Drain the Oceans

Narrator : The beaches and cliffs of normandy.

In June 1944, the most important place on the planet.

Dr Delgado : It's the greatest battlefield in human history.

Full of incredible stories.

Narrator : But some of d-day's greatest stories remain untold,

Because vital evidence is hidden beneath the waves.

Imagine if we could empty the oceans.

Letting the water drain away to reveal the secrets of the sea floor.

Now we can.

Using accurate data.

And astonishing technology.

To bring light once again to a lost world.

What shocking weapon blew a key british warship into fragments?

Can this shattered landing craft explain why omaha was the bloodiest beach of them all?

Hendley : Unloading had to be stopd, because the living couldn't climb over the dead.

Narrator : And why did the power of the sea mean life or death on utah beach?

Dr Delgado : The seas were still churned up and as the man next to you goes down,

It's the luck of the draw.

Series brought to you by Sailor420 !!! Hope you enjoy the Series !!!

Narrator : After more than a year of meticulous planning,

7,000 ships and a quarter of a million men are ready.

The allied invasion of nazi occupied europe is about to begin.

Nicholas : The scale of d-day is absolutely epic.

It's the most extraordinary thing that's ever been undertaken in history.

Narrator : For years, archaeologists have studied the battle on land.

But now, they're looking somewhere else.

Marine archaeologists working with the french underwater unit, drassm,

Are scanning 50 miles of coast using the latest 3d technology

Andy : This is the largest continuous underwater mapping

Projects ever done for this particular area.

Narrator : They've already discovered 300 military relics.

Many unknown to historians.

Archaeologist : That is really odd.

It's really hard to tell what we're looking at.

Narrator : Scanned in forensic detail, this deep-sea treasure trove is transforming

Our understanding of the invasion.

Nicholas : It's all still there in a way that actually it isn't on land.

And we found some tremendously exciting things.

Narrator : Now for the first time, we can use this data to unlock the secrets of d-day.

By draining away the murky waters of the normandy coast,

To reveal exactly what happened here.

As the seas begin to empty, they uncover just some of the hundreds of wrecks.

Each with a story to tell.

Target number one, an allied destroyer.

Sunk before the landings even begin.

Her fate is one of d-day's greatest mysteries.

1,200 allied warships approach the normandy coast.

Catching the enemyrning, unprepared and off-guard.

Prof Grove : One can imagine the feelings of many of the germans.

It must have been sheer terror to have seen this huge fleet.

Narrator : Fire rains down on the five beaches the allies have marked for invasion,

Utah, omaha, gold, juno, and sword.

A norwegian destroyer called the svenner is on the eastern flank.

A crew of 219 are preparing to join the bombardment of the beaches.

When suddenly

A massive explosion and she's gone.

How is this svenner destroyed while surrounded

By over a thousand heavily armed warships?

Data from the survey contains tantalizing details.

Combining them with the latest computer visualization techniques

Means we can empty the normandy coast, and go looking for clues.

As the water begins to drain away.

A sight lost for 75 years.

Hundreds of tonnes of twisted and ruined metal.

Shocking evidence of a huge explosion.

The bow and stern are in one piece.

But the midsection is shattered.

What could have caused so much damage?

It can't be a shell.

The svenner is beyond the range of german artillery.

And it can't be a bomb.

The allies completely dominate the air throughout d-day.

But returning to the scan data, the survey team has a theory.

Sauvage : You can see that the ship was violently broken into,

Because two parts have sunk in two different orientations.

So that really is the impact of a torpedo explosion.

Narrator : If it was a torpedo, does that mean a hidden u-boat

Managed to penetrate allied defenses?

To find the answer, the team must dig deeper

Into the secret history of d-day itself.

Historian nick hewitt visits suffolk house,

Headquarters of d-day commander, dwight eisenhower.

Nicholas : This room was the nerve centre of a huge operation.

It was planned all over the uk, all over the world, actually,

And it was two years in the making,

And this map is the very map used by eisenhower and his senior commanders

To make it all happen.

The key elements that could be controlled were when it was going to happen

And precisely where it was going to happen.

Narrator : But the only way this plan could work is if the germans never learn of it.

To divert attention the allies leak fake plans.

Prof Grove : We had to keep the germans guessing, which we did,

By an enormously successful deception plan,

Which meant the germans didn't know, were we going to land in norway perhaps?

Were we going to land just across the channel?

That was a vital part of the operation.

Narrator : Hitler's defense against invasion is the atlantic wall.

A vast network of bunkers, pillboxes and artillery positions lining the coast

From Spain to norway.

He believes the allies will e coast of the english channel.

And orders field marshall erwin rommel to stop them.

Influenced by the allied deception plan,

So concentrates his forces and heavy artillery at calais, cherbourg, and le havre.Port.

So when the invasion fleet targets the beaches of normandy along the bay of the seine,

The most powerful german defenses are in the wrong place.

And there is not a single u-boat nearby.

So if the svenner was blown apart by a torpedo, it can't have come from a u-boat.

The survey team dig deeper and uncover another suspect.

Nicholas : By June 1944, the german navy is almost finished as a fighting force,

But they do have the number of small warships, operated by actually incredibly

Well-trained and courageous crews.

Narrator : Small warships like these, torpedo boats.

They pack a real punch.

With six torpedo tubes and two anti-aircraft guns,

Maneuverable and sleek

They can reach a top speed of 35 knots.

Perfect for a hit and run.

And there's a flotilla of them in le havre.

Just 20 miles away from the d-day fleet.

Now, using all their research, and details from the drained wreck of the warship,

The team can reconstruct exactly what happened to the svenner.

Just before dawn, the fifth torpedo boat flotilla is ordered to attack.

A force of just four boats will challenge a thousand allied warships.

Out of the blue, the t-boats approach the invasion fleet.

The allies he laid a dense smoke screen.

The t-boat crews use it to their advantage.

They get close enough to fire 18 torpedoes.

Each packed with 600 pounds of explosive, enough to cripple the biggest warship.

But now, the smokescreen helps the allies.

The t-boats are firing blind.

17 torpedoes miss their mark.

Leaving just one that runs straight into the svenner.

186 crewmen swim to safety, but 33 go down with the ship.

The haunting remains of the vessel stand as brutal testimony

To the deadly power of a german t-1 torpedo.

But the nazis are so unprepared,

That this is their only success at sea throughout d-day.

Prof Grove : The fact that the germans are able to inflict only this single loss

Demonstrates that the defenses that had been planned

For the landings were very, very successful.

It was now up to the army alone and the army would have a difficult job.

Narrator : The battle for the beaches is about to begin.

All of them packed with defenses.

Pillboxes, barbed wire, machine gun posts.

As the waters along the normandy coastline continue to recede,

They reveal strange objects on the sea floor.

What can they tell us of allied plans to confront the terrifying challenge ahead?

The naval guns fall silent.

More than 100,000 highly trained troops are ready to storm fortress europe.

23,000 americans approach the most western of the beaches.

Codename utah.

But their plan immediately unravels.

Strong currents push them more than a mile from their designated landing zone.

And yet, for many, this turns into a stroke of luck.

Led by brigadier general theodore roosevelt, son of the former president,

They land in an area between two german strong points, an enemy blind spot.

Dr Delgado : When they come ashore, they realize they're in the wrong spot,

But it turns out to be the right spot, because there's less germans there.

And so theodore roosevelt jr in command, simply stops,

Plants his flag and says, the war starts here.

Narrator : Roosevelt's men outflank the german positions.

And soon control the beach head.

But a mile and half off shore, the survey team discovers something surprising.

Strange shapes on the sea bed.

It looks like some allied units never reached utah beach .

Andy : Looks like three different vehicles of some sort,

Like potentially an upside-down tank here.

And then this vehicle's a bit more difficult to determine

What it is and so we'll try to take a close look at that.

Narrator : Divers go to investigate

And find the wrecks heavily encrusted.

They spot what could be tank tracks.

And a gun barrel.

But visibility is too poor to identify them.

There is one way to see clearly.

Combine visual clues with the teams 3d scan data and drain millions of gallons

Of sea water away.

As the waves recede, they gradually reveal a cluster of military vehicles.

But the puzzle only deepens.

They have gun barrels, and a turret set to one side.

They've got tracks, heavy armor.

They look like tanks.

But this isn't a tank gun.

It's more like the cannon of field artillery.

So what are they?

The team examines specialized allied weapons designed

For the unique challenge of this terrain.

And focus on close support artillery.

In world war two, artillery is normally pulled by men, vehicles or horses,

But in sand and water, this won't work.

So, to support the infantry on the beaches the allies deploy these.

M7 priest guns.

Artillery that transports itself.

105mm howizer mounted on the chassis of an m4 sherman tank.

A tank fires in a flat trajectory, so the target must be in its line of sight,

But a howitzer fires in an arc to lob shells up and over obstacles.

Perfect for enemy positions high above the normandy beaches.

More research reveals that the americans have 30 priest guns ready to land on utah beach,

Carried on amphibious landing craft.

Accounts from the day suggest only 27 make it to shore.