Why Germany Lost the Battle of the Atlantic (WW2 Documentary)
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- Опубликовано: 1 фев 2024
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In March 1943, German U-boats are on the attack - they sink 108 Allied vessels that month alone. Some Allied officials fear a German victory in the Atlantic is imminent. If the Allies lose the Atlantic, Britain loses its lifeline - and maybe even the war. But by May 1943, it will be the U-boats limping home in defeat. So how, in just two months, did the U-boats go from hunters to hunted?
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» SOURCES
Bailey, Chris Howard, The Royal Naval Museum book of the Battle of the Atlantic: The Corvettes and their Crews: An Oral History, (Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute Press, 1994)
Gannon, Michael, Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies' Defeat of the German U-boats in May 1943, (London : Aurum Press, 1998)
Haslop, Dennis, Britain, Germany and the battle of the Atlantic: A Comparative Study, (London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)
Niestlé, Axel, German U-boat Losses During World War II: Details of Destruction, (Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute Press, 1998)
Redford, Duncan, “The March 1943 Crisis in the Battle of the Atlantic: Myth and Reality”, History, Vol. 92, No. 1 (305) (2007)
Schofield, B. B., “The Defeat of the U-Boats during World War II”, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 16, No. 1, The Second World War: Part 1 (1981)
Van der Vat, Dan, The Atlantic Campaign: World War II’s Great Struggle at Sea, (New York, NY : Haper & Row, Publishers, 1988)
Willmann, Klaus, U-188: A German Submariner’s Account of the War at Sea 1941-45, (Barnsley : Frontline Books, 2015)
»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Toni Steller, Philipp Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: above-zero.com
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig
Executive Producer: Florian Wittig
Channel Design: Simon Buckmaster
Contains licensed material by getty images, AP and Reuters
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My father volunteered for the US Navy on December 8th, 1941. His first active duty was Spring 1942, North Atlantic Convoy. At one point he found himself on detached duty onboard a Liberty ship. One night he was tapped by his NCO -- "MacDonald, you're on U-boat watch." At that point he is handed a pair of binoculars and a .45. My dad looked at this and said, "What the f*** am I supposed to do with this? Shoot the periscope?" His NCO explained that if he spotted something he was supposed to just fire the .45 into the air. It was an extra way to attract the attention of the (hopefully) nearby destroyer.
Due to his experiences, knowing the song Ruben James by Woody Guthrie was a matter of duty in my household...
Professional story-telling, music volume and music choice perfect, perfectly relevant images. A+ level video.
thanks, we try our best to always find the most accurate footage.
especially the music at the end of this episode
Better with no music at all.
@@ppumpkin3282lol really?
@@ppumpkin3282 maybe in your minority opinion...
I love this channel. The amount of information and details jammed into 20 minutes, coupled with Jesse's clear narration is an excellent combination.
Thanks!
I'll be honest, it took me a while to warm to your style when you replaced Indy on the great war channel... but I actually have grown to prefer your narration.@@jessealexander2695
Clearly passion driven. Well done
Spectacular, you guys. You may be the best history channel on YT
Wow, thank you!
Excellent format that works well on a phone, big screen TV, or headphones.
So you’re telling me it wasn’t due to the capture of U-571
Lol such a silly movie... but there are some decent special effects in it though.
Nah! Hollywood would Never make a fake movie glorifying Americans!
I love that movie despite its flaws
@@saltzkruber732 same
There in almost never single element to complex solution
I belive that the combination of many elements is needed
1944 would see the peak size of the U-Boat fleet. With 100 boats at sea in June. A number they would never reach again. 1944 would also be the deadliest year, with 239 boats lost.
Indeed, but more U-boats at sea sinking fewer allied ships and getting sunk more often themselves was not sustainable.
During my teenage years, I had the opportunity to tour the U-505 submarine exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. I was taken aback by the limited space. Thank you for the very interesting history video.
And she is a Type IX bigger than the earlier Type VII.
I noted that in Gallery's book on U505 there was no acknowledgement that the British had acquired an Enigma machine ... even in 1955 (I think that was the year of publication) Britain presumably hadn't admitted publicly to having broken the code.
Yep if you were short and you joined the navy you were a submariner if you were short and you were in the army you were a tanker
Great summary. A few extra elements you missed also had big effects. Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) was an analysis group that studied reports to successfully predict Uboat positioning. Passive sonar buoys and Acoustic torpedoes had big impacts. Sonar and hydrophones improved dramatically throughout the war. Aircraft, escort and convoy tactics, numbers and equipment steadily improved, adapting much faster than Uboats. The radar, radio and decryption (EW) battle was complex and went through many iterations. Tech was developed much faster and introduced more quickly and completely between allies than axis.
almost perfect but you forgot breaking the enigma code
FWIW I had the 'Das Boot' mini-series on VHS in German. Watched it many times and found something new in each viewing. Great war film. (My tapes are gone. Lost in a move. Same for the VCR to play them.)
Get the dvd. It's got footage i haven't seen before.
Real Time History. The only RUclips channel capable of working a reference to Daniel Boone into a video about the Battle of the Atlantic.
Fun Fact: Daniel Boone actually had a cameo appearance in Das Boot. He was the bear.
This is true. As an American we do appreciate it.
My late Dad was a wartime merchant seaman 1940 - 1946 and he said that up to mid 1943 he felt they had virtually no protection and only knew there was a submarine attack when ships were hit, but after then it was not unusual to see an escort vessel suddenly veer off and start depth charging thanks to Sonar.
I read 'Black May' many years ago and would wholeheartedly recommend it. Its retelling of the Battle for ONS5 is a real page-turner.
This is excellent stuff. Clear, easy to understand and pulls no punches.
Awesome vid and an awesome channel! Keep it up guys :)
Always learn something, thank you!
You forgot to mention Walker RN, THE British Navel person who actually changed the way destroyers hunted U Boats in the Atlantic. Check his book he wrote in the fifties.
It must be a truly miraculous book to have been written in the 1950's given Capt Walker died in July 1944, two days after having suffered a stroke.
@@steeltrap3800 actually it was written by Terrance Robertson, in the 50’s.
@@davethom73 So it's not HIS book, then, but a book ABOUT him?
@@steeltrap3800 It’s actually a book about how he trialed a new form of anti submarine warfare, and perfected the technique, which involved two destroyers/ frigates hunting as a team against U- Boats.
@@davethom73 Yes, I know a bit about his methods.
I found the rolling barrage especially interesting, in part because I have Peter 'Ali' Cremer's book: "U-333 The Story of a U-boat Ace" and he describes being on the receiving end of one of those (he was sent out on patrol following 'black May' to try to find out what was happening, being one of the most experienced u-boat skippers alive at that time).
Cheers
300k subscriptions isn't enough given the level of quality you guys produce. Keep it up and may you reach subs in the millions in the future. 🎉🎉🎉
Jesse, if you thought I wasn’t going to go straight to that Das boot techno video, you’d have been wrong. I wasn’t disappointed.
Excellent job on the video. Footage and graphics very well done
And that's why you should ALWAYS watch to the very end of the video.
what a perfect ad for Nebula. Great vid btw. I really liked it.
Vielen Dank, weiter so!
Great videos
Congrats for you FANTASTIC ACCURATE GERMAN LANGUAGE PRONONCIATION! Superb presentation !
Thank you! Following on Nebula TV as well. A great series.
Well explained with mention of many previously unknown incidents.
Excellent video with outstanding narration and I enjoyed it very much. Subscribed today.
Had you huge advantage because the Brit’s broke the enigma machine. Bletchley park. Alan Turing. Legend.
The Poles, actually. They sent the first version of the Enigma to the UK in '39.
I'm joining in to say that it was Polish mathematicians that cracked the Enigma code long before the Brits.
Alan Turing had the idea but the machine was built by GPO Technicians who got no recognition. Without their genius it would have remained an idea
The Poles broke the code in 1932 but by 1938 the Germans improved the code's security and their method no longer worked in deciphering the more complicated wartime enigma code. That's where Turing comes in. Rejewski and company absolutely deserve a lot of credit and there is a memorial in Bletchley Park in their honour.
It's worth reading the Wiki in its entirety to get an objective overview.
Cherry picking your favorite bits does not constitute a true history.
Thank you for the endless hours of awesome high quality content jessie
The introduction of forward firing weapons like Hedgehog was very important. It enabled attacks while the u-boat was still being "pinged" by ASDIC. Before them, the u-boat would be lost to ASDIC for a little while and then depth charges were dropped on it's assumed position as the ship passed over it. This enabled canny u-boat captains to make evasive manoeuvres after they had been "lost", which often enabled them to avoid the depth charges and sometimes to escape.
Not to mention that it was a contact weapon.
@@timothyirwin8974 Yes. That was a big advantage and the launch pattern was calculated such that a u-boat within its spread would always be hit and one was enough to at least drive it to the surface where it would either surrender or be destroyed.
This often tends to be overlooked for flashier parts of history but is quite important
True. It was probably the only war theatre where Germany had a realistic chance to decide the war in their favour. The Atlantic was the lifeline for Britain and the Soviet Union.
Great video. Thanks
Very interesting stuff. I have to say I didnt know how bad the Uboots performed in the late war. Some of these statistics are quite eye opening
Excellent, not only i content, but also in clear, distinct presentation.
Thank you for sharing.
This was a really fine report -- thank you.
Great video
10:03 The math behind the huffeduff equipped ships is staggeringly simple and elegant and genius. Wow, that's off to that mathematician
that was the best detailed yet succinct discussion answering the title.
Its insane how well produced these videos are. Even though im sure far less money was availabe for your channel, it outstrips most, if not all, documentaries.(ok maybe not ken burns 😅)
Please make video about the battle of France
script is ready. Will be published in March
Awesome! Looking forward to this.@@realtimehistory
How is THAT going to work? No Americans in that one.
Great history, thanks! BTW, @9:00 Anton Staller, the German submariner, would survive the war and become a notable church organ maker!
Uboat commanders seemed to either die very young or have illustrious post war careers
Little is said about the immensity of the Atlantic ocean. Simply finding a convoy was the major challenge for any Uboot commander. 40 ships might seem to be a large target but it's really just one grain of sand on a very long beach. Finding a Uboot was much easier, as they were required to give their position on a daily basis. The Germans never believed that their coded messages could be read, almost in real time. With Liberty and Victory ships being launched at a rate of one per day, the battle could not be won for the Germans.
I congratulate this channel. It’s the first video of theirs that I have watched and I think by far the most comprehensive, even handed, professional examination of a war conflict that I’ve watched. I am a pensioner and so money is tight. I will see what I can do about Nebula
Quite agree. This is an excellent account of the battle.
welcome to the show and glad you enjoyed it. If money is tight, don't worry about Nebula, if you watch here on RUclips, that also helps a lot.
Excellent!
Very well done. However, you overlooked one critical reason the U-boats lost. The Allied use of hunter-killer groups that operated around and independent of the convoys.
Ah, I would like to point out a small criticism (great video overall though): An important contributor to the loss of overall skill level & experience of the U-Boat crews towards the middle war (late '42-'43) was the difficulties in training said crews due the the yearly restriction of their relatively safe training areas in the Baltic. It is of course, difficult to quantify the effect, but this was pointed out in Clay Blair's "Hitler's U-Boat War." I have to re-read much of it to find the exact reference.
Great book - well worth finding and reading.
Great videos mate
Thanks 👍
The radio was the U-Boat's Achilles heel- even without Ultra code breaking the HF/DF capabilities, together with more and better escorts, 10 cm radar and air patrols meant that once a U-Boat sent a sighting report the Allied ships could track down and attack the U-Boat shadowing the convoys. Codebreaking was vital, of course especially when the Allies could locate the U-Tankers and sink them. Radar was probably the most important tech, though.
I read that operators were lazy in changing the settings on the code machine making it easier to decode messages.
Thank you for clarifying what the causes of the U-Boat decline were. It was always a little vague to me.
Interesting video, I never realised how important this theatre was
It would be cool if you made a video about the German paratroopers(Fallschirmjäger). Thanks
we are planning a video on Crete in the future. And they play a role in our Sicily video.
@@realtimehistory thank you.
Two other important weapons introduced in 1943 were Hedgehog and the Mk 24 acoustic anti-submarine homing torpedo, Fido. Equally important was the work of the Western Tactical Approaches Unit, who developed new procedures such as Raspberry, to corrral and trap attacking U boats. That aspect is sadly overlooked in videos such as this. The excellent Drachinifels did one of his items on this and serious students of the topic should watch it.
3 inch Anti Submarine Rocket Projectile was first used in May 1943. Got two kills, one by a Swordfish off an Escort Carrier and one by a Beaufighter in the Bay of Biscay. Sonobuoys were introduced in 1942 and Magnetic Anomaly Detectors in early 1944.
Nice!
I am blessed with the knowledge about the 1992 Das Boot theme techno remix.
Emergency, engage water pumps LOL!
I must admit, I'm slightly disappointed you didn't sneak any Das Boot footage in there just as a joke haha.
Loved the archival footage and photos from this one though. Great work.
while going through that German propaganda footage we used in this episode, I noticed that some shots were almost 1:1 in das Boot. At least I think so, need to re-watch it again to be sure.
Great video. Thanks for mentioning the Royal Canadian Navy, they usually get forgotten. The Canadians usually just shrug this off, they weren't there for the glory. They had to do the job mostly without the latest technology, that was reserved for the Brits. A lot of them were bobbing around in corvettes that were barely sea worthy. But they got the job done.
The cavity magnatron radar mounted on the sub-hunters like B24's and Vickers Wellingtons was sensitive enough to detect U-Boats on and even near the surface.
Umm radar can only detect something above the water including a periscope
@@gowdsake7103 Umm read what I wrote. I never claimed it could detect a completely submerged submarine.
I didn't hear you mention that the British created a "game", to teach eacort Captains how to hunt, find and destroy U-Boats. Training in the use of the tools often negates the opponent having better tools.
Thanks!
This was just great.
I believe one of the most important contributing factor for the Allied success in the Battle of the Atlantic was the installation of radar onto the maritime patrol bombers. Submarines during that period had one particularly glaring weakness: they had to resurface for hours in order to recharge their batteries. Operationally, the crew would do this in the middle of the night so they would be hard to spot, but with the equipping of radar on the patrol planes, they could no longer perform this vital task properly. Now the cover of darkness offered no respite to the sub crew, as they could be located and attacked even in darkness, usually with fatal consequences. Hunted day and night, this would result in decreased operational effectiveness and range for the submarines. Near the end of the war, the German Navy would develop new technology to allow their newer subs recharge without fully resurfacing, but by then, it was too little too late.
Not as much as you think. In May 1943, most of the submarine sightings in the Mid Atlantic were visual by the VLR Liberator aircraft. The RAF were the only people operating this aircraft and the Squadron operating it with out of Iceland (No 120 Squadron) had the 1 1/2 Metre band ASV Mk II equipment and no Leigh (Search) lights fitted. They only operated in Daylight hours (around the Convoys). The Germans had a radar warning receiver that picked up that wave length and allowed the U-boat to dive long before the aircraft saw it on radar. Between March and May 1943, Aircraft detected 387 U-Boat contacts, only 76 were picked up on Radar before Visual spotting. Centimetric radar did massively improve things, but it wasn't in wide scale service until well into late 1943. The 2 new U-boat killers to make their mark in May 1943 was the Anti Submarine Air Launched Mk 24 (Mine) Acoustic Homing Torpedo and the 3 inch Air Launched Anti Submarine Rocket Projectile.
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage episode about German submarines that threatened support lines of allies below Atlantic Ocean water . Episode Introduction clearly explained how German naval hunter forces changed to hunted forces .thank you 🙏 ( RTH) channel for sharing this magnificent episode
Excellent and fun.
English text at 2:53 is a small grammar mistake. Its built not build. It is a Different tense of the word. Its spoken built as well. I love your content. Trying to help.
Coming back to this video, I feel like the convoy battles of the Mediterranean would be a great video to make one day.
we will cover more of the U-Boat war in the future. In January we will go back to the Atlantic in 1940 but also cover the other maritime theaters
This sounds interesting seeing I used to live next door to Bletchley Park
What a fantastic doco. Well done. The stats right at the end were fascinating. A few aces accounted for the majority of the kills.
I have seen plenty of stuff on Prien who of course sank the Royal Oak battleship in Scapa Flow. The British had an inkling they'd killed him later on in the Irish Sea I think, but when the Germans didn't announce his death, they dropped pamphlets over Germany, asking "Where Is Prien?" and that forced the Germans hand.
How you did the allies 1943 air war video. Perhaps you can do the same for the pacific with the Doolittle raid the b17 and b29 etc.
Could you do a series about the battle of the bulge and operation market garden like the battle of Berlin series. 🙏
If they do check the ORBAT of Market Garden and all will be revealed
This video was significantly better than I expected. I'd like to offer a suggestion for future videos to make them even better. The graphs used to present statistics were especially welcome. However, many statistics were later only spoken (and reflected in subtitles). I tend to assimilate statistics presented using graphs more effectively than the spoken or written words. I don't think I am unusual. Hence, would you please try to present even more of the statistics as graphs? I think the stats. contrasting numbers of U-boats with tonnage sunk might show even more dramatically the course of the 'Battle of the Atlantic' changed. Of course, it's just a suggestion. I may be wrong, or unusual.
Thank You very much for an extremely well made, interesting, fact-filled video,
Best Wishes. ☮
I recently read a very interesting book:
A Game of Birds and Wolves by Simon Parkin 2019
Recounting the history and work of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), created by Winston Churchill in 1942 - Parkin explores the role of war games in British efforts to defeat U-boat operations against Allied shipping.
In addition to the technological developments to detect the U-boats, the escort captains needed to learn tactics to fight them effectively after detection. Those tactics were developed by a team of Wrens at WATU in Liverpool, who then trained the escort captains. Before reading the book I had never heard of this part of the war effort. On reflection, it does make perfect sense, in the same way the Bletchly Park became a kind of school for code breakers.
thanks for mentioning the comment, a few commenters have brought this topic up but not where they heard about it.
I've long thought that the US admiral in charge of the navy, Admiral King, should have lost his job for opposing the convoy system. When it became clear that his approach was not working and that convoys would need to be adopted, then he should have gone.
Oh he did more than just that. Bun fight he had with the USAAF stopped the British from getting the Liberators we needed in 1942. The Air Gap could have been closed a lot earlier than it was. The Guy was also going to send all of the Mk 24 Mines to the Pacific. The Combined Chiefs of Staffs overruled him.
Thank you for not pronouncing Doenitz like "donuts", as some channels have done.
This channel is my favorite on all youtube im trying not to watch all the videos too fast lol
While mention of huffduff is here, the real importance of it was not on ships, but the US 10 fleet (see book of same name). The only US fleet with no ships. It controlled a network of land based RDF towers from Brazil up along the coasts through Greenland and Iceland. Using these, they were able to track uboat locations with enough accuracy for early warnings. The best example was the build up to D-Day. The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were faster than any available escorts, so they sailed back and forth to the US to bring US soldiers, without escorts. The 10th fleet directed them around waiting uboats, who shifted based on the broken convoy codes. Yet they made their trips again and again.
That said, this was a very well done, and accurate, video. Some of the sinkings in early 42 were due to the US being slow to create convoys, and a shortage of escorts as most had been sent to the Pacific, or given to the UK through lend lease
My understanding of the final defeat of the German U-Boat terrible problem is that BETTER TECHNOLOGY ( as long distance aircraft fitted with airplane specially designed RADAR ).
RS. Canada
Haven't watched episodes yet, so here goes in no particular order.
Properly escorted convoys. Decoding enigma, radar, and radio detection, and finally closing the air gap with B24's flying out of Reykjavík.
You know what
And Sunderlands my friend that could actually land on the water and save crews
İt was a great video
No mention of the Liverpool Wrens? Oh come on, they are now considered to be one of my most critical components (and long term unsung) of the battle. It as the work of these women, through the wargames with and British destroyer and submarine commanders, which resulted in them identifying the changing uboot tactics and how best to counter them. Intelligence and weapons were only effective through knowing how best to use them.
A story well told.
Most interesting video - everybody knows about the cracking of Enigma but this was the first time I heard that the Germans had returned the compliment!
You’ve spoken in previous episodes about how Germany’s chronic fuel shortages hamstrung them in other theaters; was that a major factor in the Atlantic? My understanding is that u-boats themselves were pretty fuel efficient; but could fuel shortage help explain why the Germans didn’t field more of them, why the Luftwaffe didn’t provide air cover, &c?
Black May broke the Kreigsmarine. However, the writing on the wall was evident much earlier. In March of ‘41 U-boat aces Prien, Schepke, and Kretschmer were lost in a space of ten days. At that time the Allie’s lacked the escorts and air coverage as they desperately were trying to build up enough to cover all convoys.
Damn that Techo Das Boat was amazing. I grew up in the Southern US in the 1990s, where Techno was definitely underground music. I'd blast that stuff in my car all the time and get looks lol. The best albums came from Germany: Dance N-R-G, Techno Traxx, etc.!!
I’m telling you it wasn’t the capture of U571. It was a combination of detection improvements,development of attack strategies and of the USN swallowing its pride and finally accepting the lessons already learned from the British and Canadian navies.
The Brits also 'war gamed' anti-uboat tactics... An interesting program, as the war gamers were not military personnel.
One reason for the drop in U Boat success in Jan and Feb 1943 was due predominantly to the Atlantic storms in that period, which were some of the most severe, with 100 ft waves recorded. This made U Boat operation almost impossible.
That's ok, the storms made convoys impossible, those 100 foot waves aren't friendly to Liberty ships. U-boats were safe and snug under the surface while the merchantmen above were risking life and limb.
@@crinolynneendymion8755 From what I've read, U Boats spent the majority of their time on the surface as their range was quite limited underwater as well as being bit too slow to be able to catch up to their prey.
So underwater time was limited to evasion, surveillance and attack. otherwise up there with the ships.
My father's cargo ship, one of at least 30 allied flag vessels in convoy ONS 5 was attacked and sunk in the North Atlantic by about 25 U Boats in early April 1943.
These ships were on their return voyages following delivery of supplies to Britain. One merchant mariner was lost from his ship, the cook, due to drowning. In the ensuing battle, over several days and nights, five U-Boats were sunk or disabled by various means including ramming carried out by a few British destroyer escorts.
The crew on my father's ship (he was second mate on this
voyage, having graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point, New York 1941) were subsequently
picked up by Canadian sailors on corvettes much like Higgins boats I believe.
No convoy escorted by an antisub blimp lost a ship to u-boats. The subs dived deep to avoid them.
Do not think of little toy blimps either, the L and K ships were huge with 10 man crewsm depth charges and 50 cal MG's. I knew Commander Lou Prost, be lived to be over 100.
That is one whole aspect of the war you missed the history of. One of those was worth more than a few destroyers alone, they did lose ships to torpedoes. Tigers of the Sea show them if you need footage.
In 2020 Tom Hanks starred in a wonderful war movie about the convoy and torpedo Alley. The movie is called Greyhound, and is available on Apple TV.
recently watched it, biggest and most pleasant movie surprise in years
To bad the uboats made whale sounds 😂
Improvements in radar, sonar and the role played by Ultra/Station X intelligence. The Catalina and Sunderland aircraft also played their part.
Shame not to mention the involvement of things like WATU which helped drive the tactical innovation of the escorting forces.
Sadly the Wren wargamers of WATU were not mentioned. They too played a pivotal role. Why is it only in the last six months I have found out they existed? Obviously I am not the only one kept in the dark for so many years.
Actually the battle of the Atlantic was won by a bunch of British WREN's who worked out, how the Germans attacked the convoys, then they taught all of the Allied ship captains how to hunt the U-Boats. There is a documentary series called the War Gamers.
I find it sad, records always talk about tonnage or ships lost. Never any mention of the thousands of crews killed.
As an old timer who hates the vast majority of new amateur content, this was refreshingly well narrated and full of actual information.
thanks!
Glad you mentioned Doenitz's "top down" approach. I watched a uboat documentary years ago where a german crewman lamented how "nosey" Doenitz was and how his demand for constant updates brought Allied destroyers and planes down on them.
That's called 'micromanagement'..
@@kenlinden9621 Rommel was the same. He did not like to delegate.
Fantastic stuff... and the techno version of Das Boot was a banger. I've started reading the book (not of the techno version, obviously).
I read a great book called "Silent Victory" or "Why the Germans couldn't invade England" using experts from the Kriegsmarine, including the wonderfully named Admiral Assman.
7:20 The U boat tracking was carried out at WATU in Liverpool, not London
I think he's talking about Submarine Tracking Room, which was part of RN Operational Intelligence Center which was by that time located in Admiralty Citadel in London.
WATU, as far as I can tell, was more responsible for studying Uboat tactics, development of ASW doctrine and for development of tactics and officer training. However, they don't seem to have actual operational role.
My dad would have loved this. He was in the Battle of the Atlantic on one of those American escort carriers.