Battlefield S2/E2 - The Battle of the Atlantic

Admiral Morton is still hoovering around a biz model adopted at One Canada Square in London from the first online investment bank and how to sell complex financial products such as ETFs to retail investors. I still remember oar first conversation...and I still have your mobile phone number.

thats whay eu and nato have to help ukraine regards allan peteren dk

The Germans had broken the convoy codes, not the naval codes.

I always loved this series..seems like it was on TV in the early/mid 90's...is that Malcolm McDowell narrating?

American isolationism... you trying to make Smedley Butler's ghost laugh?😂😂😂

Excellent! I learned a lot! Thanks.

I couldn't imagine crossing the ocean to France in the 1940s FOR D Day. No modern tech. Just machine guns and parachutes and a map. Wow.

Merchant mariners truly are the unsung heroes of WW2. Plenty of people give the Soviets their due these days (back in the day, the Eastern front was minimised by some - in some ways it still is I suppose).
But for the most part, everyone gets their due recognition - except merchant sailors.
The Soviets themselves used Lend-Lease material, shipped to them from the US.
As did Britain of course.
Merchant sailors would travel through truly dangerous waters, at times (lengthy periods) when there was just no counter to the U-Boot menace. And even as the years went by, until there were effective countermeasures, the merchant marine kept sailing. Kept Britain and later, both Britain and the USSR fighting.
When merchant sailors sailed through the Arctic, to get to Soviet ports, they'd go through water so cold, it would kill anyone who fell in, by hypothermia, with 3 minutes.
Even the cross-Atlantic voyage could be extremely treacherous.
Merchant mariners really don't get enough recognition, but they took incredible risks, went through incredible hardship, and many endured terrible things, just as, say, a soldier would have.
Hence they deserve as much recognition, and deserve to be remembered just as much as all the soldiers, pilots, Marines, sailors, codebreakers and so on - the Merchant Marine were integral to the Allied war effort in Europe. From the start to the end. Many of the merchant sailors were just teenagers and young men during the war too.

HMAS Sydney got sunk by a German raider all the way down Australia way, All 640 sailors lost . Very sneaky.

Fun fact Doenitz suspected at times that the Allies might have broken Enigma. On at least 3 occassions documentary evidence shows his suspicion that maybe the Allies can read german naval traffic. If Doenitz suspected at least sometimes that naval Enigma was compromised its pretty clear he had no faith in Army and Air Force Enigma. I can only imagine a meeting between Goering and Doenitz and the moment Goering boasted about the safety of german comms Doenitz rolling his eyes and thinking 'I can barely guarantee the safety of my comms you fat tub of lard. The english probably know even what you had for breakfast this morning.'

Germany protested that Americans were protecting convoys...against international law. I mean they have only been romping through Europe killing everything. The audacity of Hitler. That guy could be a bit of a dick

Watching on June 10th 2023

The. Production. And. Narrator. Plus. The. Music. Calms. My. Nerves. Lol

40,000 men went to war in the UBoats less than 10,000 returned

To think about how close the Third Reich was to winning the war, multiple times, and that every single time, he himself got in the way, is nothing short of a miracle.

My Dad was a radioman on Destroyer Escort from 1942 until end of the war, Home port in Puerto Rico, he was on convoy protection from the oil fields in South America along east coast picking up more ships then routed across the North Atlantic to Falmouth England many times, defending from and later hunting U-Boats that attacked the merchant ships.

Hitler created the situation where Germany was assured to loose the Battle of the Atlantic. In early planning 2 different plans were submitted by Germany's navy. 1 a balanced force that could engage in surface warfare with Britain, but would be the latter 40s before the building of capital ships would be numerous enough. 2 all building into submarines that would be ready in late 30s to early 40s.

My father was a chief mate merchant seaman mostly carrying 102 octane fuel. He always smiled at the younger mates on board who slept fully clothed in case they were torpedoed. He said hell if we got hit we’d be a huge explosion so it seldom bothered him. The sea made my father. It taught him everything about life, living and luck.

Karl Dönitz was a useless moron. It amazes me how anyone considers this guy a brilliant commander. This idiot lost 70% of his fighting force because of his incompetent leadership. Even the bungling Soviet generals couldn't compete with that level of complete incompetence. Dönitz wasn't qualified to clean the toilets on a naval vessel, much less actually command a fleet.

The world was NOT united against the Nazis in 1939. America, who could've helped end the war in a year had they joined the allies at the outset, did not join the coalition until 3 years later.

My friend's grandfather served in the engine room of the HMCS Spikenard, a Canadian Flower-class corvette. They were tiny ships to pit against the wrath of the Atlantic. She was torpedoed. He had no chance.

It was really boring in every day life back then and dying was atleast something to do.

FU, it's stolen content.

Pls, note - the russian is asshole...

It's a fucking hell service...

You are not a BIDEN, who profits from America's enemies? Selling out his countrymen?

this was really well explained

Check out the Cruel Sea 1951(?) for a good neutral perspective of a corvette/frigate in the battle of the Atlantic

Rambo could take them all with a bow and arrow and a knife true story 😂

I fell into a deep slumber , an Autoplay brought me here . Very good documentary indeed tbh

good work

Goodbye to long an add

I have no sympathy for the U boat crews who failed to return attacking unarmed Merchant Shipping. Disgraced Admiral Donitz should've been hanged as he remained unrepentant of his actions until his death in 1980

Admiral Karl Dönitz was the name, NOT Dernitz. Get the names right ;)

Longest battle of WW2

my father served on the HMS Striker an aircraft carrier during ww2 and an uncle as well they had some very interesting photos and stories, one was when they used a burnt out aircraft carrier to move people from Hiroshima the carrier was towed all the way to England.

I would like to quibble with one of your 'facts'. You said that the U-boat service had the greatest losses of any service in WW II. Wrong! It was the Merchant Navy Service who had the most deaths - and of course they were non-combatants too.

The Kriegsmarine did not build a single aircraft carrier

Howudoes someone pick a guy like this?? No political issue here.. just really co

I still have battle field episodes I used to tape because of work. Very well done. Have to say thanks pbs...

The British were morons, they thought ASDIC would save the day so they woefullly neglected anti-sub defenses

The UK was occupying half of the world by force and could just steal resources from its colonies, hence the Bengal Famine. Germany did not have any colonies at all.

Didn’t take em long did it, only 25 years after the atrocities of the trench war and the Krauts were at it again. AND DEFEATED AGAIN.

Yeah our industrial might back then was something else. We couldn't do that today. Our industry has sold out to cheap overseas labor.

Tom hanks has turned out to be a fake patriot.

Your conclusion wrong : The Type 21 U-boat was a masterpiece that inspired submarine designing well into the late 1960's. One even went undetected by an entire British before surrendering in the last days of the war. One specimen is well preserved in the German city port of Bremerhaven..

lol subs are as big as cities on the maps haha.