Hitler's Last Deadly Secret - U 864

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for sixty years the North Sea has hidden one of the most intriguing naval mysteries of the Second World War the fate of the German you vote eight six four operation Caesar a cat-and-mouse chase unprecedented in military history [Music] okay committed off you wash mitt rabba that's a question who makes the first mistake [Music] Hitler's last gamble and the cargo with a deadly legacy here we have a Wargrave below us but equally it's a war grave that could bite back [Music] in the dying months of the Second World War Adolf Hitler orders a secret mission fuck loads of crates and boxes are loaded onto a German submarine the commander in charge Wolfram er Wolfram has limited u-boat experience in the fifth year of the war the German Navy is running out of veterans the you 864 is a long-haul ferry its destination Japan in its hold is loaded a secret and sensitive cargo the search team on board our senior level aeronautical scientists and engineers late in 1944 the Germans still occupy much of Europe but the Allies are closing in with heavy attacks on all fronts from Keele the you eight six four will have to navigate through the North Sea along the coast of Norway up and around Great Britain before heading south through the Atlantic Ocean and around South Africa towards Japan the fatality rate of submariners is the highest of all men in the services I mean it clicks on your brow and more so than usual the crew fears that this trip will be their last Bayley tanzir has a fiance heeda who waits for him back home but the wait will be forever today Edith vets lose thoughts drift back to her first love really barely 18 when he left her missing - a fish - oh yeah this all happened 60 years ago and the fact that I can still remember it is proof enough that we really loved each other essentially and that we just cannot forget the donggyun still hurts but on the other hand I'm so thankful that we had those two years we spent together stuff from me even if you have a otherwise he would have had nothing from life at all at least for those two years he could experience some happiness and live our love but with a love of the sea and his country Vili enlists in the Navy he's assigned to the German submarine uh6 for the waters of the North Sea are treacherous British air and naval forces ply the waters preying on German ships a rising star amongst the Royal Navy submarine commanders is lieutenant Jimmy Landers [Music] just 25 years old launders is a Boy Wonder with a genius for mathematics al under his command the hms venturer is a hunter-killer submarine we knew we were in a weapon a war weapon and we it was one that we knew was very effective beautifully built and our objective was to do the job and then get back alive over the past year the venture has sunk thirteen German vessels by one we trusted him we knew he was a good commander but I got to the end of the earth with it because it was a thought hit confirm well done boys it was very much been the drivers only 32nd in the crew and launders was way ahead in terms of his experience his knowledge his abilities it was obvious for the rest of us nobody thought a question what he decided to do in the North Sea on the tiny island of fedja in Norway a German scientist tracks local rumors about a mysterious underwater wreckage Wolfgang Lowenstein is intrigued by the story of the uh6 for the disappeared in February of 1945 Lowenstein has found a second clue when the German war archives the last radio message sent to the uh6 for it calls for a rendezvous with an escort boat near the lighthouse of Illinois on Fedya and Mysterium Dejima ducks alpha cobalt woman vanishing mysteries arise due to lack of information but dustless import colada news not knowing exactly what was loaded on the boat leaves room for speculation that goes as far as people on the Norwegian side saying that Hitler's last will is on board he does Testament trends and so the you eight six four sets out on the first and most perilous leg of its journey through the North Sea pregnant in the 30-meter teeth I woke up for those but suddenly there is a setback any the you 864 has run aground while the crew checks the u-boat for signs of damage the scientists check the vulnerable cargo Hitler's gift to the Japanese air force [Music] parts and plans for a Messerschmitt jet engine named the swallow the Messerschmitt jet engine is the German military scientific breakthrough Hitler's plan to share the pride of German engineering with Japan the mission to deliver messerschmitt technology to Japan is top secret but the British had broken the codes of the German and nygma cipher machine at Leslie Park luckily for Lowenstein they're intercepted messages were archived one of these deciphered messages details secret technical plans manuals and jet airplane parts in a u-boat headed for Japan it's code name operations Caesar the damage you eight six four makes its way to the German occupied city of Bergen in Norway for repairs it is brought into the drydock of the u-boat and Bruno the last massive beachhead of the German Navy in the North Atlantic the German submariners enjoy one last on the scheduled break and an evening of cheer before their daunting journey the Royal airforce anxious about Hitler's u-boat plan to transport jet fighter technology to Japan strikes a massive air raid over Bergen their target the the inside is the newly repaired u8 6 for operation Caesar is delayed another two weeks when Lowenstein reads the Cardinal list of the military supplies on the uh6 four headed for Japan one item in particular stands out 1857 flasks of mercury s kidney Estonian community owns Hair Stylist CPT photo mercury was mainly used for manufacturing ammunition it was ordered that every boat sailing to Japan should carry mercury onboard a wartime staple used to make bomb detonations but mercury has a long and lethal life of its own what has become of it the ballast Keane the keel was used as a storage room which would normally be filled with steel blocks but they were taken out and replaced with mercury filled bottles they weighed a total of 60 tons a stone is consigned ustus quick ceiling stop it could be the mercury is still inside the bottles however some of the bottles could have been destroyed or have perhaps deteriorated due to corrosion leaving the mercury inside the keel final repairs to the u8 6 4 completed Wolfram's crew prepares to relaunch operation Caesar the Royal Navy's submarine base in the Shetland Islands it's a message from Bletchley Park a u-boat somewhere in the North Sea waters is heading for Japan can it be stopped on a tip from Norwegian fishermen the Norwegian coast guard leaves port to explore a possible submarine wreck at the bottom of the North Sea among the passengers mr. Wolfgang Lowenstein he joins Norwegian logical scientists and technicians and Professor Eric Grove a leading British expert in nautical warfare but their motive isn't historical curiosity if this wreck is the U eight six four it has over 60 tons of mercury on board a possible ecological nightmare off the coast of Norway the potential danger is the mercury has been transformed by bacteria in the waters into methyl mercury a far more poisonous element than the original mercury this methyl mercury could rise up in the water and thus enter the food chain through its absorption by fish the Geo Bay has north along the fjords and rocky islands off the Norwegian coast their destination the hell is a lighthouse on Fedya this was the main path to the open sea of the UVO vase a Berger back there and so it German u-boats were going to move and going to be operational they had to move through through these waters here and this meant that if you wanted to interdict that if you wanted to stop the movement then here was where or just off here was where you concentrated your anti-submarine essence February 5th the Admiralty passes on an intercepted enemy message to Commander launders the message suggests that launders position the venture near the lighthouse of Hellas way at the southern shore of fecha messages since there are no other details the rest they will leave to launders just a bit was a very very gentle suggestion we might have better hunting if we were around and of course to see we get a signal like that we know what it means the u8 6 4 with a mission to bring jet engine technology to Japan is newly repaired captain Wolfram sets out from Bergen for a long and dangerous journey it's just one day after captain launders gets his orders to head for Hellas oi and lay in wait once in the waters off hello SOI laundries makes careful use of his periscope hoping to find a surfaced u-boat the venture is equipped with azdak sonar technology measuring sonic waves to detect objects and determine their distance the azdak device makes a small pinging noise as the sound waves travel to an object and back this can give away a submarines own position captain launders relies instead on a low-tech hydrophone suddenly the quiet rhythmic pulse of the u-boats engine is broken and engine malfunctions it is still working but it is noisy and noise is a submariners worst enemy hey Doc you one better commandant Denali we can't afford not back from Satan's rebellion cause wonderful mandazi cut both of 0t verheiden come dear I noticed and three all content is called evidence and syncing people of your models in Illinois near hemorrhoid the research vessel geo bay scans the bottom of the sea with its sonar [Music] for the first pictures from the seabed appear [Music] the images show the remains of a German sub neatly broken into it blew the u-boat apart completely and it's part went its own V absolutely yes and I can't understand it's a moment that we shall find it's a bow in a distance to the aft of about 40 meters a long way away and alone it's been turned round turn out yes the bow half nearly upright in the sea bottom mud a long-haul German you vote category 9d to the same design as the u8 6 for John Watson's morning watch suddenly ventures as dick operator here's something an unusual sound a periscope I could not see what was causing this noise he said it sounded a bit like a fishing vessel starting and stopping its engines you see as if it was doing something with its fishing and I should have been able to see it the other fishing vessels were further away and he said no they're much further away this is closer so I was concerned about that because I couldn't see it heading back towards hell avoid the anxiety aboard the troubled you eight-six for grows [Music] in enemy waters a noisy submarine can draw unwanted attention we may be thinking about that 7c alright wolfram checks his periscope for the escort boat he's been promised I'll board the venture first lieutenant Andy Chalmers takes over from Watson he noted that he had to keep a sharp eye on the fishing vessels that we were moving towards and he also kept a sharp eye on the bearing where the noise being again Wolfram checks his periscope it's a dangerous tactic if there's a watchful enemy eye in the area the periscope can give him away nothing inside has regained contact green one zero possible diesel engine the noise started to get louder when he was on watch and started to travel across ahead of us briefly in the distance control the submarine action station contact possible diesel engine [Music] and we all realized that we were dealing with there somewhere it's too bad we felt a bit shaky because he could sink us the same as we could save baby [Music] the chase is on now for the German you vote with the secret cargo for Japan the Norway Coast Guard ship boasts a highly trained crew of scientists and technicians and state-of-the-art nautical equipment the remote operation vehicle with robotic limbs and cameras is lowered into the water 240 feet to inspect the mysterious wreck will the closer inspection solve the mystery of the sunken u-boat deep in the waters off the Norwegian coast the engine noise aboard the German you eight-six for has everyone tense the hms venturer smells blood lieutenant launders and navigator watson tracked the mysterious sound altering course we were hoping that she was surface and then if she surfaced we would be able to torpedo her straightaway we get much more accurate information about for the director angler more estimate but there's no sign of her doing that but can they hit what they can't see hey was underwater we're underwater he had no instructions for now to deal with it [Music] [Music] altering course possible zigzagging we soon realized after quite a half an hour that he was actually sick they came up straightaway on the plot the next problem was to work out what the zigzag was you know which were the short legs and which were the long legs so we knew that the chances were he was probably singing on a complicated pattern they told us that he was very nervous Arbus of the chances of there being a british uber british submarine there and a crisis on his hands captain Wolfram has to get his u-boat back to Bergen as soon as possible but enemy vessels might be nearby he can't risk being an easy target he got back button every periscope maneuver by wolfram gives launders a bit more information about the pattern of the u-boats course one last sighted bearing zero nine one if we ever saw anything of his periscope not his radio mast but his periscope he had a chance to see us so there's that risk you want to get the torpedoes away in case he got his torpedoes away every time he turned and when he turned away if you like there's a little bit of tension in the control room because in the ideal position for him to fire back at us an underwater attack on a submerged you vote has never before been attempted both vessels are moving and both are virtually blind launders plan is to pinpoint his target using his own unique calculator he estimates the distance and direction based on the azdak operators experienced year together with periodic sightings of the enemy periscope he and Watson plotted the German u-boats path attention intends altering to firing course port 15 steer zero nine seven once he decided that he had he felt confident that he knew what she was going to do next then we we moved away to attack Florence closed up attraction stations stand by one two three and four tubes open bow in the control room of the Geo Bay all eyes are fixed on the monitor slowly the images of a 92 you both appeared that's good that's good yes it's size [Music] it's tell to your last echo that's heavy caliber that's a twin twin - that's our Twitter let me - gun I think yes yes that thing yeah that's right yeah I think yes that's that little platform the men on Geo Bay are convinced that this is the u8 6 4 and the gun on the fo'c'sle yes there well it seems to have corroded quite badly it's what else it's marine life on it is it eventually the team finds the final clue on the seabed near the keel they find an object that looks like a mercury container the Norwegian scientist takes samples of the surrounding water and sediment nearby and under the wreck I think it's important that something is done about it as quickly as possible I think the problem really is that you've that here we have a war grave below us but equally it's a war grave that could bite back the retrieved flask still contains traces of mercury after 60 years in salt water the steel has corroded and the metal has begun to deteriorate [Music] water and sediment samples from near the site are tested for mercury content the contamination is far beyond acceptable levels their salts indicate that we have a very high flux of mercury from these sediments the highest concentration we found is about one hundred thousand micrograms per gram while the background levels in the area are zero zero one zero zero two microgram per gram so actually the nearby area around the wreckage is really highly contaminated the hms venturer has been stalking the german u-boat a64 for two hours lieutenant Jimmy Landers is ready to fire all four torpedoes fire one he has calculated that the u-boat is 2,000 yards away traveling at 3.5 months each torpedo will take two minutes to reach it's moving target it is 12 minutes past 12:00 wolfram has been dodging imagined enemies for hours but only now are the captain's worst fears realized [Music] five - five - four - you ate six four on a secret mission to Japan is under attack by the hms venturer it is an unprecedented military maneuver both are submerged and invisible the torpedoes are fired at seventeen point five second intervals and take two minutes to reach the u-boat as one noisy torpedo approaches another is following fast behind there's no time to think with certain death surging towards them captain Wolfram has only one hope the evasion right this will be the leftovers [Music] the first torpedo has missed so Peter I don't say but I see it non-stop by a four the last torpedo is fired [Music] three down and one to go [Music] let's admit again [Music] [Music] at 14 and a half minutes past twelve launders writes in his log there is a loud sharp explosion followed by breaking up noises if you can imagine a box of matches being squeezed into the hand I'm cracking up there is a sound of a another ship going down it breaks up [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was a relief that you got rid of and then the next minute I realized there was another submarine and more sub submariners have been killed do we recognize another Submariner no matter where he come from we take our hats off to him they were all in the same boats at us so we realized that it was nothing to be jubilant a girl and he put a minute and gone a solemn testament to the success of lieutenant Jimmy Landers gamble the u-boats hydroplanes caught in the emergency dive position revealed Wolfram's final tragic maneuver [Music] the loss of life was swift and complete what's so impressive about it I think is that he used his technology in a novel kind of way he just used his sonar to listen for the submarine he used a combination of sonar and visual observations to to track the submarine he showed enormous patience and what he was effectively inventing was the kind of anti-submarine warfare which came to the fore in the post-war period the wreck of the you 864 might become one of the worst ecological disasters in the North Sea the surrounding sediment is contaminated with Mercury at a concentration of 10% it's a slow-acting poison lethal to all living creatures I think it is how the main problem will be corrosion this Bedoya data we've seen traces of rust coming out of the slits and the holes if one wants to lift the wreckage or work on it for example by opening up the keel materiality the boat would collapse and disintegrate we shout his name is eros [Music] today fishing is prohibited while the Norwegian government considers an attempt to cover the wreck site hermetically in a steel tomb but they don't know yet if this will work [Music] a rare moment of celebration the king will bestow decorations in honor of the successful mission against the uh6 for Lieutenant James Stewart launders from the King declares a fearless and skillful commanding officer remained in the Royal Navy until his death in 1988 sub Lieutenant John Frederick Watson awarded four great keenness and devotion to duty is now a retired geologist an Able Seaman Harry James plumber awarded for courage cheerfulness and alertness is a retired Royal Navy instructor for Vili tanzir there is a final goodbye at the u-boat memorial in hikin Dorf near keel Edith vets allure finds some solace seeing one familiar name among the 30,000 German submariners who lost their lives in the Second World War Robinson speaking each name displayed meet when I go to bed at night I put his picture under my pillow it comforts me that he has found a final rest donuts the attack on the you 864 was the last sinking of a German you vote by allies in the second world war within three months Germany surrenders it will be left to future generations of Norwegians to deal with the legacy of Hitler's secret mission a deadly memento from a world at war

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Channel: Nowhere Man

Views: 1,137,904

Rating: 4.6744828 out of 5

Keywords: WWII, Shipwrecks, U-Boats

Id: wvqDrj3i8eg

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Length: 44min 32sec (2672 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2017

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