All language subtitles for Drain.the.Oceans.S02E12.1080p.WEB.h264-TBS_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: A
terrifying Nazi plan.

An armada of super-ships sent
out to conquer the world.

TONY: When these ships
were being built,

they seemed revolutionary.

They were capable
of almost anything.

NARRATOR: They are
fast and lethal.

JAMES: When it punched
it punched hard.

NARRATOR: But in a
series of epic battles,

Hitler's mighty killer
warships are sent plunging

to the bottom of the seas.

FREDRIK: That's a big hole.

NARRATOR: Imagine if we
could empty the oceans,

letting the water drain
away to reveal the secrets

of the sea floor?

Now we can, using
accurate data and
astonishing technology,

to bring light
once again to a lost world.

What can shattered
remains in a Norwegian fjord

tell us about the Nazi
Navy's fatal weakness?

ERIC: The Norwegians decided
they ought to open fire,

which they did, with
very great effect.

NARRATOR: Can a tangled wreck
in South America reveal the

truth behind a
shocking sacrifice?

JAMES: Hitler would have
preferred a blazing battle out

of a Wagner opera.

NARRATOR: And can the remains
of Hitler's largest ever

battleship reveal evidence of
a secret Allied wonder weapon?

(theme music plays).

In the 1930s, Britannia
still rules the waves,

with the world's largest
and most powerful Navy.

But as soon as Hitler
seizes power in 1933,

he sets out to challenge it.

ERIC: Hitler had introduced
this plan to build this huge

fleet, ten battleships,
four aircraft carriers,

160 destroyers,
tens of cruisers.

NARRATOR: When the
War begins in 1939,

much of this gigantic fleet
is still on the drawing board,

but Hitler does have
something special.

Powerful ocean raiders,
capable of matching anything

in the Royal Navy, immediately
deployed, with deadly effect.

In the South Atlantic,
Nazi raider, Graf Spee,

is hunting down merchant
convoys carrying vital

supplies to Europe.

In just three months,
she sinks nine ships.

Allied warships race
to hunt her down.

Three British cruisers,
Exeter, Ajax and Achilles,

spot their enemy off
the coast of Uruguay.

The British open fire.

It's the first major sea
battle of World War II.

For the Graf Spee,
it's also her last.

But at the battle site itself,
there's no sign of her.

(radio chatter)

Jim Delgado, maritime
archaeologist from
SEARCH, Inc.,

is heading into the
treacherous River Plate,

searching for the wreck.

The waters here are
turbulent and murky,

so Jim is using high-tech
multi-beam sonar to scan
the estuary.

JAMES: We're in shallow water.

ALFREDO: Very shallow waters
between eight to ten meters.

NARRATOR: With him is
experienced Graf Spee

researcher,
Alfredo Etchegaray.

If they find it,
he'll recognize it.

ALFREDO: The total length
was about 188 meters.

JAMES: Right.

NARRATOR: The Graf Spee
is a small battleship,

for good reason.

After World War I, German
naval construction

is tightly regulated.

Her warships must be
small in number and size.

(speaking German)

But Hitler works
around the rules,

creating a class of
warship that's compact,

but also very powerful,
like the Graf Spee.

JAMES: Graf Spee is
designed to be a fast,

hit and run raider.

It's "Panzerschiff," it's
a panther on the seas.

NARRATOR: With her
thin armor plating,

the Graf Spee is light,
fast and maneuverable,

and armed to the teeth.

Six 11 inch guns and
eight torpedo tubes.

JAMES: Wow!

NARRATOR: There's a wreck.

JAMES: OK, wow!

So, it's still pretty intact.

You've got your bow here,
decking is missing there,

but there's
forward gun turret.

ALFREDO: Yes.

JAMES: Right here, yes?
ALFREDO: That's right.

NARRATOR: The sonar images
match Alfredo's plans.

It's definitely the Graf Spee.

So, why is it lying on
the ocean floor here,

far from the scene
of the battle?

JAMES: There's something
more that goes on here.

NARRATOR: Diving the
wreck is difficult.

The waters here are dangerous,
with almost zero visibility,

but by using the scan
data, we can make the
South Atlantic disappear,

to let light fall once again

on one of Hitler's
favorite warships,

seeing the Graf Spee for
the first time in 80 years.

Much of her is intact.

But the hull has
suffered badly.

And at the stern, the whole
rear section is blown off,

completely separated
from the hull.

Can the battle
explain this damage?

JAMES: Three small British
vessels were outgunned and

outmatched by Graf Spee.

NARRATOR: The
encounter is intense.

The Graf Spee pounds
the British cruisers,

causing immense damage.

But then the German Captain
makes a tactical error.

He moves in too close,

allowing the British to
surround their prey.

ERIC: The three British
cruisers peppered Graf Spee

with eight inch and
six inch shells.

They scored some quite
significant hits.

They put a big hole
through the bow.

NARRATOR: But the shell damage
alone could not have been

enough to sink her,
because the wreck is here,

hundreds of miles
from the battle site.

Local archives show that
on December 14th,

the Graf Spee sails into
the Uruguayan capital of

Montevideo for
essential repairs.

Her Captain, Hans Langsdorff,
thinks his ship will be safe

in this neutral country.

JAMES: When he came in here,
he was low on ammunition,

he had a ship that was
shot full of holes,

had some critical
systems down.

And he also had 1,000 crew,
many of 'em young boys.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the
Royal Navy is gathering

strength offshore.

ERIC: And all the time they
keep watch in international

waters, waiting to
see what he'll do.

NARRATOR: Langsdorff
requests 15 days to make

essential repairs.

Uruguay may be neutral, but
the Allies are important trade

partners, so the Government
gives him just three days.

The Captain has two choices,
remain in Uruguay and have his

ship impounded, or leave port
and face the British fleet.

JAMES: The difficult choice he
now has to make is does he go

back out and fight, or
does he do something else?

NARRATOR: With a battle-scarred
ship and low on ammunition,

Langsdorff leaves port
with just a skeleton crew.

It looks like a
suicide mission,

but the Captain
has another plan.

JAMES: He decides to
do something else,

and that's to
scuttle his ship.

NARRATOR: At 7:55 PM,

on December 17th,

massive charges on
the ship explode,

bombs carefully placed by
the Graf Spee's own crew.

One is so powerful, the
stern is blown clean off.

The Graf Spee starts to
sink into the mud of

the River Plate.

The Führer is enraged.

JAMES: What Hitler would have
preferred was something out of

a Wagner opera, with
Langsdorff and his crew dying

heroically in a blazing
battle that saw Graf Spee

explode and sink.

NARRATOR: Langsdorff
is labeled a coward.

In his hotel room,
he commits suicide.

Hitler has lost one of
his deadliest battleships,

but how does a wreck in
Scandinavia reveal his

determination to build
still more of them?

NARRATOR: Oslofjord, Norway.

Nearly 500 feet of
deep, dark water.

The research
vessel, Simrad Echo,

is out hunting for
a lost Nazi raider,

a key part of Hitler's
plans for an armada of

super-warships.

Maritime archaeologist,
Fredrik Søreide,

is fascinated by them.

MAN: Oh, there it is!
MAN: This is it, right there.

MAN: Oh, yeah, it's coming.

MAN: Yeah.
MAN: OK.

FREDRIK: So, we're doing a
multi-beam scan of the sea

floor and we have just come
over the wreck of the Blücher,

so it's a big structure.

NARRATOR: Today, the Blücher
lies over 300 feet down.

The team deploys a
remotely operated vehicle

with video cameras.

Fredrik knows the Blücher
was lost in April 1940,

so what was a huge Nazi warship
doing in these neutral waters?

To unravel the mystery means
understanding Hitler's naval

master plan in more detail.

Six months into the conflict,
the German Navy is still

heavily outnumbered.

The Nazis need to build, fast,
but Germany is running out of

raw materials.

TONY: Hitler needs as
much iron as he can get.

NARRATOR: Starved of steel
and the iron ore to make it,

Hitler has only one
option, to crush his
northern neighbor, Norway.

The port of Narvik is key.

It's the route out for
shipping iron ore to Germany

from the mines in
northern Scandinavia.

Hitler also knows that
Norway's long coastline gives

easy access to the
North Atlantic,

where his raiders can
strike at a moment's notice.

TONY: The double whammy
of needing this iron ore,

plus the ability of Norway
to protect his ships,

many of which will have been
built out of that iron ore,

makes Norway vital.

NARRATOR: The Nazis
need to move fast,

so they assemble the most
powerful naval force they

have, led by a brand-new
fighting ship, the Blücher.

Weighing in at
over 14,000 tons,

this warship breaks all the
limits imposed on Germany

after World War I.

Fore and aft, pairs of
innovative stacked guns for

rapid firing, and a powerful
anti-aircraft battery,

all making the Blücher
Hitler's Number One choice to

lead this critical attack.

It's secret mission,
sail up Oslofjord,

train it's terrifying
guns on the Royal Palace,

and force Norway to surrender
without firing a shot.

Hitler is not expecting a
lot of resistance from this

neutral country, but
the Blücher never makes

it to Oslo.

Back on the Simrad Echo,
Fredrik is trying to

find out why.

FREDRIK: So we think we're
looking at one of the gun

turrets that's
fallen off, probably.

NARRATOR: These cameras can
only show a limited view

of the wreck.

FREDRIK: That's a big hole.

NARRATOR: But using the
high-resolution scan data,
we can now do better,

draining back the icy waters

to see the Blücher
clearly for the first
time since she set out to

bully a nation into surrender.

A massive hull, over 670 feet
long, face down in the mud.

Amid ships, a gaping wound
clearly visible in the hull.

The Blücher lies tilted
on her left side,

part of the keel lying hidden
from view beneath the mud,

but penetrating
under the mud itself,

it's possible to reveal
something never seen before.

Two gigantic holes
below the water line,

both of them fatal.

FREDRIK: There is no doubt
that the ship would sink as a

result of getting
such a hard impact.

NARRATOR: And the
mystery deepens.

The Allies have no surface
warships near Oslo.

And the Norwegians have no
active submarines in the area.

What could have
caused the holes?

Investigation reveals
something extraordinary below

the surface, a
mysterious cave.

In 1940, the Germans
know nothing about it.

ERIC: The Norwegians were,
and still are, to some extent,

very good at keeping secrets
about their coast defenses.

NARRATOR: Cut into the rock
face, a hidden entrance.

Historian, Tony Pollard,
is investigating.

It's a secret torpedo
launch chamber.

TONY: These are incredible!

The shaft just sinks down and
the torpedoes presumably load

from the back.

NARRATOR: A double cradle
hangs over the shaft.

Torpedoes are slid
into the frame,

winched down into
the water and fired.

TONY: There's no indication
whatsoever to the enemy.

There's no splash as this
thing hits the water.

It's, it's literally coming
out of the solid rock.

It's amazing!

NARRATOR: So, what happens on
the night the Blücher is sent

to conquer Norway?

Early morning,
all seems quiet.

Heavily armed, the Blücher
brazenly leads a task force

right into Oslofjord.

They're not expecting
any resistance.

Certainly not from the 19th
Century Oscarsborg Fortress.

ERIC: The Germans, I
think, thought that,

"Well, we don't have to
worry about this.

They won't fire,
and if they do,

it won't be effective."

But they were putting
their head into a noose.

NARRATOR: The Commander of the
Garrison spots the Blücher and

her task force approaching.

As the German ships pass
in front of the fortress,

he opens fire.

Multiple shell strikes on
Blücher cause severe damage.

Fires break out on board,
her rudder is jammed,

but the Blücher limps
on, unaware of the
impending danger.

ERIC: Having a secret torpedo
nest in the island could come

as a very nasty shock.

NARRATOR: Each weapon carries
220 pounds of high explosives.

ERIC: Cause torpedoes
hit below the waterline,

where the water comes in
quite rapidly, and it did.

NARRATOR: It takes just two
torpedoes to stop the mighty

Blücher in her tracks.

And she soon capsizes.

Hitler calls on the Luftwaffe
and his Army to finish the

job, and eventually they
do seize control of Norway,

but his plan for a world class
Navy has taken another blow.

TONY: The loss of the Blücher
is particularly important.

She is another one of these
celebrity ships, brand new,

cutting edge, but she's gone.

She's at the bottom of
this fjord, and, again,

Hitler looks at the
Navy and thinks,

"What the hell's
happening here?"

NARRATOR: But the
Nazis aren't done yet.

One of Hitler's killer
warships is set to achieve

Germany's greatest
ever naval victory,

in a battle of the giants.

NARRATOR: 1941, nearly
18 months into the war.

France has fallen and Britain
relies on supplies from across

the Atlantic, but merchant
convoys are vulnerable to

attack from U-boats
and Nazi ocean raiders.

Most infamous of
all, the Bismarck.

In May, she's hunting Allied
convoys, when HMS Hood,

pride of the Royal
Navy, tracks her down.

The stakes are high in
this heavyweight showdown,

and there can be
only one winner.

So, why are both of these
powerful battleships now lying

in deep waters,
1,100 miles apart?

As battle begins, the Bismarck
has a slight upper hand.

She's brand new and
state of the art.

Her 15 inch can fire
an impressive 24 miles,

and her deck armor
plating is thick,

at nearly five inches offering
excellent protection from

incoming shells.

JAMES: Creating Bismarck is
all part of a larger plan,

to build powerful, iconic
ships that are going to strike

terror enforcing Hitler's
will on the rest of the globe.

NARRATOR: On the British
side, the famous HMS Hood.

She's bigger than
Bismarck, at 860 feet long,

but her main 15 inch
guns are less powerful,

firing just 17 miles, and
her deck armor is thinner,

at three inches.

She's also nearly
25 years old.

DAVID: The Hood had a
tremendous reputation,

not just in the UK,
but around the world.

It was the most powerful,
fastest, most feared,

but also most loved warship
for a 20-year period,

until the launch
of the Bismarck.

NARRATOR: Bismarck leaves
her secret hideout in Norway.

She plots a route through
the Denmark Strait,

west of Iceland, aiming for
the North Atlantic and the

Allied convoys.

But she'll never
make it that far.

British Intelligence discovers
Bismarck is on the move.

Hood is one of three
ships sent to intercept.

So what happens when these
two giants come face to face?

Wreck investigator,
David Mearns,

is tracking down the
wreck of the Hood.

He knows Hitler's top
spec battleship has
the bigger punch,

but just how much damage
can the Bismarck inflict?

The team begins to scan the
sea floor at the last known

location of the Hood
in the Denmark Strait,

but she's proving
tough to find.

Suddenly, the scan reveals
a mysterious crater

almost 330 feet wide.

DAVID: I think this is it.

NARRATOR: Could it be a vital
clue in the hunt for the Hood?

The crater is nearly two
miles down, too deep to dive,

so David must use a
Remotely Operated Vehicle.

It sends back
tantalizing images,

shattered debris that
suggests a catastrophic event.

Next, the ROV finds
a section of hull.

It's so massive it
can only be the Hood.

And it's overturned.

DAVID: I've looked at
45 ships in deep water,

and never found one
completely turned over.

NARRATOR: Bismarck's deadly
firepower has delivered a

knockout blow.

DAVID: In every single way,
she is as badly destroyed as

anybody could have
imagined or described.

NARRATOR: Using David's data,
it's now possible to drain

away billions of gallons of
water from the Denmark Strait,

and fully expose the wreck
site for the first time.

Spread across one and a
half miles of the sea floor,

the shattered remains
of over 40,000 tons

of scarred
and twisted metal.

To the north, the
conning tower.

To the east, part of
the bow and stern.

Almost half mile
away to the south,

the largest intact
section, the midships.

The scattered remains
suggest a massive explosion.

DAVID: I wasn't
expecting to see Hood
as damaged as she was.

That's what was
completely unexpected.

It was shocking and it was
very upsetting, actually.

NARRATOR: Superimposing
parts of the wreck on to the

original plans of the Hood
reveals a missing part of the

ship between the
stern and midships.

The missing section of ship
is where an ammunition
store was located.

It looks like this is the
epicenter of the explosion.

DAVID: What we know is that
Bismarck's shell hit Hood in

the aft part of the
ship, near the main mast.

There was this
enormous explosion.

They, they talked about it like
a blow lamp, 600 feet high.

ERIC: The shot that sank
the Hood was, in many ways,

a very lucky one
for the Germans.

If that shell had landed
a little bit further aft,

Hood may not have blown up.

NARRATOR: It's now possible
to piece together how the

Bismarck sank the Hood in
one of the shortest battles

in naval history.

Early morning, Hood
spots the Bismarck.

At a distance of
over 14 miles,

Hood fires her
twin 15 inch guns.

Bismarck takes a hit,
damaging her fuel tanks.

She returns fire.

A shell hits Hood right
above the ammunition stores.

The great warship disappears
beneath the waves in less
than three minutes,

with the loss of
over 1,400 men.

ERIC: HMS Hood, this great
symbol of British Imperial

power, British sea power,
blowing up the way she did,

with only three survivors,
came as an enormous shock.

NARRATOR: For the first
time in centuries,

Britannia cannot claim
to rule the waves,

and in the propaganda
war, at least,

German sea power is
finally riding high.

Bismarck appears invincible,
but just three days after her

great victory, she, too, lies
at the bottom of the Atlantic.

How did this brilliant
killing machine meet her end?

ERIC: It became very
important for Churchill,

the British Government
and the Royal Navy,

that the British re-assert
their command of the sea by

sinking Bismarck.

NARRATOR: An armada of
warships and squadrons of

aircraft scour the ocean,
hunting this killer down.

A spotter plane picks up a
trail of oil on the surface,

leading straight to
a wounded Bismarck.

A staggering 2,800
shells rained down on

Hitler's iconic battleship.

Outnumbered, outgunned
and out of luck,

Bismarck goes down,

and now lies 1,100 miles
south of its opponent,

at the bottom of the sea.

TONY: She was powerful,
she was beautiful.

All eyes were on her, and,
at the end of the day,

that was what killed her.

ERIC: Hitler was shocked by
the loss of this symbol of the

prestige of the Third Reich.

It was yet another nail in
the coffin, if you like,

of the German Navy.

NARRATOR: The Tirpitz is
Hitler's last great battleship.

What can the sunken remains of
Allied aircraft tell us about

the extraordinary cost
of destroying her?

NARRATOR: With the loss
of the Bismarck in 1941,

Hitler's faith in his Navy
is at an all-time low.

He has one last battleship,
the mighty Tirpitz.

Terrified of losing her, the
Führer orders a series of

major upgrades.

The improved Tirpitz weighs
in at nearly 53,000 tons,

2,000 more than her sister
ship, the Bismarck.

Her hull is strengthened,
wrapped in 13 inch thick

armor plating.

Nearly five inches of steel
protects the main deck.

She bristles with eight,
15 inch main guns,

and a staggering 72
anti-aircraft guns.

She is an impenetrable
floating fortress,

perhaps the most perfect
battleship ever put to sea.

But despite her
impressive armory,

this Goliath spends most
of her life hiding out in

Norwegian fjords, becoming
a major thorn in the side

of Allied Forces.

ERIC: Tirpitz became what
naval strategists call a

"fleet in being."

It wasn't risked, but the
risks it posed forced the
British and the Americans,

at times, to deploy
considerable forces just in

case it did do something.

NARRATOR: But the Tirpitz
does not survive the War.

The story of her demise begins
in this fjord near Trondheim.

Maritime archaeologist,
Fredrik Søriede,

is on a mission to
try and uncover the

Tirpitz's shadowy past.

He believes these deep waters
may contain clues to help

explain the lengths
the Allies went to

to destroy the Tirpitz.

(radio chatter)

The team are using specialist
ROVs and deep water cameras.

FREDRIK: Oh, look at that!

Can we try to move it a
little bit closer, or?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: The ghostly outline
of an aircraft appears.

MAN: Cockpit. Yes.

FREDRIK: Oh, yeah!

That's the nose and
then the cockpit.

NARRATOR: But what
is this plane,

and what's it doing here?

FREDRIK: Oh.

NARRATOR: Fredrik tries
to ID the aircraft.

He needs to take a
closer look inside.

MAN: We're probably
sitting in the pilot seat.

FREDRIK: Look at that!

MAN: We have the stick.

FREDRIK: Oh, yeah.

That's the stick.
That's the stick.

MAN: That's the stick.
That's the stick, yeah.

FREDRIK: Yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's the stick.

MAN: Yeah, also.

NARRATOR: From the layout of
the cockpit and the position

of the two propellers on
each side of the aircraft,

Fredrik believes this is
a British Halifax bomber.

More ROV dives discover
the Halifax is not alone.

The bed of the fjord is
littered with the remains

of downed aircraft.

FREDRIK: We believe that
there are 40, 50 plane wrecks

resting on the bottom
of this fjord.

This area really
saw a lot of action,

so this is really a
veritable plane graveyard.

NARRATOR: There must have been
something really special here

for the Allies to
suffer such huge losses,

and Fredrik
discovers there is.

The Tirpitz was hiding
here for one year,

heavily defended with
anti-aircraft guns.

But there's another reason why
so many bombing raids fail.

Scientist, Claudia Hartyl is
gathering evidence from the

most unlikely of places,
the pine clad slopes high

above the fjord.

Claudia takes core samples
from deep inside the trees,

revealing the growth rings.

CLAUDIA: They record everything.

They are time machines.

They can tell you the past.

NARRATOR: Each ring records
one year of the tree's growth.

Claudia carefully counts back,
until she reaches the early

1940s, and notices
something unusual.

CLAUDIA: So, you can
see here, wider rings,

then you have a period
of very narrow rings.

You have a period
of very low growth.

NARRATOR: It's the same for
all the trees in the area.

During the War, something is
stunting the tree's growth.

CLAUDIA: This is tree damage
caused by the artificial smoke

to hide the Tirpitz.

NARRATOR: The Germans had
dozens of smoke generators

around the fjord, pumping
out dense acid clouds,

poisoning the trees, but
hiding their ship from

Allied bombers overhead.

ERIC: The Germans proved very
adept at protecting Tirpitz

with smoke screens.

TONY: She's almost
got a cloaking device,

like something
out of Star Trek ,

and she foils raid after raid.

NARRATOR: But Hitler knows
his last killer battleship

is on borrowed time.

Fearing the Allies might
get lucky, in October 1944,

he orders the Tirpitz to
sail to a new location,

Håkøya Island.

It's to be her last voyage.

FREDRIK: So, we are
just outside of Tromsø,

and this is the final
resting place of the Tirpitz,

just below this area.

But, remember, this
ship was enormous.

NARRATOR: Fredrik puts
down a remotely operated
underwater camera.

FREDRIK: The whole sea
floor is basically
littered with stuff.

MAN: Yeah, it's a big area.

NARRATOR: After 75 years,
shells capable of traveling

20 miles remain intact.

FREDRIK: They look
like they (inaudible).

MAN: Oh, yeah.

And there's a book.

MAN: There's a book.

NARRATOR: Personal
items, a book,

with the pages still
clearly readable.

Very little of this
enormous battleship remains.

But now, using
historical records,

coastal scans and state of the
art computer visualization,

we can roll back the
waters of Håkøya Island,

as they were in 1944.

The Tirpitz is lying upside
down in shallow waters.

Near the port bow,
a gigantic hole.

Towards the stern, evidence
of two more impacts,

all punched through the
thick, five inch armor plating.

And directly next to
the ship, more evidence.

An enormous crater,

100 feet wide, gauged
into the seabed.

What weapon could have caused
such catastrophic damage?

NARRATOR: October 1944, Håkøya
Island, northern Norway.

Hitler's last great
battleship, the Tirpitz,

is hiding out just
off the shoreline.

The Germans know the
Tirpitz is on the Allies
most wanted list.

Underwater nets protect
her from torpedo attacks.

Sand and rubble are piled up
around the hull to prevent the

Tirpitz capsizing if hit.

She survived over two
years of aerial attacks,

so what happens here, less
than one month after arriving,

that sends her to the
bottom of the fjord?

At the side of the wreck,
a huge bomb crater.

On the deck, holes punched
straight through the extra

thick steel, too big to be
shell or torpedo damage.

What could cause such
devastating destruction?

The evidence of its power
still scars the landscape

today, at Håkøya Island.

Churchill is determined the
Tirpitz must be destroyed,

but to cut through her
five inch thick steel deck,

the Allies need a
more powerful bomb
than ever before.

There's only one
man to turn to,

the brains behind the
legendary bouncing bomb of the

Dambusters raid,
Barnes Wallis,

and the weapon he develops is
so huge the planes carrying it

have to be specially
adapted and stripped down.

It's called the "Tallboy,"
towering at a mighty 21 feet,

its unique aerodynamic shape
allows it to free fall quickly

and accurately
through the air,

breaking the sound barrier.

At six tons it's designed to
penetrate the ground to depths

of 80 feet, and
only then explode.

TONY: And these are massive,
almost earth-quaking
explosive devices.

NARRATOR: The mission to
destroy the Tirpitz

is highly dangerous.

She's well-protected
with anti-aircraft guns,

so the bombers need to
get in and out fast.

There's only one squadron
for the job, 617,

the Dambusters themselves.

ERIC: 617 Squadron had become
the leading exponent of

precision bombing.

They were able to drop these
Barnes Wallis designed weapons

with great accuracy, and
they were, therefore,

a tremendous danger for
an anchored warship,

however well-protected.

NARRATOR: At 18,000 feet
dodging anti-aircraft fire,

the bomb aimers of 617
Squadron finally get the

Tirpitz in their sights.

The Tallboys accelerate
through five, six,

700 miles per hour.

Several miss their targets,
cratering the shoreline,

but others are set firmly
on a deadly course.

Tallboys punch straight
through the Tirpitz's
steel decking.

FREDRIK: So, these bombs turn
out to be very powerful tools

against the Tirpitz,
and for the first time,

they really managed to
penetrate the steel.

NARRATOR: Other Tallboys
destroy the huge sandbank

built to protect the
Tirpitz from capsizing.

Within minutes, the vessel
lists and rolls over.

The Tirpitz, like her sister
ship, the Bismarck, is gone.

ERIC: By the time
Tirpitz was sunk,

Hitler had completely lost
faith in the German Navy.

He'd actually ordered the
German Navy to be scrapped.

There were other
things to worry about.

NARRATOR: The death of the
Tirpitz marks a revolution

in naval warfare.

The future belongs
to submarines,

striking from
beneath the waves,

and aircraft carriers
that can launch attacks
anywhere in the world.

Hitler's dream is dead,
and with it, the age of
the battleship.

Captioned by
Cotter Captioning Services.