Hitler's Secret Attack on America (2012)

Hitler’s Secret Attack on America is a documentary film that was shown on the National Geographic Channel in 2012. Here is some basic information about it:

** Directed by Devvon Chivvis

** Written by Bob Goldberg

** Run time: 45 minutes

The title of this program is highly misleading, for two reasons:

# 1. Only a small part (less than half) of this film is an historical account of the German attack on America during World War Two. The major part (more than half) of this film is about a group of divers who are searching for old wrecks along the eastern coast of the US, more specifically along the coast of North Carolina.

The divers hope to locate the wreck of a US cargo ship and the wreck of a German submarine, known as a U-boat. If they can find what they are looking for, they want to send down divers to take a closer look at them. If the wreck is too deep, they plan to use an underwater robot which can take pictures of the wreck.

Most of their plans fail. It is a huge area and they only have a limited time for their search, because the hurricane season is coming up. I wonder why they decided to start their search just before the beginning of the hurricane season. Why not start just after the hurricane season has ended, so you will have plenty of time to search? It seems these divers are not very good at planning their search.

# 2. Hitler’s attack on America was no secret. It was well-known that German submarines were hunting US ships along the eastern coast and in the Atlantic Ocean. In December 1941, when the US entered the war, the US government was not ready to protect the eastern seaboard or the shipping lanes across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1942, during the first year of the war, the captains of the German submarines could not believe how easy it was to find, attack and sink US cargo ships. Only in 1943, did the US forces begin to retaliate.

The German submarine force was defeated in May 1943. In Germany this month was referred to as the Black May, because they lost so many submarines during that month.

If you are interested in diving, I think you will find this program very interesting. But the title is misleading. The film should be announced as a film about divers who are searching for wrecks from World War Two.

The historical part of the film are quite interesting, but as I have already explained, these parts form less than half of the whole film. If you are looking for a historical account about the German attack on America during World War Two, I think you will be very disappointed.

There is another documentary film about the German attack on the US during the war. The title is Nazi Attack on America. It is an episode of the long-running program NOVA which focuses on the history of science and technology. This program was shown on US television (PBS) in 2015.

In this program we also follow some divers who are searching for a wreck from the war, but in this case the diving scenes do not dominate the film and they are closely related to the historical account about the German submarines and their attack on US shipping. If you ask me, this NOVA program from 2015 is better and more interesting than the National Geographic film from 2012.

Hitler’s Secret War on America is not a bad film, but the title is highly misleading. Therefore I think it cannot get more than three stars.

PS For more information about this topic, see the following books:

** Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon (1990, 2009)

** Black May by Michael Gannon (1998, 2010)

** The Burning Shore by Ed Offley (2013)

*****

Nazi Attack on America (2015)

Nazi Attack on America, a documentary film about Germany and the US during World War II, was shown on US television (PBS) in May 2015. It is an episode of the long-running program NOVA that focuses on the history of science and technology (season 42, episode 20). Here is some basic information about it:

** Directed by Kirk Wolfinger and Owen Palmquist

** Produced by Owen Palmquist

** Narrated by Craig Sechler

** Run time: 53 minutes

The US entered WWII in December 1941. A few weeks later, German submarines - known as U-boats - began to attack and sink US ships in the Atlantic Ocean along the eastern coast and in the Gulf of Mexico along the southern coast. At first, the US was not prepared for this type of warfare. There was no black-out along the coast at night and civilian ships were not protected by military escorts.

The commanders of the German subs could not believe how easy it was to attack and sink US ships during the first months after the US entered the war. However, in 1942, the US began to retaliate. And in May 1943, the German submarines were pushed away from the US coast. But until that happened, the US lost hundreds of ships, a lot of precious cargo, and thousands of lives.

In this film, there are two story-lines. The first line is a general account of the Nazi attack on the US.

The second line focuses on a specific case, the German U-boat U-166, which had entered the Gulf of Mexico, attacking and sinking the civilian ship Robert E. Lee. This time, however, the civilian ship was not alone: a US warship was also present. The crew of the US warship saw the periscope of the German U-boat and tried to attack it. Eventually, the US crew watched an oil spill on the surface. The US commander Herbert Claudius assumed he had sunk the German U-boat, but when he returned to base, the naval authorities did not believe him. He was relieved of his command and sent back to school.

Later in life, Herbert Claudius had a long and distinguished career in the US Navy, but he was never able to prove his assumption that he had sunk the German U-boat in the Gulf of Mexico. When he died in 1981, the case was still undecided.

Twenty years later, the wreck of the U-166 was discovered on the bottom of the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2014, the famous oceanographer and explorer Robert Ballard decided to make a detailed investigation of the wreck in order to discover the truth: what happened to the U-166? His findings confirmed that the German submarine had indeed been sunk by Commander Herbert Claudius.

The US Navy admitted that it had made a mistake. In an official ceremony held in December 2014, Gordon Claudius, son of Herbert Claudius, received a medal on behalf of his father.

The film flips back and forth between the two story-lines. Several witnesses were interviewed for the film. They can be divided into two categories. In the first category we have several American witnesses (experts, scholars and government officials):

** Robert Ballard, president, Ocean Exploration Trust

** Robert Church, marine archaeologist

** Gordon Claudius, son of Commander Herbert Claudius

** Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations

** Homer Hickam, author of the book Torpedo Junction (1989, 1996)

** Ray Manus, Secretary of the Navy

** Martin K. A. Morgan, WWII historian

** Timothy Mulligan, author of the book Neither Sharks nor Wolves (2011)

** Axel Niestle, author of the book Details of Destruction (1998, 2014)

** Robert Neyland, Navy History & Heritage Command

** Ed Offley, author of the book The Burning Shore (2013)

** Daniel Warren, marine archaeologist

In the second category we have three German witnesses, who are now deceased. They passed away shortly after making their statements:

** Werner Hirschmann, chief engineer on the German sub U-190

** Horst von Schroeter (1919-2006), watch officer on the German sub U-123

** Erich Topp (1914-2005), commander of the German sub U-552

This film covers an aspect of WWII that is not so well-known. The two story-lines complement each other very well, the first being a general account, and the second focusing on a specific case. It is an interesting story, and in this film it is told very well.

What do other reviewers say about it? On IMDb it has an average rating of 75 per cent, which corresponds to (almost) four stars on Amazon. If you ask me, this average rating is too low. This film gives an excellent account. It is highly recommended. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS # 1. For more information, see the following books by Michael Gannon:

** Operation Drumbeat (1990, 2009)

** Black May (1998, 2010)

PS # 2. The following articles are available online:

** Jon Harper, “Navy admits error, honors World War II captain’s bravery in sinking of u-boat,” Stars & Stripes, 19 December 2014

** Brian Clark Howard, “72 years later, snubbed captain credited with downing German u-boat,” National Geographic, 19 December 2014

** Alan Boyle, “How an Expedition to Study a Sunken Nazi U-Boat Rescued a Reputation,” NBC News, 6 May 2015

*****