♪
NARRATOR: At battle sites all around the world...
Archaeologists are exploring lost ships,
subs, and aircraft,
from a critical but much misunderstood year:
[gunfire].
1945.
JAMES: There was no guarantee that World War II
was going to end in 1945.
The noose was tightening,
both in the Pacific and in Europe,
but what was needed were breakthroughs,
breakthroughs that had yet to happen.
NARRATOR: Hitler still controls Germany,
and his scientists refine terrifying new weapons.
Japan promises to fight on to the bitter end:
surrender remains unthinkable.
CRAIG: It was a dilemma for American decision-makers to
figure out how to bring this war to an end.
NARRATOR: What can draining four wrecks,
thousands of miles apart,
reveal about the decisive final months of World War II?
JAMES: It's not as if the war ended quietly.
It was a year of incredible violence.
It was a year that shook the world.
[theme music plays].
NARRATOR: January 1945.
Soviet forces push into Nazi held territory,
triggering a crisis for German civilians.
JANN: Behind the German front there were millions of German civilians.
Many of these refugees simply fear to be overrun by the Russians.
NARRATOR: For many, the only possible route to safety is by sea.
What can a haunted wreck below the icy Baltic reveal about
a plan to rescue a million refugees?
On January 23rd, 1945, the German navy or Kriegsmarine,
launches a plan to rescue soldiers and civilians,
Operation Hannibal.
JANN: Not only civilian ships but also troop transports were
used for bringing German civilians into safety.
NARRATOR: The 550-foot-long General Von Steuben,
sets sail from the German-occupied port of
Pillau on February 9th.
She's carrying around 5000 men, women and children,
all attempting to flee the Soviet army.
But just 13 hours later,
the Steuben is at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Now, an elite Polish dive team wants to find out
what happened to her.
They're heading to the Steuben's last known position,
40 miles off the coast of Poland.
The Steuben lies in waters 230 feet deep.
In the year-round chill of the Baltic sea,
wrecks here are unusually well-preserved.
So there's a good chance that evidence of her terrible fate
will still survive.
But it's a dangerous mission.
TOMASZ: To dive for Steuben you must be a really experienced diver.
It's absolutely dark because in Baltic Sea under 70 meters
it's always dark.
And it is always cold, it is four degrees so if you have
any problem with your suit you are in really trouble.
NARRATOR: Each diver will have just 30 minutes at the wreck site.
Any longer could prove deadly.
A shape appears.
The distinctive windows of the Steuben's promenade deck.
TOMASZ: I had this feeling that I go back in the time.
Some of the things were untouched for 75 years.
This was some special journey around this ship.
Fantastic.
NARRATOR: Soon, time is up for the divers but armed with the
data they've collected,
we can do something extraordinary.
Parting the waters of the Baltic.
From deep below the icy sea a gigantic wreck emerges,
in near perfect condition.
All along her starboard side the distinctive row of windows.
And, a vital clue,
a hole below the water line.
What could have caused it?
In 1945 the Baltic is packed with sea mines.
Does the Steuben strike one of them?
INNES: Any vessel could be a target so a big part of what
the Kriegsmarine would have been doing at that time was to
make sure that their shipping lanes were swept.
and so the swept passages as they were known were then open
for the ships to move around.
NARRATOR: But analysis of the Steuben's route and final
resting place proves that she stays within cleared sea-lanes.
So a mine looks unlikely.
Returning to the drained wreck reveals fresh clues.
Near the bow, a second hole, 68 feet from the first.
It's unmistakable.
INNES: Looking at where the damage pattern is on the ship
it's quite likely that the ship has been torpedoed.
If you're on a submarine and you're attacking a large ship
like a liner what you want to do is to put your torpedoes into
what is called a spread, to give yourself the best
opportunity of hitting the target.
NARRATOR: The two blast holes carry the tell-tale signs
of torpedo attack.
The Baltic is packed with Soviet Subs hunting for German targets.
It's likely that one of them deliberately attacks the Steuben.
But firing on a passenger ship is deeply controversial
and possibly a war crime.
Returning to the drained wreck reveals
some game-changing evidence.
Clearly visible on the aft part of the deck,
two large anti-aircraft guns.
This ship is heavily armed.
The Nazis destroy huge quantities of military records
in the final months of the war.
But, in his quest to uncover the truth,
Maritime Historian Jann Witt tracks down the last surviving
documents about the Steuben.
JANN: Here we see the Steuben in her heyday as a luxury
passenger vessel, a real beauty.
This image shows the Steuben after she was taken over by
the Kriegsmarine as a transport vessel.
The painting has changed from clear white shiny painting to
this dazzle painting camouflaging her silhouette.
NARRATOR: Under the rules of war,
the Steuben is no longer an innocent ocean liner.
JANN: Being a simple troop transport in the service of the Kriegsmarine,
from the point of international law of war,
she was fair game.
NARRATOR: By piecing together all the evidence.
The tragic final hours of this ill-fated ship.
Come clearly into focus.
A massive crowd of refugees reaches Pillau in early February.
They know the Steuben may be one of the last ships out.
Although she's already crowded with soldiers,
the Steuben's captain takes pity and allows over
1,000 civilians to join them.
But this simple act of humanity has appalling consequences.
Just before 1:00 am, while many people are sleeping,
the first torpedo hits the starboard bow of the Steuben.
[explosion].
A few seconds later another explosion rocks the ship,
[explosion].
as a second torpedo detonates.
JAMES: You're a civilian, you've been pushed to a
waterfront in the face of an advancing, vengeful army.
You go out to sea, suddenly there's an explosion,
the lights go out and the ship begins to sink.
It had to be absolute, sheer terror.
NARRATOR: In the freezing Baltic waters,
fewer than 700 of the 5,000 passengers survive.
Nearly a million German civilians do manage to
escape the Soviet Army.
But Operation Hannibal costs the Germans 161 vessels and
over 30,000 lives.
Allied troops are now closing in on Berlin,
but Hitler refuses to surrender.
To turn his fortunes around, he puts his faith in secret weapons.
What can a mysterious wreck off the coast of Norway reveal
about his final throw of the dice?
NARRATOR: In 2003, a Norwegian Navy survey ship
is searching for wrecks.
Two miles off the coast of Fedje Island,
it detects something surprising on the seabed,
around 500 feet down.
A crew explores the site with a remotely operated vehicle.
SCIENTIST: We're about 30 meters off seabed.
NARRATOR: After a short search,
the ROV spots something unexpected.
The unmistakable outline of a submarine.
To understand what kind of submarine it is,
and why it's lying on the floor of the North Sea,
we can now use new data...
To drain the sea bed dry.
The larger sections of the wreck bear the tell-tale signs
of a German U-boat.
But this U-boat is far bigger than any found in these waters before.
Its remains are spread across two separate areas as if torn apart.
Putting all the pieces together reveals the scale of
this massive submarine, a full 287 feet long.
What is this monster of the deep?
JANN: If you find a large German U-boat,
you can be quite sure you've found a Type 9 boat.
They were specially constructed long-range U-Boats
for long range operations.
NARRATOR: Type 9D U-boats can carry an incredible 252 tons
of cargo and they have gigantic fuel tanks,
allowing them to travel all the way around the world
without refueling.
The Germans build only 30 of these monster-subs.
Can that help the team identify exactly which
U-boat this one is?
Returning to the drained wreck reveals a new clue...
Lying broken away near the stern of the sub.
A snorkel.
When extended, it brings air from the surface to the sub's
engines allowing it to remain underwater and undetected for
longer periods of time.
Jann Witt, turns to wartime records,
and discovers that only five Type 9D U-boats are ever
fitted with snorkels.
He's then able to piece together the fate of each.
Two of the subs survive the war and two others
sink in other waters.
That leaves only one unaccounted for, U-864,
a very significant submarine.
War records reveal that in February 1945,
U-864 is on a top-secret mission,
bound for Japan as part of a plot, called Operation Caesar,
to give Imperial forces an advantage against America.
JANN: Operation Caesar was the desperate attempt of
Germany strengthening their Japanese Allies.
Helping them with fighting their war in the Pacific
against the British and the Americans.
NARRATOR: So exactly what is this giant sub carrying to Japan?
To find out the team returns to the ocean floor.
This time, they focus on the keel section of the wreck and
find something intriguing,
six cylinder-shaped metallic canisters.
They're partially buried under the sediment and appear badly corroded.
Any identifying marks are long gone.
SCIENTIST: Yeah go ahead deck.
NARRATOR: So the team sends down an ROV to retrieve one
and find out what secrets it contains.
SCIENTIST: It's on the seabed and it looks good.
NARRATOR: Lab analysis of its contents reveals large amounts of mercury,
a liquid metal that's key to building the
bomb switches and detonators that Japan needs.
But that's not all.
JANN: Onboard U-864 there were top secret new technologies
the Germans had developed in the war,
like modern jet engines.
So it was kind of technology transfer to Japan.
NARRATOR: In 1945 the Nazis are far ahead in the
development of jet-engine technology,
which allows them to build the ME262,
the fastest operational jet-fighter in the sky.
But the prototype engines sent to Japan never arrive.
They remain inside U-864 at the bottom of the North Sea.
So what prevents this sub and its top-secret cargo
from reaching Japan?
Returning to the drained wreck reveals the bow and aft parts
of the submarine lying 100 feet apart on the ocean floor.
Only one thing can explain this.
INNES: When you look at the wreck of U-864 it's very
evident that it's been torpedoed.
I've looked at a number of submarine wrecks over the
years that have been torpedoed and they generally share a
very common feature of being blown completely in half.
NARRATOR: Where does this torpedo come from?
The team investigates maritime war records and discovers
there are no Allied torpedo planes or attack boats in the area.
But there is a British submarine, HMS Venturer.
The Norwegians haven't just found an important missing U-boat.
They've found the casualty of a unique underwater battle.
Now, by combining the scan data and the military records
of two countries, it's possible to recreate the
final dramatic hours of U-864.
On the 9th of February, British codebreakers alert
HMS Venturer to a U-boat in the vicinity.
INNES: Venturer hears the U-boat approaching using its
hydrophones and from that point the hunt begins.
NARRATOR: The standard way to torpedo an enemy sub
is to wait for it to surface.
But the U-864 never comes up.
INNES: The Venturer tracks U-864 for over an hour until
it maneuvers itself into an optimum firing position.
NARRATOR: The Venturer's commander knows the
approximate course of the enemy sub but hitting it
underwater is nearly impossible.
Using 3D targeting he fires a spread of torpedoes and
listens for a result.
INNES: It seems that it was the last torpedo of the four
that were fired that struck U-864 right under the
conning tower and blew it in half.
NARRATOR: U-864 sinks to the bottom of the icy North Sea,
taking 75 men and Hitler's secret technology with her.
INNES: This is the first time a submerged submarine takes
out another submerged submarine with torpedoes.
So it's a historic moment in the history of submarine warfare.
NARRATOR: Hitler's attempt to help Japan is halted by an
extraordinary underwater game of cat and mouse.
JAMES: The mercury reaching Japan would've given them
opportunity to build more caps, firing mechanisms,
fuses, but the jet engine, and the rocket,
had the Japanese gotten that technology and been able to
activate it, it could've been a game changer.
NARRATOR: The loss of the latest Nazi technology is
a major blow to Japan's war effort.
Her generals turn instead to a new and disturbing form of attack.
Does the shattered wreck of an American warship contain
secrets from these terrible and deadly days?
NARRATOR: In the Pacific a brutal amphibious war still rages,
but island by island the Allies are closing in.
JAMES: By April 1945, as the US and its allies push closer
to Japan, the Japanese are desperate.
They're surrounded.
NARRATOR: The Allies are poised to attack Japan itself,
by invading Okinawa.
But the Emperor's government vows to defend the island at any cost.
CRAIG: For the Japanese the American invasion of Okinawa
was an existential moment.
This would be the first time in the war that an American
boot set foot on soil that the Japanese considered
part of the homeland.
NARRATOR: A US Naval force of 1,000 warships
moves towards Okinawa.
Among them, the USS Emmons.
A Gleaves Class Destroyer, she's a fast,
maneuverable warship, whose job is to protect
the larger vessels in a fleet.
Armed with 5-inch guns she packs a powerful punch.
The Emmons is part of a forward line of ships
positioned between Okinawa and Japan.
CRAIG: The Americans dispatch 16 small destroyers out to
what they call the picket radar position,
40-70 miles beyond the fleet that was invading the island
and their job was to identify incoming Japanese threats.
NARRATOR: These heavily armed, radar-equipped ships should be
able to spot the enemy coming, and defend themselves.
But in an unexpected body blow,
[explosion].
the Emmons sinks with 137 casualties.
What goes wrong?
In August of 2000, close to the Emmons' last reported
position, local fishermen spot oil in the water.
The Japanese Coast Guard sends a team to investigate.
Diving soon reveals a large wreck.
Could this be the long-lost destroyer?
As the East China Sea begins to part,
it allows light to fall once again,
on one of the most ferocious battlegrounds of the Pacific War.
She's 348 feet long, a perfect match for
a World War II American destroyer.
Nearby lies a Paravane, a device for sweeping mines.
It leaves little room for doubt,
the USS Emmons carries exactly this type of equipment and is
in this area when she sinks.
She bears signs of an attack from all sides,
but from what?
Is a Japanese warship responsible?
CRAIG: The Japanese Navy had very few arrows left in its
quiver, it had one large battleship, the Yamato,
and a few modified battleships that didn't have enough fuel
to get to sea anyway, so the Japanese Navy was not really
going to interfere with this landing.
NARRATOR: If a battleship doesn't sink her,
can other evidence from the wreck prove what does?
Around 50 feet from the Emmons lie the remains of an engine,
from a plane.
The rest of the aircraft is completely destroyed,
its joystick the only other identifiable part.
The construction of the engine shows the wreckage belongs to
a Japanese plane.
But it's not a fighter or a bomber.
It's a two-seater Type 98 Reconnaissance plane.
How could such a non-combat aircraft attack a ship
in the US fleet?
The answer is that the Japanese are now employing
a new and terrifying style of warfare.
By 1945 most of Japan's greatest air aces are dead,
so the country quickly trains a new generation of pilots.
TOSH: These pilots were not experienced seasoned veteran pilots,
they had been rushed through a flight training school,
and look at these, they're children, they're kids.
15, either college age or high school.
Just incredible.
NARRATOR: The Japanese military doesn't need to train
these young men for very long.
TOSH: These pilots, these novice pilots that can maybe
fly the plane but that's it, and therefore one strategy
that was devised was to use suicide attacks,
so called kamikaze attacks.
[explosion].
NARRATOR: Kamikaze attacks shock the US Navy,
cause huge losses, and spread terror.
JAMES: What they talked about was the abject fear that they
felt as these planes would come out in large numbers and
come on in at you.
And, it kept going, day, after day, hour after hour.
It made war, as they got closer to Japan, sheer hell.
[gunfire].
[explosion].
NARRATOR: Now, using insights from the drained wreck along
with documents from the time we can reveal in detail
exactly what happened to the USS Emmons.
On April 6th, 1945 the Japanese use hundreds of
aircraft to launch the largest kamikaze operation ever,
called '‘Floating Chrysanthemum'.
At 5:32 pm, the first wave of kamikazes approach the Emmons.
She defends herself with everything she's got,
but is soon overwhelmed.
In total, five suicide planes slam into the ship,
fatally wounding her.
CRAIG: 60 sailors on the Emmons died that day and
another 77 were badly wounded.
Others were plucked from the sea.
It must have been horrific.
NARRATOR: Between April and June of 1945 Japan's Kamikaze
campaign reaches its terrifying peak.
More than 2,500 suicide attacks destroy or damage
over 400 warships.
JAMES: The Americans are looking at this, and they're saying,
'‘they're not going to stop, this is horrific!'
What's going to happen when they get to the shores of Japan?
NARRATOR: The Allies need to find a response.
Can a wreck off a remote Pacific island help explain
a new plan to stop the Kamikaze, and end the war?
[explosion].
NARRATOR: By May of 1945, the war in Europe is over.
But Japan remains determined to fight to the bitter end.
CRAIG: Their idea was that they would make the Americans
pay so much in blood and treasure for so long that the
Americans would somehow tire of their loses and agree to
negotiate and bring this war finally to an end.
NARRATOR: Preparations are taking place for a
land invasion of Japan.
Allied planners fear the worst.
JAMES: The numbers are run and it's estimated that this is
going to be an epic slaughter that could last and last,
potentially for over a year.
NARRATOR: The US government faces the prospect of losing
half a million men.
So turns instead to a new weapon.
One they hope will win the war without the need for a ground invasion.
The B-29 Superfortress.
The Superfortress can carry twice the payload of any other
American long-range bomber.
And, crucially, its huge fuel tanks give it a 3,250 mile range,
allowing it to strike deep into Japan from
bases many hundreds of miles away.
But there's a problem.
These high-tech planes are dropping out of the sky
at a frightening rate.
Can finding the wreck of one of these iconic aircraft tell us why?
In July of 2016 a US survey boat investigates a
tantalizing object in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.
It's 1500 miles off the coast of Japan,
not far from Tinian Island.
In World War II, this place is the biggest airport in the world,
home to over 400 B-29s that fly bombing raids
against Japan from here.
So, has the team stumbled upon the remains of one of these planes?
Whatever it is, it's deep, over 1,000 feet down,
so the investigation team sends an ROV to take a look.
WOMAN [over radio]: We have discovered some debris on the sea floor in front of us.
MAN [over radio]: Part of an airplane.
NARRATOR: The ROV illuminates some highly distinctive wreckage.
There's only one plane this can be.
MAN [over radio]: It matches 29 wing.
[inaudible] too.
NARRATOR: How does it end up here?
Draining away the waters of the Pacific Ocean
allows a closer look.
The wing emerges, glinting in the daylight.
After 75 years on the seabed,
it's remarkably well preserved.
The plane is resting upside-down.
Its landing gear is retracted, and there are no signs of any bombs.
Three of the four engines are still attached.
But the rest of the plane is missing.
What could cause such catastrophic damage?
Maritime Archaeologist Megan Lickliter-Mundon has expert
knowledge of these planes.
MEGAN: The pieces of the B-29 are relatively close to each other
that in itself suggests that it was a break-up that
happened on the surface rather than an aircraft exploding in
the air and all of the pieces have a ways to travel before
they even get to the surface of the water.
NARRATOR: Using sonar data and B-29 blueprints we can flip
this mighty Superfortress right side up,
revealing that all three engines have a similar pattern
of damage on their underside.
What kind of crash could cause this?
MEGAN: All of the engines that we could see were all crushed.
That leads us to believe that when this airplane came down
it made a pancake style landing which means it came
down pretty much horizontally.
NARRATOR: It's clear evidence that this bomber does not
suffer a catastrophic loss of control,
it's making a deliberate attempt to ditch at sea.
MEGAN: So our wreck is about right here.
You can see that it's directly off of the flight path for
Tinian's North Field.
NARRATOR: The crash site is only 3 miles from the end of the runway.
This B-29 never made it to Japan.
In fact, it looks like she only briefly made it into the air.
But why does a plane costing billions of dollars to develop
crash on take-off?
Answers may lie in the drained wreck.
NARRATOR: Draining the Pacific has revealed clues to the
tragic fate of a B-29 Superfortress bomber.
MAN [over radio]: This airplane had a rough, rough landing.
NARRATOR: The team needs more evidence to find out
what's gone wrong.
This time they focus on the aircraft's massive engines.
It leads them to a clue, on one of the engines,
the exhaust stacks are heavily corroded and pitted,
signs of fire damage.
But would a fire in only one of its four engines bring down
this sophisticated bomber?
ALLEN: Pre-flight checklist.
NARRATOR: To learn more about what it takes to get a
Superfortress off the ground the investigation turns to
one of the last two airworthy B-29s.
ALLEN: 125 is our abort speed.
Below that we will abort, above that we will fly.
ENGINEER: I am set, ready to go, ready to roll.
ALLEN: The engines on this aircraft, of course,
had to produce a lot of power.
It's a big engine, big aircraft.
So on take-off you know you have turbo charge,
you have super turbo charge, you know they're at their maximum.
NARRATOR: Every B-29 is loaded with a full tank of gas and
the maximum possible bomb load.
The result, a plane that is very heavy on take-off.
ALLEN: Alright at max power.
ENGINEER: Max power. 100.
ALLEN: You're just barely able to fly on four engines.
So if you lose an engine there is no chance that you're gonna fly on three.
NARRATOR: To end the war quickly America is pushing
these planes to their operational limits.
MEGAN: A lot of these B29s were rushed off the line,
they were rushed through testing and they were sent to
the front lines.
So they very quickly discovered that the engines
were underpowering the air frame and that's what led
to a lot of these accidents.
So these were not safe airplanes by any stretch of the imagination.
NARRATOR: US Air Force records reveal that during the war
414 B-29s are lost,
nearly two thirds of them due simply to mechanical problems.
Usually a catastrophic failure of an engine on take-off.
ALLEN: You're out in the Tropics where it's already hot
and they're pushing this up there to max power,
your cylinder head temperatures are probably
already out of limits, it gets too hot,
it's going to melt parts of the engine,
it's going to cause engine failure, fire and so on.
You know the airplane is just going to plop, crash and burn.
NARRATOR: Now by combining evidence from the seabed with
historical records, it's possible to recreate the
likely chain of events leading up to the crash.
On take-off from Tinian Island the B29 develops engine problems.
Preparing for the worst, the crew raises the landing gear
and releases their bombs.
Once down, the plane sinks within minutes.
There's no evidence that any of the crew survive.
Despite constant mechanical problems B-29s play a
decisive role in the final stage of the war.
And on Aug 6th, 1945 a Superfortress named the "“Enola Gay"”
drops an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
A second bomb devastates Nagasaki,
and six days later Emperor Hirohito surrenders.
[cheering].
The wrecks of 1945 survive as a testament to the sacrifices
made by the military and the civilians of all nations.
And a reminder of a year that reshapes the planet.
JAMES: We still live with the legacy of nuclear weapons and
what they might bring.
We also live with the shift of borders,
the shift of great nation states,
the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
1945 was the year that changed the face of the world.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.