Hitler's Secret Attack on America (2012)
For the first time in history, National Geographic Channel and a group of scientists search the ocean floor for a series of shipwrecks many Americans never heard about. Everyone knows that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But what most don't know is just days later, Hitler sent his own force to devastate the East Coast. On December 19, the German Naval War Staff sent three U-boats to American waters. It was an assault so deadly, it was covered up by the U.S. government.
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Good movie but grossly overrated
Captivating movie !
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
The premise that somehow big secrets are being revealed is ridiculous. Everyone knew that merchant shipping was being attacked by U-Boats off the US east coast - in this "documentary" two long-time residents are shown recalling the sinking ships off the coast. A scan of any newspaper of the time will show this was no secret. As for the Nazi saboteurs, 'Operation Pastorius' is well-worn American history. The saboteurs were caught and executed, all public knowledge. Google it, check out newspapers of the time. The assertion that this is somehow a big secret is laughable and ignorant.These men and women who dive on the wrecks and document the ships do important work no question. Just the way this is packaged, with all the faux drama, is what ruins this. The topic is interesting and I would have watched without the phony "history," revisionist conspiracy plot implications, and trumped-up drama around getting the search vehicle on and off their research vessel.Somewhere there is someone who watched this and walked away with the impression that there was yet another huge cover-up perpetrated on US citizens by the government. If that sells soda pop, well then so be it I guess. Personally I expect more from National Geographic.
The title of this show is "Hitler's Secret Attack on America". Because of this, I naturally assumed the show would be all about covert methods the Nazis used against the US during WWII--such as their attempt to flood the market with forged American dollars. However, this is NOT what the show is about...and it's also not even really much of a historical film. While the show does talk a bit about the sub warfare against the US and how the American government hid the magnitude of the German victories, this is only a tiny portion. In the most interesting portion, the narrator talked about a group of spies that were set ashore to conduct a reign of terror through sabotage....and this interesting portion lasted only about 2 minutes. The rest? It was a reality show about a group of scuba divers who were attempting to locate and dive some ships wrecked by German subs. The show was NOT about some secret war but consisted of watching folks trying to dive a few wrecks. Now I am a diver and I enjoy it--but this show should have been called "Some Folks Try to Locate Some WWII-era Wrecks and Dive Them"! As I see it, it's a case of false advertising and instead of passing on interesting information it's just some folks diving. By the way, when I saw this streaming through Netflix, the last 1/3 of the show lost its audio and I had to rely on subtitles. I hope this isn't your experience if you try to watch it.