How The U-Boat Peril Was Defeated | WWII: Price Of Empire | War Stories

war ravaging the east since 1937 and japan's invasion of china reached europe on the 1st of september 1939 with germany's invasion of poland it became global on the 7th of december 1941 when japanese aircraft attacked the american naval base at pearl harbor [Music] it touched every continent and lasted for six years [Music] it ended with a new weapon for a new age this is the history of the greatest of all man-made events these men are part of that history they are eyewitnesses to the triumphs and tragedies of the war wherever it was formed [Music] their testimony is part of the story of how our world was made by those who could pay and those who could no longer meet [Music] the price of empire it is 1941. britain has faced down the threat of invasion and defeated the luftwaffe in the skies over the british isles now its survival is imperiled by the longest military campaign of the second world war the battle of the atlantic events in this year in the balkans in the eastern mediterranean region known as the levant in north and east africa will decisively influence the war at the end of the year japan will take action that makes the war truly global but before that the story of the second world war is to be transformed by a single word barbarossa [Music] [Music] on the 1st of september 1939 the passenger liner athenia left glasgow with 1103 passengers on the evening of the third the day that britain declared war she was cited by the german submarine u-30 which fired two torpedoes athenia sank at 10 40 the next morning interviews with survivors vividly underlined their audio between seven and eight we were picked up by the destroyer and they took us on board 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed 54 of the dead were canadian one a 10 year old causing canadian newspapers to core us in headlines empire at war the battle of the atlantic had begun it would not properly end until the war in europe ended almost six years later winston churchill famously admitted that the only thing in the war that truly frightened him was the german u-boat menace the losses were great but they were not losses that could knock britain out of the war thanks to the countermeasures that evolved the escorted convoy system long-range aircraft and perhaps most significantly ship building techniques particularly those in american shipyards where more ships were being launched and were being sunk at the start of the war admiral karl durnitz chief of the u-boat force had claimed that he needed a fleet of 300 vessels but he only had 58 and u-boat building was not made a priority until 1942 when hitler allowed that the submarine will in the end decide the outcome of the war it did not by the end of the war germany had 463 u-boats but that was too many too late the pride of the german navy the kriegsmarine was her capital ships and the pride of these was the bismarck [Music] the steel used in the construction of the bismarck could have built 100 submarines instead it produced a single battleship that went to war on may the 19th 1941 she was from the start shadowed by british naval forces and elements of the fleet air arm she was brought to battle and after just 10 days at sea she was sunk the rodney opened fire first and shortly afterwards the king george v did the same it was a great tonic after not having had any breakfast to hear 16 inch gun salvos going off just in front of one by contrast submarines had been effective in preying on the crucial supply routes that brought food and vital war material to britain [Music] though the impact of these losses had been softened annual imports of food had been reduced from 55 million to 35 million tons and eating and farming habits had been changed by what was available what rationing allowed and what government agencies recommended friendly advice leads to better food better health and greater energy make use of your food advice center it's there to help the first of what german u-boat commanders in the atlantic called the happy times lasted until the early months of 41. the germans introduced the pack tactic rudel tactic which the british called the wolf pack groups of u-boats acting together with the assistance of information from british naval codes which they had deciphered so great was their initial success that in march 1941 winston churchill released 40 000 men from military conscription to work in the dockyards where a backlog of 800 000 tons of damaged shipping was awaiting repair the u-boat of the day was not the stealthy killer of today it was diesel powered on the surface [Music] battery powered when submerged when it traveled as slowly as the slowest cargo vessel the u-boats vulnerability was found out by augmented destroyer and corvette escort groups accompanying convoys where in january and february of 1941 no u-boats had been lost they now began to suffer monthly sinkings by war's end 75 percent of those who served on u-boats had been killed a casualty rate unequaled by any branch of any service in any country from may convoys were being escorted for the entire atlantic crossing with the royal canadian navy assuming responsibility for the western zone just as crucially the united states despite its neutrality was escorting convoys as far east as iceland at the start of 1941 the president of the united states had sent the strongest possible signal to his people that they could not forever stand idly by say to the democracy we americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom it was january the 6th 1941 and the state of the union address in his speech roosevelt defined the four freedoms he saw as being fundamental to people everywhere freedom of speech of worship from want and from fear [Music] in april 1941 a minor event of great significance influenced to the battle of the atlantic the capture of u-boat 110 forced to the surface by royal navy action the boarding party stripped u110 of everything portable including her kurt signal codebook and enigma machine the documents and the machine helped code breakers at gcncs the british government code and cipher school at bletchley park penetrate the 1.253 trillion permutations of the enigma code thereafter decrypting more than a million krieg's marine messages during the war the improvement in allied countermeasures is demonstrated by the figures in the first six months of 1941 about a million and a half tons of shipping had been lost to submarines but that figure was almost exactly halved in the second half of the year and at the cost of 32 u-boats sunk by 1943 the picture had changed dramatically in 1943 248 u-boats were sunk it was to defend other imperial trade routes coming to britain through the red sea and suis that britain was established in egypt it was this that brought war to the north african shore and this that made the horn of africa of vital interest [Music] we did about six weeks bush warfare trainings and maneuvers which i thought was really inadequate we were in no way trained for war half of the bridge had never fought a rapper we had the old cl3s from the first world war that's what we were equipped with 1940 we went into action [Music] in late january 1941 lieutenant general sir alan cunningham advanced covering 55 kilometers a day his indian south african british and east and west african troops crossed into ethiopia on february the 2nd 1941 [Music] their task to take on the italians and put the emperor hailey selassie back on his throne in our first battle against the italians we actually came out of trump we drove the italians out they outnumbered us it's a chat to go whether we're going to succeed so they brought in a few british regiments and related to india regiment misawa is hot into every senior now we had to fight the italian to take everything back to it which we did amazingly with it with our greenhouse army he succeeded cunningham had taken 50 000 prisoners and gained more than 930 square kilometers at the cost of 130 men killed and four captured italian resistance continued until late november but by then the majority of british troops had been withdrawn to bolster the forces facing a more serious challenge in north africa vichy france and franco's spain both sympathetic to the axis powers controlled morocco algeria was vichy french as was tunisia libya was an italian possession egypt which meant control of the suis canal was a british protectorate the mediterranean was a disputed sea when italy entered the war britain had been obliged to withdraw naval units from the asian station which left singapore and malaya with fatally little protection the mediterranean fleet of the royal navy with several royal australian navy vessels intercepted and sank or severely damaged several ships of the regia marina the italian navy in the battle of matapan off the southwest coast of the greek peloponnesian peninsula it was the 27th and 28th of march and the last fleet action to be fought by the royal navy [Music] the conflict in the mediterranean invested a small british possession with great strategic significance [Music] this was malta a fortress with airfields and an immense naval dockyard well that was the 234th raid on the island and there have been many since then battered continuously from the air supplied by erratic convoy the resilience and defiance of the maltese people was recognized in 1942 by the british monarch the entire island was awarded the highest civilian decoration for gallantry the george cross it appears today on the flag of the republic of malta independent since the early 1960s keeping malta meant keeping open the sea lanes along which supplies went to the allied forces gathering in north africa [Music] measured 2 was uh survive base there were stacks and stacks of surplus spear parts petrol rations medical all covered with calculusness and that's our first night in the western desert the british had begun to press west from alexandria against the italians by january the 5th 1941 bardia had fallen to the 6th australian division by the 22nd to brookville and on the 6th of february the australians entered benghazi [Music] so there were a lot of british families there that did all the time before we were taken after they fed us and we went to sleep on the ground we heard this noise that says what's his noise he said oh you'll find out the italian air force subways and martinez with a sprinkling of german pocket wolves and mrs woods there was so thick the light couldn't shine through it's like a black cloud the first we had ever seen they came in the first machine gunning and of course you start running like that settle down flying down don't drown pressure the ground just say that but right around you make yourself a target and he kept forgetting because we lost a few minutes two idiots my god we have never experienced lots of living before [Music] british success in north africa was short-lived in early january churchill had weakened the force in north africa by ordering the troops be sent to reinforce the campaign in greece and on the day that benghazi fell hitler who had announced a month earlier that he was giving direct military support to italy appointed a general to command the german contingent in libya his name was irwin grommel he made his first move on march the 24th and pressing forward entered benghazi unopposed on april the 4th the advance continued at such a pace and the withdrawal in such confusion that two british generals o'connor and neem were captured and the australians were in danger of being cut off by the end of april to brooke was besieged and the british had been driven back to the positions from which they had jumped off five months earlier [Music] the news for the allies was equally bleak in the balkans hitler already disturbed by italy's failed invasion of greece reacted violently when the new yugoslav regime which had thrown out his ally prince paul signed a non-aggression pact with stalin and indicated a willingness to discuss a coalition with great britain [Music] the german offensive in the balkans opened on april the 6th with a luftwaffe attack on the yugoslav capital belgrade 50 divisions with strong air support brushed aside 28 poorly equipped yugoslav divisions without air support losing just 151 dead as they marched through the country on their way to greece to which british and commonwealth troops had been sent [Music] on april the 17th yugoslavia surrendered the axis took over 300 000 prisoners but that was not the end of the fight nothing in the balkans is or ever has been that clear-cut the terrain is irregular and complex lending itself to guerrilla style parties and tactics the mixed ethnicities have never coalesced and rivalries run deep and destructive [Music] the area became the only theater for effective parties and activity but those who fought the common enemy hitler's germany put just as much energy into fighting each other serbian monarchists the technics could not agree common cause with croatian mustachi and neither allied with partisans led by a former agent of the communist international who called himself tito [Music] the germans callous invasion of greece another black outrage in hitler's record of crime is thus launched over land where superiority and tanks and motor transport may avail them nothing we didn't have really proper maps we only had a few sketches and kerry said to me oh there's a there's a goat hand over there could you would you like to go over it and ask if he knows what he'll be answered so i said very good sir i walked across and this man was sat there and i said excuse me do you understand english and he looked at me a bit old-fashioned said no but i can't speak american most of our tanks we destroy ourselves because we didn't have spares i had the last tank on the road just north of thebes somewhere the engine packed up and the planes came over and we piled into a ditch and they caught it with a bomb took the tracks in it off one side and then the order came through every man himself the greek government had collapsed so that was it the greek first army surrendered on april the 20th and just over a week later the royal navy took off w force comprising an australian division a new zealand division and a british armoured brigade w force was evacuated to crete leaving 10 000 of its number behind as prisoners of war as with dunkirk the british had managed to extricate the men but had been obliged to leave behind the heavy equipment the germans entered athens on april 27th two days earlier in further directive 28 hitler had ordered the capture of crete before the assault on crete was launched one of the war's most bizarre footnotes had played out it would not appear to have been a time for the axis to be seeking peace with the beleaguered allies but someone felt that they should at 1745 on the 10th of may 1941 a specially prepared me110 took to the air its pilot and sole occupant was wearing a leather flying suit bearing the rank of captain he flew to scotland was unable to spot his destination and parachuted out of the plane just after 11 at night under questioning he admitted that he was rudolf hess the third most powerful man in the right deputy fuhrer and long time friend and confidant of adolf hitler yes i'm the man that grabbed a rudolph house i rushed out to the house and the first thing i saw was a man in the parachute he said he was married and pulled out a photograph of his little boy whom he was very proud he said i seen him this morning but heaven knows when i shall see him again hess was on a peace mission which appears to have been entirely his own idea when a furious hitler learned of it he initiated axion hesse a propaganda effort to denigrate hess who was not of course empowered to negotiate for peace imprisoned hess took his own life in 1987. he was 93 years old [Music] the time rudolf hess was safely in british custody the luftwaffe had launched its first attacks on the island of crete [Music] after five days on may the 20th the germans began their assault the plan was for an airborne invasion it was a disaster and germany would never as a result use airborne troops again glider troops and four of the parachute battalions were smashed to pieces before they could join the fight by the end of may the 20th german forces had failed to secure any of their objectives german commanders decided to throw all available resources into an attack on malami the location of the airfield on the morning of may 21st the germans advanced and found that the troops defending the airfield had been withdrawn [Music] the germans wasted no time flying in reinforcements british army commanders were soon considering surrender and on the first anniversary of dunkirk british troops were evacuated leaving the people of crete to face well-documented atrocities british british empire and dominion troops were also in action at the eastern end of the mediterranean then as now a region of great strategic significance the levant substantially the area of modern iraq syria and lebanon was largely controlled by an administration loyal to pettas vichy french government on the 8th of june a british force with three french elements advanced into syria and lebanon with the expectation of meeting token resistance from the vichy garrison its expectations were disappointed vishy forces resisted fiercely it was not until july the 15th that resistance was overcome 38 000 vichy troops were given the option of joining the free french or being repatriated to france only 5 700 elected to fight on the defeat of italy and abyssinia and the vichy french in the lava were important in securing britain's position in egypt as a base for the battle in north africa where fighting had flared again it had not favored the allies [Music] we got to a place that's directly opted to brooke a place called situated are saying what would you expect to find there nothing there was a stone there not a building nothing else adam very bush black park all these lands were part of the desert but there was nothing there just the final stones without number orders on june 15th general wavel commander-in-chief succumbing to pressure from churchill who wanted him to relieve to brook had launched an offensive operation battle axe two days later he had been pushed back to the start line and the british had lost more than 90 tanks casualties of what was to become one of the most feared weapons of the ground war the german 88 millimeter anti-tank gun i watched the german 88 it fired six shots and burned up five tanks [Music] churchill was less tolerant of failure amongst his generals than any other leader his record makes hitler as hitler was to point out to his commanders seem benevolent failure cost wavel his job and on july 5th he was replaced by claude awkinlik who would enjoy initial success [Music] in august an allied campaign had seen british and soviet troops working together for the first time invade and suppress iran with its priceless oil reserves [Music] though nominally neutral the shah of iran had shown sympathy for the axis cause the invasion operation countenance deposed him and opened an overland route along which the allies could send supplies to russia on the 18th of november a fresh north african offensive crusader was launched it had been planned by general cunningham who did not last long [Music] rommel reacted swiftly stopping the advance and taking a heavy toll of allied tanks [Music] the attempted breakout from tobruk failed on the 20th [Music] and on the 24th ronald's armor dashing for the wire as it was said reached the egyptian libyan frontier cunningham sought permission to halt the offensive and fall back walking lek as his commander did more than disagree he dismissed him fighting in north africa would resume decisively in 1942 but as a battlefield it had been quite overshadowed by events elsewhere for two days in august 1941 the leaders of the great democracies had met aboard an american warship in placentia bay in newfoundland [Music] it was the first wartime summit between president roosevelt and prime minister churchill [Music] although america was not in the war the meeting importantly affirmed the relationship between britain and the us the atlantic charter that resulted from the meeting spelled out eight common principles no territorial expansion liberalization of world trade freedom of the seas basic standards for international labor economic management and welfare restoration of self-government to countries occupied in the war and finally which churchill must have known was the death knell of empire self-determination for all peoples such a demonstration of anglo-american solidarity was in part a response to increasing tensions in asia and in part it was recognition of the tremendous escalation of the european war on the 22nd of june 1941 germany and her axis partners had invaded the union of soviet socialist republics [Music] the legend of frederick the first is that he sleeps in a cave from which he will one day emerge to lead germany back to her mythologized greatness for his red beard frederick is known as barbarossa [Applause] [Music] for a directive 21 of december the 18th 1940 gave that name to the instruction that the german armed forces must be prepared even before the conclusion of the war against england to crush soviet russia in a rapid campaign the barbarossa plan said that the bulk of the russian army stationed in western russia will be destroyed by daring operations led by deeply penetrating armored spearheads of course secrecy was vital germany and the soviet union had signed a non-aggression pact amazingly the assault by up to 4 million troops 600 000 vehicles and about the same number of horses did come as a surprise to stalin despite german violations of soviet airspace and warnings including one from the anti-nazi german ambassador to moscow stalin trusted hitler [Music] is [Music] [Music] on june the 22nd the soviet forward physician radioed we are being fired on what are we to do on the day of the invasion hitler had written to his ally mussolini he began i am writing this letter to you at a moment when months of anxious deliberation and continuous nerve-wracking are ending in the hardest decision of my life but it was in fact the one decision to which his life was utterly committed on june the 22nd he had unleashed drang austin the thrust to the east hitler's objective the a.a line which linked archangel to astrakhan was about 3 200 kilometers from berlin three army groups were to advance on divergent axes the front line 2100 kilometers at the start would spread to over 3000 kilometers as the attack developed 151 german divisions were supported by 40 from axis partners only romanians and italians were there in significant numbers but there were dutch french danish croatian slovakian hungarian romanian and even a spanish division although they were not officially at war with anyone russian forces were found deployed following every twist and turn of the border instead of holding a formed defensive position the red air force was similarly forward and exposed [Music] 1500 soviet aircraft were destroyed on the ground and 300 in the air in the first 24 hours hitler was almost presented with a complete victory almost only a little over half of the red army's strength was in the west and exposed to germany's first assault [Music] it fell back or fell apart but astonishingly losses were made good and the factories on which the war effort would depend were dismantled and shipped to safety two thousand five hundred and ninety three industrial units had been transported east by train to the other side of the euros by the end of the year plant and workforce would be back in action turning out tanks and guns and aircraft within days or weeks of arrival workers living where they could and eating in state canteens that fed 25 million people every day the offensive in the ukraine resulted in one of the most complete battlefield victories in history [Music] [Applause] from christ's panzer group 1 and guderian's panzer army closed the trap around kiev encircling an army witch on the 26th of september surrendered 655 000 russian prisoners the largest single capture in the history of warfare well over a million russians were prisoners of war by september on october the third hitler announced victory his propaganda minister joseph goebbels put it poetically the eastern continent he said lies like a limp virgin in the mighty arms of the german mars [Music] the smashing success of the first three weeks of barbarossa had come at a cost to the axis the strength of armoured units had been reduced by 40 per cent and almost 400 000 troops were dead wounded or missing as early as august the 11th hitler had written the whole situation makes it increasingly plain that we have underestimated the russian colossus by mid-october 1941 the austere the eastern army had occupied territory where 45 of the soviet population lived 64 of its coal was mined and 47 of its grain was harvested germany would remain in occupation of these bountiful lands until the summer of 1944 and squander the opportunity in many parts of the occupied territory the elders rejoicing in their release from soviet oppression greeted the invaders with traditional bread and salt observing local joy field marshal faith or von bokh commanding army group center observed this people would not be difficult to lead but these were unto mention subhuman hitler's crusade was by design genocidal and his overriding concept was volkerkrieg the clash of peoples [Music] hitler could have made an empire but he made only enemies on september the 30th general gadarian had begun to move on moscow all other units along a wide front moving on october 2nd today hitler said began the last great offensive of the war but on october the 8th rain fell it was what the russians call rasputitsa internal seas the time when roads dissolve fierce fighting continued but the armies literally got bogged down and the offensive stalled leading german units were within 30 kilometers of moscow the germans along an 1800 kilometer front had much of european russia in their hands [Music] panic soviet reinforcements were found resistance was desperate moscow did not fall hitler was right he had underestimated the russian colossus [Music] between june and december 1941 for every dead german there were 20 dead soviets but like charles xii of sweden who was undone at poltava in 1709 like napoleon who took moscow before being forced into a disastrous retreat in 1812 adolf hitler had mightily wounded the russian bear but he had not killed it operation barbarossa was over what would happen next [Applause] what happened when fighting resumed with shukoff's counter offensive in december was part of a very different war because on the 7th of december as shukov's offensive was starting to bite japan thrust itself into the conflict with surprise attacks on several fronts including the one that led franklin d roosevelt to term december the seventh a date which will live in infamy [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, world war 2, ww2 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, royal navy, ww2, battle of the atlantic, operation barbarossa, battle of britain, u-boat peril, churchill ww2, wolfpack tactics ww2, Karl Donitz, american shipbuilding, kriegsmarine ww2, bismarck battleship, WWII rationing, Enigma code, U-boat 110, crete ww2, malta ww2, greece ww2, battle of matapan

Id: 9j65cpJoVJA

Length: 49min 18sec (2958 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021