The War Archive: The Grey Wolves | U-Boats 1943-1945 (Volume 3)

Volume 3: With the defeat at Stalingrad, the belated need for total mobilization was accepted by Hitler and the slack in German production capacity was taken up in an attempt to produce the equipment needed to service a wider and much longer war. For Doenitz, now Commander in Chief of the Kriegsmarine, the sea was now the U-boat war. A new program for increased production was introduced - 27 Type VII boats a month by the end of 1943 and is illustrated on this film by the activities of the Blohm and Voss yards. However, it was already too late for the U-boat arm, for the allies had moved to close the 'gap'. Large numbers of long-range aircraft, new radar, new weapons and new tactics served only to raise U-boat losses in the Atlantic after mid 1943. By the end of that year Doenitz had lost 237 submarines, 242 in 1944 and 151 in 1945. Increased production and expansion in training could not service such losses. Even investment in new technology -- the revolutionary Type XXI boat and adoption of the schnorkel device - all came too late to make any impact on Germany's declining military situation after late 1943.

This final chapter of the 'Grey Wolves' war is told with fascinating footage covering all aspects of this story. It ends with film of the one man 'Biber' submarine - a last ditch weapon in the face of imminent defeat and the arrest of Doenitz in 1945 - as Hitler's nominated successor and Germany's last Fuehrer.