Name: Revealing Hitler's Killer Warships (Full Episode) | Drain the Oceans | National Geographic
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T17:08:15.000Z
Duration: 47 min 23 s
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An armada of super ships sent out to conquer the world.

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When these ships were being built, they seemed revolutionary.

But in a series of epic battles, Hitler's mighty killer warships are sent plunging to the bottom of the seas.

Imagine if we could empty the oceans, letting the water drain away to reveal the secrets of the seafloor.

Now we can, using accurate data and astonishing technology to bring light once again to a lost world.

What can shattered remains in a Norwegian Norwegian fjord tell us about the Nazi Navy's fatal weakness?

The Norwegians decided they ought to open fire, which they did with very great effect.

Can a tangled wreck in South America reveal the truth behind a shocking sacrifice?

Hitler would have preferred a blazing battle out of a Wagner opera.

And can the remains of Hitler's largest ever battleship reveal evidence of a secret Allied wonder weapon?

In the 1930s, Britannia still rules the waves with the world's largest and most powerful navy.

But as soon as Hitler seizes power in 1933, he sets out to challenge it.

Hitler had introduced this plan to build this huge fleet.

10 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 160 destroyers, tens of cruisers.

When the war begins in 1939, much of this gigantic fleet is still on the drawing board.

Powerful ocean raiders capable of matching anything in the Royal Navy immediately deploy with deadly effect.

In the South Atlantic, Nazi raider Graf Spee is hunting down merchant convoys carrying vital supplies to Europe.

In just three months, she sinks nine, nine ships.

Three British cruisers, Exeter, Ajax and Achilles spot their enemy off the coast of Uruguay.

It's the first major sea battle of World War II for the Graf Spee.

But at the battle site itself, there's no sign of her.

Jim Delgado, maritime archaeologist from Search Inc. Is heading into the treacherous river plate, searching for the wreck.

The waters here are turbulent and murky, so Jim is using high tech multi beam sonar to scan the estuary.

We're in shallow water, very shallow waters, between 8 to 10 meters.

With him is experienced Graf Spey researcher Alfredo Echegarry.

The Graf Spee is a small battleship for good reason.

After World War I, German naval construction is tightly regulated.

Her warships must be small in number and size.

But Hitler works around the rules, creating a class of warship that's Compact, but also very powerful.

Graf Spee is designed to be a fast hit and run raider.

With her thin in armor plating, the Graf Spee is light, fast and maneuverable and armed to the teeth.

Six 11 inch guns and eight torpedo tubes.

You've got your bow here, decking is missing there.

But there's forward gun turret right here.

So why is it lying on the ocean floor here, far from the scene of the battle?

There's something more that goes on here.

The waters here are dangerous, with almost zero visibility.

But by using the scanned data, we can make the South Atlantic disappear to let light fall once again on one of Hitler's favorite warships.

Seeing the Graf Spee for the first time in 80 years.

Much of her is intact, But the hull has suffered badly.

And at the stern, the whole rear section is blown off completely separated from the hull.

3 small British vessels were outgunned and outmatched by Graf Spee.

Spey pounds the British cruisers, causing immense damage.

But then the German captain makes a tactical error.

He moves in too close, Allowing the British to surround their prey.

The three British cruisers peppered Graf with 8 inch and 6 inch shells.

But the shell damage alone could not have been enough to sink her, because the wreck is here, hundreds of miles from the battle site.

Local archives show that on December 14, the Graf Spee sails into the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo for essential repairs.

Her captain, Hans Langsdorff, thinks his ship will be safe in this neutral country.

When he came in here, he was low on ammunition.

He had a ship that was shot full of holes, hit some critical systems down.

And he also had a thousand crew, many of them young boys.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy is gathering strength offshore.

And all the time they keep watch in international waters, waiting to see what he'll do.

Langsdorff requests 15 days to make essential repairs.

Uruguay might be neutral, but the Allies are important trade partners.

So the government gives him just three days.

Remain in Uruguay and have his ship impounded, or leave port and face the British fleet.

The difficult choice he now has to make is does he go back out and fight or does he do something else?

With a battle scarred ship and low on ammunition, Langsdorff leaves port with just a skeleton crew.

He decides to do something else, and that's the scuttling ship.

At 7:55pm on December 17, massive charges on the ship explode.

Bombs carefully placed by the Graf Spay's own crew.

One is so powerful the stern is blown clean off.

The graph's bay starts to sink into the mud of the River Plate.

What Hitler would have preferred was something out of a Wagner opera.

With Langsdorf and his crew dying heroically in a blazing battle that saw Graf Spee explode and sink.

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Revealing Hitler's Killer Warships (Full Episode) | Drain the Oceans | National Geographic

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