The best series on the subject. My grandfather served in the merchant navy in WW2 and sadly died the year before this was released.He served as an engineering officer on the s.s Erato,the M.V oregon,the empire livingstone and ocean vagrant.He came out of the service in 1946.He loved the Das Boot series and when i asked him how he could watch it as they were out to sink him and his comrades,he simply replied "they were sent to do a job like us son" Respect for all those who fought in the longest battle.
The submarine pens are empty. The brave men who sailed on the merchant ships and those who sank them have passed into history. May we always remember the sacrifice of so many who have gone before us. Amen.
I’ve seen many, many docs on WW2 and the Battle of the Atlantic. In my opinion this is the best one. Glad I was able to find it on RU-vid. Thanks for uploading!
40:04 > This is U124 (Georg-Wilhelm Schulz) on her return to Lorient, 1 May 1941, following a very successful 68-day patrol in February, March and April 1941. She is sporting three life-belts, one each from the merchantmen SS Tweed, SS Portadoc and SS Umona, all sunk off the African coast near to Freetown. Also she flies pennants showing the tonnage of her 11 victims, 53000 tons in total. Following the 8th April 1941 sinking of SS Tweed, Schulz noticed that one of her two lifeboats had capsized with several injured men clinging to it. Coming alongside in U-124, Schulz took the injured aboard the submarine where Dr. Hubert Goder treated the wounded. Meanwhile U-124's crew righted the lifeboat. Schulz stocked the lifeboat with food, water, cognac and cigarettes, gave the survivors a compass and a course to Freetown, and continued with his patrol. An official account of Schulz's decision to render assistance to the shipwrecked enemy mariners was entered into evidence at the Nuremburg Tribunals in Donitz defence.
There was a big "ta do" about 1 of the u boats that sank the Coronia ship cause it saved a buttload of survivors. . Tied up all their lifeboats in a chain behind him. Pulled up his white flag so's not to be shot at cause he was giving assistance. Plus the gave all the survivors food water smokes and alcohol then an american plane came overhead and shot at the sub before he saw what was happening and the sub had to break off the rescue and submerge. It really pissed Hitler off that they helped survivors at all and it was supposedly the last time it happened. He said do not help anymore survivors they are the enemy. Be ruthless. But Dönitz wasnt please at all
Thank you for this video. I watched and read about the battle of the north Atlantic. My uncle sailed with the American Merchant marine during that battle. He was sunk twice. Spent time in the "water" until rescued. The Merchant Mariners of all the allied countries were the toughest hombres, and still are! Bless those brave souls to this day. The true hero's of salvation during that time in history.
My great grandfather joined the battle of the Atlantic as a warsailor. He never spoke of it. Though after I read "The cruel sea" I began to understand his silence. By God it must've been the most brutal thing to be a part of.
Read that great Monsarrat paper back during my three years as a town curate in Bangor,when the Canon in charge had taken time off on ill health. It was the right book,for the right point in time.Around six months later had the pleasure of reading HMS Ulysses by Alistair Mcclean another great book,in the same type of genre! Bangor being a port town did attract retired sea farers.
Thrown into freezing water in the pitch dark close to drowning and burnt, i'm not sure what i'd say or expect to hear but "bad luck old man" is just classic!😅
I still think "hell below" is better or the series i mean ( just about u boats only ) but this is probably the best battle of the Atlantic documentary ive ever seen
'We all live in peace because of those brave men.' - I'm really not sure what peace you mean. Have you forgotten the Vietnam War, the Iraq Wars, and the countless other wars in which hundreds of thousands of people have died?
Proportionately, more members of the British Merchant Navy were killed in action than in the regular Army, Navy or RAF. Although they were civilians, the Merchant Navy was under military discipline. This meant that civilians could be, and were, conscripted into the service, could not leave if they wanted and regular seamen were posted to serve in any merchant ship that needed crew. The men themselves had no choice as to which ship they got or where it went. However, one major difference between the Merchant Navy and the armed services was that when their ships were sunk, the merchant sailors pay was stopped immediately. If they survived, they weren't paid until they were assigned to another ship.... and if they died, their widows didn't receive a war widows pension. And yet they went out... time, after time, after time.
Helmut Witte interviewed at 1:40:27... I had never seen/heard him in video before. This is so cool, I really enjoyed the account of how the Enigma machine was obtained and also all the accounts from both sides and survivors. Some of the stories are really moving, like that of the man who threw himself out the liferaft during the storm, deciding to die, or the young german submariner who was immorally and unlawfully denied quarter because he refused to give information :( . This series is gold. I wish there were more documentaries like this, objective and unbiased.
Brilliant upload thanks. My grandad (Harry Webb UXB expert) best friend and best man was torpedoed off of the US Coast and, two of the three lifeboats machine gunned (or cannoned) killing all on board. He always said the U boat service was one of the few armed forces to celebrate the killing of combatants, happy time one and two.
One of the best documentaries on this theater of battle with a heavy stress on the U-Boats. Of course it can't discuss even a fraction of what happened, but it does a good job of showing what it can and providing personal experiences from both sides of battle. It gets taken down often on RU-vid over copyright and pops back up again. Glad to see. I don't know why they don't discuss the abandoning of the convoy around Iceland, that was considered the worst maritime disaster at the time. Twenty four out of thirty five merchant ships in a single convoy were sunk by U-Boats and torpedo planes, all because the British Navy were afraid of the Tirpitz showing up and losing their own ships to it. So the British destroyers abandoned the merchant ship convoy to fend for themselves in arctic waters far from any shoreline. I guess the BBC didn't want to mention that. But many Americans and British merchant sailors died because of that deceitful act by the British Navy. Worse part was, the Tirpitz never showed up. So the over dozen destroyers that had tucked tail and run off, if they had stayed and protected the convoy like they promised, like duty and honor demanded, they could've chased the U-Boats off and saved all those men. But they didn't. This doc seems to have forgotten to mention it, but didn't mind mentioning the US attacking a U-Boat with survivors of a British merchant ship aboard. Even fine documentaries like this are never completely objective or open minded. There's always a side, always an angle to protect.
A welcome and informative comment.PQ 7 and PQ8, overlap with the same issues.The losses of the merchantile service during World War Two Were devastating, 35000,commemorated at the Tower Hill cemetery in London. Enjoyed watching the Enigma movie,the English actor outlining the American losses,in 1941,known as K really captures the tenser moments,of what it was like to be caught in the midst of a grey wolf attack!
Loyalty is one of oldest subjects we keep talking about when facing any sort of crises like war or catastrophy. Sometimes loyalty itself becomes the most precious value human beings are ready to rely on - even without asking questions like to whom one is in essence loyal to. Then more tragedies are being prepared and loom...
My greatest respect goes to the sailors of the Merchant Navies of the Allied Nations who uncomplainingly went to sea time and again, unarmed, facing the greatest dangers one can imagine. There cannot have been more courageous men of that generation and we should never forget the sacrifice so many of those sailors ultimately paid while doing a highly dangerous, ill paid job in the service of their nation. And of these incredibly brave men, those unbelievably courageous sailors who sailed on tankers must be given the highest praise considering the terrible risks they invariably faced each time they took to sea. God bless them all.
Got the same documantary in German.. as I mentioned or rather, wrote in the comment section there, I say here: I am just horrified and devastated at what happened to all involved in this ghastly, terrible conflict. I have no words. No words...beyond human comprehension. Totally...
And as soon as the ship went down your wages stopped. I've seen one other documentary with interviews from the seamen that I thought was better than this but don't know name of,made you feel bad for the people having to remember and recite it.
Was it Jeremy Clarkson from the old Top Gear presenting it? He did one about the Arctic convoys and mentioned how their wages could be stopped. PQ17, an arctic convoy disaster
8.55 "... if we didn't bring it from America." 1.07.30 "... but one already felt in those days the Americans were doing quite a lot that truly couldn't be reconciled with neutrality."
Metal hulled 'PT' boats, 10-25kn max speed, armed with .50 or .303 MGs, maybe a 20mm, 2-3 roll off depth charges, the ability to deploy a recoverable vaned bomb up to 50m deep, plus a searchlight... Could have accompanied a convoy *if they could be pulled out of the water for storms.* 2-3 crews to delay fatigue. Complete protection: available Oct-Nov '39. Add a dedicated Mother ship perhaps? Or carried on a variety of selected freighters and a 60 ship convoy could be protected by 10-12 of these. Specs: Diesel engine 4 cyl, water-cooled, the ability to brew a cuppa (gimballed) and keep two dozen sandwiches, biscuits and a cake dry; pig/seal bloody heaven. Crew 5: pilot (shared), 2 on watch on cabin roof, 2 on smoko (+radio and watch engine). Detection: Mk 1 self-cleaning, self-ranging eyeballs, with optical assistance. Purpose: to establish a lethal no-go zone for U-boats. IOW making them ineffectual. Even in large numbers. U-boats had to break the surface to see. Unless they were stationary (and useless) there will be regular, patterned spray which should stick out like the proverbials. Intermittent searchlight sweeps would keep them on periscope-only at night. The loss rate of freighters would have been minuscule and recovery of the swimming sailors simple quick and effective. The most difficult part would be determining a patrol pattern [eg: Move forward of the convoy 3-5k, swing left or right then elongated 2-4k 'S' patterns till 3-4k behind the convoy then straight up the guts to change crews or do it all again.] Use boats painted black or dark grey at night, white, blue patterned for the day (two sets?). Now why didn't the entire British brain power of the time not consider that? The RN didn't. Parliament didn't. Merchant Marine didn't. Canada didn't. No one came forward. They should have asked Barnes, or Hobart. Building 2-400 of them would have used less war materials than a Corvette. They could have even developed hunter-killer groups when there was an excess. Old people problems.
WWII vintage submarines could only stay submerged for short periods of time before they had to surface to recharge their batteries. When the submarines were on the surface they were visible. As soon as there was air coverage, the allies could cover the shipping routes from the U.S. to the I U.K. Then, the German U-Boats became Iron Coffins.
Je cherche le documentaire en français, il a été diffusé vers l'année 2014 par Antenne 2, mais même en anglais, j'arrive à suivre ce grand moment historique ! Merci Christos
1:27:50 illustrates the camaraderie amongst those at war; its an indication that despite the circumstances and the stupidity of those in charge, the common sailor, soldier or airmen have a bond based in humanity. When will we learn as a race?
Scapa Flow eas not “ONE of the Royal Nacy’s most important bases.” It was THE most important home base of the Britisn Royal Navy Home Fleet. Penetrating it seemed unthinkable.
It’s not *exactly* accurate to say that “the Admiralty was not worried about the small Kriegsmarine surface fleet.” After all, the pocket battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the HMS GLORIOUS (aircraft carrier) and her two escorts, and went on to conduct *two* highly successful campaigns against the British Merchant Marine in 41 and 42. And the British scrambled practically their entire Home Fleet to take down battleship Bismarck after it sank HMS Hood (battlecruiser). Finally, the Bismarck’s sister shiip, the Tirpitz(battleship) gave the Far North Atlantic and Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union nightmares, without even leaving its moorings in a deep Norwegian fjord. Churchill sent innumerable waves of Lancaster bombers to try to sink her. But it’s true that the U-Boats *were* a far greater continual threat than the German surface fleet, esp after Germany had lost more than 2/3 of her destroyer fleet in the First and Second naval Battles of Narvik against battleship HMS Warspite and her task force.
Excellent assessment of the Battle of the Atlantic, but as in virtually all presentations on the Atlantic, it does not mention the extent to which the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic affected the outcome of the Ostkrieg. The Ostkrieg was the decisive battle of the War, where the war was basically decided. The Russians have gotten into their head that they won the War single-handedly all by themselves. Most Russians believe that the War in the West was a sideshow. There are several ways that the Battle of the Atlantic play a major role in the outcome of the Ostkrieg. 1. About 10 percent of the German industrial output went to fight the naval war, which was to a large extent the Battle of the Atlantic. Give how close to victory the Germans came in 1941. Think what another 10 percent of war material would have meant. A major reason that the Ostheer failed was that was poorly equipped and supported. 2. The Battle of the Atlantic made it impossible for the Germans to import the oil they needed. Most of the Ostheer was left on foot with horse-drawn carts -- imagine invading the Soviet Union on foot. (During the early era of the War, German's Soviet ally was providing the oil they needed.) 3. Only with victory in the Atlantic was Lend Lease possible. 4. Only with victory in the Atlantic could Britain stay in the war and America effectively enter the war making the War in the West possible. 5. Only with victory in the Atlantic could Britain and America launch the air War hammering German industry and diverting German industrial output from the Ostkrieg. The air war also diverted German industrial output from the Ostheer. 6. Only with victory in the Atlantic was the Mediterranean campaign and D-Day possible to revive the Western Front.
I think that was the most shameful thing I have ever seen on Germany's part , To sink a ship when men are sleeping at home port , and then to celebrate It as If It was a Battle In the Ocean or something. real Brave...As a Canadian , no wonder we never took prisoners. they never deserved to be prisoners If your capable of that behavior..
@ 1:26:06 that is a perfect example of how NOT to send morse code. As a morse operator I'm always amused at how code sending is poorly portrayed in cinema. However sometimes there's actually some funny messages sent. Years ago I copied some code in a movie that mentioned the name of the sound effects man...
45:44 I’m sure that they did but I alway wonder why they didn’t just breed a shit load of chickens and pigs and stuff get those things on over drive. Send over a bunch of seeds build some greenhouses you know.
Curious to note that immediately after the Pearl Harbour disaster, the American authorities imprisoned the Japanese community in a hurry, but did little if anything to quell the Italian and German contingent.
Internment in Canada "The Canadian government invoked the War Measures Act during the Second World War. The Act was used to implement the Defence of Canada Regulations, which gave the Minister of Justice the authority to detain anyone acting “in any manner prejudicial to the public safety or the safety of the state.” As a result, both enemy nationals and Canadian citizens were subject to internment. More than 40 camps held an estimated 24,000 internees." Population of Canada 1939: 11 million. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/internment
Internment in Britain "That many of the 'enemy aliens' were Jewish refugees and therefore hardly likely to be sympathetic to the Nazis, was a complication no one bothered to try and unravel - they were still treated as German and Austrian nationals. In one Isle of Man camp over 80 per cent of the internees were Jewish refugees." www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6651858.shtml
No, the subs are Greek (I mention this in the description). Must be British filmed around the early 90s. Has been broadcasted regularly since, we here in Greece had initially been successful repelling the Axis forces during the first five months of combat but as a small poor nation were no match to the Nazi war machine when Hitler took the invasion of Greece personally. So we were eventually occupied and spent the rest of the war watching (hearing) the events unfolding in the big theaters like the Atlantic so we have great admiration and respect for those people who fought this terrible battle.
@@ChristosFrantzolas thank you for your comment. It's my fault for not reading the descriptions. They say Greece campaigns delayed operation Barbarossa which lead to the German army freezing to death in the brutal winter of 41. Many Greeks died in the war and should never be forgotten.
@@davidsabillon5182 Hello! yes it seems to be true, the fierce opposition the Greeks showed to the Axis invasion meant Hitler had to dispatch his own (at that time invincible) forces in order to occupy us thus postponing Barbarossa which probably has contributed to their bad timing. As a young boy I thought this to be a Greek urban tale (of pride) but after I turned 50 I got interested in History and with (also) the help of the Internet I learned that this fact is internationally accepted and probably true. It feels warm to think that this country's loss of life (which as a post-war child I strongly felt around me) did serve its share in winning the war. Thank you David for quoting this little known fact.
It was made in 2002, my grandfather was able to see it just before he went completely blind. He served in convoys just after Donitz ordered the U-boat withdrawal (may 1943). The family story goes was Donitz ordered them away because he predicted a massive disaster to hit in the near future. 3 days after his "premonition", grandad joined his first ship, HMS Grenville, on the Tyne river in Newcastle. Can't say Donitz was too far off.
@ MM3YHA of Caithness Amazing! No wonder you remember the film, it must be awesome to see it with someone who was actually there, especially a loved one. Thank you for sharing.
The Battle of the Atlantic was a costly diversion that the Germans could ill afford. The resource poor Germans never had either the manpower or raw materials to spend on a submarine war against Britain. They would have been far better off throwing them into the fighter arm of the Luftwaffe, and the armored forces of their army.
Nope. Germany could have easily won the war, had it actually developed good sub designs early on, instead of AFTER the Battle of the Atlantic was lost. Instead, they sent a half-effort of sub warfare, the type7, with backwards thinking left over from WW1. Imagine if Germany had subs that could be successful INSIDE Britains home waters.
Yeah the British escorted merchant ships -partly- by warships.. But what was the rest of the royal navy doing.. What about all of the cruisers, aircraft carriers, Destroyers, battleships that did essentially hardly anything wjile yhe German U boats sank hundreds of thousands of tons of british ships.. best Bruce Peek
