WW11 British Navy Film

[charlie]

New Member Here --First Post --Happy New Year

Looking for this movie for many years. Help S.O.S.



It is about a British destroyer during WW2 that gets torpedoed by a german U-Boat. The Destroyer is sunk and the German sub surfaces and shoots some of the sailors in the water.The captain notes the number of the sub and after he and some of the crew return to England,the captain is given a new destroyer and when he puts to sea again he is determined to find that sub and send it to the bottom. In ensuing action he is wounded and while lying in his bunk he hears the pinging of the sonar when they find a sub.

They home in on the sub and drop depth charges,fire Y-guns. The sub has to surface and the captain sees that number again. The sub that sunk his ship. They eventually ram the sub and send it to the bottom.



Details might be a little thin,but that is basically the story line.

I keep placing Jack Hawkins or Trevor Howard as the Captain.

My wife of 51 years remembers it as well.



Thanks for your help,

Charlie

[DB7]

Maybe The Cruel Sea?

[Hugo]

You could try THE SUBMARINE FILM WEBSITE which lists every submarine film from 1939 to the present on www.wepwawet.nl/submarine/

[MikeA]

I'm not sure what the film is, although it does sound familiar. However, I can confirm that it isn't The Cruel Sea.

[Angry Hector]

Sounds somewhat like that Peter O'Toole flick from the early 1970s, "Murphy's War"?

[penfold]

If you swap the destroyer idea for a merchant ship, you have the exactly the plot for Action in the North Atlantic, a 1943 Warner Bros. film starring Humphrey Bogart....

[SeaNimrod]

It was the Cruel Sea.

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

name='SeaNimrod']It was the Cruel Sea.

Rubbish!



EDIT :the rest deleted (this thread is 6 years old)!!!

[JohnB_Toronto]

Sounds like you might be getting several films mixed up. The wounded captain lying on his bunk and hearing the pinging of the sonar is Clark Gable in "Run Silent, Run Deep" - nobody can make it out. In fact it turns out to be another sub (Japanese) that has been lurking behind the Japanese surface ships and sinking American submarines - not the destroyer, as he had believed. He's commanding a US submarine - not a destroyer.

[JohnB_Toronto]

Here's Wikipaedia's plot synopsis



The WW II U.S. Navy submarine commander P.J. Richardson (Clark Gable) has an obsession with the Japanese destroyer that sank his previous boat and three others in the Bungo Straits. He persuades the navy board to give him a new sub command with the provision that his executive officer, or "exec", be someone who has just returned from active sea patrol. He is single-mindedly training the crew of his new boat, the USS Nerka, to return to the Bungo Straits and sink the destroyer, captained by the crafty ex-submariner, now destroyer captain, nicknamed Bungo Pete. Richardson's exec, Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster), is worried about the safety of his boat and his crew. Bledsoe also is seething with resentment at Richardson and the Navy brass for denying him the command of the boat which rightfully should have been his.



Richardson begins to drill the crew on a rapid bow shot, normally a desperation move in which the sub fires at a destroyer moving in for the kill "down the throat", i.e. at its bow coming head-on. He then bypasses one target only to take on a Japanese destroyer using the bow shot on which they have drilled. The crew becomes outraged when it becomes apparent that Richardson is choosing to avoid all legitimate targets in order to enter the Bungo Straits undetected in direct contradiction to mission orders, jeopardizing the boat and its crew merely to avenge the dead submarine. Shortly after engaging Bungo Pete, they are attacked by aircraft that had been clearly alerted to their presence and had been waiting in ambush. They are forced to dive and narrowly escape destruction from depth charges. Three of the crew are killed and Richardson suffers a skull fracture which incapacitates him. They also come close to being hit by what they mistakenly believe is one of their own torpedoes doubling back on them. By sending up blankets, equipment, and the bodies of the dead, they convince the Japanese that the sub has been sunk. Bledsoe uses Richardson's incapacitation to assume command and as an excuse to return to Pearl Harbor.



While listening to Tokyo Rose proclaiming the sinking of their boat, they are mystified how the Japanese were able to identify the crew of the boat. They later realize the Japanese are collecting their garbage. Bledsoe then further realizes that the submarine now has a real advantage—the Japanese believe they are sunk and their source of intelligence has dried up—and returns to the Bungo Straits to take on the Akikaze destroyer, which the sub defeats only to be again subjected to a mystery torpedo. Richardson deduces that it was not the Akikaze alone who had been killing the US subs but a Japanese sub working in concert with the destroyer. He orders the boat into a dive just seconds before a Japanese torpedo shoots by. The US sub then forces its adversary to surface and destroys it. The older sub skipper thus achieves his revenge. The film ends with Richardson dying from his head injury and being buried at sea.



It should be noted that Run Silent, Run Deep's plot bears thematic similarity to Moby-Dick, with Richardson as Ahab and the Japanese destroyer as the whale.

[JohnB_Toronto]

I just noticed the date on this thread. It's a bit long in the tooth isn't it?



When I saw it pop up with today's date on it I was obviously swept up by the thrill of the chase. I think this one can probably go back to sleep.

[will.15]

Somebody may ask a similiar question so answering it isn't a complete waste of time. Different people at different times have posted here describing the plot of the same movie.

[paul clifton]

at the end of the film ENEMY BELOW, the ship rams a submarine

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='paul clifton']at the end of the film ENEMY BELOW, the ship rams a submarine

Right - and there are no scenes in Run Silent, Run Deep or The Enemy Below where the sub surfaces and shows its number. So is there a third film mixed up in here that's only dimly remembered?

[paul clifton]

in the film "we dive at dawn", theres a scene where the sub emerges from the water then sinks again, attempting to let the enemy think she has been sunk.

[darrenburnfan]

"Charlie", the originator of this thread, started it six years ago with his first and only post and hasn't been back since. Chances are even if you got the name of the film, he wouldn't see it. Why do some people do that? Join the forum to ask one question and never come back to see if anyone has answered them?

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='darrenburnfan']"Charlie", the originator of this thread, started it six years ago with his first and only post and hasn't been back since. Chances are even if you got the name of the film, he wouldn't see it. Why do some people do that? Join the forum to ask one question and never come back to see if anyone has answered them?

It is odd - and now we're all left trying to figure out what film this could be with no way to confirm it! ... Gluttons for punishment I'd say.

[will.15]

I've seen the same apparent movie asked about from different people, so somebody may ask a similar question.



The real question is, why would someone revive such an old thread when it's obvious the person who asked the question no longer cares?



I spent a few hours tracking down a movie to answer a question posted in another category from someone who has been an occasional contributor to this site for several years. This was several months ago and he never returned for the answer. But, hey, I had fun.

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='will.15']... But, hey, I had fun.

.. and that's what it's all about

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

name='will.15']The real question is, why would someone revive such an old thread when it's obvious the person who asked the question no longer cares?

And then get it so patently wrong .....

name='SeaNimrod']It was the Cruel Sea.