- 2 days ago
For educational purposes
James goes to the depths with Germany's Wolf Packs, the U-boats, the force that most threatened wartime Britain's survival.
From suicidal one-man torpedoes to the ultra-modern and potentially game-changing Type XXI.
He also sheds light on how Hitler's lack of understanding of naval warfare became the key to Allied victory.
James goes to the depths with Germany's Wolf Packs, the U-boats, the force that most threatened wartime Britain's survival.
From suicidal one-man torpedoes to the ultra-modern and potentially game-changing Type XXI.
He also sheds light on how Hitler's lack of understanding of naval warfare became the key to Allied victory.
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LearningTranscript
00:03I'm James Holland, and one of the things that's always really fascinated me about the Second World War
00:08is the interplay between man and machine.
00:12In this series, I'm going to go inside the Nazi war machine.
00:17Travelling across Europe, I'll explore the extraordinary machines they produced
00:22and uncover rare archive to understand who built them, how they evolved,
00:26and why their technically brilliant designs were militarily flawed.
00:34The magnificent fighter planes no rookie could fly.
00:37You know, the first time you fly a Messerschmitt 109, you just have to take that leap of faith.
00:42The power of the panzers.
00:44If I had come up against this, I would have been terrified.
00:47But I'm about to learn one of the biggest cons of them all.
00:50The weapons that couldn't cope with mud or sand.
00:55Wow. It's got so little kick on it.
00:58And you hit the target, I'm proud about you.
01:00The U-boats that were floating bombs.
01:03That was a suicide command.
01:05Absolute horror.
01:07A journey through the heart of the Nazi war machine.
01:16In this episode, I'll be going to the depths of the wolf packs.
01:19Germany's U-boat arm.
01:21A force that threatened Britain's survival like no other.
01:26I'll be seeking out what made them such a menace.
01:30The U-boat arm could have just wreaked havoc with the Allies.
01:33They did play havoc.
01:36And I'll be exploring the extraordinary and game-changing submarine, the Type 21.
01:41We are not talking about evolution anymore.
01:44It's a revolution.
01:45And how they held the key to the outcome of World War II.
01:58At the start of the Second World War, Britain ruled the waves.
02:02The Royal Navy was the largest and most powerful seaborne force in the world,
02:07built to protect its empire and to defend its nation.
02:20It was a power Adolf Hitler had to defeat if he had any chance of winning the war.
02:26And there was only one way to do it.
02:31Britain is an island nation and it's almost entirely dependent on supplies coming from across the sea.
02:38If you manage to cut that supply line, then you've won the war.
02:43That at least was the strategy being pushed by Adolf Hitler's U-boat chief, Vice Admiral Karl Dönitz.
02:50A U-boat commander in the First World War, Dönitz knew firsthand how even a small fleet of submarines
02:56could land a killer blow against the Allies' vital supply lines.
03:04But Hitler doesn't really seem to understand this.
03:07You know, he's a continentalist, he's a landlubber.
03:10And this is because Germany is, you know, stuck in the centre of Europe.
03:15It does have a coastline, but it's very small.
03:17And the German way of war traditionally has been to fight on land
03:22with overwhelming firepower at the point of impact.
03:27Germany has developed blitz warfare, mechanised warfare, armies on wheels, juggernauts to crush everything before them.
03:36Come the start of the Second World War, this is how Hitler intends to do it again,
03:40using firepower and burgeoning airpower to do the hard yards.
03:45Sea power is something he just doesn't really get.
03:50His notion of a navy was a grandiose fleet of massive battleships that could take on the Royal Navy on
03:56the high seas.
03:58After all, where's the fun in launching U-boats when he could be smashing champagne bottles against giant battleships?
04:08By the outbreak of war, Dönitz's U-boat fleet was woefully small.
04:13Just 62 vessels and a mere 3,000 men.
04:18U-boat, clear to fly.
04:24This beast was the backbone of the fleet, a Type 7C, and it's the first we're going to look at
04:31in some detail.
04:34The Type 7s were based on First World War designs and built in shipyards in Bremen and Kiel.
04:41Unlike its predecessors, it carried new sonar equipment, which greatly improved its ability to search out enemy shipping.
04:50It was a medium-range combat submarine, 61.7 metres in length and 6.2 metres wide, and carried a
04:58crew of 44.
05:01Powered by two 1,400-horsepower diesel engines, backed up by a couple of electric motors,
05:07it was armed with five torpedo tubes and a variety of top-mounted flak guns and cannons.
05:13It could travel at 17 knots on the surface, but little more than walking pace when submerged.
05:22This one is U-boat 995, now permanently berthed in the Baltic port of Labou in Germany.
05:32I'm on board to get a sense of the impact of this vessel on the war, and what it was
05:36like to be at sea on the Type 7.
05:41Oh, this is a bit of a tight squeeze.
05:43You know, I'm really not sure how much I'd have fancied going to sleep with a massive great torpedo above
05:49my head.
05:50It makes me realise just how cramped these Type 7 U-boats were.
05:54You know, it was a terrible place in which to exist.
05:57Lots of men on top of one another, hardly any fresh water, so you couldn't shave, you had to grow
06:03a beard,
06:03and you'd be away for weeks at a time.
06:06The smell on this place must have been absolutely horrendous.
06:11Sweat, oil, rotten food, a really physically incredibly tough environment in which to live and try and fight a war.
06:22The U-boats lie in waiting.
06:25Four, five and six of them together, working in flotillas.
06:31Operating in wolf packs, the U-boats targeted Britain's lifeline.
06:35The merchant ships supplying goods and materials from the United States and Britain's colonies around the world.
06:42If we cannot bomb them out, then we will starve them out.
06:51The wolf packs were staggeringly successful.
06:54Between July and October 1940, the U-boats alone sank nearly 1.5 million tonnes of shipping.
07:04They will stalk a convoy for days at a stretch,
07:07finding their time until the chance of wind and weather offers the fattest prize to their torpedoes.
07:16This was a mammoth achievement, which cemented the U-boats' reputation as the undetected superweapon
07:22that Allies desperately needed to destroy.
07:32This is their song. We're sailing against England.
07:39For Admiral Karl Dönitz, using his crews to starve Britain into submission remained the key to winning the war.
07:48But without Hitler's full backing, he had a problem.
07:52He didn't have enough boats and he didn't have enough men.
08:02To help me understand Hitler's failure to grasp the potential of the U-boat,
08:07I've been joined in U-boat 995 by the historian of the German Navy Association, Dr. Jan Witt.
08:15One of the things I find just so extraordinary is, because Britain's an island nation,
08:20everything, everything it needs at war has to come through the Atlantic.
08:24So if you can stop those supply lines, you're well ahead of the game.
08:29So why is it that Germany starts the war with a U-boat arm, which is just 3,000 men
08:37strong?
08:38Very simple to answer, because only in the early 1930s they started to build up,
08:46at first in secret, then also openly.
08:50But it takes a long time to build up a new U-boat arm from scratch.
08:58And so they could only reckon that these U-boots would be available in late 1940, early 1941.
09:07So you have always this kind of delay.
09:11But as Hitler is very, very aware, you know, the whole German way of war is to fight wars very
09:18quickly
09:19and get them over and done with, because they can't sustain a long war.
09:21You name the problem.
09:23Hitler wasn't thinking in maritime terms.
09:26He followed straight away a land-based strategy.
09:31So, if you bring it to a nutshell, the Second World War was a maritime war.
09:39The decisive battle fleet was the Atlantic.
09:43This was something that Hitler never understood fully.
09:50Had Hitler prioritized the creation of a large U-boat fleet before the war, there's every chance he'd have won.
10:00There's a basic rule of supply and demand for any fighting fleet.
10:04Have one-third of your vessels on combat patrol,
10:09one-third travelling to or from patrol,
10:11and one-third at base on training, maintenance and repair.
10:14This meant that throughout all of 1940,
10:17there were never more than 14 U-boats on patrol in the Atlantic at any one time.
10:22And that was simply not enough to win the war.
10:25One of the many triumphs of Nazi propaganda was to convince the world
10:30that the Wolf Pact roamed the seas at will,
10:32for their limitations were soon to be exposed.
10:37These were not, in fact, submarines as we understand them now,
10:41but submersibles, essentially surface vessels
10:44with the capacity to die for a very limited period of time,
10:48a matter of a couple of hours before they had to come up for air.
10:53As Allied anti-submarine technology swiftly improved,
10:58so losses of both vessels and men increased.
11:04Admiral Dönitz was finding he just didn't have enough trained and experienced crews to replace them.
11:12First thing that strikes me is there's a heck of a lot of wires and dials and turning handles and
11:21so on.
11:22The training for this must be enormous.
11:25Yes, it needs up to six months to train a U-boat crew,
11:28because everyone on board has to be fit with all these kind of handle and wolves,
11:34so they know what to do in just a case of emergency.
11:41If you have only an expert in the diving process and he gets killed or injured,
11:46you have a severe problem, especially when you're submerged.
11:49So they took care that anyone on board knew how to handle the diving process.
11:58The gruelling training and long voyages built a powerful esprit de corps amongst the crew,
12:03from the newest recruit to the commander.
12:07Just think about the men that are taking command of these U-boats by the middle stage of the war.
12:13The average age of a crew member is about 20 years old.
12:17You know, think of the awesome responsibility on their shoulders.
12:24You're out at sea for up to weeks on end, on your own, and you are in command.
12:32The decisions you make are literally a matter of life and death.
12:37No matter what you think about the Second World War and the part that Nazi Germany played in it,
12:41you cannot help but have an enormous amount of respect
12:45for the young men that were commanding these U-boats.
12:49The Battle of the Atlantic exposed the limitations of the Type 7 U-boat.
12:54There were simply not enough of them to destroy the Atlantic merchant convoys,
12:58and the superiority of Allied air power and radar technology
13:02made them much easier to detect.
13:05The pilots have at their beck and call the swift and deadly destroyer exporters,
13:10packing a murderous wallop in her gun.
13:14For fuel fuel, and death charges, more than a match for any U-boat.
13:24To make matters worse, by May 1943, Hitler was facing a new threat,
13:30as victory in the Battle of the Atlantic meant that the Royal Navy could turn from defence to attack,
13:35along the extended coastline of Nazi-occupied France.
13:40The German Navy had to come up with a new plan.
13:44Trouble was, was how to deal with the mass of Allied shipping that was going to be crossing the Channel.
13:49You know, it's going to be very crowded, very congested waters.
13:52They didn't want lots of large-scale submarines.
13:54What they wanted was something that had comparatively small range,
13:57but was small, very hard to detect,
14:00and which could manoeuvre very easily and get close to enemy shipping and sink it.
14:05And this was the birth of the midget submarine.
14:10This 1945 American documentary takes off the story.
14:14The development of the midget submarine by the Germans
14:17is another chapter in the story of sneak craft attack.
14:21The first to be developed was the one-man Malk.
14:26It was not very successful.
14:28Its range was limited, and it was slow and cumbersome.
14:34After two 15-boat sorties, in which all craft were lost, she was abandoned.
14:43Her successor was the streamlined Bieber, which sacrificed strength for speed.
14:51The Bieber, or Beaver, had one pilot and was equipped with two torpedoes.
14:56It was just seven metres in length and weighed three tonnes.
15:01Powered by an Opel truck motor for service travel,
15:04it had a battery-powered electric motor when underwater.
15:09Work on the first prototype began in February 1944
15:12and was completed in less than six weeks.
15:16It then underwent a mere two weeks of testing
15:19before it was accepted into service.
15:22Bieber was still small enough to be launched and maintained
15:26at quickly constructed strategic points.
15:29These midget subs were soon to prove more dangerous
15:32to their crews than the enemy.
15:34To find out just what the thinking was
15:37behind these extraordinarily dangerous machines,
15:39I'm going to the Technic Museum in Spreya,
15:42just south of Frankfurt.
15:44I'm meeting up with a former submarine radio officer,
15:47Ulrich Zorn of the German U-Boat Association.
15:51I can only imagine what it must be like
15:53having to set sail in one of these
15:56with a torpedo strapped to you.
15:58Alone.
15:58Yes, I mean, that's horrendous.
16:01Anxious, I think.
16:02And how long would you be expected to stay in that?
16:05Is this two days, one day?
16:07Two days, three days, up to four days
16:09were the beaver tourists, too.
16:12The beavers had many losses.
16:14Did they?
16:14What was the percentage loss?
16:16One says 69%, others say more than 70%, 75%.
16:23And what were the problems?
16:24Demonship, material damages.
16:27Right.
16:28So were they not particularly well constructed?
16:31They were constructed at the end of the war.
16:33So it's cheap.
16:34And at the end of the war,
16:36they had less material.
16:37They had problems with training for the crew.
16:41Right.
16:41So you're sending an under-trained individual,
16:44one man, in a vessel,
16:46which frankly isn't as good as it might be.
16:49Yeah.
16:50And so put that together,
16:51for example,
16:52the engine in the beaver
16:54was a normal petrol motor.
16:56He has problems with explosives,
16:59and you have carbon monoxide,
17:02and lots of crews died by carbon monoxide poisoning.
17:06Oh, my God.
17:08In 15 sorties,
17:10using 163 beavers,
17:1353 of them,
17:15almost a third,
17:16failed to return.
17:18Beaver was being used as a stopgap
17:21until the new midget sub,
17:23Zeyhund,
17:24was ready.
17:28At just 12 metres long,
17:30and weighing 15 tonnes,
17:32the Zeyhund was the largest of the lot.
17:35Equipped with a diesel engine
17:37and an electric motor,
17:38it was both fast and easy to manoeuvre.
17:42It carried two torpedoes
17:44slung either side of the hull,
17:46and was the most successful
17:47of all the midget submarines,
17:49sinking some 90,000 tonnes
17:51of enemy shipping.
17:53The Zeyhund had a crew of two,
17:55a commanding officer
17:56and a leading engineer.
17:59We're sitting in front of a Zeyhund.
18:01It's a pretty small submarine,
18:03and it's just horrendous conditions on it.
18:05You could say horror conditions.
18:08There were two men living in the boat.
18:10Right.
18:10A commanding officer
18:11and his engine officer.
18:14He fired the torpedoes at command,
18:16and the fish slipped off the track
18:18on its run to the target.
18:20They only had two wooden seats.
18:23They had no heating inside the boat.
18:25The other problem was the meals.
18:28They only had a small electric cooker.
18:31Inside?
18:31Inside.
18:32They had no toilet in the boat.
18:34Oh.
18:35So they got special low-fiber wheels
18:38on the boat for 10 days maximum.
18:41So you could say...
18:42So you would stay up for 10 days?
18:44Yeah, they could stay up to 10 days.
18:46If they had to do...
18:48Had to do their business?
18:49They put their faeces
18:50into small tin containers.
18:52Gee.
18:53And when they surf it,
18:54they threw it outside the boat.
18:56There was a horrific smell in that boat.
18:59Yeah, yeah.
19:00They didn't get real sleep.
19:03And so they...
19:03You can't sleep on that, can you?
19:04Because you've got to control the whole thing the whole time.
19:06Yeah.
19:07And so they got trucks.
19:10During the war,
19:11it was fairly common practice
19:13for both the Allies and Nazi Germany
19:15to use drugs to enhance the performance
19:16of their frontline troops.
19:18Mainly, these were amphetamines
19:20and methamphetamines,
19:21although the Nazis actually curtailed their use
19:24before the Allies did.
19:26What's really strange then
19:28is that towards the end of the war,
19:29it is the Kriegsmarine
19:31who were starting to reintroduce these drugs
19:34and not just methamphetamines,
19:36which, after all, is crystal meth,
19:38but cocktails of methamphetamines
19:40with pure cocaine
19:42and other drugs beside.
19:43And they were carrying out experiments
19:45with these drugs
19:46on prisoners at Saxonhausen concentration camp.
19:50But then having done that,
19:51then issuing them to the crews
19:53of these midget submarines.
19:55When you're talking about clutching at straws,
19:57I mean, these were really desperate measures.
20:02The last of these so-called submarines
20:04was probably the most dangerous of the lot.
20:07A German human torpedo.
20:08The operator enters the control torpedo,
20:11which is actually a standard 21-inch German torpedo
20:14minus the warhead.
20:15This floating bomb had several variations.
20:17The Neger and the Martin.
20:21At its simplest,
20:22it was a one-man torpedo
20:23with the pilot sitting at the front
20:25in a plexiglass bubble.
20:27The real torpedo,
20:29the child,
20:30was slung below the mother,
20:32which carried it
20:33to within close firing range
20:35of the target.
20:36But the pilot
20:38couldn't see underwater
20:39well enough to make an attack,
20:40so he had to surface
20:42to get within firing range.
20:45These vessels were to prove
20:47more terrifying for the pilot
20:48than for the enemy.
20:50First ones beached harmlessly.
20:53They were the subject
20:54of more curiosity than alarm.
20:56Later models of the Martin,
20:58like the one at the Technic Museum,
21:00replaced the plexiglass bubble
21:02with a more substantial diving cell.
21:05Here we are in front of a Martin.
21:09The Martin was called
21:09a one-man torpedo.
21:11That's just mad, isn't it?
21:14I mean, you can imagine again
21:16what you must be feeling like
21:18going after that.
21:18I mean, the controls you've got
21:19presumably are quite limited.
21:21Yeah.
21:22You had only a small lever,
21:24like in a plane cockpit.
21:26Right.
21:26The low silhouette
21:27of the craft running awash
21:29with only the dome visible
21:31made the run-in
21:32on a dark night
21:33relatively easy.
21:34But once he had fired his torpedo
21:36and his presence was known,
21:39he was quite helpless
21:40against counterattack.
21:41And as I understand it,
21:43quite often the mechanism
21:44by which you detached yourself
21:46from the torpedo
21:47didn't work.
21:48Yeah.
21:48So you ended up
21:49hurtling off with the torpedo
21:51and effectively becoming
21:52a kamikaze bomber.
21:54Yeah.
21:54Normally the pilot
21:56jumped out of his torpedo.
22:00They had equipment
22:00like a combat diver,
22:03fragments, rubber suit,
22:04closed circuit breathing system.
22:06Right, right, right.
22:07But you still had to be picked up, right?
22:08Yeah, yeah.
22:09Hope getting picked up,
22:10for example,
22:11mine-searching units.
22:13And most of these operations
22:14are at night?
22:15Yeah, yeah.
22:16So the chance of you being spotted
22:18and found on the sea
22:20at night?
22:20Zero.
22:21Wow.
22:22The losses sustained
22:24in these inhumane vessels
22:25were immense.
22:26The average age
22:27of a Martin pilot
22:28was 19.
22:29Some 60% of them
22:30were lost.
22:32Another of Adolf's surprises,
22:33a human torpedo
22:34was driven ashore
22:35near Anzio.
22:36Its one-man crew,
22:37a 17-year-old Kriegsmarine,
22:39a six-month veteran,
22:41is proud and defiant.
22:42But that didn't stop
22:44the Nazis training up
22:45the next generation
22:46of would-be suicide
22:47submariners.
23:07Well, as a submariner yourself,
23:09you would never have wanted
23:10to have been on one of these,
23:11would you?
23:11For me,
23:12that would be
23:13absolute horror.
23:15That's not
23:16seagoing on a submarine.
23:18For me,
23:18that was a suicide command.
23:20Yeah.
23:24Widget submarines
23:25were a desperate attempt
23:26to disrupt
23:27the cross-channel invasion.
23:28But if they had
23:29any chance
23:30of winning the war,
23:31they needed to disrupt
23:33the Atlantic sea lanes.
23:34And for that,
23:35they needed something
23:36much bigger,
23:38much more revolutionary.
23:40Something that could
23:41change the face
23:42of the war.
23:47With the war
23:48entering its final phase,
23:49it was clear
23:50the days of the
23:51Type 7 U-boats
23:52as an effective
23:53fighting force
23:54were over.
23:55The Nazi is forced
23:57to the surface.
23:59Immediately,
23:59a torrent of gunfire
24:00is turned on
24:01the crippled sub.
24:02It is doomed.
24:06The terrible death toll
24:07and loss of vessels
24:08had made it
24:09nigh on impossible
24:10for Admiral Durnis
24:11to fight on.
24:26This is the Laboo
24:27Naval Memorial.
24:29Built in 1936
24:31to remember
24:32those U-boat crews
24:33and sailors
24:33lost in World War.
24:34War I.
24:36It's now been
24:37expanded to include
24:38all who died
24:39in both World Wars.
24:42Inside,
24:43a mural is devoted
24:45to every vessel
24:46lost by the
24:46Kriegsmarine.
24:51By the beginning
24:51of 1943,
24:53Admiral Durnis
24:53at last had
24:54the numbers
24:55of U-boats
24:55he'd wanted.
24:57But his young
24:58and inexperienced
24:59crews were going
25:00to pay a terrible
25:01price because
25:01they were still
25:02using the same U-boats
25:04they'd been using
25:04at the beginning
25:05of the war
25:06and simply hadn't
25:07kept pace at all
25:08for the technological
25:10advancements of the Allies.
25:11The hunters
25:12have become the hunted.
25:17Only the introduction
25:18of a revolutionary new vessel
25:20could possibly give the Kriegsmarine
25:22a chance to turn the tide
25:23in the war at sea.
25:27They needed a submarine
25:28that could change
25:29the face of the war.
25:34This is U-boat 2540,
25:37the Wilhelm Bauer,
25:38docked in the museum
25:39harbour in Bremerhaven.
25:44It's a Type 21
25:45and it's a vessel
25:46I've long wanted
25:47to see for myself.
25:50It's the only surviving
25:51example of what,
25:52to my mind,
25:53was one of the most
25:54brilliant military designs
25:55to have emerged
25:56during the Nazi era.
26:02In order to try
26:03and understand
26:03the impact this machine
26:04was to have
26:05on the world
26:05of submarine warfare,
26:08I'm now on board
26:09with naval architect
26:10Alexei Konovalov.
26:14I'm just really interested
26:15about what a leap forward
26:17the Type 21 was.
26:19We are not talking
26:20about evolution anymore.
26:22It's a revolution.
26:23It was for the first time
26:25the submarine
26:26was optimised
26:27for submerged operation
26:29rather than for surfaced.
26:35The Type 21
26:36really was astonishing
26:37because it was
26:39the world's first
26:39proper submarine.
26:42So earlier models
26:42of submarine
26:43had actually been,
26:44strictly speaking,
26:45submersibles.
26:46what that means
26:47is that yes,
26:48they could operate
26:49under the surface
26:50but only for very
26:51limited periods of time
26:52and also at much
26:53reduced speeds.
26:55What really made
26:56the Type 21 stand out
26:57was because of its
26:59revolutionary hull design,
27:01greater numbers of batteries
27:02and the fuel it used,
27:03it could actually operate
27:05faster under the surface
27:07than it could on the surface
27:08and for much longer periods
27:10underwater
27:10than early models
27:12like the Mark 7,
27:13the Type 7.
27:14That really was
27:16massively revolutionary.
27:19It was the first
27:20German vessel
27:21to be produced
27:21in modular form.
27:23Construction began
27:24in 1943
27:25with a total
27:26of 133 boats
27:28being completed
27:28at assembly yards
27:29in Hamburg,
27:30Bremen and Danzig.
27:35More than 250 feet long
27:37and displacing
27:381,620 tonnes,
27:40the Type 21
27:42packed six torpedo tubes
27:44capable of firing
27:44more than 23 torpedoes.
27:47It carried a crew
27:48of 57,
27:49could achieve
27:50a top speed
27:51of 17 knots submerged
27:52and survive underwater
27:54for up to 75 hours.
27:59It was also
28:00the first U-boat
28:01to be fully streamlined.
28:03All periscopes
28:04and radar masts
28:05were fully retractable
28:06and even the flat guns
28:07were built
28:08into streamlined turrets.
28:11its unique
28:12air-breathing
28:13snorkel
28:13enabled it
28:14to remain
28:14submerged
28:15to recharge
28:16its batteries,
28:17something modern submarines
28:18still do
28:19to this day.
28:22Up in the
28:23conning tower,
28:23this is absolutely
28:24amazing, isn't it?
28:25I mean,
28:26there's dials
28:27and tubes
28:28everywhere.
28:29I mean,
28:29when you're thinking
28:30about submarines,
28:30this is kind of
28:32what you imagine,
28:32isn't it?
28:33But who would be
28:33up here
28:34and when?
28:35This room
28:36is used
28:37by the
28:37commanding officer
28:38to lead
28:39the attack.
28:40So he sits
28:41right behind you
28:43on the attack
28:45periscope.
28:46Right.
28:47So I sit on here
28:49and I've got
28:50two pedals,
28:50so is this
28:51for controlling
28:51turning it around?
28:53Yes.
28:53So this can rotate?
28:54The whole turret
28:55can rotate.
28:57And this presumably
28:58is where
28:59they've gone,
29:00but this is where
29:00the optics would have been.
29:01So I'll be here
29:03controlling where
29:04I want to go,
29:04moving around.
29:06It's just amazing.
29:08Precision engineering,
29:09isn't it?
29:09It really is.
29:10Actually,
29:11when looking
29:12at the level
29:13of mechanical engineering
29:14now in the 21st century,
29:16the kind of precision
29:17is not much better
29:19than World War II.
29:20We just put more
29:21electronics
29:22and intelligence
29:23in it.
29:24But then you look
29:25at that
29:26and you can sort
29:26of understand why.
29:29We make our way
29:30down from the
29:30conning tower
29:31to the mess room,
29:32where we can look
29:33down on the
29:33huge complement
29:34of batteries
29:35that gave
29:35the Type 21
29:36its immense power.
29:39So these are batteries?
29:41This is half
29:41of the battery capacity
29:43this submarine
29:43actually has.
29:45Really?
29:45They increased
29:46the amount
29:47of batteries
29:47times three
29:48and the power
29:50of electric drive
29:51times ten.
29:53Right.
29:53I mean,
29:53they do look
29:54like giant car batteries,
29:55don't they?
29:56Yeah,
29:56because this is
29:57the same principle.
29:58They are more
29:58sophisticated
29:59because they have
30:00additional system
30:01for acid circulation
30:03and so on
30:04like every
30:04modern submarine.
30:06So,
30:06presumably,
30:07the faster you go,
30:08the more revolutions
30:09you need,
30:10the more power
30:10you're using,
30:12the quicker
30:13they use up
30:14their energy.
30:15Yes,
30:15exactly.
30:16For this reason,
30:18until today,
30:18every submarine
30:19without air-independent
30:21propulsion
30:21has a very
30:23low endurance
30:24when running
30:25at high speed.
30:26They can run
30:27for many hours
30:29at three,
30:30four,
30:30five knots.
30:31Right.
30:31But if they have
30:32to go for
30:3370 knots,
30:34it's just about
30:35for a couple
30:36of hours.
30:40This is the only
30:41footage I've been
30:42able to find
30:43of the Type 21
30:44at sea.
30:47U-boat 2513
30:49was surrendered
30:50to the Americans
30:51and this is taken
30:52as they were
30:53evaluating its design
30:54and performance.
30:59It was information
31:01that was to prove
31:01invaluable to the
31:03future of submarine
31:04design.
31:06I just find it
31:07absolutely stunning
31:08that in the era
31:09of the Second World War
31:10you're creating
31:11something as
31:11sophisticated as this.
31:13I mean,
31:13you look at this
31:14and someone has
31:15to invent this,
31:16someone has to
31:16design this
31:17and teams of
31:18engineers
31:18have to create it.
31:21It's a very
31:21complex thing,
31:23isn't it?
31:24Yes,
31:24and without
31:25modern computer
31:26aided design
31:28technology,
31:29it's just
31:29some guys
31:31standing and
31:32drawing something.
31:33I couldn't
31:34imagine just
31:35doing this
31:35for a month
31:36and years
31:37without a computer.
31:48I really do
31:49think this Type
31:4921 is
31:50absolutely
31:51amazing
31:53and, you know,
31:54I just
31:55can't help
31:55thinking that
31:56the Nazi regime
31:58had a massive
31:59opportunity with
32:00this that they
32:00just didn't
32:01exploit at all.
32:03You know,
32:03they don't start
32:04this until 1943
32:05and yet they've
32:06got the technology,
32:07the know-how
32:08much earlier than
32:09that and they
32:09just don't do
32:10anything about it.
32:11It's just this
32:11really bizarre
32:13prioritisation.
32:14You know,
32:14just imagine if
32:15these had been
32:16around in the
32:16early part of the
32:17war.
32:17The only way to
32:18really dent the
32:19Allies is by
32:20destroying their
32:20shipping.
32:21This is the
32:22weapon that could
32:23have done that
32:24and yet incredibly
32:26only two ever go
32:28on war patrol
32:28right at the
32:29very end of the
32:30war.
32:30It's a massive
32:31opportunity miss
32:32for the Nazi
32:33regime and thank
32:34goodness for
32:35that.
32:37This particular
32:38U-boat never
32:38saw combat
32:39service and was
32:40scuttled by its
32:41crew in 1945
32:43and as I'm
32:44about to find
32:44out, it was
32:46lucky to be
32:46built at all.
32:52As the Second
32:53World War
32:53moved towards
32:54its endgame,
32:55the Nazis made
32:56one more
32:57desperate roll
32:57of the dice.
32:59On the 18th
32:59of February
33:001943, Joseph
33:02Goebbels
33:03announced a new
33:04phase for the
33:04Germans, that
33:06of total war.
33:08The entire
33:09country was to
33:10be mobilised
33:10in its defence.
33:13An armaments
33:14production was to
33:15be increased
33:16threefold.
33:20Rapid
33:21construction of
33:22the Type
33:2221 U-boat
33:23was seen as
33:24vital to this
33:25strategy, but
33:26Nazi Germany's
33:27meagre resources
33:28were becoming
33:28ever more
33:29stretched by the
33:30Allied bombing
33:30campaign.
33:37Most of their
33:37shipyards now
33:38lay in ruins,
33:39so a very
33:40special, very
33:41secret, assembly
33:43facility needed to
33:44be built that
33:44was immune to
33:45Allied attack.
33:47One with walls
33:48and a roof so
33:49thick, no bomb
33:51would be able to
33:52smash it.
33:58It's early 1943, and
34:01the Nazi high
34:01command urgently
34:02needs to get the
34:03Type 21 U-boat in
34:04the water.
34:10The Valentin
34:11assembly plant is to
34:12be their answer.
34:15Built of reinforced
34:16concrete, it would be
34:17the largest fortified
34:19U-boat facility in
34:20Germany, at 426
34:22metres long and
34:2427 metres high.
34:26The walls alone were
34:27to be four and a
34:28half metres thick, the
34:31ceiling an
34:31extraordinary seven
34:33metres at its
34:33thickest.
34:36The engineers were
34:38given just 22
34:39months to build it, and
34:42it was built largely
34:43by slave labour.
34:53For the past ten
34:54years, museum
34:56curator Dr Marcus
34:57Meyer has been
34:58refurbishing the
34:59run-down factory as
35:00an example of
35:01German engineering
35:01construction, but
35:04also as a symbol
35:06of the horrors of
35:07war.
35:09So how many people
35:10are involved in
35:11constructing something
35:12quite as enormous as
35:13this?
35:13We're talking about
35:148,000 slave workers
35:16a day, plus 2,000
35:18engineers, German
35:19workers and guards.
35:21And who were these
35:22workers?
35:22They were slave
35:23workers from all
35:24over Europe.
35:25They were
35:26concentration camp
35:27inmates.
35:27Yes.
35:28And they were
35:29inmates of a local
35:30police camp.
35:31And presumably
35:32conditions were not
35:34good.
35:34No, they were
35:35very, very bad.
35:38One of the biggest
35:39problems was to get
35:41enough food.
35:41Most prisoners had a
35:44weight of about 46
35:45kilograms after a
35:46short period of time.
35:48That's just nothing.
35:50Because there was
35:51basically just soup.
35:52Cabbage soup with
35:55cabbage as an idea of
35:56cabbage.
35:58Yeah.
35:58So not enough
36:00calories to stay alive
36:01just by doing
36:02nothing.
36:03And they had to do
36:03very, very, very
36:04heavy work.
36:05Yeah.
36:06Carrying sacks of
36:07cement, metals,
36:08everything.
36:09So the living
36:11conditions were
36:12quite bad.
36:13And do we have
36:15any idea how many
36:16people died as a
36:17result of building
36:17this?
36:18We cannot say the
36:19exact number, but
36:21about 1,300 are
36:23proofed.
36:28Of the 10,000 to
36:2912,000 men who
36:30worked on the
36:31construction, it's
36:32now estimated that
36:33as many as half
36:34perished in the
36:35process.
36:40From the
36:41perspective of
36:41today, this looks
36:43like an act of
36:44gargantuan folly.
36:48It was dreamed up
36:49by Dönitz, by
36:50then a grand
36:51admiral, in
36:52collaboration with
36:53Hitler's favourite
36:53architect, Albert
36:55Speer.
36:57In the aftermath of
36:58the war, both
37:00these men honed a
37:01carefully cultivated
37:02image of being
37:03good Nazis, not
37:05really supportive of
37:06the worst of the
37:07regime.
37:08It's an image that
37:09looks more than a
37:10little shaky in the
37:11shadow of the
37:12Valentin bunker.
37:15Why are they
37:16doing that?
37:17Dönitz knows that
37:18the U-boat war is
37:20over.
37:20I mean, really?
37:21Is a Type 21 going
37:22to come in to make
37:23a difference?
37:24I mean, can he
37:24possibly believe
37:25that?
37:25It's hard to say
37:26if he really
37:28believed it.
37:29I think, in a
37:30way, he did.
37:31But it's kind of
37:34delusional at that
37:35point.
37:37But the thing is,
37:38total war means
37:39not achieving a
37:41kind of rational
37:42goal in a war,
37:44getting resources,
37:45getting territory.
37:46Total war means
37:48we are in the
37:49end fight and
37:50there's just one
37:51survivor.
37:52Yeah.
37:52There's no chance
37:53of...
37:53It's all or
37:54nothing.
37:55All or nothing.
37:55So if you have
37:56the technology to
37:57build a Type 21,
37:58which is potentially
37:59a game changer,
38:00it's worth building
38:01a 400-meter-long
38:02bunker.
38:03Exactly.
38:04Yeah.
38:04By any cost.
38:06Right.
38:06Money.
38:07Yeah.
38:08And if it costs
38:096,000 lives in the
38:10construction, nobody
38:11cares.
38:11This is really one
38:13of the last straws
38:14they had.
38:15It's...
38:16And it's madness.
38:17Yeah, yeah.
38:18And that's the
38:19special thing about
38:21this bunker.
38:22Inside, it's
38:23completely logical.
38:25Right.
38:25But outside, it's
38:26madness.
38:29The madness lay not
38:30just in the
38:31construction, but in
38:32the belief that a
38:33building this size
38:34could be kept
38:35secret.
38:36I was off to
38:37photograph Hamburg.
38:39Unbeknown to the
38:40masterminds behind
38:41the Valentin, the
38:42Allies had been
38:42watching its
38:43construction from
38:44the very start.
38:45Coming in over the
38:46target, I started the
38:47automatic cameras.
38:49Marcus has uncovered
38:51some old files in the
38:52British National
38:52Archives, which give an
38:54insight into the
38:55quality of their
38:56surveillance.
38:58What the British get
38:59out of their air
39:01surveillance is
39:01documented.
39:04First note is from,
39:05I think, May 43.
39:08Right.
39:09Okay, there's
39:10something going on.
39:10Let's check it out.
39:11And after that, we
39:13have reports every
39:14three to five months,
39:16getting much more
39:18precise every day.
39:20Right.
39:21Even drawings of the
39:23bunker.
39:24Wow, okay.
39:24Just taken by
39:26exploring the
39:27photographs they took.
39:29Right.
39:29And their special
39:30interest was the
39:31thickness of the roof.
39:32Right.
39:37They were waiting
39:38for the building to
39:39be well into
39:40construction, but not
39:41so complete they
39:42would be unable to
39:43penetrate it.
39:45From the
39:46reconnaissance photos,
39:47the Allies correctly
39:48worked out that one
39:49part of the roof was
39:51only five metres thick,
39:52not seven.
39:54On the 27th of
39:56March, 1945, 617
39:58Squadron, the
39:59Dambusters, struck
40:01with bombs known as
40:02Grand Slams.
40:04These ten-ton high
40:06explosive earthquake
40:07bombs couldn't
40:08penetrate seven metres
40:09of concrete, but
40:11they could break
40:12through five.
40:13And that was the
40:14part that was
40:15successfully targeted.
40:21Well, Marcus, that's
40:22a pretty big hole in
40:23the roof there.
40:23Is that the fatal
40:24blow?
40:25That's one of the
40:26two fatal blows, yes.
40:27Yeah, wow.
40:27And it was caused
40:29by a ten or twelve
40:31ton bomb.
40:32Yeah, a Grand
40:32Slam.
40:33A Grand Slam.
40:34Yeah, and this
40:35looks very much like
40:36the remains of one of
40:37the Grand Slams that
40:37was dropped.
40:38It's amazing, isn't it,
40:40that after all those
40:41months of construction,
40:42just a couple of
40:43bombs, and that
40:44brings the whole
40:45thing crashing down
40:46to a halt?
40:47Yeah, all the
40:48planning that went
40:49into this place
40:50were basically useless
40:52because this was
40:54highly visible.
40:56Right.
40:57I mean, how could
40:57it be anything but?
40:58Yeah, you couldn't
40:59camouflage it.
41:00No.
41:01This bunker could
41:03have been built
41:03only because the
41:06Allied let it
41:07happen.
41:08Right.
41:08They could have
41:08destroyed it from
41:09day one, they
41:10didn't because so
41:11many resources were
41:12used here without
41:14any danger to
41:15anyone.
41:15At that point
41:17where they thought,
41:19okay, the Germans
41:20will finish the
41:21roof finally up
41:23to seven meters,
41:24they just flew
41:27this one attack.
41:28Right.
41:29One.
41:29And two bombs
41:31hit, and this
41:31whole project was
41:33gone.
41:38You know, on one
41:39level, this place
41:40is just so
41:42impressive.
41:43To think that
41:43this was built
41:45the second half
41:47of the Second
41:47World War on
41:48such an enormous
41:50scale is just
41:51incredible.
41:53But on another
41:54level, this is
41:55just absolutely
41:58insane.
41:59I mean, you know,
42:00Germany is losing
42:00the war.
42:01Yes, they've got
42:02the Type 21, but
42:03they simply cannot
42:04build enough of
42:06them.
42:06And this is not
42:07going to be the
42:08answer.
42:08Because let's just
42:09say they do manage
42:10to complete the
42:11construction of this
42:12and it isn't
42:12actually bombed.
42:14The final assembly
42:16of the U-boats,
42:17the Type 21,
42:17is going to be
42:18here.
42:19This would have
42:19been a dry dock.
42:20You fill it up
42:21with water, and
42:23then you sail it
42:24out.
42:24But you sail it
42:25out into the
42:25River Visa, and
42:27that isn't deep
42:28enough to submerge
42:29one of these
42:30submarines.
42:30So they would
42:32have to sail all
42:33the way down
42:34the river quite
42:35a long way to
42:36the North Sea
42:37above the
42:38waterline.
42:39And there is
42:40just no way by
42:42that stage of
42:43the war that
42:44the RAF or
42:45American planes
42:46are not going
42:48to be able to
42:48spot that and
42:49destroy them
42:50en route.
42:50It's just
42:51inconceivable.
42:52And to imagine
42:54any other
42:54course was just
42:56so illogical,
42:58so irrational.
42:58And it just
43:00underlines, I
43:01think, just
43:02how crazed
43:05the senior
43:05leadership in
43:07Nazi Germany
43:07had become.
43:08I mean, what
43:09were they
43:10thinking?
43:17The war was
43:19over.
43:28The U-boat
43:29fleet was
43:29destroyed, with
43:31an appalling
43:31loss of life.
43:32At the start
43:33of the war, the
43:34U-boat arm had
43:35been just 3,000
43:36men strong.
43:37By the war's
43:38end, ten times
43:40that number, more
43:41than 30,000, had
43:43been killed.
43:48Had Hitler
43:48been a halfway
43:49competent military
43:50strategist, and
43:52had Dernis got
43:53his way in
43:541939, the war
43:56might have ended
43:57very differently.
43:59I think what's
44:00so amazing about
44:00the U-boat arm is
44:01you can see the
44:02potential there.
44:02You can see how
44:03a properly equipped
44:04modern U-boat
44:05arm could have
44:07just wreaked
44:07havoc with the
44:08Allies.
44:09But it's too
44:10little, too late,
44:11and not enough
44:12focus.
44:12Well, it's the
44:13problem if you
44:14try to fight the
44:15world with a
44:16handful of ships.
44:17Yes, exactly.
44:18It was the right
44:19strategy to follow,
44:20but with very
44:22limited means.
44:24And from a mere
44:26military point of
44:27view, that was
44:28the key problem.
44:30They had great
44:31successes, but in
44:34the end, they
44:35simply ran out of
44:36breath.
44:40Well, Dernis
44:41failed in his
44:42attempt to
44:42sever the vital
44:44Allied supply lines
44:45across the
44:45Atlantic.
44:46No one can
44:47doubt the
44:47achievements and
44:48sacrifices of the
44:49U-boat arm, nor
44:50the astonishing
44:51developments in
44:52technology that it
44:53inspired.
44:54You are aboard one
44:56of the newest
44:56attack submarines in
44:58the U.S. Navy.
44:59It had a
44:59fundamental influence
45:01on post-war submarine
45:02development in both
45:03America and the
45:04Soviet Union.
45:05In the years since
45:06World War II, the
45:07rapid development of
45:08underwater technologies
45:10has thrust the
45:11submarine into the
45:12forefront of the
45:13naval balance of
45:14power.
45:15Such was the
45:16legacy of the
45:16Type 21.
45:19Submarines today are
45:20faster, better
45:21equipped, and have
45:22longer endurance than
45:23ever before.
45:24It demonstrated the
45:26Nazis' faith in the
45:27power of technology.
45:30Perhaps given more
45:31time, it could have
45:33even helped them win
45:34the war.
45:35The war.
46:07You
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