Launders was not, "unaware of U864's evasive action". Thats exactly why he fired a salvo. He figured out exactly where that sub was going, and knew it would turn and dive. U864 steered right Into its own death, predicted by Launders. That was no accident. He planned that salvo to the T, and hit on the last shot for which it was intended. The man was a true tactician, a legend amongst his peers.
I think “unaware” was a bit too strong a word, he was aware of the course plotted by the sub thus far, and, as the documentary states, used that to make a prediction as to where to fire. It’s not that he was unaware, but that he could not be certain as to what maneuvers the sub might take in response. Yet he still made the best decision he could given the information available to him. IMO the documentary does a good job explaining Launders’ tactical and mathematical genius while balancing the tension of uncertainty in a maritime engagement.
Best thing about this documentary, they didn't spend 45 minutes showing the research vessel searching for their target. That's something that bugs me about a lot of documentaries; so much of the modern day footage is the team searching for the target and finding a lot of wrong areas and then only showing them finding it near the last part of the documentary. I love the history portions, but with the modern day stuff, just skip right to when the team finds the target....the way this documentary was done.
My father and his shipmates aboard a US Tin Can ( Destroyer) sank 3 German Uboats in the N.Atlantic in 1942. No survivors. I asked him how he and his fellow ship mates felt about that? His answer was no surprise to me..he said quote " If you think we were happy about 50+ German Uboat crew members were now dead..you are wrong. This was nothing to be "Happy" about..we were only releived that we got our enemy before they got us, and not jubilant that these Germans had just been killed" Exactly the answer I expected from my now deceased father.
@AndiKoehn Yes I don't doubt that, you know I think your Opa, my father and everyone else much rather would have preferred to be home with their families rather then being out to sea trying to kill each other.
......."To those, I fight, I do not hate....To those, I serve, I do not love"...(Epitat: U-864)...They were men of duty. They were soldiers ready to die for each other and their country & far better men than most of us.... RIP - All of them.
@@floydburney6060 WW2 death tolls, Russia-18.8 million. China toughly 20 million, mostly civilians. Germany lost some where between 6.6 and 8 million. Germany finishes a distant third.
@@searun2471 ......Stalin killed a lot more of his own before he was done than those numbers you cite. He made Hitler look like a piker. The Soviet Union wasn't divided up for 3 generations like Germany
@Lib Censorship ...Non-Euros? If you mean Muslims for example, yes. Theirs is a culture of death & it's in the book of their faith. One of the greatest tragedies of WW2 was that they were all Christian-based nations (Germans, Italians, English, American, French & even the Russians, etc...) killing each other for the 2nd time. The rank & file knew the folly of it all. They were paying the price for what old men were doing with their lives. Remember the spontaneous soldier 1914 Christmas cease-fire of WW1? Probably the most poignant moment/human act/story in all of modern war. They knew they were dying for the benefit of other men's glory who saw them as "expendable"....The soldiers saw their enemy as themselves. The words I lifted in my original post came from a British soldier's diary who didn't live to see the end of the war.
I think the most amazing part of this engagement is that it is the only time in history that one submarine successfully torpedoed another while both were submerged
@@xr7speed There has been no sub vs sub attack since ww2. Since WW2, the first nuclear sub to sink a ship, was in the Falkland wars, when Light cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by HMS Conqueror in 1982. AT least that is the only one "officially". But no sub vs sub.
46:09 that ending gives me chills all the time. May the 30,000 German submariners find peace wherever they are. They’re sacrifices shaped our world and their country today. May they all find peace. 🙏🏻💐🇩🇪
Hmm not a single word for those of other countries who died fighting the Uboats because we had to ? Well someone has to buy all those SS daggers and underwear I suppose
Much like the HMS Adventurers torpedo mans comment about the short cheer then reflection on the deaths, I was on-board the Falklands carrier & flagship HMS Hermes when the Argentine cruiser Belgrano.was sunk, we to had a cheer that ended with everyone deep in reflection of the dead & dying.
There are many horrible ways to die, this much is true. Knowing that you are sinking in a submarine, your coffin, with no chance to reach the surface is right there amongst them. My respects to the sailors, on all sides. To those that made it and those who did not.
@@tigtrager6923 ...it takes a particular kind of person to want to do something like THAT- but I understand that there was never any shortage of volunteers for service on the U-boats-!
@@daleburrell6273 yeah, I'm no stranger to military service and the hazard pay from combat zones. We are volunteers, yes, but the pay still amounts to a nickel to take your chance. Especially for enlisted. I hope the explanation helps you to understand what was meant.
U639 was the boat that my uncle, aged 20, died in. A very inexperienced L/Zs aged just 24 was in charge, and had the boat on the surface on the Kara sea. Hans was also an obergefreiter mechaniker. and the boat was also on it's first voyage and had sunk nothing. A hapless soviet commander, who frequently missed targets, found this one, it was too easy. Lost with all hands. He left a sister (my mother), girlfriend and family. Lots of talk is about losing a person, but for those left behind, the loss lasts forever, and in my case, my whole life was radically changed, not to one I would have chosen.
@@MWcrazyhorse Ancient Astronaut theorists say a lot of shit as fact, that is the problem I have with them. If they would just propose it as "we cant prove it or debunk it 100%" it would look better.
I love how they're underwater, the commander risks using his periscope, he says "go to 40 metres", then "half ahead", and they show the engine room with the diesels running :P I think the internal shots are in the VIIC set used for "The Boat". The gauges wouldn't have been backlit.
@@securityrobot dude get some respect, out of the all German war branches (kriegsmarine, wehrmacht, luftwaffe) the U-Boot arm of Kriegsmarine was the least fanatic, there isnt a lot of emblems with the angled cross (some yes, but some for recognition purposes in indian waters) The U-Boot men fought a very gentlemen-ish war, For example The Laconia (except U-852 we dont talk about that) I am not a n@zi sympathyzer or some shit, I am just saying that not all men that fought with the n@zis were bad
Brave? What's crave about hiding under the sea to take out shipping lanes during "happy time". To hell with those Nazi assholes. Not like they knew they had been hit anyways. Everyone onboard probably died instantly, if not within seconds.
They did not mention that U0864 had been equipped with a snorkle. You can not run diesel engines submerged unless you have a snorkle and then you had to stay a periscope depth. I think this was a big issue they should have mentioned in this video. The U-864, commanded by Wolfram, left Kiel on 5 December 1944, arriving at Horten Naval Base, Norway four days later. Before leaving Germany, U-864 had been refitted with a snorkel mast. Several messages found in the Ultra archives show that there were problems with the snorkel, which needed repairs before the U-864 put to sea for her voyage to Japan. All Schnorkel trials and training were conducted at Horten near Oslo. U-864 would have needed to be certified ready to sail at Horten before proceeding to Bergen. Wikipedia
Likely saw that. Would imagine that the engine trouble they got was maybe due to the snorkel as well. Maybe the head valve on the snorkel was defect and had some sea water entering the engine.
Something not quite right here, if the U boat is running submerged on the engines, then it has to be using the snorkel, which means it's easily and constantly visible. It's more likely they were running on the motors and using the periscope occasionally to avoid dection.
Personally I think The captain must’ve had another problem because he had six minutes from the first torpedo passing the sub to the last torpedo that struck the sub which would have given The captain enough time to dive deep and avoid the torpedoes.
@@timneaves519 hypothetically, if he had been running on batteries, they were quite possibly depleted enough that evasion wasn't a proper option. The crash dive could have been an absolute last ditch effort made on fading battery power to avoid the torpedos.
@@timneaves519 Four torpedoes fired at 17 second intervals equals 68 seconds or one minute and eight seconds from the firing of the first torpedo to the fourth torpedo. The German U-boat would have barely begun it's evasive manuvers when it was fatally struck. The documentary however took longer to tell us the story.
Very hard to believe this story. First of all how did the british captain knew he’s deal with a german sub? The schnorkel of coarse, but that means the german sub was all the time in the british sight. That explains also why the germans wasn’t able to detect via hydrophone their followers - too much noise from their own diesel engines. That means the so called “predicted depth” was actually the german periscope depth easy to find in any manual. All in all the difficulty of torpedoing such a target is no bigger than hitting a zig - zagging surface merchant ship ( assuming she was zig - zagging ) but I wouldn’t take their word for it since they show the so called eyewitness - the Norwegian 12 years old at the time- which allegedly saw the scene of a submarine exploding! Min 42:02 Everything in this story is farfetched, shame on the narrators and I’m talking about the Official narrators, the Historians of this event, not this documentary in particular.
As an ex Australian Navy and Army Veteran who have my father and uncles fought in the ww2 and great uncles served and died in ww1 its still sad on both sides, bloody politicians, as an Australia Veteran with German heritage and Irish and Scottish and Spanish and English l say R.I.P to all those very brave people. ❤
....My father was in the Pacific theater & he didn't talk much about it either until the end of his life. Japan was actually worse than Germany with the war atrocities & he had the pictures to prove it.
@@floydburney6060 My grandpa was in MacArthur's honor guard (I found that out on my own). He rarely spoke of the war and he never spoke of what he did, he only said, "You don't ever want to go to war." Then he would stare away for a second. As a kid my mom told me not to talk about it and not to ask, I didn't. I knew he saw things he didn't want me to know about, how horribly a man can treat another man. He always hated the Japanese for the way they treated American POW's. I didn't understand as a kid, I do know. I wish I could see him once more and tell him how proud of him I am, and maybe hear a few more of his war jokes.
Sad yes, We have to remember that German U-boats wolf gang had huge success in the beginning of the war and sunk many ships killing a lot of people but the tide turned on them as the war progressed, the Hunter became the hunted, but I can not imagine the stress felt being inside one on either side when you are the target.
@ 18:40 damn it was creepy plugging the 60degree 47', 004degree 26' coordinates into google maps and being snapped to the North Sea not too far Northwest of Bergen in Norway. It really helps to kinda put you there. Also if you hit satellite view you can see the topography of the ocean floor, and it's a lot easier to see how a sub could accidentally bottom out in seas like that...
I wonder why they used a U-boat when the Japanese had larger and more capable long-range submarines? The Japanese had submarines that could carry aircraft in a watertight hangar.
Because the Type IX D2 submarine which the U864 was, had the most range of any class of submarine by any nation under WW2. Simply it had the range to reach Japan and return. It also had 115 nmi range under water @4 knots compared to 60 nmi @ 3 knots for the AM type submarine you are talking about.
Knight Owl, it would have also taken at least twice the time for a Japanese sub to reach Germany and make a return trip to Japan with the cargo than to send a German boat to Japan. This would also double the risk of detection and destruction.
At 13.07 they refer to a 'tally boy' dropped by Lancasters whilst showing Blenheim's taking off. It's actually a 'tall boy' bomb. Two severe inaccuracies within a few seconds left me wondering about the level of research in this documentary.
Young men fight and die for old mens choices.... sad really .... He could of had a good life..... rest in peace all those brave soldiers from both sides.....
We go to War when we had enough of being attacked. People also go to War for personal gain and do so because they either had to and were willing to draw first blood. Some love it most are afraid of it. For some what we view as an atrocity but to others it's merely a means to an end. We also go to war because we can and our moral compass turns to payback time. One can keep going with it or we can realize people are just people that follow our own code of ethics and just don't love their neighbors as they love themselves.
@@Elwinator3 We are saying the same thing really.... We went to war because of old mens choices (hitler, the nazi leadership)... Korea.... the communist threat.... vietnam ... the same... my answer is a bit convoluted
40,000 Men went too war in the UBoats less than 10,000 Returned they were once our enemy's they were also the bravest of the Brave May they all rest in peace forever entomb in their Iron Coffins
@@cadaverdog1424 They were not all NAZIs they were men serving their country. The leaders of Germany were the Nazi. I have a friend who's grandfather was a U-boat captain who was lost in 1944.
@@gazzas123 exactly, the U-Boat men fought a gentlemanish war (Laconia etc etc.) not all emblems were Angled cross (indian waters for recognition, some just cause and so on)
His engine is misfiring and making enough noise to be heard. So how is he running on diesels anyway without a snorkel? Submerged subs run on electric motors via batteries in WW2. I don't understand what they are on about here.
Snorkels were standard on U-Boats from 1943. Surfacing to recharge batteries was lethal from 1943 and the boats were much faster running with snorkels.
@@allangibson2408 Top speed for snorkel cruise was 8 knots, the same as normal submerged top speed with e-motors, any faster and the snorkel would be torn off.
The British submarine crew are true seamen after they killed the U-boat they donned their hats and had a moment of silence for that German crew because both sides were submariners
The majority of German sailors on the Uboats also had similar feelings after they'd achieved a 'successful kill' - the moment of elation was really a moment of "Thank God - that could have bee us'". Followed by feelings of intense melancholy.
It probably would have been better if they had missed. By that point in the war there was nothing Japan could have done to slow the Americans down. The war was lost. Now the sea is permanently polluted with mercury. They should have known but back then the environment was not a concern.
Even if they'd gotten there, it wouldn't have helped. Those Jumo 004s were unreliable due to not having the high-grade alloys needed to build them. The Japanese wouldn't have been in any better position.
Jako Polak nie czuję litości dla Niemców - wywołali dwie, straszne wojny o zasięgu światowym i ponieśli zasłużoną karę. Jednak żal mi tej starej Niemki, w niczym nie zawiniła a cierpi straszliwie do dziś... Bardzo smutne.
My father was a telegraphist on the Venturer, I only found out when sifting through his belongings after he died. He was a member of the Venturers old boys association and there was a lot of correspondence between shipmates who had settled down after the war some as far away as Canada and Australia. Quite a few of his fellow crewmen called in to see him and stopped over as we lived in Portsmouth,handy for HMS Dolphin. It is all a mix of typed and handwritten from a time when email and mobile phones were yet to be invented. He never,ever,talked about his war service as a submariner but remained a submariner until leaving in the 60s.
I don't think the eye witness story complies at all with the story told in this video, as he clearly sais he saw an uboat, which must have been on the surface I guess, getting hit and than slowly sinking down, while the video story describes the german uboat in the middle of an evasive maneuver diving like hell after the first missing torpedos, so what's the actual true now???
Not just that, the British claim to have heard the badly running diesel engine, which would be clearly impossible while submerged unless they had a snorkel, no snorkel is visible on the wreck nor was one mentioned in the statements and it would have been clearly visible and negated the fear over using the periscope. I propose the the sub was in fact on the surface, didnt have a badly running engine and was caught unawares while looking for its meeting point. This fits the eye witness account. No idea why the British sailors are lying but their story is full of inconsistencies. I've since checked Uboat.net and have confirmed the fact that this boat didnt have a snorkel fitted. Something very fishy about this. Why are the British sailors still lying after all these years? What are they hiding and why lie to the families of those dead sailors. Very wrong.
@@thhseeking my friend I was wrong, thus boat was retro fitted with a snorkel while in Bremen, probably for this mission. I was only aware of type C boats having them up until now. So I stand corrected and knowing this now puts the rest of the story in line. They really should have mentioned it in the documentary tho as it did leave a bit of a question mark.
@@martcon6757 quite possible the uboat had been surfaced or running shallow then. Had they had a badly running engine at snorkel depth whilst trying to recharge depleted batteries, the moments taken to rig for emergency dive could have allowed at least one of the torpedos to pass below. Then, whilst in an attempt to crash dive, they inadvertently passed into the path of the torpedo whilst still running shallow enough that the explosion brought parts of the vessel to the surface for the eyewitness to see. Have you any knowledge of British torpedos at the time? I was under the impression that they weren't really riggable to attack an under water target such as another submarine, meaning they would have had to have been running fairly shallow
The captain of the U-boat made several mistakes. As soon as the diesel engine begin making that much noise he should’ve switched to electric. And then check to see if anybody was around. He must have had a snorkel on his sub because you don’t use your diesel engines when you are submerged unless you do have one.
15:13: that's HMS Barham exploding after being torpedoed by the German submarine U331. I suggest a little bit more care when selecting war footage to use.
Yeah. I just posted a comment about that as well. Only mine was regarding the beginning of the show when they showed a Walter rocket instead of a Jumo jet and Blenhiems and B17s instead of Lancasters.
@@DreamsAreLies who the fuck do u thinks gonna protect ur skinny arse if war brakes out, u twat, ill tell u my son in the Navy.. so go back in your bedroom n fuck of... or D M ME WHEN U GET TO MCR
Good for him protecting us and the noobs that run the country. The same people that make the rules up as they go. The same people that make them self's richer while we all suffer. Thank your son.
You gotta admire WW2 Germany as far as their military strategy, weaponry and fighting. It took the entire western world united against them to finally defeat them in the end and it still took 3 years after the U.S. got involved.
The Third Pin: Their war plan was wrong. They had no long range bombers, no aircraft carriers, and had they NOT declared war on the US, who knows? It to AMERICA two years to build up an invasion force AND the equipment to get them there. After we had that, we poured precious blood to defeat them...... IN VERY SHORT ORDER! Hitler and his inner circle were foolish. They allowed nazi-ism to supersede military genius. They had good generals who were not listened to. Doomed to failure. Thank God.
@@TERoss-jk9ny You are right, Nazism overshadowed the better judgment of experienced german generals. Of course Nazism was evil and had to be eradicated otherwise it would eradicate the allies. German history is overall cool. It's sad, how Europe destroyed themselves in two unnecessary world wars. The eastern front and the bombing campaigns by the United States helped deplete Germany's industry when the war had turned against Germany (1943-1945). There were many amazing German inventors, musicians and so on through out their history. The history of German politics I would say was not one of their strengths. Then again many eastern European countries also fell under the horrors of Soviet communism.
Surprised this comment is shown below... but the engine problem of the U864 was described here as a problem with a cylinder or compressor.... components of diesel engines. But diesel engines could only be used on the surface. Underwater U-boats and all subs of that era used electric batteries powering electric motors. But as this story is presented the British submariners heard an "engine" problem was the U864 was submerged. How can that be? Good story, nonetheless, especially regarding the planned transport of the jet engines to Japan. One can only speculate, if the Japanese had developed just one or two jet fighters, might our propeller powered B-29s like the Enola Gay and Bockscar been able to fly over Hiroshima and Nagasaki at will?
They left a critical piece out of the story. The Boat had been fitted with a snorkel. So they would of been running the diesels to recharge the batteries and air. That may have been what the British saw. The other part, the jet engine would not have helped them this late in the war. They had a limited range so most flights probably would of been one way. Jet engines would of been difficult to make in large enough numbers.
@@jeep146 The Japanese built copies of the Me163 to intercept B-29’s over Japan. The Kikka was being built for similar purposes. The Japanese metal supply problems were much less severe than the German ones and Jet engines will run happily on really bad fuel.
@@richardmourdock2719 The only part to me which is unclear is those U-boat had two engines. If one was making to much noise they could of run on the other. So it might have been a part that was common to both like a compressor.
The main observation....if he was submerged and running diesel engines.that means the snorkel would have had to been extended...so maybe they tracked that's ..not the periscope...
Just surprised they did not go deep deep. Don't know if they could control the down angle or up angle of the Torpedoes' back then. I don't think back then a sub could tell the depth of their targets. Not like the Modern Subs can, like the hunter subs they have, which hunts other subs.
I admire older people in that they Knew Love, faithfulness, all that is necessary to have a functional relationship unlike today where it could begin and end depending on what your facebook "friends"' think
Commentary “........Lancaster bombers” they then show what looks like a Blenheim being started followed by a flight of B17’s. When the commentator goes on to refer to the “Tally boy “ bomb this programme lost all credibility as far as I was concerned and I gave up. Honestly; and this is the History channel?
How hard is it to dig up footage of a Lancaster bomber dropping a Tall Boy? Not very hard going by a number of other docos on RUclips. I would have thought that trying to find footage of a Blenheim bomber in flight was harder. Film people really!
If they can raise the Kursk then they can raise the sub, if there are any bones left they can be buried at the Uboat memorial ? but if the mercury is leaking from corroded containers, its a difficult choice as salvage would mean spreading any leaked mercury.
If U 864 was operating submerged how could it be operating it's diesel engines as shown in the video, a snorkel is the only way . It must of been some something else that was making a loud noise for for the British sub to hear
Records confirm that U-864 was indeed fitted with a snorkel system. It was damaged during the allied attack on the base at Bergen and part of the time required to make U-864 serviceable after the attack was for repairs to the snorkel system. Probably the the makers of the animated part of the video (with subs submerged) didn’t know of the technical point, or just didn’t want to go into such detail for a shot that is entirely artificial and only intended to add drama.
I'm pleased I scrolled through the comments before making the same statement! Poor production indeed. Ironically, my mother's boyfriend was killed on HMS Barham.
It’s hard for me to sympathize with the loss of a WWII submarine, these were warships and crews who’s primary mission was to hunt and sink defenseless merchant ships, sinking them and scurrying away like cockroaches while their victims that survived the initial attack were left to drowned. The need to cripple an enemy’s means of production is obvious, but I see this type of interdiction as the epitome of cowardice. A solider found to have deliberately targeted civilians and then intentionally left the wounded to die an agonizing death would be found guilty of war crimes, but it somehow raised these submariners to the level of hero’s.
@@redcat9436 this might come as a shock but occasionally what’s legal and what is right and honorable are completely separate things. As I said in my comment, I understand the importance of disrupting the enemy’s production capabilities, but killing or refusing aid to a wounded combatant is also illegal, immoral and dishonorable.
I wish that when they show stock footage of jet engines they wouldn't show a Walter rocket motor from the ME163 Komet or when they show Lancaster bombers they show Blenhiems or B17s. Come on. Do just a little bit of dillagence. Use the correct images. For us people who are familiar with the topic, it just makes the program look amateurish.
She was refitted with a snorkel mast before leaving Germany. Several messages were intercepted by ULTRA confirming this fact. placeandsee.com/wiki/german-submarine-u-fedje
@@CGM_68 But in the video they made it sound like it was totally under water and running noisy . He just pop up once in a while to use the periscope for a moment. They recharged at night.
@@Crashed131963 all 73 on board U-864 died, so we cannot know for sure about their final hours. The submarine was damaged and returning to the U-boat pens for repairs. (Decrypted Enigma messages exist.). This class of U-boat can run her main diesel engine at periscope depth taking air from the surface thru’ the snorkel. It was a twin-engined U-boot, with the second diesel for recharging the batteries. This late in the war, surfacing even at night, or indeed in fog, was very dangerous. Towards the end of WWII radar equipped aircraft are credited for most of Allied kills against U-Boats. The British submariner on the hydrophone said it sounded like a diesel engine, he was there, so we must take his word for it. Afterwards they surfaced and sailed thru’ the oil slick, worried they might have sunk a Norwegian trawler. History (and underwater archeology) tells us they hit U-864 with their 4th torpedo as it was crash diving to avoid the spread of torpedoes fired at it.
Rusty it is both complicated and political. Ironically you can compare it to the USS Arizona - it will leak oil for the next 500 years maybe more. In the case of the U Boat, they don't know how much Mercury is left in the cargo that will continue leaking. The area around the sub is too toxic to work in. So without knowing how much mercury is left they have to seal it. The Arizona has been estimated to still contain 500,000 gallons of fuel - estimates of 64,000 gallons having leaked sense it sank in 1941, plus 900 bodes still inside. Since it is a memorial and can't be touched. Fukushima and Chernobyl are also still contaminating the world . And these are just the tip of the icebrg on mankinds contribution to contamiting Mother Earth. This was not the only German sub sent out with the same cargo. The second one is still classified. Theoretically the mercury was going to be used for a dirty bomb to be droped on San Francisco , it also contained the remaining nuclear reactor material the Germans had and more jet parts . This sub was captured by the USA and the cargo disappeared. The Japanese scientist committed suicide and the German crew did not know their mission and were held as POW'S .
@Ben Jones I thought submarines were called boats because before nuclear power, a submarine would spend most of its Patrol on the surface and with only dive during an attack or to escape
Oh,.. I thought this was the story about how the Americans grabbed the heavy water meant for Japan off the Uboat,.. and used it for their own nuclear bombings of Japan.
Am I hearing things did he say the crew were worried about the noise of the diesels wile submerged??? electric motors only underwater unless you use a snorkel & if you are worried about showing your periscope you most certainly would not use one of them. No disrespect to the crew just wondering about the commentary.
@Bob Pelham it’s a documentary, so a factual account of what happened. “U-864 was safely out of range of the Venturer when its diesel engine began noisily misfiring, hampering acoustic stealth and threatening to break down entirely.” The Germans were unaware that Enigma codes had been broken, and the Captain certainly wasn’t expecting to be ambushed.
I'm confused? Problems with a Diesel Engine Miss-firing whilst submerged?? I thought Subs used Battery Power when under, Is this a later development of U- Boat where Diesels can be used?
It may just be me, I may have something wrong with me, but I don’t feel sry for the ppl in the other sub. If it’s war it’s war and we know what happens in war. If it bothers u don’t join. It just has never bothered me to take another’s life.
Launders was not, "unaware of U864's evasive action". Thats exactly why he fired a salvo. He figured out exactly where that sub was going, and knew it would turn and dive. U864 steered right Into its own death, predicted by Launders. That was no accident. He planned that salvo to the T, and hit on the last shot for which it was intended. The man was a true tactician, a legend amongst his peers.
I think “unaware” was a bit too strong a word, he was aware of the course plotted by the sub thus far, and, as the documentary states, used that to make a prediction as to where to fire. It’s not that he was unaware, but that he could not be certain as to what maneuvers the sub might take in response. Yet he still made the best decision he could given the information available to him. IMO the documentary does a good job explaining Launders’ tactical and mathematical genius while balancing the tension of uncertainty in a maritime engagement.
@@listerineclean343 I'll give you That.
Best thing about this documentary, they didn't spend 45 minutes showing the research vessel searching for their target. That's something that bugs me about a lot of documentaries; so much of the modern day footage is the team searching for the target and finding a lot of wrong areas and then only showing them finding it near the last part of the documentary. I love the history portions, but with the modern day stuff, just skip right to when the team finds the target....the way this documentary was done.
Or coming off a commercial and spending 5 minutes telling you what has happened, again.
Preach!🙌🏼
Or finding nothing at all.
Right, I think he fired 4 "fish" at 17 1/2 seconds intervals. And also correctly predicted U-864's commanders evasive action decisions.
spot on. Its like so many documentaries where the person hosting it gets more screen time then the subject. Its all about egos
My father and his shipmates aboard a US Tin Can ( Destroyer) sank 3 German Uboats in the N.Atlantic in 1942. No survivors. I asked him how he and his fellow ship mates felt about that? His answer was no surprise to me..he said quote " If you think we were happy about 50+ German Uboat crew members were now dead..you are wrong. This was nothing to be "Happy" about..we were only releived that we got our enemy before they got us, and not jubilant that these Germans had just been killed" Exactly the answer I expected from my now deceased father.
As a ex Veteran, yes. R.I.P your father ❤
@@michaelfrost4584 Thank you, and for your service as well.
@@Ironschmuck thank you for your kind words.
Similar answer I got from my grandfather who served as a petty officer on U 979. They were just boys on both sides.
@AndiKoehn Yes I don't doubt that, you know I think your Opa, my father and everyone else much rather would have preferred to be home with their families rather then being out to sea trying to kill each other.
......."To those, I fight, I do not hate....To those, I serve, I do not love"...(Epitat: U-864)...They were men of duty. They were soldiers ready to die for each other and their country & far better men than most of us.... RIP - All of them.
40000, kriegsMarine went to sea fewer than 10000 made it home, to a bombed and destroyed country.
@@Irish381 .....In the final analysis, Germany suffered far more & far longer than any nation involved in both wars....Prove me wrong.
@@floydburney6060 WW2 death tolls, Russia-18.8 million. China toughly 20 million, mostly civilians. Germany lost some where between 6.6 and 8 million. Germany finishes a distant third.
@@searun2471 ......Stalin killed a lot more of his own before he was done than those numbers you cite. He made Hitler look like a piker. The Soviet Union wasn't divided up for 3 generations like Germany
@Lib Censorship ...Non-Euros? If you mean Muslims for example, yes. Theirs is a culture of death & it's in the book of their faith. One of the greatest tragedies of WW2 was that they were all Christian-based nations (Germans, Italians, English, American, French & even the Russians, etc...) killing each other for the 2nd time. The rank & file knew the folly of it all. They were paying the price for what old men were doing with their lives. Remember the spontaneous soldier 1914 Christmas cease-fire of WW1? Probably the most poignant moment/human act/story in all of modern war. They knew they were dying for the benefit of other men's glory who saw them as "expendable"....The soldiers saw their enemy as themselves. The words I lifted in my original post came from a British soldier's diary who didn't live to see the end of the war.
Absolutely excellent production,first class,ten out of ten.
I think the most amazing part of this engagement is that it is the only time in history that one submarine successfully torpedoed another while both were submerged
@@xr7speed There has been no sub vs sub attack since ww2. Since WW2, the first nuclear sub to sink a ship, was in the Falkland wars, when Light cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by HMS Conqueror in 1982. AT least that is the only one "officially". But no sub vs sub.
Great history knowledge coming from this lil thread, good job:)
@@xr7speed yes the only time
Kursk?
@@GoetzimRegen
46:09 that ending gives me chills all the time. May the 30,000 German submariners find peace wherever they are. They’re sacrifices shaped our world and their country today. May they all find peace. 🙏🏻💐🇩🇪
Fuck them.
Hmm not a single word for those of other countries who died fighting the Uboats because we had to ? Well someone has to buy all those SS daggers and underwear I suppose
Much like the HMS Adventurers torpedo mans comment about the short cheer then reflection on the deaths, I was on-board the Falklands carrier & flagship HMS Hermes when the Argentine cruiser Belgrano.was sunk, we to had a cheer that ended with everyone deep in reflection of the dead & dying.
All submariners are the bravest men in the navy. As a vet that served on a tin can from 99-03, I strongly believe that.
Regards and respect from Australia, so do I.
Is it as hard to sleep in them as I hear about
As a navy vet. I think a seal takes the bravest title in today’s navy. Just an opinion.
UK lost 84 submarines in WW2,RIP those brave men.
@Claude Bedard ...the way I heard it- there was never any shortage of volunteers for service on the U-boats during WW2-!!
There are many horrible ways to die, this much is true. Knowing that you are sinking in a submarine, your coffin, with no chance to reach the surface is right there amongst them. My respects to the sailors, on all sides. To those that made it and those who did not.
...you pay your nickle, and you take your chances.
@@daleburrell6273 I think this is more of a case of where you get paid a nickel to take your chances.
@@tigtrager6923 ...in the U.S. Navy, submarine service is STRICTLY VOLUNTARY, and they receive "hazardous duty pay".
@@tigtrager6923 ...it takes a particular kind of person to want to do something like THAT- but I understand that there was never any shortage of volunteers for service on the U-boats-!
@@daleburrell6273 yeah, I'm no stranger to military service and the hazard pay from combat zones. We are volunteers, yes, but the pay still amounts to a nickel to take your chance. Especially for enlisted. I hope the explanation helps you to understand what was meant.
U639 was the boat that my uncle, aged 20, died in. A very inexperienced L/Zs aged just 24 was in charge, and had the boat on the surface on the Kara sea. Hans was also an obergefreiter mechaniker. and the boat was also on it's first voyage and had sunk nothing. A hapless soviet commander, who frequently missed targets, found this one, it was too easy. Lost with all hands. He left a sister (my mother), girlfriend and family. Lots of talk is about losing a person, but for those left behind, the loss lasts forever, and in my case, my whole life was radically changed, not to one I would have chosen.
What absolute bullshit,.
@@ZIGSVIDS Hahahaha😄
Excellent! Well done by a highly professional World War ll historian.
This is from when the History channel was actually about history.
Yes, but did aliens help the Nazis build advanced submarines?
Ancient astronaut theorists say: Yes!
@@MWcrazyhorse Ancient Astronaut theorists say a lot of shit as fact, that is the problem I have with them. If they would just propose it as "we cant prove it or debunk it 100%" it would look better.
I love how they're underwater, the commander risks using his periscope, he says "go to 40 metres", then "half ahead", and they show the engine room with the diesels running :P I think the internal shots are in the VIIC set used for "The Boat". The gauges wouldn't have been backlit.
They likely used the Schnorkel.
These classic History shows. The hours i spent watching these.
Bravery doesn't recognise the uniform, only the character of the person.
Out of 40,000 German U-Boot seamen that served in WW2, 30, 000 never came home. Brave, young men
What a shame the figure wasn’t higher than 30,000.
@@securityrobot dude get some respect, out of the all German war branches (kriegsmarine, wehrmacht, luftwaffe) the U-Boot arm of Kriegsmarine was the least fanatic, there isnt a lot of emblems with the angled cross (some yes, but some for recognition purposes in indian waters)
The U-Boot men fought a very gentlemen-ish war, For example The Laconia (except U-852 we dont talk about that)
I am not a n@zi sympathyzer or some shit, I am just saying that not all men that fought with the n@zis were bad
@@Palkus75 they volunteered they had it coming
Brave? What's crave about hiding under the sea to take out shipping lanes during "happy time". To hell with those Nazi assholes. Not like they knew they had been hit anyways. Everyone onboard probably died instantly, if not within seconds.
@@securityrobot more like 60
They did not mention that U0864 had been equipped with a snorkle. You can not run diesel engines submerged unless you have a snorkle and then you had to stay a periscope depth. I think this was a big issue they should have mentioned in this video.
The U-864, commanded by Wolfram, left Kiel on 5 December 1944, arriving at Horten Naval Base, Norway four days later. Before leaving Germany, U-864 had been refitted with a snorkel mast. Several messages found in the Ultra archives show that there were problems with the snorkel, which needed repairs before the U-864 put to sea for her voyage to Japan. All Schnorkel trials and training were conducted at Horten near Oslo. U-864 would have needed to be certified ready to sail at Horten before proceeding to Bergen. Wikipedia
I think the British sub saw was not the periscope, but the snorkel which is larger than the periscope.
@IndyHelis BTW, my cousin Lawrence Erickson, was lost in the sinking of the USS Tang during WWII.
Likely saw that. Would imagine that the engine trouble they got was maybe due to the snorkel as well. Maybe the head valve on the snorkel was defect and had some sea water entering the engine.
Lancaster raid on U boat pen dropped Tallboy bombs. Not Tallyboy.
Something not quite right here, if the U boat is running submerged on the engines, then it has to be using the snorkel, which means it's easily and constantly visible. It's more likely they were running on the motors and using the periscope occasionally to avoid dection.
Yes, I noticed that and it bugged me insanely.
Personally I think The captain must’ve had another problem because he had six minutes from the first torpedo passing the sub to the last torpedo that struck the sub which would have given The captain enough time to dive deep and avoid the torpedoes.
@@timneaves519 hypothetically, if he had been running on batteries, they were quite possibly depleted enough that evasion wasn't a proper option. The crash dive could have been an absolute last ditch effort made on fading battery power to avoid the torpedos.
@@timneaves519 Four torpedoes fired at 17 second intervals equals 68 seconds or one minute and eight seconds from the firing of the first torpedo to the fourth torpedo. The German U-boat would have barely begun it's evasive manuvers when it was fatally struck. The documentary however took longer to tell us the story.
Very hard to believe this story. First of all how did the british captain knew he’s deal with a german sub? The schnorkel of coarse, but that means the german sub was all the time in the british sight. That explains also why the germans wasn’t able to detect via hydrophone their followers - too much noise from their own diesel engines. That means the so called “predicted depth” was actually the german periscope depth easy to find in any manual. All in all the difficulty of torpedoing such a target is no bigger than hitting a zig - zagging surface merchant ship ( assuming she was zig - zagging ) but I wouldn’t take their word for it since they show the so called eyewitness - the Norwegian 12 years old at the time- which allegedly saw the scene of a submarine exploding! Min 42:02
Everything in this story is farfetched, shame on the narrators and I’m talking about the Official narrators, the Historians of this event, not this documentary in particular.
As an ex Australian Navy and Army Veteran who have my father and uncles fought in the ww2 and great uncles served and died in ww1 its still sad on both sides, bloody politicians, as an Australia Veteran with German heritage and Irish and Scottish and Spanish and English l say R.I.P to all those very brave people. ❤
My uncle was in a Sub during world war two. He never spoke much about it later in life he became tone deaf. Rip to all who lost their lives at Sea x
....My father was in the Pacific theater & he didn't talk much about it either until the end of his life. Japan was actually worse than Germany with the war atrocities & he had the pictures to prove it.
@@floydburney6060 My grandpa was in MacArthur's honor guard (I found that out on my own). He rarely spoke of the war and he never spoke of what he did, he only said, "You don't ever want to go to war." Then he would stare away for a second. As a kid my mom told me not to talk about it and not to ask, I didn't. I knew he saw things he didn't want me to know about, how horribly a man can treat another man. He always hated the Japanese for the way they treated American POW's. I didn't understand as a kid, I do know. I wish I could see him once more and tell him how proud of him I am, and maybe hear a few more of his war jokes.
We're are the new updates on this sub?? Geeze man😮
Was für ein fantastischer Dokumentarfilm war es faszinierend
Excellent documentary. Thanks!
So sad .. the loss of so many young men in such an awful way...
and IF they had won the war, you still think it sad ???
@@jasonmarkson3773 uh yes of course idiot
@@jasonmarkson3773 they didn’t and they couldn’t. So that argument is entirely pointless.
Sad yes, We have to remember that German U-boats wolf gang had huge success in the beginning of the war and sunk many ships killing a lot of people but the tide turned on them as the war progressed, the Hunter became the hunted, but I can not imagine the stress felt being inside one on either side when you are the target.
@ 18:40 damn it was creepy plugging the 60degree 47', 004degree 26' coordinates into google maps and being snapped to the North Sea not too far Northwest of Bergen in Norway. It really helps to kinda put you there. Also if you hit satellite view you can see the topography of the ocean floor, and it's a lot easier to see how a sub could accidentally bottom out in seas like that...
I wouldn't have wanted to be on that German sub.
Why?
Anyone else catch at 25:29 that he says “he also had to keep a SHART eye....”
It's the most memorable moment of the documentary and what i come back for!!??
War is HELL. Never again!
...we can only HOPE-!
Awesome British submariners! This event seems so exciting yet deeply saddening and heartbreaking! Rest in Peace, brave sailors!
R.i.p to all those on U864.
R.i.p to all submariners who lost their lives.
From Russia with Love.. ❤️
(Cherkasy, Ukraine).
Rip to all brave men who fought for their countries...doesn't matter which country.
@@sgt.tuborg6556
Yes, r.i.p to all submariners the world over who have lost lives. The bravest men in Navy's.
Greeting to you..
The Soviet Union lost 110 submarines during WW II.
41:16 if I was a ww2 hydrophone operator and heard torpedoes approach I would be like this is it. that dude sounds terrified
I wonder why they used a U-boat when the Japanese had larger and more capable long-range submarines? The Japanese had submarines that could carry aircraft in a watertight hangar.
Because the Type IX D2 submarine which the U864 was, had the most range of any class of submarine by any nation under WW2. Simply it had the range to reach Japan and return. It also had 115 nmi range under water @4 knots compared to 60 nmi @ 3 knots for the AM type submarine you are talking about.
@@berlin128g Thanks for that information. Those brave men had a terrible death.
The Japanese submarines were also noisier and less manuverable.
Knight Owl, it would have also taken at least twice the time for a Japanese sub to reach Germany and make a return trip to Japan with the cargo than to send a German boat to Japan. This would also double the risk of detection and destruction.
At 13.07 they refer to a 'tally boy' dropped by Lancasters whilst showing Blenheim's taking off. It's actually a 'tall boy' bomb. Two severe inaccuracies within a few seconds left me wondering about the level of research in this documentary.
Young men fight and die for old mens choices.... sad really .... He could of had a good life..... rest in peace all those brave soldiers from both sides.....
We go to War when we had enough of being attacked. People also go to War for personal gain and do so because they either had to and were willing to draw first blood. Some love it most are afraid of it. For some what we view as an atrocity but to others it's merely a means to an end. We also go to war because we can and our moral compass turns to payback time. One can keep going with it or we can realize people are just people that follow our own code of ethics and just don't love their neighbors as they love themselves.
@@Elwinator3 We are saying the same thing really.... We went to war because of old mens choices (hitler, the nazi leadership)... Korea.... the communist threat.... vietnam ... the same... my answer is a bit convoluted
40,000 Men went too war in the UBoats less than 10,000 Returned they were once our enemy's they were also the bravest of the Brave May they all rest in peace forever entomb in their Iron Coffins
Brave?? Nazi bastards.Glad they’re dead.
@@cadaverdog1424 They were not all NAZIs they were men serving their country. The leaders of Germany were the Nazi. I have a friend who's grandfather was a U-boat captain who was lost in 1944.
@@gazzas123 exactly, the U-Boat men fought a gentlemanish war (Laconia etc etc.) not all emblems were Angled cross (indian waters for recognition, some just cause and so on)
...it looks like you have forgotten what happened to the people on the ships that were sunk by the U-boats?!
@@Palkus75 ...LOOK UP THE STORY OF THE SS ATHENIA AND U-30!!!
CAPTAIN JULIUS LEMP WAS NOTHING LIKE CAPTAIN WERNER HARTENSTEIN!!!
His engine is misfiring and making enough noise to be heard. So how is he running on diesels anyway without a snorkel? Submerged subs run on electric motors via batteries in WW2. I don't understand what they are on about here.
Nie my rozpoczęliśmy tą wojnę,Niemcy Niemcy ponad wszystko i taki jest finał tej wojny!!!
As a rather moot point metallic mercury is little hazard to the environment unless it is methylated somehow.
Just amazing..well done..
Thought they ran on batteries when submerged ?
yes..what a mistake
The boat had a snorkel enabling the diesels to be on at a shallow depth
I think the snorkel device worked at periscope depth but I don’t think a sub could use it any deeper.
Snorkels were standard on U-Boats from 1943. Surfacing to recharge batteries was lethal from 1943 and the boats were much faster running with snorkels.
@@allangibson2408 Top speed for snorkel cruise was 8 knots, the same as normal submerged top speed with e-motors, any faster and the snorkel would be torn off.
Very interesting, thanks
The British submarine crew are true seamen after they killed the U-boat they donned their hats and had a moment of silence for that German crew because both sides were submariners
The majority of German sailors on the Uboats also had similar feelings after they'd achieved a 'successful kill' - the moment of elation was really a moment of "Thank God - that could have bee us'". Followed by feelings of intense melancholy.
It probably would have been better if they had missed. By that point in the war there was nothing Japan could have done to slow the Americans down. The war was lost. Now the sea is permanently polluted with mercury. They should have known but back then the environment was not a concern.
Even if they'd gotten there, it wouldn't have helped. Those Jumo 004s were unreliable due to not having the high-grade alloys needed to build them. The Japanese wouldn't have been in any better position.
Jako Polak nie czuję litości dla Niemców - wywołali dwie, straszne wojny o zasięgu światowym i ponieśli zasłużoną karę.
Jednak żal mi tej starej Niemki, w niczym nie zawiniła a cierpi straszliwie do dziś...
Bardzo smutne.
P 10:22 I can't believe they're still trying to distance from the early 2000 late 90s they found the ship in it has 147.710 lb of mercury on board
This vid came out 3 years ago.
Only heard recently that norwegian salmon is not sold anymore and the reason was depleting stocks.
My father was a telegraphist on the Venturer, I only found out when sifting through his belongings after he died.
He was a member of the Venturers old boys association and there was a lot of correspondence between shipmates who had settled down after the war some as far away as Canada and Australia.
Quite a few of his fellow crewmen called in to see him and stopped over as we lived in Portsmouth,handy for HMS Dolphin.
It is all a mix of typed and handwritten from a time when email and mobile phones were yet to be invented.
He never,ever,talked about his war service as a submariner but remained a submariner until leaving in the 60s.
I don't think the eye witness story complies at all with the story told in this video, as he clearly sais he saw an uboat, which must have been on the surface I guess, getting hit and than slowly sinking down, while the video story describes the german uboat in the middle of an evasive maneuver diving like hell after the first missing torpedos, so what's the actual true now???
Not just that, the British claim to have heard the badly running diesel engine, which would be clearly impossible while submerged unless they had a snorkel, no snorkel is visible on the wreck nor was one mentioned in the statements and it would have been clearly visible and negated the fear over using the periscope. I propose the the sub was in fact on the surface, didnt have a badly running engine and was caught unawares while looking for its meeting point. This fits the eye witness account. No idea why the British sailors are lying but their story is full of inconsistencies. I've since checked Uboat.net and have confirmed the fact that this boat didnt have a snorkel fitted. Something very fishy about this. Why are the British sailors still lying after all these years? What are they hiding and why lie to the families of those dead sailors. Very wrong.
@@martcon6757 I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that memories fade over time, and perhaps merge with others.
@@thhseeking my friend I was wrong, thus boat was retro fitted with a snorkel while in Bremen, probably for this mission. I was only aware of type C boats having them up until now. So I stand corrected and knowing this now puts the rest of the story in line.
They really should have mentioned it in the documentary tho as it did leave a bit of a question mark.
@@martcon6757 quite possible the uboat had been surfaced or running shallow then. Had they had a badly running engine at snorkel depth whilst trying to recharge depleted batteries, the moments taken to rig for emergency dive could have allowed at least one of the torpedos to pass below. Then, whilst in an attempt to crash dive, they inadvertently passed into the path of the torpedo whilst still running shallow enough that the explosion brought parts of the vessel to the surface for the eyewitness to see.
Have you any knowledge of British torpedos at the time? I was under the impression that they weren't really riggable to attack an under water target such as another submarine, meaning they would have had to have been running fairly shallow
@@martcon6757 the IXD2 did have the Snorkel device and was running its diesel engine at periscope depth. Historical fact.
If they had maintained radio silence and changed course at random nobody would ever know.
All of them the bravest of brave 🥺
Slightly picky but it was a "Tall boy" bomb that hit Bergen pens. Good documentary about a sad situation in history.
The captain of the U-boat made several mistakes. As soon as the diesel engine begin making that much noise he should’ve switched to electric. And then check to see if anybody was around. He must have had a snorkel on his sub because you don’t use your diesel engines when you are submerged unless you do have one.
This assumes his batteries were charged. Perhaps more likely he wanted to keep them for emergencies
"Ultra" codebreaking machines? Two-engined Lancasters? "Taliboy" bombs? And that's just the first 13 minutes...
It’s the History channel. They haven’t made any decent documentaries since the late 90’s.
When was this made?
15:13: that's HMS Barham exploding after being torpedoed by the German submarine U331. I suggest a little bit more care when selecting war footage to use.
Yeah. I just posted a comment about that as well. Only mine was regarding the beginning of the show when they showed a Walter rocket instead of a Jumo jet and Blenhiems and B17s instead of Lancasters.
sorry, why were there bottles/flasks of mercury, countless bottles of them, on board?
I THANK YOU THE ROYAL NAVY, GOD BLESS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Wars over, ya know? You’re 75 years late. What’s your address? I’ll send you a current calendar if it’ll help.
@@DreamsAreLies who the fuck do u thinks gonna protect ur skinny arse if war brakes out, u twat, ill tell u my son in the Navy.. so go back in your bedroom n fuck of... or D M ME WHEN U GET TO MCR
Good for him protecting us and the noobs that run the country. The same people that make the rules up as they go. The same people that make them self's richer while we all suffer. Thank your son.
Tall boy bomb, not taley boy bomb.
Poor bastards is right. War is so sad. But if you are going to fight, fight to win.
You gotta admire WW2 Germany as far as their military strategy, weaponry and fighting. It took the entire western world united against them to finally defeat them in the end and it still took 3 years after the U.S. got involved.
The Third Pin: Their war plan was wrong. They had no long range bombers, no aircraft carriers, and had they NOT declared war on the US, who knows? It to AMERICA two years to build up an invasion force AND the equipment to get them there. After we had that, we poured precious blood to defeat them...... IN VERY SHORT ORDER! Hitler and his inner circle were foolish. They allowed nazi-ism to supersede military genius. They had good generals who were not listened to. Doomed to failure. Thank God.
@@TERoss-jk9ny You are right, Nazism overshadowed the better judgment of experienced german generals. Of course Nazism was evil and had to be eradicated otherwise it would eradicate the allies. German history is overall cool. It's sad, how Europe destroyed themselves in two unnecessary world wars. The eastern front and the bombing campaigns by the United States helped deplete Germany's industry when the war had turned against Germany (1943-1945). There were many amazing German inventors, musicians and so on through out their history. The history of German politics I would say was not one of their strengths. Then again many eastern European countries also fell under the horrors of Soviet communism.
Yes but the crooked history written by winner shit must stop! So may lies about WWII!! Politicians are bastards!
U-865 Up or Down, a new committee is what is needed.
26:44 How can they hear diesel engines from a submerged submarine that’s running on its batteries?
No mention of a snorkel.
Why would the Uboat be using its diesel engines under water though?
Surprised this comment is shown below... but the engine problem of the U864 was described here as a problem with a cylinder or compressor.... components of diesel engines. But diesel engines could only be used on the surface. Underwater U-boats and all subs of that era used electric batteries powering electric motors. But as this story is presented the British submariners heard an "engine" problem was the U864 was submerged. How can that be? Good story, nonetheless, especially regarding the planned transport of the jet engines to Japan. One can only speculate, if the Japanese had developed just one or two jet fighters, might our propeller powered B-29s like the Enola Gay and Bockscar been able to fly over Hiroshima and Nagasaki at will?
They left a critical piece out of the story. The Boat had been fitted with a snorkel. So they would of been running the diesels to recharge the batteries and air. That may have been what the British saw. The other part, the jet engine would not have helped them this late in the war. They had a limited range so most flights probably would of been one way. Jet engines would of been difficult to make in large enough numbers.
@@jeep146 The Japanese built copies of the Me163 to intercept B-29’s over Japan. The Kikka was being built for similar purposes. The Japanese metal supply problems were much less severe than the German ones and Jet engines will run happily on really bad fuel.
@@jeep146 that is a "critical piece" and is certainly a sound explanation. Thanks.
Snorkel dummy! 🙄
@@richardmourdock2719 The only part to me which is unclear is those U-boat had two engines. If one was making to much noise they could of run on the other. So it might have been a part that was common to both like a compressor.
The main observation....if he was submerged and running diesel engines.that means the snorkel would have had to been extended...so maybe they tracked that's ..not the periscope...
"Still on patrol" - R.I.P.
Just surprised they did not go deep deep. Don't know if they could control the down angle or up angle of the Torpedoes' back then. I don't think back then a sub could tell the depth of their targets. Not like the Modern Subs can, like the hunter subs they have, which hunts other subs.
Anyone else think the eyewitness account seemed a little odd?
Hahaha yea we saw the U-boat sink when it was already submerged!
@@thetruthseeker8369 very odd....
I admire older people in that they Knew Love, faithfulness, all that is necessary to have a functional relationship unlike today where it could begin and end depending on what your facebook "friends"' think
Commentary “........Lancaster bombers” they then show what looks like a Blenheim being started followed by a flight of B17’s. When the commentator goes on to refer to the “Tally boy “ bomb this programme lost all credibility as far as I was concerned and I gave up. Honestly; and this is the History channel?
Agreed, can't even manage correct term for Barnes Wallis's bomb- 1 min research needed
Well, at least they didn't mention aliens.
How hard is it to dig up footage of a Lancaster bomber dropping a Tall Boy? Not very hard going by a number of other docos on RUclips. I would have thought that trying to find footage of a Blenheim bomber in flight was harder. Film people really!
Definitely won't watch it now !
Weren't they carrying a lot of mercury, too?
How did they run a diesel engine submerged? This documentary said nothing about snorkeling.
If they can raise the Kursk then they can raise the sub, if there are any bones left they can be buried at the Uboat memorial ? but if the mercury is leaking from corroded containers, its a difficult choice as salvage would mean spreading any leaked mercury.
немецкие подлодки времен второй мировой были самые лучшие
If U 864 was operating submerged how could it be operating it's diesel engines as shown in the video, a snorkel is the only way . It must of been some something else that was making a loud noise for for the British sub to hear
Records confirm that U-864 was indeed fitted with a snorkel system. It was damaged during the allied attack on the base at Bergen and part of the time required to make U-864 serviceable after the attack was for repairs to the snorkel system. Probably the the makers of the animated part of the video (with subs submerged) didn’t know of the technical point, or just didn’t want to go into such detail for a shot that is entirely artificial and only intended to add drama.
Kinda stupid showing the H.M.S Barham explosion at 15:15.. Otherwise, amazing story
Stupidly distasteful I agree. It’s Americorn though which explains it.
Yes I noticed that the British sank their own ship (lol).
I'm pleased I scrolled through the comments before making the same statement! Poor production indeed. Ironically, my mother's boyfriend was killed on HMS Barham.
Leave that graveyard alone no respect robbers
That’s right, let the mercury kill everything for miles around.
@@requiscatinpace7392 It does that anyway, they just make you think they care!
Why all that mercury. Weapons?
I had no idea that many german submariners died
Video ruined by commercials.
It’s hard for me to sympathize with the loss of a WWII submarine, these were warships and crews who’s primary mission was to hunt and sink defenseless merchant ships, sinking them and scurrying away like cockroaches while their victims that survived the initial attack were left to drowned. The need to cripple an enemy’s means of production is obvious, but I see this type of interdiction as the epitome of cowardice. A solider found to have deliberately targeted civilians and then intentionally left the wounded to die an agonizing death would be found guilty of war crimes, but it somehow raised these submariners to the level of hero’s.
They left them to drown or maybe be picked up by a friendly ship if they were the lucky ones. Many Japanese submarines machine gunned survivors.
Under international law merchant ships carrying war material are enemy combatants and fair game for submarines.
@@redcat9436 this might come as a shock but occasionally what’s legal and what is right and honorable are completely separate things. As I said in my comment, I understand the importance of disrupting the enemy’s production capabilities, but killing or refusing aid to a wounded combatant is also illegal, immoral and dishonorable.
@@jmsmeier1113 You need to read up on the Athenia incident to have a bit more perspective.
I'm sorry. I mean the Laconia incident. Interesting but sad story.
I wish that when they show stock footage of jet engines they wouldn't show a Walter rocket motor from the ME163 Komet or when they show Lancaster bombers they show Blenhiems or B17s. Come on. Do just a little bit of dillagence. Use the correct images. For us people who are familiar with the topic, it just makes the program look amateurish.
How can a electric motor become noisy?
Their diesel engines do not run under water.
She was refitted with a snorkel mast before leaving Germany. Several messages were intercepted by ULTRA confirming this fact.
placeandsee.com/wiki/german-submarine-u-fedje
@@CGM_68 But in the video they made it sound like it was totally under water and running noisy .
He just pop up once in a while to use the periscope for a moment. They recharged at night.
@@Crashed131963 all 73 on board U-864 died, so we cannot know for sure about their final hours. The submarine was damaged and returning to the U-boat pens for repairs. (Decrypted Enigma messages exist.). This class of U-boat can run her main diesel engine at periscope depth taking air from the surface thru’ the snorkel. It was a twin-engined U-boot, with the second diesel for recharging the batteries. This late in the war, surfacing even at night, or indeed in fog, was very dangerous. Towards the end of WWII radar equipped aircraft are credited for most of Allied kills against U-Boats.
The British submariner on the hydrophone said it sounded like a diesel engine, he was there, so we must take his word for it. Afterwards they surfaced and sailed thru’ the oil slick, worried they might have sunk a Norwegian trawler. History (and underwater archeology) tells us they hit U-864 with their 4th torpedo as it was crash diving to avoid the spread of torpedoes fired at it.
Great video, but, when you mention a Lancaster, don't show footage of a Bristol Blenheim, and it was a Tallboy bomb, not a Tally boy 😂
I DON'T GET IT! HOW THE HELL CAN THE U-864 BE RUNNING UNDER WATER WITH ITS DIESEL ENGINE OPERATING?.!? No mention of that German "snorkle " either!
could they just suck up the sand around the wreck and recover the mercury or mix it sea water over a large area so it get watered down.
Rusty it is both complicated and political. Ironically you can compare it to the USS Arizona - it will leak oil for the next 500 years maybe more. In the case of the U Boat, they don't know how much Mercury is left in the cargo that will continue leaking. The area around the sub is too toxic to work in. So without knowing how much mercury is left they have to seal it. The Arizona has been estimated to still contain 500,000 gallons of fuel - estimates of 64,000 gallons having leaked sense it sank in 1941, plus 900 bodes still inside. Since it is a memorial and can't be touched. Fukushima and Chernobyl are also still contaminating the world . And these are just the tip of the icebrg on mankinds contribution to contamiting Mother Earth. This was not the only German sub sent out with the same cargo. The second one is still classified. Theoretically the mercury was going to be used for a dirty bomb to be droped on San Francisco , it also contained the remaining nuclear reactor material the Germans had and more jet parts . This sub was captured by the USA and the cargo disappeared. The Japanese scientist committed suicide and the German crew did not know their mission and were held as POW'S .
How did that old boy see a uboat sink 40ft below the surface? Sounds like his imagination ran away with him as a kid.
They can listen...
They should've made Germany to retrieve the sub and mercury
TALLBOY bombs. Not "tallyboy". Also why do you show Blenheim bombers but the narrator is talking about Lancaster bomber
"British U-Boat" lol
@Ben Jones I thought submarines were called boats because before nuclear power, a submarine would spend most of its Patrol on the surface and with only dive during an attack or to escape
Oh,.. I thought this was the story about how the Americans grabbed the heavy water meant for Japan off the Uboat,.. and used it for their own nuclear bombings of Japan.
Am I hearing things did he say the crew were worried about the noise of the diesels wile submerged??? electric motors only underwater unless you use a snorkel & if you are worried about showing your periscope you most certainly would not use one of them. No disrespect to the crew just wondering about the commentary.
So perhaps they were running on diesels at snorkel depth to preserve their batteries or they were on diesels to charge....
@Bob Pelham it’s a documentary, so a factual account of what happened. “U-864 was safely out of range of the Venturer when its diesel engine began noisily misfiring, hampering acoustic stealth and threatening to break down entirely.” The Germans were unaware that Enigma codes had been broken, and the Captain certainly wasn’t expecting to be ambushed.
I'm confused? Problems with a Diesel Engine Miss-firing whilst submerged?? I thought Subs used Battery Power when under, Is this a later development of U- Boat where Diesels can be used?
It may just be me, I may have something wrong with me, but I don’t feel sry for the ppl in the other sub. If it’s war it’s war and we know what happens in war. If it bothers u don’t join. It just has never bothered me to take another’s life.
Sounds like Michael Fassbender narrating.
If you are blown to smithereeeeenies.... is that a shipwreck?
Yes
The narrator sounds like Mark Strong with a cold
It's "Tall Boy" not "Tallyboy" bomb dropped by the RAF. otherwise very interesting.