
Battle Stations - The Battle of the Atlantic
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Narrator/Reporter
Battle stations. Battle stations.
NBC Announcer
The National Broadcasting Company's Department of Special Events cooperating with the United States Navy presents on this and the three succeeding board is entitled Battle Station. Tonight the battle of the atlantic part 1.
Narrator/Storyteller
Here is a page for history. Here is the story, still incomplete, of a grim uphill fight of a frantic hunt in 3 million square miles of water for hundreds of submerged needles the submarines of the Axis. Here is the story of the Battle of the Atlantic. That Sunday the Japanese serpent struck our western side.
Narrator/Reporter
The White House reports that there has been a Japanese attack on United States
Narrator/Storyteller
bases at Pearl Harbor. This was it. And suddenly things the man on the street had never thought of became vitally. Oh, yes, Urgent, important.
Scene/Action Describer
On map of Atlantic and eastern seaboard states of United States. The dotted line parallel to the coastline 300 miles offshore marks the limits of the area to be known for a time as U Boat Alley.
Narrator/Storyteller
They were there, the U boats. They were there somewhere. A neutrality patrol from Halifax to Reykjavik
Navy/Army Officer
knew they were there.
Narrator/Storyteller
Saw 57 of them. Yes, the U boats were there. And there was tenseness along the sea lanes whistling at night on a dark road past the graveyard. January 1st. Still no attacks, but they were there. The U boats were there. The word of one man is awaited. This man has laid his plans well. 29 of his 50 years are invested in preparations for the battle that awaits just his signal word.
Scene/Action Describer
Illustration. Thin lipped man, seamed face. Creator and commander of Germany's U boat fleet. Fleet Vice Admiral Karl Denitz. Sitting at his desk at Kyiv. As he speaks, he looks at the wall portrait of Spike, bearded old Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, godfather of unrestricted U boat warfare in World War I. He's answering an anxious inquirer. We shall sink Ms. Ship if they sail alone or in convoy.
Narrator/Storyteller
Have a way,
Scene/Action Describer
Grand Admiral Turpitz. The Uboat credo. The deed is all.
Narrator/Storyteller
Yes, the U boats are there. There is laughter beneath the sea.
Scene/Action Describer
The interior of a Nazi submarine. This is the crew of a newborn. They're gay and not without reason. For it's been very hot for them of late in their operations near the western approaches to the British Isles. Now they have the entire Atlantic to prowl. They're happy. A new hunting ground and a fascinating technique to practice. The technique is called we know it as the Wolf packed strategy.
Narrator/Storyteller
The U boats were there but not heard from. January 1st, 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th.
Scene/Action Describer
Loose fire.
Narrator/Storyteller
Kinder spiel.
Navy/Army Officer
But when we.
Narrator/Storyteller
This is too easy. This is simplicity itself. Told themselves. Soon they would be operating in our rivers, they thought. And the 10 following days supported that belief. Seven ships sunk 49,000 tons. And the actions of the Uboat crews demonstrated they had learned from Tirpitz. Credo. The tat is Alice.
Scene/Action Describer
Illustration. Crew of a merchant ship torpedoed off the east coast in a lifeboat. Keep your shirts on. Let's surface to see if we got water and provisions. Nuts.
Narrator/Reporter
They don't need a man their guns to find that out.
Narrator/Storyteller
Hey, maybe they're going to take some
Scene/Action Describer
of us aboard for questioning. Down. Down in the bottom of the boat. L machine gunning us.
Narrator/Reporter
I.
Scene/Action Describer
Detard ist Alice.
Narrator/Storyteller
The deed is all. The rules have been made for the campaign. Rules with words written by a bloody finger across the face of them. Be ruthless. They had been dashing cavalierly figures among Germany's submarine commanders in the last war. Ruthless in their destruction of merchant tonnage, but solicitous over the welfare of the survivors. Not Dernitz's men, United States Merchant Marine was to learn that there was much to be learned. If you hope to get your ship there, Captain, you'll have to change quite a few of the old habits. There are hundreds of Nazi submarines in the Atlantic. You'll have to stay in as close to shore as you can.
Navy/Army Officer
You know navy men know how to handle fighting ships. But I've been master of a ship since I was that high. I want to be out where I can move around.
Narrator/Storyteller
You won't find much space to move around in Davy Jones locker room. There was a lesson to learn. And many merchantmen went to Davy Jones locker to learn it. Closer and closer the shipping moved in to hug the shoreline. And bolder and bolder the U boats became. Soon the front yard of the United States was in truth U boat alley. Each TNT laden shark that churned through the coastal waters struck a blow that was felt throughout the frontier.
Scene/Action Describer
SOS SOS City of Memphis torpedoed. 68 degrees 11 minutes west. 42 degrees 20 minutes north.
Narrator/Reporter
Sinking fast. Abandoned ship ordered.
Naval Officer
SOS Naval District to Eastern Sea Frontier.
Narrator/Storyteller
Go ahead.
Naval Officer
SOS picked up City of Memphis. Torpedoed 68 degrees 11 minutes west 42.
Narrator/Storyteller
Message received. City of Memphis 68 degrees 11 minutes east. 42 degrees 20 minutes north. Ensign, take this information to the potting room. Another sinking. In just a matter of minutes. From the Time. The radio transmitter of the stricken ship spoke its last words. A young ensign strode into the huge room on whose walls spread a map of the Atlantic. And with a long pull pulled from the face of the map a numbered green disc of celluloid that had represented the city of Memphis. And a black sliver of celluloid that represented the submarine moved to supplant it. Yes, here was the information on which to act. But where were the ships with which to strike back? It is past midnight. But lights of the Eastern Frontier Command burned late that night. Early in 1942.
NBC Announcer
Yes, another sinking, sir, off Boston.
Naval Officer
Thank you. Gentlemen, while we've been talking, another ship has gone down. The U boat is able to lie outside our zones of plane patrol until dark. Then steal into strike. There's a remedy, gentlemen. We must find it.
Navy/Army Officer
Why wasn't that ship using the Cape Cod Canal?
Naval Officer
That isn't the answer. Only the smaller boats can use the canal. Well, then, the solution is for shipping to move by daylight only. Now from Boston to Long Island Sound can be made by daylight. New York, the Delaware Capes is another daylight run from the Capes to Chesapeake Bay is still another.
Scene/Action Describer
We'll add one third to shipping time. But I see no other solution.
Naval Officer
Still, that doesn't solve the problem of the traffic below. Norfolk. Norfolk to Charleston. What there? Your suggestion seems the best, Captain. Minefields will have to be sown. And our shipping will have to take haven in them. During the hours of darkness,
Narrator/Storyteller
There was laughter beneath the sea. The vital coastwise shipping had been slowed perceptibly. And the nation felt it. Coffee on the ration list. Sugar on the ration list. That put the frothy head on the beer of Nazi laughter. The basis of the laugh was satisfaction. Crucially needed. War materials were not reaching their destinations on time. Illustration.
Scene/Action Describer
An officer of the Navy addresses an officer of the army.
Narrator/Reporter
We believe it's within your power to solve one of our most pressing problems, sir.
Narrator/Storyteller
Then maybe your problem's solved. What can we do to help?
Narrator/Reporter
The U boats have moved in on our eastern sea frontier. And they're able to operate close to our shores. Because the patrol planes we have, of which I'm afraid there are too few, aren't able to patrol out far enough. The cruising range is too short.
Narrator/Storyteller
Sounds like a job for our long range bombers.
Narrator/Reporter
That was our thought. If we patrol 500 miles up, the U boats will be forced away from our shore.
Narrator/Storyteller
Then I'll see to it that an army bomber command is transferred to your control at the earliest possible moment. You will mark many turns in the battle of the Atlantic. This was one. An army bomber command was transferred to the Navy. And its men were trained in the tasks of the Navy. Army flyers learned to identify ships from aloft, learned to carry out the tasks of shore patrol. An army bomber command became a Navy task force. And the Navy, from this public place expresses its gratitude and thanks. For the U boats slowly were forced farther out to sea and around was one. And daily, hourly, the workers in the shipyards of America were doing their bit to choke the laughter that came from beneath the sea.
Scene/Action Describer
A young lady stands on the platform gripping the neck of a champagne bottle. She raises it and brings it down on the sleek bow of the ship.
Narrator/Storyteller
And crashing down the waves of navy shipyards came another answer to the U boat destroyers. Enough so that by the 14th of May, our coastwise shipping was traveling in convoys from Norfolk to the Gulf. Then within a month, enough to convoy from New York to the Caribbean. And the effectiveness of the submarine decreased by 95%. There were sinkings, yes, a few, but at a fearful price. For the escort vessels knew their jobs. They had learned.
Scene/Action Describer
Illustration. Aboard the USS Fury, an officer stands with an observer, watching an efficient crew man a Y gun.
Naval Officer
Well, you think you'll get the devil?
NBC Announcer
We'll see.
Narrator/Storyteller
If we don't, it won't be because we don't know how. You see, we've learned how to toss them out in an effective pattern. There goes the first one. If it isn't deep enough, the next one will be.
Naval Officer
I wouldn't like to be caught between the two.
Narrator/Storyteller
I doubt if the men down below care for it either.
Naval Officer
Hey, how can you be sure when you've got yourself?
Narrator/Storyteller
They don't chalk up a score at headquarters until we bring in the U boat skipper's pants to prove it. Who knows when you do get one, Somebody knows. Dernitz. Journey. Silent transmitters told him.
Scene/Action Describer
Hello?
Narrator/Storyteller
No, U73 will not answer. U73 has spread its blanket of oil on the Atlantic battlefield, to be dissipated by the unconcerned waves and forgotten to all except the man who runs his fingers through close cropped hair, turns and glares at the face of Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz. The unoffended portrait returns the stare. I didn't have the answer in 1918. The painted eyes say. Have you?
Scene/Action Describer
They cannot convoy everywhere. Order them to move to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Narrator/Storyteller
If Donitz thought the United States Navy could not convoy within the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, it was because he could not hear the crash of countless Magnums of champagne against the prows of new escort vessels. That sound could not be heard across the Atlantic. But it could be heard where laughter was dying beneath the sea.
Scene/Action Describer
The tense crew of a U boat that had a few minutes before been attacking a seemingly helpless merchantman now watch an indicator that marks the depth of their dive. One remarks that something has gone wrong. Another observes that that is not unusual. Of late, this crew can be seen tense as a depth charge thunders nearby. There is little laughter now. One tries to joke, says that maybe this is the way they're to get the leave they've been promised. He is told that he is not so funny. The craft quivers like a wounded animal as a depth charge releases its might nearby. One is sure that some of the seams have been opened by that charge. The speed of the descent that once seemed quite adequate does not seem so now. One of the crew remarks that the Americans are learning too much too fast. And his fellow crew members seem to agree.
Narrator/Storyteller
Don't be misled. The battle was not going our way even then, far from it. Sinkings were increasing. Figure 2.
Scene/Action Describer
Sinkings in ships. From January 14, 1942 to May 14, 1942, 175 ships sinkings in ships. From May 14 to September 14, 197 ships.
Narrator/Storyteller
Sinkings were increasing. But now the Eastern sea frontier under the command of Vice Admiral Adolphus Andrews was being armed and the Navy was striking back. The U boats had been driven to a greater degree from U boat alley, forced out into the sea to prey on lone ships which were too fast to travel in the convoys. But the varieties of U boat attack are infinite. And Donitz's voodle system had its share of successes.
Scene/Action Describer
We are traveling in a convoy eastward.
Narrator/Storyteller
Number four one. Number four one.
Naval Officer
Alter your course two points to starboard.
Scene/Action Describer
It is dark and silent this night. Only the sound of our prow slashing into the sea ahead is heard. That and the hum of the engines below. No light showing, but there are shapes in the mixture of moonlight and haze. Other ships in the convoy in files, 200 cables apart, cutting a zigzag course through the black waters. A submarine pack has been reported in this area. Then suddenly the hitherto silent radiophone begins to speak.
Narrator/Storyteller
Submarine sighted, off to port. All right, go after it.
Scene/Action Describer
The screen of ships in the escort line turns off to stalk down the marauder and the merchantmen of the convoy move along in the silver haze. Then an explosion. Flames leap from a stricken tanker. The darkness gone. Seen a nightmare of red light and ships thrown into silhouette more torpedoes find their marks.
Narrator/Storyteller
S. Dernitz had a way a submarine would allow itself to be sighted this to draw up the escort vessels in pursuit. Then the other members of its pack worked into the center of the convoy and fired torpedoes in all directions. It worked once, then with variations again, then with still other variations again, but with decreasing success. For experience, the teacher had brought defense almost even with attack. It merited a cautious word of optimism.
Narrator/Reporter
Can you say anything for publication on the battle against the sub, sir? I can say that some of the recent visitors to our territorial waters will never enjoy the return portion of their voyage. Furthermore, the percentage of one way traffic is increasing while that of two way traffic is satisfactorily on the decline. But there will be no information given out about the fate of the submarine excursionists who don't get home until that information is no longer of aid and comfort to the enemy. The Nazis think themselves pretty clever in the field of psychological warfare. Secrecy surrounding the fate of their submarines is a counter blow the American people can give them, which may serve to shake some of their super confidence.
Narrator/Storyteller
How was the super confidence of the men who not long ago laughed under the sea? The words spoken in a press conference soon crackle in the air. And submarines have ears. Illustration.
Scene/Action Describer
The crew of a submarine listens.
Narrator/Reporter
I can say that some of the recent visitors to our territorial waters.
Scene/Action Describer
These men never affect a casual mocking expression. Their radio has told them of the ineffectiveness of the American defenses against submarines. But their radio has lied to them than before. They laugh, but their laughter has a hollowness that causes them to look aside at their crewmates. Could not this be true? Their eyes ask. One is bold enough to venture a question of how much of this is true, Claudia. None of it, another responds. It's all rubbish. And they eagerly agree among themselves. But they are interested. The idiot blowing about now. Faces must not betray it. Each resolves to himself. But there could be something to all this talk of U boats being destroyed. This bold fellow suggests that our radio probably exaggerates as theirs does. It goes on to recall that a 3,000 ton vessel they had sunk was reported on the Nazi transmitters as being attended. Thousand ton ship. This is the seed of doubt that will grow.
Narrator/Storyteller
The seed of doubt is planted and it will grow. Yes, the number of sinkings was steadily increased, increasing. But in the most part this was because of the daring born of desperation that drove the U boat commanders in their efforts to stop the flow of war materials that were slowly blunting the knife of Nazi attacks against the Russians. The German losses in submarine were commensurate with hours in shipping. How many were sent to the bottom is a secret that only the end of the war will bring to light. A cautious statement from the Navy department said that all was going reasonably well. Which means that the opposite is true with the affairs of the man behind the desk beneath the portrait at Kiel. At some time between 14 January 1942 and today, the tide turned in the Battle of the Atlantic. It'll be for future historians and not this report to name the moment, but it may have coincided with a statement made by Secretary of Navy Knox on the night of April 22nd of this year.
Scene/Action Describer
He said,
Navy/Army Officer
every submarine they have or can build in an effort to cripple our striking power before it can be aimed at their throat. We accept that challenge, and in accepting it we are confident of victory. Therefore, this is in effect, a warning to the officers and men of the Nazi submarines that each combat voyage they undertake will be more dangerous than the last. This is an honest warning to the crews of German U boats that each time they go out there will be a sharply increasing likelihood that they will not come back. Here is the reason why we are now building, both in Navy and private yards, destroyer escort vessels by the dozens.
Scene/Action Describer
Yes, the Secretary's words were heard in the enemy U boats. Prisoners taken from captured submarines since tell of hearing. And they were heard by the man who sits beneath the forklift of von Tirpitz behind a desk in an office.
Navy/Army Officer
And they are releasing our regular destroyers for combat duty in the Pacific and elsewhere. In addition to vastly increased offensive power on the surface, our aerial protection is being stepped up to a vast extent. We are building auxiliary and converted aircraft carriers literally by the dozens. Like the destroyer escort vessels. These convoy carriers are not something projected for the future. They are already in action. New ones are being added at a rapid rate. These carrier aircraft will be supplemented by long range patrol planes operating from land bases. Finally, we have developed and are introducing certain new anti submarine weapons which we prefer the Germans to learn about in action. The Battle of the Atlantic, before it is finally decided, is bound to mean more losses on both sides. But if Hitler suffers enough losses in submarines and crews, he will not be able to replace them. With all our resources. We are working toward the day when Hitler will be forced to admit that he is beaten in the Atlantic. When that day comes, the end of Nazi power will be in sight.
Narrator/Storyteller
You have heard the history of the Battle of the Atlantic to what we may hope has been its turning point. And there is another story, the story of the men and the mechanisms by which the battle has been brought to this favorable turn. That will be told in part two of this document. The Battle of the Atlantic.
NBC Announcer
This has been the first in a series of four programs prepared by the Special Events Department of NBC in cooperation with the Navy Department. Raymond Edward Johnson was heard tonight as the narrator. Tonight's report was written by Charles Gusman. The music was composed and scored by Leo Campinski, and the orchestra was directed by Joseph Sto.
Scene/Action Describer
Pakistan.
NBC Announcer
Battle Stations was directed by Joseph Mansfield. Next Thursday at this same time. Battle Stations. Nursing is one of the highest callings in the service of mankind, and there can be no more exalted service than that to which a nurse dedicates herself saving lives. And right now, there's an urgent and immediate need for student nurses. America needs 65,000 new student nurses now to join the US Cadet Nurse Corps at once. These students are needed to replace the nurses who have already gone into the armed services. So if you would like to be a nurse, Write to the U.S. cadet Nurse Corps, Box 88, New York City. That's U.S. cadet nurse corps, box 88, New York City. And they'll be happy to send you information about how you can join the Corps. The US Cadet Nurse Corps, Box 88, New York City. However, please do not write unless you meet the following requirements. The age limit is between 17 or 18, depending upon state and nursing school regulations. You must have graduated from high school with satisfactory grades, and, of course, your health must be good. If you qualify, join the U Cadet Nurse Corps now. Save a life and find your own. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode: Battle Stations – The Battle of the Atlantic (Part 1)
Air Date: April 9, 2026
Theme:
This dramatized radio episode—originally presented by NBC’s Department of Special Events in cooperation with the U.S. Navy—chronicles the perilous Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. It vividly narrates the high stakes, naval strategies, and innovations that shaped the fight against German U-boats threatening Allied shipping across the Atlantic. The episode underlines both tactical challenges and the evolving Allied response, providing a compelling mix of documentary drama and morale-boosting message.
The episode employs dramatic narration, documentary realism, and suspenseful reenactments typical of 1940s wartime radio. The language is evocative, blending historic gravitas, morale-boosting optimism, and practical detail. Dialogue and scene descriptions vividly immerse listeners in both the tension at sea and the broader strategic chess match.
For further detail on the mechanics and human stories behind the Atlantic campaign, anticipate Part 2 of this Battle Stations documentary series.