1 00:00:05,572 --> 00:00:09,008 From this seaside villa, on the edge of the French port of Lorient, 2 00:00:09,442 --> 00:00:12,377 Karl Donitz directed the Battle of the Atlantic. 3 00:00:15,682 --> 00:00:20,585 By the summer of 1942, Donitz commanded three hundred and thirty U-boats. 4 00:00:21,087 --> 00:00:23,749 Five times more than at the beginning of the war. 5 00:00:27,260 --> 00:00:31,196 With these, he hoped to strike a decisive blow against the convoys on 6 00:00:31,364 --> 00:00:33,559 which the allied war effort depended. 7 00:00:38,538 --> 00:00:44,340 Fast on the surface, able to hide beneath it, the U-boat seemed an invincible enemy. 8 00:00:48,114 --> 00:00:50,639 This is the story of how the allies fought back 9 00:00:50,850 --> 00:00:53,683 and within a year drove the U-boat from the Atlantic. 10 00:00:58,725 --> 00:01:03,059 After three years of success, the hunter became the hunted. 11 00:01:16,543 --> 00:01:20,946 Hitler's U-boats sank more than a hundred and thirty ships in June 1942. 12 00:01:22,515 --> 00:01:24,813 The crews called this their 'happy time.' 13 00:01:31,024 --> 00:01:33,549 We were convinced we were fighting in the right service. 14 00:01:34,594 --> 00:01:36,960 We expected to have success in battle. 15 00:01:38,164 --> 00:01:40,155 We were young, optimistic, 16 00:01:41,067 --> 00:01:45,868 and we'd sworn our Oath of Allegiance to the Fatherland, and to our 17 00:01:46,372 --> 00:01:50,069 - well, as he was then - beloved Fuhrer. 18 00:01:55,982 --> 00:01:58,348 The U-boat was winning the battle of the Atlantic. 19 00:01:58,985 --> 00:02:03,149 More than five hundred allied ships were sunk in the first half of 1942, 20 00:02:03,556 --> 00:02:06,491 for the loss ofjust twenty-one German U-boats. 21 00:02:12,031 --> 00:02:14,966 The leader of the U-boat arm judged a decisive victory 22 00:02:15,135 --> 00:02:17,228 in the Atlantic to be within his grasp. 23 00:02:18,471 --> 00:02:21,235 But Karl Donitz's confidence was shaken that summer, 24 00:02:21,674 --> 00:02:24,507 by a new and entirely unexpected threat. 25 00:02:28,715 --> 00:02:31,479 On the night of July the 13th, 1942, 26 00:02:31,951 --> 00:02:36,012 U-159 was making good speed home to its base on the French coast. 27 00:02:36,656 --> 00:02:41,252 lts crew felt safe. The dark hull of the boat was almost invisible at night. 28 00:02:47,901 --> 00:02:49,528 We were sailing at full speed at night 29 00:02:49,702 --> 00:02:52,296 when we were suddenly caught in the glare of a searchlight. 30 00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:54,335 A plane was running in to attack us. 31 00:02:58,778 --> 00:03:02,771 The U-boat had been detected by a Wellington from RAF Coastal Command. 32 00:03:06,052 --> 00:03:09,419 lt dropped five depth charges next to the boat, pretty close. 33 00:03:12,425 --> 00:03:14,985 We didn't know how it had found us. We only knew for the - 34 00:03:15,161 --> 00:03:17,857 - first time a plane had attacked us at night 35 00:03:18,031 --> 00:03:20,556 and caught us in the full beam of its searchlight. 36 00:03:23,703 --> 00:03:26,570 The U-159 limped back into Lorient to discover 37 00:03:26,739 --> 00:03:29,003 that two other boats had been attacked that night. 38 00:03:29,542 --> 00:03:33,273 The mystery was, how had the allies found them in the dark? 39 00:03:39,085 --> 00:03:43,283 lt was a surprise for us. The U-boats were now - 40 00:03:43,456 --> 00:03:48,621 - always being detected and we didn't know how it was happening. 41 00:03:53,299 --> 00:03:56,325 British air crews were using a new detection device. 42 00:03:56,736 --> 00:03:59,637 One that threatened to force the U-boat from the surface. 43 00:04:05,278 --> 00:04:06,768 ln the first months of the war, 44 00:04:07,013 --> 00:04:10,244 the Admiralty had contacted a small civilian research team 45 00:04:10,483 --> 00:04:12,212 that was working for the RAF. 46 00:04:15,822 --> 00:04:19,189 Admiral Somerville rang up one day from the Admiralty and said - 47 00:04:19,359 --> 00:04:26,856 - 'Do you think with an aeroplane you could detect a - a conning tower of a submarine? 48 00:04:27,267 --> 00:04:33,206 l'll give you a submarine in the Solent, L27, you go and try it. 49 00:04:34,274 --> 00:04:40,270 So l fitted a Lockheed Hudson with an early form of radar 50 00:04:40,580 --> 00:04:42,639 and we went out to meet our submarine. 51 00:04:49,322 --> 00:04:53,486 We saw it at three and a half miles, peering into a cathode ray tube anxiously 52 00:04:54,794 --> 00:04:58,195 and it was the first detection of a submarine l think by radar. 53 00:04:58,998 --> 00:05:01,398 The radar was a crucial breakthrough. 54 00:05:01,968 --> 00:05:05,199 The U-boat spent more than ninety percent of its time on the surface. 55 00:05:05,605 --> 00:05:08,096 Beneath it, it was slow and blind. 56 00:05:08,741 --> 00:05:10,572 lf it could be detected above the waves, 57 00:05:10,743 --> 00:05:14,144 a vital step would be taken towards victory in the Atlantic. 58 00:05:18,217 --> 00:05:21,243 The lessons of radar were not lost on the Naval staff. 59 00:05:21,854 --> 00:05:23,287 By the summer of 1942 60 00:05:23,456 --> 00:05:27,859 the Admiralty and the Air Ministry had opened their doors to a new type of scientist. 61 00:05:28,227 --> 00:05:29,990 The operational researcher. 62 00:05:33,166 --> 00:05:34,258 For the first time, 63 00:05:34,500 --> 00:05:36,229 civilians were given the freedom to assess 64 00:05:36,402 --> 00:05:40,600 notjust the equipment needed to defeat the U-boat, but the tactics too. 65 00:05:41,541 --> 00:05:44,704 After three years of war the number of U-boat kills from the air 66 00:05:44,944 --> 00:05:48,710 were still disappointingly low. lt was soon clear why. 67 00:05:52,652 --> 00:05:55,416 Aircraft could be spotted by day many miles away. 68 00:05:55,888 --> 00:06:01,349 Time enough for a U-boat to dive. The solution was astonishingly simple. 69 00:06:02,095 --> 00:06:05,360 To paint allied planes the colour of the Atlantic sky. 70 00:06:14,073 --> 00:06:18,339 The scientists were also able to prove that a large number of small depth charges, 71 00:06:18,511 --> 00:06:22,379 timed to go off close to the surface, would improve the chances of a kill. 72 00:06:30,523 --> 00:06:35,290 Their work promised to turn the radar guided aircraft into a formidable hunter. 73 00:06:43,169 --> 00:06:45,296 On December the 8th, 1942, 74 00:06:45,538 --> 00:06:49,269 a Liberator from the RAF's 120 Squadron set out from lceland. 75 00:06:51,144 --> 00:06:55,774 lt used to take us five hours to get out to pick up a convoy 76 00:06:56,215 --> 00:07:00,311 and sometimes they were hundreds of miles out of position. 77 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:02,210 We'd pick them up on radar, 78 00:07:02,688 --> 00:07:08,422 a big convoy of about fifty ships would show up enormously on the radar screen - 79 00:07:09,228 --> 00:07:11,093 - so we used to home in on that. 80 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:19,034 Bulloch and his crew picked up the ships of Convoy HX-21 7. 81 00:07:20,239 --> 00:07:23,072 Within minutes, he'd made another contact. 82 00:07:28,047 --> 00:07:31,574 We knew there were - there were about fifteen U-boats in the area. 83 00:07:31,951 --> 00:07:39,221 You'd pick up the - its wake first of all, a big stream behind it. 84 00:07:41,828 --> 00:07:48,028 There was one there about ten miles astern and we spotted him on the surface. 85 00:07:52,004 --> 00:07:52,993 Bomb gone. 86 00:08:00,746 --> 00:08:05,547 We felt er, a lot of satisfaction that we'd made a good attack. 87 00:08:07,086 --> 00:08:10,317 You don't worry about the forty-eight people onboard the thing. 88 00:08:13,726 --> 00:08:15,887 Bulloch had sunk the U-61 1 . 89 00:08:16,329 --> 00:08:19,389 That day he attacked and damaged another six U-boats. 90 00:08:31,010 --> 00:08:32,875 ln the first three years of the war, 91 00:08:33,145 --> 00:08:35,807 aircraft had sunk just fifteen U-boats, 92 00:08:36,215 --> 00:08:40,743 but in the six months from September 1942, they sank twenty-nine. 93 00:08:43,589 --> 00:08:46,786 Naval intelligence began to detect encouraging signs. 94 00:08:47,226 --> 00:08:50,593 A new reticence among U-boat crews to press home the attack 95 00:08:50,830 --> 00:08:53,628 when they came within range of allied aircraft. 96 00:08:59,438 --> 00:09:01,963 The allied staff effort was bearing fruit. 97 00:09:02,675 --> 00:09:06,941 The contrast with U-boat Command in France, couldn't have been more marked. 98 00:09:12,785 --> 00:09:17,950 ln 1942, Donitz's headquarters was based in a villa on the outskirts of Lorient 99 00:09:18,391 --> 00:09:19,949 -The Chateau Kernevel. 100 00:09:21,961 --> 00:09:25,795 The U-boat war in the Atlantic was run from two rooms on the ground floor 101 00:09:26,032 --> 00:09:28,057 and the small bunker beneath the house. 102 00:09:28,568 --> 00:09:32,402 Headquarters was so small, staff dubbed it the 'Sardine tin.' 103 00:09:34,340 --> 00:09:38,242 Donitz relied on a core of just six young staff officers. 104 00:09:43,049 --> 00:09:47,315 Orders for the U-boats had to be written with stencils and water soluble ink, 105 00:09:47,620 --> 00:09:51,681 so that if the U-boat was sunk it would be impossible to find them. 106 00:09:53,693 --> 00:09:57,094 l would first of all hang up these stencils to dry in my little room 107 00:09:57,396 --> 00:09:59,057 on a washing line over my bunk. 108 00:10:00,700 --> 00:10:05,433 They had to dry first of all, you know. That was a joke in itself. 109 00:10:07,607 --> 00:10:10,508 How primitive this whole warfare business was. 110 00:10:16,582 --> 00:10:20,313 Donitz's headquarters looked across to huge new U-boat pens. 111 00:10:20,486 --> 00:10:24,320 Millions of Marks were spent on protecting the U-boat in port, 112 00:10:25,157 --> 00:10:28,490 but next to nothing on improving its fighting capability at sea. 113 00:10:31,564 --> 00:10:36,399 Donitz and his staff relied entirely on navy experts in Berlin for technical advice. 114 00:10:37,136 --> 00:10:38,763 Their record was poor. 115 00:10:43,643 --> 00:10:46,771 The boats hardly differed from the ones that were already in service 116 00:10:46,946 --> 00:10:48,846 at the end of the First World War. 117 00:10:49,181 --> 00:10:53,550 That meant no significant improvements had been made in twenty years. 118 00:11:03,095 --> 00:11:05,495 The same old U-boats were still being launched. 119 00:11:05,998 --> 00:11:10,094 No serious effort had been made to develop a submarine with high underwater speeds. 120 00:11:10,670 --> 00:11:13,138 One that would be safe from allied air attack. 121 00:11:22,515 --> 00:11:25,313 But there was one stretch of ocean in which the old U-boats 122 00:11:25,484 --> 00:11:27,645 could still operate on the surface. 123 00:11:32,124 --> 00:11:37,357 Donitz began to direct his packs into the waters south of Greenland. The air gap. 124 00:11:38,230 --> 00:11:41,256 Here they were beyond the range of all but a handful of aircraft. 125 00:11:43,602 --> 00:11:45,365 By September, 1942, 126 00:11:45,571 --> 00:11:48,131 it was clear to Donitz that whilst the allies might be one step 127 00:11:48,307 --> 00:11:52,539 ahead in the technical race, the battle was still there to be won. 128 00:11:53,245 --> 00:11:56,373 Sinkings were as high as ever and the number of frontline 129 00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:58,881 U-boats was still steadily rising. 130 00:12:00,352 --> 00:12:03,753 But the more distant future caused me some anxiety. 131 00:12:06,058 --> 00:12:08,288 Donitz took his fears to Hitler. 132 00:12:11,130 --> 00:12:12,961 Hitler had a simple solution. 133 00:12:13,499 --> 00:12:16,127 Shoot anyone who survived a U-boat attack, 134 00:12:16,368 --> 00:12:19,166 then allied seamen would no longer want to serve. 135 00:12:19,872 --> 00:12:22,534 Donitz refused to consider such a brutal step. 136 00:12:31,050 --> 00:12:34,542 But two weeks after his meeting with Hitler an event took place 137 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,917 with hardened Donitz's attitude towards survivors. 138 00:12:40,192 --> 00:12:43,025 The liner Laconia was homebound from Cape Town 139 00:12:43,195 --> 00:12:45,561 with two thousand seven hundred people onboard. 140 00:12:45,898 --> 00:12:48,264 Eighteen hundred of them ltalian prisoners of war. 141 00:12:48,901 --> 00:12:52,337 She was sailing alone - unprotected. 142 00:12:53,305 --> 00:12:57,298 We thought we were fast enough to survive anything, 143 00:12:57,476 --> 00:13:03,039 so it was speed and zigzagging, you know, which is the usual thing. 144 00:13:06,285 --> 00:13:08,082 On the evening of September the 12th, 145 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:12,256 the Laconia was nine hundred miles from Freetown on the west coast of Africa. 146 00:13:17,129 --> 00:13:21,828 Among the passengers were Janet Walker and her five year old daughter, Noreen. 147 00:13:23,602 --> 00:13:27,538 l was putting my little girl to bed there was me getting her to say her prayers 148 00:13:27,907 --> 00:13:31,673 and she was sitting up in bed and l heard this bang. 149 00:13:33,345 --> 00:13:34,369 People around me said, 'What was that?' 150 00:13:34,547 --> 00:13:37,482 Well l'd already knew what that bump, l'd heard that before. 151 00:13:38,017 --> 00:13:39,882 l didn't want to panic them all so l said, 'l don't know, 152 00:13:40,052 --> 00:13:42,953 we might have - might have hit something in the dark, another ship,' you know. 153 00:13:45,491 --> 00:13:48,392 We were sort of looking at one another, sort of what's happened like, 154 00:13:48,561 --> 00:13:50,358 and then the second torpedo hit. 155 00:13:55,901 --> 00:13:57,664 There was a lot of screaming going on. 156 00:13:57,870 --> 00:14:00,737 l think it was the children and that that was screaming in the passage. 157 00:14:01,073 --> 00:14:04,736 l was just stunned. l stood there because l didn't know where to go. 158 00:14:12,651 --> 00:14:15,211 No one picked up the Laconia's distress signal. 159 00:14:17,890 --> 00:14:20,882 This Navy boy came up and he says, 160 00:14:21,193 --> 00:14:23,559 'Come on, l'll show you where the lifeboat is.' 161 00:14:24,430 --> 00:14:28,628 And he took my little girl and he said, 'Follow me.' So l followed him. 162 00:14:33,305 --> 00:14:35,830 He said, 'You go down first and l'll hand her down to you.' 163 00:14:36,709 --> 00:14:38,301 When l got in the lifeboat l looked up - 164 00:14:38,477 --> 00:14:42,277 - and he wasn't there. And l started screaming. 165 00:14:42,915 --> 00:14:46,476 And this Air Force man was in the lifeboat and he said - 166 00:14:46,652 --> 00:14:48,711 -'l'll go up and get her.' 167 00:14:50,890 --> 00:14:54,348 He came back down he said, 'He's taken her to another lifeboat.' 168 00:14:54,526 --> 00:14:57,051 He said, 'Don't worry, you'll see her in the morning.' 169 00:14:58,898 --> 00:15:03,301 The port side was coming up and you could see the rust and barnacles on the bottom. 170 00:15:03,502 --> 00:15:05,697 So l jumped and that was that really. 171 00:15:12,144 --> 00:15:16,046 Hundreds of men, most of them ltalian prisoners, were struggling in the sea. 172 00:15:16,515 --> 00:15:18,847 They were desperate for a place in a lifeboat. 173 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:22,251 There were sharks about. 174 00:15:22,755 --> 00:15:25,656 Screams they were, some of them, yeah. Oh aye. 175 00:15:26,091 --> 00:15:27,991 ln fact one fellow in the boat says, 176 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,185 'lf any of them are on - hanging onto the side,' 177 00:15:30,362 --> 00:15:33,297 he said, 'Call out and l'll give you the hatchet, chop their fingers off.' 178 00:15:33,699 --> 00:15:35,098 Well l wasn't thinking like that. 179 00:15:36,335 --> 00:15:39,327 l could see ahead of us like a - it was a low vess 180 00:15:39,505 --> 00:15:42,668 - it was a submarine really and she had a lamp on corners, 181 00:15:42,841 --> 00:15:45,071 like circling light like that and she was picking people up. 182 00:15:47,112 --> 00:15:49,876 He drew up alongside us and he said, 183 00:15:50,482 --> 00:15:54,782 'The women and children must go on the sh - in the - submarine' 184 00:15:55,521 --> 00:15:58,115 and one of them said, 'They are not going in the submarine.' 185 00:15:58,290 --> 00:16:00,019 He said, 'Don't worry, they'll be all right.' 186 00:16:01,093 --> 00:16:02,856 So we went on the submarine. 187 00:16:05,664 --> 00:16:10,158 The crew of the U-156 had heard the ltalians crying out from the water. 188 00:16:17,509 --> 00:16:20,171 lts Commander sent a message to U-boat Headquarters, 189 00:16:20,412 --> 00:16:22,243 asking for immediate assistance. 190 00:16:22,948 --> 00:16:26,884 Donitz directed three of his nearest boats to join the rescue operation. 191 00:16:32,858 --> 00:16:36,419 They were quite concerned about me losing my wee girl. 192 00:16:36,929 --> 00:16:40,660 Every time they saw a lifeboat they would call me up to the conning tower - 193 00:16:41,100 --> 00:16:44,228 - and tell me to have a look to see if she was in any of the boats. 194 00:16:44,403 --> 00:16:45,700 They were very good. 195 00:16:45,871 --> 00:16:47,771 l said them, 'Cigarette' 196 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,976 And he - this German took a cigarette out and l gave them back to him, 197 00:16:52,144 --> 00:16:54,840 'Kamarad, give them to your mates.' 198 00:16:55,047 --> 00:16:58,778 l thought this is a funny Germany, the way l'd been brought up to believe about them. 199 00:17:03,956 --> 00:17:07,050 The U-boats had hundreds of survivors standing on their decks. 200 00:17:07,526 --> 00:17:11,155 They'd made Red Cross flags and they kept sending radio messages 201 00:17:11,330 --> 00:17:13,230 so that everyone would know where they were. 202 00:17:15,367 --> 00:17:18,302 Then American planes arrived and flew over the boats. 203 00:17:19,938 --> 00:17:24,602 They asked their commander what the should do, and the order came back, 'Attack.' 204 00:17:32,418 --> 00:17:35,216 The American aircraft knew nothing of the rescue operation, 205 00:17:35,721 --> 00:17:37,985 but thought it had caught the enemy on the surface. 206 00:17:39,658 --> 00:17:42,991 No boats were lost, but Donitz was furious. 207 00:17:45,898 --> 00:17:48,958 On September the 1 7th he sent a new order to his commanders. 208 00:17:49,635 --> 00:17:52,695 No attempt was to be made at rescuing enemy crews. 209 00:17:53,505 --> 00:17:56,235 No help offered. Be harsh. 210 00:17:57,709 --> 00:18:01,304 The war called for the destruction of men, as well as ships. 211 00:18:06,151 --> 00:18:10,679 Above all, no commander was to risk his U-boat to help survivors. 212 00:18:20,265 --> 00:18:23,530 One thousand, six hundred people were lost with the Laconia. 213 00:18:24,369 --> 00:18:26,337 l never gave up hope, never. 214 00:18:30,642 --> 00:18:33,304 l used to spend as much money on fortune tellers. 215 00:18:33,479 --> 00:18:35,413 Maybe they would give me some clue. 216 00:18:37,583 --> 00:18:42,043 l heard later on this boy was drowned trying to save a little girl. 217 00:18:43,021 --> 00:18:44,852 But they didn't - they didn't know who the little girl was, 218 00:18:45,023 --> 00:18:51,428 but l presumed it was mine. And yet l still didn't believe it. 219 00:19:01,740 --> 00:19:06,234 By the winter of 1942, the war was becoming more brutal elsewhere. 220 00:19:07,846 --> 00:19:11,179 News began to reach the U-boat bases of a terrible defeat. 221 00:19:12,151 --> 00:19:16,611 Not at sea, but more than three thousand miles away on the Eastern Front. 222 00:19:18,257 --> 00:19:20,691 The unthinkable had happened at Stalingrad. 223 00:19:21,426 --> 00:19:23,553 The Germany Army had surrendered. 224 00:19:24,563 --> 00:19:27,999 Ninety thousand men marched off into Soviet captivity. 225 00:19:32,504 --> 00:19:36,201 Only at sea were there still victories to report. 226 00:19:42,281 --> 00:19:46,183 On the day before the final surrender at Stalingrad Adolf Hitler appointed 227 00:19:46,351 --> 00:19:50,549 Donitz Grossadmiral, to head all operations at sea. 228 00:19:51,190 --> 00:19:53,522 lt was a sign of the confidence he placed in him. 229 00:19:56,128 --> 00:19:58,358 But Donitz's job changed little. 230 00:19:58,931 --> 00:20:03,197 Germany's small surface fleet had claimed less than four percent of the ships sunk. 231 00:20:03,635 --> 00:20:07,264 The struggle in the Atlantic had rested from the first with the U-boat. 232 00:20:08,073 --> 00:20:10,598 Donitz continued personally to direct them. 233 00:20:11,109 --> 00:20:13,873 By now there were four hundred and five. 234 00:20:23,755 --> 00:20:27,350 There was also a new man in charge of the Royal Navy's escort ships. 235 00:20:29,361 --> 00:20:34,924 A poacher turned game keeper, a former submarine commander, Admiral Max Horton. 236 00:20:35,901 --> 00:20:39,029 Horton was to bring a new vigour to the war against the U-boat. 237 00:20:42,874 --> 00:20:44,933 His captains were sent back to school 238 00:20:45,377 --> 00:20:48,471 to learn new group tactics for the defence of the convoys. 239 00:20:49,114 --> 00:20:53,016 Five thousand officers were to play what was known as 'the game.' 240 00:20:55,254 --> 00:20:56,084 Wrens - 241 00:20:56,255 --> 00:21:01,124 - would come behind the curtain and say, 'Ship number so and so's been torpedoed,' 242 00:21:01,293 --> 00:21:03,227 you see, and what action were - 243 00:21:03,395 --> 00:21:04,692 - you going to take? 244 00:21:08,867 --> 00:21:12,428 What type of searches should you use in this weather? 245 00:21:12,704 --> 00:21:16,299 lf it's really, really, really foul weather, is it worth it at all? 246 00:21:17,442 --> 00:21:21,037 Um, should any escorts go back to pick up stragglers? 247 00:21:21,747 --> 00:21:25,239 All these things you need to have a co-ordinated plan for. 248 00:21:29,988 --> 00:21:33,754 Terrible criticism. l mean you got murder if you made a mistake. 249 00:21:34,059 --> 00:21:40,225 We got all the right ideas of defence and then 250 00:21:40,399 --> 00:21:43,425 we got the right ideas of how to attack the U-boat. 251 00:21:45,737 --> 00:21:47,671 By the spring of 1943, 252 00:21:47,939 --> 00:21:52,239 the allies were beginning to make the training and the technical edge count. 253 00:21:56,815 --> 00:21:58,544 A second volley of high explosives... 254 00:22:00,185 --> 00:22:04,781 On April the 1 7th, the U-1 75 was detected by a US Navy cutter. 255 00:22:08,927 --> 00:22:11,919 And there's the Nazi submarine, forced to the surface. 256 00:22:12,464 --> 00:22:16,264 Donitz's packs were still sinking ships, but at a price. 257 00:22:17,035 --> 00:22:21,096 Fifty-seven U-boats were sunk in the first four months of 1943. 258 00:22:26,712 --> 00:22:31,172 But now the allies had access again to a vital source of intelligence. 259 00:22:32,417 --> 00:22:36,717 The cryptographers at Bletchley Park were able at last to read some of the messages 260 00:22:36,888 --> 00:22:41,018 sent by the U-boats in the key Enigma cipher 'Shark.' 261 00:22:44,029 --> 00:22:47,055 We were well in on the Shark traffic for some time. 262 00:22:47,966 --> 00:22:50,833 The common signal was, 'Gustav Gelp' 263 00:22:51,002 --> 00:22:56,030 - and that means (in German) convoy sighted. 264 00:22:57,109 --> 00:22:59,373 Unfortunately the one we most often saw. 265 00:23:01,413 --> 00:23:04,678 lt was clear from the decrypts that Donitz was able to maintain 266 00:23:04,850 --> 00:23:07,819 as many as a hundred U-boats at sea every day. 267 00:23:08,453 --> 00:23:10,478 Most of them in the air gap. 268 00:23:11,957 --> 00:23:16,291 That spring, a convoy would sail into this huge concentration of boats. 269 00:23:16,795 --> 00:23:18,990 lt would prove to be one of the most decisive moments - 270 00:23:19,164 --> 00:23:20,222 - of the Battle of the Atlantic. 271 00:23:25,737 --> 00:23:31,232 ONS 5 set out on April the 22nd with just six escorts in support. 272 00:23:32,711 --> 00:23:38,013 We had fog, icebergs, drifting south with the cold Labrador current. 273 00:23:42,454 --> 00:23:45,082 lt got worse and worse and then er, 274 00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:48,351 eventually we were making only about two or three knots. 275 00:23:50,595 --> 00:23:53,530 And you see we were being routed further north 276 00:23:53,698 --> 00:23:56,667 all the time as they knew that U-boats were packing onto us. 277 00:24:02,741 --> 00:24:05,301 Admiral Horton was notified by Naval intelligence 278 00:24:05,477 --> 00:24:11,245 that ONS 5 was sailing into trouble and for a time he was able to offer some air support. 279 00:24:12,951 --> 00:24:14,248 But by May the 4th, 280 00:24:14,486 --> 00:24:20,914 the convoy was on its own and on that day it sailed into packs Amsel and Fink. 281 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,994 We received a signal and l remember it quite well, 282 00:24:26,164 --> 00:24:30,328 that 'you are encircled by approximately thirty-four U-boats. 283 00:24:30,969 --> 00:24:36,202 You may expect attack from down moon at approximately 02.30.' 284 00:24:40,378 --> 00:24:43,905 Donitz sent a message to the waiting boats, stating simply, 285 00:24:44,216 --> 00:24:48,414 'Fight with everything you've got. Strike the enemy dead.' 286 00:24:54,893 --> 00:24:58,761 l was able to take up a position on the port side of the convoy. 287 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,834 And when a gap opened between the destroyers, 288 00:25:05,804 --> 00:25:10,707 l turned towards the convoy and fired two double shots. 289 00:25:33,698 --> 00:25:38,567 A steamship was hit and began to sink as once on an even keel. 290 00:25:45,911 --> 00:25:48,778 That night, the packs sank seven ships. 291 00:25:50,048 --> 00:25:52,812 When you had a mass attack, as you had in ONS 5 - 292 00:25:52,984 --> 00:25:56,715 - the only thing you could do was to get them under the water 293 00:25:57,188 --> 00:25:59,850 and they would lose contact with the - the convoy 294 00:26:00,025 --> 00:26:03,358 and that would be another night they would out of action. 295 00:26:06,197 --> 00:26:10,429 On the morning of May the 5th, forty U-boats were still in pursuit. 296 00:26:11,937 --> 00:26:14,201 But the escorts had one hidden advantage. 297 00:26:14,673 --> 00:26:18,632 Some of the ships were equipped with the latest radio direction finding sets. 298 00:26:23,048 --> 00:26:28,645 There was a great deal of chatter went on among the U-boats and er, 299 00:26:29,588 --> 00:26:34,048 strangely enough the U-boats hadn't realised that we were able to 300 00:26:34,225 --> 00:26:35,817 - to work on this chatter. 301 00:26:37,495 --> 00:26:41,192 When the escorts picked up a radio signal, they went in pursuit. 302 00:26:45,103 --> 00:26:49,597 A log of contact was kept by the Commanding Officer of HMS Oribi. 303 00:26:51,276 --> 00:26:53,767 There's constant enemy wireless activity. 304 00:26:54,346 --> 00:26:56,780 A first class bearing at one-five-five. 305 00:26:57,549 --> 00:27:00,780 We see the smoke haze from the submarine's diesel engines. 306 00:27:08,326 --> 00:27:13,286 The submarine dives and we have contact. We drop a ten charge pattern. 307 00:27:20,805 --> 00:27:25,504 The escort group sank a U-boat that day, but four ships were lost. 308 00:27:28,713 --> 00:27:30,305 At nightfall on the 5th, 309 00:27:30,649 --> 00:27:34,585 at least fifteen U-boats were still in close contact with the convoy. 310 00:27:39,824 --> 00:27:42,657 We heard the radio messages from all the other U-boats - 311 00:27:44,663 --> 00:27:48,497 - and we thought, 'Oh God, if they all rush the convoy at once, 312 00:27:48,867 --> 00:27:51,335 this will end up as a 'night of the long knives.' 313 00:27:59,911 --> 00:28:02,141 Suddenly, a thick pea-souper appeared. 314 00:28:02,614 --> 00:28:06,050 l'd never seen anything like it out at sea. lt was dreadful. 315 00:28:10,321 --> 00:28:14,121 We heard on the radio that two or three U-boats were already in danger. 316 00:28:19,397 --> 00:28:21,388 At Western Approaches headquarters, 317 00:28:21,733 --> 00:28:24,600 the battle around the convoy was plotted through the night. 318 00:28:25,704 --> 00:28:29,037 Only if the escorts could find the pack and drive it from the surface, 319 00:28:29,307 --> 00:28:30,797 would the defence succeed. 320 00:28:33,445 --> 00:28:37,074 Radio detection, and above all radar, would be the key to victory. 321 00:28:41,152 --> 00:28:43,279 Radar contact picked up on the port bow. 322 00:28:43,788 --> 00:28:46,120 Close to investigate at fourteen knots. 323 00:28:46,891 --> 00:28:48,586 We picked the submarine up on ASDlC. 324 00:28:48,827 --> 00:28:54,891 Radar contact, picked up ahead at 3400 yards, a torpedo fired from Red 20. 325 00:28:55,567 --> 00:28:58,092 Turned towards it and passed it down on port side. 326 00:28:58,269 --> 00:29:00,328 ...our pattern was dropped set at 150 feet. 327 00:29:02,273 --> 00:29:04,173 lt was a most promising attack. 328 00:29:12,117 --> 00:29:14,642 Whilst we wee doddering about in this pea-souper, 329 00:29:14,819 --> 00:29:18,687 trying to achieving something, we were almost rammed by a destroyer. 330 00:29:20,091 --> 00:29:21,752 lt suddenly appeared behind us, 331 00:29:22,427 --> 00:29:26,761 lightening up the stern of our U-boat with a big searchlight on its foremast. 332 00:29:31,202 --> 00:29:35,229 lt thundered past our stern with about three metres to spare. 333 00:29:46,451 --> 00:29:49,249 Five U-boats were sunk on the night of May the 5th. 334 00:29:54,526 --> 00:29:57,791 The operations chart at U-boat Command told its own story. 335 00:29:58,830 --> 00:30:01,765 A total of nine boats lost in the week long battle. 336 00:30:02,834 --> 00:30:05,200 A small escort group equipped with radio detection 337 00:30:05,370 --> 00:30:10,740 and radar had beaten off the largest concentration of U-boats ever assembled. 338 00:30:11,409 --> 00:30:14,037 Donitz called off the rest of the pack. 339 00:30:18,416 --> 00:30:19,576 That was depressing. 340 00:30:20,985 --> 00:30:24,682 We realised that the ONS 5 operation had pretty much failed. 341 00:30:27,959 --> 00:30:31,156 And that it represented a colossal setback for the U-boats. 342 00:30:40,939 --> 00:30:44,375 The crews that managed to make it home in the spring of 1943 343 00:30:44,742 --> 00:30:46,903 began to grumble about their U-boats. 344 00:30:47,912 --> 00:30:49,743 lt wasn'tjust allied aircraft, 345 00:30:50,281 --> 00:30:55,218 the escort ships were now able to detect them as soon as they approached the convoys. 346 00:30:58,556 --> 00:31:01,320 We had one song which went something like this. 347 00:31:10,435 --> 00:31:12,130 'Give me a new little U-boat, 348 00:31:12,303 --> 00:31:16,103 a U-boat that can no longer be located, Karl Donitz.' 349 00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:17,705 That was the kind of thing. 350 00:31:18,176 --> 00:31:20,644 Once, when coming into port after a short trip, 351 00:31:20,812 --> 00:31:23,679 we were welcomed by people singing these songs. 352 00:31:33,358 --> 00:31:37,795 After ONS 5 the convoy battle seemed to follow a new pattern. 353 00:31:38,363 --> 00:31:41,230 U-boats sunk for little or no loss. 354 00:31:44,302 --> 00:31:48,500 By the end of May, 1943, the air gap had all but closed. 355 00:31:48,940 --> 00:31:53,434 The huge allied technical and training effort had thrown the U-boat on the defensive. 356 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,345 Forty U-boats were lost in May. 357 00:31:57,882 --> 00:32:02,910 Two thousand men. Among the dead was Donitz's own son, Peter. 358 00:32:10,595 --> 00:32:14,053 On May 24th, Donitz ordered all his boats with withdraw 359 00:32:14,232 --> 00:32:16,666 from the main North Atlantic convoy routes. 360 00:32:17,368 --> 00:32:18,767 lt was a bitter blow. 361 00:32:28,746 --> 00:32:32,113 He was really in despair. He saw how things were going. 362 00:32:32,650 --> 00:32:34,709 This was a very great burden for him. 363 00:32:43,761 --> 00:32:46,457 As if to underscore the importance of these successes, 364 00:32:46,731 --> 00:32:49,529 just six weeks later the allies celebrated the news 365 00:32:49,701 --> 00:32:54,570 that American yards had replaced all the ships lost in almost four years of war. 366 00:32:57,408 --> 00:33:03,142 They were building ships really er, very fast indeed. 367 00:33:03,448 --> 00:33:08,351 ln fact they - it was a joke in America that they were building ships so fast 368 00:33:08,519 --> 00:33:12,319 that they were running out of names for the new ships, you see. 369 00:33:12,523 --> 00:33:14,923 They couldn't come up with enough names. 370 00:33:17,862 --> 00:33:20,353 Recently, in one twenty-four hour working day, 371 00:33:20,732 --> 00:33:23,360 27 brand new ships slid down the ways. 372 00:33:24,068 --> 00:33:27,401 Nowhere else in all the world is such production possible. 373 00:33:27,972 --> 00:33:32,466 The goal for 1943, 23 million tons of shipping. 374 00:33:50,094 --> 00:33:53,257 Donitz called a meeting with six of his most senior officers. 375 00:33:53,731 --> 00:33:57,462 He asked them, should the campaign in the Atlantic continue? 376 00:33:58,036 --> 00:34:01,802 The allies enjoyed overwhelming material and technical superiority 377 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,167 and it would be two years before a new submarine 378 00:34:04,342 --> 00:34:06,936 with high underwater speeds could be developed. 379 00:34:13,017 --> 00:34:16,077 Everybody gave his view and this was 380 00:34:16,387 --> 00:34:20,915 - even if we can no longer expect to make a decisive impact with the U-boat war, 381 00:34:21,392 --> 00:34:25,590 as long as there is fighting, we still have to keep up the pressure. 382 00:34:30,868 --> 00:34:37,137 And, well, when everyone had his say, myself last of all, Donitz said, 383 00:34:37,408 --> 00:34:41,174 'Okay, you have simply confirmed what l also think.' 384 00:34:46,951 --> 00:34:49,010 The U-boat would fight on. 385 00:34:50,054 --> 00:34:55,117 But Donitz knew well enough that the cost of continuing would be very great. 386 00:35:01,099 --> 00:35:03,863 That summer the allies mounted their Biscay campaign. 387 00:35:04,435 --> 00:35:07,336 U-boats were attacked as soon as they left their bases. 388 00:35:11,609 --> 00:35:14,772 Sixty more U-boats were sunk in just three months. 389 00:35:25,423 --> 00:35:27,914 Most of the crews were lost with their boats. 390 00:35:28,559 --> 00:35:31,585 The few survivors that were fished out of the Atlantic by the British 391 00:35:31,829 --> 00:35:36,493 began to tell their interrogators of the growing sense of unease in the U-boat messes. 392 00:35:40,872 --> 00:35:43,966 They knew it was their duty not to give away information and so forth, 393 00:35:44,142 --> 00:35:48,374 but they were perfectly happy to talk to other naval officers. 394 00:35:48,946 --> 00:35:52,313 They then went back to their cabins and um - 395 00:35:52,550 --> 00:35:55,383 - if they had somebody else there with them he might well say, 396 00:35:55,553 --> 00:35:59,284 'Well, what are they asking you about' and so forth, and he'd say, 397 00:35:59,457 --> 00:36:02,187 'Well, what they really wanted to know was so and so, 398 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,625 but l wasn't going to tell them,' and all this was being recorded. 399 00:36:08,533 --> 00:36:13,334 The picture that began to emerge from these interrogations was of a crisis in morale. 400 00:36:20,278 --> 00:36:24,305 Naval intelligence reported that 'Defeatist conversation was common.' 401 00:36:26,617 --> 00:36:30,747 The prisoners spoke of frequent fights between Nazis and anti-Nazis. 402 00:36:32,490 --> 00:36:35,288 Agents in the U-boat bases reported 'proof' 403 00:36:35,459 --> 00:36:38,485 that some crews were damaging pieces of machinery 404 00:36:38,729 --> 00:36:41,163 to delay their departure on war patrol. 405 00:36:45,169 --> 00:36:48,036 We talked exactly the same way about this shitty war, 406 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,070 if l may use that expression. 407 00:36:52,143 --> 00:36:56,239 We said to each other, 'For God's sake, you just can't go on like this. 408 00:36:58,015 --> 00:37:03,419 We suffer losses and don't sink a single ship. ls it worth carrying on?' 409 00:37:07,992 --> 00:37:09,584 Hitler believed so. 410 00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:16,299 ln October, 1943, the U-boat ace Erich Topp was invited to Fuhrer headquarters. 411 00:37:17,068 --> 00:37:20,060 lt was soon clear to him that Hitler remained stubbornly optimistic 412 00:37:20,238 --> 00:37:22,206 about the future of the U-boat war. 413 00:37:23,207 --> 00:37:26,643 Hopes now rested on the plans for a revolutionary new submarine. 414 00:37:32,183 --> 00:37:35,710 We were a group of four or five submarine commanders 415 00:37:36,020 --> 00:37:38,454 who had been invited to lunch by Hitler. 416 00:37:40,992 --> 00:37:44,826 He said they were in the process of developing new batteries 417 00:37:45,296 --> 00:37:49,858 which would enable a U-boat to remain under water for days. 418 00:37:53,871 --> 00:38:01,642 With these new batteries the U-boat could at last become a true submarine. 419 00:38:08,352 --> 00:38:13,312 ln the meantime, Donitz was forced to turn to an old device to protect his crews. 420 00:38:13,958 --> 00:38:19,021 The schnorkel. Through this, air was drawn down to the diesel engines. 421 00:38:19,497 --> 00:38:22,660 lt meant the U-boat could remain hidden just beneath the surface. 422 00:38:24,001 --> 00:38:26,299 On the 5th of February, 1944, 423 00:38:26,537 --> 00:38:30,200 the first U-boat to be equipped with the Schnorkel left on war patrol. 424 00:38:30,574 --> 00:38:32,838 Hardwig Look's U-264. 425 00:38:38,049 --> 00:38:40,574 We'd ceased to think we'd be successful in battle. 426 00:38:43,521 --> 00:38:46,012 We realised that the U-boats arriving from home, 427 00:38:46,624 --> 00:38:53,723 the new U-boats with young crews, nearly all of them stayed out and never came back. 428 00:39:01,972 --> 00:39:05,271 Just days before, the six ships of the Second Support Group 429 00:39:05,443 --> 00:39:08,901 had left Northern lreland to the strains of 'a hunting we will go.' 430 00:39:10,614 --> 00:39:13,606 The allies now had enough ships to form new escort groups, 431 00:39:13,884 --> 00:39:16,512 dedicated to hunting and killing U-boats. 432 00:39:20,925 --> 00:39:24,486 The leader of the Second Support Group was Captain Johnny Walker. 433 00:39:25,296 --> 00:39:29,596 lt was a hunt to him. He would sort of treat it as a sport. 434 00:39:30,134 --> 00:39:33,262 l mean for instance we sank one submarine - 435 00:39:33,637 --> 00:39:40,406 - and there was oil and debris on the surface and he signalled to er, 436 00:39:40,678 --> 00:39:43,806 the captain of the ship which had sunk the submarine and said, 437 00:39:43,981 --> 00:39:47,246 'Come over here and look what a mess you've made.' 438 00:39:52,523 --> 00:39:54,718 As the Second Support Group was setting out, 439 00:39:55,025 --> 00:39:57,892 a British intercept station picked up heavy signals traffic 440 00:39:58,062 --> 00:40:00,326 some two hundred miles to the west of lreland. 441 00:40:00,631 --> 00:40:04,795 A pack of U-boats seemed to be converging on convoy ON 221 . 442 00:40:06,804 --> 00:40:09,136 The Admiralty sent Walker to intercept them. 443 00:40:16,213 --> 00:40:17,874 The group's hunt was filmed. 444 00:40:22,620 --> 00:40:26,522 Walker had developed a new tactic. The 'creeping attack.' 445 00:40:28,192 --> 00:40:32,822 One ship, usually Walker's own, the Starling, held sonar contact. 446 00:40:33,731 --> 00:40:36,097 lt then directed one or more of the group in a slow, 447 00:40:36,267 --> 00:40:38,667 creeping attack along the U-boats course. 448 00:40:39,570 --> 00:40:42,164 The rest of the group formed a ring around the target. 449 00:40:45,910 --> 00:40:50,108 Once a U-boat was caught in this, it was almost impossible to escape. 450 00:40:57,054 --> 00:41:03,186 ln just twelve days the group found and sank five U-boats. There were no survivors. 451 00:41:12,303 --> 00:41:14,294 None of them came to the surface, 452 00:41:15,005 --> 00:41:20,272 so the Admiralty needed proof that a sinking had taken place. 453 00:41:21,412 --> 00:41:27,373 And er, whatever tangible things that they could get hold of were picked up 454 00:41:27,551 --> 00:41:28,916 and put in the boat. 455 00:41:29,787 --> 00:41:33,052 This was a rather gruesome thing, picking up human remains. 456 00:41:47,204 --> 00:41:52,506 On February the 19th, Walker picked up another contact. The U-264. 457 00:41:55,212 --> 00:41:56,804 That was really pretty terrible. 458 00:41:58,082 --> 00:42:03,520 During this period, twelve hours, we were submerged for twelve hours. 459 00:42:04,755 --> 00:42:07,315 We got around two hundred depth charges. 460 00:42:13,731 --> 00:42:16,063 Just about everything in the U-boat was smashed. 461 00:42:16,901 --> 00:42:19,529 We shot out of the water like a champagne cork 462 00:42:19,837 --> 00:42:25,207 and found ourselves inside the circle made by Captain Walker's submarine chasers. 463 00:42:43,027 --> 00:42:45,757 They were swimming towards us. 464 00:42:45,930 --> 00:42:53,496 Now we had a rule that unless we discovered the number 465 00:42:53,704 --> 00:42:58,073 and name of the captain of the submarine we would not pick them up, 466 00:42:59,276 --> 00:43:03,076 and a young boy was swimming towards us. 467 00:43:04,214 --> 00:43:09,743 Er, he came alongside, near to where the scrambling net was 468 00:43:10,387 --> 00:43:16,326 and l held his arm in my right hand and another officer said, 469 00:43:16,493 --> 00:43:20,953 'Well, look, we're going to ask them for the last time,' and um, 470 00:43:21,565 --> 00:43:28,027 no sort of unified number came up and the call was, 'Let the prisoner go.' 471 00:43:32,610 --> 00:43:42,076 But l can still feel this young boy's arm or hand sliding through my hand 472 00:43:42,953 --> 00:43:48,448 and l would say that this lad was no more than sixteen years of age. 473 00:43:49,893 --> 00:43:57,265 And it's something which has haunted me er, for a very long period of time. 474 00:44:02,139 --> 00:44:06,701 lt was not Navy policy, but on Walker's ship he made the rules. 475 00:44:10,014 --> 00:44:14,314 The crew of the U-264 was prepared to furnish him with all the details he required, 476 00:44:14,752 --> 00:44:16,845 including intelligence on the Schnorkel. 477 00:44:18,856 --> 00:44:22,986 They were the only survivors from six U-boats sunk in twenty days. 478 00:44:28,799 --> 00:44:31,393 They took me to the mess and three our four British officers 479 00:44:31,568 --> 00:44:33,559 began bombarding me with questions. 480 00:44:34,038 --> 00:44:37,474 One of them said, 'That was a very, very clever fight.' 481 00:44:42,479 --> 00:44:44,447 That wasn't how l felt about it. 482 00:44:55,693 --> 00:45:01,757 As we sailed in line ahead, up the Mersey l think we felt, you know, pretty good. 483 00:45:03,667 --> 00:45:05,862 Oh, there must have been hundreds of er, 484 00:45:06,036 --> 00:45:09,631 of Wrens and people sort of cheering us as we came in 485 00:45:15,546 --> 00:45:18,811 Waiting to greet the group was the First Lord of the Admiralty. 486 00:45:20,217 --> 00:45:24,551 lt was a moment of triumph that seemed to symbolise the final victory in the Atlantic. 487 00:45:28,125 --> 00:45:29,854 l want to say to you fellas 488 00:45:30,761 --> 00:45:37,166 that l feel that you've had an enormous part to play in settling the issue - 489 00:45:37,634 --> 00:45:41,035 - against the threat of dictatorship in Europe. 490 00:45:41,605 --> 00:45:42,503 Hip, hip, hip. 491 00:45:42,673 --> 00:45:43,867 Hooray. 492 00:45:44,108 --> 00:45:47,839 Three months later British and American troops landed in France. 493 00:45:48,245 --> 00:45:51,009 The Battle of the Atlantic was virtually over. 494 00:45:53,417 --> 00:45:58,218 There was still rationing and food shortages, but the convoys were arriving unmolested. 495 00:45:58,388 --> 00:46:03,587 On the land and the air and the sea let's swing out to victory. 496 00:46:03,761 --> 00:46:09,199 Over here over there anywhere, we can take them one, two, three, 497 00:46:09,366 --> 00:46:12,130 with a rip a break and flare. 498 00:46:12,369 --> 00:46:18,831 Trumpets blasting through the air with a rat-and-a-tat on the drum. Yeah, man.. 499 00:46:19,009 --> 00:46:23,070 The U-boat menace has for the time being been practically effaced. 500 00:46:23,881 --> 00:46:27,977 Their was a recent month in which up till the last day 501 00:46:28,585 --> 00:46:30,746 they did not sink a single ship. 502 00:46:32,589 --> 00:46:36,787 'Britain's ability to fight, Churchill wrote, to keep itself alive, 503 00:46:37,161 --> 00:46:39,095 depended on the Battle of the Atlantic.' 504 00:46:39,797 --> 00:46:42,288 Yet it was difficult to cheer the final victory. 505 00:46:43,033 --> 00:46:46,730 More than half the ships sunk in the Atlantic had flown the Red Ensign 506 00:46:47,171 --> 00:46:50,937 and fifty thousand British seamen died protecting the lifeline. 507 00:46:53,610 --> 00:46:57,011 Donitz's fleet of new submarines never sailed against the convoys. 508 00:46:57,614 --> 00:46:59,980 The old boats fought on to the end. 509 00:47:00,617 --> 00:47:06,078 Six hundred and fifty were lost. With them, thirty thousand U-boat men. 510 00:47:09,860 --> 00:47:11,350 l could tell you, l wept. 511 00:47:12,129 --> 00:47:15,621 All my comrades, who l'd spent all those months with had perished. 512 00:47:21,738 --> 00:47:24,969 We'd been trained to do our duty to the very end. 513 00:47:25,509 --> 00:47:27,409 That's why we still put to sea. 514 00:47:33,750 --> 00:47:36,480 l don't think that many people thought of us, quite frankly, 515 00:47:36,787 --> 00:47:38,482 because we were an unseen war. 516 00:47:38,755 --> 00:47:42,350 You didn't see the sunken ships or the survivors who never made it. 517 00:47:45,095 --> 00:47:46,460 Well, it was - it was ourjob. 518 00:47:47,030 --> 00:47:49,396 We knew we were going out and you mightn't come back. 519 00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:51,533 You never dwelt on it. 520 00:47:54,471 --> 00:47:58,168 This nation owes those people a great deal. 521 00:47:59,943 --> 00:48:05,210 lf the North Atlantic Convoy route had failed, all else would have failed.