Original subtitles

March 16th

1943 Nazi uboat U6 53 limps back to base

after a month of combat on the North

Atlantic the submarine is having engine

troubles the bridge Watchman sees a

brief spark and a red glow against the

darkness time contact a sailor on deck

lighting his cigarette has revealed the

presence of an allied

ship Lookout scan the surrounding seas

and find themselves surrounded by the

ghostly Shadows of dozens

more

ISO U 653 has somehow managed to sail

into the midst of an Allied

Convoy there's a lucky accident that

sets the stage for the largest Convoy

Battle of the second World War

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 our

Legend after blundering into the middle

of an Allied

Convoy capan lutant ghad fer orders a

crash dive to escape detection

safely submerged U 653 tracks the

vessels that pass

overhead hours later Vier resurfaces

just behind The Columns of ships

to send a convoy sighting signal to ubot

headquarters within an hour 28 uots home

in on u65 3 to form one of the largest

Wolfpack forces

ever the destruction inflicted by Nazi

OTS over the next 3 days will bring them

to the brink of victory in the battle of

the Atlantic

March 15th

1943 Allied Convoy HX 229 plows through

stormy seas on a northnorth easterly

course the merchant ships are escorted

by warships for

protection more than 3 years into the

war most of the goods and raw materials

required by the war effort travel in

convoys from North America to

Britain the great benefit of putting

ship in convoys is you make the rest of

the sea empty then you concentrate your

defenses around the only Target that

matters so the submariners have to fight

their way

in all convoys are given names for

identification HX originally indicated a

departure from Halifax 229 means that

228 convoys left before

it HX 229 gradually advances on another

Convoy a slow Convoy s

c122 which left from New

York together they contain nearly 100

Merchant

ships Lieutenant Commander Gordon John

Luther leads the escort group protecting

HX 229 as it crosses 2500 Mi of

ocean with just five warships to protect

40 ships the escort group has limited

capability he hasn't got the assets to

give the Convoy anything like the degree

of protection it

needs it is Lieutenant Commander

Luther's second transatlantic escort his

first was without incident this time he

won't be so

lucky Nazi Naval intelligence is

expecting

him when these two convoys were leaving

North America the German beines German

intelligence Department was able to read

um uh the Allied Convoy signals and this

of course gave the opportunity to send

out the uots to find and to fight that

Convoy for gross Admiral Carl duts

cutting off Allied Shipping to Britain

is the key to winning the

war it's often said that Donuts wanted

300 submarines to go to war against

Great Britain and in January of 1943

he's got 300

submarines the big difference by 1943 is

that the production has come on stream

and now there are very large numbers of

OTS durit can deploy 50 or more in

several packs against individual convoys

and so the uots have never been

stronger durit thinks he now has the

ubot fleet to knock Britain out of the

war by early

1943 nearly 11 million tons of raw

materials supplies and food has been

sunk in the Atlantic

Britain is reaching a Tipping Point

something like 22% of all the shipping

that sailed from the 1st of March the

21st of March fails to make it to the

other side it is absolutely the low

point of the war it's nearly

catastrophic however for donuts the

challenge remains locating Allied

ships his Crews practice the Wolfpack

tactic a Wolfpack is a group of sub

Marines lined up across a known Convoy

route so the ships pass in between and

are

detected if a convoy is sighted a

locating signal message is sent to ubot

headquarters nearby submarines are

ordered to converge and prepare for

attack the only chance to fight a convoy

with ubot would be the simultaneous

attack of a number of yots just to keep

the escorts busy and so giving other

boats the chance to actually uh torpedo

the merchant

vessels D's positions a Wolfpack group

of robra northeast of

newfinland so at this time durit got the

information of a very large Convoy

moving from west to east with supplies

for the Allied Forces and he put his

submarine battle groups on route to

intercept this Convoy

but a different Allied Convoy gets

attacked by Rob graph

first and gives away the wolfpack's

position the Allies immediately change

course for both convoys HX 229 and

se122 with the help of Stormy Weather

they squeak past the south end of the

Rob graph wolf pack they are safe for

now

but German intelligence also intercepts

the Admiral's rerouting

signal like a chess player donut then

moved his boats like you move your chest

figures and try to gather as many U

boots as possible for Attack on

convoys donits activates two more wolf

packs group has germa and Danga to

locate and destroy the merchant

ships still 5 days from its destination

in Liverpool Lieutenant Commander

Luther's Convoy approaches the most

dangerous part of its Journey what some

call the devil's Gorge the Germans were

tend to concentrate their wolf packs in

this area in Mid-Atlantic and by early

1943 there are a lot of OTs

important protection to Allied Shipping

comes from Air

coverage longrange aircraft equipped

with radar and armed with depth charges

drive you boats underwater to deter

attacks against Merchant

[Music]

shipping but far out in the Atlantic is

an expans of ocean beyond the range of

air support the Allies call it the air

gap there is a gap in the middle of the

Atlantic which cannot be covered by

aircraft flying from Canada or Iceland

or flying from Northern Ireland given

the the range of most of the aircraft

essentially therefore sensibly the uots

concentrate on that area where the

threat to them is

least it takes 2 or 3 days for ships to

pass through the air

gap without aerial coverage and only

five warships to protect Convoy HX 229

Luther steams ahead unprepared for what

donit has in store

somewhere along that stretch between the

grand Banks of New Finland and the

approaches to Ireland they're going to

find

[Music]

you you boats from group of robra

continue to search for the Convoy

battered by a winter storm you have a

wind blowing with uh up to 60 70

mph sometimes into the face of the crew

lose temperatures a little bit above uh

0 centigrade and you have the water

spilling over the open

Bridge they have to be there on the

counting Tower with their binoculars and

spotting into the free directions to get

any possible

contact finding ships is not easy at the

best of

times it was really hard for a submarine

to spot an Allied convo

still like the search for a needle and

haast

stack after operating with group of

robra for a

month Mach U 653 starboard engine is

failing low on diesel cap lant Gad filer

must rendevu with a fuel tanker before

returning to base for repairs

despite their dwindling capacity to

attack the Lookouts remain

posted as they hobble away find

contact the bridge watch makes a

startling

Discovery visibility is very poor but

unfortunately in one of the ships

somebody lights a cigarette and this

shows through the mist and it tells the

submarine that oh there's a Target over

that U 653 has cruised right into the

middle of an Al Allied

Convoy fer does not have the Torpedoes

to attack but he commands the most

powerful ubo in the

Atlantic

isoy must keep the Convoy Within Reach

without being

discovered filer orders a crash

dive to preserve their

invisibility non-essential crew Rush

forward to get the bow down fast

you get

kind they listen Discerning different

ships of the Convoy that pass

overhead you

once then use the sounds of the

propellers to track them without

revealing the sub

hours later piler surfaces Behind The

Columns of merchant ships and their

escorts still

undetected the radio operator issues a

coded sighting report to ubot

headquarters three letters in mors code

if one submarine in the operational area

is in contact with the Enemy it reports

reports the position so they could plot

an interception course to make a

coordinated Knight attack when there are

enough

submarines the wolf pack is predicated

entirely on the free use of the radio

there's no other way to do it Carl durit

is The Mastermind he controls them on a

high frequency radio link lead so he can

move the pack around up down left right

forward backwards based on the

intelligence the sighting report Thrills

duts he now has a precise

Target the rest of gria robra is just 80

Mi

away durit orders them to proceed at top

speed towards the

Convoy U 653 continues to transmit

location updates as it Shadows the

Convoy 11 OTs from the sturmer and

danger wolf packs also set course from

the

east by Nightfall 38 uots Advance on the

lightly defended ships one of the

largest numbers of uots was gathered for

Attack on on those

convoys very low on diesel filer is

released to refuel and return to

Port but now U 615 and three other uots

stalk Convoy HX 229 and the thousands of

tons of Allied Shipping it

protects they send the short-coated

signal to update their location every 2

hours the information is relayed to

other uots to update their

bearings the wolf pack gathers but they

need more uots to launch a full

attack they follow Luther's Convoy into

the air

gap the largest number of sinkings in

the greatest area of operations is the

North Atlantic air gap cuz that's the

place by the end of 42 and early 43 then

he could use submarines with

impunity the ubot commanders know they

only have 2 or 3 days to execute their

assault before Allied air coverage

arrives to drive them off

OTS have been trailing Convoy HX 229 in

relaying coordinates by Wireless to

allow neighboring wolf packs to close

in but radio operators at ubot

headquarters aren't the only ones

listening the Allies also intercept the

messages via stations along the

coasts while details of the signal

reports cannot be decoded by Allied

Naval intelligence

the Transmissions provide critical

information even if you can't read the

codes of what the submarines are saying

you can tell it's a submarine by what's

called Ding Direction

finding the Allies intercept signals

using two or more Shore stations

equipped with high frequency Direction

finding

technology then with basic triangulation

the Allies can determine the approximate

location of the ubot any radio message

could be picked up could be triangulated

and you knew there was a submarine there

so the operational Intelligence Center

could keep a pretty good tab on where

German submarines

were the admiralty relays the

calculations to Luther aboard HMS

volunteer Commander Luther is in a

terrible situation he knows from his

intelligence reports that he's

surrounded by a huge number of huberts

he only has three of his own ships plus

a destroyer but he knows it's totally

inadequate for the scale of the attack

that is coming Luther's situation is

Bleak German OTS often wait to exploit

the cover of darkness and the sun has

begun to

set the attack usually comes at night uh

out of the dark with the submarine

slightly a wash so that only the coning

Tower really showing above and you Comm

ined full speed and it's basically uh

being attacked by motor torpedo boats on

the high

seas expecting an attack from the north

Luther positions his ship HMS volunteer

on the port column of the merchant

ships he orders the other escorts to

adopt defensive positions around the

Convoy seven Nazi uots already draw near

[Music]

Donuts on occasion would actually hold

off till he's got six eight in some

cases uh 15 or 20 assembled around the

Convoy and then the order would be given

that the right moment in the dark of

night you're free to

attack aboard

u63

Al obber lutant zeri bman prepares for

surface

attack berlman he manages to get between

two of the escort vessels one of them it

Beverly an American built destroyer in

Royal Navy service and one of the

Corvettes and he skillfully Maneuvers

between the escorts so that he can fire

his torpedo into the

Convoy while Burman lines up his shot

Lieutenant Commander Luther orders the

Convoy to turn South hoping to evade OTS

detected to the north and

west you need luck because even so you

are moving into a position which is

perfect as soon soon as the Convoy

zigzags away from you your position is

totally wasted and another submarine

before that being in a stupid position

is all of a sudden in a perfect

position Luther's detour puts bman in a

position to attack sooner than

anticipated u63 and its crew have been

at sea for more than a month they've

already sunk two ships from another

Convoy they only have four Torpedoes

left but some are armed with new

technology called fat the Germans had

developed a new pattern running torpedo

known as the fat didn't actually have to

penetrate the Convoy you actually could

fire a torpedo from outside into the

Convoy and it would run in a pattern a

torpedo armed with f guidance system

makes regular turns and sweeps through

until it runs out of fuel or makes a hit

and it also gave the appearance that UB

was inside the Convoy even when it was

outside

but it's risky fat torpedoes do not

discriminate between Allied ships and

German

OTS both are in

danger belman's radio operator sends out

a warning to other OTS that fat armed

Torpedoes are about to be launched when

the submarine gets the information about

one submarine firing the fat torpedo

they have to leave the area where the

torpedo is moving or they have to get

deeper so that the torpedo would pass

above

them then orders the crew to fire the

four remaining

Torpedoes

fire of course it was tended to be

chance what one of these Torpedoes did

and it actually missed two ships but

eventually it found its mark Ed with a

full cargo of Wheat and

manganes the lnk suffers a crippling

blow when Luther realizes one of his

ships has been struck the cont he orders

what the Navy calls a half

rasbery all escorts turn outwards to

sweep their sector following a

triangular route to locate the submarine

that has fired the

torpedo radar is used to detect OTS on

the surface a type of sonar called asdic

sweeps for submarines

below but bman Dives without being

detected and returns to

base Luther's escorts fail to locate any

U boots as each scans its

sector but during it sweep HMS

pennyworth discovers the lifeboats of

the lnk the ship sunk by barrelman

Luther's Convoy lacks a designated

rescue ship standard Convoy procedure

then requires the last merchant ship in

the column to recover the

survivors but the sailors from the lnk

have been left

behind now one of Luther's few precious

escort ships is occupied with

rescue as midnight approaches only three

escorts are positioned to defend the

ships goods and Crews of Convoy HX

229 more uots converge and adopt attack

positions U 758 commanded by helmet

manic has been in contact with the

Convoy for over 12

hours

comp he moves in on the unprotected

starboard side

[Music]

he fires four Torpedoes into the

Convoy two merchant ships are struck

once they get the battle to Tumble it's

it's chaos for the Allies fire almost

simultaneously another ubot

fires the effect is devastating the

cargo ship SS Harry lukenbach is hit

submariners are coming in from all

directions ships are going down down

hither and yawn just pure chaos but

managed chaos in a way that works for

the

Germans then shortly after midnight

capan lutant SE fre sto launches his own

attack the American Liberty ship William

Eustace carrying 7,000 tons of sugar is

struck again last merchant ship in the

col fails to retrieve the

lifeboats with the other escorts already

performing rescues to Luther's dismay he

must now choose in an attack like this

where ships are going down the escort

Commander is always on the horns of a

terrible dilemma does he pick up

survivors or does he go after

submarines and uh it it's very very

difficult particularly in this case when

there wasn't a dedicated rescue ship on

this Convoy so therefore is faced with a

terrible

Choice Luther does not hesitate for

long he too falls back to Rescue

[Music]

survivors the remaining ships of Convoy

HX 229 carry on completely

[Music]

unprotected Crews hope that the ubot

attacks have ended but in

fact the Carnage has only just

begun however as the minutes pass no

attack comes HMS volunteer is the first

escort to retake its position on the

perimeter of the

Convoy soon afterwards HMS Beverly and

Mansfield also resumed defensive

positions but the reprieve proves

shortlived

aboard u600 cap lant Bernhard

zeran has followed silently for 4 hours

monitoring the

assault having completed his ubot

training in September of

1941 Zur Malon would commission and

serve as the only commander of

u600 he Maneuvers his ubot ahead of the

Convoy

IAD then fires a salvo of five

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

Torpedoes three ships are struck

including the southern princess a tanker

carrying 10,000 tons of fuel

oil the uots consistently over time

nibble away at the Convoy like u600

which sinks a

tanker and very satisfactorily for the

submarine not so much for the Convoy it

has a typical tanker

explosion Luther orders two escorts to

carry out sweeps along the starboard

side his own ship HMS volunteer prows to

the port

side two submarines are detected on the

surface and driven

away Luther he does the best he can he

chases submarines away but he just

hasn't got the assets for the danger

into which he's

sailing Echo bearing green 20 drawing

right although escorts detect OTS with

their ack they hunt without

success but zulan's attack is the last

of the

night when Dawn Comes the Sun rises on a

decimated

Convoy 447 of 590 Sailors have been

rescued thanks to the quick response by

Luther's

men the rgraph ubot successfully SN

eight Merchant ships ships from HX

229 about 100 Mil ahead slow Convoy 122

has also been attacked

overnight one of the first sturma group

of OTS makes contact and four more ships

are lost the first attack by the uots of

the first pack SNS 12 Allied ships quite

a good ratio it's a one-sided fight just

two uots are damaged in the battle

a stream of signals arrives at ubot

headquarters claiming almost 90,000 tons

of merchant shipping has been

sunk eventually donut realizes that his

uots have located not one but two Allied

convoys in this case they had a bad

operational planning and sending the

convoys on the same route so that they

had to pass all through the contested

area with German submarines and it was a

mistake they reassessed later on and

they didn't do it the second time durit

sends a message to the ubot to continue

to press the attack because of this HX

Convoy in particular suffering the

greatest losses of any Convoy of the war

there are Rumblings in London that

perhaps Convoy isn't protecting Merchant

ships so perhaps an alternative would

have to be found but the trouble is

there isn't one

during the day that follows the crisis

only worsens for the

Allies previously well behind HX 229 is

catching up with slow moving Allied

Convoy

sc22 Nazi uots have trapped nearly 100

sparsely defended Merchant

ships in just over 100 square miles

most of the early Rob graph boats low on

fuel and Torpedoes drop out of the

battle but sturma and danger boats begin

to assert their

presence HX 229 is still well beyond

range of most

aircraft if it had not been diverted so

far to the South air support might have

been possible

but as of March 17th the Convoy is still

far out in the air

gap basically the admiralty says to the

escort group and the on the Convoy

Commodore bash your way through until we

can get our support to

you with more OTS converging Lieutenant

Commander Luther's escorts will have to

fight for

themselves 38 uots from the St and drer

groupers surround the two

convoys risking the daylight of March

17th they continue to pick off Merchant

ships one by

[Music]

[Music]

one the size of this battle is quite

extraordinary I mean well over a 100

assets involved on both sides escorts

Merchant ships

OTS over 50 uots were actually deployed

by duret in thisle which 40 made contact

this is an absolutely extraordinary

scale of

battle but as the day goes on the

weather improves allowing the Allied

Corvettes and destroyers to go on the

offensive to loc at and attack

OTS their most effective weapons are

depth charges underwater bombs designed

especially to syn

submarines they can be set to explode at

different depths to create a sandwich

effect of explosions above and below the

ubot what destroys the sub is the over

pressure so you're not blowing it up in

the sense that you strike it with a

shell and the shell penetrates and

detonates it you just need to squeeze

it on his first Patrol capan liutenant

Kurt langa commands

u530 he has just located HX 229 and

transmits a sighting

report back

for when he submerges to avoid being

spotted

the Destroyer HMS Beverly new contact

picks him up on her atic and

charges u530 crash Dives to evade an

attack Beverly sonar continues to Ping

off the ubot

guided into position by the

contacts HMS Beverly drops its death

charges

overboard it's quite hard for the

commanding officer to keep his crew calm

and everybody is only supposed to wait

and to Hope because they can't do

anything outer structures are damaged in

the blasts and begin to fill with

water the added weight drags the uboat

down the boat sinks to nearly 800 ft

everybody is under stress you have a lot

of adrenaline in yourself and you can't

get rid of your adrenaline you can't

move water swirling in around their feet

boat creaking under

pressure capan lant langa and his crew

here the Destroyer directly

overhead he had to realize that now he

is in the position of the prey and he is

depending on luck because he can't do

anything uh against the

escorts the thing about submarines is

they're not a lot of

wounded if the sub goes down everybody

goes with it nobody's walking

home but it's u53 Z's Lucky Day HMS

Beverly loses contact with the ubot

when the Seas fall silent the crew jumps

into

action carefully managing their

remaining battery power they ascend in

30t intervals he has to conserve his

battery fuel because he needs it for

propulsion otherwise the submarine would

sing deeper and

deeper after the 2hour

attack langa's crippled ubot breaks the

surface their ordeal is

over they are fortunate to be alive

[Music]

additional Allied attacks throughout the

day of March

17th forced 12 German ubooks to lose

contact with a

convoy what you're trying to do as the

escort Commander sa clear is to break

contact it's a bonus if you can attack

it it's even better if you can sink

[Music]

it gradually the scales tip in the

Allies favor although uots continue to

pick away the two convoys approach the

edge of the air

gap Allied aircraft can reach the

convoys from Europe the wolf packs are

now also being hunted from the

sky long range air patrols liberators

Sunderland and fortresses provide cover

from the Convoy relieving pressure off

the exhausted esorts

like the Cavalry coming over the hill

the arrival of coastal command aircraft

Alters the situation very significantly

aircraft can force submarines down once

submarines are submerged their Mobility

is greatly

reduced a 206 Squadron Flying

Fortress flies into a Squall a stern of

the Convoy hoping to catch a ubot

unaware

[Music]

U 384 doesn't have a chance to dive

before four depth charges are

dropped explosions are spotted on either

side of the

uot U 384 sinks to the ocean floor

taking with it the crew of

47 the naz's Lethal Weapon has become

their iron coffin

now the Convoy is under the air umbrella

which can be quite aggressive so it the

sensible thing to do is to withdraw the

uots so that they can go back into the

gaps and find another Convoy without air

cover durit finally calls off the

[Music]

attack HX 229 and

sc22 have endured a 3-Day Assault

suffering a record amount of destru

ction between the two

convoys 22 ships totaling more than

146,000 tons has been

destroyed on the remaining vessels 11

carried more than 1,100 survivors

between

them during the ubot attacks of March

1943 dut's wolf pack strategy works

perfectly the successful operations

provide reason to believe Germany is on

the brink of winning the war for the

Atlantic for the first 3 weeks in March

of 1943 100% of the convoys crossing the

North Atlantic were intercepted over 50%

of them were actually attacked by

uots but at the end of March

circumstances shift again the resources

are are on the horizon and so is better

weather and it all changes almost in

heartbeat at the end of

merch longer spring days better

technology and more airplanes allow the

Allies to close the

airap when air power becomes really

oppressive in the spring of

43 when the north lantic air gap

disappears because of small aircraft

carriers 4 engine aircraft all radar

equipped there's no place left for

donuts to go he has to quit the end of

May cuz he has literally nothing left

the Germans go from near Victory

whatever that might have been to

catastrophic defeat in about 8

weeks the battle against the convoys

sc22 and HX 229 is a minor battle in the

context of the whole War but it marks

the shift of the battle of the

Atlantic but increased air cover is not

the only reason German OTS meet tougher

times the key to the Wolfpack tactics

was radio control centralized radio

control from from

BDU the problem was it gave away the

position of the submarines and so it

contained the seeds of its own

destruction the Allies regain their

intelligence Edge the weather improves

and the air gap

disappears the Nazis have nowhere left

to

hide in May Admiral Dennis orders his

OTS out of the North

Atlantic the wolf packs would never

again come as close to cutting off the

Allies as they did during The Long Dark

Nights of March 1943