one!
38:14Fire one!
38:15The torpedo will take 2 minutes to reach its moving target.
38:22He's been dodging possible unseen enemies for hours.
38:27But only now are Captain Wolfram's worst fears realized.
38:30worst fears realized but even as the torpedo draws nearer a second is on its
38:47way there is no time to think there is only one hope emergency evasion unaware of the evasive action
39:09of you eight six four launders methodically follows his plan fire three volfram realizes
39:33three torpedoes are now on their way the market two star torpedoes were very noisy we were certain
39:49that he would turn away as soon as we fired if he didn't hear had no idea we were there and didn't
39:55hear them they would hit him and if he had heard this torpedoes approaching one after the other
40:01he would turn away
40:04the first torpedo misses its target
40:09left up volfram and his crew seem lucky again
40:23five four as venturer fires her fourth and last torpedo captain launders orders the sub to dive
40:36it's time for him to take his own evasive action not knowing if his attack has succeeded in destroying
40:43his enemy
40:4413 minutes past 12 the azdick of you eight six four suddenly hears the fourth torpedoes
41:13coming
41:13with the last desperate evasive action volfram tries to save the lives of the men on board you eight six
41:31eight six four
41:32eight six four
41:32four
41:38four
41:40four
41:44four
41:52four
41:53four
41:54Age just 12, Christopher Carlson was the only eyewitness to this incident.
42:07Then I saw a U-boat, out there.
42:14There was an explosion, a pretty high jet of water and smoke.
42:23And then we saw the U-boat sinking down, quietly and peacefully.
42:35At 14 and a half minutes past 12, Launders wrote in his log,
42:40loud, sharp explosion, followed by breaking up noises.
42:46If you can imagine a box of matches being squeezed into a hand and cracking up,
42:53that is the sound of another ship going down. It breaks up.
43:00That's a hit. Yes!
43:07There was a relief that you got rid of.
43:15And then, the next minute, they realised that there was another submarine and more submariners had been killed.
43:30We recognised another submariner.
43:34Doesn't matter where he come from, we take our hats off to him.
43:38They were all in the same boats as us.
43:40So, we realised that it was nothing to be jubilant about.
43:48Only for a minute, gone.
43:53But when we reflected, afterwards, you think it's a poor bastard.
44:02The last moments of U-864 had been the subject of conjecture for John Watson and the Venturer crew for 60 years.
44:18We were all certain, right from the beginning, that it was the fourth, last torpedo that hit him.
44:23The first thing you do if you hear torpedoes coming at you, you turn away and you go deep.
44:30So, I would expect to find the after hydroplanes set to dive.
44:35And if they were set to dive, then the chances are very high that he was actually turning away as well.
44:41The mission to investigate the still deadly cargo of U-864 has finally resolved this.
44:47Karam had made exactly the manoeuvres that Launders had foreseen.
44:52Today, the rudders of U-864 remain in the position of emergency dive.
45:01Wolfram steered right into the fourth torpedo of the Venturer.
45:06The remains of U-864 form one of the greatest ecological disasters in the North Sea.
45:18The soil is contaminated. Fishing is now prohibited.
45:23The Norwegian government is considering how best to seal the wreck site hermetically.
45:28U-864 is also the grave of Willy Transeer, fiancé of Edith Wetzler.
45:38At the U-Boat Memorial in Heikendorf near Kiel, his name is all that remains to remind Edith of her lost love.
45:47When I go to bed at night, I take the picture and place it next to my pillow and dream about the fact that at least he's found peace.
46:02Willy Transeers is one of over 30,000 names of German submariners who died in the Second World War.
46:14Their memorial stands at the shore of the Kiel Fjord.
46:19On December the 5th, 1944, a German U-Boat left here on its first and only mission, U-864.
46:37Another disaster.
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