SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Tom Hanks' new convoy war movie: Greyhound

Mariner1 · 03-19-20, 04:00 PM

I spent 2 happy hours on Sunday last (15th March) watching the film on BBC2 in the UK, free-to-air (for licence-payers). It whittles down Montserrat's excellent novel, which was based on his real-life experiences in corvettes. The book also fictionalises to some extent the career of Johnny Walker, who some may say became the ace U-Boat hunter of the Western Approaches. In the film, only 2 U-Boats are sunk, from one of which survivors are rescued. The tone of both book and film is sombre, concluding that the sea is cruel to start with, and was made more so by men's wartime activities.
As an aside, Sea Breezes magazine for March 2020 has a first-hand account of a convoy battle SC 94 in August 1942 from the point of view of the First Lieutenant of HMS Primrose, a Flower-Class corvette. From Halifax Nova Scotia to UK "one third of the convoy of 34 merchants was sunk, two escorts were damaged and put out of action, and 3 U-Boats sunk. At its height 23 U-Boats were estimated to be in contact with the convoy". Fuller details on www.uboat.net, but I find it hard to envisage the scale and complexity of what occurred, just on that one convoy.

03-19-20, 04:00 PM	#90
Mariner1 Suavely concerned Join Date: Apr 2017 Location: South Coast, England Posts: 16 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The Cruel Sea classic film I spent 2 happy hours on Sunday last (15th March) watching the film on BBC2 in the UK, free-to-air (for licence-payers). It whittles down Montserrat's excellent novel, which was based on his real-life experiences in corvettes. The book also fictionalises to some extent the career of Johnny Walker, who some may say became the ace U-Boat hunter of the Western Approaches. In the film, only 2 U-Boats are sunk, from one of which survivors are rescued. The tone of both book and film is sombre, concluding that the sea is cruel to start with, and was made more so by men's wartime activities. As an aside, Sea Breezes magazine for March 2020 has a first-hand account of a convoy battle SC 94 in August 1942 from the point of view of the First Lieutenant of HMS Primrose, a Flower-Class corvette. From Halifax Nova Scotia to UK "one third of the convoy of 34 merchants was sunk, two escorts were damaged and put out of action, and 3 U-Boats sunk. At its height 23 U-Boats were estimated to be in contact with the convoy". Fuller details on www.uboat.net, but I find it hard to envisage the scale and complexity of what occurred, just on that one convoy.