Bringing History to Life

In 1933, Adolf Hitler seizes power in Germany, where he has seduced the population with golden promises of a restoration of the Great German Empire. He allies himself with Mussolini's fascist Italy, Stalin's communist Soviet Union and the military dictatorship in Japan, which has the same dreams of grandeur as Germany. In this series, you get a thorough review of World War II - from the birth of fascism through the war's many dramas to the aftermath, where the victors deal with the war's worst criminals.

WELCOME

GERMANS STRIKE FIRST • The heart of the Royal Navy lay in the natural harbour of Scapa Flow, where Germany’s Imperial Navy had been scuttled after World War I. German U-boat captain Günther Prien sought to avenge this humiliating defeat when, in October 1939, he snuck his sub past the base’s defences and prepared a daring raid.

DEADLY STRUGGLE IN ATLANTIC • On 17th September 1940, one hundred British children boarded the SS City of Benares to be taken to safety in Canada. The Atlantic’s turbulent waves tossed wildly, but in the calm depths, a German submarine had taken aim at the evacuation ship. Soon the order came: “Fire!”

“The worst was when the alarm sounded” • Antoinette Meldgaard was trapped in Iceland at the age of 17 when World War II broke out. There she signed up with the merchant navy on the convoys between the British Isles and Iceland, home to a huge Allied military base and port of departure for the Murmansk convoys.

THE GREY WOLVES STRUCK • On 18th September 1940, a lone German U-boat spotted smoke and masts on the horizon. In the roaring waves of the Atlantic, an Allied convoy was sailing unprotected. A few hours later, five German submarine captains were heading for the unsuspecting ships and all hell broke loose. The wolf pack had found its prey.

How submarine attacks took place

BRITAIN STRIKES BACK • In 1941, the stakes were high as the Germans’ three most successful U-boats gathered to slaughter another Allied convoy. But the sub commanders were unaware of what awaited them. One of the Royal Navy’s most skilled officers stood ready to take the fight to the enemy, armed with a crucial new invention.

THE PERFECT U-BOAT • For the Germans, there was only one way to win the Battle of the Atlantic: to create the perfect submarine, so easy to make that it could be produced in the hundreds. For nearly a decade, naval engineers and shipyard workers worked to develop the ultimate underwater weapon: the U-Boat Type VII.

Hitler chose the wrong strategy • In the 1930s, Hitler set out to build huge warships, when he should have been building a fleet of submarines. As a result, when the most decisive battle of World War II broke out and the British were at their most vulnerable, Germany had only 56 U-boats and far too few experienced crew.

FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SEA • The average lifespan of a German submarine captain was three months. But against all odds, Herbert Werner survived five years of perilous voyages aboard five different U-boats. He was rammed by a warship, hit by a mine and shot at by Allied aircraft. Yet death was unable to catch the German sailor.

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Bringing History to Life