BATTLE GROUND
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

Documentaries: Military
2 DVD Set
Running Time: Approx. 222 Minutes
Color and B & W

Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10

$9.98

Disc 1

Wolfpacks
While german panzer division race toward Warsaw, the powerful German navy prepares for an even greater struggle, the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler hurls his U-boats into the Atlantic to sever the arteries that feed Britain. Even before the United States enters the war, the bottom of the Atlantic is a formidable cemetery of Allied ships.

Atlantic Convoy
In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. industry and its armed forces mobilize in an all out effort to go to war. Yet, supply convoys bound from the United States are stalked by German U-boats. Getting supplies to their destinations safe will be a dominating factor throughout the war.

The South Atlantic
As war descends on Europe, Germany's surface force is vastly outnumbered, but the pride of the fleet is the incomparable Graf Spee, a pocket battleship combining maximum hitting power with the greatest possible speed. At the outbreak of war, her orders are to destroy and disrupt enemy merchant shipping by all possible means. Let any ship run about of her, and that ship is doomed.

Commerce Raider
In WWII, the German Navy challenged Allied maritime superiority by pursuing a strategy of economic warfare, called cruiser warfare (Kreuzerkrieg). While the primary agent for the execution of that strategy was the U-boat, Germany also employed ships disguised as noncombatant merchant vessels to attack enemy commerce. This segment combines veteran interviews and archival footage to tell the story of high seas piracy during WWII.

The Mid-Ocean Gap
As Hitler's U-boats harvest victory after victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, the massacre is costing the Allies millions of dollars and thousands of lives. To counteract enemy submarines, a ring of strategic air bases has been forged. In 600-mile sweeps, planes encompass the North Atlantic. But there is still a center ocean gap left uncovered by land based planes.

Disc 2

Crisis In The Atlantic
Since the outset of WWII, Britain's ultimate survival depended on the supply convoys linking her to the immense resources of Canada and the United States. By 1941, the U.S. Navy was playing an increasingly active role in this critical campaign.

Atlantic Patrol
The Royal Canadian Navy, which was tiny in 1939, began an amazing period of growth that eventually made it capable of bearing a substantial part of the fighting in the North Atlantic. This film focuses on the work of Canadian merchant seamen and features an attack on a U-boat by a Canadian corvette.

Sea War - Timely Arrival
By the summer of 1942, one Allied ship was going down every four hours, yet German I-boat losses remained frustratingly low. In response, the British took steps to extend the range and strength of convoy escort by sea and air. As anti-submarine measures became more successful in the waters around Great Britain, German submarines ranged further into the Atlantic in pursuit of the vital convoys that were Britain's lifeline.

D-Day + 3
The invasion of Europe by the Allies was one of the most anticipated, tenuous and ultimately decisive events of WWII, but that fateful day would not have been possible had the Germans been victorious in the Battle of the Atlantic. This film summarizes the tit antic naval effort that was required to make the Normandy landings a success.

Beachhead To Britain
Produced by Warner Brothers in cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard, this short Technicolor film is a tribute to U.S. Navy chaplains assigned to the Coast Guard. The New York Times commented about the film,"the footage photographed by the Coast Guard combat cameramen before and during the coastal invasion phase gives a most graphic comprehension of the assault on the beaches by seaborne troops."

Extra Feature:
A Ship Is Born
Although the Battle of the Atlantic was played out on the sea-lanes, linking the new world to England, ultimately the overwhelming resources and prodigious industrial efforts of the United States and Canada assured victory. This documentary, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1942, documents that effort.