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00:06The End
00:39The End
01:12We are a people who have always based our power upon the sea
01:16and carried our treasure in ships.
01:19But now it is August 1940, and Churchill writes to Roosevelt,
01:23the Germans have the whole French coastline
01:26from which to launch attacks upon our trade and food.
01:32For centuries we have fought power after power
01:35to keep the sea approaches clear
01:36and guard the shipping that brings home our wealth.
01:40And now not only wealth, but food and weapons,
01:43and every drop of oil needed to fight the encircling enemy
01:47both on the sea and in the sky above.
02:10The fishing banks of the North Sea are in no man's land,
02:13and we put out to trawl our catch under the enemy's noses.
02:17Mines and foreign warships we've met before,
02:19but now they can come at us from the air.
02:22We've put some old aircraft to escort us,
02:25and balloons are our only armament.
02:40Within a few weeks of the fall of Norway and France,
02:43the Luftwaffe attack from bases all along the coast,
02:46from the Arctic to the Channel,
02:48at the very throat of our sea lanes.
03:05Alarm, Alarm!
03:06Fliegerabteilung bereit zum Angriff!
03:09Fliegerabteilung bereit zum Angriff!
03:14Fliegerabteilung来!
04:05In these first months, our fighter strength is small and at full stretch.
04:10With the Battle of Britain going full tilt, we haven't had much time to help the convoys.
04:15Even along the coast.
04:16Still, we have a bash whenever we can.
04:41One thing, though, about a dogfight close offshore.
04:44If you do go into the drink, there's a whole regatta laid on to pull you out.
04:48The End
04:52The End
05:03The End
05:05The End
05:36Pilots may fly again.
05:38And home-based fighters drive the enemy beyond range of our coast.
05:42But this is only the center of a wider battle.
05:47The struggle for the western oceans has begun.
05:52Now we know sea power is not enough.
05:55Wherever the enemy can threaten us at sea, we must use the air also for defense.
06:01To protect our shipping lanes, we need not only new aircraft, but new radar cover and new bases.
06:08We move into Iceland to establish an airfield and a flying boat base.
06:35Here, fleet air armed forces touch down on the Arctic Circle.
06:39And land planes have flown in.
06:41And land planes have flown in from Britain.
06:43Here is our furthest north.
06:45And here we mount a frail guard over the enemy's northern gateway into the Atlantic.
06:52The decision for 1941 lies upon the seas.
06:56It is in shipping and in the power to transport across the oceans, particularly the Atlantic Ocean, that in 1941
07:06the crunch of the whole war will be found.
07:09We look across the Atlantic for the modern aircraft we need for coastal command.
07:15Canada herself is short of planes, but she is close to the aircraft factories of America.
07:20We haul in new aircraft from over the border.
07:23The United States Hudson's bought under cash and carry.
07:26We tow them across with horses because we aren't allowed to take off from a neutral country.
07:38All through the winter, we fly them across the Atlantic to reinforce coastal command in Britain.
07:55It is something still to fly the Atlantic at all.
07:58To cover the whole ocean with air patrols is far beyond us.
08:03From Britain, we can only provide close escorts for convoys in home waters, and the Navy has no carriers to
08:09spare.
08:10The range of our effective cover is therefore limited.
08:14Coastal command and the fleet air arm, both are small, but growing, learning.
08:20And we have some new weapons, including an airborne radar system called ASV, air-to-surface vessel.
08:34Let's see how this ASV works.
08:38Suppose we are in an aircraft which is flying over the sea, and we make this aircraft send out radio
08:44waves into the air around it.
08:46For instance, the sea beneath the aircraft will reflect some of the waves.
08:54So will a ship or a submarine on the surface.
09:01ASV was fitted to our first long-range squadrons, and patrols were flown up to 500 miles over the western
09:08approaches.
09:10Every patrol, a journey through day and night into an unknown, shifting world of waves and cloud, with life or
09:20death or a thousand miles of nothing below the horizon.
09:39THE END
10:02Beyond the range of coastal patrols, our raiders have all the sea in which to hide and hunt.
10:08Deutschland, Graf Spee, Bismarck, Hitler, Prinz Eugen, Tirpitz.
10:13Since the first day of war, we have sent them far out along the trade routes to find and harry
10:18the Allied convoys.
10:41Here comes the battle!
10:56But sooner or later, every raider must return to Europe, to the dark coasts of Norway or the ports of
11:03France.
11:04Then we can use such air power as we have to find them and pin them down with bombs.
11:09Or if they escape again, track them into the guns of our fleet.
11:2621st of May, 1941.
11:28Aerial reconnaissance finds Bismarck and Prinz Eugen about to sail from Dobrikfjord near Bergen.
11:33The chase begins.
11:34Well, the Navy had a belated report of a possible raider in Bergen the day before yesterday.
11:40So we laid on those searches on the Norwegian coast, and also those patrols, you'll see, five, one and two,
11:46between Iceland and Norway, in case she tries to break out.
11:49Call for it.
11:54Will you block this on the map, please?
11:5822nd of May, the first round.
12:01Twelve light bombers of coastal command go out unescorted to attack the two German ships in their home waters.
12:30This attack fades.
12:32The enemy ships disappear into the cloud and dark of the North Atlantic.
12:43Two days later, they are found again by the Navy between Iceland and Greenland.
12:57The second round.
12:59One of our Sunderlands watches and reports the Northern Sea battle.
13:02A naval force, including the Hood and the Prince of Wales, engages the two raiders.
13:07The Bismarck is hit, but covers the escape of the Prinz Eugen.
13:22A tragic and indecisive battle.
13:25The search goes on.
13:30Two days later, one of our coastal command flying boats regains contact with the Bismarck out in the Atlantic.
13:37We signal her position to the Navy, and the home fleet closes in.
13:45Swordfish from the Ark Royal cripple the raider's steering and bring her to bay.
14:07Theat is carried on to the ark, the
14:08Theat is defended to the FBI, and the
14:28Captain仔 Bl نہ guns,
14:35Hay fundraiser with asun's
14:37Narrative and a
14:48The last round and the end of a campaign.
14:52The hopes of Germany's heavy ships die with the Bismarck.
14:55They, at least, will not fight again in the Atlantic.
15:06But all the while, the greatest danger lies under the sea, in what we call the North Atlantic
15:11Gap, the thousand dark miles between the furthest range of air cover from Britain or Canada.
15:26Successful operations are perfectly possible against convoys heavily escorted by surface
15:31craft, so long as allied aircraft are not in evidence.
15:34In the first two years of war, the allies have admitted losing three million tons of shipping
15:40to our torpedoes and guns.
15:41In this way, we will slowly strangle them.
15:53By the end of 1941, we were building five U-boats where everyone sunk.
15:59Our best crews were gone, but our numbers were ten times greater.
16:08By 1942, we were launching over 20 submarines every month.
16:26Admiral Dönitz has a hundred U-boats at a time in the Atlantic and another hundred in reserve.
16:33As the allies pour more and more into the Atlantic lifeline, so we increase our attacks.
16:59From the Atlantic Charter meeting a few months ago have come new hope and determination.
17:04The former naval person, Winston Churchill, has said,
17:09The battle of the Atlantic must be won in a decisive manner.
17:14It must be won beyond all doubt.
17:18In 1942, we built two million tons of shipping in British yards.
17:23The Americans built five million.
17:25The Germans sank about as much tonnage as all that put together.
17:28So, we went on building more.
17:32As the U-boat war rises to its peak, Britain and the United States join forces against the Axis.
17:39In the States, we're producing enough to fill the holes of 15 convoys a month for Britain.
17:44But in the past five months, we've lost a hundred shiploads.
17:47So, we have to get the arsenal of democracy organized.
17:50o
18:00The
18:29The More We Load
18:31The More We Loose
18:32General Marshall Reports
18:34The Losses By Submarines Off Our Atlantic Seaboard
18:37Now Threatens Our Entire War Effort
18:39So We Start Sending Our Stuff Around In Convoys
18:43Like The British Have Been Doing All Along
18:44From Halifax Up North In Canada
18:48Whatever The Losses
18:49The Loading Goes On
18:51The Convoys Are Rooted
18:53The Naval Escorts Formed
18:55By The Summer Of 1942
18:57The Battle Of The Atlantic Gap
18:59Is At Its Height
19:06Royal Canadian Air Force Base
19:08Eastern Air Command Goose Bay
19:10Will Provide Escort For Convoy HX-15
19:13Eastbound From Halifax
19:15As Commodore Of Convoy HX-15
19:18I Hold My Captain's Conference The Night Before We Sail
19:21There Are 45 Of Us
19:23Escort, Destroyer And Corvettes
19:25Convoy Speed 12 knots
19:27Destination Liverpool
19:38Birthday Out
19:40Met Our Escort Group At Ten Hundred Hours
19:42Air Cover All Day
19:47Hello, Codfish
19:481M305 Answering
19:50We Are Receiving It Better Now
19:51How Is It All Going?
19:53Sure Glad It's You
19:54Not Me Down There
19:55No Stomach For Your Kind Of Life
19:56Over
19:57We're Going Fine When You Just Started
20:00Carry Out Patrol XZ
20:03At AF Miles Please
20:04Over To You
20:05OK Fella
20:07Anything You Say
20:08Good Hunting
20:09Good Luck
20:15Second Day Out
20:16Second Day Out
20:17Air Escort Left Us 1430 Hours
20:19On Our Own Now For The Next Thousand Miles Or So
20:27Third Day Out
20:28Latitude 50 North
20:30Wind Freshening
20:31Heavy Bow Seas
20:33No Trouble Yet
21:09Easyances
21:09Ley
21:09His
21:09Fourth day out. Escort picked up U-boat on the ASDIC and dropped depth charges.
22:02Fifth day out.
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14The
22:14.
22:14.
22:14.
22:14.
22:15.
22:15.
22:26.
22:26.
22:26.
22:31THE END
22:56We have fed our sea for a thousand years, and she calls us still unfed.
23:03Though there's never a wave of all her waves, but marks our English dead.
23:08We have strawed our best to the weeds unrest, to the shark and the shearing gull.
23:14If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we have paid in full.
23:32THE END
23:33Ninth day. The airbases of Britain are still half an ocean away.
23:37We're especially glad there's so many sergeants here.
23:39Honestly, if there's one thing we'd love to see out there, it's sergeants.
23:42The only time they sit down, shut up, and listen.
23:50The crew of Sunderland, T for Tommy, report to their aircraft immediately.
23:56The captain and the navigator, report to the operations room.
24:01I will repeat that.
24:03The crew of Sunderland, T for Tommy, report to their aircraft immediately.
24:08The captain and the navigator, report to the operations room.
24:19On the ninth night, the convoy is coming within range of coastal command.
24:25For the naval escorts fighting off the U-boats, there will soon be reinforcements from above.
24:30Well, there doesn't have been any else unusual, except that long Met flight number 12 out into Atlantic.
24:35What's that all about?
24:36That was specially laid on for air ministry.
24:38It should meet convoy number 15, too.
24:42And I've left a note here in the log for you to tell the SASO if they do get a
24:46sighting report.
24:47There were 33 of them left when we found them.
24:50They'd lost 12 sunk by then.
24:52They shouldn't lose any more while we were around.
25:08You count them.
25:10I've counted them the whole bloody night.
25:18Tenth day out.
25:20Sunderland from Port Rush stayed with us all day.
25:24Felt more comfortable.
25:27Eleventh day out.
25:29Sunderland escort relieved by Catalina.
25:39As air and naval forces work together with increasing strength, we have, at last, a hope of beating the U
25:47-boat.
25:49Finesky by Charlie here.
25:51Target one mile ahead, slightly stopped.
25:52Moving starboard.
25:55Wrong course.
25:56Target three-quarter mile, dead ahead.
25:58Okay, I can see it now.
26:00Stand by, all gun positions.
26:02Here we go.
26:15Here we go.
26:16Here we go.
26:55This is a mad war between birds and fish.
26:59We live in different worlds and meet on the surface of the water only to kill or to be killed.
27:12Thirteenth day, lay to in Mersey estuary at dawn, those that are left of us.
27:47The dawn is only the stars.
27:48start of another day of war. Another convoy brought home is not the end of the battle.
27:55Even the cargoes have not finished their journey, but must be shipped on to other fronts in other
28:00lands. And the end of a patrol is only an end of a beginning, for victory is still hull down
28:08on the
28:08horizon.
28:31THE END
28:54THE END
29:20THE END
29:22THE END