Hitler's Secret Attack on America

[nikimcbee]

Did anybody else watch this? It was on TV last night on the NatGeo channel.
http://natgeotv.com/za/hitlers-secret-attack-on-america

The show was about Operation Drumbeat, surveying the shipwrecks off Cape Hatteras. I'd give the show a C-. I liked the interviews, one of the people they interviewed was Horst Degen's son, of the U-701. I really liked the ship graphics and models.
I didn't like the fact that they left out a lot of the critical facts during Operation Drumbeat, such as why the US did start convoys until July 42. All of a sudden, shazaam!, the US starts doing convoys and that solved the problem. No criticism of Adm King what so ever. The re-enactments were kinda flunky imo. The "depth charge" they were loading was clearly a garbage can!. I also thought the animations were kinda subpar. But on a good note, they didn't use any U-571 footage. The show felt kinda rushed to me.

[fred8615]

I started watching it, but gave up after the segment mentioning the Nazi saboteur landings. They gave the impression *all* of them were executed (2 weren't), that is was police work that led to their arrest (the 2 men not executed turned themselves in and informed on the rest), and that the whole incident was covered up, despite all the newsreel and newspaper coverage!

After that and the King stuff, I just couldn't take anymore.

[Buddahaid]

I read all this in Clay Blair's "Hitler's U-boat War". I admit I was surprised at the extent of the sinking.

[TorpX]

I read about this in TORPEDO JUNCTION, and one other book, OPERATION DRUMBEAT (?). I too, was surprised by the extent of the problem, and the slow response. It certainly didn't make the Navy, or Adm. King, look good.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by TorpX

I read about this in TORPEDO JUNCTION, and one other book, OPERATION DRUMBEAT (?). I too, was surprised by the extent of the problem, and the slow response. It certainly didn't make the Navy, or Adm. King, look good.

I don't think anybody would have looked good. Too many plates to balance without some getting broken somewhere.

[Cybermat47]

The Convoy: War For The Atlantic series, while using footage from U-571, was very good. When it's talking about Drumbeat, they actually interviewed Reinhard Hardigen, and they were pretty harsh on Adm. King.

[Buddahaid]

So he should have just kept fleet units in the Atlantic and disregarded the Pacific's needs? It was a two front war, and what if the Japanese secured the south Pacific with the subsequent loss of Australia?

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

So he should have just kept fleet units in the Atlantic and disregarded the Pacific's needs? It was a two front war, and what if the Japanese secured the south Pacific with the subsequent loss of Australia?

Im not disagreeing with you, Japan never had invasion plans for Australia. The country's just to big.

[Buddahaid]

OK, but if the Japanese had kept Guadalcanal and captured New Guinea, Australia would have been isolated and the Pacific war quite different, perhaps a loss with Australia eventually starved out. No US, or British war supply would have made the country's prospects in the long term questionable at least. Certainly not a base for sustained aggression in the short term.

In the Atlantic, you also had the power struggle of the Army Air Force and Navy over control of long range aircraft and they're mission objectives, and the presidential backing of the inexpensive PC-461 class which were useless for convoy work but built in large numbers anyway. King was in a tough spot and I think he did quite well given the circumstances.