The War For The Seas: The U-Boats That Stalked The Atlantic | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] foreign the shadow of the u-boat blockade already casted chill upon us all our plans depended upon the defeat of this menace the battle of france was lost the battle of britain was won the battle of the atlantic had noted before in the years before the second world war hitler had gradually rebuilt the german navy as he had his other armed forces in defiance of the existing treaties the pocket battleships light in weight but carrying formidable armament allowed germany to evade the clauses of the treaty of versailles a treaty that had already been violated since

1935 by the construction of u-boats meanwhile hitler doesn't believe contrary to his admirals that this time the outcome of the war will be decided on the oceans he sacrifices naval interests in favor of the air force most german admirals do not oppose hitler's decisions and even praise him to his face as does grand admiral rape name my leader you have led us the navy and a whole grateful nation out of the darkness of night towards the sunrise and a bright future may the blessing of the almighty be with you and the german people on the

steep and arches road to triumph on which you are leading us in they form a particular cast in the hierarchy of germany these professional sailors who are yet dedicated nazis raider grand admiral of the fleet and the commander-in-chief of the u-boats admiral dernes [Music] now an old man dernitz lives in a small villa outside hamburg he had been one of the u-boat aces of the first world war and today he still maintains that if hitler had given him in 1939 the 300 u-boats he had continually demanded it is more than possible that germany might have

won the battle of the atlantic still in service with the west german navy the hecht is the last u-boat to have been used during the battle of the atlantic returning to her after more than 20 years is otto kretschmer during the second world war kretschmer was one of the most successful u-boat captains known as the wolf of the atlantic he is now an admiral on the staff of nato at the outbreak of war i was 27 we had undergone four years of rigorous training and were very keen to serve on u-boats under the impression that

we were the elite of the navy when the war begins the german navy has only 23 ocean-going units but they are ready and for their crews there will be no phony rule [Music] from the first day when they leave to the sound of martial music for the open sea the war will be savage exciting and full of action the purpose of the u-boat is to hunt and to kill the prey on the horizon is the signal of alert everyone knows by heart this particular action station [Music] [Music] hello [Music] everything now hangs on the word

of the captain who sees for all thinks for all and decides in the first month of the war the u-boats of admiral dernitz sink the aircraft carrier courageous and some 40 merchant ships sending 150 000 tons to the bottom [Music] [Music] [Music] on the 17th of october 1939 captain gunter preem and the crew of his u-boat are received in triumph upon their return to germany on the night of the 13th green had slipped into the anchorage of scarpa flow in the orkneys hugging the seabed and in spite of strong currents his u-boat had managed to

bypass the block ships sunk in one of the entrances through green found the home fleet at anchor in the moonlit bay calmly he released seven torpedoes at the assembled warships sinking the 27 000 ton battleship royal oak and before the surprised royal navy could recover from the attack his u-boat withdrew past the block ships and regained its home base at keane preen and his crew were received by hitler and dernitz was promoted on the outbreak of war winston churchill is once more appointed first lord of the admiralty he knows only too well that for centuries

the fate of britain has depended on control of the seas the fact that she's an island is as much part of her weakness as of her strength [Music] churchill hastens to calm british merchantmen and urgently reintroduces convoys the age-old system of defense employed by every naval power since warfare began the immediate responsibility for convoy organization and protection falls to admiral sir percy noble the brilliant commander in chief western approaches every month up to 1 000 ocean going ships bring to britain from all over the world the vital supplies she needs to live and to enable

her to defend herself at the end of 1939 the admiral graf spray one of hitler's three pocket battleships commanded by captain langsdorf is preying on british shipping in the south atlantic but the british cruisers achilles ajax and exeter are one of the hunting groups sent to track down the pocket battleship cleverly judging the craft space next probable move commodore harwood who commands the squadron takes up his station off the river plate on the argentine coast at dawn on the 13th of december graft spray appears on the horizon and battle begins the british cruisers mount a

lighter armament than the pocket battleship 8 inch and 6 inch guns against her 11 inch but they're faster and by attacking from different angles can force her to divide her fire six minutes after opening fire shells from grass bay destroy the bridge of the exeter killing everyone but the captain next the two front turrets of the british cruiser are knocked out but she doesn't break off the engagement and with 57 sailors dead and another 23 wounded continues firing with the remaining two rear targets but the german ship has also taken serious punishment and now withdraws

under a heavy smoke screen to take refuge in the bay of montevideo according to international convention the craft spray can stay in a neutral port for 72 hours but it will take captain lansdorf at least two weeks to repair the damage to his ship meanwhile his crew begin to land the wounded and bury those killed in action [Music] but captain langsdorff fails to obtain permission to remain longer in montevideo and graft space sails on the morning of december the 17th watched by enormous crowds over the horizon the crippled british cruisers are waiting eight miles out

from the port craft spa pride of the german navy scuttles herself on hitler's orders with the ensign fly the fate of his ship and crew have been settled but three days later in his hotel room in montevideo the courageous captain langsdorff settles his own fate with a bullet not for a long time will a german surface raider risk sailing the open atlantic dernitz was right and the ideal weapon for the atlantic campaign is the u-vote he has 30 in operation in 1940 when the german armies invade france and occupy the whole of the atlantic coast

this now provides new bases from which the u-boats can massacre allied ships german submariners refer to this period as the happy time it is the time of the great acids green shepka they're low silhouettes almost invisible in the dark the u-boats attack at night on the surface the azdek detecting gear in the escorts is of little use against a surface hubert the boulder commanders such as kretschmer even penetrate between the columns of the convoys to pick their victims [Music] between july and october 1940 the u-boats sink 217 ships totaling some one and a half million

tons [Music] on occasion the u-boats themselves give aid to the survivors those in convoy stand a good chance of being picked up for others the perils and hardships of open boats a merchant navy officer who sailed in 12 atlantic convoys is john harvey well the knights were on balance more dangerous in the day most of the new boat attacks or air attacks if you were there and up to the coast seemed to come at night but you had to get used to these things you slept according to the cargo you carried i remember particularly that

if you were carrying a cargo of saiyan oil you knew that if the ship was torpedoed it would go down in about 20 seconds so you slept fully closed your cabin door wedged open a life jacket alongside you and you hoped that if there was an explosion you'd be able to rush out on deck before the ship went under if you were carrying high explosives you got into your pajamas closed your cabin door and had a normal night's sleep and if you were still there in the morning you hadn't been torpedo he recalls one dramatic

episode i think in many ways it was when i saw a little corvette the speed wolf blown out of the water right in front of my own ship and we had to sail through a handful of survivors in the water crying for help because in convoy you couldn't do anything else you had to go on your way otherwise you would endanger ships behind you you merely hoped that one of the other escort vessels managed later on to save some of these men it was usually the task of the escort ships to pick up survivors and

often it was necessary to haul aboard those who were unable to climb the scrambling nets or struggle free from the sea itself the merchant seamen it wasn't so much the fear of sudden death that haunted them but slow death in oil choked water for the unknown hours of cold exposure hunger and ironically first [Music] [Music] the convoy system is the only sure defense against the u-boat wolf packs this method calls for the highest degree of team spirit and discipline from the merchant seaman two qualities abundant in the british character but it also takes courage and

patience to plod for day after day from one side of the ocean to the other from the tip of ireland to the tip of newfoundland at the disheartening speed of seven knots a convoy is an immense floating target of ten or more columns of four or five ships each 500 yards apart altogether some six miles wide a mile or more long sailors of the royal navy shared the dangers and fatigue of convoy duty with the merchant seamen plus one extra bounty the traditional rummage [Music] that autumn was a disastrous time for allied merchant shipping in

the atlantic one convoy that left newfoundland in october 1940 with 35 ships arrived in britain with only 14. 21 were sunk by u-boats on the crossing certainly a record loss but many convoys lost 20 percent of their number [Music] [Music] 28 years later ahead of churchill's department of anti-submarine warfare rear admiral howard johnston has not forgotten those events at first the uh a few submarine captains were very successful in this area while all our forces were employed on anti-invasion duties however early in 1941 our forces became stronger and we were able to escort further into

the atlantic the submarines moved further out to a gap which was beyond the 600 miles from iceland england and newfoundland and operated in that area at that time in 1941 the enemies started concentrating their u-boats in packs on the surface the first uber to gain contact with a convoy called up the others of his team and they attempted to uh get ahead of the convoy and attack it we had a limited number of escorts at that time but new construction was coming along the royal canadian navy was in action from saint john's and towards the

end of 1941 in spite of very heavy losses it seemed as though we might be able to uh hold our own abort the battleship prince of wales churchill and roosevelt meet in august 1941 to agree on the objectives of the war the united states has not yet entered the conflict but it's not neutral the conference is known as the atlantic meeting the united states has already lent 50 00 destroyers to britain against a 99-year lease of bases in newfoundland and the caribbean during 1940 escorts had averaged only two per convoy by 1941 more are now

available but still far too few to beat off the wolf packs [Music] thanks to azdek a submarine detection system invented in the 1914-18 war the naval escorts can detect and locate a submerged u-boat within the radius of a mile running in towards it the moment can be calculated when the u-boat is directly beneath this is the moment to release depth charges set to explode at different levels shaken by these salvos of depth charges the u-bert is only one method of escaping diving diving always deeper beneath the explosions until the crew hears the cracking of the

ship's plates [Music] [Music] in the spring of 1941 the escorts strike back against the universe between march and october they sink seventeen it is the end of the happy time the end of the aces in march two of admiral doughnuts young wolves preen and shepka are sent to the bottom in full view of their comrade crutch half an hour later my u-boat followed that of shepkins to the bottom of the atlantic altogether the two of us had managed to sink one million three hundred thousand tons of shipping i was sunk south of iceland by the

destroyer walker part of the escort group of the famous commander donald mcintyre today he is a friend of mine and some years ago returned to me my binoculars taken from me that day in 1941. the german admirals then planned to bring out their surface ships the bismarck a monster of 40 000 tons mounting eight 15-inch guns believed to be unsinkable receive sailing orders in may 1941 to make for the open atlantic in company with the cruiser prince oregon it leaves its norwegian port and makes a great detour by the north of iceland and near to

polar waters it emerges in the north atlantic but the royal navy is waiting the heavy guns of the bismarck proved devastating after only a few minutes the battle cruiser hood blows up from a direct hit and sinks almost instantly that night the carrier victorious flies off her old swordfish aircraft into the stormy darkness a torpedo hits the bismarck's armored hull trailing oil she's forced to make the port of breast the british fleet loses touch with her and she nearly escapes in the nick of time swordfish from the ark royal her with a torpedo hit which

jams the battleship's rudder [Music] the following days he's the hood avenged as the home fleet's battleships and cruisers arrive under the command of admiral tubby despite the 14 and 15 inch guns of the king george v and rodney three more torpedoes from the cruiser dorsiture were finally required to finish off the german battleship [Music] [Music] the germans now use another weapon against convoys the aeroplane they have modified for the purpose of four engine commercial airliner into a bomber with very long range called the combo at first these bombers based at bordeaux meringue scored many successes

over the atlantic [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] however in 1941 the allies took countermeasures with increased supplies of efficient anti-aircraft guns and the first escort carrier made its appearance with fighters which could patrol and protect the convoys in early 1942 dearness ordered the construction of massive u-boat pens in reinforced concrete at loyola their principal base and the admiral now gave his commanders a new objective shipping off the american coast today the naval base of loyola still harbors submarines those of the french navy one of the few survivors of the wolfpacks of admiral dernids is

captain peter cramer who has returned to the concrete lair from where he set out 26 years ago to hunt in the waters off the american coast i sank about 100 000 tons including two destroyers and i also shot down two aircraft i went to the florida cape miami beach and on occasion so close to the coast that i could see car headlights one night i picked up a convoy i sang three ships and a few hours later one more i was in so close that the tanker actually touched me as it went down 1942 is

another year of triumph the german u-boats a second happy time it is the year of long trips across the atlantic new boats have no opportunity to return to port and have to carry out all repairs at sea as best they can [Music] in mid-1942 durnitz brings into service supply u-boats which are nicknamed by the crews milshows they are always punctual that they're rendered and they bring the u-boats all they need for living and fighting [Music] i [Music] is [Music] and so the sea wolves can continue to prey on unescorted ships along the american coast [Music]

it's an exciting hunt that stimulates the entire crew in spite of the fact that life aboard a u-boat is hardly present and there are always the long watches on deck swept by wind and spray securing themselves to the conning tower is vital it is often happened that an unexpected wave has swept away the man on watch without anyone below awareness down there the air is almost unbreathable reeks of oil there is little water and hardly any space men have to eat in ships and even sleep in ships there are only two birds for every three

zebras however the reward is at the end of the trip it is the moment to change to american time and there it is within sight of the classes the promised land as they like to call it there are even the headlights of cars on the coast and with a bit of luck the skyscrapers of new york this is the new found paradise of the u-boats which begin to ravage the tankers from the gulf of mexico and the [Music] caribbean the sea wolves break all existing records within sight of the american coast itself in june alone

121 ships are sunk then the american convoys are organized sinkings drop dramatically u-boat losses rise steeply during 1942 85 new boats are destroyed but those which did return to l'oreal flew many victory penance proclaiming their successes white for merchantmen red for neighbors [Music] dernitz now believes he has reached his objective he has at last some hundred u votes in operation and is producing another twenty [Music] of all those smiling and triumphant u-boat commanders the dernicked greeks and roaring eye at this period only two will remain alive at the end of the war out of the

entire force of 39 000 german submarines 32 000 were to die [Music] the french navy too had fought in the ocean battle flower class corvettes land by three french crews escorted convoys across the atlantic into north russia one french corvette had even destroyed two u-boats in a single axle at the end of 1942 the wolfpacks of admiral dernick still believe that victory is not far off for all that it is the moment when in spite of enormous allied losses the balance is beginning to tilt in favor of the defense donitz knows this he knows that

the entire problem of the german effort depends on sinking more ships than the allies can build but this race for time has been lost by the germans lost since the day that the formidable american potential of merchant shipbuilding has been thrown into the balance american industrialist introduces prefabrication into shipbuilding on a gigantic scale from his yards the famous liberty ships issue forth at the rate of one a day before the end of the war caesar alone builds 1 500 freighters and 50 escort carriers in january 1942 hitler replaces raider by donitz who as grand admiral

of the fleet is in overall command of the german navy hitler is now obsessively concerned with the russian campaign and directs the attention of donetsk towards the destruction of the arctic convoys from britain to moments since the u-boats have failed to stop them getting through the german admiral now considers once more bringing out his battleships twenty-eight thousand tons shardhorst and gneisner they had previously made only one sortie into the atlantic when they sank some 20 allied ships the two battleships took refuge in brest on their return remaining there throughout 1941. in february 1942 however they

accomplished a spectacular exploit under the command of admiral celiacs and attended by the cruiser prince oregon eight destroyers and sixteen motor torpedo birds scharnhorst and genesnow sailed up the english channel and through the straits of dover defying the raf whose task it was to stop it german fighter aircraft based in the calais area provided the ships with vital air cover [Music] 250 bombers of the raf failed to damage them six swordfish of the royal navy led by lieutenant commander esmond whose squadron crippled the bismarck are shot down as they vainly launched their torpedoes and the

battleships managed to avoid further attacks from both destroyers and motor torpedoes [Music] although damaged by mines laid in their path by the raf the battleships gneisenau and scharnhorst finally reached germany ten months later on boxing day 1943 admiral fraser's flagship the battleship duke of york at last encounters the scharnhorst in the grim polar knight radar-directed gunfire scores a damaging hit on the german with the first salvo the scharnhorst turns to flee further hits slow her down for fraser's destroyers to cinco torpedoes when the duke of york arrives on the spot where the german battleship went

down only a handful of survivors out of a crew of 2000 men are rescued and taken prisoner 25 years later the end of the scharnhorst remains for admiral of the fleet lord fraser a memory not only of a victory but also of a tragedy and then my distress attacks and we felt the explosion of the torpedoes and we knew she was finished and then i closed her and we opened fire again she wasn't quite certain what happened and then she turned over well i never saw her go down actually but um it was a terrible

sight in a way to see a ship of that size going down that way with 2 000 people on board including i think it was about quite a lot of young richmond and we only picked up 30 because in those icy waters of course you didn't last for a couple of minutes and uh that was the end of that battle dernitz now uses every means at his disposal to sink more and more ships his motor torpedo boats attack like wasps as convoys skirt the british coast with a crew of three or four men a motor

of 2000 horsepower and only their torpedoes as a load they skim the waves at 65 miles an hour they come in and take up positions off the thames estuary waiting for passing shipping and after launching their torpedoes they return at full speed towards the french coast [Music] [Music] 1943 marked the turning point in the battle of the atlantic in the spring of that year for the first time convoys enjoyed air as well as surface escort throughout their voyages in addition to sunderland flying boats coastal command of the raf at last received sufficient of the long-range

aircraft which had up to now been reserved for the bomber offensive over germany the combination of air and surface escort sent the u-boat loss rate roughly by april one u-boat was being lost for every three escorted ships up in may alone surface and air escorts destroyed 25 ubers doughnuts confessed that losses had reached unbearable heights on the 24th of may he recalled all new boats from the north atlantic convoys the triumph of 1943 was due to men like captain johnny walker admiral sir max horton and their crews one escort commander peter greten now a vice

admiral recalls it was a very exciting time my group were working in march 1943 when there were many losses when the situation was very serious and we were not depressed but we were worried then suddenly by a combination of circumstances the situation seemed to change very quickly i had the the fortune to take part in three different convoys between the end of march 1943 and may 1943. first of all my group took a convoy eastbound from canada to england and we were attacked by many submarines by a pack of about 20 and although we lost

some ships we sang three submarines and we had a very uh tense battle immediately afterwards after only about a week in harbor we brought a convoy imbalanced empty from england west about across the atlantic a convoy of about 40 ships and during the 14 days of this passage of this convoy over 60 german u-boats tried to attack this was far and away the biggest convoy battle of the war and in the end although we lost 12 ships seven german submarines were sunk by various causes by service ships by aircraft and in one case by collision

between two submarines they came in together so close that they collided and sank each other and then only a week later my group also escorted a third convoy from canada to england and in this case we were attacked by a one pack of 20 u-beds and we had a most satisfactory finish we did not lose one ship we sang five submarines three by the escorts and two by aircraft and uh we reckoned that we won a a good victory meanwhile in the arctic despite air and surface escort some u-boats continue to harass the convoys to

russia but neither they nor the appalling weather failed to prevent 250 ships getting through in the last year of the war carrying enough war material to equip some 60 motorized russian divisions [Applause] dernitz refuses to give up and secretly builds underground factories safe from bombing [Music] and now the germans introduce an acoustic torpedo which homes automatically onto the noise of propellers at the same time they are constructing revolutionary new types of u-boat which travel faster submerged than on the surface already he has one in service seven in training and 90 under construction the germans also

developed the snorkel which allows the u-boats to run submerged on diesel power in place of the old electric motors and to run faster but by now under the supreme direction of winston churchill the u-boat menace is almost at an end with surface and aerial protection convoys carry into britain the tanks guns and the men who will soon liberate europe the u-boats try a final assault but they are massacred by attacks from patrolling aircraft and ships [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right to the very end dernitz is able to find volunteers but they know

they go to almost certain death few survive more than one patrol [Applause] [Music] the end came suddenly on the 4th of may admiral donitz gave the order to the u-boats to return to germany and then on the 8th of may he ordered them to come to the surface and surrender to the british his last signal read you have fought like lions now i must give you the hardest order of your career to rise to the surface hoist a large black flag and surrender to the enemy the majority of uber commanders couldn't believe the order 221

of them scuttled their vessels and when the final count was taken only 156 out of the original 700 u-boats were ever found surrendered u-boats are escorted into allied ports and the british can at last study these wolves who for so long have terrorized the atlantic during the course of six years of war they had sunk by gunfire and torpedo 2771 allied ships 14 and a half million tons it was churchill himself who one day would write the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the uberparent the battle you have just seen

was one of the battles of the second world war a war that affected the destinies of manded nations the world over the film you have was discovered in film libraries all over the world and painstakingly edited to show you the incredible impact these individual battles had on the outcome of this most devastating of wars the world thanks to these films will never forget the tremendous effort put forth by all people included in the big battles