The episode covers some of Otto Kretschmer's 11 Points of Submarine Warfare. Here's the full list: 1. Efficient lookouts are of prime importance. 2. It is essential not simply to spot the target, but to spot it in good time. 3. Lone ships should be attacked on the surface with gunfire in order to save expensive torpedoes. 4. Survivors should be assisted where possible. 5. Convoys should only be attacked in daylight if it is not feasible to wait for nightfall. 6. Attack at night from the dark side of the convoy, so that the target is silhouetted and the submarine is in shadow. 7. When there is little or no moonlight, attack from the windward side [to avoid a visible white bow-wave when motoring into the wind]. 8. Fire one torpedo per target, not fanned salvoes. 9. Fire at close range. 10. Once the attack is launched, do not submerge except in circumstances of dire necessity. Remember that on the surface it is easier for you to spot the enemy than for the enemy to spot you. 11. Dive only for two hours before dawn each day, to rest the crew, sweep with the sound detection equipment, etc.; otherwise, remain on the surface. Before commenting, please check out the rules of conduct which apply to this comment section: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518 Cheers, Joram
@@bobharvey6957 Im sure they will, considering how successful that silent service was in destroying both merchant and naval forces it'd be impossible to not do one Edit: oof as always only a couple people blew this comment section up in debate that got heated. To everyone else, hi, hope you're having a good day and are staying safe :)
Thanks for illustrating this video with a photo of Canadian sailors. Few people realize that by the end of the war, Canada had the 3rd largest navy in the world, most of it employed in the Battle of the Atlantic.
A moment to remember the fallen merchant seamen, often just civilians crewing these freighters and tankers and they endured hell time and time again between the attacks, survival at sea, or simple weather conditions that would sink ships in peacetime anyway. Not honored in the same way, their duty wasn't glorious, but nonetheless just as sacrificial. Many a ship that went missing without a soul to tell of how it sank, weeks, months at sea rotting away in the elements, they are the merchant marines and merchant navy
The US Merchant Marine had the highest casualty rate of any "service" in WWII, higher even than the Marine Corps operating in the Pacific Theater. It's not unusual to read about US Merchant seamen who had five or more ships sunk from under them, but were rescued and joined another crew. They finally began receiving some compensation in the early 2000's, IIRC.
Al Stewart's brilliant song "Murmansk Run" (part of a two-song medley on his album 24 Carrots-- it's on UA-cam) covers this topic, albeit of course in the context of the Battle of the Arctic, not the Atlantic. But the risks to merchant sailors were essentially the same.
The non military sailors contribution to victory is under appreciated in both world wars. Sadly as time goes on appreciation for the sacrifice off those who served honourably in both conflicts will decline just as it did in many previous conflicts.
I'm suprised you didn't mention that as soon as a wolfpack spots Tom Hanks, they will go on a suicidal mission, to try and sink his ship, ignoring all other ships and their actual mission directive.
I’ll like to hear more about the Germans Craking the British naval codes, I mostly hear of the British cracking of the ENIGMA or the Americans cracking MAGIC
B-Dienst "Among his accomplishments was reconstructing the Royal Navy Administrative Code prior to the war, the breaking within six months of the new Navy Cipher, and by May 1940 cracking the British Merchant Navy Code, which allowed the U-Boat command to track and anticipate the routing of allied convoys. However, this source dried up at the beginning of 1943 when the British switch to a new Cipher #5, superenciphered with a machine cipher." www.ticomarchive.com/the-targets/b-dienst-navy
Fun fact: U-boats inspired the Star Wars the Clone Wars episode “Cat and Mouse” where the Republic has a small cloaked ship that is used to destroy a Separatist blockade.
My grandfather was in the RN during WWII & for the first half of the war he was on the Atlantic Convoys, Mediterranean Convoys & Russian Convoys. In October 1939, he was on board a ship that was captured & sunk by the Graf Spee & was then transferred to the supply ship Altmark as a POW. He was then freed when HMS Cossack boarded the ship in Jøssingfjord, Norway 17th Feb 1940. He also took part in Convoy PQ17 where his ship was damaged & his 3 friends were killed in late June early July 1942. My grandfather told me his stories of the U Boat threat, the times they were attacked on various convoys & how the threat kept the sailors on edge. It took guts & determination to be on those convoys and watching docos with other sailors interviewed, they all said the same thing, they were scared during the entire time. I also read Lothar-Günther Buchheim's book Das Boot based on his wartime experience on U96 & when it was made into a film, I rented a VHS copy of it to show my grandfather. My grandfather when watching war films was always dismissive but Wolfgang Petersen's film really caught what went on in a U Boat. My grandfather was on the edge of his seat during the entire film & did not move. When Das Boot: The Director's Cut was released I bought the DVD & my grandfather & myself watched it. Again he was on the edge of his seat. The longer version brought more dialogue surrounding the crew. My grandfather said of Das Boot that it was the closest thing to a war brought onto film at that time. He respected German submariners more after watching it. For those wanting to watch a movie that's as close to war, I highly recommend Das Boot: The Original Uncut Version. Scenes were done in German & again in English (little dubbing). I recommend watching the German version & read the subtitles. The acting in it is brilliant & the tension of the story, and the U Boat crew made a great film. Fun fact about the U Boat used in Das Boot was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Thanks again Indy & team for providing this Time Ghost special.
Yes, along with "Stalingrad" it´s probably the most realistic film about WWII, contrary to most Hollywood-BS. You can visit the mock-up of the inside of the Sub used in "Das Boot" in the Bavaria Film Studios near Munich.
@@18roselover Having respect for your enemy is not uncommon in warfare and a noble thing. The U-boat men themselves had the highest casualty rate over the course of the whole war. Facing the risk and horror to be for example depth charged, surely deserves respect, even when they were fighting for the wrong side. Besides, a lot of them weren´t Nazis, some were for sure, for example Prien, others like Kretschmer were not. Things escalate very quickly in war. Early in the war most U-boat commanders tried to save the crews of the ships they sunk by giving them aid or calling in surface ships for their rescue. This changed dramatically when the British bombed the rescue mission for the crew and passengers of the RMS Laconia. Look it up!
@@philp8872 Yes, those who actually risk their lives in war always deserve a lot of respect. Sometimes I feel like some people think that every german soldier wanted to go to war and shared the ideologies of their bosses.
I actually just watched greyhound yesterday. It's an ok movie, well made and fun to watch, but the radio taunting was ridiculous, and the fact that the uboats kept suiciding into their guns felt pretty ridiculous too. But it was still a pretty decent movie and I feel like it did nail the mood at least.
I someone whose been playing Silent Hunter IV: Wolves of the Pacific, I hope you guys do a submarine tactics of the US in the pacific at some point. I feel the non carrier aspects of the Pacific War are often neglected.
Love this special, was greatly looking forward to your coverage of the Ubootwaffe. I look forward to a part 2 in several months time covering the "Second Happy Time".
1:40 sinking of over 100 allied ships 2:30 unrestricted submarine use as of 1940 2:40 britain develops an effective convoy system 3:15 sonar tactics were dealt with by not submerging the submarines. 4:37 one year 492 cargo ships got sunk 7:09 wolfpack tactics
I just noticed the shadows cast by those Nazi warplanes hanging in the background land over Britain and most of Germany's eastern ambitions (even Norway), but not Germany itself. Very cool
U-569 makes the contact and lead them U-94 scores a kill in the dark U-124 sinking four in two approaches 406 suffers failure on launch again In their own track Came the wolfpack Gleaves led the convoy Into the hornets nest To their own shore Came the world war Gleaves and the Ingham Leading the bury west Because yes Also, yes, I know that the song's events are in 1942
Len Deighton's 'Blood Tears and Folly' is a good intro to each theatre of the war up to the end of 1941. He outlines how slow U-boats actually were; moving at a cyclist's pace on the surface and at walking pace submerged, covering distances as great as from Berlin to London -and back- each sortie. The convoys often sailed through the U-boat screen undetected. About 50% of U-boat sorties at this time featured no action; the boat sailed out, followed its route, met no Allied ship and returned to base to refuel. Most of the duration of a sortie was getting there then getting back, time on patrol being relatively short. That's if they didn't hit a mine or get discovered and sunk. War was 90 to 99% tedium, 1 to 10% terror (often the last 1% of their lives) for submariners and sailors on the merchant ships alike, the latter being civilians don't forget.
@@IJustKant U-Boats were extremely hard to see at night. This was due to their low profile. It wasn't until radar that they lost the advantage of surface attacks and--ultimately--cost them the Battle of the Atlantic.
Can you provide me with sartorial advice? Over on War Against Humanity we are planning for a black tie affair to commemorate the Nuremberg rally in a few years. I need some sizing ideas
The USNavy was taking notes. They started using wolfpacks in the Pacific in 43 in conjunction with SigInt and tore the Japanese Navy and merchant marine up.
Great episode, as usual. My grandad joined the Royal Navy in 1941, served in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, was sunk twice, landed an LST at D-Day, and was demobbed in 1946. He told me about a time when two of his friends were shot in the head and chest at his side by a German fighter as they manned an AA gun. He was only 5ft 2 according to his record, so perhaps being a midget saved him? I'm currently writing a history booklet for my relatives, outlining what my grandad did and where he went in the war. Unfortunately, my grandad passed away years ago, so I'm having to cobble together his history from his ship legers (provided by the MoD), stories he told me and my relatives, and whatever information I find on the internet. Can anyone give me any pointers on other sources I should use? Thanks!
Sorry I'm late but I too am in the process of writing a book about my late granddad's ww2 experience and I found his Royal Naval war records were absolutely priceless, there's a dedicated department who are very willing to assist any applicants. You will need written permission from the living next of kin to gain the records.
I got the chance to board the fully intact, captured German sub U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago! It's an incredibly fascinating tour! Highly recommend seeing! Keep up the great videos!
I hope you were there the day I toured it. My wife and kids were laughing as I went right into docent mode explaining many of the submarine's features to anyone who would listen. After all these decades of studying WWII, I usually know more than the docents and even taught a P-51 pilot some things about his aircraft at an air show.
One mayor disadvantage of the allied merchant ships was that they were so underpowered that they could only travel at a top speed of around 8 knots. For this reason they could never get away from a U-boat(s), once spotted. Even all the new-build liberty ships from the U.S. could only travel at 8 knots. If they could have been built to travel at 20 knots, the U-boat(s) could never have caught up with them. Millions of tons of shipping, their cargoes, and their crews would have been saved.
There was clearly a trade-off: increasing the speed that much would have really lengthened the time of construction, resulting in fewer ships each week. Also, merchant ships should not have to outrun U-boats, leaving speed to their escorts.
Please do one for Decima Mas when they enter the war. Italians arguably pioneered the UDT with two frogmen, using a modified torpedo, managed to sink an Austro Hungarian warship in ww1👍. They still are still considered top notch (more info in the covert ops website).
Hey, Indy & co, great video as always! Could you maybe do a special on submarine technology and tactics in WW2 in comparison to those in WW1? I'm mostly interested in technology differences here, but tactic progression would make for an interesting topic as well. In any case, thank you for the great content!
The key speed that needed to be reached to provide a great deal of protection to merchant ships was 13 knots or greater. Ships that could maintain such a pace were at a very low risk of being sunk, even if completely without protection. It was estimated that independents were three times safer if they could travel at 14 knots rather than at 12 knots.
@Fransen Part of reason for the large troop ships not being in danger was due to careful routing thanks to the work of the Submarine Tracking Room at Liverpool and their careful plotting of each U-Boats location.
For anyone curious about how miserable life is in a U-Boat, the podcast "Lions Led by Donkeys" did a recent episode talking about this. It features getting gassed, flammable soap, walls covered in sweaty moss, and an overly complicated toilet with fatal results.
"Das Boot" has them eating meat which still has the animal's hair on it, and onboard flatulence caused by eating Brussels sprouts. U-Boat crews were casually dressed, there was no room for spit and polish in their lives.
Enigma isn’t “the name of code used”. Rather the encoding machine used by the Germans. The British in general called ULTRA all intelligence gathered from the Axis, including the Enigma encrypts. Decoders at Bletchley Park had different names for naval Enigma cyphers, like “Shark” and “Dolphin.
a really good book about the kriegsmarine and the war on the sea is "Verdammte see" or "the cursed sea" by Cajus Bekker. Bekker worked for the german naval intelligence during the war and he discribes the war in several stages, ending each stage by listing the greatest flaws and lessons the germans should have picked up. an intteresting part is his discription of operation sealion. according to bekker Reader and other high ups in the OKW knew early on that the invassion was never going to happen, but they still went on gathering matrial and spending (or waisting) effort in its prepperation.
8. Fire one torpedo per target, not fanned salvoes. That point was Kretschmer's personal preference. The German Submarine Handbook clearly emphasizes to use as many torpedoes as possible to ensure the ship is sunk. Convoys merchants, tankers, troop transports and ammunition ships were priority targets that might take more than one torpedo to sink. Kretschmer was also one lucky SOB, because early war torpedoes were vulnerable to be duds or be deep-runners.
Subscribed for few reasons. Im fascinated by WWII. Had a few uncles in the thick of it all in both Theaters of Operation. Great command of the historical facts. Attention to detail in the pronunciation of German names was excellent but that background/studio is just amazing. I could look at that for hours. It looks like a room straight out of Bletchely Park or OSS HQ. Cant wait to see more. love the period correct clothing too.
As the familiar portrait of CvH is missing in this episode i'd like to bring some Austro Hungaria nostalgy on the topic: The austro hungarian U27 during WW1 litteraly sailed to Beirut... ->They were running out of oil, tried mixing what they still had with olive oil they had on board, whihc caused them to stop and clean the engines more often. And then ran out of the mixture too and had to stop the engines completely. So they mounted "sails" on the periscope and the forward gun. Then sailed across the mediteranean sea to Beirut. During that 2 Japanese battle ships ignored them (as it didn't look like a threat or even like a U-Boat) and after reaching Beirut, they tried to buy the right oil there. But couldn't get it. After some time they were able to receive enough from a german U-Boat that anchored there. With that, they made it back to their home base. (crossing the allied blockade on the way out and back in several times during WW1)
One correction. HUFDUF doesn’t allow one to DF a signal sent to a U Boat. You can’t DF a receiving station on the submarine, only when the sub transmits can you DF it. I’m a former communications researcher at the US Naval Research Laboratory.
U505 - on your way back from Hawaii to Europe, stop through Chicago and check with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry if you can talk with someone there about the U505. I know, it would be a long way home, but I think that would be a pretty neet exhibit for you to go through!
Went to IWM Duxford at the weekend with my family. Didn't realise the German subs used a gyrocopter called Focke-Achgelis. Some poor chap would sit in it and be towed by the submarine to provide as a better lookout than the sub itself. However the copter and crew member was considered expendable should the sub come under attack!
In German they often use two vowels for one vowel sound. Ergo, Prien is preen. They also have a substitute form for the umlaut with the vowel E following the missing umlaut vowel for modification. Commandant Erich Raeder could also be spelled Erich Räder, both are correct and in either spelling his name is pronounced as in English - raider.
@@QuizmasterLaw No, I don't. I live in Sweden. I just listened at 5:16 and I say Preen. And Räder is not pronounced like straight up "raider" in English, that would be anglicizing the Ä too simply to ai.
@@Southsideindy I don't think I corrected your pronunciation of Raeder. You do say Pre-ehn, not so terribly obviously but yep you barely turn it into 2 syllables. It's a personal name he might have pronounced it as you did though I expect he didn't. Priehen (h is silent) is what you pronounced fwiw.
I imagine living conditions for those U-boat sailors using the slop bucket were much like living with my wife. When either of us use the bathroom and toxic gas emerges, nothing is said. You get used to it after a while.
Thanks for this, apart from the weekly grind of panzer divisions in Russia, WW2 involved rapid deployment of innovative ideas, especially in the battle of the Atlantic
In the book the struggle for Europe by Chester wilmot he says by mid 1943 the germans gave up submarine raids on shipping in the Atlantic because of much improved tactics by the allies.
I'm proud that Lithuanian Zenonas Lukosius was one of the crew, sealing valves and preventing German submarine to sink, who captured Enigma machine from U-505.
For its part it played in the Battle of the Atlantic, at the end of the war the U Boats in the North Atlantic were ordered to surrender at Derry, Northern Ireland. At Lisahally they were lined up in rows at the dock.
for further reading on the subject of U-boats I would recommend these books: Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942 (1996) and Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942-1945 (1998).
I knew an old cowboy, died a few years ago, aged 85, who was a sailor in the War. He talked about hitting a u-boat with a depth charge. Pretty horrendous to hear him tell it.
It must have been equally terrifying to be a sailor in a supply convoy waiting night after night for a torpedo attack as it would be for a submariner waiting deep and silent for a depth charge attack to come. Either way, your demise would be just a short time away. Knowing that convoy ships would not stop to pick up casualties and U Boat survivors after an attack are rare would only increase the mental strain.
The U-boot doctrin reminds me a bit of the evolution of earial warfare in ww1. With it being pretty new, Dictate Bolke etc and all the positioningrules
USING THE DECK GUN IN A WOLFPACK ATTACK *NEVER* HAPPENED IT WAS FOR PICKING OFF ISOLATED STRAGGLERS ONLY USUALLY FINISHING OFF WHAT THE TORPEDO STARTED.
As funny as that is, no they didn’t do that because up to the end of the war U-boats didn’t have radios for ship to ship comms, they were reliant on enigma signals and Wolfpack coordination was done from Kriegsmarine HQ
This rules make me remember the 10 rules of Oswald Boelcke ( as of the WW1 ) for air combat . It´s a facinating fact that this kind of rules apply for submarines.
The British Royal Navy captured the first German U-boat 'U-110' on May 9, 1941 and bagged ourselves an Enigma Machine six months before America even entered the war. We'd already cracked the codes via the genius of Alan Turing and by the time Uncle Sam showed up we'd done the hard work.....
If the Americans enter the War in the Atlantic, I'm sure Adrm. King will listen to the British and quickly put in a convoy system for ships in the Gulf and Atlantic with air stations and destroyers at the ready for when the U-Boats arrive in American waters.
Britain instituted convoys in September 1939 and that did not prevent the FIRST Happy Time. How many ships were sunk in the US Neutrality Zone 1939-1942? USS West Point On 5 November 1941 she embarked 241 officers and 5,202 men of the 55th Brigade, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, and 100 men of a US Army Field Service company. On 10 November, West Point - in company with five other transports: Wakefield, Mount Vernon, Orizaba, Leonard Wood, and Joseph T. Dickman - got under way for India as Convoy HS-124. En route, they were joined by the aircraft carrier Ranger, the cruisers Vincennes and Quincy, and a division of destroyers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_America_(1939)#US_Navy_service_(1941-1946)
LOL!!!! King was anti British. " There's nothing that they can teach me" that's why 165 British ships which had been escorted across the Atlantic were sunk of the coast of the USA. Another quote " the war would have been over quicker if someone had just shot King"
@@colingibson8018 That's a total myth. Admiral King was pissed off having been order to give up ships to the Brits he felt he was going to need and he was right. When America entered the war King had no available ships for mechant convoy duty and what he had was being used to escort the Army to Europe.
@@colingibson8018 The first "Happy Time" was in 1940-1941 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, so their navies could begin the "Second Happy Time". Duncan Redford; Philip D. Grove (2014). The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900. I.B. Tauris. p. 182
7:18 - You've got the wrong caption there. He was actually urging those cadets to keep fighting, even if the Kriegsmarine was reduced to that boat right in front of him ;)
Spoilers: Gotta say it seems a major reason Germany lost was trying to look the part of a Empire before being one. Focus on big surface ships for example, how many subs could have been build in place of the Tirpitz line (the beauty that they were) and how much more effective they could’ve been.
@@SmokeJam Not alone actually, she was escorted by the Prinz Eugen, but thats my point, she wasnt meant to be alone, all the escorts meant for Operation Rheinübung were sunk or heavily damaged during the Norway campaign, the Germany high seas fleet was a joke.
The biggest difference (ultimately) was the Allies had radar in both cases. The Germans and Japanese had poor versions of it but mainly relied on the Mark 1 Eyeball. It would be a fun comparison for this series!
The latter was much more successful. 30% of all Japanese shipping sunk and 54.6% of all Japanese shipping lost during the war were lost to US submarines.
The Germans were starved by the British blockade in ww1. The Germans were trying to return the favor. The Americans were able to do to Japan what the Germans couldn't do to Japan. Yes, the radar aspect was huge. But another huge part was American submarine numbers. The Germans were never able to do that. German crew quality suffered as the war went on. As losses mounted, morale amongst the impressed crews plummeted. Thanks for all your hard work fleshing out the history of the times. You have a real talent for the common touch. Kudos on the phone as a prop. Thanks!
Good video. WW1 U-boats are only mentioned briefly, which is okay as this is a WW2 channel. But Indy downplays how effective WW1 U-boats were. Amost 400 were commissioned and they sank nearly 6000 ships including 11 millions tons of shipping and 10 battleships. By sinking passenger ships such as the HMS Lusitania and the SS Sussex they were a major reason the US entered the war. They were much more than a "novelty". It is difficult to understand how both the British and German navies disregarded that performance going into WW2. By the way Indy has several videos on this topic at the Great War Channel.
The episode covers some of Otto Kretschmer's 11 Points of Submarine Warfare. Here's the full list:
1. Efficient lookouts are of prime importance.
2. It is essential not simply to spot the target, but to spot it in good time.
3. Lone ships should be attacked on the surface with gunfire in order to save expensive torpedoes.
4. Survivors should be assisted where possible.
5. Convoys should only be attacked in daylight if it is not feasible to wait for nightfall.
6. Attack at night from the dark side of the convoy, so that the target is silhouetted and the submarine is in shadow.
7. When there is little or no moonlight, attack from the windward side [to avoid a visible white bow-wave when motoring into the wind].
8. Fire one torpedo per target, not fanned salvoes.
9. Fire at close range.
10. Once the attack is launched, do not submerge except in circumstances of dire necessity. Remember that on the surface it is easier for you to spot the enemy than for the enemy to spot you.
11. Dive only for two hours before dawn each day, to rest the crew, sweep with the sound detection equipment, etc.; otherwise, remain on the surface.
Before commenting, please check out the rules of conduct which apply to this comment section: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Cheers,
Joram
I will use this information while playing U-Boat.
this really inspired me to play silent hunter 3 now
Will you do at a later date a similar special about the far less known but no less important american submarine war against japan
Why two hours before dawn?
@@bobharvey6957 Im sure they will, considering how successful that silent service was in destroying both merchant and naval forces it'd be impossible to not do one
Edit: oof as always only a couple people blew this comment section up in debate that got heated. To everyone else, hi, hope you're having a good day and are staying safe :)
Thanks for illustrating this video with a photo of Canadian sailors. Few people realize that by the end of the war, Canada had the 3rd largest navy in the world, most of it employed in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Our pleasure!
A moment to remember the fallen merchant seamen, often just civilians crewing these freighters and tankers and they endured hell time and time again between the attacks, survival at sea, or simple weather conditions that would sink ships in peacetime anyway. Not honored in the same way, their duty wasn't glorious, but nonetheless just as sacrificial. Many a ship that went missing without a soul to tell of how it sank, weeks, months at sea rotting away in the elements, they are the merchant marines and merchant navy
Here here.
There is a nice display about convoys and merchant seamen at the WWII museum in New Orleans.
The US Merchant Marine had the highest casualty rate of any "service" in WWII, higher even than the Marine Corps operating in the Pacific Theater. It's not unusual to read about US Merchant seamen who had five or more ships sunk from under them, but were rescued and joined another crew. They finally began receiving some compensation in the early 2000's, IIRC.
Al Stewart's brilliant song "Murmansk Run" (part of a two-song medley on his album 24 Carrots-- it's on UA-cam) covers this topic, albeit of course in the context of the Battle of the Arctic, not the Atlantic. But the risks to merchant sailors were essentially the same.
The non military sailors contribution to victory is under appreciated in both world wars. Sadly as time goes on appreciation for the sacrifice off those who served honourably in both conflicts will decline just as it did in many previous conflicts.
I'm suprised you didn't mention that as soon as a wolfpack spots Tom Hanks, they will go on a suicidal mission, to try and sink his ship, ignoring all other ships and their actual mission directive.
Lmfao
To be fair 80% of U-Boat crews were on a suicide mission.
and howling like a wolf through the radio
Wait until you see the sequel It's Tom Cruise on an Impossible Mission to single handedly sink the entire German Navy.
@@perparimmedia He'll sit in the middle of a mines that the Germans charge at.
I’ll like to hear more about the Germans Craking the British naval codes, I mostly hear of the British cracking of the ENIGMA or the Americans cracking MAGIC
It was the cracking of the Convoy Codes that is referred to.
B-Dienst "Among his accomplishments was reconstructing the Royal Navy Administrative Code prior to the war, the breaking within six months of the new Navy Cipher, and by May 1940 cracking the British Merchant Navy Code, which allowed the U-Boat command to track and anticipate the routing of allied convoys. However, this source dried up at the beginning of 1943 when the British switch to a new Cipher #5, superenciphered with a machine cipher."
www.ticomarchive.com/the-targets/b-dienst-navy
What about the Automedon ???
Here is a fairly comprehensive article on German code breaking en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-Dienst
Nick Danger thanks for sending me down a three hour rabbit hole exploring the British Far East Appreciation. LOL
It's time for that Das Boot U96 techno song again: "Maximum Velocity!" "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency!"
Total earworm 🤘
Man, last month in Berlin, I heard a bagman in his 50s have it as his ringtone, it dud put a smile on my face for the whole day.
ALARM!
When the Pathetic Sharks got aboard😂
It should be the soundtrack for this episode!
Man i kept remembering about Das Boot when watching this video.
ALAAAAAAAAAARM!
Great Movie
Working at the Car wash....... .
Got the director's cut. I insist on listening to it in German.
@@mjstbnsn6294 Good? ?
Gibraltar ist so eng wie ne Jungfrau.
Wenn wir da durchwollen, können wir den Kahn mit Vaseline einschmieren.
Fun fact: U-boats inspired the Star Wars the Clone Wars episode “Cat and Mouse” where the Republic has a small cloaked ship that is used to destroy a Separatist blockade.
Yeah, the separatist ship Malevolence was based on Bismark.
It was 1 of my favorites cartoons when I was a child
Ah, republic army commiting more war crimes
@@mwkoala how?
@@romaniacountryball anakin ramming the Venator into the Lucrehulk when he said he was gonna surrender
My grandfather was in the RN during WWII & for the first half of the war he was on the Atlantic Convoys, Mediterranean Convoys & Russian Convoys. In October 1939, he was on board a ship that was captured & sunk by the Graf Spee & was then transferred to the supply ship Altmark as a POW. He was then freed when HMS Cossack boarded the ship in Jøssingfjord, Norway 17th Feb 1940. He also took part in Convoy PQ17 where his ship was damaged & his 3 friends were killed in late June early July 1942.
My grandfather told me his stories of the U Boat threat, the times they were attacked on various convoys & how the threat kept the sailors on edge. It took guts & determination to be on those convoys and watching docos with other sailors interviewed, they all said the same thing, they were scared during the entire time.
I also read Lothar-Günther Buchheim's book Das Boot based on his wartime experience on U96 & when it was made into a film, I rented a VHS copy of it to show my grandfather. My grandfather when watching war films was always dismissive but Wolfgang Petersen's film really caught what went on in a U Boat. My grandfather was on the edge of his seat during the entire film & did not move. When Das Boot: The Director's Cut was released I bought the DVD & my grandfather & myself watched it. Again he was on the edge of his seat. The longer version brought more dialogue surrounding the crew. My grandfather said of Das Boot that it was the closest thing to a war brought onto film at that time. He respected German submariners more after watching it.
For those wanting to watch a movie that's as close to war, I highly recommend Das Boot: The Original Uncut Version. Scenes were done in German & again in English (little dubbing). I recommend watching the German version & read the subtitles. The acting in it is brilliant & the tension of the story, and the U Boat crew made a great film.
Fun fact about the U Boat used in Das Boot was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Thanks again Indy & team for providing this Time Ghost special.
I/m sure all the allied servicemen/women that were sunk by german u boats , had a lot of respect for these nazis !
Yes, along with "Stalingrad" it´s probably the most realistic film about WWII, contrary to most Hollywood-BS. You can visit the mock-up of the inside of the Sub used in "Das Boot" in the Bavaria Film Studios near Munich.
@@18roselover Having respect for your enemy is not uncommon in warfare and a noble thing. The U-boat men themselves had the highest casualty rate over the course of the whole war. Facing the risk and horror to be for example depth charged, surely deserves respect, even when they were fighting for the wrong side. Besides, a lot of them weren´t Nazis, some were for sure, for example Prien, others like Kretschmer were not.
Things escalate very quickly in war. Early in the war most U-boat commanders tried to save the crews of the ships they sunk by giving them aid or calling in surface ships for their rescue. This changed dramatically when the British bombed the rescue mission for the crew and passengers of the RMS Laconia. Look it up!
@@philp8872 Yes, those who actually risk their lives in war always deserve a lot of respect. Sometimes I feel like some people think that every german soldier wanted to go to war and shared the ideologies of their bosses.
Has anyone told Tom Hanks about this episode
Did anyone see that movie? Trailer looked atrocious
@@Masada1911 honestly wasnt too bad
Yeah was alright movie
I actually just watched greyhound yesterday. It's an ok movie, well made and fun to watch, but the radio taunting was ridiculous, and the fact that the uboats kept suiciding into their guns felt pretty ridiculous too. But it was still a pretty decent movie and I feel like it did nail the mood at least.
@@Masada1911 I've not seen the film, but the book on which it was based - The Good Shepherd by CS Forrester - is excellent.
I someone whose been playing Silent Hunter IV: Wolves of the Pacific, I hope you guys do a submarine tactics of the US in the pacific at some point. I feel the non carrier aspects of the Pacific War are often neglected.
Not to mention that the U.S> pretty much did to the Japanese what the Germans were trying to do to Great Britain. Also, I love that game too!
I love these supplementary episodes that focus on tactics or important people of WW2.
Last time I was this early, we were all gonna be home by Christmas 1914.
Love this special, was greatly looking forward to your coverage of the Ubootwaffe. I look forward to a part 2 in several months time covering the "Second Happy Time".
1:40 sinking of over 100 allied ships
2:30 unrestricted submarine use as of 1940
2:40 britain develops an effective convoy system
3:15 sonar tactics were dealt with by not submerging the submarines.
4:37 one year 492 cargo ships got sunk
7:09 wolfpack tactics
I just noticed the shadows cast by those Nazi warplanes hanging in the background land over Britain and most of Germany's eastern ambitions (even Norway), but not Germany itself. Very cool
Did you mean German warplanes? I doubt the planes themselves were members of the nazi party.
@@lukum55 Well, how would you know what their Machine Spirits think, meatbag?
Yes if you're German during the 40s you're a Nazi
U-569 makes the contact and lead them
U-94 scores a kill in the dark
U-124 sinking four in two approaches
406 suffers failure on launch again
In their own track
Came the wolfpack
Gleaves led the convoy
Into the hornets nest
To their own shore
Came the world war
Gleaves and the Ingham
Leading the bury west
Because yes
Also, yes, I know that the song's events are in 1942
Well yeah it says convoy 92 in it
Above the surface it seems quiet and calm
Deep down below the wolfpack lurks...
Len Deighton's 'Blood Tears and Folly' is a good intro to each theatre of the war up to the end of 1941. He outlines how slow U-boats actually were; moving at a cyclist's pace on the surface and at walking pace submerged, covering distances as great as from Berlin to London -and back- each sortie. The convoys often sailed through the U-boat screen undetected.
About 50% of U-boat sorties at this time featured no action; the boat sailed out, followed its route, met no Allied ship and returned to base to refuel. Most of the duration of a sortie was getting there then getting back, time on patrol being relatively short. That's if they didn't hit a mine or get discovered and sunk.
War was 90 to 99% tedium, 1 to 10% terror (often the last 1% of their lives) for submariners and sailors on the merchant ships alike, the latter being civilians don't forget.
WW2 US Merchant Marine had a higher casualty rate than any armed service.
This episode: Exists
Me: Has "Das Boot Movie" flashbacks
Keeping your sub surfaced to avoid sonar and sneak into a convoy is the most galaxy-brained thought I’ve ever seen.
You've never seen the north atlantic at night.
@@hymanocohann2698 Fair, but it’s still pretty audacious if you ask me.
@@IJustKant U-Boats were extremely hard to see at night. This was due to their low profile. It wasn't until radar that they lost the advantage of surface attacks and--ultimately--cost them the Battle of the Atlantic.
@@ssPeto I did watch the video lol, I know that. It’s just amusing to me.
This is another one of those ties that likely would have made a bigger impact without the waistcoat. The bit we can see looks lovely though. 3.5/5
Your tie reviews are the primary reason I browse the comment section.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Appreciate it!
Can you provide me with sartorial advice? Over on War Against Humanity we are planning for a black tie affair to commemorate the Nuremberg rally in a few years. I need some sizing ideas
@@QuizmasterLaw Are you looking for historical accuracy or present-day trends?
@@gianniverschueren870 I have a list. It's very long. Let's keep them talking. Both.
In accordance with Otto Kretschmer's first rule about efficient lookouts: What does the Millenium Falcon do behind Indy? ;-)
Must be part of some prototype vehicle one of the countries is working on.
Hint: the cockpit
It's classified. Move along.
For a moment after your question, I thought that you must be confusing two of Harrison Ford's characters.
My grandfather served in a U-boat. Never got to know him but I have been told some things. He was nicknamed Ries Rolf during his service.
I'm a simple man. I see 'Silent Otto' Kretschmer in the thumbnail, I hit the like button.
Always love a good U boat story. Apparently, Churchill said that the only thing that worried him was the U boats!
It’s Amazing how the intelligence & Technological innovations directly impacted the battle of the Atlantic.
The Golden Horseshoe A book following Otto Kretchsmer of U-99 is an excellent read on a lot this video.
Das boot. Never forget an awesome film... which depicts all this most authentically.
The USNavy was taking notes. They started using wolfpacks in the Pacific in 43 in conjunction with SigInt and tore the Japanese Navy and merchant marine up.
Great episode, as usual. My grandad joined the Royal Navy in 1941, served in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, was sunk twice, landed an LST at D-Day, and was demobbed in 1946. He told me about a time when two of his friends were shot in the head and chest at his side by a German fighter as they manned an AA gun. He was only 5ft 2 according to his record, so perhaps being a midget saved him?
I'm currently writing a history booklet for my relatives, outlining what my grandad did and where he went in the war. Unfortunately, my grandad passed away years ago, so I'm having to cobble together his history from his ship legers (provided by the MoD), stories he told me and my relatives, and whatever information I find on the internet. Can anyone give me any pointers on other sources I should use? Thanks!
Sorry I'm late but I too am in the process of writing a book about my late granddad's ww2 experience and I found his Royal Naval war records were absolutely priceless, there's a dedicated department who are very willing to assist any applicants. You will need written permission from the living next of kin to gain the records.
I got the chance to board the fully intact, captured German sub U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago!
It's an incredibly fascinating tour! Highly recommend seeing!
Keep up the great videos!
I hope you were there the day I toured it. My wife and kids were laughing as I went right into docent mode explaining many of the submarine's features to anyone who would listen. After all these decades of studying WWII, I usually know more than the docents and even taught a P-51 pilot some things about his aircraft at an air show.
Outstanding presentation of the chaos and mayhem in the midst of combat.
I really enjoyed this so much Thank you for taking the time to make and share this
One mayor disadvantage of the allied merchant ships was that they were so underpowered that they could only travel at a top speed of around 8 knots. For this reason they could never get away from a U-boat(s), once spotted. Even all the new-build liberty ships from the U.S. could only travel at 8 knots. If they could have been built to travel at 20 knots, the U-boat(s) could never have caught up with them. Millions of tons of shipping, their cargoes, and their crews would have been saved.
There was clearly a trade-off: increasing the speed that much would have really lengthened the time of construction, resulting in fewer ships each week. Also, merchant ships should not have to outrun U-boats, leaving speed to their escorts.
Please do one for Decima Mas when they enter the war. Italians arguably pioneered the UDT with two frogmen, using a modified torpedo, managed to sink an Austro Hungarian warship in ww1👍. They still are still considered top notch (more info in the covert ops website).
Hey, Indy & co, great video as always! Could you maybe do a special on submarine technology and tactics in WW2 in comparison to those in WW1? I'm mostly interested in technology differences here, but tactic progression would make for an interesting topic as well.
In any case, thank you for the great content!
The key speed that needed to be reached to provide a great deal of protection to merchant ships was 13 knots or greater. Ships that could maintain such a pace were at a very low risk of being sunk, even if completely without protection. It was estimated that independents were three times safer if they could travel at 14 knots rather than at 12 knots.
@Fransen Part of reason for the large troop ships not being in danger was due to careful routing thanks to the work of the Submarine Tracking Room at Liverpool and their careful plotting of each U-Boats location.
A warrior who knows his weapons use inside and out, very dangerous .
This episode: Exists
Me: Has "Silent Hunter" flashbacks
hemmingwayfan MAN THE DECK GUN
The enemy is pinging us, sir!
depth charges in the water!
@@lukum55 Or if you had German audio on, "Auchtung! Wasserbombe!"
U boat is a new silent hunter
For anyone curious about how miserable life is in a U-Boat, the podcast "Lions Led by Donkeys" did a recent episode talking about this. It features getting gassed, flammable soap, walls covered in sweaty moss, and an overly complicated toilet with fatal results.
you forgot the stench.
@@QuizmasterLaw I'd imagine they'd get used to it after spending months on patrol.
"Das Boot" has them eating meat which still has the animal's hair on it, and onboard flatulence caused by eating Brussels sprouts.
U-Boat crews were casually dressed, there was no room for spit and polish in their lives.
Those u-boats wouldn't have been intercepted if they had nord VPN
Enigma isn’t “the name of code used”. Rather the encoding machine used by the Germans. The British in general called ULTRA all intelligence gathered from the Axis, including the Enigma encrypts. Decoders at Bletchley Park had different names for naval Enigma cyphers, like “Shark” and “Dolphin.
It was ALL Enigma traffic just split into various users and units
a really good book about the kriegsmarine and the war on the sea is "Verdammte see" or "the cursed sea" by Cajus Bekker. Bekker worked for the german naval intelligence during the war and he discribes the war in several stages, ending each stage by listing the greatest flaws and lessons the germans should have picked up. an intteresting part is his discription of operation sealion. according to bekker Reader and other high ups in the OKW knew early on that the invassion was never going to happen, but they still went on gathering matrial and spending (or waisting) effort in its prepperation.
There are a number of his titles available in English on abebooks.com
8. Fire one torpedo per target, not fanned salvoes.
That point was Kretschmer's personal preference. The German Submarine Handbook clearly emphasizes to use as many torpedoes as possible to ensure the ship is sunk. Convoys merchants, tankers, troop transports and ammunition ships were priority targets that might take more than one torpedo to sink. Kretschmer was also one lucky SOB, because early war torpedoes were vulnerable to be duds or be deep-runners.
Subscribed for few reasons. Im fascinated by WWII. Had a few uncles in the thick of it all in both Theaters of Operation. Great command of the historical facts. Attention to detail in the pronunciation of German names was excellent but that background/studio is just amazing. I could look at that for hours. It looks like a room straight out of Bletchely Park or OSS HQ. Cant wait to see more. love the period correct clothing too.
Thank you for saying Donitz correctly. So many documentaries screw it up saying Doughnits, Doonits, or Durnits.
I will use this information while playing U-Boat.
Indy: Ultra is the name of the code, Enigma is the name of the machine.
Nope Ultra was the code name for the decoded traffic . Ultra was the information the allies used
As the familiar portrait of CvH is missing in this episode i'd like to bring some Austro Hungaria nostalgy on the topic:
The austro hungarian U27 during WW1 litteraly sailed to Beirut... ->They were running out of oil, tried mixing what they still had with olive oil they had on board, whihc caused them to stop and clean the engines more often. And then ran out of the mixture too and had to stop the engines completely. So they mounted "sails" on the periscope and the forward gun. Then sailed across the mediteranean sea to Beirut. During that 2 Japanese battle ships ignored them (as it didn't look like a threat or even like a U-Boat) and after reaching Beirut, they tried to buy the right oil there. But couldn't get it. After some time they were able to receive enough from a german U-Boat that anchored there. With that, they made it back to their home base. (crossing the allied blockade on the way out and back in several times during WW1)
One correction. HUFDUF doesn’t allow one to DF a signal sent to a U Boat. You can’t DF a receiving station on the submarine, only when the sub transmits can you DF it. I’m a former communications researcher at the US Naval Research Laboratory.
@Kaptain Kaos Thank you for the info!
Very well presented and entertaining, bringing the war to life.
U505 - on your way back from Hawaii to Europe, stop through Chicago and check with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry if you can talk with someone there about the U505. I know, it would be a long way home, but I think that would be a pretty neet exhibit for you to go through!
Went to IWM Duxford at the weekend with my family. Didn't realise the German subs used a gyrocopter called Focke-Achgelis.
Some poor chap would sit in it and be towed by the submarine to provide as a better lookout than the sub itself.
However the copter and crew member was considered expendable should the sub come under attack!
Yep, ending up sitting in a gyrocopter in the middle of the Atlantic is certainly no fun. But, if some enemy ship is around he might could land there.
Wtf. Life must have sucked for so many people.
Focke-Achgelis is the name of the company, not the Gyrocopter itself 😎
Thanks for the tips on submarine warfare, I was wondering what I was doing wrong
Also, always remember to close the windows before submerging.
@@KeithHearnPlus I've been trying to solve the problem of stuffy air for a while now, my screen door experiment went poorly. 😰
In German they often use two vowels for one vowel sound. Ergo, Prien is preen. They also have a substitute form for the umlaut with the vowel E following the missing umlaut vowel for modification. Commandant Erich Raeder could also be spelled Erich Räder, both are correct and in either spelling his name is pronounced as in English - raider.
Correct. ie=e and ei=i
i've no idea how he mispronounced it... he literally lives in Germany no?
@@QuizmasterLaw No, I don't. I live in Sweden. I just listened at 5:16 and I say Preen. And Räder is not pronounced like straight up "raider" in English, that would be anglicizing the Ä too simply to ai.
@@Southsideindy I don't think I corrected your pronunciation of Raeder. You do say Pre-ehn, not so terribly obviously but yep you barely turn it into 2 syllables. It's a personal name he might have pronounced it as you did though I expect he didn't. Priehen (h is silent) is what you pronounced fwiw.
Good to know and keep in mind then.
I imagine living conditions for those U-boat sailors using the slop bucket were much like living with my wife.
When either of us use the bathroom and toxic gas emerges, nothing is said.
You get used to it after a while.
Thanks for this, apart from the weekly grind of panzer divisions in Russia, WW2 involved rapid deployment of innovative ideas, especially in the battle of the Atlantic
In the book the struggle for Europe by Chester wilmot he says by mid 1943 the germans gave up submarine raids on shipping in the Atlantic because of much improved tactics by the allies.
I'm proud that Lithuanian Zenonas Lukosius was one of the crew, sealing valves and preventing German submarine to sink, who captured Enigma machine from U-505.
For its part it played in the Battle of the Atlantic, at the end of the war the U Boats in the North Atlantic were ordered to surrender at Derry, Northern Ireland. At Lisahally they were lined up in rows at the dock.
Derry was very busy with merchant traffic throughout the war
for further reading on the subject of U-boats I would recommend these books: Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942 (1996) and Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942-1945 (1998).
I know everything about u-boats actions during ww2. But I watched this material with real pleasure. Great job!
Thanks!
I knew an old cowboy, died a few years ago, aged 85, who was a sailor in the War. He talked about hitting a u-boat with a depth charge. Pretty horrendous to hear him tell it.
The relief of knowing the enemy was neutralized must of been intense too.
Keep doing what you're doing... I learn something new every day watching your content
7:34 Small correction. 10 miles equals to 18,52 km. At sea we are using nautical miles. 1nm = 1852 meters.
Jeez can you imagine how deadly the Kreigsmarine would've been if they had the IJNs toys.
It must have been equally terrifying to be a sailor in a supply convoy waiting night after night for a torpedo attack as it would be for a submariner waiting deep and silent for a depth charge attack to come. Either way, your demise would be just a short time away. Knowing that convoy ships would not stop to pick up casualties and U Boat survivors after an attack are rare would only increase the mental strain.
Otto Kretschmer was a pioneer in these U-boat tactics and adopted the philosophy, 1 torpedo, 1 ship
Thank you.
The U-boot doctrin reminds me a bit of the evolution of earial warfare in ww1. With it being pretty new, Dictate Bolke etc and all the positioningrules
Using the deck gun in the middle of a convoy sounds like a great way to remove doubt and scream, "Here I am!"
If you've already hit a few ships with torpedoes, there is probably so much fire and confusion that a few extra cannon shots might not get spotted.
@@KeithHearnPlus Plus the escorts are usualy on the outside of the convoy.
@@KeithHearnPlus Not to mention the Escorts firing starshell illumination round every few minutes.
yeah, Indy's wrong about that one.
USING THE DECK GUN IN A WOLFPACK ATTACK *NEVER* HAPPENED IT WAS FOR PICKING OFF ISOLATED STRAGGLERS ONLY USUALLY FINISHING OFF WHAT THE TORPEDO STARTED.
Very good pronunciation of German words, a real rarity on YT, and well presented in a nice looking studio -> subscribed.
welcome aboard
Ever since watching Greyhound. U-Boats are the scariest thing to me
Do you think the captains of the U boats would go onto the escort’s radio frequencies to give them a cheesy villain speech like in grey hound?
As funny as that is, no they didn’t do that because up to the end of the war U-boats didn’t have radios for ship to ship comms, they were reliant on enigma signals and Wolfpack coordination was done from Kriegsmarine HQ
Really!! Really!! love this channel! I learn a bit here and there every episode.
This rules make me remember the 10 rules of Oswald Boelcke ( as of the WW1 ) for air combat . It´s a facinating fact that this kind of rules apply for submarines.
The British Royal Navy captured the first German U-boat 'U-110' on May 9, 1941 and bagged ourselves an Enigma Machine six months before America even entered the war. We'd already cracked the codes via the genius of Alan Turing and by the time Uncle Sam showed up we'd done the hard work.....
Thank you
If the Americans enter the War in the Atlantic, I'm sure Adrm. King will listen to the British and quickly put in a convoy system for ships in the Gulf and Atlantic with air stations and destroyers at the ready for when the U-Boats arrive in American waters.
Britain instituted convoys in September 1939 and that did not prevent the FIRST Happy Time. How many ships were sunk in the US Neutrality Zone 1939-1942? USS West Point On 5 November 1941 she embarked 241 officers and 5,202 men of the 55th Brigade, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, and 100 men of a US Army Field Service company. On 10 November, West Point - in company with five other transports: Wakefield, Mount Vernon, Orizaba, Leonard Wood, and Joseph T. Dickman - got under way for India as Convoy HS-124. En route, they were joined by the aircraft carrier Ranger, the cruisers Vincennes and Quincy, and a division of destroyers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_America_(1939)#US_Navy_service_(1941-1946)
LOL!!!! King was anti British. " There's nothing that they can teach me" that's why 165 British ships which had been escorted across the Atlantic were sunk of the coast of the USA. Another quote " the war would have been over quicker if someone had just shot King"
@@colingibson8018 That's a total myth. Admiral King was pissed off having been order to give up ships to the Brits he felt he was going to need and he was right. When America entered the war King had no available ships for mechant convoy duty and what he had was being used to escort the Army to Europe.
@@colingibson8018 The first "Happy Time" was in 1940-1941 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, so their navies could begin the "Second Happy Time".
Duncan Redford; Philip D. Grove (2014). The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900. I.B. Tauris. p. 182
map ships sunk in Atlantic March to December 1941
navalmatters.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/the_battle_of_the_atlantic_1941_map-de.png?w=630
Will you do an special episode on U Boats in the Gulf of Mexico, The Caribbean Sea, and off the coast of America.
I really like your videos. Thank you!
I' d love to see a Special on Convoy PQ17
Indy making U-boats look cool!! I love naval battles and tactics.
7:18 - You've got the wrong caption there. He was actually urging those cadets to keep fighting, even if the Kriegsmarine was reduced to that boat right in front of him ;)
Good stuff Indy! I've really been interested in the Kriegsmarine and the U Boats lately.
Spoilers:
Gotta say it seems a major reason Germany lost was trying to look the part of a Empire before being one. Focus on big surface ships for example, how many subs could have been build in place of the Tirpitz line (the beauty that they were) and how much more effective they could’ve been.
Thank you for another informative and interesting video! It is very welcome.
Glad you liked it!
"Imagine using actual ships."
-probably germany.
"What is actual ship"
-100% Germany
@@hazzmati And in ww2, just ask the Bismarck how well a German high seas fleet works
"Imagine using ships lmao"
This post was made by the landlock gang
@@connorbranscombe6819 Bismarck was alone though... Can you call that a fleet?
@@SmokeJam Not alone actually, she was escorted by the Prinz Eugen, but thats my point, she wasnt meant to be alone, all the escorts meant for Operation Rheinübung were sunk or heavily damaged during the Norway campaign, the Germany high seas fleet was a joke.
Otto Kretschmer was quite a character, his very lucky survival was rare for any U-Boat Captain
I've always compared the German Submarine campaign to the American Submarine campaign against Japan. Perhaps you could make a video about it?
The biggest difference (ultimately) was the Allies had radar in both cases. The Germans and Japanese had poor versions of it but mainly relied on the Mark 1 Eyeball. It would be a fun comparison for this series!
The latter was much more successful.
30% of all Japanese shipping sunk and 54.6% of all Japanese shipping lost during the war were lost to US submarines.
The Germans were starved by the British blockade in ww1. The Germans were trying to return the favor. The Americans were able to do to Japan what the Germans couldn't do to Japan.
Yes, the radar aspect was huge. But another huge part was American submarine numbers. The Germans were never able to do that. German crew quality suffered as the war went on. As losses mounted, morale amongst the impressed crews plummeted.
Thanks for all your hard work fleshing out the history of the times. You have a real talent for the common touch. Kudos on the phone as a prop. Thanks!
"Britain".
Great video
When I saw the picture of Joachim Schepke I thought that was the former cyclist Jan Ulrich for a second.
Every time I think of U-boats, I think of the book The Cay
Excellent episode 👍🏻
Greetings from Stockholm!
Been waiting for a special, thanks Indy💯❤️
You're very welcome
I know it's way off but can't wait for the episodes on convoy PQ17.
*Me watching*
*Sabaton starts getting louder*
Bury did fail the test
Only thing I heard was the Das Boot soundtrack
@@lukum55 that movie is on my wishlist. I have never watched it
@@TrickiVicBB71 You are officially uncultured if you have not watched it.
Into the motherland, the german army march, comrades side by side, stop the nazi charge!
Good video. WW1 U-boats are only mentioned briefly, which is okay as this is a WW2 channel. But Indy downplays how effective WW1 U-boats were. Amost 400 were commissioned and they sank nearly 6000 ships including 11 millions tons of shipping and 10 battleships. By sinking passenger ships such as the HMS Lusitania and the SS Sussex they were a major reason the US entered the war. They were much more than a "novelty". It is difficult to understand how both the British and German navies disregarded that performance going into WW2. By the way Indy has several videos on this topic at the Great War Channel.