Original subtitles

ONS 5

one of the largest single convoys ever

undertaken.

Load torpedo tube

one, two, and four.

Dönitz's fleet is expanding and he will

not rest until he sent every convoy ship

to the bottom of the North Atlantic. 41

U-boats, a wolf pack like we've never

seen before.

Ladies, remember every one of you plays

an essential part. Never forget that.

Don't overestimate your opponent.

Strike him dead.

Escort ships, half raspberry. Half

raspberry!

We're dealing with a new weapon.

Come on, ladies. Think.

Your men have forced their way into my

operations room.

And now you expect me to talk to you.

This is the breakthrough we've been

waiting for. There's no going back.

10 days into its journey to Canada,

Convoy ONS 5 has been battered and

dispersed by gale force winds.

As the storm passes, the largest wolf

pack of the Second World War begins to

stalk the convoy.

Following the departure of Commander

Peter Gretton [music]

to refuel in Newfoundland, Admiral

Horton assesses the damage.

We've got Gretton's report.

Before detaching, he said he could only

account for 32 ships. That leaves what?

Nine or 10.

God knows where they are. Scattered all

over the ocean for now, probably. And

he's sent another escort to assemble

them. Until we get any further

information, shall I put the stragglers

[music] here, astern?

Mhm.

No way, Gretton. I'm down to seven

[music] escorts.

I hope this new man, Sherwood,

is up to it.

Following Gretton's departure, Robert

Sherwood, lieutenant commander of HMS

Tay, is now in charge of the stricken

convoy.

We're sitting ducks out there, bobbing

around like corks.

We need to start rounding them up as

soon as we can. Sherwood is now your

number one man. He's the commander in

charge. But lo and behold, there he is,

literally in the eye of the storm.

Multiple intercepts.

Port bow, port quarter, starboard beam,

starboard quarter.

About 20 U-boats.

This is the crisis because this is the

point when the maximum number of U-boats

are engaged and the escorts are reduced.

Prepare for contact.

Prepare for contact! Prepare for

contact!

The Germans can exploit gaps in the

defenses and maximize the number of

kills they make on the convoy.

You, here.

In spring 1943,

after the German army's defeat at the

Battle of Stalingrad,

Dönitz is still gaining successes in

terms of sinking enemy vessels.

So, strong hopes lie

from the side of Hitler on Dönitz

to be one of the men who is still able

to win the war for Germany.

What he really wanted to do was wipe out

a convoy altogether to demonstrate to

the allies that they [music] could not

venture onto this ocean, that that

convoy could lose every ship in it. That

was his goal.

Do you do an intelligence blackout, the

allies are unaware of the unprecedented

scale of the wolf pack that Karl Dönitz

is assembling?

We're covering 400 miles

west-northwest to east-southeast.

41 U-boats,

a wolf pack like we've never seen

before.

We're getting sightings.

Ships drifting miles from the escorts.

What are they waiting for?

Message.

You are better placed than you ever were

before.

I am certain that you will fight with

everything you've got.

Don't overestimate your opponent.

Strike him dead.

Six miles behind the convoy, a

straggling merchant ship is spotted by

U-boat 707.

Load torpedo tubes one, two, and four.

Dönitz has made many promises to the

Führer and now that he holds that rank,

he has to prove the German navy can

deliver a victory. Dönitz, by this stage

of the war, is aware that this is a duel

between him and Western Approaches

Command.

So many stragglers,

miles away from the convoy. They could

be strikes that Sherwood doesn't even

know about, ships that have already

gone.

We have to focus on what we know for

now.

Sherwood has done our course, he'll know

what to do. Really?

It's that simple, is it? Did I say it

was simple? It's one thing to teach them

here, in this little room. It's quite

another out there.

If we don't get results [music] soon, if

we don't prove our worth,

then Dönitz will pack our bags.

>> We will prove our worth, sir. I wish I

had your confidence, Laidlaw.

It's not confidence, sir. It's

determination.

I'm just expressing a reasonable

concern. If we don't do that,

complacency [music]

sets in.

If you're saying I am complacent, then

you are mistaken.

I am determined not to feel defeated.

Now, can I have the convoy report,

please?

For Roberts and Laidlaw, the pressure is

on because they're just hoping that when

the weather improves and the U-boats do

start really circling, that the Wa Too

tactics kick in, that they'll be able to

show once and for all that they work.

As the convoy travels into the black

pit, where there is no Allied air cover,

the wolf pack begins to penetrate the

screen of escorts.

This is a crucial phase and this is

where the convoy escort commander comes

into his own.

Message from Admiralty. Heavy and

continuous traffic in all directions.

One of the key benefits of wargaming is

that it allows officers to practice and

create a sort of muscle memory about

responses to different scenarios. They

just do it intuitively.

Convoy, full steam ahead. Loose Strife,

proceed astern and assist Northern Spray

with the survivors.

Three merchant ships are torpedoed at

close range,

all sinking within 19 minutes of each

other.

They're in columns one and two. Escort

ships, half raspberry. Half raspberry!

Half raspberry.

Similar to raspberry, however, some

escorts are held back at the group

commander's discretion [music] to

protect the convoy

whilst the other escorts hunt for

U-boats. Half raspberry is the

brainchild of Jean Laidlaw, as was

raspberry.

She's our statistician. She's one of our

pioneering [music] female accountants

and she's someone who is quite literally

taking the fight to Hitler via

our escort commander, Sherwood, who's

falling back on a plan designed by a

woman.

I bet she burnt the candle at both ends.

Looking at those fresh set statistics,

how do you confront eight wolf packs?

How do you confront an enemy that's 30

plus U-boat strong? This is a totally

different fight.

Once the escort ships are in a half

raspberry formation, a pattern of depth

charges are fired.

And this tactic, the thing that he'd

learned from Watteau.

And they've no way of knowing if those

depth charges were successful or not.

They can only hope that they can

continue in safety.

In Belfast Castle, Christian Oldham,

awaiting news of her fiance John Lamb,

refuses to leave the plotting room.

It was only place that you could have

any contact with what was happening to

John. So, naturally, I needed to stay

there. And although they tried to

persuade me to I probably lay down on

the

chair or something, but and there was no

way that I could leave the plot until

the battle was decided.

Christian doesn't yet know that HMS

Auribe is about [music] to play a key

part in the most important sea battle of

the Second World War.

As they contact, 1,200 yd.

Around midnight, the Auribe, which is

one of Horton's support ships that has

come to rescue this convoy, gets an

Asdic [music]

ping on a U-boat. And it goes in

pursuit.

And John was woken up by a huge bang,

which he thought was them going aground.

But as they couldn't possibly going

aground, he realized cuz they were miles

out in the middle of the ocean.

He realized that it couldn't be that.

What could it be?

In 2 seconds, he was back on the bridge.

And then how he found that his ship had

rammed the U-boat.

It was actually lying on top of it.

So that he could then

see the extraordinary sight going on.

As HMS Auribe heads to Newfoundland to

refuel, the whole of the U-boat crew

is left to perish.

During the Battle of the Atlantic, on

both sides, a process of brutalization

took place.

And this leads to incidents where,

contrary to the laws of the sea and also

international law, survivors were not

picked up.

There is chaos.

There's the sound of depth charges going

off.

Ships that have been struck, and there

are flames visible in the darkness,

silhouetting the other vessels around

them,

making them increasingly at risk of a

torpedo attack.

They're now perfectly in target

silhouetted for the U-boats.

In addition, there are escorts racing

from point to point, following the

tactics that have been defined by the

escort commander, and the U-boats

hovering on the periphery, looking for

an opportunity to work their way through

to the convoy to target their victim.

Torpedo fire.

Column two.

Dolius is hit.

Artichoke.

Artichoke.

Wake up.

Come on.

Let's be having you.

From Sherwood.

24 attacks

were attempted on the convoy during the

night.

All repulsed.

Five U-boats sunk.

Vedette claims hits.

Loosestrife depth charged the U-boat

which surfaced and blew up.

Sunflower has one depth charge

remaining.

Sunflower rammed one. Snowflake

destroyed one by depth charge.

And Auribe rammed one.

Well done, all of you.

Thank you.

Well done.

Well,

as you were.

They would have been absolutely thrilled

and delighted if they'd even managed to

sink one. But to sink five U-boats means

that the tactics that they put in place

are clearly working. And what it really

means in the overall war for the

Atlantic and to Dönitz is that

everything is changing now.

It's just so important, and it means an

enormous amount to the entire team of

the Wrens

at Western Approaches.

Chief.

>> [panting]

>> It was quite a night.

Well, can I take heart? That is your

prerogative.

All I can say

is that I

I think there'll be a lot more food on

our plates soon.

Did they use our tactics? Do we know?

>> [snorts]

>> I believe so.

How many U-boat strikes? Five. Can you

believe it?

>> [panting]

>> And to think we used to count ourselves

lucky if we managed to sink one.

Indeed.

How many ships were lost? 13, I'm

afraid.

Five U-boats to 13 [music] ships.

That's [snorts] an unsustainable ratio.

Dönitz can't keep going on like that,

can he? Absolutely not.

His fleet would be wiped out in a matter

of months.

He's outmaneuvered.

Our technology and our tactics have

outwitted him.

I always knew they would.

This is the breakthrough we've been

waiting for. There's no going back.

Complacency, Gilbert. Touché.

We never know what Dönitz has up his

sleeve.

But for now, I think this deserves a

celebration.

Would you care to join me for a cup of

warm tea and a stale scone, sir?

Don't mind if I do, Laidlaw.

Won't even need one of the damn things

this time.

This is vindication for Robertson

Laidlaw, entirely. Their tactics are not

only working, they're working in the

most difficult conditions against

ridiculous numbers of boats under

constant attack. They must have felt

elated.

It means that tonnage isn't

disappearing. It means goods,

fuel, food are coming back into England.

It means that people's lives are being

saved.

All of a sudden,

Dönitz is on the run.

Dönitz is summoned to the Wolf's Lair,

the Wolfsschanze, Hitler's headquarters

on the Eastern Front.

You know what our people are calling

that convoy? Hitler is furious, [music]

and he rants against Dönitz. How dare

you? You promised me these wolf packs

were going to destroy and decimate these

Allied convoys. We were going to conquer

Britain, and now what's happening?

It is not our tactics that have failed.

That would be to ignore the real truth.

The enemy's new technology is making it

impossible for us in the Atlantic.

Their new radar can find us in zero

visibility. In a fog, we are fighting

blind.

We have losses of 15 to 20 boats a

month.

War is a numbers game.

The bottom line, you've got to have the

statistics on your side. And what we see

is quite literally the tide turning in

May of 1943.

We have an unsustainable

level of U-boat losses. It's not defeat.

We withdraw. We regroup. We develop the

Wren. And when we are ready, we go back

to the Atlantic.

We will prevail.

The Wren, a new weapon that Dönitz has

been developing since the beginning of

the war, is about to be launched. Hitler

believes that other weapons, his

so-called wonder weapons, will attain

the victory, and merely slightly

improving a U-boat isn't as exciting as

the new weapons that he's looking at,

the new weapons that promise victory.

Dönitz has gone through really this

incredible fall from grace. March riding

high, now by May, it's all over.

He starts to withdraw his U-boats to the

Azores because there's no point in

keeping them in the Atlantic any longer.

This is known in Germany as Schwarz Mai,

black May.

This is where Peter Gretton, the former

commander of ONS 5, comes back into the

story.

He is patrolling from St. John's,

Newfoundland.

They call a WATO tactic observant.

And because of this, a U-boat is sunk.

And one of the victims of that sinking

is actually Karl Dönitz's son who dies

in the attack.

Actually, Dönitz lost his two sons who

were also naval officer in action.

I certainly believe that he felt grief

and it was a big loss for him, but it

did not affect him as a naval officer

and as a professional soldier.

Well, it's very similar to the to the

British approach of of keeping a stiff

upper lip.

Following the relocation of Dönitz's

U-boats to the Azores,

the allies are now able to transport

vast amounts of supplies and troops

across the North Atlantic. And of

course, this allows Britain and America

to plan the reinvasion of Europe. They

can push the Nazis back now

once they get all their supplies.

But the Battle of the Atlantic isn't

over

and the work [music] of the Wrens is not

yet done.

I was

>> [music]

>> working in Whitehall.

I had a little office below the stairs

all to myself.

And the walls of the office were all

covered

>> [music]

>> in huge scale maps of northern France,

which was where we were about to have

our great battle,

which was going to be called

um D-Day.

My job [music]

was to draw a map of every compass

bearing on that particular [music] point

so that any captain of a ship who was

intending to invade from that point

[music]

would be able to identify exactly where

he was. And that that was my job, which

was quite interesting and [music] and

extremely secret, of course.

The date and location of D-Day are known

only to the very top of Allied Command.

But it is an open secret on both sides

of the Atlantic that preparations are

underway.

It's strategy now.

Stealth.

Cunning.

This.

And they come, we'll be ready.

The German spirit won't be defeated.

I know what we have to do.

The problem is Dönitz has a surprise up

his sleeve. The question is, is can they

work out what it is before a catastrophe

happens?

September 1943,

4 months after ONS 5,

two convoys delayed by poor weather come

under ferocious U-boat attack.

Roberts, come and see this.

They're going for our escorts.

Two so far.

One could be a misfire, too. That's

intentional.

They seem to be goading us to go for

them.

And then when we line them up,

the stern of the escort is blown.

We always knew he'd come back at us.

It's just a question of time.

And now the Germans have thought of

their own tactics. They've got this new

weapon and they're not using them

against the merchant ships, they're

using them against the escort ships. And

that is a big change. Now it's aggressor

against aggressor.

I know some [music] of you have loved

ones and friends in the two convoys that

are under attack tonight.

All the more reason for us to focus now

on how we stop them.

There's a difference with this attack, a

crucial difference. It marks a change of

strategy.

It's not the merchant ships Dönitz is

targeting first anymore, it's the

escorts. The U-boats seem to be goading

our escorts to engage and then they're

struck astern.

The U-boat begins to dive only when the

escort closes in. Why might that be?

Come on, ladies. Think.

Sound?

They need our ships to move. Good.

It needs the sound of our escorts'

propeller to find its target. [music]

We're dealing with a new weapon.

The German Navy acoustic torpedo.

And we need to work out a new tactic

to stop it.

This is exactly the point of WATO.

Something weird happens, tell WATO. They

will go away and think about it

and explore the options.

Roberts and Laidlaw know that the

acoustic torpedo targets the loudest

sound,

the twin propellers of the escort ships.

So, they look at how these acoustic

torpedoes are working and they find out

some key points. [music]

Firstly, the U-boat wants the escort

ship coming towards them so they can

fire the acoustic torpedo.

And that is when you turn your ship and

you go in the other direction. The

acoustic torpedoes will miss you. That's

when you turn back on the U-boat, you go

full pelt and you ram [music] it.

So, that's how it works.

We should think of a code name.

Please, not another fruit.

>> [snorts]

>> The new tactic, code name step aside,

works on three principles. You evade,

you detect, you attack. What is it?

Evade, detect, attack.

Step aside is used for the rest of the

war and continues to be used by NATO

after the war. And this is the ultimate

accolade for WATO's ability to develop

new and original effective tactics

against submarines.

Whilst the war still rages, Christian

Odum is reunited with her fiance briefly

on his [music] return from the battle.

In December 1943,

they meet up for the third time

to be married.

It was a very good party and then we

were lent a baby Austin,

which we drove to the Savoy Hotel for

part of our honeymoon. It was all great

fun. It was really such a splendid idea

to be able to to get married and rush

off and drive by car just ourselves

without anybody else. Very good. Enjoyed

ourselves.

Ah.

I have news.

I received a letter.

You have? That's good.

Not just any letter.

I'm to be honored.

A Commander of the Most Excellent Order

of the British Empire.

CB.

That's marvelous.

And there's another thing.

I wondered,

would you accompany me

to the palace?

Oh.

I couldn't have done it without you.

Of course.

Thank you.

Spend it. Hm.

None of the women of WATO received any

honors, not even Jean Laidlaw, who was

almost equal to Gilbert Roberts in her

efforts at devising these war games.

It's really very moving to look at the

history of the Wrens at Western

Approaches, the contribution that they

made, the sacrifices that each of them

made in their own personal lives. And

they really did do an enormous amount

actually to help win the Battle of the

Atlantic.

None of them were ever honored

officially.

As D-Day gets closer, one of the few

people to be involved in the highly

secretive planning is Gilbert Roberts.

Sir.

There was a genuine concern if Dönitz

understood that there would be large

ships maneuvering in position. If a

U-boat gets amongst those, it is going

to kill thousands of troops or destroy

hundreds of tanks. I've just got back

from London.

We've been teaching a new course,

3 days,

to include tactics on patrols in shallow

water,

escort duty of unusual objects,

tactics in confined waters.

Tactics that could be deployed say in a

water-based invasion.

It's not our place to speculate or share

our speculations, Jean.

Talk is cheap.

Yes, sir.

Dönitz is still out there.

Let's focus on that. Of course.

What can I do?

And in fact, when the monarch himself is

informed that WATO has been tasked with

this, he actually states to Roberts that

his confidence is now complete. He is

more than sure that U-boats will not get

towards the invasion fleet.

D-Day has come.

Early this morning,

the Allies began the assault on the

northwestern face of Hitler's European

fortress.

I heard it on the radio. I was more than

frightfully excited, I can tell you.

I didn't know whether whether they ever

used my maps,

>> [music]

>> but they had them anyway.

D-Day was the largest amphibious

operation in the history of the world.

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands

of men, and even more importantly, their

supplies, the trucks, the jeeps, the

tanks that had to get across the

channel, the food to feed them.

I think we all felt enormous relief,

>> [clears throat]

>> not least for our free French friends,

that at last Europe was going to be

freed. We always had absolute confidence

that that would be the conclusion.

It was the most wonderful moment of my

life.

Misled by the Allies to believe that

D-Day is going to happen near Calais,

the Germans are totally unprepared for

the landings in Normandy.

Dönitz is absolutely shocked.

So, what does he do?

He goes in for a sort of a reckless,

strange order to his men.

Every enemy [music] vessel is a target.

It is to be attacked.

Even if this carries the risk of

loss

of one's

>> [music]

>> own life.

Many U-boat captains see this order as a

kind of a suicide mission.

It is like Dönitz is kind of saying,

"I even sacrifice my sons on the altar

of the fatherland,

>> [music]

>> so I'm not expecting something from my

crews or from my commanders that I

wouldn't do myself."

Only 35 U-boats scrambled to Normandy.

Deterred by WATO tactics and the vast

invading force, they sink only 23 Allied

vessels.

It is my belief that if WATO had not

been deterring U-boats through the

deployment of escorts,

the use of mines, etc., that there would

have been probably major attacks on the

fleet. Even though there were a few

U-boats, this was the decisive battle.

The Germans would have taken every risk

if they had a chance of disrupting that

invasion.

And in the end,

five U-boats limp back

to their ports. This is a terrible,

terrible blow for Dönitz. Once the high

mighty admiral of the German Navy,

he now has five U-boats back from

Normandy landings.

Hi, ladies. Hi.

>> [laughter]

>> Speech? Yes. Speech. No, no. I will

[music] leave that to the admirals.

But

I will say this,

we may not be awarded CBEs,

but

we are honored to have served our

country.

Every one of us has helped to save

fathers, sons, brothers, uncles,

sweethearts.

And if you don't believe me, here, look

at this.

Tada!

>> [laughter]

>> Look who it is.

>> [gasps]

>> Captain Roberts.

Jean, you're the performer, you should

read it.

Yes, here it is.

So thorough is the course, so clever the

setting of each game, that many naval

officers fighting actual U-boats in the

Atlantic suddenly realize that they

first saw the same situation present

itself when it was only a game on a

make-believe ocean.

>> [laughter]

>> Isn't it a little strange to be put in a

magazine, giving the game away?

Excuse the pun.

When the war's not even finished.

It is strange, but

it must have been cleared for

publication.

They must want the Germans to know about

us

in case they start again.

We call it today an information

campaign. That is where you put a

message out which is designed to

influence your adversary's thinking, to

deter them from action,

or to confine their thinking, to concern

them, to add an element of risk to their

decision-making.

I know you're too modest to think this,

Jean, but you really should think about

modeling or acting when this is all

over.

Everyone says it. You should. You really

should. It'd be a waste of that

beautiful face if you didn't.

What about you, Jean? Will you go back

to the accountancy?

If they'll have me.

A mere woman.

Yeah. I mean, you only helped win the

Battle of the Atlantic, so

>> [laughter]

>> not that we can tell anyone it was us.

Good girls, polite girls, didn't show

off. Heavens above, no, that's not what

women in the 1940s were encouraged to

do. So, the Wrens, that crucial crack

team in WATO at the top of Derby House,

didn't leave much of a paper trail.

Well,

cheers to us. Cheers.

As the Allies push through Nazi-occupied

Europe,

Karl Dönitz's life takes a bizarre

twist.

On the 29th of April, 1945, Berlin has

been under siege by the Soviets, and

they are desperate at this point. There

are children with guns in the streets

trying to defend the city, and they just

can't.

Hitler knows this, and he gives up. He

commits suicide.

But before doing this, he names his

successor.

And that is [music] Dönitz.

Dönitz had once seen himself as [music]

one of the sort of saviors of Germany

along with Hitler. They were going to

create this sort of brave new German

[music] Reich.

And there he [music] is. He's the one

who's responsible for signing the

unconditional surrender of Germany at

the end of World War II.

Enter.

For this lowest point really in in

German history.

Overseeing the unconditional surrender

of Germany,

Dönitz betrays Hitler and the Reich.

But his leadership is in name only.

After 23 days, he is arrested by the

Allies

and charged with war crimes.

Thank you.

But before Dönitz's fate is sealed by

the Allies,

Gilbert Roberts faces one final

challenge.

On the 23rd of May, 1945,

Gilbert Roberts is asked to go to

Flensburg.

And who's in Flensburg?

Good afternoon, Admiral.

I am on Admiral Sir Max Horton's staff.

I'm here to gather information about

German U-boat practice.

As Führer,

I have a number of duties to perform in

Luxembourg.

Very well.

I will not keep you.

One can only imagine this encounter

between these two men who for years have

been locked in a deathly struggle for

mastery over the Atlantic. And yet,

there they are in these sort of peaceful

surroundings at the end of the war,

looking at one another and sizing one

another up, and then finally having to

say goodbye.

He comes across, ironically, a

photograph of himself, which had been

printed in a magazine, and it says, "You

know, this is your enemy." Well, well,

well.

That's how you recognized me.

Your men have forced their way into my

operations room.

I've been waiting 5 hours in the parade

ground.

They've broken into my cabin,

and now you expect me to talk to you.

As to May Light.

Admiral Got,

did you have a tactical unit

similar to that of Wrens?

No.

No such need.

The men did all the tactical work on the

North Atlantic.

It surprises me that

women would be involved at this level,

especially when they had never seen

battle.

And it surprised Got that women were

given such an important role in naval

operations. They did have the equivalent

of Wrens in the German Navy, but they

weren't given anything like the

responsibilities of the women of

Britain.

Do you know any of our tactics?

Raspberry

I have heard of.

Very complicated, but

useful if all the escorts acted

according to the stated plan.

This is so amazing because of course it

brings this whole story back to Jean

Laidlaw who named this tactic Raspberry

as a kind of raspberry to Hitler.

Thank you.

Unbeknownst to Got, a second recorder,

secreted in a suitcase, is recording

even when Roberts' recorder is switched

off.

So, why, in your opinion, did the

U-boats not prevail?

Detection technology.

Your radar meant we would not operate

economically

on the surface.

Anything else?

Superior training

of your escorts.

And our tactics?

Did they play a part in our victory? I

noticed the photograph.

Perhaps.

The information gained by Roberts from

Got is a real vindication for Jean

Laidlaw. She managed to get into the

brains of U-boat captains. She

understood their tactics just from her

war gaming strategies. It was an amazing

vindication for her and everybody at

Wrens.

For his war efforts, Karl Dönitz is

tried

along with other top-ranking Nazis in

Nuremberg.

Dönitz denies any knowledge of the

Holocaust, even though he's known to be

a virulent anti-Semite. He's an absolute

dyed-in-the-wool supporter of Hitler and

Hitler's war aims. [music] And yet he

manages at the Nuremberg trials to

present himself something quite

different.

Dönitz is accused of breaking

international naval law by not rescuing

enemy survivors.

But his lawyers force the court to

recognize the same behavior in the

Allied fleet.

As a result, Dönitz avoids execution

and is sentenced to 10 years in Spandau

Jail.

Fire.

U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer is never

charged with war crimes.

Resuming an illustrious naval career,

he rises to become chief of staff of the

Baltic NATO command

and is featured in the '90s computer

game Aces of the Deep.

Smoke on horizon, Captain.

It was

fairly easy for me

to penetrate the screen of the escorts

and getting into the convoy proper.

You know, their aces lacked one quality

that you have in abundance.

Imagination.

I've never seen myself like that.

You put yourself into the mind of our

enemies

in the middle of the convoy,

in the chaos.

Engines silenced

till the danger passed.

It was you who insisted that was their

modus operandi, and it was.

Admiral Got confirmed it.

Well,

>> [snorts]

>> thank you, but

it was a team effort.

It was.

But we couldn't have done it without

you.

Likewise.

Laidlaw.

Sir.

Sir.

Do you mind?

I would look the other way.

The Battle of the Atlantic is against

our two great enemies.

The U-boat

and the cruel sea.

We will prevail.

I know we will.

Well done, Laidlaw.

After years of ill health and

campaigning for arthritis charities,

Gilbert Roberts, CBE,

dies in 1986.

I find this story tremendously moving.

It's inspirational. It's just a symbol

of what women were capable of if given

the chance,

even in the dire circumstances of the

Second World War. So, really, their

story should be celebrated, should be

written large, and should be really

commemorated as much as possible.

After the war, Jean Laidlaw resumes her

career as an accountant and lives

quietly with her partner, Beru, until

her death in 2008.

So, meet Wren rating Janet Okell,

the woman who [music] beat you 5-0.

Janet Okell returns to her old life near

Liverpool.

She dies in 2005,

less than 10 miles from the Western

Approaches [music] tactical unit.

Never surrender. [music]

June Duncan enjoys a successful career

as a top model and actor,

later becoming the [music] assistant

editor of Harper's Bazaar.

In 1945, Vera Laughton Matthews, wartime

director [music] of the Wrens, I've got

a secret little plan. is made a Dame.

She dies aged 71 in 1951.

What have I done, [music]

you may ask,

compared to what my boy has to put up

with,

dodging submarines in the Atlantic?

When I have talked with women,

how often

when I admire their pluck,

have I heard them say,

"Oh, well, it's not much.

I'm just doing my best to help us win

the war."

The Wrens may not have received any

honors,

nor did they publish their memoirs,

but they did something far more

important.

They recaptured the savage waves of the

Atlantic for the Allies

and so

delivered them victory.

>> Mhm.