North Atlantic - WWII - U864

December the 4th 1944 a deadly delivery to a secret rendezvous this is the start of a mission designed to change the wars outcome operation Caesar will prompt a unique underwater confrontation a duel to the death between two submarines I have controlled the submarine action stations look for target cap Dave the middle of your wife miss robot it's a question who makes the first mistake is the loser fire one not much Oh physic me again by three today a broken wreck could hold vital clues to the Dyneema of this battle of wits there is the tragic part of this you know that inside this metal coffin there are a significant number of people [Music] Edythe vet slur has come to pay tribute to a man she once loved and lost [Music] it's more than 60 years since she last saw the face of her fiance Willy transia was barely 18 when he left Edith this is national fish Teixeira here this all happened 60 years ago and the fact that I can still remember it proves that we really loved each other it still hurts but I'm so thankful that we had those few years together with anguish mushishi jeepers Yara within the premium gift since otherwise he would have had nothing from life at least for those couple of years he knew real happiness and he lived our love did he believe Willie's other great love was the sea in October 1942 he joined the German Navy as a volunteer he worked his way up from personnel Clark and became a submarine mechanic his first mission was on the u-boat u8 6 4 [Music] by December 1944 the tide of war had turned against Hitler and Germany heavy attacks on land in the air and on the sea had pushed the Germans back they were hemmed in on all sides [Music] one of the last possible operational routes was through the North Sea it was from Keele that you ate six four prepared to try and escape the Allied stranglehold the commander in charge captain Ralph rime evolved from had limited experience life was short for submariners in the fifth year of the war the German Navy was running out of veterans you 864 was not just a normal human the 92 class boat was very large almost 90 meters long and capable of 20 knots it had been filmed with a secret cargo [Music] and just as precious human cargo German and Japanese scientists and engineers they were Hitler's last hope to change the wars outcome of all France or der's were clear at any cost these men and their cargo had to reach Japan's production sites [Music] on the early morning of December the 5th 1944 captain volt fram set out into the open sea operation Caesar would take you 8 6 4 from Kiel around Africa to Penang in Asia [Music] the men on board knew it would be a dangerous voyage they were prepared for a trip that would last many months no no I mean look at blush on your brow [Music] the happy max I know I said to me this mission was a mystery nobody knows where it's going or how it will end traveling through northern waters had become a risky venture the Allies had seized command of the Seas the once successful wolf packs were becoming easy prey the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy were on constant lookout for German u-boats 60 years later the tiny island of failure in Norway German scientist Wolfgang Lowenstein has come to inspect a mysterious wreck the subject of many rumors he was contacted by a fisherman who found a strange object in his nets it seems to be a valve probably from a German submarine speculation abounds about the find and Mysterium videmic about the less information people have the more they make things up but us we don't know what's in this mystery u-boat people are spinning all kinds of weird stories in some even say Hitler's last will could be in there I heard Harvard us that hitlist histamine twins I'm sorry but Lowenstein's research is founded on hard facts like the record of the last radio message that was sent to you 8 6 4 it's for a rendezvous with an escort ship near the lighthouse of failure a rendezvous you 864 never made almost a week into its mission you ate six four was crawling along the southern coast of Norway it traveled submerged in daylight the danger of being detected was great from time to time captain Wolfram risked his periscope no contacts were logged apartment in the aesthetic immediate effect I woke up four hours [Music] the records show no problems for operation Caesar and you 864 until the 29th of December in failure the German scientist Wolfgang lounge time is reviewing yet more documents the archives have yielded previously lost details about the secret cargo of operation Caesar [Music] when you ate six for accidentally ran aground captain wolf Rams first task was to check his u-boat was still watertight once the boat reported back it was time for his guests to check if their secret and delicate load had suffered any damage inside the crates wrapped in straw the prize jet engines for the first successful jet fighters developed by yonkers BMW and Messerschmitt the German and Japanese scientists checks revealed no damage to these fragile engines Germany's technically superior Messerschmitt jet fighters were eagerly sought by the Japanese Air Force they were a last desperate resource to turn the tide in the Pacific War the Japanese High Command believed they could disrupt the American bombers and win back aerial supremacy [Music] the transportation of the messerschmitt planes was top-secret but as hair lounge Stein's research has proved little about this mission remained hidden from the British [Music] the codebreakers at Bletchley Park had seen to that hundreds of staff worked in shifts to crack the codes of the German Enigma machine and reveal the hidden messages of the British ultra machines meant that almost all radio traffic was deciphered especially the u-boat communications one intercepted message spoke about the cargo of u8 6 for the British codebreakers discovered and reported every detail even the names of the German and Japanese scientists and the cover name of this secret mission operations Caesar after the grounding you ate six for put into the city of Bergen in Norway the vessel was brought into drydock inside the u-boat pen Bruno [Music] the last massive beachhead of the German Navy in the North Atlantic this stopover in Bergen was not on the original itinerary of you 86 for drawing on their unexpected leave the crew were allowed ashore captain Volf remand his guests visited the officers mess at naval headquarters in Bergen the captain his officers and guests all recorded their visit in the mess guestbook a vault Fram wrote the motto of all German u-boat captains heart of gold clear horizon referring to his grounding he wrote we were lucky again this luck ended just hours later British Lancaster bombers launched a massive air raid on Bergen their target the u-boat pen Brunner one enormous tally boy bomb hit the reinforced concrete walls of bunker number three inside lay you 8 6 4 the crew of the u-boat had to extend their stay in Bergen for repairs all this confirmed the growing apprehension of the German mechanic Willy transia he had his doubts about this voyage even before it started and now saw his misgivings confirmed just before departure he wrote a last message to Edith vet slur the Hobby shuffle it's this is the last photo of my fiance the third image which he dedicated to me with the words farewell greetings and kisses your Willie just before Willie left Germany he and Edith had become engaged Aqsa beautifully said pray for me that we come through this in one piece throwing them with the exhaust and he said to his mother mama don't be sad if I don't come back I know you're too old to have another child or would have said have another child so you won't be alone no man came to finish alone I saw it and he said to me either so should you be pregnant please please let me know b2b division but I wasn't it didn't turn out that way [Music] the intercepted radio messages were forwarded to the submarine base in Loic Shetland's the home base for submarines like hms venturer action stations at this 740 ton v-class submarine had already sunk 13 vessels in the North Sea and North Atlantic she was under the command of Lieutenant Jimmy launders [Music] John Watson was navigating officer in hms venturer 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 twenty-five-year-old leftenant jimmy launders was a rising star among royal navy submarine commanders range 2,500 yards Able Seaman Harry Plummer the torpedo man also has fond memories of his captain [Music] hick confirms well done boys I think he knew each job and he got on with his job nothing interfered and we trusted him we knew he was a good commander we when I got to the end of the earth with him because he was that good the 11th patrol of hms venturer saw her ordered to the island of failure the waters around this island was strategically important German positions dotted the landscape to protect the area from Allied naval attack lying just off occupied territory this mission had brought them into the Lions Den we saved a lot of depth charges in the course of the patrols and we realized it was so a rebuy coming back again for what we done in failure the Norwegian research vessel geo bay is ready to cast off on board wolfgang lauenstein and dr. Eric Grove the leading British naval historian this trip will bring them to the site of the still unnamed wreck this was the main path to the open sea of the u-boat base at Berger back there and so if 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 assets for three days venture a lay off the Norwegian coast but with no contacts on February the fifth launders received a message sent by the Admiralty messages himself yet suggested that launders position the Venturer near the lighthouse of hella SOI on the southern coast of failure you ate six four had finally relaunched operation Caesar and set out to continue her journey from Bergen her way out to the open sea would take her close by the island of failure the recently repaired engines were reporting no problems Oh machinist that is not known Alice persons are you the German crew didn't know that Venturer was so close and on the lookout up periscope [Music] launders made careful use of his periscope but how to detect a u-boat on the 6th of February you 864 past this critical point undetected and continued its way north despite the messages and information from maze the search area was vast thousands of square miles of ocean finding a submerged submarine would not prove an easy task for the venture by means of sonic waves it was possible to locate other vessels but the noise of this azdak could also give away their own position to avoid alerting the Germans launders decided not to use the as dig sound waves just to monitor the headset for the sounds of distant propellers February the 8th 5:20 a.m. panic in the engine room of u8 6 4 Willie and his fellow mechanics were called to try and repair the damage but it was soon clear one of the engines had a serious problem come on down Denali we can't afford not parents work on shed into rebellion cause wonderful mandazi cut both of zero Tifa hidin after radioing the bad news into headquarters Volf received an immediate answer [Music] and feel is called evidence and simple people a few models in his oil near failure the research vessel geo bay scans the bottom of the sea with its owner the first pictures of the seabed appear on the monitor in the control room are two pieces of a submarine like close to each other yes it blew the u-boat apart completely and each part went its own way 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 away and alone it's been turning around turn around the images reveal that one of the pieces of the hull is stuck merely upright in the silt 150 metres below the surface of the freezing water brewery the 9th 1945 on board the venture on the azdak man was carefully monitoring for nearby vessels by hydrophone suddenly at 9:23 in the morning he reported a new sound a different tone John Watson was the officer on watch 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 nothing in sight on his way back to hella soy captain Wolfram was worrying about the engine noise as he well knew making noise underwater could be fatal yeah alright thank you here this is not reported John did this mom cries internet Sorrell again evolved from check for the enemy and above all for his escort it meant risking the periscope John Watson's watch ended at 10 a.m. the sponsor his replacement was first left tenant Andy charmers to the north seeing every other resident contact this one definitely suspicious very good neither watch Roscoe he noted that button 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 once again of all fram checked his periscope a dangerous tactic his rendezvous with his escort was in just a few hours but the periscope could give him away nothing inside as paper pot regain 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 look for the target briefly in the distance charmers sighted a thin must Merseyside three four zero captain to the control room captain to the controller must be sight sir thanks for that yard I have control of the submarine action stations action stations action stations action stations a state report contact possible diesel engine [Music] and we all realized that we were dealing with that submerged Dubey we felt a bit shaky because he could sink us the same as we could save him the hunt was on now for the German u-boat with the secret cargo bound for Japan [Music] on board the Geo Bay Lowenstein is discussing another item on the cargo list with the Norwegian crew because if this wreck really is you 8 6 4 it has 60 tons of mercury in 1857 flasks onboard an ecological time bomb the real reason for the Norwegian teams search mission 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 geo Bay has the latest state-of-the-art tools on board it is equipped with a huge remote operated vehicle or ROV its onboard cameras will help resolve the wrecks identity [Music] slowly the ROV is lowered into the water and begins its hundred and fifty meter descent towards the wreck the scientists monitor the screens in the control room on board u8 6 for the noise of the engines would be terrifying for the crew even the scientists on board couldn't fail to notice that something had to be wrong hang on South legal but volt from himself knew this was not so on his shoulders rested the lives of seventy three men meanwhile Watson and launders were following every move of the unknown nubert the hunt was on and it was clearly not the usual prey it was unbelievable because normally we go to action stations and the action is over and matter minutes but we were called to action stations and we didn't go to action until three-quarters of an hour later as dick reports [Music] after ink cause we were hoping that she was surface and then if she surfaced we would be able to copy the heart straight away we get much more accurate information about her for the director angle and all the rest of it but there's no sign of her doing that reports he was underwater we were underwater he had no instructions for now to deal with it tucked in sweet bearing zero six zero range 1,000 yards range starboard 15 steer one four zero as dick altering course possible zigzagging we soon realized after quite a half an hour that he was actually sick they came up straight away 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 where he was probably singing on a complicated pattern they told us that he was very nervous Alvis of the chances of there being a British Huber British submarine there moving in a straight line would get Volf Ramba to Bergen faster but it would also make his path predictable fancy-cut backbone with no escort captain Volf Rams only hope was to be a moving target all he could do was change course as often as possible but every periscope maneuver from Wolfram gave launders more detailed information about the course of the u-boat one last sighted bear 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 aged topitos away hms venturer had been silently stalking you 864 for more than two hours now with only four torpedo tubes to the German sub six her only advantage was that you 864 might not know that it had company once detected the hunter could very quickly become the hunted 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 launders said to work through a combination of estimates of distance and course based on the azdak operators trained ear and periodic periscope sightings he calculated the German u-boats path it was the fact that he had a mathematical brain and he was able to take in all the information very very quickly and process it and then make his decision and it was very obvious sitting at the table with him that he was his mind was going all the time and thinking about the problems of attacking and what he would do of course he discussed a lot of this with us never before had a submerged u-boat been torpedoed but that's exactly what launders had in mind the problem was he was forced to fire blind launders solution was to try to predict the next move of the German u-boat attention intends altering to firing course port 15 steer zero nine seven once she decided that PA had he felt confident that he knew what she was going to do next then we we moved away to attack if his calculations and estimates were right launders torpedoes would sink the u-boat if he missed then Valle from had twenty two torpedoes at his disposal Florence closed up at action stations stand by one two three and four tubes open bow in G obeys control room everybody has their eyes fixed to the monitor from the frozen depths objects materialize on the screen [Music] that's good that's good yes slowly the silhouette of a submarine becomes clear that's like that that's heavy Kalamazoo looks though that's a 2020 bit better 20 millimeter gun I think yes yes that thing yep that's right yeah millimeter I think it seems very likely that this is the wreck of you eight six four and the gun on the fo'c'sle yes there well you have corroded quite badly what else it's marine life on it is it I'd then final confirmation after hours of probing submerged in the seabed one of the flasks of mercury that have provoked the search it is carefully raised to the surface scientists also take samples of the sea water and the sediment nearby and under the wreck [Music] back on shore the scientists examine the flask still full of mercury it does indeed belong to you eight six four after sixty years in saltwater corrosion has pitted the steel the metal has started to deteriorate seriously the water and sediment samples are alarming the contamination with mercury is far above safe levels you eight six four has left a deadly legacy on board the Ventura Jimmy launders has brought the boat into Attack Position it's 12:12 On February the 9th 1945 firing intervals at 17 and a half seconds fire one by one by one the torpedo will take two minutes to reach it's moving target he's been dodging possible unseen enemies for hours but only now our captain Volf Rams worst fears realized [Music] but even as the torpedo draws nearer a second is on its way fire - bye - bye - there is no time to think there is only one hope emergency evasion unaware of the evasive action of you eight-six for launders methodically follows his plan wolfram realizes three torpedoes are now on their way the market to star torpedoes were very noisy we were certain that he would turn away assumes we found if he didn't yeah had no idea we were there and didn't hear them they would hit him and if he had hurt this torpedoes approaching one after the other he would turn away the first torpedo misses its target --top' it I don't save Ausmus yet left up ball from at his crew seemed lucky again by for as Venturer fires her fourth and last torpedo captain launders orders the sub to dive it's time for him to take his own evasive action not knowing if his attack has succeeded in destroying his enemy [Music] [Music] 13 minutes past 12:00 the azdak of you 864 suddenly here's the fourth torpedo coming with the last desperate evasive action volt forum tries to save the lives of the men on board you eight six four [Music] aged just 12 Christopher Carlson was the only eyewitness to this incident though I told me and you what then I saw you both out there again there was an explosion pretty high just water and smoke Taylor oh right and then we saw the u-boat sinking down quietly peacefully at 14 and a half minutes past twelve launders wrote in his log loud sharp explosion followed by breaking up noises if you can imagine a box of matches being squeezed into a hand and cracking up there is a sound of a another ship going down it breaks up some believe that you've got rid of and then the next minute I realized that it was another submarine and more sub submariners have been killed do we recognize another Submariner don't matter where he come from we take our hats off to him they were all in the same boat as us so we realized that it was nothing to be jubilant a girl and he put a minute gone but when we've reflected afterwards you think yourself poor Bowser's the last moments of you eight six four had been the subject of conjecture for John Watson and the Venturer crew for 60 years we were all certain right from the beginning that it was the fourth last torpedo that hit him the first thing you do a few here torpedoes coming at you you turn away and you go deep so I would expect to find the after hydroplanes set to dive and if they were set to dive then the chances are very high that he was actually turning away as well the mission to investigate the still deadly cargo of you eight six four has finally resolved this Karen had made exactly the maneuvers that launders had foreseen today the rudders of you eight six four remain in the position of emergency dive vault from steered right into the fourth torpedo of the Venturer the remains of you 864 form one of the greatest ecological disasters in the North Sea the soil is contaminated phishing is now prohibited the Norwegian government is considering how best to seal the wreck site hermetically you 864 is also the grave of Willy transia fiance of Edith vets at the u-boat memorial in Hikind off near Kiel his name is all that remains to remind Edith of her lost love when I go to bed at night I take the picture and place it next to my pillow and point off and dream about the fact that at least he's found peace [Music] Willie transience is one of over 30,000 names of German submarine errs who died in the Second World War their memorial stands at the shore of the Kiel fjord on December the 5th 1944 a German u-boat left here on its first and only mission u8 6 4 [Music] another disaster

Channel: Shipwreck stories

Views: 295,860

Rating: 4.8027439 out of 5

Keywords: shipwreck, war grave, U864, WWII, Uboat, submarine, mercury, world war, mammoet salvage, Bergen, Norway, environmental disaster

Id: PIEoEkqkWLA

Length: 46min 39sec (2799 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018