Original subtitles

January

1942 a Brash ubot Skipper surfaces to

give his crew a once in a lifetime view

of the Manhattan

skyline part of a secret Nazi operation

He commands one of five submarines ready

to bring the war to America's

doorstep with determined enemies in the

Pacific and the Atlantic and barely a

month since the start of their

War how much damage will these OTS

inflict before the United States can

fight

[Music]

back in World War

II subc weapon allows Warriors to fight

from beneath the waves with cunning

force and tenacity their enemies Strike

Back

revolutionary but still sometimes

primitive it's a desperate

bid to change the course of

War their stories are

Legend in January

1942 off the coast of Long Island New

York a British oil tanker steams to join

an Atlantic Convoy to

England well inside American Waters it

expects no

danger a lurking Nazi ubot Skipper capan

lutant Reinhard hardigan cannot believe

his Good Fortune as he prowls the Dark

Water the tanker has almost run into his

German submarine

T hardigan will not pass up an easy shot

and positions his

hubot at 3:41 a.m. he fires a single

torpedo less than a minute

later the explosion lights up the

night's Sky sending Flames high in the

air u123 has torpedoed 65,000 barrels of

oil just 85 mil from the lights of

Manhattan with no response from American

defenses

it's an opening strike of what the

Germans call palen schlock operation

drumbeat and for America it struck too

close to

home one month earlier the Japanese

Ambush on Pearl Harbor catches the

United States off

guard in Germany commander of OTS Carl

dut begs the furer for a chance to do

the

same donut wants to smack the Americans

Hitler wants him to smack the Americans

there's no

question but Hitler's primary focus is

on the ground war and defeating the

Soviet

Union he doesn't fully appreciate the

potential of ubot warfare to strangle

the Allied war

effort Hitler grants donits only limited

resources for an audacious plan

durit hopes to shock the US with a

series of Submarine attacks right off

the American Coast the targets will be

Merchant ships which transport Goods

along the Eastern

Seaboard the vital cargo shipping

particularly the vital oil move

individually up and down the American

Coast to the Convoy assembly points this

is a particular

vulnerability D's hand picks a group of

ubo commanders for the job

[Music]

this includes Reinhard hardigan an

ambitious officer his combat career is

about to be cut short his career was

limited due to his bad health farm and

aircraft accident before the war when he

served in the aeronautical service of

The Creeks Marina Harding knew to become

something like an hero or an ace he had

to perform very well so he needed to be

aggressive and risk a lot to have

success he'll have few patrols to secure

his

legacy a week before Christmas you boats

begin to sneak out from the base at

luron on the coast of occupied

France patrols often last 70 or 80

Days fresh water is only used for

drinking Crews refrain from shaves

showers or washing

laundry perishable foods last only about

a week in the humidity of the

ubot after that the crew relies mostly

on canned goods and other

preserves the austere conditions take a

toll on

hardigan the abdominal injury from his

earlier plane crash never fully healed

he had stomach problems but he couldn't

get a special diet about a submarine

because the kitchen is very very limit

with a bleeding stomach hardigan cannot

eat much of the food prepared for his

men in chronic pain and underfed

hardigan focuses on the job at

hand a larger submarine called type 9's

allow them to attempt the daring

operation the 250t length makes it more

than 30 ft longer than the type sevens

bigger bunkers increase fuel Capac

capacity for an extended range up to

12,000 Mi the type 9 is the classic

instrument for this longrange offens

they can cross the Atlantic and they can

operate for some time in their

operational

area the crew of u123 spends the

Christmas of 1941 at

sea hardigan has Christmas trees placed

in every compartment for the men to

decorate

[Music]

letters and packages from home are

distributed with food and music The Crew

can leave the war behind if only for a

few hours

[Music]

[Music]

on December 27th 4 days into their

Journey they cross 20°

West u123 is considered on active combat

Duty the crew gets a pay raise and

hardigan can open the top secret

operation

orders they know they are heading to the

east coast of North America but even

their Captain doesn't know where

exactly hardig reveals the details of

their

mission York they are to Seek and

Destroy Merchant ships in the waters

around New York City the four other uots

have similar orders against different

parts of the Atlantic coast Admiral duts

calls the campaign hen schlag or

operation

drumbeat but hardigan has a problem

shallow waters are full of Hazards and

difficult to navigate

ubot headquarters can't even provide

proper nautical charts because the

Germans had prepared for this before the

war all he has is a sort of a map of New

York a general chart of the waters and a

guide

book to safely negotiate inore shipping

lanes while he hunts and sink ships will

require all of hardigan's

skills but first the 3500 M Crossing

takes ubot 1 2 3

through the worst of winter storms you

have a wind blowing up to 70

mph if it's stormy outside like in in

North Atlantic it's not the place where

you want to

be a low press trough creates stormforce

winds and rough

Seas 30ft waves crash across the conning

Tower but to maintain full speed

hardigan rides u123 on the

surface sub emerged his speed is limited

to a maximum of 8 knots in short

bursts surfaced he can push twice as

fast nearly 22

mph his Lookout Crews spend 4-Hour

shifts all day and night searching

constantly for threats and targets

as the world wearily rings in another

year of War five Nazi uots Cruise

towards operational areas from Canada's

Gulf of St Lawrence to Cape hatus North

Carolina the ubot commanders are very

excited about doing this they had got

very very frustrated in the Autumn of

1941 that they were attacking convoys

escorted by American ships and they

weren't allowed to take the initiative

in sinking American ships that will

serve them right for this undeclared war

they've been waging before Pearl

Harbor blown off course by the winter

storms u123 reaches the East Coast

early capan lutant Reinhard hardigan and

his crew have been on constant

watch they discover and stalk an enemy

Target 110 mi from the coast

it could be a merchant ship or an Allied

[Music]

Destroyer Igan Maneuvers for a closer

look a British steamer about 10,000 tons

likely filled with Allied

supplies it's a lucrative

Target but 2 days before the start of

the secret mission he would reveal their

position

hardigan is still tempted submarine

commanders are always very aggressive

and the sight of an Allied merchant ship

was something that hardigan could not uh

could not

resist targeting the steamer hardigan

launches his first torpedo torpedo fire

to ignite a fiery glow against the night

sky radio operators aboard u123

intercept the ship's emergency

Transmissions SOS then SSS the distress

code used while under attack by

submarine

to safeguard their mission hardigan must

silence his

victim he positions u123 to launch

another

torpedo his crew aims for the bridge to

Target the radio sending the distress

call seconds later another explosion

brightens the night's sky

passengers and crew of the ship Cyclops

drift for 20

hours only two are killed in the initial

attack 86 more die from exposure to the

icy waters of the North

Atlantic u123 launches the first

unofficial strike of operation drum beat

[Music]

stormy seas and their attack have

delayed hardigan and the

crew they must now hurry to reach their

real Target New York

City hardigan anticipates

trouble his attack has announced the

presence of a Nazi ubot to the Allies he

expects heavy defenses as he nears the

coast but it turns out the ubo mission

was not a

surprise after all

American rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews

is tasked with protecting the Eastern

Seaboard of the United

States He is the commander most

responsible if you like for Coastal

convoys and things like that but at the

beginning of

1942 there's nothing he has it just

doesn't

exist America has only been at War for

for a few weeks and not by

choice they've only just begun to

mobilize the men and machines needed to

fight enemies off two

coasts the sinking of Cyclops confirms

what Andrews feared based on

intelligence from Allied code

Breakers as soon as Nazi uots leave port

British intelligence exploit a key

weakness in Carl dut's submarine

operations

you need a lot of communication between

the submarines and with the headquarter

in Europe and these radio Transmissions

could be intercepted by the Allied

Forces as allies uh build a fairly

substantial uh Direction finding system

around the world with stations all over

the place if you transmit use your radio

people around the world will pretty

quickly figure out where you

are this allows Allied Naval

intelligence to pinpoint the location of

any German submarine whose messages are

intercepted the British can keep pretty

good tabs on where a submarine is

because of this fixation the uots have

with transmitting on radio it's rather

like saying hello I'm here come and syn

me and this is a terrible

[Music]

weakness us rear Admiral Andrew appeals

for resources to defend the Eastern

Seaboard knowing that more uots are

coming to the North American Coast but

his senior officer Admiral Ernest King

has even bigger problems in January 1942

Admiral King is chief of Naval

operations he's in charge of the whole

US Navy the US Navy is building a lot of

ships but they don't exist yet he's

already fighting ubos in connection with

the British there were already large US

forces committed to that job he can't

just ride off the Pacific and because of

the enormous distances anything he does

in the Pacific costs a lot of

resources King is faced with these

terrible

choices there are limited assets to

mount any defense against the

approaching

uots clear skies allow hardigan to

pinpoint his exact position after days

of bad weather and he sets a course for

New York

he's behind

schedule four other uots delayed by

stormy seas too also close in u130

officially kicks off operation drum beat

by sinking two small Freighters on

January 13th near the Newland

Coast while hardigan cruises South in

u123 towards his Target area with crude

charts he is unsure of the coastline but

he also has the help of the Montour

Point Lighthouse because the Americans

haven't turned off their navigational

lights everything was lit up they were

still living like in peace

time the Americans still had their radio

navigational AIDS turned on so he could

rely on

that late in the evening off Monto point

the crew spots a light on the port side

a large vessel approaches it could be a

threat the water is not so deep it was

very dangerous situation for him without

accurate charts the exact depth of the

water is uncertain hardigan can't dive

to

escape he identifies the approaching

ship which travels fully lit as though

there was no war an oil

tanker this is what he has come

for hardigan's watch scans The Horizon

for any type of escort but the ship

appears

[Music]

alone he orders his crew to fire two

Torpedoes at the

[Music]

tanker but the attack proves

disappointing his Torpedoes didn't

explode

many of the Torpedoes loaded aboard u123

are g7e models the most sophisticated

electric torpedo in the Nazi

Arsenal they're 23 ft long and armed

with 600 lb of explosive power he had an

electromagnetical device to keep the

torpedo exploding below the ship and if

the torpedo is traveling too low then

the magnetic field of the ship is not

strong enough to make the torpedo

explode

hardigan aims higher with consecutive

shots torpedo

[Music]

[Music]

fire he torpedoed it and it was a fuel

tanker and there was large explosion but

it takes him five Torpedoes to sink the

ship as the tanker breaks apart 12,200

tons of fuel oil

burn it's crew broadcasts an emergency

message when the explosion goes off in

the tanker it thinks that it might have

struck a mine you would expected a

submerged submarine to creep in and lay

a mine field and then creep away again

not come in on the surface

hardigan makes an escape but not before

u123 is spotted by survivors in and

around the

lifeboats the first eyewitnesses of a

Nazi uboat seeking ships in American

Waters capan lutant hardigan expects

Furious counter measures

but strangely there is no reply the

Germans arrive on the east coast of the

United States and are just Gob smacked

by the fact that the shipping's not

protected to them it's

inexplicable after destroying the tanker

nornes hardigan submerges during

daylight

hours he settles u123 on the bottom

undetected while the crew rests and

prepares for its next attack

[Music]

back on the surface they monitor local

radio channels to learn the tanker noris

is finally spotted and the crew rescued

nearly 12 hours after the

[Music]

sinking if there's nothing around then

it doesn't really matter where you get

sunk it'll be a long time before anyone

shows

up Merchant ships also receive the

warning of a ubo in the

area u123 continues to use the American

own navigational

AIDS light ships provide

orientation these floating lighthouses

Mark the entrance to American

ports if the city skylines don't shine

brightly enough

it's impossible for the Navy to convince

the uh Governors and mayors of major

cities on the coast to black

out people just didn't get the message

that this is a war and you you must do

[Music]

something after 3 weeks at Sea the glow

of New York City proves an irresistible

Beacon

hardig could see the whole skyline of

New York something probably every German

dreamed of before the war the captain

invites his crew up to the bridge to see

the lights of

Manhattan but u123 isn't here to

sightsee

as they leave New York Harbor finally

user the stern Watchman spots a ship

approaching from the

rear hardigan he sees fully lit up

against the lights of New York a tanker

a nice large juicy

tanker at close to 7,000 tons British

oil tanker coimbra crues unescorted out

of New York

Harbor Cain lutant hardigan Maneuvers

his submarine into attack position with

textbook precision it's part of the game

of the yub kinanda to be cool to be

Resolute to be

coldblooded at least to appear so to

create confidence within his

crew just 800 yd from the

target torpedo fire he launches his

first

torpedo 58 seconds later

a

hit Flames lick 650 ft in the air and

light up the night

sky fueled by 65,000 barrels of oil

Cargo in fact if anything symbolizes the

total unpreparedness of the United

States it's this attack in New York

Harbor

[Music]

within minutes of striking the oil

tanker coimbra 85 miles from Manhattan

OT capan liutenant hardigan fires a

second torpedo to speed the sinking and

silence any distress

signals local residents report the ship

burning 32 Mi off of Long Island only 10

of 46 crew members survived to be

rescued

with the rash of sinkings and knowledge

that even more uots are closing in US

Navy leadership monitors the situation

closely in the harbors of New York an

arsenal of 23 ships

assembled destroyers carriers Cruisers

and

battleships the Armada is called task

force 15 ready to escort a American

troops to the European

theater Admiral Ernie king must consider

delaying the troop ship

Convoy but is confronted by the larger

political

implications once the United States is

in the war it's vital to show its allies

that we're working with them and that

means among other things there have to

be US troops deployed almost immediately

to Britain Northern Ireland Iceland they

have to be convoyed there now those

escorts are not available for other jobs

in the end Admiral King dispatches the

task force and troops to sail to

Europe any immediate military response

to the ubot presence is now

impossible hardigan continues to hide

the sub on the ocean floor during

daytime

hours as the sun sets on New York on

January 15th

u123 Rises to

hunt but they surfaced too soon one of

the few active American Patrol aircraft

sees the sub broaching in the last glint

of

[Music]

sunlight before all the water can clear

the bridge the submarine's Lookouts also

spot the

plane find

[Music]

F

[Music]

Al Igan must dive carefully they don't

know the actual depth of the water

making it difficult to evade any attack

[Music]

four aerial bombs go off starboard but

wi of the

submarine they

wait the aircraft does not press the

attack or call for reinforcements a Navy

aircraft drops some bombs but they not

very effectively this is right at the

beginning of the war the Americans are

very inexperienced and they just haven't

put the effort into anti submarine

warfare it's not just lack of surface

ships that's creating problems it's lack

of Aviation assets

too since the United States has none of

these resources since it has only a few

few airplanes flying patrols and not

very experienced at it suddenly this is

tremendous

[Music]

vulnerability the uots of operation drum

beat strike again and again all along a

defenseless

Coast Dar it simply cannot believe his

Good Fortune there's no other way to

describe it this should not happen he

finally gets into the American Zone and

it's a free fire

zone in the American Press questions

Mount about the destruction happening on

the doorstep of the United

States but the US Navy seems unwilling

or unable to respond afterwards people

keep saying well if King had really

cared about anything he would have had

convoys he would have organized with

what that's the problem there's no

what it's not as though the coast is

bristling with mines and guns and a

tough Army bomber Crews waiting to go

out all the

time the thing about the US Navy and

about Ernie King is is they're they're

still pretty much focused on that notion

that the primary function of their Navy

is to destroy the other guy's Navy and

so it took them a long time to come to

the same realization that the Brits did

that what you need is not necessarily

the technology to syn submarines what

you need is send a ship out drive that

guy down push him off having fought

German OTS for more than two years

before the United States entered the war

the other allies want to share what has

been learned the British and the

Canadians actually have the capacity in

American ports to organize convoys that

was not going to happen under Ernie

King's watch the whole thing was run by

the US Navy and the Navy is just not

prepared so there is no one to stop

Reinhard hardigan from racking up

tonnage by monitoring the radio

frequencies hardigan knows local

shipping is on alert and there are fewer

ships to Target in the area with some

Torpedoes left u123 widens its range

operations traveling down the East

[Music]

Coast when u123 surfaces near Kittyhawk

North

Carolina they spot a red Flash and hear

two

explosions hardigan correctly speculates

it's the handiwork of

u66 which has just sunk another tanker

the Allen

Jackson in the early morning of January

18th hardigan finally locates targets

worthy of his remaining

Torpedoes but as Dawn breaks he runs out

of time to set up the

[Music]

shots confident there will be more

Steamers the next night if he is not

spotted he bottoms his submarine

[Music]

[Music]

when night falls hardigan decides to

hunt in the waters just off of Cape

hatus North

Carolina he orders u123 to travel along

the navigational boys

which he notes the Steamers keep to

their port

side find just before 3:00 a.m. hardigan

encounters a merchant ship he estimates

as 4,000

tons and Fires at a very short range of

275

yd the ship city of Atlanta carrying

food cargo sinks in

minutes only three of 47 crew members

would survive the

night small ships pass but hardigan

doesn't want to waste his last two

Torpedoes but he has another weapon at

his

disposal hardigan orders his Crews to

their deck

guns a tanker the SS melee is empty of

fuel but full of

fumes it erupts Under Fire from the

shells from hardigan turns and fires a

torpedo on another ship nearby

wounding a

freighter still monitoring the radio

channels they learned that the crew has

contained the fires aboard the SS

melee torpedo fire hardigan decides to

finish what they started and make good

use of their last torpedo

they hit the

mark arsenal of torpedoes spent and fuel

beginning to run low hardigan must turn

for

home but as u123 leaves American Waters

The elusive submarine is being

followed captain inar glage captain of

the Norwegian Whaler Cosmos 2 stalks the

ubot many Merchant vessels from Norway

began transporting goods for the Allies

after the Nazi occupation of their

Homeland the commanding officer bought

the civilian ship just did what they

already did to British in the first

world war he attempted to Ram the

submarine if the nor can Ram the ubot

the hull damage to u123 will ensure it

will not submerge

again as Cosmos 2 closes

in the crew spots the charging ship

[Music]

find with just 65 ft below them the

waters here are too shallow to die for

protection u123 must outrun the

Norwegian and turn sews to deeper

waters but hardigan can't get enough

speed his chief engineer told him that

he had lost engine power on one of his

diesel engines and so he could not

outrun the

wher the Hunter he turned to be the

prey torpedo fire after attacking Allied

Merchant shipping from Nova Scotia to

North Carolina

the tables have finally turned on ubot

capan lutant Reinhard

hardigan in a strange twist the attack

does not come from the United States

Navy or Coast Guard but a giant whaling

ship converted into a fuel tanker in

service of the war

effort with one engine down u123 limps

towards the open

ocean Cosmos 2 is in close

Pursuit the enormous Whaler Cruises Only

only about a knot faster than

u123 but it's enough to slowly gain on

the

uboat it's quite a dramatic incident

because the submarine is not in a good

condition one of its engines is down

that means it can't go at its normal

speed on the surface therefore this

relatively slow merchantman is possibly

going to catch it and hit it and so we

have this extraordinary situation of

these two ships rather slowly chasing

each other across the

Atlantic the survival of u123 may depend

on engine mechanic Richard

craxel must prepare a cooling pipe

needed to bring the other diesel engine

online

[Music]

u123 second engine Springs to

life with the whaler only 80 yards back

the ubot increases its critical

margin pulling away with a tiny half not

[Music]

[Music]

Advantage Igan establishes a Northerly

course then redirects into deeper waters

diving to evade enemy

aircraft hardigan leaves behind the

burning wreck of his final Target and a

battered American

Coast hardigan was the most successful

of the initial wave of drum beat uots he

sinks eight ships uh and it demonstrates

what an aggressively handled submarine

can do in this target-rich environment

he is credited with sinking some 50,000

tons of

ships although his last victim SS melee

would limp into Port under its own

steam when word of their success reaches

ubot headquarters derit sends a special

message to the drum beater hardigan

bravoo you beat the drum

well u123 also receives word that

hardigan is to receive the coveted

Knight's

cross the first five UB boots of

operation drumbeat sink 23 ships and

kill hundreds of sailors

[Music]

in Germany Hitler approves the

continuation of the offensive against

the American Eastern

Seaboard waves of ubot strike the coast

as the German Onslaught hammers American

shipping hardigan and

u123 return again in

March this time sinking 10 more

ships the Germans SN more ships in the

US coastal zone in one year

than nearly the rest of the war and all

the oceans of the world

combined they sink 6 million tons of

merchant shipping with submarines in

1942 alone it's just

staggering operation drum beat was seen

by the German ubot man as a period where

they could gain successes in Sinking

vessels without meeting resistance that

became probably the second golden age

for the yots

drum beat was a terrible self-inflicted

wound it was the greatest victory for

the uots that should never have happened

nearly 700 ships go down before the

United States Navy is able to implement

effective

change American Admiral Ernie King

finally establishes a convoy system for

merchant shipping in the summer of

1942 ubot attacks on the East Coast melt

away in the face of

opposition when Americans learn they

learn fast and they apply the resources

and they do it very effectively so it's

a steep learning curve but once they get

over it they they move very

quickly the long-term historical Legacy

of the 1942 catastrophe off the US East

Coast I don't think has ever been

resolved it's been suggested to me by

American archists that they the US Navy

avoids this story like the plague they

just don't want to know about it and

it's hard to blame them the silence

causes the service and sacrifice of the

sailors and their families to be largely

forgotten ignoring the shocking days

that the Nai OTS brought the war home to

American Shores

[Music]