U-Boats & Explosives WW1 Uncut

GUNFIRE MECHANICAL CRANKING

MISSILES WHINE

EXPLOSION

THUNDER RUMBLES LIGHTNING CRACKS

It is really tough in here.

You've got to keep your head out of the water.

My clothes are really dragging me down.

You can't really see where the waves are coming from.

This has only been...less than a minute. And I am already in trouble.

It is not the North Sea, of course, but this sea survival training tank

in Lowestoft can create some very challenging conditions.

I'm hoping for an insight into what may have been like to be attacked

by one of World War I's most effective weapon systems.

It is difficult not to think of the First World War as just a land war

that was fought in the battlefields of western Europe and beyond.

But of course what happened at sea

was of immense importance to the outcome of the war.

Britain's mighty naval fleet protected British trade,

moved troops around, put the squeeze on the enemy economy.

And of course it was there to prevent invasion.

However, the might of the Royal Navy was about to be challenged

by the emerging technology of submarines.

Underwater weapons that the British Admiralty had only seen as defensive.

One of the first U-boat attacks was on the 22nd of September 1914.

Three Royal Navy cruisers, HMS Cressy, Hogue, and Aboukir

were all sent to the bottom of the North Sea

within an hour of each other, by a single U-boat.

It was a devastating attack that made clear

the Navy had a major problem on its hands.

After all, the best way to sink a ship is to put a hole in its bottom.

And that is what U-boat torpedoes were particularly good at.

Even the thought that there could be a U-boat nearby

was enough to affect the behaviour of ships on the surface of the sea,

wary of the dreadful threat that was lurking below.

However, it wasn't just warships that the U-boats were targeting.

In 1915, after much deliberation,

the Germans decided that U-boats should be used

against all enemy shipping.

The British were using their surface fleet to blockade Germany,

to stop them getting vital supplies.

So why shouldn't they use their underwater fleet

to target British shipping?

And so, they declared unrestricted submarine warfare.

And suddenly anyone, in any British ship, was fair game.

One of the most controversial casualties

of unrestricted U-boat warfare was the Lusitania,

a passenger liner torpedoed in May 1915.

Causing the loss of over 1000 civilian lives

as well as tonnes of ammunition bound for Britain.

The sinking turned political and public opinion in the United States

against Germany.

If you were torpedoed and still alive,

the next inevitable step was to abandon ship.

In every survivor account I have read

plans for evacuation just go out the window,

because anything could happen.

But at some point you're going to have to jump in.

At that moment you've got to do everything you can to help people.

Haven't got any life rings here, but I have got a stool, that might help.

And I have got a big chair.

I have got to try to get away from the ship as quickly as possible

to avoid the suction from the big propellers.

Right. Here goes.

It is really tough in here.

This is all I've got to really keep me warm.

But it is really pulling me down.

But I haven't got a life jacket.

Not everyone had life jackets in World War I.

I keep swallowing water.

I have only been in here about 30 seconds. And it is exhausting.

What I need to do...

'After the Aboukir and the Hogue had been torpedoed,

'the crew of the Cressy ripped up as much timber as they could,

'including bar stools and chairs from the mess, for saving lives,

'and they threw it into the sea before they themselves were sunk.'

Even with these chairs, the waves are too big.

When the weather is like this,

you've just got to hold on to survive.

You've got a far greater chance of surviving with other people.

Go on, then, boys. In you come.

'Civilian, merchant seaman or Royal Navy officer -

'it didn't matter.

'Most of those who didn't go down with the ship would end up

'adrift in the water.

'The natural instinct is to group together.'

Come on then! Over here, guys.

Stay together. We're going to link arms and make a circle.

We've got a much...

much better chance of surviving if we stay together.

More than anything, it helps you convince each other that you

actually are going to survive and you can keep an eye on each other.

We're doing OK but I haven't got a life jacket

so can you see any more bits of wood?

Go and get anything that was chucked off the ship that will help. Go.

What you need to do to start off

is just to make sure that the wood doesn't float away.

They'd all hang onto a little bit and hope that the waves ease.

Your body loses heat 26 times faster in water than it does in the air

so what you've really got to do is get out of this water

as quickly as possible.

Be looking around the horizon for ships.

The problem is,

one of the common survival stories from shipwrecks is disappointment

because they see a ship first and it doesn't rescue them.

So keep your eyes on the horizon but prepare yourselves to be let down.

'Fortunately, on that September morning in 1914,

'there was some help for the crews of the three torpedoed British warships,

'as nearby trawlers saved almost 800 lives.

'However, nearly twice as many were lost in the attack.'

By the end of the war,

millions of tonnes of shipping had been sunk by U-boats,

most of its non-naval.

Most of it, merchant ships and some passenger liners.

It wasn't enough to win the war for Germany

but the U-boat war affected the lives of thousands of people

during the war and it changed forever the nature of warfare at sea.

I wasn't in that water for a very long but it was really intense

and very frightening, having the wind and waves

and the rain continually bashing into your face.

And this pool's quite warm.

It must have been horrific out in the North Sea,

those iron grey waters were absolutely freezing.

You realise very quickly

you haven't got much chance at all.

'In World War I, the sea could be as treacherous as the battlefields

'of the Western front.'

SHELL WHISTLES

EXPLOSION

In the middle of Salisbury Plain

and I'm off to meet the Royal Engineers,

who are on a course to learn to use explosives.

People have been blowing things up in war

since gunpowder was invented by the Chinese hundreds of years ago.

And it's still a really important part of warfare.

But it's more complex than you might suspect.

'In World War I, the Royal Engineers were

'pivotal in the development of new types of explosives.

'100 years later,

'and blowing things up is still a vital part of their training.'

This is a strange-looking thing for an explosive.

Looks like a case for a snooker cue.

LAUGHING: No, it's the Bangalore torpedo.

So, it's primarily used for breaching wire obstacles.

Em, in one length, so this is one length of Bangalore torpedo,

you've got approximately two kilos of explosive.

When the explosive detonates, all the metal casing forms into fragments

and then that's what cuts the barbed wire.

We haven't got any razor wire,

but hopefully it's going to cut this to pieces.

Yeah, hopefully, it should, er, it should cut this knife rest to pieces.

It's a pretty powerful explosion.

'The Bangalore torpedo was developed in India by the British Army

'in 1912 in order to clear old booby traps.

'On the Western Front, it was ideal for sliding through barbed wire

'before smashing it to smithereens.

'Barbed wire entanglements were a major problem in World War I,

'presenting a dense and often fatal obstacle

'to soldiers going over the top on the Western front.

'It was notoriously difficult to clear.

'New types of artillery were developed to target the problem

'and the Bangalore torpedo also proved of great use

'in breaking up sections of the wire.

'That's why it's so fascinating to see the Royal Engineers

'still using it a century later.'

Firing! Firing now!

'However, the sheer volume of wire meant that it wasn't until

'the introduction of tanks in 1916 that the British could really

'start to clear the battlefields.'

That was a much bigger explosion than I was expecting

and the sort of steel-crossed structure that was

sitting on top of it was sent cartwheeling across Salisbury Plain.

It's been just shattered by the aluminium casing

which went around the explosives in the torpedo.

You can see how it's shattered into tiny fragments, which has then

cut the steel at one, two, three, four, five...

All the way along here, so if you imagined razor wire,

or barbed wire, being above the torpedo, you can see quite clearly

how these fragments would have just cut the wire and cleared the way.

'After World War I, the Royal Engineers continues to develop

'the use of explosives, using increasingly sophisticated devices.

'Yet, the type of targets they are trained to blow up today

'would also have been common targets for explosives a century ago...

'..such as taking out bridges...

'..or smashing through concrete bunkers.

'Today, the biggest charge is being used to blast out a huge crater...'

Firing! Firing now!

'..big enough to block off a road and impede enemy traffic.'

That was amazing.

There was a huge column of chalk and mud fired up into the air.

I can feel a really powerful shock wave come through these walls

and this is two feet thick of concrete

and we're a good long way away from the explosion,

but you could really feel it come through the walls.

And being up on Salisbury Plain's amazing

because you've got waist-high grass all around the range

and you could see the effects of the blast

flatten the grass in all directions.

And I think, more than anything else, that really makes you

appreciate the awesome power of the explosives that they're using.

Whoa!

HE LAUGHS

It's an enormous crater!

It would take several men several hours to dig up

something like this, but it happened just like that.

'In World War I, the Royal Engineers had specialist tunnelling units

'to lay down charges beneath enemy trenches

'and on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme,

'they were behind one of the biggest explosions in modern warfare

'when over 25,000 kilos of explosives were used

'in a blast against the German front-line.

'The resulting shock waves were felt hundreds of miles away.

'Not that the Engineers' work was restricted to destroying things.

'Towards the end of the war,

'its units played a vital role in assisting the British advance.

'Their work included road and rail repairs

'and bridging rivers and canals.

'Watching these Royal Engineers training to use explosives

'for combat zones such as Afghanistan is a real reminder

'how, in many respects, World War I saw the birth of modern warfare.

'New problems required new solutions,

'providing the foundations for much of the military's operations today.'

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

SHELL WHISTLES OVERHEAD

PLANE FLIES OVERHEAD, EXPLOSION

MILITARY DRUMMING