All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E01.Warships.of.the.World.Wars.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

Narrator: This time,
fighting across oceans,

As the world goes to war.

Man: There was a loud hiss

As the gun turrets hit
cold north sea,

Because the gun turrets
were hot.

Very few people escaped.

Narrator: Not one,
but two world wars

See technology race ahead

And former great warships
left behind.

Man: It was a big victory
for germany,

Sinking a battleship,
and to do it undetected

Was something of pure magic
for the germans.

Narrator: But this is also
a tale of heroic acts

And daring missions that few
thought would succeed.

Man: And they were met
with a scene

That was likened
to dante's inferno.

Everything was on fire,
even the sea itself.

♪

♪

Narrator:
As britain's royal navy

Entered the first world war,

It boasted of a century
without defeat.

Britain's position as the
world's preeminent naval power

Was secure.

But on may 31, 1916,
in the north sea near denmark,

A pivotal naval confrontation
took place--

The battle of jutland.

Andrew lambert: 250 warships,
british and german,

Deciding who rules the ocean

And who's going to win
the first world war.

Narrator: The german warships

Kept the royal navy
under heavy fire.

The hms indefatigable
suffered a direct hit.

The subsequent explosion sent
wreckage 200 feet into the air.

Nick jellicoe: Her crew probably
had been completely wiped out;

Because when there's
a massive magazine explosion,

No armored doors and bulkheads
will hold that back.

Narrator:
Then, just minutes later,

Hms queen mary--

The last battle cruiser
built before the war--

Suffered a similar fate.

Andrew gordon: There was just
a huge, couple of hundred feet,

Of dense black smoke,
all kinds of bits and pieces,

Bodies, paperwork.

There was a loud hiss

As the gun turrets hit
cold north sea

Because the gun turrets
were hot.

Very few people escaped.

Narrator: From his own ship,

Admiral sir david beatty
could only watch.

"there seems to be
something wrong

With our bloody ships today,"
he muttered.

If the germans win this battle,
the war could be lost.

Such a scenario
had been unthinkable

Only a few years earlier.

Eric grove:
Before the first world war

There was a naval building race

Between the british empire
and the german empire.

And the british had won it.

They produced more battleships
and battle cruisers,

The ships that mattered,
than the germans did.

Narrator: In 1906,

The royal navy's revolutionary
hms dreadnought

Kick-started the competition.

Nick hewitt:
She has all big guns,

So standardized armament,

She's driven by turbine engines,

Which gives her
a phenomenal speed,

And she is a game-changer;

She raises the bar
on battleship design;

And all the ships
that follow her

Become known as dreadnoughts.

Narrator: By 1914
and the outbreak of war,

Britain had 29 dreadnoughts
to germany's 17.

And with control
of the english channel,

And a major naval base
at scapa flow

In the orkney islands,

The royal navy could contain
the german navy

And prevent it
from reaching the atlantic.

Since the start of the war,

The british grand fleet
in scapa flow

Had helped contain the germans.

It was commanded
by admiral sir john jellicoe.

Jellicoe: John jellicoe
was a consummate professional,

A very kind man.

Loved by his men,

But a very quiet,
sort of cerebral commander.

Narrator: Jellicoe's
massive dreadnought fleet

Had preserved britain's
maritime supremacy

Through the start of the war.

To the south, at rosyth,

Was a smaller but faster fleet
led by battle cruisers,

Under the command
of admiral beatty.

Jellicoe: Beatty was immensely
charismatic, very good-looking,

Courageous,
a great tactical commander.

Nelson was his absolute hero.

Narrator: By January 1916,

These two very different men
had a new foe.

Across the north sea,
admiral reinhard scheer

Was put in charge
of the german high seas fleet.

Scheer was dynamic

And had a plan to tackle
the all-powerful royal navy.

Like the british at rosyth,

The germans had a small but fast
battle cruiser squadron.

Scheer's plan
was to use this squadron

To lure small sections
of the royal navy into combat.

His battle cruisers, though,
would quietly be followed

By the full might
of the high seas fleet.

Grove: They would try to trap
part of the british fleet,

Perhaps the battle cruisers

Operating ahead
of the main fleet, sink that.

Draw it onto the guns
of the main german fleet,

Sink that.

And this would
even things up in strength.

Narrator: On may 31, 1916,
the germans made their move.

The battle cruiser fleet under
rear admiral franz von hipper

Sailed north, with scheer's
main fleet 60 miles behind.

In britain,
the admiralty intercepted

Some german
wireless communications.

But they only found out about
hipper's departure from port.

Their response was rapid.

Jellicoe set sail
from scapa flow;

Beatty from rosyth.

On the afternoon of may 31st,

It was the two

Battle cruiser fleets

That spotted each other first.

Gordon: When the german

Battle cruisers realized

The british battle cruisers were
present to the west of them--

Bit of a shock--

They turned round, and
they headed back southwards.

Rear admiral hipper
was seeking the protection

Of vice admiral scheer,

And the british naturally turned
south to follow them.

Narrator: Beatty was acting

In characteristically
decisive fashion,

Unaware he was being lured
into a trap.

From the beginning, the german
guns proved more accurate,

And within 40 minutes,
beatty had lost two ships...

And 2,000 men.

♪

But the accuracy
of the german gunners

Is not the sole reason
the battle of jutland

Was such a disaster
for the royal navy.

This is m33, a gunboat
from the first world war.

Its shell room is typical
of the era--

A store for explosive shells

And the cordite charges
that propel them.

Hewitt:
These things are volatile.

They're extremely explosive,

And they are stored,
in a dreadnought,

Right down in the bowels
of the ship,

Protected by the thickest armor,
so it should be safe.

What you find
at the battle of jutland

Is that, in order to speed up
their rate of fire

And compensate
for their poor gunnery,

The british battle cruiser fleet
have started compromising

With what today we'd call
health and safety.

They've started to take
these cordite charges

Out of the fire-proof
cardboard cylinders.

So there's a lot of this stuff
lying around.

And there is a hit on a turret,
there is an explosion,

And the flash from the fire

Races down inside
to the cordite magazine

And ignites this cordite
in a catastrophic explosion,

And the ship is destroyed
in seconds.

Narrator:
Worse was to come, however.

As admiral beatty
chased hipper south,

His lookouts had a shock.

Gordon:
The leading german fleet,

Scheer's fleet, was seen coming
over the horizon

Under a huge pall
of black coal smoke.

Narrator: Beatty had no idea

The main german fleet
was at sea.

It was now his turn

To do a full 180

And head back to the support

Of admiral jellicoe.

Only one vessel survives today
from the battle of jutland,

A light cruiser
from jellicoe's grand fleet.

Her name is hms caroline.

♪

Thanks to her speed,

Caroline carried out
a specific role

During operations
such as jutland.

Victoria miller:
This is caroline's

Number one engine room.

And she had two of these

On board the ship.

Caroline is still fitted

With her 1914 state-of-the-art
parsons turbines.

These turbines enabled caroline

To achieve a speed
of up to 30 knots,

Which was essential for
completing one of her key roles,

Namely to cruise ahead
of the main battle fleet

During cases like
the battle of jutland

And to protect the fleet
from torpedo attack.

Narrator:
But because of their speed,

It was the cruisers that saw the
bulk of the action at jutland.

As the main fleets
exchanged fire,

The british lost the cruisers
hms invincible...

And hms defense.

As evening approached, jellicoe
and his main battleships

Were finally in a position
to engage.

Having assessed the scene,
the admiral gave

The most important order
of his naval career.

He instructed his dreadnoughts

To form a long
continuous battle line

Across the path
of the german ships.

Jellicoe: The expression
"crossing the t"

Is when one line of ships,

In the superior position,

Is able to bring all its guns

On all of its sides to bear,

While an enemy line, which

Is coming up to cross that t,

Can only actually bring the guns

That are at the front
of the line and facing forward.

Hewitt:
That is the decisive moment.

Admiral scheer comes up

And sees the entire british
fleet arrayed on the horizon,

And at that point scheer knows
that that,

That weight of shell calculation
is there;

He can't win this battle.

Narrator: Faced with a six-mile
line of british battleships,

Sheer ordered his ships to turn
180 degrees and head for home.

Hewitt: He basically
handbrake-turns a battle fleet,

And the entire german fleet
disappears into the mist.

Narrator: But ever since 1916,
debate has raged

As to who actually won
the battle of jutland.

The german fleet had fled
back to the continent,

Having lost 11 ships
and 2,500 men.

But the royal navy had lost
14 ships and 6,000 men.

Grove: It was a great
disappointment to the british.

Uh, in fact, uh,
when the ships came home,

Some of them were actually booed
by dockyard workers

Because they had...

The grand fleet had not produced
the victory

That everybody thought
it was going to.

The battle of jutland

Actually gave a lot
of confidence to the germans.

Narrator:
In the days that followed,

The royal navy
put on a brave front.

King george v honored
britain's heroes.

But the germans
also celebrated a victory.

Despite the inconclusive result,
jellicoe's battleships

Had done enough to retain
their status

As the ultimate
naval fighting machine.

Three years later, that status

Would be demonstrated
one last time

In the final dramatic act
of the first world war.

On November 21, 1918,
the east coast of scotland

Was the setting for the biggest
collection of naval power

The world had ever seen.

The german and allied fleets
faced each other.

But this wasn't a battle.

It was a surrender.

This strange encounter occurred

Ten days after the armistice
ceasefire was signed.

250 allied ships were tasked
with escorting

The german high seas fleet
into british waters.

It had been agreed that while
peace talks continued in paris,

The german fleet
would be interned

At the natural harbor
of scapa flow in the orkneys.

But the allies
were taking no chances

And arrived
with their guns loaded.

Kinlay francis:
The ships themselves,

There was a possibility they
could be taken to neutral zones

Like norway or sweden

To decide what was going
to happen with the division

Or dividing up
of the german high seas fleet

For different countries,

But using scapa flow
would be an area

That could be well-protected

Against the possibility
of escape in a sheltered harbor

And also used by
the british grand fleet base.

Narrator: The 74 german ships

Anchored in the northwest corner
of the flow,

Under the command of
rear admiral ludwig von reuter.

He wrote in his report,
"wehrlos, ehrlos."

"disarmed, dishonored."

Norway and sweden refused
to provide a neutral port,

So 4,500 german sailors
spent the winter

On board their ships
in scapa flow.

Food supplies did arrive
from germany,

Supplemented by fish
caught in the flow.

But communication with the
outside world was infrequent.

Emily turton:
The commanding officer,

Admiral von reuter,

Is not really being kept abreast
with the peace negotiations,

But the german fleet
is without a shadow of a doubt

Being used as a bargaining tool
in those peace negotiations.

So admiral von reuter doesn't
know really what's going on,

But he fully expects that
the german fleet will be seized

And divvied up
among the allied forces

As the treaty of versailles
is signed.

Narrator: The british saw reuter
as a reasonable man.

In reality, he had no intention

Of letting his fleet
be handed over to the allies.

Turton: He has no firepower.
He can't fight.

The ships are not
the fighting machines

They had been
seven months earlier,

Having been left to rot
over a winter in orkney,

So the last remaining act
of war open to him,

His only option to stop
that happening, is to sink them.

Narrator: For four months,
admiral reuter

Quietly formulated plans
to scuttle his own fleet.

But german warships
were designed

With watertight compartments.

The seydlitz
had fought at jutland

And been hit 20 times by shells.

Yet it remained afloat.

So german crews in scapa flow

Began drilling holes
through bulkheads.

They welded
watertight doors ajar

And started leaving portholes
deliberately open.

By the end of may, it was clear

That the terms
of the versailles treaty

Would mean either the seizure or
destruction of the german fleet.

So reuter made his move.

Turton: He gives the order
on the 21st of June

By sending a signal,

A prearranged signal in flags
up his mast.

Now that can be seen
by the next ship,

Which can be
seen by the next ship,

And they copy that,
and so on and so forth,

And that's how
they get the message around,

Which is to open everything up,

Start them sinking
and abandon ship.

Francis: To scuttle a vessel,

The way the germans
would have done it,

Is they would have opened
the seacocks and valves

And smashed
the internal water pipes

To start flooding
the internal compartments.

Narrator: One by one,
the pride of the german navy

Began to sink.

Some capsized.

Some settled on the seabed.

Some plunged headlong
in a roar of steam.

From the shoreline
and nearby british ships,

Locals and naval staff watched

As the german sailors
lowered their lifeboats.

Francis: The british marines
actually tried to stop them

By firing upon these sailors,

And unfortunately
nine of the german sailors

Were shot dead
by british marines.

Narrator: The bodies were buried
nearby on the island of hoy,

The last casualties
of the great war.

And of the 74 ships interned,
50 were successfully scuttled.

The seabed of scapa flow

Became home to 400,000 tons
of german warship steel.

Emily turton regularly dives
on the wrecks.

Turton: They don't feel spooky
and creepy and sinister

Or just incredibly sad,

Like, like it does when you,
when you dive on a war grave.

Um, but I think the sheer size
of them can be intimidating,

But they're not spooky.

I think we are very lucky
with the german ships

In that,
especially the dreadnoughts,

They're so heavily built,

Some of the steel on there
is 14 inches thick.

Narrator:
The german determination

To scuttle their own battleships

Showed that these mighty vessels

Were still the flagships
of the fleet.

But 20 years later, at the start
of the second world war,

The german navy planned

A vengeful attack
on the orkneys--

One that would prove
how times were changing.

The attack would demonstrate
the deadly effectiveness

Of a single german submarine--

A notorious u-boat.

It would strike at the heart
of the british home fleet

In their safe haven
of scapa flow.

The man given
this almost suicidal task

Was 31-year-old gunther prien,
the commander of u-47.

He had sunk three british
merchant ships

In the first month of the war.

Now, he would plan his attack

By studying the weaknesses
of scapa flow.

Turton: So where the barriers
now block the eastern approaches

To scapa flow,

During the first world war

And the start
of the second world war,

Those are narrow channels

Where the tide screams
in and out of scapa flow.

Now, the british navy thought
they were well-protected

Because they've sunk ships
all higgledy piggledy

Across those waterways.

Narrator: On the evening
of October 13,

U-47 slowly approached
kirk sound on the surface

And passed
between two block ships--

A gap that was
just 50 feet wide.

"we are in scapa flow!"

Prien wrote excitedly
in the sub's log.

Francis:
After breaching kirk sound

U-boat 47 made her way
into the grand anchorage

Of scapa flow
in search for targets.

They spotted the revenge-class
battleship silhouette

Of hms royal oak
lying at anchor in scapa bay.

Turton: The royal oak is
a first world war dreadnought.

♪

And she was in scapa flow,
still part of the british fleet,

And she's anchored right over
to the east of scapa flow,

And I believe it was so her guns
could offer some protection

To a radar station
that was over on the cliffs

Over on the east side
of scapa flow.

Narrator:
Asleep on the royal oak

Were her experienced crew,

But also a complement of 120
trainee sailors, all teenagers.

From a distance of two miles,

Prien fired three torpedoes
at the unsuspecting battleship.

♪

Two of them missed.

One exploded,

But only in the vicinity
of royal oak's anchor chains.

Francis:
According to hms royal oak,
some of the survivors,

They thought it might have been
the inflammable stores

Igniting or exploding,

And this thing had
apparently happened before,

So they went back to sleep
in their bunks.

Narrator: Prien edged
his u-boat closer...

And fired again.

Francis:
By this time it was too late.

A final three salvo of torpedoes
was fired at hms royal oak.

Three minutes later all hit
in quick succession amidships.

[explosions]

Hms royal oak was doomed.

It would have been
absolute chaos and confusion,

Over 1,230 men on board...

Men screaming, smoke filling
the inner chambers,

Cordite magazines ignited
and asphyxiating the men,

Flash fires, horrendous,
and all this going on

While the ship was slowly
sinking to the starboard side.

Narrator:
"he's finished," prien said,

As he watched from his u-boat's
conning tower.

Across the bay, the royal oak
sank beneath the waves.

834 men and boys
lost their lives.

♪

Kinlay is heading
for the site of the wreck.

The boat's echo sounder shows
the hull of the battleship...

Just 26 feet below.

Francis: So, royal oak
is right under us.

It's still leaking fuel oil
to this day,

And the oil itself
that disperses on the surface

Is known locally
as "the tears of the oak."

♪

The buoy represents the final
resting place of hms royal oak,

And it represents those
who lost their lives here

On that fateful early morning.

And every year
we commemorate that.

Narrator: Mission accomplished,

Gunther prien and u-47
made their escape.

Turton:
I think the most amazing thing

Is after that ship
has gone down,

He still then manages to get
out of scapa flow and away,

And he's hailed a war hero
in germany.

Francis: Sinking a battleship

At the first part
of the second world war

Was a huge success,

And to do it undetected

Was something of pure magic
for the germans.

Narrator:
U-47's audacious attack

Had proven that a single u-boat
could sink a mighty battleship.

And in the years to come,
it paved the way for u-boats

To take center stage in
the longest battle of the war.

In the second world war,
controlling the seas

Would once again
mean the difference

Between victory and defeat.

A key battleground
was the atlantic ocean.

Duncan redford:
The battle of the atlantic

Starts on the 3rd
of September 1939,

And it finishes
on v-e day, may 1945.

It never stops.

Richard holdsworth:
The battle of the atlantic

Was one of the key
sort of things

That churchill in later life
said kept him up at night,

The worry that failure
would result

In the loss
of those vital supplies,

The inability to feed
the population

And the inability
to prosecute war in europe.

Redford: The germans,
understandably, have worked out

That, for an island nation
like britain,

Everything it needs
has to come in ships.

If you stop the ships arriving,

Britain has no food,
so it starves.

It has no raw materials,
so it can't make anything.

Its economy collapses,
and it will surrender.

You don't need to invade.

Narrator: The germans'
main weapon in the atlantic

Was the formidable u-boat.

Redford: Tactically
the germans would tend to put

A whole number of u-boats
out into the north atlantic,

And they'd spread them
at various points.

Some close in to america,
some close in to britain,

But others out in the middle,

And they'd stretch a line
of u-boats across the area

That they would expect convoys
to travel through.

When a u-boat spotted a convoy,

It would signal
the german high command,

And they would start to assemble
what they called a wolf pack,

Bringing large numbers
of submarines together

Ahead of the predicted
convoy course.

Narrator: By now, it was clear
that massive battleships

Were vulnerable
to u-boat attacks...

And that convoys
needed protection

From smaller, faster ships
loaded with advanced technology.

It was the coming of age...
Of the destroyer.

Today there is just one
surviving british destroyer

From the battle
of the atlantic...

Hms cavalier.

♪

♪

[bell dings]

♪

In 1944, cavalier's
first operations

Were to protect larger warships
and merchant ships

In the atlantic.

Hewitt: A destroyer was
quite a specialized fleet unit.

They're designed for speed
and hitting power.

They have no armor
and no protection;

Their speed is their protection.

Holdsworth:
They were able to move

From one side of the convoy
to the other with great speed

And increasingly were used
as hunter-killer groups

Aimed specifically at trying
to destroy german u-boats.

Narrator: Their primary weapon
was the depth charge,

A high explosive dropped
from the ship

And set to detonate
at a specific depth.

But it had its limitations.

Holdsworth: You had to run
over the target

To be able to launch weapons
against it,

And submarine captains
were pretty canny

About trying to make sure
they weren't run over.

Narrator:
Weapons designers soon realized

That destroyers needed to be
able to target german u-boats

Without passing right over them.

Holdsworth: It led
to the development of hedgehog,

Which is basically a mortar,

And it's firing
a very large heavy projectile

Across the top of the ship
and down sort of trajectory

That then enters the water
in front of the bows.

Narrator: In churchill's words,

The war at sea became a matter
of "seamanship and science."

New shortwave radar sets
were introduced

That could detect u-boats as
soon as they broke the surface.

And the formation of atlantic
convoys was studied in detail.

Churchill was advised
that losses in the atlantic

Could be reduced by multiplying
the size of each convoy,

By increasing its speed,

And boosting the number
of close escort ships.

It's believed this led to
a 60% reduction in vessels lost.

Another breakthrough
for the royal navy came

Via the code-breakers
at bletchley park...

Who fed the admiralty
vital information

On u-boat movements.

Holdsworth: The way the germans
controlled their ships

Through the wolf pack system

Was all about communicating
back to the submarine command.

If you know where
that particular place is

And where they're gathering
through signals intelligence,

Then you can target them.

Narrator: The human cost
on both sides

Of the battle of the atlantic
was high.

Over 700 u-boats destroyed.

Nearly 3,000 allied ships lost.

But those figures
would have been higher

If britain hadn't focused

On destroying the enemy's
biggest battleship.

Two years into the war,
they devised a plan

That would remove the threat
of the mighty tirpitz.

But the plan was so outlandish,
few thought it could succeed.

♪

Winston churchill was
well aware of the threat

Posed by the tirpitz.

"the whole strategy of the war

Turns at this period
on this ship," he said.

Tirpitz had the potential
to wreak havoc

On merchant shipping
in the atlantic.

But to do that, it would need to
transfer from its base in norway

To a service port with direct
access to the ocean convoys.

The only dry dock big enough
was at saint nazaire in France.

The normandie dock
was 400 yards long.

Peter lush: The normandie dock
was not only huge,

But it had the facilities.

It's quite a specific task
to repair a battleship

Of that size,

And here, they had
all those facilities.

They had the engineering
and the dry dock facilities,

With which they could
carry that out.

Narrator: If the british could
destroy the normandie dock,

Then the mighty tirpitz
would be rendered useless

In the battle of the atlantic.

But in 1942,

Saint nazaire was a
well-defended german naval base

With a string
of bomb-proof u-boat pens.

Attacking the normandy dry dock
would be far from easy.

Bombing would be too inaccurate.

The estuary was well-guarded
by anti-submarine nets.

And a land attack through
german-occupied France

Was simply impossible.

The task
of pulling off the scheme

Fell to the specialist team

At combined operations
headquarters.

Their plan envisioned
a flotilla-load of commandos

Dispatched to destroy
the watertight gate of the dock,

Known as the caisson.

The commandos
would then swarm ashore

To sabotage the dock's controls.

At the heart of the flotilla

Would be an old american warship
from the first world war,

Renamed hms campbeltown.

Lush: The campbeltown was one
of the 50 lease-lend destroyers

That were transferred to
the royal navy by the americans.

It was altered
in a very short time

At devonport dockyard

To make it look like
a german möwe-class destroyer.

Narrator: Two of its four
funnels were removed,

And the remaining two
were cut at an angle,

In the hope that
the german lookouts

Would think one of their
own ships was approaching.

Much of the superstructure
was then removed--

To enable campbeltown to pass
over the shallow mud flats

Of the loire estuary.

But most importantly,

Campbeltown was turned
into a floating bomb,

A bomb that would ram
the normandy dock.

Lush: The charge in campbeltown
was placed

Just behind the mounting
for the forward gun,

Which would be the first point
of resistance

When it rammed the caisson.

It consisted of 24
mark vii depth charges,

Linked together
with special fuses,

Which operated
with copper wire and acid,

And they were
quite experimental.

Narrator: The campbeltown sailed
from falmouth on March 26, 1942,

Along with 18 small vessels
and torpedo boats.

On board were 260 commandos.

This was the most daring
of raids,

And many of the men were sure
they wouldn't be returning home.

And yet, lieutenant commander
sam beattie

Held a sherry party
for his officers.

Could their old warship
dupe the germans

And strike a major blow
in the battle of the atlantic?

They would know
in just a few hours.

In March 1942, an old
first world war destroyer

Sailed from falmouth

To the german-held french port
of saint nazaire.

Its mission--to destroy
the only atlantic dock

Big enough to service

The fearsome
german battleship tirpitz.

Hms campbeltown and its flotilla
entered the loire estuary

Around midnight
on the 28th of March.

Under the command
of robert ryder,

The floating bomb approached
saint nazaire in darkness.

Lush: They had to employ
certain tricks

To make sure that they
weren't recognized.

The most obvious one, of course,

Was the transformation
of the campbeltown.

But ryder had other tricks
up his sleeve.

They had liberated
a german naval code book,

And so they knew
what all the codes

For the saint nazaire area were.

And on the motor gunboat
was a signalman

Who could signal in german

And answer the challenges
from on shore.

Narrator: The trick worked,

Until the flotilla was
just a mile from the dock.

From then on,
lieutenant commander sam beattie

Had to steer campbeltown under
a barrage of german gunfire.

Lush: What we're seeing
behind me is the old mole,

On which you can see
the lighthouse,

Which gave beattie
his aiming point.

He was to pass
to about 100 yards off that.

Part of the difficulty here
is that on the old mole

Was a searchlight position
and also a very dangerous gun.

Narrator: But as the clock
passed 1:34 a.M.,

The ship rounded the old mole...

Increased her speed
to 20 knots...

And crashed into
the normandy dock gate.

Lush: The campbeltown
has impaled herself

Upon the caisson here

To such an extent that her bow
projected three feet

In front of the inner face.

Robert montgomery: The assault
parties immediately began

Clambering off the front end.

It was quite a game
climbing down the ladder,

As there was a fire blazing
in the fo'c'sle.

Corporal calloway's trousers
caught fire

As he was climbing down,

And he had to take them off.

He carried out the whole
operation in his underpants!

Lush: There was one party for
the southern winding house here,

One for the pump house,

And one for the northern
winding house

At the far end of the dockyard.

Narrator: With the onboard bomb
set to explode at dawn,

The campbeltown element
of the mission

Was shaping up
to be a huge success.

But for the rest
of the flotilla,

It was a different story.

Under intense enemy fire,

Very few of the smaller vessels
ever made it to land.

And when
the campbeltown commandos

Landed at the old mole
as planned,

They discovered there would be
no boats to take them home.

Lush: It was the first time they
realized, when they got there,

What had happened
to the launches.

And they were met with a scene

That was likened
to dante's inferno.

Everything was on fire,
even the sea itself.

Narrator: As dawn broke,

Most of the commandos on shore
had been captured.

And there was another problem--

The bomb on board campbeltown
had failed to detonate.

To make matters worse,
german troops and sightseers

Were now climbing all over
the beached enemy vessel.

Lush: The following morning,
lieutenant commander beattie,

Who had been rescued
from the river,

Was being interrogated
by german officers,

And they were saying to him...

"you british must be stupid

If you think
you can destroy our dock

With that flimsy destroyer."

Montgomery: Just at that moment,
she went up.

Beattie smiled at the officer
and said,

"we're not quite as foolish
as you think!"

Narrator:
The raid on saint nazaire

Was a success after all.

But it had come at a cost.

Of the 611 men involved,
only 228 returned to britain.

Lush: When one considers
the distance

That the force had to travel
to get here,

What they faced
when they got here,

And to put the campbeltown
within an inch of its target,

Within four minutes
of its projected time,

Without doubt
justifies the label

Of the greatest raid of all.

Narrator: The tirpitz
never did reach the atlantic.

The once all-powerful battleship
was now out of commission,

Thanks to the daring raid
on saint-nazaire.

♪

A few weeks later, though...

A clash took place
on the other side of the world

Which threatened to make the
battleship completely obsolete.

On June 5, 1942, the u.S. Navy

Won a stunning victory
in the pacific

At the battle of midway.

It was a battle fought and won
by aircraft carriers.

The u.S. Lost one carrier--
the uss yorktown.

But american aircraft destroyed
four japanese carriers.

It was a sea-change moment
in the history of combat ships.

Craig symonds: The assumption
when they were laid down

Was that battleships would be
the key to the fleet,

And aircraft carriers
would serve to protect them

And guide them
and mark the fall of a shot

And report, you know,
"that was long"

Or "that was short."

Instead, the roles
were completely reversed;

Aircraft carriers were
the principal striking force

Of navies by 1943.

Narrator: Yet battleships
were still being built--

Like this one that was launched
a few weeks before midway--

The uss massachusetts.

♪

Brad king: So this is
a floating city,

A floating town,
which has its high street,

It has its prison
and a fire service.

It has the gunnery office,
it has the bakery,

It has a post office.

It's america afloat, because
it's a crew of 2,000 volunteers,

All coming together
from all walks of life,

All levels of society,

From the kentucky farm boy
who'd never seen the ocean

To the harvard yachtsman.

Narrator:
Impressive though she was,

The massachusetts' role
was unclear.

But her first taste of war
would be significant

And help create a new role
for the battleship.

In October 1942, she sailed

To support an amphibious
invasion of north africa.

Three task forces invaded
french morocco and algeria

On November 8th.

Operation torch's objective
was to remove

The german and italian forces
from the region.

The massachusetts supported
the landings at casablanca,

Bombarding shore defenses.

But in the port, another
battleship was waiting for her.

The jean bart was an unfinished
stationary french vessel

With a crew allied
to the german forces.

King: She was
a very credible threat,

She was being built,
but she still had guns on board,

And so this match
backwards and forwards

Started with the jean bart.

The ship was about 13 miles
off the coast.

The range of our guns is
22 miles, something like that.

The shell is about the weight
of a toyota corolla.

Narrator:
Five of the massachusetts'

Massive 16-inch shells
hit the jean bart,

The first causing
extensive damage.

King: And here you can see
the jean bart,

This is a photograph taken
after the battle ended.

You can see where one of
the shells penetrated the hull

And exploded in the magazine.

When the shell exploded,

The deck actually folded over
the aft turret.

Narrator: Meanwhile,
the massachusetts became known

As a lucky ship,
and with good reason.

A shell from the jean bart
scored a direct hit.

King: Above us you can see
the hole that the shell made,

The patch that was put on it,
it was cut out...

And the shell came in
through here

And exploded
in this compartment,

Now, there was nobody
in this compartment

Because everybody
was at action stations,

But if we look at the deck

We can see dents
into the 5.3-inch steel deck.

In the bulkheads or walls,

We can see patches
that were done at the time

Of holes where the splinters
of the shell punched through

To the other compartments.

Very luckily nobody was in this
compartment when it went off.

Narrator: The success
of the massachusetts

As an offshore gun battery

Became the blueprint
for other battleships.

Amphibious invasions
in the pacific and on d-day

Would see battleships
taking a new role.

Hewitt: They're being used
for shore bombardment,

They're being used as
floating artillery by 1944, '45.

King:
The battleships engaged more

In ship-to-shore operations,

Sort of softening up
the islands,

So that the heads of the enemy
would be kept down

So the marines could go in

And land on the beaches,
relatively unopposed.

Narrator: Over two world wars
and 30 years,

The battleship has gone
from being the key naval vessel

To little more
than a support role.

Size, strength, and firepower

Have been usurped
by speed, technology,

And the ability to wage war
above and below the surface.

In world war ii a new
combat ship was introduced,

One that would redefine
modern warfare--

The aircraft carrier.