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00:00Hidden by London's elegant public buildings, just yards from Trafalgar Square, is a dark
00:09forbidding block known as the Citadel.
00:14Sixty years ago, this bunker was at the heart of the secret war against Hitler's U-boats.
00:20In an airless sub-basement, twenty feet below the ground, naval intelligence sought to track
00:25the enemy in the Atlantic.
00:27At first, with little success.
00:30Britain depended on its lifeline to North America, but in the first eighteen months
00:36of war, the Germans sank more than five million tons of shipping.
00:40It was a battle for survival, and Britain was losing it.
00:50But in the spring of 1941, a new source of intelligence began to flow into the Citadel, which promised
00:57to transform the battle of the Atlantic, and to shape victory from defeat.
01:05On May the 7th, 1941, a British listening station intercepted a signal to a U-boat on war patrol
01:08in the Atlantic.
01:23It was from U-boat headquarters.
01:25That much was clear.
01:26That much was clear.
01:27But the message itself was in code.
01:32Dozens of signals like this were intercepted every day.
01:35If sense could be made of them, naval intelligence would be able to locate an enemy hidden in three
01:42million square miles of ocean.
01:44The signal was sent to a U-boat hunting in the waters south of Greenland, the U-110.
01:54The message was encoded on an Enigma machine.
01:58The settings for this machine were changed daily, and the tables containing the settings were
02:04changed every month.
02:13How safe was the code?
02:16We were told that the odds were at least one to a million.
02:21You could say that it was as safe as winning the jackpot on the lottery.
02:24The Enigma machine, on its own, wasn't enough to break the code.
02:31You also needed the code tables.
02:41The message from headquarters promised immediate action, the first for the U-110 in almost two
02:47weeks.
02:48A convoy had been spotted, and we were ordered by U-boat headquarters to try and intercept it.
03:00The U-110's commander, Fritz Julius Lemp, was an experienced hunter, a holder of the Knight's
03:17Cross, Germany's most prestigious decoration.
03:19The convoy was sighted on the morning of May the 9th.
03:25Lemp chose to risk a daylight attack.
03:36Then we attacked, fired at two steamers.
03:39I followed the torpedoes, until they hit the targets.
03:52Suddenly, there was a terrific explosion, I think on the starboard bow, and we knew a
03:59ship had been torpedoed.
04:01Then another ship was hit.
04:03Turned the convoy the other way, raced over, started picking up the contacts.
04:08I said to my mate, Fritz, listen, they've got us.
04:28We're being echolocated.
04:29The last depth charges caused serious damage.
04:49We had water and diesel oil leaking into the U-boat.
04:51The control room looked like a wrecked kitchen.
05:08The lights went out, and well, it really was the end.
05:12The U-boat, like the one filmed here, shot to the surface, taking the Royal Navy Escort
05:24ships by surprise.
05:26It is the dream, of course, when you attack, to have the U-boat coming to the surface.
05:31It happens so seldom.
05:33And the open fire, and the noise in that U-boat must be absolutely terrific.
05:39I can still hear Commander Lemp as he opened the hatch.
05:48He shouted down, Ulanstrasse, last stop, all changed.
05:52This was the last stop for us.
05:53I climbed from the control room through the tower up to the bridge.
06:03The commander was standing there.
06:05I said, sir, the secret things are still down there.
06:09He just said, leave it, Wilde.
06:11The boat's sinking anyway.
06:12The British rescued those they could, but 17 of the crew, including Commander Lemp, were
06:21lost.
06:23The U-110 remained stubbornly afloat.
06:27My captain turned to me and said, look, you sub, you take the boarding party.
06:31Get what you care about.
06:32One couldn't believe that they just left, Mr. Bain.
07:01I felt sure there must be somebody down below.
07:05And so, going down that last ladder with my revolver holsted, I felt terribly vulnerable,
07:10very frightened.
07:15Very yelling.
07:18No noise at all.
07:19Deathly silence.
07:21Nobody there.
07:23So I then shouted up to my boarding party, who I'd left on deck, to come down.
07:28And then we started collecting everything we could.
07:44And the telegraphist came along to me and said, look, there's something very interesting
07:47here.
07:47You better come see.
07:48So I went along.
07:50There was this typewriter thing.
07:53We both pressed a few buttons and lit up in a rather strange way.
07:58And, of course, a mass of cipher books, which didn't mean anything to us.
08:02Four days later, the intelligence halt was delivered to a Victorian mansion in the Buckinghamshire
08:14countryside.
08:16This was Bletchley Park, the government code and cipher school, a place so secret it was
08:21known in official documents as Station X.
08:24By 1941, the Bletchley codebreakers were able to read both German Army and Air Force signals.
08:40Only the Navy's Enigma codes were unbroken.
08:47The material from the U-110 helped to change all that.
08:54We got out almost everything in spring summer of 1941.
08:59There may have been an occasional day that didn't come out or something, but, no, to steady
09:04success.
09:08The intelligence material captured in the spring offered the cryptographers enough of an insight
09:14into the mechanics of the codes for them to crack the daily wheel settings, even when
09:19in the summer the tables changed.
09:21After June and July were over, when we had the messages on a plate, then we had to solve
09:29each day separately, and it was an extremely satisfying job.
09:36And each time you had to do some work, and you knew what you were doing was useful.
09:42Wonderful.
09:42By the summer of 1941, a flood of decrypted signals was clattering down the secure teleprinter
09:49lines from Bletchley to the Admiralty.
09:52It was known as ultra, or special intelligence.
10:04The speed with which the decrypts came into us, there were just piles and piles of them, and
10:13we were reading enemy traffic, and knowing what they were doing, probably at the same time
10:20as the recipient of the signal.
10:21At the other end of the teleprinter line was the Admiralty's intelligence center, the Citadel.
10:30At the heart of this secret bunker, a small team of intelligence officers sought to track
10:35U-boats in the Atlantic.
10:36The submarine tracking room was to mirror operations at U-boat headquarters, and lest anyone forget,
10:47a grim portrait of Carl Dönitz, the leader of the U-boat arm, hung on the wall.
10:56In the summer of 1941, Ultra was to transform the work of the tracking room and the battle
11:03in the Atlantic.
11:06On June 21st, a British cruiser sank the German supply ship, Babatonga, one of the network
11:16put in place to refuel surface radars and U-boats at sea.
11:20Within a month, naval intelligence was able to lead British warships to nine German tankers.
11:26It was a severe blow to Dönitz's plans for long-distance operations in the Atlantic.
11:38To make matters worse, his U-boats were also struggling to find convoys closer to home.
11:43In May 1941, they'd sunk 58 ships.
11:50In July, just 17.
11:54Dönitz began to suspect an intelligence failure.
11:57He'd sent his signals and intelligence officer to Berlin, and this man was told,
12:10find out if everything is okay.
12:13Can we trust this?
12:16And again and again, he would return with reassuring words.
12:19Nothing can have happened.
12:21It's got to be okay.
12:25But one always felt that Dönitz had, I'd say, a premonition,
12:30that something wasn't quite right, you know.
12:33On the day the British captured the Enigma materials from the U-110,
12:44Admiral Dönitz was appearing in a film being given its gala premiere in Berlin.
12:57The leading parts, with the exception of Dönitz, were played by actors.
13:02But the U-Boat was real enough.
13:05The U-123 had already sunk 18 ships.
13:10The last sign of the reconciliation of the Reutland Sea of Benedict.
13:17I would like to thank you, the captain of the Hoffmeister,
13:20and to reach his mother, the U-Boat's quicksack sign.
13:23That summer, the U-123 was to set out in war patrol under a new commander.
13:46It wasn't that simple, taking over a successful boat.
13:55I had to impose myself, of course.
13:59The older crew members in particular were a bit reluctant to accept me,
14:03because our first voyage was a journey south to the equator.
14:07They'd never done a long voyage,
14:08so it wasn't easy getting them behind me.
14:15Hartlegen was determined to make his mark.
14:20His maiden voyage in U-123 was to take him south along the African coast,
14:24where hunting was supposed to be good.
14:27At first, it was.
14:28By the end of June 1941,
14:34he was able to report his first successes to Dönert.
14:39At battle stations,
14:41turned onto a parallel course,
14:43a hit at the bridge,
14:45and a bright, fiery glow.
14:48There's an oil patch at the site of the sinkings,
14:51and a few people are floating in the water,
14:53holding spars.
14:54But U-123's war patrol was being tracked by the British.
15:06Hartlegen's signals were read in the citadel,
15:08just hours after he'd sent them.
15:11Time enough for convoys to be directed away from U-123.
15:16The tracking room was carrying out the same operation
15:19with a dozen more U-boats,
15:20right across the North Atlantic.
15:24On June 24th,
15:31Dönert sent a message to his commanders,
15:33urging them to press home the attack more vigorously.
15:37For naval intelligence,
15:39this was confirmation that the U-boats
15:41were experiencing a lean time.
15:43Dönert's was tetchy.
15:46Finding targets,
15:54how should I put it,
15:55this was getting harder and harder.
15:57The U-boat locations were known,
16:04and the convoys were being directed around them.
16:06U-123's war patrol began to fizzle out.
16:16At least for the U-boats in these waters,
16:18it was time to relax in the African sunshine.
16:20I organized a deck party with sausage snatching,
16:30shark fishing,
16:31and the crew was able to swim.
16:32The water was around 30 degrees.
16:50It was lovely.
16:51We could have a nice shower.
16:55We took our clothes off.
16:56Everyone was naked, you know.
16:57The airmortem run,
16:59they were all nackt.
17:01Nein.
17:15A meeresrund riecht mei die Schiff.
17:19Wir kriegen ihn noch an dem Schlitz.
17:22Ja, das wird den ersten Seenach doch ein Schlitz.
17:26Dann, siehst du wohl, siehst du wohl, Schemmerling.
17:34By July the 14th, U-123 had reached Freetown,
17:39on the coast of Sierra Leone.
17:41This was an assembly point for convoys
17:43preparing to make the journey home to Britain.
17:48There were hopes at last of an easy success.
17:51They were short-lived.
17:52The Royal Navy had been tipped off by U-123's own signals.
17:58And now the only ships passing in and out of Freetown
18:01were the ones they couldn't sink.
18:03We had them in our sights, and we wanted to sink them.
18:10But when it got dark, they were brightly lit.
18:12And they all had the American flag on their sides.
18:15They were neutral, and we couldn't do anything.
18:20Hitler had personally ordered that a signal be sent to U-boats
18:23expressly forbidding contact with American ships.
18:26The frustration of Hardegen and his crew
18:32was mirrored across the U-boat arm that summer.
18:36The failure of its cords compounded
18:38by the presence of an enemy it couldn't touch.
18:40We had very strict orders to avoid anything
18:50that could cloud the relationship.
18:56But one already felt in those days
18:58that the Americans were doing quite a lot
19:01that couldn't truly be reconciled with neutrality.
19:04We shall give every possible assistance to Britain
19:16and to all who with Britain are resisting Hitlerism
19:20or its equivalent, all additional measures necessary
19:24to deliver the goods will be taken.
19:29By the summer of 1941, half the food Britain imported
19:33and many of the weapons she needed to fight the war
19:36were passing across the Atlantic from North America.
19:39And Britain was pressing for more.
19:43The one thing we hoped was that the Americans
19:46would come into the war.
19:47If they did, that would be it.
19:49The war would be won.
19:51Of course, it has to be said there were many people
19:54who were very, very much in favour of Britain
19:57and who would be glad to get into the war
20:00of whom President Roosevelt was won.
20:03The growing warmth of this friendship
20:09was demonstrated in August
20:11when Churchill steamed across the Atlantic
20:13for a shipboard summit with Roosevelt.
20:19The President came bearing gifts.
20:22British sailors were given cigarettes and fruit,
20:24a taste of life as it was once lived at home.
20:27American sailors were able to meet the British Prime Minister.
20:42The two leaders gave voice to their unity of purpose
20:45in a joint service aboard the battleship Prince of Wales.
20:48Churchill got what he wanted.
20:54Roosevelt agreed to bend the bones of neutrality even further.
20:58American warships would begin protecting British convoys
21:01in the Western Atlantic.
21:02The USA declared a security zone,
21:11an exclusion zone,
21:13and that was for us, of course, nonsense.
21:17We regarded the whole of the Atlantic
21:19as our operational area,
21:21but the Americans attacked a number of submarines
21:24in the Western Atlantic.
21:26It regarded them as pirates.
21:27The Admiralty was now confident
21:38that the tide of battle was turning its way.
21:42Its figures showed that in the last six months of 1941,
21:45shipping losses had more than halved.
21:48The U-boat was struggling to find targets.
21:52When it did,
21:53it risked confronting the muscular neutrality
21:55of the United States.
22:02But it was clear
22:03the standoff couldn't last forever.
22:14On October the 31st,
22:17Eric Toggs, U-552,
22:19was hunting in the waters
22:20southeast of Greenland.
22:22I came upon the convoy
22:26in the early hours of the morning
22:28and attacked immediately
22:29with two torpedoes.
22:30And with two torpedoes.
22:31The Reuben James was hit
22:52and burst into flames.
22:54And 110 men lost their lives
22:56in the icy cold water.
22:58oil spouted out of the ship
23:01into the sea
23:02and in places
23:03this was on fire.
23:06Then,
23:07unfortunately,
23:09after the boat started to sink,
23:11her depth charges began to explode
23:13and that
23:14tossed the survivors
23:16high up
23:17into the air.
23:19They were thrown up
23:21to a height
23:22of 15 meters
23:23and, of course,
23:25hit the water again
23:27in a very badly wounded state.
23:38Toggs U-552
23:40sank the first American warship
23:42before there was officially
23:44a war to fight.
23:45In the Atlantic,
23:50at least,
23:51the United States
23:52was now at war
23:53with Germany
23:53in all but name.
23:59I reported every detail
24:01of the attack
24:02to Dönitz
24:03and he said
24:03nothing more than
24:04it's all right,
24:05you acted correctly.
24:11Dönitz approved,
24:12Hitler did not.
24:13Topp wasn't disciplined
24:15but Hitler still refused
24:17to rescind his orders.
24:19No more attacks
24:20on American ships.
24:22By December,
24:23the U-boat war
24:24had almost grown
24:25to a halt.
24:28But the issue
24:29was settled
24:29five weeks later.
24:31Not in the Atlantic,
24:33but in the Pacific.
24:34This is the Arizona
24:42writhing in death agony,
24:44awakening America
24:45to battle
24:46and rallying America
24:48to a new battle cry.
24:50Remember Pearl Harbor.
24:52Hitler was surprised
24:54by the Japanese airstrike
24:55at Pearl Harbor,
24:56but in support
24:57of his ally,
24:58Hino declared war
24:59in the United States.
25:00Dönitz and his crews
25:03were delighted.
25:09The entry of the United States
25:11into the war
25:12was,
25:12I would almost say,
25:14a relief.
25:18We could now respond
25:21to what the Americans
25:22had already been doing
25:23to us
25:23in terms of hostile attacks.
25:34Preparations began
25:35for Paukenschlag,
25:37Operation Drumbeat.
25:47Now at last
25:49was an opportunity
25:50to breathe new life
25:51into the faltering U-boat campaign.
25:59Just five large U-boats
26:01were to spearhead
26:02the attack
26:02on the United States.
26:04One was the U-123.
26:08Hardegen and his crew
26:09set out for the new
26:10combat area
26:11on Christmas Eve 1941.
26:16A few of us
26:17were already wondering
26:18whether we would get back
26:19from there
26:20from there
26:20in one piece.
26:21It was a fair way.
26:30I had no charts
26:34for America.
26:36I had a now
26:37pocket atlas
26:38and in it
26:38there was a small
26:39city map
26:40of New York.
26:41That was all I had.
26:42U-123's arrival
26:50would not go unannounced.
26:52There was Ultra.
26:54On January the 10th, 1942
26:56a message was intercepted
26:58and delivered to Bletchley.
27:00It was an order
27:01from Dönerts
27:02to the Drumbeat boats.
27:03It was clear
27:04an attack was building
27:05off the American coast.
27:09But the eyes
27:10of the American Navy
27:11were still turned
27:12to the Pacific.
27:16The warning reached
27:17a desk of its
27:18Naval Intelligence Service
27:19but no action
27:21was taken.
27:23In those first days
27:24after Pearl Harbor
27:25it really was a pantomime.
27:27But then you've got
27:28to remember
27:29the United States
27:29is a hell of a long way
27:31from anywhere else
27:32and Americans
27:33are not accustomed
27:33to think
27:34of people attacking
27:35them on their own shores.
27:42On January the 13th
27:44U-123 inched its way
27:46into New York Bay.
27:49Operation Drumbeat
27:50had begun.
27:54I had flooded
27:55the front tanks
27:55so that only the tower showed.
27:57What a American fisherman
27:58would recognize
27:59a German U-boat tower.
28:02I'd assumed
28:02that I would find
28:03a coast that was blacked out.
28:05There was a war on after all
28:06but ships were sailing
28:08with their navigation lights
28:09shining brightly.
28:14We could see the cars
28:18driving along the coast road
28:20and I remember
28:21we could even smell the woods.
28:23The woods were even
28:24gerochen.
28:31I waited until the ships
28:44left New York
28:44then I would sail
28:46behind them
28:46until they were in
28:47about 40-50 meters
28:48of water
28:49and then sink them.
28:50the night of the long knives.
28:59The night of the long knives.
29:13a drumbeat
29:14with eight ships sunk
29:15including three tankers.
29:25If only there'd been
29:2610 or 20 U-boats
29:27here with me
29:28they would all
29:29have had successes
29:30aplenty.
29:40Hardegen was able
29:41to report to U-boat headquarters
29:42that American waters
29:44were teeming with ships
29:45unprotected by convoy.
29:48The U-boat
29:48could sink at will.
29:54We had expected
29:56there would be
29:56some successes
29:57at the beginning
29:58but we hadn't expected
30:02they would be
30:02as great.
30:05That was
30:06let's say
30:07a nice surprise.
30:08This was not
30:15what the Admiralty
30:16had anticipated
30:17when the United States
30:18entered the war.
30:20Lossies began to climb.
30:2248 ships in January
30:2495 by March.
30:28There was worse news.
30:31On the 1st of February
30:321942
30:32Naval Intelligence
30:34was obliged to report
30:35that the flow of Ultra
30:37was at an end.
30:38Bletchley had lost access
30:44to the key Enigma code.
30:49The work dried up
30:50and everything stopped.
30:52Nothing was happening
30:53at all
30:54and we were really
30:56rather desperate.
30:58It had a very bad effect.
30:59People walked around
31:00with long faces
31:01particularly the cryptographers
31:04who were almost
31:05in despair.
31:08Durnitz had insisted
31:09on the change.
31:11There were just
31:11too many coincidences.
31:13Too many convoys missed.
31:15Too many supply ships sunk.
31:18A new four-wheel Enigma machine
31:20had been issued
31:21to the Atlantic boats
31:22and a new code
31:24called Shark.
31:26It was enough to ensure
31:27the Ultra Tap
31:28was turned off
31:29just when the United States
31:31needed its help.
31:34We were very miserable
31:37about not being able
31:38to get into the Shark.
31:39We knew that was
31:40much more important
31:41than anything else
31:42that we could do.
31:43We knew what the sinkings
31:45were like.
31:45On April the 8th, 1942
31:51the tanker
31:52Esso Baton Rouge
31:53was passing along
31:55the coast of Georgia.
31:59These were dangerous waters.
32:01They'd become a favourite
32:02hunting ground
32:02for the U-boat.
32:08After four months of war
32:10there was still
32:11no convoy protection.
32:12Nor had most Americans
32:15woken to the new
32:16Pearl Harbor
32:17unfolding on their doorstep.
32:20All the businesses
32:21they wouldn't dim their lights
32:24and a ship going up
32:26the coast or coming down
32:27you're silhouetted
32:28against this light.
32:30This was like
32:31a shooting gallery.
32:33You know,
32:33you picture yourself
32:34sitting out there
32:35on about 120,000
32:36140,000 vials
32:38of high octane gas.
32:40There's something
32:41to think about.
32:42There were many
32:46who refused
32:47to sail on tankers.
32:49They were an
32:49especially prized target.
32:52In the first four months
32:52of America's war
32:53more than 50 were sunk
32:55on the east coast
32:56and in the Caribbean.
33:00The Esso Baton Rouge
33:01was a little more
33:02than two miles offshore
33:04when her shadow
33:04was spotted
33:05by Hardeggan's
33:06U-123.
33:07A wound, she says.
33:20I don't know
33:20how high up in the air
33:21I went because
33:22it's right under me
33:23just about.
33:25I don't know
33:26if it knocked me out
33:27or what
33:27but when I come to
33:29I says holy mackerel.
33:31You know the first
33:32thing out of my mouth?
33:33First thing out of my mouth.
33:34Please God help me now.
33:36The first thing
33:37out of my mouth.
33:40Nine days after
33:41the sinking
33:41of the Baton Rouge
33:42all tanker traffic
33:44on the east coast
33:45was suspended.
33:51The U.S. Navy
33:52was unable
33:53to protect shipping
33:54in its own waters.
33:56It was fighting
33:56a war in two oceans
33:57and in the Atlantic
33:59it was losing.
34:08I was a pretty sick cookie.
34:11I'd come home
34:11my mother would put
34:12the rubber mat
34:14in the bed
34:14because I would have
34:16such nightmares
34:17I'd wake up
34:17in a pool of water
34:19sweating so bad.
34:22Boy, I get some doozies.
34:27One time I was running
34:28down the hall
34:28howling to the general
34:29quarters.
34:31Can you believe it?
34:32The tinfish has surfaced
34:41and like all fish
34:43out of water
34:43it is doomed
34:44if it remains there
34:44too long.
34:46Much was made
34:46in the newsreels
34:47of an American
34:48counterattack.
34:49The public was told
34:50of hundreds of
34:51hunt and destroy
34:52missions.
34:56Of 15 U-boats
34:57sunk in the first
34:58three months
34:59of the war.
35:02Planes would come
35:03and drop a few bombs.
35:04We would only
35:04laugh about that
35:05because they were
35:06so far away
35:07they had no effect.
35:08But they always reported
35:09I've sunk a U-boat.
35:20We were supposed
35:23to have been sunk
35:23three times.
35:24Every time we sunk
35:25a ship
35:26we were sunk again.
35:27The Americans
35:28needed this
35:28as a consolation.
35:30The idea
35:30that they had done
35:31something
35:31but it wasn't true.
35:37Despite the
35:38American claims
35:39no U-boats
35:40were sunk
35:40in United States
35:41waters
35:41in the first
35:42three months
35:43of the war
35:43and with tankers
35:45burning off
35:45the beaches
35:46it was impossible
35:47to hide the failure
35:48of the Navy's response.
35:57Operation Drumbeat
35:58breathed new life
35:59into the U-boat war.
36:01Dernitzi's boats
36:02were sinking
36:03more than 400,000
36:04tons of shipping
36:05a month.
36:05Hardegen's U-123 alone
36:10sank 19 ships
36:11on its two patrols
36:12to the United States.
36:18We were the ones
36:19who'd had
36:19the greatest success
36:20and the reception
36:22and the propaganda
36:23circus around us
36:24was correspondingly noisy.
36:26I was a little
36:27embarrassed at times
36:29because in fact
36:30we hadn't
36:31encountered
36:32much resistance.
36:43Then Dernitz
36:44pinned the Knight's cross
36:45on me
36:46on the deck
36:46of my boat.
36:47That was of course
36:48a special moment.
36:53Dernitz had good cause
36:54for satisfaction.
36:56Everyone wanted
36:56to be part
36:57of what the crews
36:58called
36:58the Great American
36:59Turkey Shoot.
37:05U-boat headquarters
37:07didn't care
37:07where in the Atlantic
37:08the successes were won
37:09just as long
37:10as more ships
37:11were sunk
37:12than the Allies
37:13could build.
37:17Dernitz sent
37:18all the U-boats
37:19he could muster
37:20to American waters.
37:22This was made possible
37:23by a new type
37:24of submarine
37:24which thanks
37:26to the change
37:26in the Enigma code
37:27was a well-guarded secret.
37:35U-boats
37:36were now able
37:36to rendezvous
37:37off the American coast
37:38with giant
37:39underwater tankers
37:40loaded with up
37:41to 700 tons
37:42of fuel,
37:44food
37:44and torpedoes.
37:54A U-boat could now
37:57double the length
37:58of its war patrol
37:58on the American coast.
38:05Staff at the Admiralty
38:07were unable
38:08to contain
38:08the frustration.
38:10There was sharp
38:11criticism
38:11of their American
38:12Allies' failure
38:13to introduce
38:13convoy sooner.
38:16The monthly total
38:17for June
38:17was to be
38:18the worst
38:19of the war
38:19173 ships
38:22sunk.
38:23These losses
38:24were threatening
38:24the whole
38:25Allied war effort.
38:29But for all
38:30the Admiralty's
38:30anger
38:31its grim statistics
38:33hit a new
38:33and disturbing trend.
38:36A growing number
38:37of ships
38:37were being sunk
38:38many miles
38:39from the American coast.
38:44U-boats
38:45had struggled
38:45to find ships
38:46the summer before.
38:48Now they seemed
38:49able to find them
38:49even in the middle
38:51of the Atlantic.
38:56When a ship
38:56was sunk here
38:57the chances
38:58of survival
38:59were slim
38:59and the U-boat
39:01crews knew it.
39:03I suddenly realised
39:04that about
39:05100 feet away
39:06was this
39:06something great
39:07U-boat
39:07and
39:09the
39:13machine guns
39:14were manned,
39:15she had a couple
39:16of cannon
39:17they were manned
39:18and we all thought
39:19that was it.
39:24Instead he asked
39:25someone to come
39:26alongside
39:26and he handed
39:28out
39:29bread
39:30tins of butter
39:32and some
39:32first aid dressings
39:34and he said
39:35we'll report
39:36your position
39:37after dark
39:38and good luck
39:40and took off
39:42then.
39:45I think it was
39:49the worst time
39:50that first night
39:51in many ways
39:51you began to think
39:53about
39:55how a few hours ago
39:57you were having breakfast
39:58and you ought to be having
39:59a jolly good dinner now.
40:01you're wet
40:07and icy cold
40:09your backside
40:12would sit
40:13on the hard surface
40:14wet surface
40:15wet clothes
40:16rocking
40:18throwing about
40:19like that
40:20you're never still
40:21each man got a quarter
40:33of this
40:34can of pemmican
40:35it's like
40:37fruit
40:37and
40:39chopped up meat
40:40a lot of coconut
40:41coconut oil
40:42pressed in
40:43like a little
40:44sardine can
40:46and they'd get
40:51two malted milk
40:52tablets
40:53and they'd get
40:54this little
40:55container of water
40:57about the size
40:57of a shotgun shell
40:58they got that
40:59twice a day
40:59and that was
41:05their ration
41:06you see a wave
41:16the size of a house
41:17coming towards you
41:18in an open boat
41:20with 17 chaps in it
41:21and you
41:21you think
41:23this one's gonna
41:24come over the top
41:25and you thought
41:26this is it
41:27we had two helmets
41:31in the boat
41:32so there was
41:33always two men
41:33with those helmets
41:34bailing water
41:35you just kept at it
41:37because if you gave up
41:38you were done
41:38and you knew this
41:40as the days wore on
41:50your tongue
41:51started to swell
41:53and all you thought
41:54about was
41:55when was the water
41:55coming around
41:56when's the water
41:57you longed
41:58to drink something
41:59when I was a child
42:06I read Charles Dickens
42:08Christmas Carol
42:09there's a lovely
42:10illustration in that
42:11book
42:11the ghost of plenty
42:12sat up
42:13in front of a
42:14giant fire
42:15log fire
42:16with fruit
42:18and food
42:19and
42:20mulled wines
42:21and all sorts
42:22of things
42:23around them
42:23and every time
42:25I closed my eyes
42:26I could say that
42:27from the summer
42:31of 1942
42:32many of the
42:34merchant seamen
42:34forced to undergo
42:35this ordeal
42:36were paying the price
42:38for a catastrophic
42:39British intelligence
42:40failure
42:40the breaking
42:43of the German
42:44Enigma codes
42:45was of immense
42:46value to the
42:46admiralty
42:47and yet it was
42:48cavalier about
42:49the security
42:50of its own codes
42:51it relied on
42:53book ciphers
42:53easy to use
42:55but often easier
42:56to penetrate
42:57little effort
42:58was made
42:59to disguise
43:00the codes
43:00indicator
43:01the key
43:02for anyone
43:03decrypting a signal
43:04by the summer
43:06of 1942
43:07the Germans
43:08had cracked
43:09the British
43:09convoy codes
43:10their most
43:14successful
43:15U-boat pack
43:16attacks
43:17on our
43:17convoys
43:18were based
43:19on information
43:20obtained
43:21by breaking
43:22our ciphers
43:23the Germans
43:24were doing
43:24just about
43:25as well
43:25with our ciphers
43:26breaking them
43:27as we were
43:27doing with Ultra
43:28in fact
43:29at times
43:30they may be
43:31doing better
43:31thousands of
43:36signals were
43:37sent to allied
43:37ships every week
43:38as much as
43:4080% of those
43:41sent in one code
43:42were read
43:43by the Germans
43:43a secret report
43:46written for the
43:47admiralty
43:47after the war
43:48admitted it had
43:50cost the country
43:50very dearly
43:51in men
43:51and ships
43:52and nearly
43:53lost us
43:54the war
43:54at sea
43:55by the time
44:00the U-boat
44:00returned to the
44:01convoy war
44:02later that summer
44:02the intelligence
44:04advantage
44:04rested with
44:05Durnitz
44:05he would use it
44:07to direct
44:08his packs
44:08against convoys
44:09deep into
44:10the north
44:10Atlantic
44:10a thousand
44:12miles or so
44:12away from
44:13land
44:13before the end
44:20of three weeks
44:20you know
44:22we realized
44:23we were really
44:23in trouble
44:24because the food
44:25was going down
44:26and we saw
44:27all these fish
44:28swimming around
44:29with sharks
44:30and these
44:31pilot fish
44:33they would swim
44:34closer
44:34real close
44:35to the boat
44:35and you'd just
44:36pitch them in the
44:37belly and throw
44:38them in the boat
44:38and you'd probably
44:40miss 50 of them
44:40before you got one
44:41your tongue
44:46which is black
44:47your lips are black
44:49these boils
44:50which are
44:51all over your legs
44:53painful
44:54because your legs
44:56were in salt water
44:57most of the time
44:58we would read
45:01the testament
45:02the new testament
45:03we had a book
45:03with us
45:04we'd read that
45:06two or three times
45:07a day
45:07well I think
45:09it kind of
45:10settled your mind
45:11I can remember
45:15being at home
45:16and playing tennis
45:17in fact
45:18and I wasn't
45:20in that boat
45:21for quite a long time
45:22it was uncanny
45:25really
45:25this guy we found
45:31out he'd been
45:32torpedoed before
45:33and he
45:35mentally he was
45:36not with it
45:37he'd lay his money
45:38out in the boat
45:38and he'd give somebody
45:40a five dollar bill
45:41and tell them
45:42to call a water taxi
45:43he wanted to go ashore
45:44and then we got in
45:46this terrible storm
45:47one night
45:47and as we were all
45:49doing our thing
45:50he just stood up
45:50in the middle of the boat
45:51and he jumped
45:52he just literally
45:54jumped right out of the boat
45:55and we never saw
45:57that man again
45:57you know it was kind of heartbreaking
46:01he'd been through so much
46:03and then he
46:05he just decided
46:07he had it
46:07it was a grey cold
46:14north atlantic day
46:16and somebody saw this
46:18um
46:18sheep on the horizon
46:20and it was an
46:21icelandic trolley
46:22and its name
46:24was surprise
46:25some surprise
46:36some surprise
46:37put on the mistake
46:57in a hammock
46:58and the crew
46:59of the snowflake
46:59I can't speak
47:01enough
47:01to us it was emotional
47:16to them
47:17they picked up survivors before
47:18and it meant
47:21really not that much
47:22to them
47:22until such time
47:24as they were
47:24finally understanding
47:26what we were telling them
47:27how long we were out there
47:28they couldn't believe it
47:31U-Boat sank a staggering
47:541100 ships in 1942
47:56more than 30,000
47:58British seamen
47:59were forced to take
48:00to lifeboats
48:0010,000 lost their lives
48:03it was the costliest year
48:05of the war at sea
48:06so far
48:06at the beginning
48:09of the war
48:10Dönitz had announced
48:11that with enough U-Boats
48:12he would secure victory
48:13in the Atlantic
48:14then he'd commanded
48:16just 57
48:17now at the start
48:19of 1943
48:20he had 393
48:22and he died
48:23they would have prze
48:32the H крыш
48:33at the north
48:34of the world
48:35thereiese
48:37he roор
48:37to be kissed
48:39he e I
48:39I
48:43they
48:44and
48:46he
Recommended
48:38
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