Drain the Oceans (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 9 - Ultimate Battleships - full transcript

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Under the seas
off Northern Europe,

a lost graveyard
of mega warships.

They were
the H-bombs of the era.

In 1916, these are among

the most powerful weapons
ever built.

At the height of the Great War,
they stage an epic showdown.

This is a fight to the death.

But with the evidence
lost deep beneath the waves,

the battle remains
shrouded in mystery...

until now.

Imagine if we could
empty the oceans,



letting the water drain away
to reveal the secrets

of the sea floor.

Now we can.

Using the latest underwater
scanning technology,

piercing the deep oceans

and turning accurate data
into 3-D images.

This time,
the Battle of Jutland

is the greatest naval action
of World War I.

But which side actually wins?

After the war ends
how does a fleet

of gigantic battleships
simply vanish?

And in World War II,

what sinks one of the last
great Jutland warships

while it's anchored
in a safe harbor?



1916.

Germany is at war
with Britain and her allies.

In the North Sea,
two mighty fleets
are set to clash

in the biggest sea battle
of World War I.

It will ultimately decide
who wins the Great War.

Yet astonishingly,
both sides claim victory.

For such a climactic battle

Jutland is one
that is shrouded in mystery

as well as controversy.

As the waters
begin to drain away,

do they reveal who really wins
the Battle of Jutland?

Danish research vessel VINA
is hunting for the ships

destroyed
in this titanic naval clash.

So this might be
the beginning of a wreck field.

The crew are using high tech
multi-beam sonar scans

to do what no one else
has ever attempted.

Uncover the entire
Jutland battlefield.

Solving the mystery
of the battle

is a personal quest
for Nick Jellicoe.

He's the grandson of
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe,

the commander
of the British fleet.

Admiral Jellicoe's mission

is to destroy
the German Imperial Navy.

And help win World War I.

The burden of command

that sat on my grandfather's
shoulders that day was huge.

All their lives depended
on what he was gonna do.

Jellicoe commands the most
powerful fleet in history,

and it's facing
its biggest test.

Jutland is the ultimate clash

of battleships
and battle cruisers.

Perhaps the sort of
ultimate warships ever built

in terms
of their military sex appeal.

Before the First World War,

Britain and Germany are locked
in a dangerous arms race.

Spending billions
on ever larger

and more powerful battleships.

Each hopes to
intimidate the other.

But it only inflames
the tensions between them.

Ultimately what this
naval arms race leads to is war.

There is only
one survivor

from this age of naval giants,

USS Texas.

The length of this megaship

is equivalent to the height
of a 50-story skyscraper.

These ships
were the ultimate weapons.

When you had one of these,

there was nothing
that was more powerful.

Weighing in
at 27,000 tons,

the USS Texas is
a dreadnought-type battleship

like many of the ships
that fight at Jutland.

The thing that makes
this so enormously impressive

is the technology
that went into making it.

The complicated engines,

the hugely capable guns.

All of this
in an enormous hull.

Much larger than any ship
that had been built before.

These massive 14-inch guns

are among the biggest
on the high seas.

Texas had ten of them.

If you're within range
it'll punch through
12 inches of armor.

When war breaks out in 1914,

at first neither
Britain nor Germany

dare risk losing their
massively expensive fleets

in a head-to-head
confrontation.

They finally clash
in a titanic battle
at Jutland in 1916.

Using the data
collected by the VINA,

it's now possible
to do something

that no historian
or archaeologist

has been able
to attempt before.

Drain away the waters
of the North Sea

to reveal the remains
of the greatest sea battle

of World War I.

As the seawater flows away,
a haunted world slowly emerges.

The smashed wrecks
of the ultimate battleships.

Broken twisted debris

from not one,
but dozens of warships.

Across a huge area,
5,000 square miles.

May 31st, 1916.

The German fleet sets out
on a secret mission.

Their plan is to locate,
attack and destroy

a small part
of the British Grand Fleet.

The British Grand Fleet

is vastly superior
to the German High Sea Fleet,

both numerically,
and also in terms of gun power.

The Germans
under Admiral Scheer

have less than 100 warships

compared to
the Royal Navy's 150.

Scheer's original plan

was to come out with his fleet,

run parallel
to the Danish coast, Jutland,

and hopefully come across
some British ships

in the numbers
that he can deal with.

By heading out,

the Germans are
setting a trap for the British.

They want to lure
a small force of their enemy

into the open sea.

Only then will they attack.

All they can do
is hope to wear down

the British Grand Fleet
in a series of engagements,

to a point where, perhaps,

the two sides might be
more even in numbers.

The Germans have been preparing
their strategy in secret.

For the Germans this battle
is "Der Tag" it's "The Day."

But the British
have a trap of their own.

They've cracked
the secret radio codes

ordering the Germans
into action.

The Royal Navy mobilize
151 ships in two battle groups.

For the British
this is an opportunity

to crush the Kaiser's fleet
and win the war at sea.

The Germans
don't know it yet,

but their 99 ships are heading

exactly where the British
want them.

It should be an easy victory
for the Royal Navy.

Around 4:30 p.m. on May 31st,

the two fleets sight each other

and the Germans open fire.

Over the next 12 hours,

Jutland becomes
the biggest sea battle
of World War I.

But what exactly happens
is still shrouded in mystery.

Even on the day itself,

neither side knows
the precise movements
of the other.

In the days before
modern satellite navigation,

no one knows
their exact positions.

Both sides are running blind.

To send and receive orders,
they use flags,

but that doesn't work
when the visibility is poor.

There are thick fog banks.

There's funnel smoke
all over the battlefield.

There's even chemical
smoke screens being laid down.

VINA is using
the sonar scans

to pinpoint the exact position

of one of the early casualties
of the battle,

HMS Invincible.

Goodness me.
What are these?

Could this be a gun?

Yeah, you can see the gun.

One of the barrels.
It's upside down.

First they locate
two gun turrets.

But where is the ship
they come from?

Look at this. Look at this.

I think we've found
something here.

It's now possible to drain
the waters of the North Sea.

Not only revealing
the wreck of invincible,

but also evidence
of the explosive violence

of its final moments.

Over 17,000 tons
of high-grade steel.

Armor plating six-inches thick

has simply been shattered
by a huge explosion.

The hull of Invincible
is literally blasted in two.

Such is the explosive force
that wrecks the ship

that its gun turrets
lie almost 400 feet away.

The power of the blast
must have blown them

clean out of the ship.

You know
how much these things weigh?

These are about
sort of 200 tons.

Can you imagine the violence
and the force of this explosion?

Amazing, isn't it?
It's extraordinary.

The hull
is broken right at the spot

Invincible's
two central gun turrets

are connected to
the ammunition stores below.

What does this reveal
about how the ship explodes?

Like USS Texas, Invincible has
fireproof blast doors

that stop fires spreading,

preventing the entire vessel
exploding.

So what goes wrong?

Draining the waters
of the North Sea

is uncovering secrets
about the Battle of Jutland.

And helping solve
a controversial question,

is it the Germans
or the British
who win the battle?

The drained wreck
of HMS Invincible

reveals extraordinary damage.

Can the shattered remains
offer clues

about how the explosion snaps
the ship clean in half?

This is a tremendous shock

and it produces
very heavy casualties.

A ship of this size going up
is gonna kill a thousand people.

There is
one substance explosive enough

to blow up a warship,
a type of gunpowder

known as cordite.

And battleships like
Invincible and USS Texas

are packed with tons of it.

It's what allows them
to fire their deadly payload.

The whole purpose
of this enormous ship

is to take this projectile,

which weighs
half as much as a Toyota,

and push it out 10 or 15 miles
to hit an enemy.

Some husky sailors
would lift up...

...four of these
big propellant bags.

Inside was cordite.

Central station fires the gun,
ignites the cordite,

pushing this shell out
at about four times

the speed
that an airliner flies.

About 25 seconds later
and ten miles away,

this thing comes down
and we hope hits the enemy.

But the danger
for all battleships

is that if their own
cordite store

is ignited by an enemy shell,
the entire vessel explodes.

So extraordinary
safety features

to keep fires from spreading

are built into the design
of battleships

like USS Texas.

Cordite is stored in magazines
deep inside the ship.

The metal blast doors
seal the magazines

preventing fire spreading
from the guns above.

And the highly flammable
bags of cordite

are passed up to the guns
through secure hatches.

So with all these elaborate
safety precautions in place,

what goes wrong on Invincible?

VINA deploys
a submersible camera

to search for evidence
around the turrets.

My gosh, look at that.
We're right underneath.

There's something here.

It does look more like
a shell, doesn't it?

Yeah.

So just below the shell

one can see the top
of a cordite container

and strands of cordite.

'Cause in these
long stick like strands

all bundled together.

Quick burning, very unstable.

The cordite
and shells piled together

in the wrecked turret,

expose a fatal vulnerability.

The Royal Navy is playing
with fire, literally.

They could be ignited
if something went wrong
inside the turret itself.

The drained wreck,
shows the force of the blast

goes right through the ship
from top to bottom.

There's only
one possible explanation.

The blast doors are left open.

This solves the mystery.

A German shell hits
the gun turret amidships
and ignites the cordite.

Fire spreads in seconds
through the open doors

to the main ammunition
store below.

The result,
Invincible is torn in half,

and the two gun turrets
blown sky high.

The impact of
a hundred tons of cordite

going off is enormous.

It'll tear a ship in half,
it tore Invincible in two.

But why would Invincible's crew

risk leaving the fireproof
blast doors wide open?

In naval warfare

there are different approaches
to fighting.

For the British,
it's rapidity of fire,

it's getting as many shells off
as fast as you can.

To increase the rate of fire,

magazine doors are left open.

The propellants are piled up.

You hit anywhere
in that system,

and you have a trail
of destruction going down

into the magazines.

Some magazine doors
were actually taken off.

This is suicidal.

This tactical error
causes the Royal Navy

to lose four of its best ships
in less than three hours.

And the battle is yet
to reach its climax.

Emptying the North Sea reveals
the extent of the battlefield.

This extraordinary
drained landscape

helps decipher
the course of the action.

When you look
at the entire battlefield,

if you were to
take all the water away

what you see is
each warrior where they fell.

The position in which they lie,

the type of damage
that they took.

In a larger forensic sense,

helps you recreate
the Battle of Jutland.

About four hours
into the battle,

the Germans still believe
they are facing

a small part
of the British fleet.

Until the sea fog lifts.

Suddenly Admiral Scheer,
the German commander

sees the whole northern horizon
light up with the gunfire

of a long line
of British battleships.

This is his worst nightmare.

Scheer is staring
down the awesome firepower

of the main
British battle fleet.

With 50 more ships
than his enemy,

Admiral Jellicoe has
an extraordinary opportunity.

The British
didn't just want victory,

they wanted total annihilation
of the German fleet.

As well as firing
rapidly to destroy his enemy,

Jellicoe now uses
another tactic.

This one dates from the days
of sailing ships.

The classic naval tactic
is to cross the enemy's T.

Have your fleet sail across
the front of the enemy fleet,

so that you concentrate
your firepower

and the enemy doesn't have
as many guns brought to bear.

It's a moment
of potential annihilation.

This is the critical point
of the battle in many ways.

By Crossing the T,

the British bring
the full force
of their weapons to bear.

They open fire.

The German reaction
is astonishing.

They launch a daring
escape bid under heavy fire,

risking collisions
between their ships.

As the British cross the T,

the Germans execute
an incredible feat
of seamanship.

They turn 180.

The British aren't even
expecting this

and so the Germans
get out of the trap.

The German maneuver is
skilled enough and fast enough

to avoid annihilation.

One moment Jellicoe
has all the German fleet
in his sights,

four minutes later, nothing.

The Royal navy misses
a golden opportunity

to destroy the German fleet

and change
the course of the war.

Draining the whole
Jutland battlefield
uncovers more wrecks,

revealing how
the Germans try to get away,

and the British
try to catch them.

VINA heads south,

hunting for the remains
of a warship

that reveals the lengths

the Germans
are willing to go to

to avoid capture.

Lutzow.

Lutzow was the newest
of the German battle cruisers,

only just been commissioned
and she was a very fine ship.

She had eight 12-inch guns,
very heavily protected.

The waters of
the North Sea drain away

and Lutzow appears
for the first time

in over a hundred years.

This reveals
astonishing new evidence

of the ship's
extraordinary fate.

Lutzow lies face down.

There's damage to the hull,

but unlike Invincible,

the ship hasn't been
blown in half.

So what sinks Lutzow?

Draining away the cold dark
waters of the North Sea

reveals one of the most
powerful German warships
at Jutland.

Lutzow.

Lutzow was
heavily mauled in the battle,

so much so that it's almost
like target practice

for the Royal Navy.

Lutzow is heavily damaged,

but the wreck reveals
a surprise.

The hull is not blown
into separate pieces.

It actually looks
like quite a complete hull.

So not battle damage?

-Not battle damage.
-Yeah.

Lutzow's intact hull
is evidence it doesn't blow up,

and VINA's cameras now suggest
a possible reason why.

The ship's
highly explosive cordite

is stored in these
protective metal canisters.

The German systems
used brass cartridge cases

to carry the propellant
from place to place

so it was enclosed
and less likely to ignite.

The drained seabed
also shows the wreck lies

nowhere near where
the British fleet is operating.

Suggesting it isn't sunk
by the Royal Navy.

The wreck reveals
extensive damage

below the waterline.

Evidence that Lutzow
is struck by weapons

feared by all
the ultimate battleships...

torpedoes.

Unleashed not by
the Royal Navy,

but by the Germans.

Lutzow gets away
from the British

and limping home,

the crew realizes
that the ship's
not going to make it.

Rather than leave it afloat
for the British to capture

and make a trophy of,
they decide to sink it.

Packed with
advanced military technology,

it's vital Lutzow
doesn't fall into enemy hands.

But that's not all.

There's honor at stake here

and so they scuttle it

and they see
nothing wrong with that,

in fact, it's the type of action
that will get you a medal.

But the pride
that drives the Germans

to sink one of their
best ships,

comes at a terrible price.

There were men still trapped
in the dynamo room.

They had stayed on board
to keep the light running

so that their comrades
could get off.

They were the ones
who were told

they're not gonna get off,

the ship is gonna be torpedoed

by their own torpedo boats.

They knew they were gonna die.

Eight hours
into the battle,

night has fallen.

The battered German fleet
is running south

to its base at Wilhelmshaven.

Draining the wrecks
lying closer to Germany

reveals what happens
when the British catch up

to the Germans.

Will they prevent
their escape,

destroy their fleet,
and win the battle?

VINA is following the course
the British take

as they pursue the Germans
south in the darkness.

Scans pick up another wreck.

It's a British armored cruiser,

a type of warship
completely outgunned

by German battleships.

We can see
the propeller shaft here

and some extensive damage
in the stern section.

VINA has found
the wreck of HMS Black Prince.

Draining away the sea water

reveals that the hull
is broken clean in two.

A gun turret lies
exactly in the position

where the hull splits.

It's taken a direct hit

and the magazines
have blown up.

From the drained wreck

we can start to piece together
what happens.

While looking to rejoin
the main British fleet,

Black Prince runs
into a formation

of 12 German battleships

and in the darkness
mistakes them

for the Royal Navy.

The wreck lies pointing
to the northeast,

confirming Black Prince
is trying desperately

to steer away
from the Germans.

We know from
the archeology now

that the ship
appears to have turned,

so they knew
what danger they were in.

They didn't...
They didn't just sail into it.

But they turned
too little, too late.

All 857 men
on board are lost.

Black Prince
is not the only ship

the British lose
as they pursue the enemy.

At least four more
warships are sunk.

The German rear guard action
uses torpedo attacks

to keep
Jellicoe's force at bay.

Knowing his fleet
isn't well equipped

for night fighting,
he disengages.

The following day the Germans
make it safely back to base.

The Royal Navy fails
to stop their escape.

After just 12 hours,
the Battle of Jutland is over.

Ten thousand sailors are dead.

As dawn breaks
over the North Sea,

bodies from each side

start to wash up
along the Danish coast.

Even though
they have retreated,

the Germans claim victory
because they have fewer losses.

The British have lost 14 ships.

Admiral Scheer's
German fleet, just 11.

He has inflicted
incredible losses

on the Royal Navy.

He has sunk
more British tonnage

and killed more British sailors
than he has lost,

so to his mind and for
the Kaiser and for Germany,

this is a victory.

But despite losing
more ships and men,

Admiral Jellicoe's fleet
ultimately wins the battle

because they now have
complete command

of the North Sea.

For the rest of the war,

German battleships never dare
challenge the full might

of the Royal Navy again.

The crucial strategic fact

is that
the British Grand Fleet

is acting
as the stopper in the bottle,

to stop German surface ships
getting out.

Taking control
of the sea after this battle

is decisive
in winning World War I.

For two years after Jutland,
Britain blockades German ports.

Slowly starving
the country into submission.

In 1918, Britain and her allies
are victorious.

Germany is forced
to give up its navy

without another shot
being fired.

But if the conflict is over,

why does
the entire German fleet

now lie on the bottom
of the sea?

When World War I ends
on November 11th, 1918,

the German High Seas Fleet
is anchored in its main base.

But a little over
six months later,

it's on the seabed
500 miles away here,

off the northern tip
of Scotland.

The Orkney Islands

cluster around
a gigantic natural harbor

called Scapa Flow.

Using the latest data from
detailed underwater scanning,

it's possible to
drain away the waters here.

The sea pushes back

to expose narrow passages
between the islands.

This ancient
submerged landscape

makes Scapa Flow
one of the largest

natural deep water harbors
in the world.

The perfect place
to imprison a battle fleet.

Skipper John Thornton knows
these waters better than most.

Scapa's a very special
and unique place,

in that the waters
are sheltered,

it's the reason why it was used
as a British naval harbor.

Also its position
geographically
is very strategic.

November 1918,

the defeated German fleet

is ordered to set sail
into captivity.

The Germans
with flags flying, steam out,

and come into Scapa Flow,

and there they're
to be interned.

They are anchored
at Scapa

while politicians from
the victorious allies

decide how they'll divide up

these spoils of war
worth billions.

It must have given
the Germans terrible feelings

of disgrace and humiliation
and a determination

not to allow these ships to fall
into the hands of allies.

The political wrangling

over which of the allies
will get

which of the German ships
continues.

June 1919.

Nearly seven months
after their capture,

the 74 German ships
remain at anchor

under Royal Navy Guard.

Their skeleton crews,
prisoners on their own vessels.

They had to be fed and supplied
from Germany.

The British refused
to supply them locally.

They're on the ships with
no entertainment, no heating.

So these poor people
would have had a grim time.

Using the latest sonar data,

draining Scapa Flow reveals
the fate of the German fleet.

As the water recedes,

it uncovers the wreck of one
of the most advanced ships

in the entire German navy.

Packing no fewer
than ten 12-inch guns,

Markgraf is brand new
when the war starts in 1914.

The drained wreck
now reveals huge chunks

cut out of the hull
more recently by salvagers,

searching for
valuable scrap metals.

The ship capsizes
as it goes down.

There are no signs
of battle damage
along the giant hull,

so what sinks the Markgraf?

These portholes
are clearly visible

close to what was
the waterline.

And they appear to be open.

From the dive boat, Karin,

a team sets out
to investigate the wreck.

They want to find out
if the portholes were opened

before or after the ship sinks.

It's a huge ship.

I mean, your-your only
impression is just scale.

Minute after minute
just slowly moving along it,

it just keeps going
and keeps going.

She's a massive ship.

Dan's picture
clearly shows an open porthole.

Here's one with the actual

glass porthole still in place.

But it's open
It's wide open.

Right.

There's no way
a diver could have

got on the inside...

To have it opened.

...to have unbolt
that porthole so...

-it had to have been sunk...
-Mm-hmm.

-...with the porthole wide open.
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

It's a vital clue
revealing an amazing event.

One of the most incredible acts
in the history of any navy.

There are
more German battleships

lying on the bottom
of Scapa Flow.

These wrecks are undamaged,
no sign of explosions,

no holes made by torpedoes.

It can only mean one thing.

What the Germans do
under the noses of their captors

is to simultaneously scuttle
their fleet,

that is send it to the bottom.

Shocked witnesses take pictures

of the ships actually sinking.

It's June 21st, 1919.

The decision on
how the German fleet

is to be divided up
is due to be announced.

Under secret orders
from Germany,

fleet commander von Reuter

has been quietly preparing
this moment for months.

The Germans
saw scuttling the fleet

as actually a way of
getting back at their captors.

It was actually
an aggressive move.

The Germans had got
their revenge at last,

three years
after the Battle of Jutland.

Sinking their entire fleet,

prevents the allies
getting their hands

on the German ships.

But sinking 74 warships
at the same time

requires more than just
leaving portholes open.

How did they do it?

David Manley
is a naval architect
with an unusual skill.

His job is testing ships
by trying to sink them.

HMS Belfast
is a typical warship.

It has weak spots
if you know what to look for

and have the right tools.

We're well below
the waterline here,

and this pipe
is one of the ways

in which you would very easily
sink a ship of this size

and all you need is just
a sledgehammer like this.

Hit the pipe hard, give it
a good whack, split it apart.

The force of the water
coming out of here,

well, I mean,
if you were standing near it,

it would take your head off.

It'd be enough to fill
this compartment completely

in just a few minutes.

And then everybody is just
heading for the upper deck.

With their ships flooding,

the German crews
have to evacuate

from deep within the hull.

The amount of coordination
is just fantastic.

To do that under the eyes
of the British

who are guarding the fleet
is a feat of amazing skill,

amazing ingenuity.

Right, so it's taken me
a few minutes to get up here
from the engine room,

but at least
I'm on the upper deck,

I'm safe and I can escape.

But in Scapa Flow

when the Germans
reach the decks
of their sinking ships,

they are far from safe.

This cemetery bears witness
to the tragic consequences

when British guards realize
what is happening.

Here is the last resting place

of the nine or so
German sailors

who were killed, uh,
during the scuttle.

Walter Schumann
was the commander

of the SMS Markgraf.

He was shot
after he had surrendered.

They were effectively
the last casualties
of the First World War.

German sailors
make the supreme sacrifice.

Shot while surrendering

after preventing
the capture of their ships.

In 1919, 74 German warships
are scuttled in Scapa Flow.

But draining the water reveals
only seven actual shipwrecks.

And ghostly imprints
left behind by the others.

What happens
to the missing warships?

As a boy, Ian Murray Taylor
lived on the shores of Scapa.

He's the last man alive

who went inside one of
the scuttled German warships.

I went
right down through the ship.

It was very dirty and dusty

and the air was a bit whiffy...

...and you could look down
on to the seabed below.

In 1924, Ian's grandfather
Thomas MacKenzie

starts recovering
the sunken wrecks.

His family films
the extraordinary work

that brings them
back to the surface,

so the valuable steel
can be sold for scrap.

Divers seal holes in the hull.

Compressed air is pumped in

until the ship is buoyant

like filling a balloon
with air.

Then the massive battleships
explode back to the surface.

In this way,
during the 1920s and '30s,

all but seven of the German
wrecks are raised.

Their hulls are towed away
and broken into pieces.

There are willing buyers
for the salvaged metal.

Among them, Adolf Hitler.

He's building
a powerful new navy.

Scrap metal from
the German fleet returns home

to be melted down and reused
for a new and deadly purpose.

What also happened
in the aftermath of Scapa Flow

is for the Germans
in particular,

a sense of a war
that really hadn't ended.

What followed
was a grim determination

to come back and fight
that war again.

1939,
the Nazis use the steel

from the sunken
German megaships

to prepare
a new generation of weapons.

There is something
of a full circle here.

The Germans are getting
their own back.

They've learned
the bitter lessons of Jutland.

This time they'll use
submarines,

not battleships to wage war.

The era of the big battleships

which dominated the seas
was over.

In Scapa Flow,
the sinking of one ship

marks the dramatic end
of this era.

Investigators scanning
this unique wreck

for the British Ministry
of Defence

reveal a capsized hull resting
on its twisted superstructure.

But only by
draining the water away

is it possible to see close up

the evidence of what sinks
this veteran of Jutland.

HMS Royal Oak.

One side appears undamaged,

but the other displays
gaping wounds.

What sends Royal Oak
to the bottom
in this safe haven?

The level of impact
and the destruction, uh,

it was just-just
mind-bending to see.

October 1939.
One month into World War II.

The Nazis want revenge
on the British

and are hunting for targets.

It was of great symbolic value

to hit the Royal Navy
in its heart

and Scapa Flow was of course
the heart of the Royal Navy.

Royal Oak
lies safely at anchor.

The crew, including over
150 boy seamen under 18,

suspect nothing.

The guns are trained
on the skies

in case of Nazi air raids.

But the real threat lies below.

At the time of Jutland,

old ships are deliberately sunk

to block Scapa's
narrow entrances

and defend against
submarine attacks.

But now
they're falling apart

and it's possible
to sneak past them.

There were now passages
for submarines to get through,

where a daring
submarine commander

could actually
get into the Flow.

October 14th, 12:58 a.m.

U-boat Ace Gunther Prien
stealthily navigates U-47

through the poorly defended
channels of Scapa.

The men and boys
aboard Royal Oak

have no idea of the danger
they are in.

Examining the drained wreck

reveals Prien's first torpedo
smashes clean through the bow.

They all thought
that it was an explosion

in the paint store
or of the aviation fuel store,

um, and, uh, they didn't realize
they were being attacked.

The wreck now reveals

three more torpedo strikes
along the hull.

These are the deathblows,

smashing huge holes
in Royal Oak.

Fatally wounded
below the waterline,

Royal Oak begins to capsize.

For most there's no escape.

The ship sinks in minutes.

833 sailors are lost.

More than 130 of them
are just boys.

It was received with
enormous enthusiasm in Germany.

Hitler sent his airplane
to Kiel

to pick up the crew
and fly in to Berlin

where people hailed them
and everybody was happy.

So it's one
of the greatest ironies

perhaps in naval warfare

that out of
the scuttling at Scapa Flow

comes the steel
that helps rearm Germany

and one of those ships,

one of these U-boats,
sneaks in to Scapa Flow

and sinks a veteran of Jutland.

If that's not ironic,
I don't know what is.

The wrecks
of Jutland and Scapa Flow

bear silent witness
to a lost age of naval warfare.

But draining
the ultimate battleships

reveals the world-changing
impact

of the day
they fought to the death

and the courage
of the men and boys

who served aboard them.

Captioned by Point.360