HELL BELOW, July 17 - Smithsonian Channel to Premiere New 6-Episode Series
 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/a...-717-20160614#

https://www.facebook.com/HellBelowTV/

American subs and U-Boats, looks really good! :arrgh!:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=8935

Awesome, thanks for the heads up Neal !

Great, thanks for the heads up - though being in the UK I'll have to wait till I can stream it all in one go :)

wooohooo! best news this month :woot:

Thanks for the heads up. :up:

Looks good. The clips look very interesting. Unfortunately I can't the program :-? in Denmark. Will have to wait until it pops up somewhere else. Have looked for it on YouTube but nothing yet.

Thanks for the tip Neal:up:

Must find a source :hmm2:

Can't get it in the Uk

They have a channel on YouTube.

I'm glad that we have the chance to get the Smithonian channel here, given the insane amount of restricted content we have in Germany. I think they might follow the policy they have about other series: you can watch the first episode for free, then have to pay for the others. Sounds fair to have a sneak peek for free, though I haven't checked out how much of a hassle the payment options for us Euros are.

Try this video source: https://vimeo.com/159822425

I got an email from the Production Coordinator with a link to the title sequence.

I've seen a lot of history and WWII programs in the last 15 years or so, and Hell Below really looks like a fresh and authentic approach, with current fx. Looking forward to seeing the initial installment soon.

http://smallscreen.monstersandcritic...reats-of-wwii/

Smithsonian’s Hell Below reveals the terrifying unseen threats of WWII

Just wondering could someone tell me why the wording between the Allies and
Axis is different ?
(as stated in OP)
strategic masterminds behind the brutal tactics of Nazi U-boats and reveals the extraordinary feats of Allied subs in the Atlantic and Pacific.

The Allied sub forces had the same orders as the Axis sub forces.
Even Nimitz said so at Donitz's trial after the war.

Still looking forward to the programs though.

^ as already Churchill said, the good ones are the submarines, the bad ones are the U-boats. "We" (Germany here) lost the war, so it is being told from a certain perspective.. :03:
But i like all documentaries, also looking forward to this one.


A bit of background as i see it:
The trial of KLt. Eck was a very bad example of justice. The court obviously needed a scapegoat, and the fairness of said trial is doubtful. It did not help that the accused and his defender were not properly prepared. The court could not provide evidence that Eck and the boat's doctor (also a combatant b.t.w.) had intentionally shot at survivors, but Eck and two crew members were shot.
Not one US captain was accused of shooting at shipwrecked, nor was any UK captain. While there is evidence some did.

For what i read and heard, german U-boat commanders and crews cared more for shipwrecked if the situation allowed, than their enemies. Not that allied crews did not also save german shipwrecked, but there seems to be a certain difference in proportion. And then the US submarine war in the pacific.

This is especially true for the german boats of WW1. The book "Die U-Boote des Kaisers" (~ "The Kaiser's U-boats") is a real good book about it, but i think it has not been translated into other languages.
Story about english trawler crews that met the same U-boat sinking their ship over and over again, and then again towing them towards the british coast. This was not an isolated case, but the british crews were not allowed to talk publicly about it, by threat of death penalty (traitors and all that).
The so-called "german unrestricted U-boat war" in WW1 was never really unrestricted, opposite to the british who conducted the war unrestricted and totally, from beginning to the end.

Victor's justice?
 

First episode, Kretschmer and Schepke, pretty good.

^^ Shooting at hospital ships is definitely crossing the border, and then gunning down survivors.. :nope: as far as i know there were two cases in WW1 regarding german boats. In both cases the crew seems to have objected, but it was done all the same. I read about one case where the german captain was obviously trying to, so to speak, "destroy evidence" and spare his country the shame, after he realized he had been torpedoing a hospital ship. No excuse, of course.
Regarding Entente or allied action and its unrestricted war of this kind, it has seldom been a subject of discussion.

The situation was a bit tight though, regarding especially the british (ab)used hospital and civilian ships as military transports, or all sides flying false flags as in the Baralong case and other british "Q-ships", or the german auxiliary cruisers/commerce raiders. Again, the latter behaved a lot more honourable, they were intially equipped to take the crews of the sunk enemies aboard and detain them, instead of killing. U-boats did not have the capability to do so, which is why german U-boats in WW1 often towed life boats of their enemies to the coast, if the situation permitted. Also seldomly heard of.

The captains of german U-boats, commerce raiders and auxiliary cruisers and their actions in WW1 were celebrated in Germany until long after WW2, not only because of doubtful heroism, but becasue of humane and honourable action. There are a lot of german books about this, Graf Luckner with his "Seeadler, or the "Emden" with von Mueller and von Muecke, and the fate of its crew are two examples.
Looking at WW2 and the Laconia incident, i also seldom heard of such things done by the Allies. Which does not mean it did not happen. Did it?

Also, arming civilian british ships with guns already in WW1 (forbidden by international law b.t.w.) rendered the international prize regulation useless, and it is still well worth to mention that most of the german U-boats still stopped enemy shipping allowing the crew to man the lifeboats; even if the merchants were armed, and even in the (relatively short!) times of german "unrestricted" U-boat warfare. Almost all german captains of the time utterly refused to lead an unrestricted war. Not so the Entente captains.

In Eck's case in WW2 it was fear of being found by planes, put in him by two other U-boat captains before parting, who had warned him about detection and the chances of survival, in a big, slow-diving boat in perfectly transparent tropical waters. He tried to sink all the debris, including life rafts, that could be seen from the air. As he stated he did not intentionally shoot at shipwrecked persons, though the destroying of life rafts certainly put the latter in a very bad situation to say at least.
None of the survivors were allowed to join and speak up in the trial.
Eck sure was not proud of his action, as his comments and answers in the trial suggest, he did not destroy the logbook, he paid the price.
Performing such action as an allied commander, he probably would have been a decorated hero, and another modern sub would bear his sub's name, and number. Like the HMS Torbay.

OT perhaps this is why Germany is against the death penalty and warning Turkey not to reinstate the penalty :yep:

Watched it.Such a ****y documentary.Half the episodes were about U-boats and half about American subs in the Pacific.Who cares about American subs in the Pacific.NO ONE !!! that's who.It's just not the same as a German U-boat war in Atlantic.

And another thing, CGI is a crap, CRAP.They had, I think, two torpedo launch and hit animations, and they used it all the time.Complete CGI work was terrible.If they used clips from Silent Hunter 5 it would be 100 % improvement.

Wrong. I care about American subs in the Pacific. A lot of people do. It's nice to submarine warfare done right.