The total engulfment of World War II reaches its point of no return through two radically different yet interconnected naval theaters of operations, sealing the fate of Western democracies. This exceptional archival document decodes the military strategies and wartime propaganda that orchestrated the ruthless submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean before diving into the heart of the surprise attack that plunged the United States into the global conflict. The war of attrition waged in the frozen abysses to suffocate Great Britain thus finds its direct echo in the precision aerial mechanics deployed by the Empire of Japan to annihilate the American Pacific Fleet.
The clash for control of the North Atlantic sea routes begins as early as September 1939, when British communication lines become the priority target for Hitler’s admirals. Facing a dramatically under-equipped Allied merchant navy, the German Navy deploys its formidable submarines within grouped offensive tactics, passed down to posterity as “Wolfpacks.” The capitulation of France and the occupation of its strategic ports offer U-boats an ideal starting base, multiplying their threat level at the entrance of trade routes. Despite the courage of the first Canadian convoys and the progressive engagement of the US Navy in cargo protection well before its official entry into the war, the ocean floor transforms into an immense cemetery of Allied ships, bringing England close to starvation for a time.
This Western vulnerability pushes Tokyo’s militarists to design a bold plan to permanently establish Japanese hegemony in Asia under the banner of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Under the leadership of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a powerful assault force including six of the imperial navy’s most modern aircraft carriers sets sail secretly across the North Pacific while observing absolute radio silence. On December 7, 1941, waves of Japanese bombers and torpedo planes descend upon the Pearl Harbor naval base on Oahu Island, catching American forces completely off guard even as diplomats in Washington try to decode Tokyo’s ultimatums. The partial annihilation of the American battle fleet and the destruction of the Hickam Field military airfields offer the autocratic regime its greatest propaganda victory, without realizing that the smoking ruins of the Hawaiian base would awaken the destructive industrial and military might of the United States.
Original Series: (NBC, 1952–1953) produced in close collaboration with the US Navy.
Archival Footage: A powerful compilation of official combat reels and period newsreels from American, British, German (Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda), and Japanese government archives.
