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00:00History is not an exact science.
00:05It is never set in stone.
00:16As time passes, knowledge of the past is refined and evolves.
00:20But, by definition, perceived ideas have thick skins and are difficult to shift.
00:34To understand the realities of the worlds, you sometimes have to shake them up and decipher
00:55the facts by looking at them another way.
01:04Posterity has it that German U-boats were fearsome fighting machines which ruled the Atlantic
01:22Ocean throughout World War II.
01:25But were they?
01:34In February 1939, Hitler personally presented to the world the new flagship of the German
01:46fleet, the battleship Bismarck.
01:52The Chancellor of Hitler presents the launch of this German aircraft of 35,000 tons.
01:56Long of 242 meters, the largest war that was ever built in Germany falls slowly towards
02:03The end of the world.
02:08A fine show of strength to intimidate potential enemies, because since the dismantling of its
02:14fleet after World War I, Germany had lost its standing as a naval power.
02:21The Führer had clearly broken the Treaty of Versailles, but rebuilding a Kriegsmarine takes
02:27years.
02:29The Bismarck looked impressive, but could it rule the waves?
02:33Among the Nazi chiefs of staff, a handful of admirers doubted it.
02:38Admiral Erich Reder, commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, congratulated himself on having two giants like the Bismarck and its twin, the Tirpitz, launched two months later.
03:06Hitler was eager to attack, but the Admiral had to admit it to his subordinates.
03:17At this moment in time, the Kriegsmarine is clearly insufficiently armed for the great fight against Britain.
03:25An opinion shared by his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Karl Dönitz.
03:35But Dönitz suggested an alternative to a surface conflict, a plan B, using inexpensive craft, which were discreet, easy to mass-produce, and able to patrol stealthily through the seven seas, the Unterseeboats, or U-boats.
03:51This phantom menace strategy wasn't unanimously agreed upon in the Nazi camp.
04:02Reder opposed it, and a rivalry was instilled between the two admirals.
04:07On September the 1st, 1939, Hitler's troops invaded Poland without warning.
04:21The attack was mainly by land, with some backup from a battleship, which decimated the garrisons in the port of Danzig.
04:35The Kriegsmarine had to prove its strength.
04:40Following the attack on their ally, Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
04:45That very day, the U-boats made their entrance.
04:54Their orders were to destroy all enemy ships without distinction.
04:58The biggest war news of these early days has been the criminal sinking of the Athenia.
05:06The liner, with about 1,400 people on board, was outward-bound across the Atlantic,
05:10when, without any warning whatsoever, she was torpedoed by a Nazi submarine 200 miles west of the Hebride.
05:17These survivors, landing at Greenock, en route to Glasgow, are victims of Hitler's first crime by submarine.
05:25Submarines that methodically hunted for victims.
05:27One woman survived, to tell the tale.
05:32About two o'clock the next morning, we were drifting around and spotted the submarine,
05:37thinking at first it was one of the destroyers came to our rescue.
05:40And we turned around and tried to drift away from it, which we did.
05:44And we drifted for about four more hours when we were finally picked up by the destroyer.
05:51The death toll, 112.
05:55The affair caused an uproar.
05:56It revealed the true face of Nazi Germany, which disregarded the rules of war and sent 112 innocent civilians to their death.
06:09The U-boats were already under battle orders, while their opponents were still unfit for combat.
06:14And on dry land in Europe, there had yet to be any clashes.
06:25The British and French were taking their time to mobilize their armies, when the unthinkable happened.
06:31In mid-October, the British battleship HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk in Scarpa Flow, the chief naval base in the Orkneys north of Scotland.
06:46A symbolic place, because it was here that the German fleet had been scuttled 20 years earlier.
06:52At the helm of U-47, bearing its emblem of a snorting bull, the instigator of the sinking entered into legend.
07:13Described as arrogant and a Nazi fanatic, Captain Gunther Prien was given a hero's welcome on his return to Germany.
07:26He was decorated with the Iron Cross by Hitler himself.
07:37Submariners became the new heroes of the Third Reich, proud to have struck behind enemy lines.
07:43Wir haben uns durchgemogelt durch die Bewachung und waren plötzlich drin.
07:51Wir haben unsere Torpedos gelöst, im nächsten Mal krachte es und erst wurde der Arte Pölz getroffen und dann flog die Reulog in die Luft.
08:01Der Eindruck war unermesslich.
08:03Und wir haben uns auf demselben Wege in ähnlicher Weise, wie wir reingekommen sind, auch wieder hinausgeschlichen.
08:10Aber wir haben uns nicht gesehen.
08:16For a long time looked down upon, German submariners had earned a new status.
08:22Otto Kretschmer, another renowned captain, stated,
08:27After four years of training, we suddenly felt like the elite of the Navy.
08:32In a handful of operations, submarines proved they were far more effective than surface vessels.
08:40Furthermore, one of the Kriegsmarine's flagships, the battleship Graf Spee, was sunk by the Royal Navy.
08:48A slap in the face for Admiral Redair.
08:55Hitler ordered the construction of an armada of U-boats.
08:58The cost of one Bismarck or Tirpitz could pay for 50 submarines to compose a fleet much more capable of hassling Allied ships.
09:11Dönitz had won the battle against his superior, but would nonetheless concede,
09:16In 1939, we weren't ready.
09:19We had only 23 U-boats capable of reaching the Atlantic from Germany.
09:25The French and British had twice as many submarines as the Germans.
09:29But this clear advantage didn't impress the Nazis.
09:40Karl Dönitz, a veteran submariner from World War I, promised his Führer victory.
09:45His plan was to choke the British Isles.
09:55Britain was importing almost 50% of its meat, 70% of its sugar, and 90% of its grain and fats.
10:0322 million tons a year, just in foodstuffs.
10:07So it depended heavily on the 8,000 merchant ships that delivered this product.
10:26They were prime targets for the U-boats, which day by day chipped away at this vital supply line.
10:37As a result, in March 1940, a famished Briton was forced to introduce meat rationing as shortages worsened.
11:00Public parks were turned into vegetable patches.
11:03But Germany's tonnage war strategy was beginning to pay off.
11:09British citizens saw their daily life suffer.
11:13Part of public opinion began to put pressure on the government to bring an end to the blockade.
11:18Some politicians even suggested negotiating with the enemy.
11:25Only First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, categorically refused to make a pact with the devil.
11:33And events were soon to prove him right.
11:46Eight months after the declaration of war, ground combat began.
11:51In just six weeks, the French army was swept aside by the Wehrmacht.
12:03With this blitzkrieg victory, Germany took over the naval bases along the French coastline.
12:09From Norway to France, the coasts of Europe were under Nazi control.
12:14The gateways to the Atlantic were now wide open to the U-boats.
12:17Great Britain stood alone in the face of the Third Reich.
12:35In the summer of 1940, the pilots of the Royal Air Force put up fierce resistance to repeated attacks from the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
12:43After three months of aerial combat, Britain inflicted a first defeat on Germany.
12:57Victory in the skies, but heavy losses at sea.
13:02245 Allied ships were sent to the bottom of the ocean.
13:06That's two wrecks a day.
13:07An unbeatable ratio, which led the British war leader to say,
13:18The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.
13:30Dönitz's gamble had paid off.
13:33He had the enemy quacking.
13:34In the autumn of 1940, he established his base in the strategic city of Lorient,
13:42where the U-30 was the first submarine to report.
13:50Docked in Brest, Lorient and Saint-Nazaire,
13:53the U-boats gained a week at sea compared to their former bases in Germany,
13:57and also avoided the North Sea and the Channel, which were under Royal Navy control.
14:04After one year of war, almost 600 Allied ships had been sunk against only 38 German submarines,
14:12but an insufficient number to wipe out the British merchant fleet.
14:19With only a dozen operational craft, Dönitz needed to increase pressure.
14:24So he experimented with a tactic which had been maturing for years, the wolf pack.
14:33From then on, U-boats would attack in numbers.
14:39At radio stations dotted along the coasts from Norway to Spain,
14:44the Kriegsmarine decipherers were able to locate enemy ships.
14:47From his HQ in Lorient, Dönitz would send his U-boat packs to the pinpointed zones.
15:03The moment a convoy was spotted on the horizon, the pack dived.
15:07A lieutenant on the U-224 explained.
15:15We were lurking around like wolves.
15:18Then we attacked, fired our torpedoes, and got out again.
15:23The best fun is to hunt.
15:25Another submariner confessed.
15:35It was great fun when we made the attack on the whole convoy.
15:39Everybody picked out their own victim.
15:45It was easy hunting, because when they resurfaced,
15:48the wolves were faster than their targets.
15:50But contrary to the legend, which persisted even after the war,
15:57U-boats didn't really have the true capacity to carry out underwater attacks.
16:02As derivatives of surface ships, they could only perform short dives.
16:09Below the surface, an electric engine took over from its diesel counterpart,
16:13which couldn't function underwater.
16:15Then, autonomy and speed were considerably reduced,
16:21meaning they could only pursue the slowest cargo ships.
16:25So it was impossible to launch decisive underwater attacks.
16:29And moreover, their torpedoes had an infuriating tendency to detonate too early.
16:38Renowned U-boat captain Otto Kretschmer admitted,
16:40We had the worst torpedoes in the world.
16:45Nearly half of them were disabled.
16:50So the U-boats merely carried out stealth approaches,
16:54and once in range of the enemy, resurfaced.
17:00All the pack had to do then was to pound the defenseless cargo ships.
17:04Submariner Heinz Schaeffer gave this account.
17:15A tanker breaks in the middle.
17:18Each crew member has permission to look through the periscope.
17:23The powerful ship sinks into the waves.
17:27A poignant vision.
17:29The demon of destruction is at work.
17:34Simultaneous attack by the wolf pack
17:38meant that several allied ships could be sunk in one go.
17:51Ambushes were all the most effective when carried out after nightfall.
17:55Then the attackers would slip silently away through the dark waters of the Atlantic.
18:13From Newfoundland to the tip of Ireland,
18:16the merchant ships had to navigate among the wolves.
18:19In convoys of 10 to 20 ships,
18:25a huge floating target,
18:2710 kilometers long by 3 kilometers wide,
18:30took to sea.
18:33Their orders were,
18:34Keep your distance.
18:36500 meters between each ship.
18:38Never stop,
18:39even if another ship is sinking.
18:40On board,
18:50Life went on,
18:51thanks to His Majesty's rum ration,
18:53which kept the sailors' spirits up.
18:54Power aboard!
18:56Keep fear!
19:01Keep fear!
19:02Keep fear!
19:03Keep fear!
19:04Keep fear!
19:05Keep fear!
19:07But fear haunted daily life.
19:10Merchant Navy officer John Harvey,
19:16who made 12 Atlantic crossings,
19:18recalled,
19:18We were hopeful rather than scared.
19:22With a cargo of minerals,
19:24We slept fully dressed.
19:26in the hope of escaping,
19:27because it would only take three minutes for the ship to sink.
19:31If it was in charge of explosives,
19:33then we slept in pajamas,
19:35and we were happy if we woke up in the morning.
19:40The Royal Navy dealt with the threat phlegmatically,
19:44banking on ASDIC,
19:46the ancestor of sonar,
19:47which could detect a submarine 900 meters away.
19:52Get out the door!
19:54Get out the door!
19:56Get out the door!
19:56Get out the door!
19:57The Admiralty believed that corvettes,
19:59light, fast destroyers,
20:01equipped with depth charges,
20:03were enough to protect the vast convoys.
20:05Churchill called them the cheap and nasties.
20:15Officer John Harvey continued,
20:17My worst memory was sailing by the survivors of a sinking corvette,
20:23and being unable to help,
20:25because in a convoy, you cannot stop.
20:27The Royal Navy thought that the bigger the convoy,
20:36the least chance of a U-boat attack,
20:39since the ships guaranteed mutual defense.
20:42But the sailors of the Merchant Navy disagreed.
20:48They constantly felt under threat,
20:50because they were too easy to spot.
20:52Sailing at the speed of the slowest vessel,
21:01each cargo ship became vulnerable.
21:04At 13 kilometers an hour,
21:05it was like crossing the Atlantic on a bicycle.
21:09Over here!
21:13And the risk increased halfway across,
21:16when the naval escort about turned
21:17to provide protection for the next convoy.
21:22A weakness that the Germans had spotted.
21:30On October 5, 1940,
21:33convoy SC-7 left Nova Scotia with 35 ships,
21:37heading to Liverpool.
21:43A wolf pack of eight U-boats,
21:45commanded by the ruthless Otto Kretschmer,
21:48patiently waited for the naval escort
21:49to leave the convoy,
21:51before pouncing on their prey.
22:02Only 15 ships made it to England.
22:0520 had been sunk,
22:06including an oil tanker.
22:08A record.
22:10And this came on top of another convoy
22:13on the same route,
22:14also losing 12 of its ships.
22:16The sinking of 32 ships in 48 hours
22:27gave the wolves their most impressive victory yet.
22:32Dönitz, who commanded the operation in person,
22:34was triumphant,
22:36especially as his eight U-boats
22:38Everything I made at home remained intact.
22:39Here, the submariners gloat
22:45with a collection of life belts
22:46filched from their victims as war trophies.
22:52On the mast of the periscopes,
22:54pennants display the amounts of tonnage sunk.
22:59Rankings were even established
23:00between the different crews
23:02to motivate the men,
23:03based on who sank the biggest ship.
23:05At this point in the war,
23:17Allied convoys had lost 20% of their fleet.
23:20In 1940,
23:22563 ships were sunk
23:24against only 23 U-boats.
23:29This striking result, however,
23:31didn't have the expected-for impact.
23:33Despite the tonnage sunk,
23:3680% of cargo ships made it to port,
23:39and the British had been able
23:40to adapt their farming techniques.
23:43Shortages were a thing of the past.
23:48The first lieutenant of the U-32 stated,
23:51The English can hold out
23:53under existing conditions for years.
23:55You only need to look at the shops.
23:58The U-boats' arms will not break them.
24:03The blockade didn't seem
24:05to dampen British spirits.
24:15It was impossible for Admiral Dönitz
24:17to step up a gear.
24:19He could only send out 35 units
24:21at any one time,
24:23which wasn't enough.
24:23The U-boats leaving the shipyards
24:30only replaced the losses,
24:32and military command
24:33refused to provide extra means.
24:37The Kriegsmarine's requests
24:39generally played second fiddle
24:40to those of the Wehrmacht,
24:42which was better represented
24:43in the Nazi hierarchy.
24:45And now the commander
24:46of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring,
24:48I was asking for even more.
24:49In early 1941, however,
24:55Göring agreed to supply
24:56a handful of reconnaissance plans,
24:58which became the U-boats' eyes.
25:04With their first collaborations,
25:06the U-boats notched up new successes.
25:09It was the era of the aces.
25:11Victory after victory,
25:17New heroes added to the ranks.
25:19of legendary captains.
25:23After Gunther Prien,
25:25the bull of Scarpa Flow,
25:26it was the turn of Joachim Schepke
25:29to shine.
25:30He was even invited to Berlin
25:32to tell of his exploits
25:34at the helm of the U-100.
25:36But the king of tonnage
25:40was Otto Kretschmer,
25:42or Silent Otto.
25:46Responsible for 46 sinkings.
25:48the captain of the U-99
25:49was never dethroned.
25:53The Nazi propaganda machine
25:55was quick to flaunt
25:56its hero's feats.
25:57Omnipresent in the field,
26:13the Third Reich's film cameras
26:14magnified each action and gesture.
26:19Unrelentingly,
26:20the wolves were portrayed
26:21as demigods.
26:25Footage that fueled a legend
26:27which would last
26:28for years to come.
26:33In truth,
26:34There was little heroism.
26:35in the U-boat attacks.
26:39Their victims were essentially
26:40Defenseless merchant ships.
26:49One submariner on the U-55
26:52admitted as much.
26:54We sink everything
26:55without prior warning.
26:56But the British
26:57must not know that.
27:00We always allow
27:01the crew to drown.
27:02What else can you do?
27:09An order that broke
27:11The rules of war.
27:13Most of the victims
27:14were civilians
27:15left to their sad fate.
27:16The Nazi submariners
27:20were pitiless.
27:21At best,
27:24they threw some bread
27:25and a compass
27:25to the wrecked survivors
27:26and wished them good luck.
27:30Nobody was spared.
27:33One submarine revealed,
27:35the BDU sent through,
27:37There's a convoy.
27:38a children's transport.
27:40The children's transport
27:42It's so big.
27:46We sank a children's transport.
27:50They are all dead.
27:51after 18 months of war,
28:06British technology
28:07had progressed.
28:08Asdik could now detect
28:12a U-boat
28:13two kilometers away,
28:15making counterattacks
28:17more effective.
28:19The days of impunity
28:21were over.
28:27In March 1941,
28:29the U-boat aces
28:30were caught unawares.
28:31On March 7th,
28:38Gunther Prien,
28:39with his record
28:39of 30 ships sunk,
28:41disappeared
28:41with his U-47.
28:44On the 17th,
28:45it was the turn
28:46of Joachim Shepke,
28:47author of 37 sinkings,
28:49to go down
28:50with his U-100.
28:52On the 22nd,
28:54Otto Kretschmer
28:55was captured
28:56southeast of Iceland,
28:57having scuttled
28:58his U-99.
29:00The ace of air
29:01Aces was a prize capture.
29:07In two weeks,
29:08the wolf pack
29:09was decimated.
29:11And for Dönitz,
29:12the trouble
29:12It was only just beginning.
29:18In May 1941,
29:20one of the Nazis'
29:21cipher machines,
29:22the famous Enigma,
29:23was delivered
29:24to MI6 headquarters
29:25at Bletchley Park.
29:29The machine,
29:30along with its instruction manual,
29:32came from a U-boat
29:33captured by a British destroyer.
29:39By a twist of fate,
29:41it was the man
29:41who sank
29:42the passenger ship
29:43Athenia,
29:44Captain Fritz Julius Lemp,
29:46who, failing to scuttle
29:47his U-110,
29:49allowed the British
29:49to take the equipment
29:50left on board.
29:52Lemp was killed.
29:57his crew captured,
29:59and his U-boat
30:00finally sunk.
30:03The Nazis,
30:05unaware of what had happened,
30:06They didn't change their code.
30:11This event marked a turning point
30:13in the intelligence war.
30:15The Nazis' most complex code
30:17It was broken.
30:18The machine,
30:21designed the British
30:22computer scientist
30:23Alan Turing,
30:24could decipher
30:25the enemy's messages
30:26within 36 hours.
30:29The most important
30:30transatlantic convoys
30:32were diverted
30:32to protect them
30:33from attack.
30:36But sparing all transport
30:38would arouse
30:38Germans' suspicion.
30:40So the Admiralty
30:42sacrificed a number
30:43of its ships
30:43to maintain
30:44its precious advantage.
30:45But Nazi tactics
30:53went unchanged.
30:54The fall of the aces
30:56didn't stop
30:57The methodical killings.
30:59U-boats sank
31:00five times as many
31:02cargo ships
31:02as German battleships did.
31:05The commander-in-chief
31:07of the Kriegsmarine,
31:08Admiral Reder,
31:10remained convinced
31:10that his giants
31:11still had a role
31:12to play.
31:15In May 1941,
31:17he deployed
31:17his fleet's flagship,
31:19the fearsome Bismarck,
31:20for its first
31:21Atlantic sortie.
31:24Reputed to be
31:25unsinkable,
31:26even Churchill
31:27called it
31:28the world's
31:28most powerful
31:29battleship.
31:30just one week
31:42after setting sail,
31:43chased down
31:43by the Royal Navy,
31:45it was pounded
31:46with almost
31:463,000 shells
31:48and sank,
31:49taking down
31:50more than
31:502,000 crewmen
31:52with it.
31:54The Bismarck
31:55had not survived
31:56Its first mission.
32:00Hitler ordered
32:03all surface vessels
32:04Back to Germany.
32:08The Third Reich
32:09could not rule
32:10the waves
32:10in regular fashion.
32:12Only the underhand
32:13tactics of the U-boats
32:14could keep
32:15The illusion is fading.
32:16On June 22nd,
32:261941,
32:27Germany invaded
32:28the Soviet Union,
32:30once again
32:31with no prior warning.
32:38German divisions
32:39plowed through
32:40Soviet defenses
32:40at lightning speed.
32:42The Red Army
32:46was staring
32:47at defeat.
32:53Donitz received
32:54orders to deprive
32:55the Soviets
32:56of all kinds
32:56of support.
33:00He dispatched
33:01his squadrons
33:02towards the Arctic Circle,
33:03where Allied convoys
33:05were supplying
33:05the port of Mermansk.
33:06The wolf packs
33:15now prowled
33:16the Arctic Ocean,
33:17one of the most
33:18dangerous and inhospitable
33:20zones on the planet.
33:26On board,
33:27the conditions
33:28were deplorable.
33:28The extreme cold
33:35put sailors' bodies
33:36to a severe test.
33:45At this point
33:46in the war,
33:47U-boats held sway
33:48in the seas
33:48from the North Atlantic
33:49to the Mediterranean.
33:56They sank more ships
33:58than the Allies
33:59could produce.
34:04But American industry
34:05I was ready to step in.
34:09Of all America's
34:10contributions
34:11to Allied victory,
34:12a vast shipbuilding
34:13program is perhaps
34:14the most vital
34:14at the moment.
34:16Shall we beat
34:17the Axis effort
34:17to torpedo our plans
34:19For an attack?
34:20The answer is yes.
34:28In late 1941,
34:30the United States
34:31became the arsenal
34:32for democracy.
34:38Tanks, planes,
34:39and ammunition
34:40were produced
34:41at a dizzying pace
34:42to rescue Europe.
34:49The shipyards
34:50of Baltimore
34:50launched the first
34:52Liberty ships,
34:53which inaugurated
34:53the longest production
34:54line of ships
34:55ever established.
34:56Almost 3,000 ships
35:03were mass-produced
35:04in record time,
35:06thanks to the ingenuity
35:07of American industrialist
35:09Henry J. Kaiser,
35:10who introduced
35:11Fordism
35:11into his shipyards.
35:19This new type
35:20of cargo ship
35:21symbolized
35:22the strength
35:23of the American
35:23war industry.
35:24extremely fast
35:26to construct,
35:27it could carry
35:28up to 10,000 tons
35:29of equipment,
35:30jeeps,
35:31locomotives
35:32tanks,
35:32and planes,
35:33and be transformed
35:34into an oil tanker
35:35or troop ship.
35:40It sailed
35:41at 20 kilometers
35:42an hour,
35:43sufficiently fast
35:44to escape
35:44from the U-boats.
35:46On board,
35:4735 gunners
35:48kept a constant
35:49Lookout.
35:51Nazi military command
35:52didn't expect
35:53to see such
35:54an armada
35:54Spring up.
35:56And another event
35:57would soon
35:58change the balance
35:59of power.
36:05In December
36:06the 7th, 1941,
36:08the Japanese attack
36:09on Pearl Harbor
36:10brought the United States
36:12into the war.
36:12Hitler could finally
36:16have a stab
36:16at Uncle Sam.
36:20Dönitz dispatched
36:21his U-boats
36:22to attack
36:22the United States
36:23in Operation Drumbeat.
36:26The objective,
36:28to cut off
36:28the supply
36:29of Texan oil
36:30to Europe.
36:32The wolf packs
36:33were put under
36:34increased strain.
36:36The American coast
36:37lay 5,500 kilometers
36:39from Lorient,
36:39of the U-boats.
36:41A distressing voyage
36:42for the submariners.
36:49In the spring
36:50of 1942,
36:51American waters
36:52were infested
36:53with Nazi U-boats,
36:54so close to shore
36:55that at nighttime
36:56the crewmen
36:57I could admire
36:57the nearby city lights.
37:08Dönitz noted,
37:09our boats soon discovered
37:12the best way
37:12to proceed.
37:14During the day,
37:16they rested
37:16between 50
37:17and 150 meters deep
37:19on the bottom,
37:20a few nautical miles
37:21from the cargo route.
37:25Then, at dusk,
37:26They approached the coast.
37:27and surfaced
37:28Once night had fallen.
37:35The American coasts
37:36became akin
37:37to a fairground
37:38turkey shoot,
37:39made all the easier
37:40by the incompetence
37:41of U.S. naval command.
37:45The commander-in-chief
37:46of the Navy,
37:47Admiral Ernest J. King,
37:48obsessed with the war
37:49against Japan,
37:51didn't take
37:51the U-boat threat
37:52Seriously.
37:57Despite warnings
37:58from the British,
37:59King stubbornly refused
38:01to form convoys,
38:02which he considered
38:03pointless.
38:03a stance which infuriated
38:09his highest-placed peers.
38:12In his journal,
38:13an exasperated
38:14General Eisenhower
38:15wrote,
38:16One thing that might
38:18help win this war
38:19is to get someone
38:20to shoot King.
38:24The outcome?
38:25The 30 or so U-boats
38:27lying off the U.S. coasts
38:28sank more than 500 ships
38:30in six months.
38:32One ship's captain
38:34recounted,
38:34I fished out wrecked
38:37survivors choking
38:38on fuel spillage.
38:39Once I fished out
38:40a woman whose torso
38:41It was cut in two.
38:48And Canada wasn't spared.
38:51U-boats sneaked
38:52into the mouth
38:53of the St. Lawrence River,
38:55the departure point
38:56for many convoys.
38:59Cargo ships were sunk
39:01under the very noses
39:02of the Royal Canadian Navy.
39:08Citizens were ordered
39:09to cork their windows
39:10and cover their car
39:12headlamps with opaque
39:13plaster.
39:16Contrary to what we think,
39:18Americans were also
39:19victims on home soil.
39:201942 would be the year
39:33of the greatest U-boat
39:34successes.
39:401,322 sinkings
39:42for the loss
39:43of just 84 U-boats.
39:47For each submarine lost,
39:49the Creek's marines
39:50sent 16 Allied ships
39:51to the bottom
39:52of the ocean.
40:00And every month,
40:0120 new vessels
40:02joined the Wolfpack.
40:05Dönitz finally had
40:06more than 100 U-boats
40:08on active duty.
40:13In January 1943,
40:16Hitler appointed Dönitz
40:17admiral-in-chief
40:18of the Krieg's navy.
40:22Reder was forced
40:23to give up his position
40:24to the indefatigable
40:25Promoter of U-boats.
40:32Dönitz savored
40:33his triumph,
40:35but he took command
40:37at the very worst moment.
40:39early in 1943 came
40:46the turning point
40:47of the war.
40:48The Nazis were retreating
40:49on every front.
40:53In the Atlantic,
40:55the Allies now had
40:56800 warships
40:57escorting the convoys,
40:59the means to foil
41:01The Phantom Menace.
41:02A strike force
41:05equipped with the latest
41:07scientific advances,
41:08providing decisive assets
41:10in anti-submarine warfare.
41:16Since 1942,
41:18the U.S. Navy
41:19had been perfecting
41:20a system invented
41:20by the British.
41:23Radar,
41:24a crucial
41:25technological advance.
41:26The new compact models
41:30fitted into the noses
41:31of reconnaissance aircraft
41:33covered a radius
41:34of 300 kilometers
41:35compared to
41:36previous 35.
41:40German submariner
41:41Heinz Schaeffer
41:42regretfully admitted,
41:45They now have
41:46the ability
41:46to detect us
41:47in any kind of weather,
41:49in the rain,
41:50the fog,
41:50or at night,
41:52when we're
41:52at the surface.
41:54Our means of attack
41:55have diminished,
41:56our losses
41:57are increasing.
41:59Maybe our command
42:00underestimated
42:01the capabilities
42:02of radar.
42:08Detection
42:09which made surfacing
42:10an act of suicide.
42:15U-boats
42:15could no longer
42:16Hide or communicate.
42:20Their conversations
42:21were picked up
42:22by a new system
42:23called Huff-Duff,
42:25which could locate
42:26the origin
42:26of a radio wave.
42:30With Huff-Duff,
42:31any ship
42:32within a range
42:32of 30 kilometers
42:33was immediately spotted.
42:40Without communication,
42:42the wolves
42:42could no longer coordinate,
42:44bringing an end
42:45to hunting as a pack.
42:48An officer
42:49at Dönitz's headquarters
42:51admitted,
42:51the enemy
42:53has every asset
42:54in hand.
42:56He knows
42:57all our secrets,
42:58while we know
42:59none of his.
43:09As well as detection tools,
43:11Weapons had also evolved.
43:15Already fitted with radar,
43:17reconnaissance planes
43:18were also equipped
43:19with Mark 24 mines,
43:21highly accurate
43:22Acoustic anti-ship torpedoes.
43:33And thanks to new
43:34powerful spotlights,
43:36U-boats were visible
43:37at night
43:37as if it were day.
43:40Hunting now took place
43:4124 hours a day.
43:43Submariner
43:45Heinz Sheffier
43:46granted,
43:48the submarine
43:50doesn't have time
43:51to activate
43:52its anti-aircraft defenses.
43:54The gunners
43:55are caught
43:55in the thick
43:56of the action.
43:58The U-boat
43:59is lost.
44:01It's rare
44:02for a single man
44:03to escape death.
44:04Another lethal weapon
44:12It was the hedgehog.
44:14This device
44:16fired 24 spigot mortars
44:18ahead of the ship.
44:23This increased
44:24the chances
44:24of making a hit
44:25with newly developed shells
44:27that only exploded
44:28on contact.
44:28Here, pools
44:33of spilled fuel
44:34form on the surface
44:36as if they were
44:37funeral wreaths.
44:50In 1942,
44:52life expectancy
44:53of a U-boat
44:54It was more than 12 months.
44:57One year later,
44:58it was no more
44:59than 12 weeks.
45:12The Allies
45:13had found the riposte
45:14and took full advantage.
45:16It was Dönitz's turn
45:18to taste
45:18the bitterness
45:19of defeat.
45:21His dream
45:21of sinking more ships
45:23than the Allies
45:23could produce
45:24evaporated.
45:25All together,
45:27the 16 American shipyards
45:29were launching
45:29one Liberty ship
45:31every day.
45:36The Admiral
45:37accepted
45:37The obvious conclusion.
45:39On May 24, 1943,
45:42He ordered his units.
45:43to withdraw
45:44from the North Atlantic.
45:48But Dönitz
45:49wasn't one
45:49to throw in the towel.
45:51He informed his wolves
45:56of his new strategy.
45:58We know
45:59that the presence
46:00alone of our U-boats
46:01will occupy
46:02two million
46:02of our enemies.
46:04So we must,
46:05in spite of everything,
46:06dispatch our boats
46:07to distract the enemy,
46:09even if they never
46:10Sink another ship.
46:15Fifteen U-boats
46:16entered the North Atlantic
46:17to simulate
46:18the presence
46:19of several wolf packs.
46:22Dönitz
46:22staked everything
46:23on his most
46:24experienced captains.
46:30It was a wasted effort.
46:32The Last Wolves
46:33were sunk
46:34one by one.
46:40The crewmen
46:41weren't unaware
46:41of the fate
46:42waiting for them.
46:44They lamented,
46:46all of these U-boat sorties
46:47are now suicidal.
46:51In 1943,
46:52238 U-boats
46:54were lost.
46:58First Lieutenant
47:00Heinz Schaeffer
47:00bemoaned,
47:02we feel bitter,
47:04a curse on this war,
47:06on mankind,
47:06on the inventors
47:07of submarines,
47:08on ourselves.
47:12After four years
47:13of war,
47:13half of the U-boats
47:14had been sent
47:15to the bottom
47:15of the ocean.
47:16the surviving units
47:18were transformed
47:19into life rafts.
47:22The wolves' fangs
47:24were well
47:25and truly blunted.
47:32Since the Normandy landings,
47:34Germany was in
47:35its death throes.
47:39Early in 1945,
47:41Berlin fell
47:42to the Red Army.
47:43on April 30th,
47:47Hitler committed suicide.
47:49In his last will
47:51and testament,
47:51he named Dönitz
47:52as his successor
47:54as head of state.
47:57Dönitz announced
47:58the news
47:59in a nationwide
47:59radio address
48:01The admiral stubbornly refused peace.
48:28to save the Kriegsmarine's honor,
48:34he ordered the scuttling
48:35of all ships.
48:37232 U-boats
48:39were sunk,
48:40never to surface again.
48:47A handful of rebel wolves
48:48disobeyed
48:49and helped themselves
48:50to the last cargo ships
48:51of the war.
48:52The war
48:52On May 4th,
49:00Dönitz accepted the facts
49:02and announced
49:03the capitulation
49:04of Germany.
49:06The wolves surrendered
49:08to the victors,
49:09but not all of them.
49:12One new type of U-boat
49:13was on a secret mission.
49:16Capable of crossing
49:17the entire Atlantic underwater,
49:19it patrolled freely,
49:21undetectable by radar.
49:24It could easily sink
49:25any ships it came across,
49:27then flee in stealth mode
49:29But the war was over.
49:32This sole prototype
49:34was unable to change
49:35the course of history,
49:36but it did pave the way
49:38for the design
49:39of modern submarines.
49:40Of the 40,000
49:50German submariners
49:51called to duty,
49:5230,000 of them
49:54remained in the ocean depths
49:55alongside their victims.
49:57A pointless sacrifice,
49:59because the destruction
50:00of the Allied merchant fleet
50:01It was, but a pipe dream.
50:06They hadn't banked
50:07on the U.S.
50:08being able to produce
50:09more ships
50:10than the U-boats
50:11could destroy.
50:14Faced with the industrial
50:15power of Uncle Sam,
50:16Dönitz was always a loser.
50:22The 153 surviving U-boats
50:24were moored in Allied ports
50:26or on the banks
50:27of the River Thames.
50:34Churchill had one
50:36brought to London
50:36so that the British people
50:38could at last approach
50:39one of the terrifying wolves
50:41which had sunk
50:41more than 3,500 Allied ships.
50:53In November 1945,
50:56the hour of judgment
50:57came for the Nazi war criminals.
51:00At the Nuremberg trials,
51:02Admiral Karl Dönitz
51:03was at the head of the list
51:04just behind Hermann Göring.
51:08He was indicted on counts
51:10of crimes against peace
51:11and war crimes.
51:14With a solid defense,
51:16he was sentenced
51:16to 10 years in prison.
51:19As the instigator
51:21of criminal warfare
51:22that accounted for 72,000
51:24Allied deaths,
51:25half of which were civilians,
51:27Dönitz was able
51:28to save his image
51:29and convince the tribunal
51:30that he wasn't a Nazi.
51:33A little white lie?
51:35After all,
51:36Hitler did name him
51:37as his successor.
51:39Whatever the case,
51:41He preserved his reputation.
51:42as an honest soldier
51:44until his death
51:45in December 1980.
51:47The End
52:00The End
52:02THE CITY IN BRAZIL
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