| Date | 22 July 1952 — 9:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Meilahti, Helsinki | |
| Format | Winner of each heat advanced to final. | |
| Pos | Lane | Competitors | NOC | Time | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Unified Team of Germany |  GER | 7:54.7 | |||||
| Heinz Manchen • Helmut Heinhold • Helmut Noll | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | United States |  USA | 7:55.5 | |||||
| Jim Fifer • Duvall Hecht • James Beggs | |||||||||
| 3 | 1 | Soviet Union |  URS | 8:08.4 | |||||
| Yevgeny Morozov • Viktor Shevchenko • Mikhail Prudnikov | |||||||||
| Pos | Lane | Competitors | NOC | Time | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Finland |  FIN | 8:01.8 | |||||
| Veijo Mikkolainen • Toimi Pitkänen • Erkki Lyijynen | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | Belgium |  BEL | 8:03.7 | |||||
| Hippolyte Mattelé • Eugène Jacobs • Kamiel Van Dooren | |||||||||
| 3 | 2 | Hungary |  HUN | 8:16.6 | |||||
| László Halász • József Sátori • Róbert Zimonyi | |||||||||
| Pos | Lane | Competitors | NOC | Time | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Denmark |  DEN | 7:51.2 | |||||
| Svend Pedersen • Poul Svendsen • Jørgen Frantzen | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | Poland |  POL | 8:00.9 | |||||
| Czesław Lorenc • Romuald Thomas • Zdzisław Michalski | |||||||||
