Hell Below

Summer 1944.

When an allied aircraft challenges a german u-boat...

The submarine captain decides to fight it

Out on the surface.

The procedures changed during the war,

Due to different aerial threats.

At that time, they were supposed to do a crash dive to get away.

Fire!

Even as the plane takes crippling fire from the gunners,

The pilot appears determined to take the u-boat

Down with it.

In world war ii, a subsea weapon allows warriors

To fight from beneath the waves.

With cunning, force and tenacity,

Their enemies strike back.

Revolutionary, but still sometimes primitive,

It's a desperate bid to change the course of war.

Their stories are legend.

January 9th, 1940.

40 miles off the west coast of germany

Oberleutnant zur see heinrich timm,

Conducts an anti-submarine patrol onboard

German minesweeper, m-7.

In the past two days, the germans have sunk two

British submarines in what is called the heligoland bight.

The bight is not a good area for submarines to operate in.

It's very crowded.

It's very difficult to spend time on the surface.

Only a few months into the war,

The british royal navy hopes to enforce a blockade

Of the third reich.

So, another british submarine, hms starfish,

Operates here to keep german ships and submarines trapped in port.

Lieutenant thomas turner spots what he believes to be

A german destroyer.

Lower periscope.

And prepares a torpedo attack.

Tube one ready.

Raise periscope!

Turner checks again to finalize his firing solution.

And is startled to find the german ship now fills his periscope.

The watch aboard the german minesweeper sees the periscope pop up.

The captain, turns toward it and prepares

A depth charge attack.

Lower periscope!

With the ship closing in,

Hms starfish dives.

There is little time to escape before the attack

Knocks out the submarine's hydroplanes,

Which are critical to their ability to dive.

Desperate and in need of repairs,

Turner decides to settle on the seabed,

Wanting to hide, by staying quiet.

Stop both.

Turner's in a very difficult position.

He thinks that he is being detected by hydrophones and

Consequently is very wary of putting on any motors

At that point.

Silence.

Turner hopes the german ship overhead will lose

Contact with his submarine.

But on the surface,

Timm has no intention of losing his prey.

He prowls above and drops more depth charges.

Finally, one detonates close enough to starfish to damage

The pressure hull.

This releases air that escapes to the surface.

It's air bubbles from the submarine starfish,

Which give away the position.

As darkness falls,

The bubble allows timm to focus his attack.

And he drops more depth charges.

It was coming to the point where if turner

Did not surface soon he would not be able to surface at all.

He had to make a decision fairly quickly.

Regardless of what was happening on the surface,

Turner had to go up.

Surface!

The crew races to destroy anything they want

Keep out of german hands.

As the vessel is surfacing he gives orders for

The burning of documents.

The other thing to do of course is to make sure the

Ship is scuttled and that is standard practice.

So as the vessel is preparing to be abandoned the

Seacocks are opened if necessary, destroyed.

Suddenly, with its hull filling with sea water

The heavily damaged submarine pops up under the

Minesweeper's lights.

U-boat!

There is nothing left for turner's crew

Abandon ship! Up the ladder!

But to climb to the deck and surrender.

But their efforts to sink starfish succeed.

The germans were in no position to board that ship.

It sank without anything being lost to german intelligence.

Turner and his men become prisoners of war.

While heinrich timm earns the iron cross second class for

His textbook submarine kill and is

Promoted to kapitanleutnant.

But soon after,

Timm abandons further advancement in the surface navy,

And transfer into submarine service, himself.

On a minesweeper,

There's a very hard way to become a war hero.

It's a job which needs to be done,

But the submarine arm became very attractive to officers

At his rank.

On his first patrol aboard u-251,

Timm sinks an ammunition ship bound for the soviet

Port of murmansk, in April of 1942.

Los!

His first kill as a submariner.

So he became something special because he

Was one of the rare commanders sinking a submarine

From surface, and later on, being on a submarine and

Sinking surface ships.

But by 1944, with Italy out of the war,

The remaining axis powers japan and germany,

Struggle to maintain a lifeline of supplies,

Technology and information thousands of miles long.

Until now, the germans employed merchant ships as

Blockade runners to transport vital supplies

Between japan and germany.

But increased allied air and sea coverage proves relentless.

A surface vessel hadn't any chance successfully to,

To arrive in japan.

They had to rely on u-boats.

So, the germans fine-tune a class of submarine

To make the long journey:

The type ix d-2.

German engineers design the type ix d-2 with a double-hull,

Allowing a hollow space for extra torpedoes and

Goods instead of ballast.

And with larger fuel tanks, it can travel 31,500 miles.

More than double the range of the other german type ix or type vii,

Class submarines.

Grossadmiral karl donitz, long time mastermind of the

U-boat campaign has been recently promoted,

And now commands the entire kriegsmarine, or germany navy.

He considers a special type of commander for the mission.

You needed not only a good fighter but

Also a good seaman.

So donitz decided to rely on very experienced u-boat commanders,

Because they stood the highest chance of

Making this long journey, all around africa to japan.

He selects assigns kapitanleutnant heinrich timm

To command a brand-new type ix d-2 submarine.

U-862.

Donitz instructs timm to stay hidden during his

Passage through the heavily defended north atlantic.

Donitz knew he was losing up to a third of his u-boats

Operating here to allied air coverage.

Once clear of allied air threats and convoy escorts,

Timm can attack "low-risk" targets before delivering his

Cargo to the base at penang.

After skirting the coast of greenland,

Timm makes his way south across the allied convoy

Routes of the north atlantic.

While traveling submerged, his hydrophone operator

Reports multiple sound contacts that might indicate

An enemy ship.

Timm decides to investigate,

Despite donitz's orders.

We can think about that he was aggressive to

Surface and have a better look around.

On the other hand you want him to follow the

Orders of the superiors.

Timm sweeps the horizon with his periscope,

But is unable to locate any ships.

As he orders down-periscope...

Explosions rock the u-boat.

Timm's curiosity has attracted unwanted attention.

28 days after leaving germany,

Kapitänleutnant heinrich timm crosses the

Atlantic en route to the indian ocean.

In lieu of ballast,

His type ix d-2 class submarine carries radar

Intercept equipment and canisters of mercury.

Destined for the japanese empire

But timm has jeopardized his valuable cargo by raising his periscope

At midday in search of an enemy ship to attack.

As timm lowers his periscope...

An allied plane has already spotted

U-boat u-862 and attacks.

Timm calls for action stations and orders his submarine deeper.

Then the crew can do nothing but wait.

There is no way to fight back.

Aerial bombs explode near the submarine.

But as they descend, the explosions gradually fade.

Soon, they stop all together.

It is the first enemy strike against u-862 on

Its maiden voyage.

Timm is lucky at that point

That his submarine and his crew survived this attack.

Timm learns his lesson.

He continues south, staying off the surface as much as possible.

Finally, after clearing the allied air coverage near

The azore islands,

Timm now has permission to hunt.