The U-boats that were floating bombs: a journey through the heart of the Nazi war machine. In this episode I’ll be going to the depths of the Wolfpacks, Germany’s U-boat army, a force that threatened Britain’s survival like no other. Nazi War Machines: Secrets Uncovered III: U-boats
At the start of the Second World War, Britain ruled the waves: the Royal Navy was the largest and most powerful seaborne force in the world. ibid.
His notion of a navy was a grandiose fleet of massive battleships that could take on the Royal Navy on the high seas. After all, where’s the fun in launching U-boats when you could be smashing champagne bottles against giant battleships. ibid.
Away for weeks at a time: the smell of this place must have been absolutely horrendous: the sweat, oil, rotten food, a really physically incredibly tough environment on which to live and try to fight a war. Operating in Wolfpacks, the U-boats targeted Britain’s lifeline: the merchant ships supplying goods and materials from the United States and Britain’s colonies from around the world. The Wolfpacks were staggeringly successful. ibid.
Small mass-produced vessels: the midget submarine … These midget subs were soon to prove more dangerous to their crews than the enemy. ibid.
Some 60% of these were lost. ibid.
Something that could change the face of the war … This is U-boat 2540 … a type 21. ibid.
The weapons that couldn’t cope with mud or sand … The myth I grew up with was that German kit was best … Nazi quality control delayed vital weapons production: it is just an astonishing waste of time and money and effort. Nazi War Machines: Secrets Uncovered IV: Weaponry
Interference from the very top meant a game-changing weapon failed to reach the front line. And what they needed was just a little bit of firepower. ibid.
The bedrock of any fighting force is its infantry … Walther P38: smaller … cheaper to produce … with a range of thirty metres … One of the defining weapons of the German army in World War II: the devastating machine gun … Even the humble rifle was so finely crafted it couldn’t cope with ice, mud or sand in battle conditions. ibid.
To the covenant. The Holcroft Covenant 1985 starring Michael Caine & Anthony Andrews & Victoria Tennant & Lilli Palmer & Mario Adorft & Michael Lonsdale & Bernard Hepton & Shane Rimmer et al, director John Frankenheimer, Nazi toast
This is our covenant ... The dying wish of your father. ibid.
Ballistic missiles, the first ever seen on this planet; stealth technology developed half a century before B2 bombers, flying saucers and UFO foo-fighters, did the Nazis have an extraterrestrial edge during the Second World War? UFOs: Lost Evidence s2e6: Nazi UFO Secrets, Travel 2019
On the outskirts of Berlin stand the traces of the supercity Adolf Hitler envisioned. Forgotten and abandoned, they are what remains of his attempt to build a new world capital … To remodel the country according to his own vision, and this new city would be the project showpiece. Hitler wanted structures bigger and better than anything that had been built before. Lost Worlds: Hitler’s Supercity, History 2006
Ideas about eugenics grew in popularity across the world during thee 1930s. But it was in Germany that they were taken to their most extreme conclusion. Between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi regime carried out the mass sterilisation of up to 400,000 disabled people with all kinds of impairments. Over a quarter of a million more were murdered. The discoveries of these horrors ended Britain’s public support for eugenics, but it didn’t end the authorities still trying to control the lives of disabled people. Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain, Cerrie Burnell reporting, BBC 2021
May 8th 1947, J Edgar Hoover: Most of the statements in the public press allege that Hitler is in South America and that he went there by submarine. None of these allegations of course can be proven by fact and the American army officials have not located Hitler’s body, nor is there any reliable source who will say definitely that Hitler is dead. Hunting Hitler s1e1: The Hunt Begins, FBI document declassified, History 2015
60,000 Nazis lived in Argentina. ibid.
Charata, Argentina: reports of an underground bunker. ibid.
Misiones: Who built this [jungle] complex? Hunting Hitler s1e2: Secret Nazi Lair
Bunker: No-one sees his face and says, ‘That’s him!’ ... There’s no evidence – nothing. ibid.
Choke Point #1: How did he get out of Germany? How could he have entered Argentina? Hunting Hitler s1e3: Escape From Berlin
The first plane was loaded with Hitler’s property. ibid.
There’s only a short distance between the subway and the entrance to Tempelhof [Airport]. ibid.
The US government was investigating Adolf Hitler’s whereabouts years after he was believed dead. Hunting Hitler s1e4: The Tunnel
46 U-boats went missing and operated in secret. ibid.
The hunt for a sunken U-boat that may have been Hitler’s escape vehicle to South America. Hunting Hitler s1e5: Ratlines
An intricate system of escape routes known as Rat Lines were ... supported by both the Red Cross and the Catholic Church. ibid.
A nuclear physicist sent to the United States outsmarts the FBI. We have no idea what his true mission was here. Hunting Hitler: The Final Chapter, Bob Baer reporting
For decades historians and experts have debated exactly what the Nazi Party was planning at the end of World War II. Recently, hundreds of MI5, CIA and MSA documents have been declassified. ibid.
They all point in one directions: that the Nazis had a plan for a Fourth Reich. ibid.
The secret work of the Third Reich and their apparent interests in the occult, ancient wisdom and possibly even advanced extraterrestrial technology … Could there really be a link between extraterrestrial visitors and the Third Reich? Giorgio Tsoukalos, In Search of Aliens s1e2: Nazi Time Travellers
A mysterious weapon known as Die Glocke or The Bell … Project Kronos involved the study of time travel and Die Glocke might have been some part of a time machine. ibid.
6th July 1940: Berlin had never given a victorious leader such a warm welcome. Adolf Hitler had crushed the French and driven the British from the continent. Nazi Germany had taken on the West and unleashed the apocalypse. Apocalypse: Hitler Takes on the West I: The Trap, National Geographic 2021
He was protected by fanatical SS officers in their black uniforms – SS Schutzstaffel – capable of any crime. At the Berghof Hitler received his ministers, foreign heads of state and even film stars. He also relaxed there. ibid.
The Allies had as many tanks as the Germans but they were scattered across the entire front. They had powerful artillery but their communication systems were outdated. ibid.
24th May 1940: Hitler went to the French front to see his generals and soldiers. He congratulated them. In just two weeks they’d forced the British, French and Belgium armies to retreat. In his 13th war directive Hitler ordered their total destruction. Apocalypse: Hitler Takes on the West II: Last Battles
Churchill opened fire [on the French fleet]. He later wrote, ‘This was a hateful decision. The most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned. The French had been only yesterday our dear allies. But the life of the state was at stake’. ibid.
When you’re the Aryan master race friends don’t come naturally. However, when a world war looms, allies become essential.
With only dictators and despots to choose from, the risks are high. And the end results … ‘dysfunction at almost every level’. How the Nazis Lost the War I: Strange Bedfellows, History 2021
The Axis powers aligned in a pact with the devil but all these relationships were doomed from the start. Tenuous and disinterested at best, toxic and sabotaging at worst. Germany’s choice of strange bedfellows would come back to haunt them, and they would ultimately pay a high price for those decisions. ibid.
Germany was forced to rush to Italy’s rescue, sending troops to drive out the British and Greek forces. ibid.
For Hitler more often than not it was a case of style over substance. But when it comes to arming yourself in a major world conflict that might not be the way to go. So when it comes to weapons of war it pays to choose wisely. How the Nazis Lost the War II: Wonder(less) Weapons
Forget reality, for the Nazis it was all about appearances. ibid.
These wonder-weapons were trumpeted as shock-n-awe super-weapons that would turn the tide of the war and save the Reich. ibid.
The V1, however, was very unreliable and remained wildly inaccurate throughout its deployment … But there was no defence against the more advanced version, the V2, an early ballistic missile. ibid.
The Nazis wasted their time on a number of other futile wonder-weapon missiles and projectiles. ibid.