Original subtitles

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as World War two got underway both the

Allies and the Germans were looking for

the knockout blow the new weapon that

would decisively defeat their

for Hitler's Germany the problem was

that Britain was an island his tanks

couldn't blitzkrieg across the channel

the only way to defeat her was to

strangle her Seabourn supply routes

that meant warships and above all

submarines

for the Western Allies the problem was

attacking Germany when there were no

Allied troops in mainland Europe the

solution they adopted was strategic

bombing aerial bombardment aimed at

destroying Germany's infrastructure and

pounding its people into submission

the two sides had adopted two very

different tactics but with one egg to

save their troops and to bring the war

to an end as quickly as possible

ironically it was the Germans who first

started strategic bombing in August 1940

Luftwaffe bombers accidentally hit

London the RAF retaliated by bombing

Berlin

by the autumn Germany was bombing

Britain cities almost daily convinced

the British would eventually crack

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but the Blitz as it was called never

showed any sign of forcing the British

to surrender the summer of 1941 it was

dying away as the Luftwaffe turned its

attention to the war in Russia

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but for the British military command

bombing remained the only way of

striking directly at Hitler's Germany

moreover the early 1941 the RAF was

starting to receive a new generation of

bigger more powerful four-engined bombs

these could carry loads of up to 18,000

pounds of bombs four times the capacity

of earlier

the first of these was the shorts term

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to begin with the plan was not to hit

the German population but specific

infrastructure targets cutting transport

and oil supplies damaging Germany's

ability to wage war

but it suffered one central problem

britain's bombing was extremely

inaccurate

in August 1941 a secret British report

showed that over the crucial German roar

industrial area only 10% of British

bombers were getting their bombs within

5 miles of their target at the same time

the German air defenses were taking a

terrible toll on British planes

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by late 1941 up to 10% of the Bombers on

any raid were being shot down

the loss rate which couldn't be

sustained

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the Royal Air Force High Command decided

to change tactics

it gave up any pretense of trying to hit

specific targets

instead Bomber Command was instructed to

undertake what it called area bombing

the euphemism for what is known today as

carpet bomb the idea was to deliberately

target an entire area of a city

regardless of the civilian population in

the chilling words of the British Air

Ministry it would destroy the morale of

the civilian population and in

particular of industrial works

it's leading exponent was Air Marshal

Sir Arthur bomber Harris who was now

appointed commander-in-chief of RAF

Bomber Command

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there are a lot of people who say that

bombing can never win a war well my

answer to that is that it is never been

tried yet and we shall see they said the

wind and now they are going to reap the

whirlwind

in spring 1942 Harris launched what was

in effect a huge public relations stunt

for what he preferred to call strategic

bombing

he gathered every available aircraft in

bomber come up over a thousand took off

for the German city of Cologne

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the city's defenses were overwhelmed

600 acres were destroyed

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but only 39 British aircraft were lost

Harris had won his point

he now had the full support of the

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

he also now had an outstanding new

weapon the Avro Lancaster the finest

heavy night bomber of the world

and he had a new partner

by the summer of 1942 the United States

had joined the hare war in Europe

American Plains began to appear in

Britain the majority with a Boeing b-17

Flying Fortress it was heavily armed

with 13 machine guns and could in theory

fight its way through to a target in

daylight without a fighter escort it was

also equipped with a new bomb shot that

would supposedly allow it to drop its

bombs with almost unerring precision

these features encourage the Americans

to ignore the lessons of the early

British campaign and return to targeted

raids on Germany's infrastructure

in August 1942 the Americans put the

flying fortress to the test

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twelve of them attacked marshalling

yards near wrong in France

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damage was slight but the United States

have lost no a growth

for the Americans it was the proof that

daylight raids on infrastructure targets

could work for the British it simply

showed that the Americans could hit a

minor and relatively undefended tight

but that winter the two allies agreed to

combine their approaches they would

launch a massive bombing campaign

against Germany's industrial heartland

the Americans would attack by day

against carefully selected

infrastructure targets the British would

attack by night

carpet bombing whole areas destroying

war production and civilian morale

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they hoped it would be so devastating it

might even bring the war to an end

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in March 1943 British planes took off

for the German industrial city of s

high-speed mosquito light bombers went

in first dropping flares to highlight

the targets

then a force of nearly 450 Lancaster

bombers swept over the city dropping

their loans

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the German defenses were over pal only

14 British aircraft were shot down

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the s and Reid was followed by wave

after wave of similar attacks on

industrial towns in the road

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but the German air defenses now began to

get the measure of the Allied attacks

Britain's losses climbed to one in ten

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Paris was forced reluctantly to call a

halt to the attacks

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but then he was informed about a new

allied invention codenamed window it

consisted of clouds of aluminium foil

strips dropped from an aircraft

as a foil fell it jammed any radar

system it promised to cripple the German

air defenses

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Paris sees dodge and four months after

the Essen raid in July 1943 he went back

on the offensive

he called it operation Gomorrah

the target this time was the industrial

port of Hamburg bombers equipped with

window jammed the German Raider

other aircraft dropped incendiary bombs

a giant firestorm engulfed the city

center

40,000 people died and half a million

were made homeless

more raids on the port followed it was

an enormous shock to the German people

four months later in the autumn of 1943

Harris followed Hamburg with a series of

attacks on Berlin

but by now the Germans were learning to

overcome the effect of window and by

spring 1944 British losses were back at

nearly one plane in ten worse there was

no sign German civilian morale was

cracking

Harris's carpet bombing campaign was

just not working but neither was the

American alternative of targeting

infrastructure

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by the spring of 1943 US Army Air Force

daylight rates was steadily reaching

deeper into Germany but American losses

were climbing around one in every 15

planes was being shot down

yet undaunted the American command now

launched an attack on factories in the

German towns of Regensburg and

Schweinfurt it was hugely ambitious

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both were deep in southern Germany far

beyond the range of us escort fighters

it was a disaster the 380 Flying

Fortresses which u.s. bomber Chiefs had

assured everybody wouldn't need a

fighter escort were harried and shot

down the loss rate was over 16%

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the US was forced to suspend its bombing

campaign

the war in the air had reached stalemate

and there was still no sign of it

helping to usher in a victory then in

the early summer of 1944 the Allies

prepared to invade mainland Europe the

British and American air forces were

tasked with disrupting German

communication lines and oil supplies

it represented a return to targeted

infrastructure bombing but this time the

Allies had a new weapon

the British had experimentally modified

a u.s. fighter the p-51 Mustang

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the us engine had been replaced by a

British made rolls-royce Merlin

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it gave the plane a much longer range it

was the ideal long-distance bomber

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the Allied bombers hit bridges and roads

leading to the German front in France

with almost surgical precision oil

supplies to the German military were

drastically reduced

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once again the German fighters attacked

but they were now outmaneuvered by the

muster

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much of the German air force now running

low on fuel was grounded the campaign of

targeted bombing on Germany's

infrastructure may not have been the

knockout blow the Allies hoped for but

it was finally paying dividends but one

man was not impressed bomber Harris was

still obsessed with the idea that ever

more devastating carpet bombing attacks

would stop Germany in her tracks once

and for all so it was that in late 1944

Britain returned to carpet-bomb

German city after city was hit and

devastated

then in February 1945 Harris attacked

dressed the city with virtually no

military significance the city's

civilian population had been inflated by

refugees fleeing bombing raids elsewhere

yet Harris seems to have had no regard

for civilian life

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the city was flattened

some 50,000 people died it was a raid

too far

finally questions began to be asked

about the morality let alone the

efficacy of carpet boy

whatever it had achieved it had been

done at an horrendous cost of civilian

and military mines

critically it had failed to break German

morale yet 60% of RAF crews had died

before they had completed 30 missions

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for all the hopes put in it

carpet-bombing had not come up with the

knockout blow

the Germans meanwhile had put their

faith in an altogether different

technology to give them the knockout

blow they needed to win the war

for Germany Britain was a problem it was

an island and for once Hitler's

formidable land forces were useless

Britain also had a much more powerful

naval

yet Hitler calculated that if he used

what he had strategically he could

fatally disrupt the sea convoys that

were keeping Britain supplied with

everything from oil to food

in the first 18 months of the war German

Raiders sank more than a hundred and

thirty British merchant vessels

some of the most effective readers were

the so-called pocket battleships small

but powerful warships designed in the

1930s to circumvent restrictions imposed

on German rearmament after World War one

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one the graphs pay became particularly

notorious in a matter of weeks she sank

nine allied merchant ships in the South

Atlantic before being cornered off the

River Plate in South America and

Scotland

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but the raids were taking a serious toll

if the losses continued to rise Britain

would have real supply problems

then in early spring 1941 Germany's

first and only two full-sized

battleships completed their sea trials

they sent a shiver through the British

Navy their potential for destruction was

enormous

first into action was the Bismarck

in May RAF reconnaissance aircraft

spotted her in the Norwegian port of

burg trying to sneak out into the North

Atlantic the British Navy set off in

pursuit

two days later the Bismarck was sighted

in the North Atlantic

Britain's latest battleship the Prince

of Wales was sent to intercept

with her was the British battlecruiser

hood

early on May the 24th 1941 the two

forces met

it was the first time the two sides

battleships had squared up to each other

almost immediately a shell from the

Bismarck plunged through the week deck

armor of the hood

it penetrated one of the AFT magazines

there was a huge explosion

only three of the hoods 1200 crew

survived

the Prince of Wales now outnumbered

retreated

it was round one to the Bismarck

two days later Bismarck was spotted

again this time far to the south several

hundred miles off the coast of France

British swordfish torpedo bombers

swooped in

one hit and jammed the Bismarck's rudder

the following morning two British

battleships the Rodney and King George

the fifth caught up with the crippled

bhisma

and they started pouring heavy caliber

shells onto the hapless German ship

she was soon reduced to a blazing red

Bismark was finally sunk by a torpedo

all but a hundred and ten of her 2300

crew perished

the Bismarck had been sunk before she'd

had a chance to prove her worth then in

June 1941 Hitler invaded the Soviet unit

war at sea and to the new phase

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Britain began sending supply convoys to

the Russian Arctic ports of Murmansk and

arcade immediately the German Navy

prepared to cut them off

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convoy after convoy was attacked or

threatened

by summer 1943 it had become so

dangerous

further convoys to Russia were suspended

until the autumn well it was hoped bad

weather of the poor visibility would

offer some protection

while the convoys were suspended Britain

turned its attention to one of the

biggest threats it faced the Bismarck

sistership Tirpitz

she'd spent months hiding in the

Norwegian fiords waiting for the moment

of pounce

all the while the British Navy had been

keeping her under close watch determined

to eliminate Germany's last battleship

in September 1943 five British midget

submarines known as X craft to be sent

into the Norwegian fjords - singer

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the attack caused only minor damage by

the following spring the Tirpitz was

once again ready to Menace the arctic

confidence

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the Royal Navy now sent in a massive

force to attack it included six aircraft

guns

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they took the Germans completely by

surprise

British dive bombers attacked turbines

but she was heavily armed and the

relatively small bombs caused only

superficial damage

three months later she was ready for

action again

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she was soon spotted in another

Norwegian field Lancaster bombers

carrying massive five tonne tallboy

bombs was sent him to sink her once and

for all

Turbots put up a smoke screen which

partially obscured

nevertheless several bombs struck her

bow causing severe damage final two

months later a squadron of Lancaster

bombers caught her in perfect weather

conditions

three tall boys struck home Tirpitz

slowly capsized

almost a thousand crew members went down

with her

after more than two years of hiding and

running from the British Navy she had

been something

Germany's battleships had promised much

but against the overwhelming might of

the British Navy they've never had a

chance to prove their worth

Hitler had lost the battle at sea at

least on the surface but below the waves

it was a different story

Germany's military planners had long

expected that the country's u-boat fleet

would play a key role in cutting

Britain's supply lines

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they could sneak up underwater on

British merchant vessels attacking them

at the last moment the submarines were

also extremely agile on the surface

to combat the threat britain's merchant

fleet was corralled into convoys for

protection

but there was a serious shortage of

anti-submarine ships to escort them

many ships sailed without protection

yet Britain's naval command remained

remarkably complacent they believed they

had the weapons and the technology to

contain the u-boat threat

if as soon proved wrong

in the early months of the war Britain's

supply lines were harassed and disrupted

often the u-boats would attack on the

surface picking off merchant ships with

their depth

in response the Royal Navy sent aircraft

carriers equipped with submarine hunting

aircraft to patrol the ceilings used by

the Congress but they had only limited

effect

by the end of 1939 over a hundred Allied

merchant ships had been sunk by German

submarines

if losses continued at this rate Britain

would face disaster

oil food and weapons would all begin to

run short

then things got even more difficult

Germany over ran France

suddenly the German Navy which until now

had been largely bottled up in the North

Sea had access to Frances Atlantic sea

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they now had a base to attack Britain's

Atlantic combos Frances Atlantic ports

filled with newly built German u-boats

particularly the type 7c ocean-going

vessel Admiral Karl dönitz head of the

German u-boat service now organized his

submarines into what he called wolf

packs a group would be lined up across a

likely convoy route

as soon as one new boat has spotted a

convoy it called in the rest to attack

sometimes a u-boats were also guided by

long-range patrol aircraft

by the end of October 1940 up to 40% of

Allied merchant shipping per convoy was

being suckled Britain's supplies were

under threat

German u-boat crews called it the happy

time and top u-boat commanders became

national heroes Britain was paying

dearly for its lack of preparation

but finally things began to change a

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crash building program of anti-submarine

escort vessels was producing results

the first Corvettes as they were known

were coming off the siblings

for the first time Britain could set up

permanent groups of warships to escort

the supply convoys

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but their effectiveness was limited by

the fact that their top speed was 15

knots

two knots lower than the surface speed

of a Hubert

at the same time the patrol aircraft of

Britain's Coastal Command were equipped

with depth charges

they lack the range to cover the

mid-atlantic

but you boats on the surface near their

bases could be hurried and forced to

submerge

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then as in the bombing campaigns it is a

series of technological breakthroughs

that really came to britain's help

in early 1940 a new type of radar known

as centimetric radar was developed it

was smaller than existing systems and

for the first time could be fitted to

escort ships and aircraft

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now any German u-boat on the surface was

vulnerable

some months later there was a second

technological breakthrough

huff Duff was a radio detective

anytime a German u-boat surface to

communicate Huff Duff could pick up the

radio signal and pinpoint its exact

position

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steadily during a spring of 1941 Britain

began to contain the u-boat threat

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merchant shipping losses fell by more

than half

in early March Gunther Prien one of

Germany's top u-boat commanders failed

to return from a Patrol

[Applause]

shortly afterwards two more top German

u-boat commanders lost their lives in

quick succession

then Germany suffered a major disaster

that would reverberate through the rest

of the war

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in May 1941 the British destroyer

Bulldog forced you 110 to the surface

and captured the submarine

on board was an Enigma machine used for

encoding German signals

more importantly Bulldog also captured

the naval code books that went with the

machine

it would provide vital assistance to

Britain's code breakers soon unbeknown

to the Germans Britain was getting a

real insight into German naval

communications

but the Royal Navy it meant convoys

could now be routed away from the u-boat

wolf pack's

Germany's submarines had to work hard

and search further to find and sink

their prey

yet despite the Allied gains by the

winter of 1941 the German war machine

was producing ever greater numbers of

u-boats

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the long-term outlook for britain's

supply routes still looked ominous

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then in December 1941 the war at sea

changed decisively

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[Applause]

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in December 1941 Hitler declared war on

the United States almost immediately Pat

Mulder Nets head of the German u-boat

service sent submarines to attack US

merchant shipping along the American

seaboard

at first only a few of his submarines

the new type nine were capable of making

the long voyage from Europe

they found easy pickings the US Navy's

commander in chief Admiral Ernest King

who resisted British advice to Corral

his merchant ships into convoys

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over a three-month period more than 400

US merchant ships were sunk or destroyed

America was learning the tough lesson

Britain had already learned

something had to be done

King now changed his mind and by may

1942 the United States had introduced a

limited system of connivance

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by July the u.s. losses were falling it

forced the Germans to adopt a new tactic

they would concentrate their u-boats in

one particular part of the North

Atlantic the black gap the area in

mid-ocean too far from land for

anti-submarine aircraft to reach

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often a convoy would be hit by more than

15 submarines coming at it in waves

during October 1942 56 Allied ships were

sunk in the black gap

by the following March allied losses had

reached a hundred and twenty ships in a

single month

during the same month the Germans lost

only 12 u-boats

Hitler's tactic of disrupting Britain's

supply lines so severely the country

would collapse seemed a real possibility

it looked as though his u-boats might

win him the war

but now the Allies began to up their

game Britain had brought in a new

commander Admiral max Horton was former

head of the Royal Navy's submarine fleet

his first move was to set up permanent

groups of destroyers and frigates that

would provide additional support to

Congress rushing in as soon as an enemy

Wolfpack was spotted

equally importantly a string of yet more

technological developments came on

stream

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the Hedgehog was an anti-submarine

mortar that fired 24 Barbies

Allied aircraft were fitted with a new

high-powered searchlight the Li light as

an aircraft swooped in it could be

turned on at the last moment

catching a submarine by surprise on the

surface

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the steady technological advance now

began

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the German u-boat losses increased

the German commander Admiral Dennett's

struggled to regain the initiative in

April he ordered an all-out u-boat

attack on convoy ons five a convoy of 43

merchant ships traveling from Liverpool

to Canada it was designed to be a

demonstration of German naval force 40

u-boats descended on the convoy

the British sent in extra support groups

anti-submarine aircraft flew from Canada

it would take four days for the Allies

to beat off the German attack

eleven merchant ships were sunk but the

Germans had lost seven new boats

two weeks later donuts tried again

attacking a second column

it was a disaster five u-boats were sunk

without a single merchant ship being

lost

during May 1943 a quarter of all

Germany's operational u-boats was sunk

the Germans were finally beginning to

lose the u-boat war in the Atlantic

so the allies now took the battle to the

Germans

a new long-range version of the US b-24

Liberator bomber was introduced it could

now reach the German u-boats in the

black gap Germany's submarine designers

tried to respond with innovations of

their own

u-boats were fitted with radar detectors

and anti-aircraft guns some were also

fitted with the Dutch designed snorkel

an air inlet that meant a submarines

could spend longer underwater hidden

from Allied Raider

but it was too little to it

the Allies still found

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Hitler's u-boats were now pinned down in

port it was too dangerous for them to

roam the ocean freely

german attempts to find an answer became

increasingly desperate

they now produced a revolutionary new

submarine it was known as the type 21

it was electric powered and capable of

17 knots while submerged over twice the

speed of a traditional submarine and

fast enough to outrun most service

vessels but again it was too late only

one ever became operational and it never

made contact with the other

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by the end of 1943 the Allies dominated

the Atlantic

it was a turning point in the war

Hitler's u-boat campaign had taken a

terrible toll on both sides the Germans

lost nearly 800 submarines 75% of the

u-boat crews perished

on the Allied side some 32,000 sailors

died

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but now at last with the u-boats out of

the way great waves of US troops and

equipment could flood across the ocean

in preparation for the invasion of

Europe

victory in the Battle of the Atlantic

would fundamentally change the course of

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