Original subtitles

(tense music)

NARRATOR:World War II, the battle of the Atlantic.

Nazi U-boat maestro, Karl Donitz...

- Like wolves, we will hunt in a pack.

NARRATOR:And his legendary aces, bring Britain

to the brink of starvation...

- There's like, 20 U-boat's.

NARRATOR:By sinking their merchant ships.

- Bullseye.

- Fire.

- Blast.

- We must deal with these U-boats once and for all.

NARRATOR:The Royal Navy turns to a team of women, the Wrens.

- And finally a real gem.

- Good afternoon, ma'am, sir.

- Wren Jean Laidlaw.

NARRATOR:They will become some of the greatest war gamers

of their generation.

- Ladies, if we lose the battle of the Atlantic, we lose the war.

Our job is to find a way to sink the U-boats.

NARRATOR:But their legacy has been ignored.

- I mean, you only helped win the battle of the Atlantic,

not that we can tell anyone it was us.

NARRATOR:Now, the story of these forgotten war gamers can be told.

- So, who thinks they can sink a U-boat?

NARRATOR:Their tactics enable the allies to turn the tide of the war.

- Do you have a name for it?

- Raspberry, sir. - (blows raspberry)

As in blowing a raspberry at Hitler, sir.

NARRATOR:Outthink the U-boats...

(siren wails)

- Half raspberry!

- This is war, not a bloody board game. I need results!

- Dive! NARRATOR:And defeat Nazi Germany.

- The battle of the Atlantic is unlike any other, it is a war

against our two great enemies, the U-boat and the cruel sea.

(morse code beeping)

(tense music)

- Speed up!

- Compress the air in all tanks. Both engines full astern.

Rudder hard to port.

NARRATOR:In the First World War, U-boat Commander Karl Donitz

is losing control of his submarine.

- The U-boat is a terrifying innovation, one of the many

of the First World War, but one of the most dangerous.

- Submariners were always quoting death whenever they went to sea.

- Light, Mussaf.

We're at 80 metres.

We're all gonna be crushed.

Blow out the diving tanks!

- Thank god.

We can't stay here. Dive!

- We're out of compressed air.

- How did we let this happen?

There's nothing for it, we can't let the enemy get her.

Open the sea cogs, scuttle her. Everybody out!

- For Donitz, a scuttling of his own U-boat,

was a bitter moment of defeat.

He was a young aspiring officer, and then to lose this command,

in this way, was certainly not only a heavy blow for his career,

but also for him personally.

- Thank god our boat is with the fishes.

- Where's Yeatsian?

- I saw him swim further back.

- God damn it!

- (unclear) Captain.

We're even now, you sunk one of my warships and I sunk you.

- I won't say it's a pleasure.

Now excuse me, while I account for my men.

Not a word. Not a word.

- He was deeply humiliated and deeply upset also to of course have

lost members of his crew.

- For the Kaiser.

- For the Kaiser.

- It must have been a deeply frustrating moment for him,

and one that he dedicated the next 20 years to addressing.

NARRATOR:A traumatized Donitz is sent to Britain

as a prisoner of war.

- People thought Donitz was so mad that they sent him to a

mental asylum in Manchester.

He was experiencing these terrible images of the ship going

down, of his friend coming back to him with his boots full of

water, so he was obviously suffering some sort of post-traumatic shock.

- (muttering)

- Donitz was acting very, very strangely, but he was

thinking very tactically, he was playing war games with his dinner.

- Donitz remembered as a child the woods of Brandenburg that

there were wolf packs.

- He first thought of the idea of grouping U-boats together

into what eventually came to be known as a wolf pack.

(wolves howling)

NARRATOR:While Karl Donitz's dreams of U-boats hunting like wolves,

his future adversary, Vera Laughton Mathews is launching her own

trail blazing career.

- Rise up women, now!

- Got nothing better to do?

- Go on, give us a kiss.

- Who writes this crap? - Me and others, a team effort.

- A right gaggle of mutton heads.

If you don't want husbands, or kids,

do us a favour and go drown yourselves.

- Feel free to keep it as a gift, do read it.

- I assume you can read?

Would you do that to your mother, or your sister?

I look in your eyes and do you know what I see, a cowardly little boy.

- I've always greatly admired the courage of the suffragettes

to gain political recognition for women.

- Her family was from a naval background and Vera herself

wanted to join the Navy.

- In the First World War, she became part of what's known as, the

Wren's, which is the Women's Royal Naval Service

- They were the women who would go in and they would do things like the

typing, they were involved in the process of running the Royal Navy.

- They were involved in everything from factories to clerical

work, and some of it was really highly sophisticated.

They were all of a sudden put into roles of great responsibility

that women had never had before.

NARRATOR:After the First World War, the Wren's are disbanded,

and the defeated Germany is punished with harsh reparations.

- The treaty of Versailles was the greatest political mistake in

the 20th Century.

The idea was to reduce Germany to a small power by reducing their

military forces.

- The treaty of Versailles was tough on the Germany navy in

particular, they were banned from having submarines at all.

- Germany after world war I was a boiling pot of political turmoil.

- The rise of Adolf Hitler to power in 1933, created an environment

in Germany, where the idea of overturning the unfair

Versailles agreement was almost a national obsession.

NARRATOR:By 1935, the British, eager to appease Hitler,

sign a naval treaty with Germany.

- It enables Germany to have a U-boat force again and it enables

Donitz to, to realise some of his dreams.

- Donitz was appointed commander of the U-boat school.

He had the chance to apply his new tactical ideas into the minds

of the U-boat commanders.

- I'm sure you don't need reminding that the navy is the cream of

the German armed forces, and the U-boat arm is the cream of the Navy.

Now, one day you may command your own U-boat, but first you

must meet the standards I demand.

Lesson number one, wolf packs.

Here we have a convoy crossing the North Atlantic, a U-boat

spots this and moves in for the kill.

- With the advantage of stealth and surprise.

- Yes.

We communicate, we coordinate and we sink the enemy, and then we

disappear into the depths silently and safely, and then we move back.

- For this to work, we would need a fleet of U-boats.

- Right now, our flotilla's a drop in the ocean.

- Correct.

But it is our duty to turn that drop into a lake.

That lake is our destiny, the destiny of the Third Reich.

- He was looking for daring, determined, cold bloodied officers.

You could even say, born hunters.

- The first commanders were really elite commanders, hand picked

by Donitz, like Prien, and Kretschmer, and Schepke.

NARRATOR:In Britain, Commander Gilbert Roberts, the man who will

one day lead the fight against Donitz's U-boat's is war gaming

First World War naval battles.

- Gilbert Roberts is at the Portsmouth Tactical School teaching

the very war games of the past.

- It's all very well sir, war gaming the ebb and flow of the

battle of Jutland at Infinitum, but I wonder if we shouldn't be...

- Well, Roberts, it just happens to be the most important naval

battle since Trafalgar.

I should know, I was there. Jutland, not Trafalgar.

- (laughs)

I don't disagree sir, far from it, but in the light of the new

agreement with the Germans, perhaps we should reevaluate our tactics.

- What in god's name is the point of that?

- Take the U-boat's, for instance, they caught us on the hop in

the war, a damn scourge, like sharks appearing out of the blue.

- It's an old story, we knocked those rotten hearses for six back

then, without escorts, Asdic and depth charges.

The U-boat is kaput, as a hun might say.

- Rightly, or wrongly, the German's are manufacturing them and I

think we should be vigilant.

I've heard talk of a commerce war.

- The Germans won't sink commercial shipping, it's just not cricket.

- The German's don't play cricket, sir.

- They're not really war gaming against U-boat's at this

point, because they think that their tactics and technical

advancements will protect them from the outset.

They believe that the Asdic sonar system will allow them to

track U-boat's under the water.

NARRATOR:One person who is preparing for war

is Vera Laughton Mathews,

she's recruiting a new generation of young women.

- Vera's background of being involved in the Suffragettes,

and then obviously her time in World War I, as a Wren.

Now, once the Wren were disbanded, she immediately understood

the importance of women working together and she understood

the power in that.

She was in charge of the Sea Rangers, which was almost

like a sort of boy scouts for girls at sea.

- There we are.

Now, the granny knot is not the most reliable, it was obviously

named by a man.

(all laugh)

The most simple and resilient is the bowline.

If you apply pressure, it's hard and as fast as you like, but

terribly easy to release.

If only life was so simple. (all laugh)

- Well, I'm studying to be an accountant.

All the others on the accountancy course are men.

- Oh, of course they are.

I've got a secret little plan, I'll share it with you,

if you don't let on.

- Yes, of course, Sea Ranger's honour.

- Oh, well, the Sea Ranger's is just a stepping stone.

In the war, there was a Women's Royal Naval Service,

but it was disbanded.

I have an inkling it'll be back soon as you like with war brewing.

- What, you really think we'll go to war?

- Oh, you can always trust the men of the world to get us into trouble.

(all laugh)

- And the women to get it out. (all laugh)

- So funny, Laidlaw.

- Oh, thank you.

- Would you like me to show you? Oh no, that's good.

- Vera inspired a lot of women, including girls like

Jean Laidlaw, who joined the Sea Rangers.

- She was a good Scotswoman and a classy one too.

She's naturally a talent, someone for whom the time is ripe.

NARRATOR:In 1939, with war on the horizon, Donitz moves his war games

to the Atlantic.

- Donitz actually brings 15 U-boat's with their crews, and some

ships for the other side of these war games, down to the Bay of

Biscay to prepare for war.

- 15 U-boat's will be split into five groups of three.

They will track and monitor a convoy, consisting of a

freighter, a tanker with an escort.

- Understood.

- The U-boat's will be stationed at various bearings.

Then, and only then, HQ will give them a time in which to

attack on the surface and from all angles.

- Close together in deadly unison.

- Some will draw away the escorts to allow the others to attack

the unprotected convoy.

- We'll pick them off, like a fox in the hen house.

- No, Captain, not like a fox, like a wolf.

Like wolves, we'll hunt in a pack.

- The biggest operational issue in the mid ocean is finding convoys.

And that's where the use of the pack as a big drift net allows you

to find the convoy to begin with, but the U-boat fleet is

actually not very big, it's a problem.

NARRATOR:For his tactics to work, Donitz needs more U-boats.

There is one man he needs to ask.

- Donitz is obsessed with the idea that U-boats are going to be

the key to winning this war that's coming.

- Heil, mein Fuhrer, I bring news of our recent naval exercises

in the Atlantic.

The verdict is clear, our main weapon has to be the torpedo

carrying U-boat.

300 in total are required for victory.

- Dismissed.

- Donitz was relatively low in, in the hierarchy of the German navy.

Fleet planning and all these things were, of course, dominated by

the commander-in-chief, the then General Admiral Raeder.

- Raeder was interested in building surface vessels, or the

Tirpitz, you know, the Bismarck, instead of doing what Donitz

had wanted and building the U-boats.

NARRATOR:With war approaching, Gilbert Roberts' career in the

Royal Navy takes an untimely twist.

- He wanted to be the captain of his own ship.

And eventually he got to that position, and after three

months he started developing this cough.

- Good morning, Commander Roberts.

- Not for much longer, I fear.

- I'm gonna get straight to the point.

- The Navy will be equally straightforward, there's no

use for commanders with consumption.

It is consumption?

- I'm not going to sweeten the pill, you have an extensive

infection in the left lung and some in the apex of the right.

- Thank you for your honesty.

- I must recommend complete rest for a prolonged period.

You'll be paid for 90 days by the navy.

- For 25 years service, then I'm out on my ear.

It would suit them if I pop my clogs now.

- Is there anything I can have brought to you?

- There is actually, England play Australia in the cricket

tomorrow, may I have a wireless and a cricket score book and a

set of coloured pencils, please?

- Of course. - Thank you.

- You enjoy scoring?

- Well, I won't be playing will I?

- Indeed.

- To be told that service at sea is likely to end his life due to

tuberculosis would have been a heartbreaking experience for him.

- RADIO:...strikes the wicket as he bowles, perfect line and length.

Edgeworth is forward, no run.

- This war gamer tries to keep his mind active by listening to

cricket scores.

There was this sort of feeling that his talents were being wasted.

- RADIO:...it's short, and down the left side. Dispatches the ball for

4, crikey, what a super shot.

- What a play.

- He's so distraught when he's signed off on the sick.

This is somebody who therefore is keen as mustard to get back

into his naval uniform and to prove himself.

NARRATOR:On September the 1st 1939, Germany invades Poland.

- Poland and Britain had an agreement that if either were

attacked, the other would come to their defence.

And once Hitler invades Poland, Britain has no choice but to

declare war on Germany.

- It was on a Sunday that we heard the Prime Minister say that we

were now at war with Germany.

We did have a bit of an idea that it was going to be quite a

strange and fierce business.

NARRATOR:The outbreak of war is the opportunity

Donitz has been waiting for.

Within hours, one of his U-boats is in action.

(clock ticking) - Ten seconds.

- Fritz Julius Lamp, in a U-boat, saw what he thought was an

ammunition ship.

- Fire!

- He fired two torpedoes into it, it turned out to be the Athenia

passenger liner.

- Hit.

- In the orders given to the German U-boat commanders, attacks on

passenger vessels were banned.

- A 117 people, including refugee children, perish in this

incident and it shocks Britain.

- It was hushed up, this was a great mistake.

NARRATOR:It's not what Donitz envisaged for his U-boats.

- What Donitz needed was to prove the worth and the fighting power

of his U-boats, and so he set up the idea of attacking the British

naval base of Scapa Flow.

- Its location means it's ideal for the British, they think it's

very, very safe, it's far away from German waters

- Gunther Prien, who was a young lieutenant of the U-47, crept

in at night, in the dark, very stealthily into Scapa Flow.

- Two enemy ships in the north.

- The Royal Oak has on board at that time over 800

British naval servicemen.

- There you are.

- Any sign we have been spotted? - No, sir.

- No, sir.

- Let's cull the fittest. Set both tubes.

Set torpedo's range, 3,000 metres.

Depth, 7.5 metres. Targets... stationary.

Bearing dead ahead.

- Torpedoes set, 3,000 metres!

Estimated time of impact, three minutes.

Torpedoes ready.

Fire!

- It's so shocking that when the first explosion took place, the

crewman on the Royal Oak looked up, thinking that the only

possible threat could be from German bombers.

It was not conceivable that a U-boat had made it's way into Scapa Flow.

- One torpedo detonated successfully.

Torpedoes two and three...

Have gone to the devil.

- It was a very dangerous job, and it was even more so when he

fired the torpedoes and they were duds.

- Come about.

- He has the nerve to give it another try.

- Reload torpedoes, let's finish it off.

- Torpedo set.

- Fire!

- Not bad, not bad.

- All three torpedoes hit mid ship; one torpedo straight

into the magazine.

Bullseye.

Time to go.

- When Prien lines up Royal Oak and torpedoes it, it's not only a

catastrophic loss of the vessel with considerable loss of life,

it's a shock, this is supposed to be a safe place.

- The fact that Gunther Prien could take a U-boat the heart of

the British home fleet, sink a battleship and get away again

was humiliating.

- Prien was incredibly popular, because he managed to do what

no other U-boat captain had done yet, which was really win a

sort of propaganda point for the Germans.

- Gunther Prien was given a parade through Berlin as a national hero.

NARRATOR:Vera Laughton Mathews is director

of the newly reformed Wrens.

(knocking) - Come in.

- Ma'am.

- Good morning, Miss Laidlaw, wonderful to see you again,

thank you for coming.

You've seen the news?

- Yes, it's very sad.

- A pointless tragedy, so close to home, over 800 men and boys killed.

- So soon after the Athenia, those U-boats are a curse.

- On a happier note, Miss Laidlaw, I'd like to welcome you to the

Women's Royal Naval Service.

- Well, as soon as I heard about the Athenia, I was determined to

do my bit for the country and become a Wren.

- And with your accountancy skills, you'll be invaluable.

- Whatever I can do to help.

- Many of our Wrens are still tasked with making the tea, or

chauffeuring officers around London.

- I'm a very bad driver, but I do see patterns in figures though.

- It's going to be tough, but we can make a difference given the chance.

Can you believe that women are still not allowed aboard royal navy ships?

- It would bring the most awful bad luck, according to tradition.

- And according to men.

I'd like you to help with our recruitment drive.

That will be your desk.

- Vera Laughton Mathews was a very tactful, clever, really

rather remarkable woman I think.

- She can recognise that the British haven't yet fully appreciated

what women can do for the war effort.

Give them a chance and they can show what they can do.

- Jean Laidlaw is a brilliant statistician, she's an

extremely clever young woman.

- She's a skilled mathematician, she's one of the very first female

registered chartered accountants, numbers is her game.

NARRATOR:In the first nine months of World War II, the German's sweep

through Europe.

- It was incredibly fast, it shocked everybody and they did this

through the tactics of blitzkrieg.

NARRATOR: In June 1940, France falls to the Germans.

- With the fall of France all of a sudden, Donitz gets access to

the ports of France and open access to the Atlantic Ocean.

And this is, of course, a huge boon for him.

- They now had strategically advanced bases for the attacks on

the British convoys, on the British merchant shipping in the Atlantic.

- Britain being an island country, of course, depends on trade to

survive, not only for it's economy, but for it's very ability to

feed its citizens.

- Donitz's aim in the battle of the Atlantic was to starve

Britain into capitulation.

NARRATOR:The U-boat's first challenge is to spot convoys in the

wide open spaces of the Atlantic ocean.

- Sir? Sir, take a look.

- That's more like it, time to hunt.

- Sir, we have only one torpedo.

- (speaks german) Ah!

We need to radio headquarter and invite the wolf pack to join

the party.

Contact U-48, which can't be far away, and ask them to relay

our message.

- The first U-boat to identify a convoy sends a wireless

report back to Donitz.

Donitz then uses a wireless radio to vector other U-boat's toward

that location to form a wolf pack to attack the convoy.

- Will the wolf pack be joining us?

- Yes, sir.

- Good. We begin.

- You didn't see us coming.

You need some lookouts with eyes. Let's have some fun.

- You've got the torpedoes, I only have one

and it's your lucky day, Otto.

Set torpedoes, all one of them.

- British convoys at this time were about 30 to 40 ships.

- They're not just targeting military ships, these are merchant

ships with cargo, which do get attacked by submarines.

It's utterly terrifying for the merchant men.

- Torpedoes ready!

- Fire!

NARRATOR:Prien's one torpedo misses completely, it's left with

the other aces to attack the convoy.

- Fire.

NARRATOR:It's the most devastating wolf pack operation yet.

- All of a sudden, bam, you get this attack by wolf packs, that

looks like it's gonna overwhelm the convoy system, and it does

surprise the British 'cause they don't have an answer.

The tactics are new and they're all scratching their heads

saying, "What do we do now?"

NARRATOR:The wolf pack sinks 11 merchant ships in total.

Kretschmer claims three and Schepke, seven. Prien is left with nothing.

(singing in german)

- We did all the hard work and found the convoy.

And who gets the glory? Schepke and Kretschmer.

If only we hadn't sent all our bloody torpedoes to the devil

before, that tonnage belonged to us.

- Prien's a bit disappointed, he has done this big coup, he has

sunk a battleship and suddenly we have three aces

in a row, Prien's not the only ace anymore, there's a big rivalry.

- I'm in no mood to drink. I want what's rightly mine!

(speaks german)

- The aces measure their success by the weight, or tonnage of the

ships they sink.

- Prien, remind me of your tonnage for the month?

- So, it is over 35,000.

What about yourself?

- A very modest 50,000 for myself, early days.

- Yes, yes, the Fuhrer has acknowledged the outstanding

work you are doing for the Reich, but I want you to know that

the Knight's Cross will be awarded to anyone who can sink a

100,000 tons, or more, of allied shipping.

But to count towards the prize, this ship must go to the bottom of

the ocean.

- Not only is it a game that they wanna win, but it's a deadly game.

Taking tonnage is key to Donitz's strategy of undermining the

British and allied effort to win the war.

- No floaters, everything to the ocean floor.

- One torpedo, one ship.

- Wouldn't that be good? Too many torpedoes are going to Satan.

- Stop complaining, you just don't know how to use them.

Get close enough that you can't miss.

- So, you've laid down the gauntlet, Otto?

- Good. To the hunting ground, this is our happy time.

- This is what the German's refer to as their first happy time.

While they may talk in tonnage, cargo at the bottom of the

sea, we know that also means a lot of lives.

- The first happy time is wonderful for Donitz, great for the

German's, but absolutely petrifying for Churchill and for the British.

NARRATOR:The one man capable of taming the wolf packs,

Gilbert Roberts, has a new job, but it's far from the battle

raging in the Atlantic.

- Attention! At ease.

I'm Commander Roberts, I've been given the unenviable task of

teaching you lot the finer points of combat ready to take on

Jerry, if and when he comes knocking.

I think of myself as a Navy man, but the admiralty had other ideas.

That's enough about me.

As for you, I gather things have not been, shall we say, up to

scratch here, that is gonna change, I can assure you.

Lesson one, killing Jerry with your bare hands.

Well, not quite, but with something readily available.

Two sticks with a length of wire.

You, would you come around here, please?

First, I roll both ends of the wire around the stick thus,

I then apply the loop around his neck, twist it and tighten,

like a tourniquet, except this time the intention is to end life,

not preserve it. (coughs)

- You alright, sir?

- Gilbert Roberts taught the home guard self-defence.

What it was, was the men who weren't fit enough to serve in the army.

- This is for duds and old dudes, it's not where Gilbert Roberts

sees himself, it's humiliating.

- It beggars belief, it really does, these poor little mites

trying to escape the accursed war left to drown.

- Those U-boats are inhuman... sea monsters.

- Well...

So, what do you think of the new posters?

- They are bonny.

- (laughs) That's a charming way of putting it.

- Well, you know what they say, you can take the lass out of Scotland.

- Do you think the new posters will inspire the women of our fair

Isle to beat a path to our door?

- Indeed, join the Wrens and free a man for the fleet.

I think it will definitely inspire their patriotic spirit.

- What do you think of the catchphrase, the Wrens,

never at sea?

- I've heard it banded about, but don't you think it's a bit...

- Negative?

- Yes, as though we are poor wee land lubbers

not worthy of going to sea.

- Mm. But there's a clever little double-entente,

to steal a French phrase.

- Of course, we may not be riding the waves, but we never flap.

Always on top of things.

- Just need to prove one self now. (laughs)

- I think that the phrase that really struck us was,

'Join the Wrens and free a man for the fleet'.

And you could you absolutely see the logic of that.

- My reasons for joining the Wrens and becoming somebody who was

useful, it was because I was particularly patriotic,

because my father was in the Navy.

- There were all sorts of useful jobs that the Wrens could do; wasn't

sort of just making tea, or helping in canteens.

- You might be on the radio, you might be doing communications, that

sort of thing, you might be a plotter.

- At least 500 girls are going to be handling and managing the

vessels in harbours.

NARRATOR: But the Wrens are strictly forbidden from

serving as combatants at sea.

- We never expected to serve on a naval ship, but we were very

aware of the U-boat war.

If you said goodbye to somebody going on a convoy,

you certainly didn't know if you would see them again.

NARRATOR:Donitz is masterminding an attack on a large British convoy,

SC-7 in the Atlantic.

- A hunter's moon, just as I like it.

- Donitz comes up with this quite radical idea, that what he

should do is attack on the surface at night.

- Standby for attack.

- The British had come up with, what they believed was the answer

to the U-boat threat, something called the Asdic, which the

Americans would call sonar.

But being on the surface means the Asdic to identify submerged

submarines, doesn't really help the British.

- Prepare for attack.

- Yes, sir.

- Kretschmer was the best tactician among the German U-boat commanders.

He was cold blooded, determined and very daring.

- Fire bow torpedo.

- They are all but invisible, and they get inside the convoy, going

up and down the lanes, picking out the bigger ships, sinking them

almost at random as if it were some kind of 20th Century video game.

- So, the British send up star shells and the whole area's

illuminated by these little flares trying to make out the image

of a submarine anywhere, trying to spot it in the water, nobody does.

- We go again.

- At 700 metres.

- Fire.

- SC-7 was one of the most ill-fated convoys. Of 35 ships, 20 was sunk,

and Kretschumer alone sank seven of them, it was simply a massacre.

- 20 seconds. That must be a record.

Let's fill our boots.

- He takes his job very seriously.

And to the Germans, he is a utter hero.

- Danke schon.

- We have secured the Welsh ports for our submarine warfare.

I am most happy about that.

Now, we must sink more allied freighters.

- The new submarines are working, but we need more, and quickly.

We need to press home night surface attacks and create wolf packs

large enough to wipe out whole convoys.

If we cripple the convoys, the convoy system will become too

expensive to maintain.

- Thank you, Commander, you have been admirably frank and I shall

do what I can for you and your colleagues.

- The one thing that is clear the German navy could do was

starve Britain into surrender, if they could have enough

U-boats to cut off trade to Britain.

Winston Churchill famously said that the only thing that made him

lose sleep during the war was the U-boat threat.

- Oh, Chief Wren Laidlaw, burning the midnight oil?

- It's most exciting.

I've been adding up the figures, column after column, and we

have reached exactly 10,000 Wrens.

- That's quite the landmark; the posters are doing the job.

Have you managed to look at the shipping charts?

- Yes, I, I did, I... I found it all a bit overwhelming.

It was upsetting, you know, so many ships going down,

so many lives lost.

- And the impact on our trade?

- It's pretty dire.

If we keep losing ships at this rate, the country will be

down to just a few weeks of supplies.

- People will be starving to death.

I know I don't need to tell you this but do keep it under your

hat, Mr Churchill doesn't want to panic anyone.

- Well, I feel like panicking.

The other day, I couldn't even buy a bar of soap.

- Goodnight, Laidlaw.

- Rationing started pretty much at the beginning of the war, but it

got progressively worse, 70% of our food was coming in from abroad.

- Ordinary people would be queuing up at the butcher's shop for two

sausages, or something, like two ounces of butter and one egg a week.

- There is a great deprivation in Britain and there's really a

great sense of fear, what's going to happen to us if this carries on?

- It was a very severe moment in the war, the lowest point I

think, where we were in danger of starvation.

- Oh, heaven has sent me an angel.

- Don't worry, mademoiselle, he's going straight to hell, so he

won't bother you for long.

- Oh, cheer up, Otto, it may never happen.

- Let us drink to the tonnage that we have despatched to the depths.

- Prost. - Prost.

- Prost.

- I'd like to propose a wager.

Let us wager on which of us reaches 250,000 tons first.

I offer to provide the three of us with champagne, if either of

you beat me to it.

And if I win?

You will see to it that I'm wined and dined with suitable trimmings.

So, is that a bet?

And we have a witness.

- I have a toast for you.

Donitz and our U-boats.

May the enemy never know the secret of our success.

- Germany reveres them, they're heroes.

- Donitz wants to prove that they can win a great victory that will

win the war.

- So, I must ask again, with a fleet of 300 U-boats,

I will then guarantee you a victory that will Britain to her knees.

- That makes six.

- We need to get in the minds of those U-boat aces.

- Dive! - Why the hell have you dived?

- What has become of our invincible royal navy?

- Find that damned hearse and sink it.

- Buttercup starboard.

- It's clear that something needs to be done in the battle of the

Atlantic, or we will lose the war.

- Find out what's happening and sink the u-boats.

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