Chronos Productions - The War Archive The Grey Wolves (1998) Part 2 U-Boats 1942-1943

This War Archive set of exclusive programs presents the most comprehensive and definitive archive of Germany's U-boats and their warfare strategies ever compiled as a series. The U-Boat success in the North Atlantic almost brought Britain to its knees, and eliminated the last impediment to the realization of Adolf Hitler's dreams! New footage helps us understand the on-going battle between the hunter and the hunted beneath the cold gray waters of the North Atlantic. These programs depict the course of the U-boat's war throughout WW2 from footage taken by German cameramen. We look at the U-boat's important contribution to Germany's war effort, as the menace posed by these silent killers seemed asuperable. But later, at the same time as the pendulum swung towards the allies with the improved hunting technology, the German naval codes were cracked. Then came the lend lease pact whereby America provided new ships at such a rate that not even Germany could continue to contain them!

Part 2 U-Boats 1942-1943

The first six months of 1942 saw the war assume a truly global dimension with the entry of the United States into the conflict. For the U-boat arm, the heavy coastal traffic off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. provided such fertile hunting ground that the high number of vessels sunk led this period to be christened by the submarine crews as the 'second happy time'. The belated introduction of convoy tactics by the US Navy saw U-boat victories off the U.S. coast sink to a low of just three in July 1942. While U-boat numbers had increased – 249 on operations and in training – this figure disguised a dispersion of effort with submarines in action in the Arctic, in the Mediterranean, in the South Atlantic. With the bulk of this total in training and many others in dock Doenitz still had the problem of having too few submarines actually on station in the decisive North Atlantic. He now set out to exploit the 'gap' in the mid-Atlantic where convoys were beyond the range and protection of long range allied aircraft. By 1943 with more boats available 'Wolf Packs' exploited this 'gap' to inflict heavy losses on the convoys with 120 ships sunk in March – the high point of the U-boat campaign in World War II. In volume two of the 'Grey Wolves' this story will be related with film covering the building of U-boat pens in France, the training of the new crews in the Baltic, 'Milch Cow' operations, Japanese subs in St. Nazaire and all the other elements that go to help understand the on-going battle between hunter and hunted above and beneath the cold, grey waters of the North Atlantic – the most decisive theatre of World War II.

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