All language subtitles for Drain the Oceans Series 2 01of12 Secrets of D Day 1080p

Narrator: The beaches
and cliffs of normandy.

In June 1944, the most
important place on the planet.

Dr delgado: It's the greatest
battlefield in human history.

Full of incredible stories.

Narrator: But some of d-day's
greatest stories remain untold,

Because vital evidence is
hidden beneath the waves.

Imagine if we could
empty the oceans.

Letting the water
drain away to reveal the
secrets of the sea floor.

Now we can.

Using accurate data.

And astonishing technology.

To bring light once
again to a lost world.

What shocking weapon
blew a key british
warship into fragments?

Can this shattered landing
craft explain why omaha was the
bloodiest beach of them all?

Hendley: Unloading had to be
stopd, because the living
couldn't climb over the dead.

Narrator: And why did the
power of the sea mean life
or death on utah beach?

Dr delgado: The seas were
still churned up and as the
man next to you goes down,

It's the luck of the draw.

Narrator: After more than a
year of meticulous planning,

7,000 ships and a quarter
of a million men are ready.

The allied invasion of
nazi occupied europe
is about to begin.

Nicholas: The scale of
d-day is absolutely epic.

It's the most extraordinary
thing that's ever been
undertaken in history.

Narrator: For years,
archaeologists have studied
the battle on land.

But now, they're
looking somewhere else.

Marine archaeologists
working with the french
underwater unit, drassm,

Are scanning 50 miles of coast
using the latest 3d technology

Andy: This is the largest
continuous underwater mapping

Projects ever done
for this particular area.

Narrator: They've
already discovered
300 military relics.

Many unknown to historians.

Archaeologist:
That is really odd.

It's really hard to tell
what we're looking at.

Narrator: Scanned in forensic
detail, this deep-sea treasure
trove is transforming

Our understanding
of the invasion.

Nicholas: It's all
still there in a way that
actually it isn't on land.

And we found some
tremendously exciting things.

Narrator: Now for the first
time, we can use this data to
unlock the secrets of d-day.

By draining away the murky
waters of the normandy coast,

To reveal exactly
what happened here.

As the seas begin to empty,
they uncover just some
of the hundreds of wrecks.

Each with a story to tell.

Target number one,
an allied destroyer.

Sunk before the
landings even begin.

Her fate is one of d-day's
greatest mysteries.

1,200 allied warships
approach the normandy coast.

Catching the enemyrning,
unprepared and off-guard.

Prof grove: One can
imagine the feelings of
many of the germans.

It must have been sheer terror
to have seen this huge fleet.

Narrator: Fire rains down on
the five beaches the allies
have marked for invasion,

Utah, omaha, gold,
juno, and sword.

A norwegian destroyer
called the svenner is
on the eastern flank.

A crew of 219
are preparing to join the
bombardment of the beaches.

When suddenly

A massive explosion
and she's gone.

How is this svenner
destroyed while surrounded

By over a thousand
heavily armed warships?

Data from the survey contains
tantalizing details.

Combining them with
the latest computer
visualization techniques

Means we can empty the
normandy coast, and go
looking for clues.

As the water begins
to drain away.

A sight lost for 75 years.

Hundreds of tonnes of
twisted and ruined metal.

Shocking evidence
of a huge explosion.

The bow and stern
are in one piece.

But the midsection
is shattered.

What could have
caused so much damage?

It can't be a shell.

The svenner is beyond the
range of german artillery.

And it can't be a bomb.

The allies completely dominate
the air throughout d-day.

But returning to the scan data,
the survey team has a theory.

Sauvage: You can see that the
ship was violently broken into,

Because two parts have sunk
in two different orientations.

So that really is the impact
of a torpedo explosion.

Narrator: If it was a torpedo,
does that mean a hidden u-boat

Managed to penetrate
allied defenses?

To find the answer,
the team must dig deeper

Into the secret history
of d-day itself.

Historian nick hewitt
visits suffolk house,

Headquarters of d-day
commander, dwight eisenhower.

Nicholas: This room
was the nerve centre
of a huge operation.

It was planned all over the uk,
all over the world, actually,

And it was two years
in the making,

And this map is the very
map used by eisenhower
and his senior commanders

To make it all happen.

The key elements that could
be controlled were when it
was going to happen

And precisely where it
was going to happen.

Narrator: But the only way
this plan could work is if the
germans never learn of it.

To divert attention the
allies leak fake plans.

Prof grove: We had to
keep the germans
guessing, which we did,

By an enormously
successful deception plan,

Which meant the germans
didn't know, were we going
to land in norway perhaps?

Were we going to land
just across the channel?

That was a vital part
of the operation.

Narrator: Hitler's
defense against invasion
is the atlantic wall.

A vast network of bunkers,
pillboxes and artillery
positions lining the coast

From Spain to norway.

He believes the allies will e
coast of the english channel.

And orders field marshall
erwin rommel to stop them.

Influenced by the
allied deception plan,

So concentrates his forces and
heavy artillery at calais,
cherbourg, and le havre.Port.

So when the invasion fleet
targets the beaches of normandy
along the bay of the seine,

The most powerful
german defenses are
in the wrong place.

And there is not a
single u-boat nearby.

So if the svenner was blown
apart by a torpedo, it can't
have come from a u-boat.

The survey team dig deeper
and uncover another suspect.

Nicholas: By June 1944,
the german navy is almost
finished as a fighting force,

But they do have the number
of small warships, operated
by actually incredibly

Well-trained and
courageous crews.

Narrator: Small warships
like these, torpedo boats.

They pack a real punch.

With six torpedo tubes and
two anti-aircraft guns,

Maneuverable and sleek

They can reach a top
speed of 35 knots.

Perfect for a hit and run.

And there's a flotilla
of them in le havre.

Just 20 miles away
from the d-day fleet.

Now, using all their research,
and details from the drained
wreck of the warship,

The team can reconstruct
exactly what happened to
the svenner.

Just before dawn, the
fifth torpedo boat flotilla
is ordered to attack.

A force of just four
boats will challenge a
thousand allied warships.

Out of the blue, the t-boats
approach the invasion fleet.

The allies he laid
a dense smoke screen.

The t-boat crews use
it to their advantage.

They get close enough
to fire 18 torpedoes.

Each packed with 600 pounds
of explosive, enough to
cripple the biggest warship.

But now, the smokescreen
helps the allies.

The t-boats are firing blind.

17 torpedoes miss their mark.

Leaving just one that runs
straight into the svenner.

186 crewmen swim to safety,
but 33 go down with the ship.

The haunting remains of
the vessel stand as
brutal testimony

To the deadly power of
a german t-1 torpedo.

But the nazis are
so unprepared,

That this is their
only success at sea
throughout d-day.

Prof grove: The fact that the
germans are able to inflict
only this single loss

Demonstrates that the
defenses that had
been planned

For the landings were
very, very successful.

It was now up to the army
alone and the army would
have a difficult job.

Narrator: The battle for the
beaches is about to begin.

All of them packed
with defenses.

Pillboxes, barbed wire,
machine gun posts.

As the waters along the
normandy coastline
continue to recede,

They reveal strange
objects on the sea floor.

What can they tell us of
allied plans to confront the
terrifying challenge ahead?

The naval guns fall silent.

More than 100,000 highly
trained troops are ready
to storm fortress europe.

23,000 americans approach the
most western of the beaches.

Codename utah.

But their plan
immediately unravels.

Strong currents push them
more than a mile from their
designated landing zone.

And yet, for many, this
turns into a stroke of luck.

Led by brigadier general
theodore roosevelt, son
of the former president,

They land in an area
between two german strong
points, an enemy blind spot.

Dr delgado: When they
come ashore, they realize
they're in the wrong spot,

But it turns out to
be the right spot, because
there's less germans there.

And so theodore roosevelt
jr in command, simply stops,

Plants his flag and says,
the war starts here.

Narrator: Roosevelt's
men outflank the
german positions.

And soon control
the beach head.

But a mile and half off shore,
the survey team discovers
something surprising.

Strange shapes
on the sea bed.

It looks like some
allied units never
reached utah beach .

Andy: Looks like three
different vehicles of
some sort,

Like potentially an
upside-down tank here.

And then this vehicle's a bit
more difficult to determine

What it is and so we'll try
to take a close look at that.

Narrator: Divers
go to investigate

And find the wrecks
heavily encrusted.

They spot what could
be tank tracks.

And a gun barrel.

But visibility is too
poor to identify them.

There is one way
to see clearly.

Combine visual clues with
the teams 3d scan data and
drain millions of gallons

Of sea water away.

As the waves recede, they
gradually reveal a cluster
of military vehicles.

But the puzzle only deepens.

They have gun barrels, and
a turret set to one side.

They've got tracks,
heavy armor.

They look like tanks.

But this isn't a tank gun.

It's more like the cannon
of field artillery.

So what are they?

The team examines specialized
allied weapons designed

For the unique challenge
of this terrain.

And focus on close
support artillery.

In world war two, artillery
is normally pulled by men,
vehicles or horses,

But in sand and water,
this won't work.

So, to support the
infantry on the beaches
the allies deploy these.

M7 priest guns.

Artillery that
transports itself.

105mm howizer mounted on the
chassis of an m4 sherman tank.

A tank fires in a flat
trajectory, so the target
must be in its line of sight,

But a howitzer fires
in an arc to lob shells
up and over obstacles.

Perfect for enemy
positions high above
the normandy beaches.

More research reveals that the
americans have 30 priest guns
ready to land on utah beach,

Carried on amphibious
landing craft.

Accounts from the day suggest
only 27 make it to shore.

Archaeologist, james
delgado, thinks that these
could be the missing three,

But they're nowhere near
their landing craft, which
means whatever happened

Was so violent, it threw
the priest guns clear.

What nazi weapon was
powerful enough to do that?

He has a theory.

Dr delgado: This entire
50 mile long section of the
coastline had been fortified.

Rommel had anticipated
scattering some 50
million mines,

He was only able to deploy 20
million mines, but just the
same, if you consider that,

It just boggles the mind.

Narrator: The night before
d-day, around 300 allied
minesweepers

Carefully clear channels
to each of the five
landing zones.

The invading fleet should have
a clear run to the beaches.

So what happened to
the three priest guns?

The survey team
spots something else.

Plotting the precise
co-ordinates of the guns,
places them well off course.

Their landing craft
has strayed out of
the clear channels

And drifted into an
uncleared minefield.

The same shifting
currents that so helped
roosevelt's infantry,

Push it into deadly waters.

The huge power of
rommel's sea mines

Explains why the priest
guns were thrown

Far from their landing craft.

The bodies of the seven men
crew may still be inside
each of these vehicles.

A haunting reminder of
the human cost of d-day.

At utah, this is one of
the few allied set-backs.

Roosevelt's men take the beach
head with just 200 casualties,

But 15 miles along the coast
other young american soldiers

Are struggling in the
terrifying bloodbath
of omaha beach.

Ten times more men
die here than at utah.

But why?

The survey team think they've
found a clue amid a twisted
mass of metal on the sea floor.

As the once
blood-stained waters of
omaha beach drain away,

Can this astonishing new
discovery shed light

On d-day's deadliest
battlefield?

After two hours of fighting
on omaha beach the allied
plan is falling apart.

Troops are pinned
to the shore.

2,000 dead and injured
soldiers litter these sands.

It's the bloodiest
engagement of d-day, but why?

The survey team is eight
miles off shore, looking
for clues on the seabed.

When their scanner picks
up an unusual outline.

Christopher: We do have a
definite flat bottom boat

With a substantial amount
of damage in one corner

And the front is
missing entirely.

Narrator: Divers
take a closer look.

Visibility is poor,
just six or seven feet

But, it's immediately clear
that whatever it is, it's
taken a hell of a beating.

There are bullet
holes everywhere
and that's not all.

Narrator: Mangled beyond
recognition, the team
has no idea what it is.

But the multi-beam scanner
has captured every detail.

Using that data, we can
drain away the waters
of omaha beach,

To reveal a twisted
mass of metal.

It's lying upside down, making
it even harder to identify.

But, by using the scan
data, we can raise and
rotate the wreck,

Exposing the very topside for
the first time in 75 years.

Now, the team think
they know what it is.

An lci, landing craft
infantry, one of the
workhorses of d-day.

They compare their data
with u.S. Navy records

And make a huge
breakthrough.

They believe it is lci 85.

Can it help us understand
just why omaha beach
was d-day's bloodiest?

It's clearly been at
the heart of the battle.

Its bow is blown clean off.

It's covered in bullet
holes and shrapnel damage
from exploding shells.

Ragged and twisted
metal here suggests a
devastating explosion.

The damage on lci 85 reveals
the power of german weapons

Unleashed upon the americans
as they tried to land.

And there is other
evidence too.

The team unearth first
hand accounts from men who
served on lci85 that day,

Including commanding
officer coit hendley and
lieutenant arthur farrar

Now it's possible to
convey what happened
in terrifying detail.

Allied troops have been
landing for two hours.

But omaha with its high
cliffs is the most heavily
defended of all the beaches,

And the americans are pinned
down under heavy fire.

Lci 85 approaches the
beach with much needed
reinforcements.

Lieutenant farrar must
get the 188 troops on
board quickly to shore.

His problems
start immediately

Arthur: The path 50 yards wide
was supposed to be cleared

Through the underwater
obstacles.

We found it near to 10
yards wide and only
partially cleared.

Narrator: Blocked by an
uncleared mine field,

Lci 85 is pounded by
shell after shell,
fired from the cliffs.

Under a hail of bullets,
the commanding officer
tries another route.

Arthur: We then tried ramming
through the obstacles about

200 yards to the right
of our assigned place.

Narrator: But, as the lci
grounds, it immediately
hits a mine.

It starts to sink, but
is close enough to
shore for 50 men

To scramble
towards the beach.

Then another direct hit
from a german shell smashes
the landing ramps to pieces.

Hendley: We could
hear the scream of men
through the voice tube,

Unloading had to be stopped,

Because the living could
not climb over the dead.

The deck was so slick with
blood and cluttered with
bits of flesh and dead,

And mutilated men that it was
difficult to move from one
part of the ship to another.

Narrator: And we don't
only have the words of
eye witnesses.

Extraordinarily, the team
discover color footage too.

The courage and carnage on
board lci 85 is captured
by a combat camera team

At the height of the battle.

Here, filming the bodies
of the dead, and the
injured awaiting rescue.

Shot in the leg, lieutenant
farrar is one of the wounded.

He watches as his remaining
troops board another landing
craft and attempt once more

To reach their comrades
on the beach.

Astonishingly, 93
of them make it.

But lci 85 is now
barely afloat.

Her crew take the decision
to scuttle her, by setting
off an explosive charge.

The drained wreck of lci
85 is testimony to the
horror of omaha beach.

The allied bombardment has
failed to take out any of
over 40 enemy strong points,

Leaving men who try to land
here facing shell fire.

Machine guns.

And unswept mines.

Finally, for those who
do reach the beach, a
new kind of hell awaits.

Dr delgado: In this
beach, men are being mowed
down with erupting fire,

With shrapnel flying everywhere.

And men are hunkered down and
they're waiting, as engineers
try to advance to clear mines

And to take out pillboxes,
and it takes some time.

And as that happens,
the casualties mount,

Making this the bloodiest
beach on d-day.

Narrator: Securing omaha costs
over 2,400 american lives.

It's the last of the
five beaches to fall.

But the allies cannot rest.

The must now prepare for the
inevitable counter attack.

And that means landing
thousands of tons of
supplies every day.

With no ports, it's
a huge challenge.

The survey team is to the east
of omaha, near to juno beach.

They detect a new wreck, it's
huge and it's in pieces.

What can this shattered
warship reveal about a
desperate nazi attempt

To stop the allies in
their tracks?

D-day plus two.

Over 4,000 allied troops have
died to claim the five beaches,
but 130,000 are now on shore.

Another 700,000 are ready
to land, along with vast
quantities of vehicles,

Fuel, ammunition and food.

The battle to resupply
the bridgehead has begun.

These vital operations are
coordinated from specially
adapted warships.

For juno beach, that
ship is hms lawford.

Equipped with powerful
anti-aircraft guns,

And state of the art
submarine hunting technology,

She's one of the most
up-to-date ships in
the royal navy.

Prof grove: Considerable
modifications made
to the superstructure,

She was given a large
number of radars and
communications equipment,

And she was converted into a
very significant command ship.

Narrator: In the quiet of
the morning, hms lawford
is already hard at work.

The allies have secured
the coast, the enemy
is nowhere in sight.

When suddenly, there's
a huge explosion.

And a short time later,
hms lawford is gone.

The allies are dumb-struck.

The mystery of the lawford
makes her a priority
for the survey team.

When she's located, in
70 feet of water,

Divers go in,

Looking for clues.

James delgado runs the
dive from the bridge.

Dr delgado: Dan, dan, this
is topside. Do you read us?

Dr delgado: And you're
able to look inside?

Narrator: The divers
inch their way through
the lawford's stern.

Narrator: Exploring evidence
untouched for 75 years.

Narrator: They discover
an unusual clue.

A set of tubes, or narrow
gun barrels, their purpose
is another mystery.

It's time to look
more closely.

Combining the dive team's
findings with the latest
multi-beam scan data,

We can start to remove the
waters off juno beach.

As the bay of the
seine slowly empties.

It reveals a
shocking crime scene.

The lawford is
in three pieces.

The bow and the stern
are over 300 feet apart.

A sea mine is unlikely
to cause this type of
shattering damage.

So what could have?

At the bow, the set of
tubes found by the divers is
revealed to be a hedgehog.

A weapon system that can
fire 24 mortars at a time,
over attacking u-boats.

But the hedgehog is not
loaded, it could be that the
mortars were fired too late

To avert a sneak
torpedo attack.

Or that is was never
loaded in the first place.

But a torpedo seems unlikely.

The allies had blocked
all u-boats from
the area since d-day.

And the damage on the
wreck suggests something
more powerful than even

The biggest german torpedo

It's the kind of
damage expected from
a thousand pound bomb.

A deadly payload delivered
by the luftwaffe.

And yet, the allies still
have complete air cover.

Back at the stern,
there's another clue.

The boxes the dive team thought
were batteries are actually
full of unused ammunition.

The lawford hasn't
even fired her guns.

So whatever got her
was a total surprise.

And was not spotted
by the ship's advanced
early warning systems.

The team believe that
leaves only one suspect.

A hi-tech nazi
wonder weapon.

Developed in secret by
german scientists for
the past four years.

A henschel hs 293
glide bomb.

Nicholas: It's what
in modern parlance is
called a stand-off bomb.

They basically enable german
pilots to launch their weapon
out of range of anti-aircraft

Gun fire, away from
marauding fighters,

And they can launch these
bombs and guide them

Into place through radio
control.

Narrator: Operated by
remote control, the
hs293 guided missile

Is almost impossible to stop.

And accurate enough to home in
on its target's weakest spot.

(explosion)

Aimed directly at the engine
room, the 1,100 pound bomb

Causes a massive
internal explosion.

Killing 37 men instantly.

Hms lawford never
stood a chance.

With the mystery solved,
it's clear that even
in the days after d-day,

The fight for the normandy
coast is far from over.

And even the most
powerful allied warships
remain at risk.

Like this one.

One of the titans of the
allied invasion force,
close to omaha beach.

What sent this giant to
the bottom of the sea?

The normandy coast is
under allied control.

But driving hitler's
armies out of europe will
require millions of men

And vast amounts
of supplies.

Delivered by these, lsts
or landing ship tanks,

The goliaths of the
invasion force,

Each capable of carrying more
than 60 military vehicles.

75 years later, the survey
team is searching for evidence
of that supply operation.

Six miles off omaha,
their scanner picks up
the large wreck of an lst.

Cross-referencing its
location with navy records
gives it a number, 496.

Now, they want to find
out what happened to it.

Using the team's
precise 3d data, we can
drain away the water.

To reveal the smashed remains
of a d-day heavyweight.

It's an astonishing scene.

Packed with clues.

The bow is obliterated.

Scattered all around,
the tanks and trucks it was
carrying towards omaha beach.

The whole sight is
a catastrophic mass
of twisted metal.

The ship is lying
upside down.

A 40 foot hole ripped
through the hull.

Likely too large for a
torpedo and too low
for a glide bomb.

Piecing together the
evidence at the wreck site,

Nick hewitt thinks he
knows what happened,

An encounter with an
ingenious, but deadly weapon,
called an oyster mine.

Nicholas: So this is a sea
mine that responds to changes

In water pressure caused by
passing ship and that is

A weapon for which there is
absolutely no antidote.

Narrator: In a nighttime
stealth attack, fast
german vessels

Called e-boats drop
oyster mines in allied
shipping lanes.

Each one is packed
with around 1,500
pounds of explosive.

They are set to detonate,
only when ships heavier than
minesweepers pass overhead,

Making them near
impossible to detect.

Lst 496, carrying over 60
tanks and trucks is heading
straight into danger.

As it approaches omaha
beach, the downward pressure
of the hull triggers a mine.

A huge explosion blows a hole
in midships on the port side.

The power of the blast
is so great, it detonates
a second oyster mine.

This time, the explosion
rips right through her hull.

In just 40 minutes,

Lst496 sinks to the sea
floor, taking her war
fighting cargo with her.

And more american soldiers
and sailors join the list
of those who sacrificed

Their lives to
liberate europe.

Dr delgado: Here
in the american cemetery
overlooking omaha beach,

In the midst of these graves
of more than 9,000 men,

75 years on, if the
question were to be asked,

Was this sacrifice worth it?

The answer would still
be a resounding yes.

Because of what they did,
the new world arose,

Embodying the ideals for which
these men fought and died.

(music)

(music)

Captioned by subtitlepro llc