1/9/2024 0 Comments Grey wolf movieU-405 sank that night the badly damaged Borie was scuttled the following day. For the next ten minutes, crew members unable to properly aim the destroyer’s guns at such close proximity barraged the U-boat with “every rifle, submachine gun machine gun they could find,” says Blazich. Simkin for Naval History magazine in 2019. On November 1, 1943, the American destroyer was attempting to ram the German submarine when a wave sent its bow crashing down on top of the submarine, trapping the ships in a “lethal embrace,” wrote Howard R. This tenuous period serves as the backdrop to Greyhound, whose trailer declares, “The only thing more dangerous than the front lines was the fight to get there.”Ī submarine-versus-destroyer duel hinted at in the clip and depicted in The Good Shepherd shares similarities with a real-life clash between the U.S.S. entered the conflict in December 1941, U-boats enjoyed great success off the East Coast: Between January and July 1942, 90 ships (including four U-boats) sank off the coast of North Carolina, and more than 1,100 merchant seamen died, according to the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. In the early years of the battle, Germany held the naval advantage, easily picking off weakly defended merchant ships, albeit while sustaining heavy losses of its own. Though this approach saved many Allied vessels from destruction, the logistical nightmare of moving 40 ships as a cohesive unit greatly reduced individual units’ efficiency, leaving them vulnerable to U-boat hunting squads known as wolf packs.Īn Allied convoy crosses the Atlantic Ocean in November 1942. The Allies’ main strategy for ensuring cargo’s safe arrival in Europe was sending merchant ships in convoys, or groups escorted by warships and, if possible, aircraft. Later in life, the prime minister famously claimed that the “only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.” (It’s worth noting, however, that modern historians have since questioned Churchill’s handling of the Atlantic campaign.) Winston Churchill coined the phrase “Battle of the Atlantic” in March 1941, “deliberately echoing the Battle of Britain to emphasize its importance,” according to the Imperial War Museum. The vast, global supply chain upon which the Allies depended … would have been cut, and with it the lifeline.” “There would have been no Mediterranean campaign, no D-Day, no VE or VJ Days. “Had the Atlantic been lost, so too would have Britain,” writes historian James Holland for History Extra. The Soviet Union, besieged by the Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa, was also in dire need of food, oil and other essential supplies, which arrived via seaports on the Arctic Ocean. As Blazich explains, the conflict was centered chiefly on supplies: An island nation, the United Kingdom required a steady flow of imported goods and raw materials, many of which originated in the U.S. Greyhound takes place at a critical moment in the Battle of the Atlantic, which began in September 1939 and only ended with the Germans’ surrender on May 8, 1945. Sony Pictures What events does Greyhound dramatize? Hanks portrays a newly promoted captain tasked with leading a convoy across the Atlantic. “What you did yesterday got us to today,” a crew member tells Krause in the trailer. In true cinematic fashion, the captain ultimately battles not only a military enemy, but his own personal demons and self-doubt. Keeling, a destroyer under Krause’s command-features Hanks as a newly promoted officer tasked with leading his first transatlantic convoy through a swath of water known as the “ Black Pit.” Per the movie’s official description, Krause must protect his fleet from Nazi U-boats over a five-day period without air cover. Set in the winter of 1942, Greyhound-a nod to the nickname of the U.S.S. Though fictional, the Forester book is deeply researched and noted for its accurate depiction of naval warfare. Forester’s 1955 novel, The Good Shepherd (not to be confused with the 2006 film The Good Shepherd about the founding of the CIA). Hanks, who stars as United States Navy Commander Ernest Krause, adapted the screenplay from C.S. As the film’s trailer states, Greyhound is “inspired by,” rather than directly based on, actual events.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |