Japan’s devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor plunged America into war. But it was Hitler who struck ever closer to home. U-boat Wolf-packs prowled the Atlantic and stalked America’s east coast sending ships and crews to the bottom. Hitler’s Secret Attack on America, National Geographic 2012
A forgotten battlefield ... The graveyard of the Atlantic. It’s a treacherous stretch of water. ibid.
Hitler ordered his Wolf-packs to blast American shipping. ibid.
Every U-boat received top secret orders decrypted on the infamous Enigma coding machine. ibid.
Much of the American navy was deployed in the Pacific. ibid.
Large merchant ships were sitting ducks ... German U-boats ruled the waves. ibid.
In America news of the losses on her own doorstep was oppressed. ibid.
Hundreds of ships. Millions of tons of cargo. And thousands of lives were lost. ibid.
Four hundreds miles south of Newfoundland a million-ton chunk of Greenland ice drifts into the north Atlantic shipping lanes. After a journey of more than 1,900 miles it is about to become the most notorious iceberg in history. The Titanic’s story is as iconic as the ship itself. She was the largest and most luxurious liner of her era, and supposedly unsinkable. But a giant iceberg is only part of Titanic’s story. 10 Mistakes that Sank the Titanic, Channel 5 2019
10 mistakes than sank Titanic: 1908: It’s been a warm wet season in Greenland … ibid.
‘On the inside she is opulent beyond belief. They wanted to create the most comfortable Atlantic crossing you could possibly imagine.’ ibid. Alex Churchill, historian and Titanic researcher
An incident that would trigger the first great mistake: The Delay: ‘This public perception that Titanic is not sinkable’ … Prioritising the repairs to Olympic halted Titanic’s construction and delayed her maiden voyage by three weeks. ibid.
More icebergs than usual on the shipping routes. ibid.
‘She was going too fast’ … This excessive speed is the second major mistake.’ ibid.
Smouldering in the deck below something that the company had expressly concealed from its passengers: ‘Titanic was in fact on fire when she left Southampton on her maiden voyage’ … Titanic’s firemen revealed that a fire had taken hold in the coal bunker in boiler room 5. ibid.
The fire would have made the steel walls of the bunker red hot. ibid.
The message never reached Captain Smith. ibid.
The binoculars in the crow’s nest were stored in the second officer’s cabin. But on this particular voyage, the lookouts couldn’t get at them. ibid.
They were staring into an optical illusion. ibid.
The collision was so glancing that hardly anyone realised what had happened. ibid.
Different temperatures affect the strength of steel … When its chilled in subzero water, the steel undergoes a fundamental change … Titanic’s rivets below the waterline would have become similarly brittle. ibid.
The slag in the [iron] rivets can make them even more liable to fracture. ibid.
Down below in the boiler rooms all hell was breaking loose. The iceberg has opened up a hole in Titanic’s hull. ibid.
Bulkheads too shorts … water spills over them flooding all the compartments … Titanic’s bows dip below the surface hoisting her stern high in the air. ibid.
Morse code: ‘CQD CQD This is the Titanic. Have hit a berg. We are sinking by the head’ … ibid.
There was another ship on the horizon … The Californian’s radio operator had already gone to bed having been told to get off the airwaves by Jack Phillips earlier that evening. ibid.
Titanic’s final mistake: Dodging the iceberg: ‘If the iceberg had struck the iceberg head on … that damage would not have been fatal.’ ibid. expert
One of the worst naval disasters of the Second World War … the 1,500 men who died when one of Britain’s most valuable warships was sunk. Secret History s5e2: The Tragedy of HMS Glorious, Channel 4 1997
Why was Glorious there at all? Why did the Admiralty fail to pass on the warning they had received about the German battle group? And why were 900 men left for days to die in the water? ibid.
The Navy’s own Inquiry told as story so embarrassing that its report was to be closed for 100 years. Now, under pressure from relatives, the files have been opened. ibid.
HMS Habakkuk: Aircraft carrier which is made entirely of ice … more than four times the size of the Titanic … He [Churchill] cancels development. The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s1e4: Weird Weapons, History 2024