Hitler's U-Boat Lair: The Secret Nazi Underwater Superstructures | Timeline
Secrets of Nazi U-Boat Bases offers a new look at the Battle of the Atlantic; the most important military campaign of World War II. While occupying France, Hitler built along the French Atlantic Coast what he thought was the secret to securing victory-five huge underwater bases that protected and rearmed his returning U-Boat fleet after attacking British supply ships.
Now, equipped with previously unknown German national archive documents, historians Luc and Marc Braueur reveal the secrets of these super-structures for the very first time in 75 years. Meanwhile, they uncover how the Allies utilized spying and decryption to organize radically different anti-submarine counter-measures which would defeat Hitler’s navy and eventually win the war.
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Interesting Doc, Back in the 70s I was always sent to Kansas to work on a farm in summers. My uncle who had been in the Navy during WWII told me about these underwater bunkers or sub pens as he called them. He told me of a location in the S. Atlantic at Ascension Island that also had a secret sub pen. In the early 80s I started work on the Eastern Test Range as a diver ultimately working all up n down the range including Ascension, never did find a sub pen but found lots of other WWII items.
There was an American airbase on Ascension Island. Are you saying that the allies had a secret submarine base too?
Cool. Sounds like quite an interesting career you've had. Time forra careen ?
What part if Kansas did you go.. I am from Medicine Lodge, Kansas and raised in between Kingman and Medicine Lodge
No sub pens on Ascention Island as the island is a volcanic structure with no inlets for a safe harbour. There is a pier where lighters are used to unload cargo from anchored ships. There are gun emplacements and bunkers for the batteries to store ammunition and military staff. Ascension is used mainly as a airbase by the RAF and USAF, near the equator mid Atlantic, it is strategically placed. The US also Monitor space craft like satellites from Ascention Island.
@damianousley8833 You could be underestimate what humans are capable of doing.
Please make the Subtitles ( Smaller & Faster) 🤓
Yes, the subtitle is not small enough.
Allies knew where it was. The concrete was so thick it was impenetrable
There were actually two layers of concrete about 4 ft thick with an air space between to redirect the blast. The Germans had some very smart engineers
''85% of the men who served under Donitz, died''.....a very sobering fact. R.I.P.
Honour to the fallen. Brave souls caught up in global conflict from which survival was the ultimate goal for everyone.
Aaaa We could have done better with say 95% Have you ever been to the memorial to all those who died at sea in Allied service? I have. Quite sobering.
That's why we call it war
Otto Kretschmer was a keen bridge player, and allowed the British officers on the destroyer that captured him to finally have a fourth. The Brits said it was the best bridge they had the entire war.
A very good and informative documentary, thank you. 🙂
Never before seen images of virtual U-boat training and stunning wartime action. .I am beside myself with excitement and almost wet my pants.
There are medications for that you know.
Please make the Subtitles bigger. I spend so much time trying to see the small Subtitles that I can't see what is happening in the video of these historic places. Whether the video is an American, British, Soviet or other, you can hear in the descriptive language to color the bad guy as the most powerful and evil entity ever. Then there is the how AWESOME we are that we individually won the battle against impossible odds. It seems to happen no matter who does the video. No matter who won or lost, learning about all sides gives one a better picture of the whole. The Allied POV alone is very different between the USA, UK and USSR.
Greetings: Very well presented except 4 the narrator mistake of the "German commandos" assaulting the sub base. Thx 4 the share.
10:47 - Those are French middle-class houses?!? Boy! They had it good!!!
LOL!!!! As a french middle-class, i don't have that! Even if i live in Lorient! All these villas have been built beginning of the 20th century by owners of fishing fleet... BUT... I live in on of rare pre-war building (3 stairs) not been destroyed. 90% of Lorient has been destroyed by air raid, then the resistance of the "german pocket" until 8th may 1945.
Fascinating personal anecdotes! It's amazing how wartime secrets still intrigue us today. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Totally agreed. Wartime especially second World War anecdotes and stories are a never-ending source of entertainment, knowledge and fascination. It never ceases to amaze me
“When the German commandos land, they come under fire from the Germans positioned on the roof” Something doesn’t quite sound right here..
Case of mistaken identity perhaps -??? 😲.
@@asullivan4047 yes I caught that too lol slight misspeaking there I suppose
Yes, I caught that also, maybe this is an Ai narration?? The narration needlessly skipped over the name of the Royal Oak as well. I did enjoy the video, but I feel lied to. The younger generation doesn't stand a chance hoping to know the truth, they will just be a bunch of obedient sheep.
@@asullivan4047 well yeah, that was the whole point… bad editing perhaps?
They also got the spelling of Bletchley Park wrong spelling it as Bleachey Park
This is important documentry. And well done.
*Documentary! 🤦🏼♂️
RIP to Alan Turing. You were betrayed by the English government.
There is a mistake in believing that all communications were made by Enigma, after 1943, the Germans only used Enigma for tactical messages, the strategic messages, which were the really important ones, were sent by Telex Siemens, which could never be intercepted by the allies. These telexes turned out to be so difficult to intercept that they were later used by NATO until the 1980s. Of the entire Telex family, the most important were 5 units commissioned by Martin Bormann in February 1945, this group could only communicate with each other. One was in Berlin, another in the Berghof, another in Flensburg....the remaining two were possibly in Argentina and in a U boot. From the telex that was in the Berghof, the last message went out to Argentina, where the two main agents of German intelligence were ordered to change the place of reception of the group of U boots that would go to that country, they should no longer receive them in GK but in GS (the German Navy grid)....The message is still in the German archives.
Super * * * !
@@yves-reneguilland9708 Sorry, I don't write in English and I use Google Translator, and the translator does not translate idioms....if you can, write your comment again.
Really enjoying my WW2 studies. There is so much to take in it will take me years
Try a lifetime ...
In Norway the uboat were located at HORTEN and TRONDHEIM
Speaking of Trondheim, the Germans built here a neat coastal defence battery with one of the Gneisenau's turrets.
Norrway is landlocked country, learn the facts
@@lukas1920 You want to take time to look where Norway is on a map, its western coast is on the north sea, when i worked there i visited a huge gun implacement the germans had built into a natural cave, it was just HUGE and its still there to visit.
Excuse MY KLINGON I Don't Speak French And the Subtitles are Too Small and Need a Dark Background
'The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. ' Winston Churchill
Had the disillusioned Fuhrer 😈 gave admiral doughnuts 🍩. An additional 50 U-Boats. Britain possibly would have been starved into surrender -???. ✅
i think his biggest fear would have been exposed as a zionist agent. financed by a predominately jewish group called the focus. a criminal warmonger that allied with the murderous bolshevik commies. if you dont know, the ww`s made the creation of israel possible
For most servicemen on both sides, it was sexually transmitted disease among the married guys! There were a lot of divorces when the 'boys got home'
10:47 middle class houses?! Things are sure different these days if that’s a middle class house lol.
lol that’s the inflation our dear leaders claim is only 2% a year 😂 Those “middle class” houses appear to be about 50,000 Sq ft each 🎉
haha ya i thought the same
There were probably 3 families in each of those
@@bigbaddmsRemember, those were all multi family homes in a time where 6 kids wasn’t uncommon
@@noonedude101 hmmm maybe but in no way would a 30,000 sq ft ocean front estate home on 5 acres be considered “middle class”. At least not how we would define the term. Those are luxury homes. Probably worth $50M today.
Can you guys please print your subtitles larger so I don't need an electron microscope to read them. Thanks
Just eat more carrots bro.....
@@brianmaitai7685 😂, good one bud
Bletchley Park code breaker did crack the enigma code for the German code machines only had three rotors. Later on they added a fourth rotor and for a while once again the codes couldn't be read. Churchill had seen the possibility of German U Boats off the east coast of the US but the Americans hadn't. When the Germans arrived they couldn't believe what they were seeing. The cities of the east coast were a lit up as if it was peacetime. Merchant captains freely chattered away on their radios to other merchant captains about where they were headed and what they were carrying. The cities backlit the merchant ships so it was easy for the U boats to torpedo them. Cities along the east coast refused to douse their lights for it was summer and a darkened city would bad for the tourist trade. In one of the early operations the US coast guard decide to hunt down a German U boat and drop depth chargers on it but it wasn't a U Boat but a whale they succeeded in killing. Beach goers in Florida could see tankers being torpedoed in the ocean in broad daylight which is why the Germans referred to it as the second happy time.
Yeah baby new WW2 documentary 💪😎
Videos like these get me craving for another viewing of "Das Boot".
You possess an inner force that seeks to guide you toward your Life's Task-what you are meant to accomplish in the time you have to live.
85% Unbelievable losses On both sides
Bleachey Park? What the heck? It's Bletchley.
Good documentary had relatives on both sides crazy crazy
Talk about misleading openings. Leading up to WW2 the RN was on parity with the USN and the IJN was the number 3 navy.
not just misleading but also very stilted The IJN and German Navy were far more modern Half the US and UK Navy was WW1 rubbish like the so called ''Mighty'' Hood
When the German commandos land? How did they not catch that? 29:05 Yup, always some blatant mistake in these things. Well having an enigma helped, and direction finding of the sub broadcasting helped as well.
This would have been so much better if the French was dubbed into English instead of having to try and read it before it disappeared.
Where are your numbers coming from?
I do like the video, very good, just the reading that I object to.
A shame that the French never repaired those structures, in order to use them for other useful purposes. They are still abandoned.
Great documentary. Funny calling those villas middle class, very funny.
Yes ! Uboat bases and bunkers !!!!!
10:48: "...Admiral Dönitz takes over three middle class houses on the peninsula of Kernevel..." And the video is showing large, three and four-story homes that look like well over 4000 square feet/1220 square meters each with beach front property. LOL and WTF, is that "middle class" in France?
Exactly. It really should have said luxury estates
We have been screwed. What part do you not get? And. He didn't pay rent for any of them. They still stand today. See Afterr The Battle Magazine issue ... for the whole rundown.
good old karl dunnitz . . . @50:00 #pronunciation #fail
What’s with this “underwater lairs “? There are no underwater lairs. I don’t get this. And the description of concrete rebar and concrete forming is childish. Otherwise good documentary.
And further, what’s with this “submersibles” I know thats what they are but who else calls a U-boat that? It’s a f-ing submarine.
What a shame, sub titles are so yesterday.
The british Navy was -powerful - indeed. With more personnel on shore and in the offices - pushing papers -then fighting on the ships...
I imagine the ratio of shore duty to underway duty is similar to the ratio of people who confuse then and than.
*Yawn* …that’s how military functions - several soldiers in the background logistics support the front line soldiers. Who do you think pays these troops? Feeds em’? Supplies them with ammo, kit, and transport? Medical care. Chaplains. Clerks. That logistics are the majority of the iceberg that’s under the water that you don’t see. Tell us you’ve never served a day in uniform without telling us! SMFH! 🙄🤦🏼♂️
Admiral donuts
Wish i could have seen the sub pens, i was too busy trying to read the subtitles...next time how about do the whole show in English.
"I said dive for him! Not die for him!"
Alarmmmm.!!
it was mentioned the Germans were able to finish the construction of the u boat pens because the British decided not to bomb them as they were impenetrable. why not bomb the facilities while construction was going on? probably because they had no idea about the construction and in 1940 germany still had good air defence
Didn't Indiana Jones find one of these?
I really hate to read a video, please do the videos in English translations.
The narrator seems to think Germany was at war with 'the English'. It wasn't. It was at war with Great Britain.
Jesus it's annoying. There is no such thing as 'The English Army'. It's just not a thing, and it wasn't then either.
@@stephbandmeaning what? They are lousy?
The name is Dönitz...not Dunet..your translater is not correct working
He was confusing him with Karl's Donuts, best in Berlin!
mine says Donuts .. doesn't say which kind, Boston, Chocolate, Frosted, Creme ....
Admiral Donuts & Tim Horton Makes perfect sense to a Canadian eh?
Buenisimo video.
28:53 footage naval
Timeline needs to do voice over dubs when people speaking foreign language
My viewing had ( C.C. ). 😉
They’re called closed captions 🙄🤡 Try and keep up, world doesn’t revolve around you! SMH.
@@jessehachey2732I don’t disagree with you, but having dubs is quite nice for when listening to these videos as a podcast as I often do. Although, that’s not how these are meant to be seen, so it’s a quality of life type of thing.
It's so annoying that the narrator kept calling them submersibles. They are U-boats! Respect their legendary name. 30,000 sailors went down with them too.
I think it was during the Yalta Conference that Churchill mandated German submarines be called U-Boats and the Allied boats called submarines. Kind of a neat propaganda thing.
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger watercraft or platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent operation at sea.
Tbh some of the ludicrous pronunciations I hear, especially from txt to speech narrations. Some videos are audio war crimes in themselves 😂
@@scottyfox6376 yep!
Would be better if the French speech was converted to English speech.
Admiral Max Horton,a Jew,was the first British submarine captain in WW1 to sink an enemy ship.
Wow 😯 incredible all that work to carry out evil
Totally don't understand why the primary presentation is in English but key notes are in French & one must watch the screen for translation....personally, I am active at home while listening to the presentation, not staring at a screen.
Never heard of subtitles? 🙄🤡 The world doesn’t revolve around Americans! This occurred in FRANCE FFS, what did you expect?! You people are intellectually embarrassing…SMH.😊
That was great, thanks!
would have been interesting if the Nazi's had put same effort and know how into aircraft carriers..
Excellent!
what is "excellent" ?
@@ebaystarsthe documentary. Didn’t you like it?
@@bigbaddms bored to death so I sunk a gin and tonic instead
@@ebaystarsare u still alive? If you're alive then ughhh very unfortunate. What a waste of flesh and bones haha
@@chr1stmas706 wow chat GPT is trying to be funny girl hahahaha
Sorry did i hear right did he say German commandos s 😅 its British commandos
Micah 4: 2-4 says of war in the future after the return of Jesus: The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares; their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
Taurean faeces
German Commandos??.
Is the music really necessary it is ao amoying to rhe point i cant watch
Overheated documentary.
did the grand slams, blockbusters and disney bombs destroy them?
Nope. They couldn’t get through them. There was something like 75 feet of reinforced concrete.
@@bigbaddms The Grand Slams penetrated the sub pens, there's a documentary about it.
Sorrs, I'm afraid you have to change your title ! Theses bunkers were never " underwater superstructures " as you call them. They are bunkers built in harbours or on shorelines with flooded cells allowing protection of the subs. If you are not convinced watch your own video.
Bleachey Park
This black and white film is very bibid and real, and the former is German rising and the latter is German falling. On the other hand France is the just under dog since France and German war,Churchill is always arrogant. I am unable to watch these precious film untli Smart phone has been available in Japan. Thanks again.
If only the British had un maned drones in those days I still remember the end of the 2nd world war I am over 90
Disappointing documentary. This was all about the Kreigs-Marine sinking vessels. It has nothing to do with the aforementioned title.
KRIEGSMARINE... !
Se fosse em português seria ótimo
Im scared watching these videos now with WW3 around the corner. Peace for all.
who paid the bunkers and the workforce?
Germans Well Paid them BUT the French paid the Germans every month. Like the Germans paid them after WW1..
50:42 Let’s no fail to mention that Germany U-boats would pick up survivors and on one occasion when several U-boat had hundreds of survivors, there were so many survivors inside and and on the deck of the U-boats that the U-boats were unable to dive And US spotter plane spotted them and radioed for instructions and was then ordered to sink the U-boats And after that attack German U-boats were on ordered to not pick up survivors. These KZhead videos like to leave part like this out! Imagine thef you don’t know and what else they leaving out. But let’s bosom Germany for everything. Also let’s not forget that the victors has a long history of invading and attacking other countries
Why do you spoil your doco's with French commentators that we cannot understand, it makes it impossible to enjoy when trying read the sub titles and watch the doco's
Use CCs! 🤦🏼♂️🙄 The world doesn’t revolve around English speaking folks…SMH! History doesn’t single out foreign speakers, you wouldn’t get an accurate understanding without those “French commentators spoiling the documentary” as you say 🙄. The events unfold in FRANCE, what TF do you expect?! Also, the inability to multi task and pay attention to subtitles while watching, is correlated with sub-par IQ. You’re proud to announce that? You do you, boo. I guess 🥴
So the British broke the code? I was always taught Americans stole the enigma machine.
Yes, the Brits via Alan Turing, the math genius built the deciphering computer to read out the codes . Watch the movie, " The Imitation Game " and there you'll learn how it was done ! Excellent movie !
That was because you might have seen, and innocently believed, a Hollywood film that changed the actual history into a story where an American destroyer manages to capture the enigma machine from a sinking German U Boat, Americans break the code and defeat the Nazis. Nothing in that film is true. It was a British destroyer that captured the updated enigma machine, which had an extra rotor, the code was broken at Bletchley, and the first militarised enigma had already been captured by the Polish secret service in 1939 and smuggled out of Poland before the Nazis and Russians jointly defeated and occupied Poland.
I think the poles helped a bit too...
Just a bit @@grahamchivrall30
The Poles deciphered early 5 wheel enigma machines and gave them to brits, brits deciphered the 6th wheel - but why mention that? typical revisionist omissions
Wish this were just a documentary without the audio nonsense, overheated and almost breathless narrative. "German empire"? Thats a new one. Why is all this hyperactivity thought to be a good thing?
why do the French insist on speaking French in the documentaries? everyone in Europe speaks English.
That's the problem with France, it's full of French people.
my guess is that its rooted down cuz of the history between the french and the british. that theory is my humble one, but it logical.
Sheltered and ignorant you are, got it! You’re a lost cause 🙄🤦🏼♂️
What a stupid question. Because they are French, and no not "everyone" in Europe speaks English. What a brain dead take.
@@strawberyyicecreamdream216 you sound so bitter. do you speak French too?
Anybody else have trouble enjoying if they can’t get into the narration?
Yes. The writing is clunky and awkward. And the narrator sounds like a robot.
@@Acer_Maximinus I wonder if channels are using AI and not telling people?
@@Al-ImprovEd2022 They definitely are, advertisers are using it also. I wouldn’t be surprised if AI did the writing on this documentary as well. The whole thing is awful.
Yea, I can't listen to an AI voice on a documentary. @@Acer_Maximinus
@@Al-ImprovEd2022 Me either, they’re just unwatchable. Yesterday I heard one say the year 1943 as, “…one thousand nine hundred and forty three.”
How does this sound like it's a.i. generated? Oh no.
Good Ole Admiral Donuts !! Lol.. For the politically correct, Yes, I Know that's Not his Real Handle..Just Sayin No Skinheads Need Reply ..Homie Don't Play that Game..
Let’s go!
Kinda Like Everything That Was Not Created By Natural Means
Not a peep about civilians "casualties". The history of war in Europe goes back to the begining of "civilization", but as time progressed "colateral damage" increased tremendously. Eventualy, Europeans wised up and decided to have their wars "elsewhere", but their homeland, and US became the graduate expert at exporting warfare. We can happily say that out "civil" war was the last violent conflict in our soil, but certainly not the last war the "white" race have brought upon humanity. Will it ever end...?
👍👍
Nice 😅
I very much don't like having to READ my videos!
That’s a sign of a sub-par IQ, just saying…🙄🤦🏼♂️
🦝
Guten Morgen. Das Öl war schwer und hinterließ ein furchtbar fettiges Gefühl in meinem Magen. Das ist es, was sie am Ende sagen würden. Hey Superpatriot, lebst du?
Terrible writing and robot narrator.
Ironically it’s Israel today committing being Palestine………. Go figure
The truth is, Germans in the war fought for German people in the name of furher,while Britain fought for British .USA is the one country involved in every war even though they r not part of it. Clever would understand who got benefitted from war😂
I remember yesterday me and my friend we were drunk & we slaughtered a goat 🐐 and roasted it but when I woke up today the goat is still alive and our dog is missing 😭
Are you looking for attention?
Insanity usually does.@@rheinhardtgrafvonthiesenha8185
Lame joke 😑
You must be so fun to be around...
Great joke.
Guten Morgen. Viele Kurtisanen verkehrten mit intellektuellen oder politischen Männern der damaligen Zeit.