All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E07.Rescue.Ships.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.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time, we venture

Into the heart
of naval combat zones,

Not to fight, but to rescue.

Man: These were heroes
saving lives,

Taking a stand against evil.

Narrator: This is a story
of unique vessels

And their dedicated crews.

Man: They go down below,

And they find the cargo of
705 captive africans on board.

Narrator: For two centuries,

The horrors of war
have been reported,

But so, too, have the stories
of those who rescued.

Woman: When you're
in a war like that,

Everybody does
what they have to do.

I was fortunate in bringing
the boys to a safer place.

♪

[explosion]

♪

Narrator:
From the first great warships

To the age of nuclear weapons...

[missile roars]

...Our combat ships
tell a story,

Not just of technology,
but of human history, too.

Among the glitter of baltimore's
trendy inner harbor,

There is a vessel.

She represents
the end of a maritime era

But also a time when warships
began to save lives--

The uss constellation.

♪

As the constellation
unfurled her sails

For the first time in 1854,

The world was already turning
to engine power.

She was the last u.S. Navy ship
to rely totally on wind.

Brian auer: It's an arms race,
just like today,

So, um, everybody's
trying to make sure

They have
the newest best things,

And so that's why the navy
stopped with all-sail.

Narrator:
But despite being outclassed

By almost every warship
of her era,

Constellation has gone down
in history as a ship

That saved hundreds of people
from a terrible fate.

♪

In the early 1800s,

The united states was
under pressure to put a stop

To the vast numbers of african
slaves entering the country.

Following the lead
of great britain,

The u.S. Agreed to abolish
the lucrative trade.

Auer: The americans outlaw the
atlantic slave trade in 1808,

And in 1820,

It's declared an act of piracy
punishable by death,

So by the 1820s, it's illegal

For american sailors
to engage in the trade as well.

Narrator: While four million
slaves remained captive

On united states soil,

The u.S. Navy was given the job

Of ensuring
that number didn't grow.

A small fleet known
as the africa squadron

Was formed to hunt down
slave ships leaving africa

And bound for cuba
and south america.

Auer: When you have a profit
margin of 1,000 percent,

Even if it's illegal,
people are gonna do it.

Narrator: In September 1860,

The constellation was patrolling

Close to the congo river delta.

For weeks, there had been
no sign of slave ships.

Then on the afternoon
of the 25th,

One of constellation's lookouts
spotted a sail on the horizon.

Auer: She's in a suspicious area

Where we know
there's some trouble going on.

Constellation's
a very fast ship.

We fire a warning shot
that says, "stop your ship"...

[cannon fires]

...And the ship doesn't stop,
keeps on going,

Puts up more sail
and starts to run,

So now we know something's up.

Narrator: The constellation
gains on the fleeing vessel.

As it does, it becomes clear
what cargo the ship is carrying.

Auer: She starts by throwing
over jetsam and flotsam

Into the water,

Trying to lighten the ship
to make it go a little faster.

Then they employ a tactic
where they start to unload

Some of their
more important cargo,

The human cargo.

The hope is
that the constellation,

Given that its mission
is to save those people,

Will stop to rescue people
out of the water.

Narrator: Faced
with a horrendous decision,

The constellation
pursues the slave ship.

It fires shots through its
rigging to force a surrender.

The ship is identified as an
american vessel named the cora.

A boarding party from the
constellation is sent across.

Auer: They go down below,
and you open the hatch,

And you're immediately hit

With the stench and the misery
of human squalor,

And they find the cargo of 705
captive africans on board.

[rigging creaking]

Narrator: Crew members
of the constellation

Were horrified by what they saw.

One man wrote:

The captain and crew
of the cora were arrested,

Transferred
to the constellation,

And taken back to
the united states to be tried,

But justice was not done.

Auer: All of them are acquitted.

No consequences are ever, as far
as we know, given to that crew.

They all got off.

Narrator: No longer destined
for a life of slavery,

705 africans were taken to
the u.S. Protectorate of liberia

And were set free.

♪

Constellation's slave rescue
earned her a moment of glory,

And within a few years,

The barbaric trade
of the slave ships ended.

But the role of rescue ships
became increasingly vital.

The idea was nothing new.

Hms victory's gun decks

Had been used to care
for the sick and wounded.

But as battles became bloodier

And weapons
even more terrifying,

There was a need
for dedicated vessels to rescue,

Care for,
and transport the injured.

The 20th century was
the age of the hospital ship.

[artillery fire]

With thousands of troops
fighting on the western front

During the first world war,

It was the british who developed
a new category of combat ship.

The wounded would be rushed away
from the trenches

By light railway,

Then by ambulance train,

And finally, ferried
across the english channel

Aboard dedicated hospital ships.

Emily mayhew: We're crossing
here to southampton,

And of course this was the
busiest route for hospital ships

From the western front.

It wasn't
a particularly long journey,

But it could be rough,
and it could be dangerous.

We know
that 1.2 million patients

Were received at southampton.

That's 1.2 million patients

In wards that needed
to be kept clean,

That needed to be offloaded

As easily
and as painlessly as possible

And then sent on
to the right hospitals.

Narrator: The british public,

Weary from defeats
on the western front,

Preferred to hear about
those who had saved soldiers

And brought them home safely.

In 1917, king george v paid
tribute to the medical staff

On the former p&o liner plassig.

Mayhew: Like all the medical
institutions in France

And coming back to britain,

None of it could have been done

Without hundreds of thousands
of nurses

Who volunteered to go out
and serve.

Nurses prepared really well

And particularly nurses who were
gonna be on hospital ships.

They took extensive
lifesaving courses,

And most of them
learned how to row,

Particularly row
a very large, heavy boat

That would be full
of their patients.

Narrator: In theory,
the nurses and their patients

Were protected
by international law.

The geneva convention stipulated

That hospital ships
would be immune from attack

If they followed certain rules.

Andrew gordon:
One was that they should not

Be carrying munitions.

They should not be obstructing
the actions of an enemy at all,

And they should
be clearly marked,

And the clear marking
involved being painted white,

Having a broad green stripe
along the hull

And having clear red crosses
marked on them

And being lit at night.

And if hospital ships
conformed to those rules,

They were meant to be immune
from attack.

Narrator: But german u-boat
captains had other ideas.

Gordon: About 24 hospital ships

Were sunk
in the first world war.

Quite a lot of them were sunk
by hitting mines,

Which isn't proof
of deliberate target selection,

But also quite a lot of them,
about half, were torpedoed,

And one can only assume it
to be deliberate.

The germans got it
into their heads

That the british
were using hospital ships

For warlike purposes.

They alleged the british
were using them as troopships,

Which they weren't,

And so they conducted
a u-boat campaign.

Narrator:
Nurses on board the ships

Making the run
across the channel,

Adapted to the u-boat threat.

Mayhew: It was easier
to keep your life jacket on

All the time,

So on top
of their proper nurses uniform,

Starched nurses uniform--

The long skirt and the boots
and the apron--

They put a life jacket

And probably a coat
because it was cold.

They did all their nursing,
and they did it in life jackets.

Narrator:
One nurse in particular

Knew all about
the dangers at sea.

She'd survived
the most notorious

Of all maritime disasters.

Now history was repeating itself

On the largest hospital ship
of the great war.

Actor as violet jessop:
I turned around

And, to my horror,
saw britannic's huge propellers

Churning and mincing
everything near them.

Men, boats, everything
were just one ghastly whirl.

Narrator:
April 15, 1912, is a date

That stands alone
in maritime history.

Just five days earlier,

The mighty rms titanic had
set sail on her maiden voyage,

A voyage
she would never complete.

At titanic's shipyard
in belfast,

Construction of a new ship
stopped abruptly.

This was to be titanic's
sister ship--the britannic.

♪

Philip cauley: What we're
actually looking down at

Is the slipways
of titanic and britannic.

Britannic was built over
on the left-hand side.

Narrator: Britannic's owners,
the white star line,

Believed their ship to be

"as perfect a specimen
of man's creative power

As it is possible to conceive."

Cauley: The height of this
building is the same height

As britannic
from keel to boat deck.

How did britannic
get into belfast lough?

They used 23 tons
of oil, grease and soap,

And they shoved them in.

Empty shells
weighing over 23,000 tons.

As the shipyard workers
used to call it,

"we build them up
and shove them out."

♪

Narrator: But five months
after britannic's launch,

The first world war broke out.

The luxury world of ocean liners
was quickly forgotten.

Britannic was abandoned

And left unfinished
at harland and wolff shipyard.

But then, in April 1915,

The allies attacked
turkey's gallipoli peninsula.

They hoped it would force
the turks out of the war,

But they'd underestimated the
vast amount of men and supplies

That would be needed.

The solution was to convert
prewar ocean liners.

Cunard's mauretania and
the white star line's olympic

Became troopships.

But to bring
the casualties home,

They would need
a massive hospital ship.

One vessel
seemed to fit the bill--

The half-finished britannic.

♪

Simon mills:
Much of the ship was complete.

There is documented evidence
of a lot of nice cabins,

A lot of, um, very,
very plush dining rooms

All completed
and ready for service.

Because some of these cabins
hadn't been put in,

There were large open spaces
on the ship,

Which oddly enough,

Made her ideal
as a hospital ship

Because they gave her
much larger wards,

Much easier to oversee.

Narrator:
On December 22, 1915,

His majesty's hospital ship
britannic, now painted white,

Sailed from liverpool.

It was the first of many trips

To rescue the sick and wounded
of the gallipoli campaign.

The new ship
had twice as many lifeboats

As the ill-fated titanic.

Mills: Internally
they were quite different.

Britannic had a double skin

Alongside the boiler rooms
and the engine room.

They had higher
and stronger bulkheads.

The whole idea
was that had britannic

Hit the iceberg
which sank the titanic,

She would have survived
the disaster.

Narrator:
On November 21, 1916,

Nine months
after her first voyage,

Britannic was sailing eastward
off the coast of greece.

Nearly 400 medical staff
were on board.

Britannic entered
the kea channel,

But three weeks earlier,

German u-boat u-73
had made the same journey.

The u-boat's commander,
gustav siess,

Had left behind
a trail of deadly mines.

Mills: Kapitanleutnant siess

Had a very sort of wily ploy
of laying his mines deep.

That way he got a larger vessel.

He didn't go
for small destroyers

Or small little fishing boats.

He wanted to get a big ship.

That could have been
a battleship.

It could have been a trooper.

It could have been
a hospital ship.

He got a hospital ship.

Narrator: November 21st
was a typical Sunday morning

On board the britannic.

Mills: Up in the lounge,

The medical staff are sitting
down, having their breakfast.

Down below, the firemen
and the stokers, the trimmers,

They were all changing
their posts.

Everything was completely
and utterly normal.

Then suddenly,
12 minutes past 8:00,

A huge bang
on the starboard side,

Followed by a violent shudder.

Narrator:
On board was a 28-year-old nurse

Named violet jessop.

For her, the scenario
was painfully familiar.

Four years earlier, she had been
a stewardess on the titanic

When it struck
the infamous iceberg.

Jessop: As one man, the whole
saloon rose from their seats.

Doctors and nurses vanished
to their posts in a trice.

The pantry, where I stood,

Holding a teapot in one hand

And a pat of butter
in the other,

Was cleared, too, as men
dropped what they were doing.

In seconds,
not a soul was to be seen.

Mills: Down below
in the boiler rooms,

Particularly five and six,
where the water was rushing in,

The stokers and the trimmers

Were fighting
for their lives already,

Trying to get up the stairways

Before they were completely
overwhelmed by the water.

Narrator: The mine ripped into
two watertight compartments.

The britannic
should have contained it,

But some of the watertight doors
failed.

Seawater was now flooding
through the ship.

The britannic was sinking
faster than the titanic.

Nurses, medics, and crew alike
scrambled into the lifeboats.

But as violet jessop's boat
reached the sea,

Her companions almost
immediately jumped overboard.

She soon found out why.

Jessop: I turned around to see
the reason for this exodus,

And, to my horror,
saw britannic's huge propellers

Churning and mincing
everything near them.

Men, boats, everything
were just one ghastly whirl.

Mills: As the lifeboat
hit the water,

It couldn't get away

From the side of the ship
moving through the water.

It bumped along
the side of the ship,

Practically two-thirds
of the length of the ship

And was dragged into
this huge turning propeller,

23-foot diameter.

Jessop: In another moment,

I would be
under those glittering,

Relentless blades, unless...

I looked
at the equally inexorable sea,

And, for a fraction of a second,
hesitated,

For I have always been
afraid of water.

Mills: She jumped.
She didn't manage to get clear.

She was pulled down
by the force of the propeller.

Jessop: I felt myself rising,

And my head came into violent
contact with something solid,

Something that prevented me
from reaching the surface.

Then again, there was another
terrific crash above me,

And something very solid struck
the back of my head,

A resounding blow,

But happily on that part where
my plentiful hair was thickest.

Narrator: Violet fought her way
to the surface

Only to face a horrific scene.

30 people had been killed
by the propellers.

Just after 9:00 a.M.,

The britannic rolled
onto its starboard side,

Before plunging bow-first
to the seabed.

The largest ship lost
in the first world war

Had sunk in just 55 minutes.

Violet and the other survivors
were rescued by the royal navy.

The wreck of britannic
lies 400 feet down,

At the bottom
of the kea channel,

And while the titanic crumbles
on the atlantic seabed,

Her sister ship
is still in good condition.

Mills: If you compare
the wreck of the titanic

With the wreck of the britannic,

They are just completely
and utterly different.

The titanic
is in two main sections,

With the whole middle third
of the ship just gone

In fragments on the seabed.

Britannic is almost
completely intact.

Narrator: The massive propellers
that caused the carnage

Are still in place.

Even the captain's bath,
with its four taps, is visible.

Mills: I've been
watching that wreck now

For something like 20 years.

I don't think it's changed
in all that time.

She's incredibly stable,

And I think will be around
for a good while yet.

♪

Narrator: Despite the loss
of many hospital ships

During the first world war,

These vessels became
a vital part of the effort.

By its end,
there were 77 in service.

But in 1939,
the world was at war again.

Mayhew: I think
if you took a crew

From a first world war
hospital ship

And put them on a second
world war hospital ship,

They'd really
recognize everything

That they found there.

They'd be jealous of the speed.

But the spaces are the same.

And what both of them
would recognize

Is this unseen threat
from submarines.

Living with that fear

Is something that only hospital
ship crews really understood.

How you did that day after day
and voyage after voyage

Is something that we must
never underestimate.

It's a truly remarkable part
of their service.

Narrator: In 1945,
lois langhans was just 21

When she served as a nurse
on an american hospital ship.

She and her colleagues
rounded up injured soldiers

From the ports of cherbourg
and liverpool

And attended to them

While crossing the atlantic
to the united states.

Lois langhans: It was toward
the end of the war,

So they were all through
going back into battle,

And when they finally got
on board a hospital ship,

It was like a real...
[exhales]

Take a big breath.

I'm off the land.
I'm headed home.

Narrator: 20 years
after the first world war,

There was now greater awareness
of injuries,

Both seen and unseen.

Langhans: For us nurses,

Part of it was trying
to understand

Some of the boys didn't want
to talk about anything.

Some wanted to talk
and get it off their mind,

And our aim was to do the best
we could to keep them mobile,

Interested in going home,

And not going back over
all of the bad experiences.

It really made you feel like

You needed to pay attention
to these kids,

And they needed help.

It was a time, a period
in my life, that's very special.

When you're in a war like that,

Everybody does
what they have to do.

You don't sit home and wonder.
You do it.

I was fortunate in bringing
the boys to a safer place.

Narrator:
Along with the countless acts

Of barbarism and inhumanity
during world war ii,

There were feats
of bravery and heroism.

One is known
as the miracle of dunkirk.

It involved the mass evacuation
of british and french troops

While under attack
from the germans in 1940.

By contrast, a few weeks later,

Another evacuation took place
off the french coast.

And though
it's rarely discussed,

It led to the greatest
maritime loss of life

The world had ever known.

♪

After dunkirk, 150,000 british
troops and civilians

Were still trapped in France.

They were told to make their way
to a string of ports

From cherbourg in the north,
to st. Jean de luz in the south.

Meanwhile, the british assembled
another armada of rescue ships,

Code-named operation aerial.

Among those stranded was

26-year-old
royal engineer walter hirst.

His unit had been building
an airfield near nantes.

Mark hirst:
My grandfather volunteered

Because he wanted
to go back to France

To finish the job
that his father had begun

In world war I.

And all of a sudden,

He's now being basically
chased out of France.

In June, they started to realize
there was something going on.

The raf ground crew
suddenly disappeared.

They, they'd left by trucks.

There was no communication

Between the different elements
of the british forces,

And it was a real shock.

Narrator: Walter
and thousands of other troops

Made their way by truck
to the port of saint nazaire.

They arrived on June 16, 1940.

Hirst: When the company,
my grandfather's company,

Arrived in saint nazaire,
they discovered

That there was
tens of thousands of troops

Waiting for embarkation,

So they waited overnight
in gangways.

There wasn't any accommodation,
they just slept rough,

And there was
a very heavy air raid

That night by the germans,

And that was
their first sense of panic,

First sense that there
was something going wrong

With the entire operation.

Narrator: About 30 rescue ships
waited offshore.

One of them
was a former luxury liner

Which had been converted
into a troopship--

The hmt lancastria.

♪

Hirst: The lancastria
was a cunard ship,

And her main trade
was with american tourists.

Initially, the lancastria
was named the tyrrhenia,

But in 1924, the company
decided to change the name

Because the american passengers

Had difficulty pronouncing
the name tyrrhenia.

And it's always said by mariners

That changing the name of a ship
brings bad luck,

And so it was to prove for,
for the lancastria.

Gordon: Lancastria was really
ordered by the admiralty

To evacuate from saint nazaire

As many british people
as she could,

Without regard to her formal
passenger-carrying capacity.

Narrator: The german army was
too far away to attack by land.

Instead, the strike
on saint nazaire

Came from the skies.

On the morning of June 17th,

Hundreds of soldiers
and civilians broke their cover

And boarded the small boats

That ferried them
to the rescue ships.

Walter hirst and his unit were
taken to the mighty lancastria,

Commanded
by captain rudolph sharp.

Hirst: And when she arrived,
the french pilot came out

And addressed the captain,
captain sharp,

And said,
"do you realize, sir,

You're putting your neck
in the noose by being here?"

But they had
no other alternative.

Narrator:
Walter hirst was shocked

By the mob
already on board the liner.

Hirst:
My grandfather's best friend

Happened to see the chief
purser, and he stopped him.

He said, "you're looking
really worried,"

And he says, "well,
you would be really worried

With upwards of 6,000,
probably 7 or 8,000 aboard,

And we don't have enough
lifesaving equipment for them

If something goes wrong.

Narrator: The exhausted troops
made themselves at home.

They ate breakfast served
by white-jacketed stewards

In the lancastria's
dining saloon.

There was a chance
to take a bath or a nap

In one of the cabins.

800 raf men were led down
into a large hold,

Where mattresses
had been laid out for them.

[airplane approaching]

But the quiet
was soon interrupted.

[roaring]

Hirst: The klaxons
on the lancastria sounded.

German aircraft
began an attack

And initially
concentrated their attack

On the ss oronsay,
which was lying

Roughly a mile
from the lancastria's position.

Narrator: The oronsay's bridge
took a direct hit.

Several men were killed,
but she remained afloat.

But the german planes
weren't finished.

Hirst: The sirens
on the lancastria sounded again,

Signaling a second attack,
and quickly after that,

A german bomber,
a junkers 88, appeared low,

And heading from bow to stern
across the lancastria

And dropped
four 500-kilogram bombs,

Which struck the ship
in rapid succession.

[explosions]

Narrator: The 800 raf men in
the hold were killed instantly.

The lancastria
started to shudder,

Making a noise
that sounded to captain sharp

"like a wounded animal."

Gordon: It would have been
an indescribable horror

Being inside that ship.

There would have been fires.
There would be smoke.

Very few people
would have known the way out.

It really doesn't
bear thinking about

The sheer panic and chaos

Of what would have happened
inside that ship.

Hirst: One of the survivors
who I spoke to

Said that
when he was in the water,

He could see men desperately,
who were trapped below decks,

Desperately trying to get out
through the porthole windows,

And he said it was just,

You could see two or three men
in front of each other,

And then behind them, fire,

And that image stayed with him,
and they weren't getting out.

These men were trapped.
They were going to the bottom.

Narrator: As the lancastria
began to capsize,

Men, women, and children
scrambled onto the rolling hull.

Some began singing
"roll out the barrel"

And "there'll always
be an England."

But their songs
were soon drowned out

As the planes returned.

Hirst: Not content with sinking

What was obviously
a very large british troopship,

The luftwaffe came back

And began strafing
the men in the water

And also trying
to drop incendiary flares

To light the oil which was
escaping from the lancastria,

And it was a kind
of macabre spectacle,

These men sinking,

And all the time the germans
were continuing the attack.

All around there was men
struggling, drowning.

Narrator: By that point,

Walter hirst
was in the water, too.

He was approached by another man
in a state of total panic.

Hirst: Perhaps he thought
my granddad was dead

Because he was trying
to stay as still as possible.

He was covered in oil,

And he was trying to wrestle
the life jacket from him,

And a battle broke out
between the two of them,

And eventually the madman--
'cause that's all he could,

He was out of his mind,
as you would be--

Disappeared
below my grandfather,

And I think
that affected him deeply.

Narrator: The lancastria sank
in just 20 minutes.

Due to the chaos
of the evacuation,

The true death toll
has never been confirmed,

But at least 3,000
lost their lives.

It may have been
almost twice as many.

But almost two and a half
thousand did survive.

Walter hirst was picked up
by a french fishing boat

And was eventually returned
to plymouth

For a traumatic homecoming.

Hirst: And as they walked
off the gangplank,

There was
a royal marines band playing

To welcome the men back,

And they were playing
"roll out the barrel,"

And for my granddad,
for many of the other survivors,

They couldn't stand,

They couldn't tolerate that song
after it

Because they associated it with,

With this horror
aboard the lancastria.

♪

Narrator: The liner that started
as a vessel

For rich
american vacationers

Ended with
a heart-breaking record--

The largest single loss of life
in british maritime history.

Back home,
prime minister winston churchill

Turned to damage control.

He knew news of the disaster

Would have a devastating effect
on the british public.

Walter hirst
and his fellow survivors

Were forbidden to speak of it.

Gordon: The country was on
a kind of strange sort of high

After dunkirk,

After we'd got
the main british army back,

And it was felt
that this terrible tragedy

Would have such an effect
on national morale

That it needed to be
kept secret, and so it was.

Narrator: The sinking
of the rescue ship lancastria

Is still rarely discussed
in britain.

But in saint nazaire, there
is a simple beachfront memorial.

Hirst: For the survivors,
one of the hardest aspects

Was everyone
talks about the titanic,

Everyone talks
about the lusitania,

Yet the lancastria
claimed more lives

Than those two disasters
combined.

And that's, that's hurtful.

I mean, they felt
that the sacrifice

That their colleagues had made
was not acknowledged,

It was forgotten,

And it was almost like
an embarrassment to them.

Narrator: 1940 was
a tumultuous year in europe.

In just three months,
the german army

Swept through holland,
belgium, luxembourg, and France.

On April 9th,
hitler targeted denmark.

The country surrendered
in just six hours.

And although resisting
the german army was futile,

Denmark stood firm against
one of hitler's key operations.

Howard veisz: They insisted,

We're gonna keep
your religious persecution out.

We're not gonna have
your war against the jews

Enter danish soil.

Narrator:
The country was operating

As a german protectorate,

But it was still able
to defend and protect

Its 8,000 jewish citizens.

Veisz:
And so for a period of years,

They're able to keep
their jewish population safe

While jews
in every other occupied country

Were being rounded up.

Narrator: But at the end
of September 1943,

Word got out
that a mass deportation of jews

Would occur
in just three days.

The response was remarkable.

The danish people
sprang into action.

Veisz:
Within that 72-hour period,

Pretty much the entire
jewish population of denmark

Was not just warned,
but sheltered,

Given temporary hiding.

Narrator: Hitler was furious.

He sent adolf eichmann,

Chief organizer
of the holocaust,

To hunt down denmark's jews
and end the nazi humiliation.

In a country as small
and as isolated as denmark,

It should have been easy,

But there was one place

Where denmark's jews might
be able to find a safe haven--

Neutral sweden.

Veisz:
It was the only unoccupied land

Within about 400 or so miles,

And it was so tantalizingly
close, you could see it.

Narrator: But the only way
to reach sweden was by boat.

Once again,
the danish people responded.

Veisz:
Within a matter of a day or two,

A rescue fleet
began to take form,

And ultimately
about 300 boats participated.

Narrator: The first attempts
to smuggle jews out of denmark

Were a disaster.

Boats were intercepted
by the gestapo.

Their passengers and crew
were imprisoned.

But one young woman believed
she could make a difference.

In 1943,
henny sinding was just 19.

There are no known photos
of her.

But in just a few months,

She helped dozens and dozens
of danish jews escape.

Based in copenhagen, she turned
her father's small work boat

Into the most unlikely rescue
ship of the second world war.

Its unassuming name
was gerda iii.

♪

Henny sinding's father
used gerda iii

To carry supplies
to a lighthouse,

But for three years,
she'd also been used

To smuggle resistance fighters
in and out of denmark.

Veisz: Henny could not
abide the notion

That the nazis
would interfere with people

She considered
simply fellow danes,

Which is how the country
regarded the jewish population.

An attack on them
was an attack on the danes,

And they felt
they needed to do anything.

Narrator: Henny's system
was straightforward--

Use gerda iii's regular runs
out to the lighthouse

As cover for transporting jews
to sweden.

The challenge
was getting the people on board.

Veisz:
Henny would start each day

Being given a list of names
of people to meet,

Places to meet them,

All of which
had to be memorized.

You couldn't have
any of this in writing.

And then at 1:00 a.M. Each day,
before the boat's next sailing,

She would go to the safe houses,

Escort people along the street
to the warehouse,

Where nazi sentries
would March back and forth

And wait for gaps
in their crossings,

During which they could
run people one at a time,

Across the quay, onto gerda,
and down into the cargo hold.

You could think of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat
for persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator: About 20 people would
be squeezed in with the cargo.

Veisz:
A small space, as you can see,

About 10 by 12 feet,

Never more than 4 1/2 feet high
to these, these beams.

The most that they ever
attempted to fit in

Was about 15 people,

And you could
envision them pretty much

As far out as they could get,

Probably pressed pretty much
against the hull planks.

Narrator: But before gerda iii
could leave copenhagen,

She had to be inspected
by armed soldiers.

It was a tense moment
for those hiding below.

Veisz: Right above this
for some period of time,

You'd have those nazi sentries,

Their boots how many inches
above the heads of the refugees?

Not many.

And they'd be chatting
with the crew,

Talking about the weather,
exchanging pleasantries.

♪

It must have been
a tremendous relief

When the engine was turned on.

If you're sitting next to it
or near it as we are now,

You'd hear kind of
a pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,

Almost more like
a, a rapid heartbeat

Than the drone of a diesel.

And you can just imagine
how every one of those pops,

You know, to them would be,

Just signify another
foot or two feet perhaps

Further from the nazis,

Closer to salvation
on the swedish shore.

Narrator: The autumn seas
were often rough.

Conditions were stark.

Veisz:
If you think of the people

Over the course of the war
who were sitting

In, in this space
or along this plank

Or the planks over there

Braced against the movement
of the boat,

And here they would be
in the, the darkness.

No ports.
No overhead lights.

This was never envisioned

To be a place
where people would travel.

Narrator: Despite german patrols
and hostile weather,

It's believed
that in the last months of 1943,

Henny sinding and her crew
carried 300 jews to safety.

Veisz: And they were
incredibly brave people,

And they had this,
this great moral compass.

And as a whole, it was
phenomenally successful.

About 94 percent
of denmark's jewish population

Was brought to safety,

By latest best count,
7,742 jews,

Another 686 loved ones
of other religions.

There was just
no parallel to that

Anywhere else
in the occupied world.

Narrator: Today, gerda iii
resides in new york city,

Owned by the new york museum
of jewish heritage.

It's a tribute
to the brave men and women

Who helped so many danish jews
escape the nazi terror.

Veisz: These were heroes
saving lives,

Taking a stand against evil.

And you look around here,
and, you know,

You can feel the presence
of the refugees

And the people
who were being rescued,

But as you sit here,
and you go in the pilot house,

And you look
around the engine room,

There is also the presence
of the, the four-man crew,

Of henny sinding.

Um, these are people
who should never be forgotten,

And it's a, it's a great
honor to preserve this vessel,

To preserve their stories.

♪

Narrator:
Over the past 200 years,

Ships have rescued
thousands of people.

Not all missions
were successful,

But each has left a legacy
that inspires future generations

To similar acts
of selfless bravery.