In the early days of WWII, an international convoy of 37 Allied ships, led by captain Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) in his first command of a U.S. destroyer, crosses the treacherous North Atlantic while hotly pursued by wolf packs of Nazi U-boats.
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Movie Theater GREYHOUND WW2 Atlantic convoy/destroyer movie with Tom Hanks
- Thread starter Davo308
- Start date
WTF is up with the uBoats being all like....oh I can totally have done all of this underwater, but I'm just going to cruise around on the surface where you can see me and I'm going to shoot at you with my deck mounted MG42 instead.
In the early days of the war, before the US entered, merchant ships were not armed and seldom escorted. Shells for the deck gun were less expensive than torpedoes. U-boats were typically faster than freighters on the surface so there was no getting away. Even after the US entered into the war shipping losses were tremendous. It took awhile for enough escort ships to be built, develop useful radar and sonar, and long range air patrol (typically B-24s. You can dive the wrecks of torpedoed boats all up and down the Gulf and the east coast. One reason for the intercoastal waterway, materials could be shipped by barge without the risk of U-boats.
Not sure you realize this, but subs back then could operate submerged for at most 48 hrs at a crawl (2 - 3 knots) or go balls out (a whopping 10 kts) and have to surface in 2 - 3 hours with nearly dead batteries.
They had to operate surface to make almost all of their tactical moves except for a final daytime approach. At night, diving was done as a last resort to escape detection or counter attack.
WW2 submarines were not true submarines, more like small ships that could temporarily hide underwater.
I get that.
I'm saying the parts where the subs are 30 feet from the damn merchant ships or are on the surface driving right at them from 200 yards.
I've played enough SH3/SH5 to know how the WW2 subs work, but it seems a bit over the top with the theatrics instead of the subs just staying back 600m in the dark and letting the torpedo do its work only to submerge if there were Q ships firing starbursts/destroyers looking for them.
It was very dangerous work, and those waters were frigid-even if crews survived a sinking, they would have died of hypothermia or drowning. Real scary stuff.
3.1 million tons of merchant ships were lost in World War II. Mariners died at a rate of 1 in 26, which was the highest rate of casualties of any service.[30] All told, 733 American cargo ships were lost[31] and 8,651 of the 215,000 who served perished in troubled waters and off enemy shores.
United States Merchant Marine - Wikipedia
better to be a merchant marine than a German submariner. ( 75% casualty rate)
In the end, the U-boat fleet suffered extremely heavy casualties, losing 793 U-boats and about 28,000 submariners, a 75% casualty rate, the highest of all German forces during the war).
en.wikipedia.org
Das Boot is a great movie
In the end, the U-boat fleet suffered extremely heavy casualties, losing 793 U-boats and about 28,000 submariners, a 75% casualty rate, the highest of all German forces during the war).
U-boat - Wikipedia
Das Boot is a great movie
If a Uboat came to the surface in the vicinity of a Allied warship, the first priority of the warship crew was to capture the Uboat and board it to capture the enigma codebooks and machines and then sink the uboat if it has been not yet been set to scuttle.
Considering the times we are living in and that this was made in Hollywood, it is one of the better movies that has been released lately. That said, the bar is not very high at the moment. Hollywood definitely can't stop themselves from putting a PC message or two in there. Wish they would just stick to telling the story instead of trying to send a message. The "I feel bad about killing, even if they are killing me and my friends" and "the most significant aspect of serving on this boat is my relationship with my steward" were unnecessary distractions to an otherwise ok film. Tired of having shit rammed down my throat, I'm pretty receptive to reasonable things, but do not like being force fed your agenda. All that said, it is only a mildly entertaining flick...just try to ignore the stupid shit if you are going to watch it. Also, Tom Hanks used to be one of my favorite actors - until he opened his America-hating mouth. Hanks' presence in a film kind of ruins it, if you are like-minded to me.
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THIS ^^^^
I am not going to watch this, even though I was rather looking forward to it when I heard about it a couple of years ago. Screw Hollywood and Tom Hanks.
As for the subs... yes, most of their work was done on the surface early in the war. Later arrivals of high-quality Destroyers and Corvettes raised hell with the Wolfpacks. But so did the capture of U501 (I think) which had an Enigma and the entire Kriegsmarine codebook set with it. Also longer-range bombers, lookdown radar and improved tactics helped make the U-boats into coffins.
Personally, though, my favorite was Churchill's Q-ships.
Q-ship - Wikipedia
Imagine the surprise when the sides come off the packing crates and your little U-Boat is met with a hail of Oerliken and Bofors fire... Sadly, they rarely got to shoot at actual U-boats, but they did cause the Germans to change tactics and react to the Allies for a change. And when you get your enemy reacting to you, that's half the battle.
I'd rather re-watch Run Silent, Run Deep, Sink the Bismark, In Harms Way and They were Expendable than waste so much as a second watching woke Hollywood pedophiles re-write history while lining their own pockets.
Sirhr
The Allies had Engima deciphered before the war. But to keep up with the Nazi change in codebooks and enigma configurations, the Allies has to continue to capture these codebooks throughout the war and that included capturing uboats and their supply ships.
Just watched it.
Was an hour too short. I feel like I missed half the movie or something.
I'm all for cutting out bullshit fluff, but absolutely ZERO character development of anyone. Hell, the biggest development was the black cook that served him food.
Alot of 'fast' action and manuevering, but no overall strategy/tactics feel to it at all. I actually would have enjoyed it slowing down a bit and being longer.
@sirhrmechanic We need a Raider Pinguin movie
Was an hour too short. I feel like I missed half the movie or something.
I'm all for cutting out bullshit fluff, but absolutely ZERO character development of anyone. Hell, the biggest development was the black cook that served him food.
Alot of 'fast' action and manuevering, but no overall strategy/tactics feel to it at all. I actually would have enjoyed it slowing down a bit and being longer.
@sirhrmechanic We need a Raider Pinguin movie
Much better,,better actors,,story.
Fuck Hanks piss poor try to remake this
Fuck Hanks piss poor try to remake this
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That’s easy... Gung Ho.
Not the bad auto plant movie from the 80s With Batman in it.
I mean Randolph Scott c 1943. Captains raiders and the Makin Island raid.
Unfortunately, by the time it came out, Vandegrift had cancelled the Raider concept that HOlcomb had embraced. Along with the paramarines. Vandegrift felt All Marines were elite and that the service was too small for elite units. Though he did approve the continuation of Scout Snipers, but as organic to Marine units, not as a special force.
Gung Ho is an amazing movie... recruited a lot of marines, too!
Sirhr
They had the mechanism mostly figured out thanks to the Polish underground. But the decoding was, as you say, the hard part!
there is a four hour documentary on YouTube about Station X and Bletchley. Amazing!!!
well worth watching. Turing gets all the press now because the woke generation wants to make sure the gay man won the war. But the real genius behind the Bombe computers were Welchman and Keene. Turing created the concepts of thinking machines, but it was a lowly British Telecom employee (who spent a lot of his own money) who really figured out how to take Turings lofty Concepts and make them work.
The reproduced Bombes at Bletchley are now working and are amazing to watch! Built from scratch as Churchill had the whole lot burned and destroyed lest the Labor government give them to the Soviets. So they didn’t even have plans! Just a few photos and genius machinists who remade them.
Sirhr
I really wanted to see this on the big screen. Actor politics aside, Tom Hanks has done a good job with WW2 movies and series. And this looked like a great story to tell. And after the terrible Midway(2019) movie, I wanted to see a good Navy story. Especially one that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Now I have to wait for it to be released on Blu-Ray.
THIS ^^^^
I am not going to watch this, even though I was rather looking forward to it when I heard about it a couple of years ago. Screw Hollywood and Tom Hanks.
As for the subs... yes, most of their work was done on the surface early in the war. Later arrivals of high-quality Destroyers and Corvettes raised hell with the Wolfpacks. But so did the capture of U501 (I think) which had an Enigma and the entire Kriegsmarine codebook set with it. Also longer-range bombers, lookdown radar and improved tactics helped make the U-boats into coffins.
Personally, though, my favorite was Churchill's Q-ships.
Q-ship - Wikipedia
Imagine the surprise when the sides come off the packing crates and your little U-Boat is met with a hail of Oerliken and Bofors fire... Sadly, they rarely got to shoot at actual U-boats, but they did cause the Germans to change tactics and react to the Allies for a change. And when you get your enemy reacting to you, that's half the battle.
I'd rather re-watch Run Silent, Run Deep, Sink the Bismark, In Harms Way and They were Expendable than waste so much as a second watching woke Hollywood pedophiles re-write history while lining their own pockets.
Sirhr
Stepfathers father went to Europe for WWI (and WWII).
On journey over for WWI a German sub surfaced off his troop ship with no gun boats around.
He was shocked by sharp report of artillery and sub sunk.
It was a Q.
Big sub killer in WWII was the Marconi Station at Ryders Cove on Cape Cod.
The operators would listen for Sub traffic and plan accordingly to destroy them.
History Of Chatham Radio | Chatham Marconi
Explore the history of Chatham Radio/WCC from the Marconi days up to the station closure in 1997.
www.chathammarconi.org
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By Hollywood standards its one of the better ones, but of course lots of Bs going on ,besides zombie submarine sounds, German submariners dueling with escorts or German captains waffling over the radio like some bored truck drivers. Subs had task, to sink cargo ships, avoid detection and avoid escorts at all cost, also subs were slower than ships even on the surface so they would lay an ambush ,but definitely not chase after the convoy as underwater they barely made any speed.
Top speed 17.5 or so knots on the surface and 7.5knots underwater,with cruise speeds only half that, under water, they could barely run 20H at 4 knots. Early days before the escorts became common, 88mm cannon was the preferred tool , torpedos were expensive and only carried 12-16 on board and they fired multiple (typical 2-4 shot spread) torpedos per attack run and they were fired under a mile from the target
German torpedos suffered high malfunction rates of some 25% and even one torpedo hit only sunk 40% or so of the ships most needed 2 or 3 hits so the number of stoved kills per sub was small.
Top speed 17.5 or so knots on the surface and 7.5knots underwater,with cruise speeds only half that, under water, they could barely run 20H at 4 knots. Early days before the escorts became common, 88mm cannon was the preferred tool , torpedos were expensive and only carried 12-16 on board and they fired multiple (typical 2-4 shot spread) torpedos per attack run and they were fired under a mile from the target
German torpedos suffered high malfunction rates of some 25% and even one torpedo hit only sunk 40% or so of the ships most needed 2 or 3 hits so the number of stoved kills per sub was small.
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I agree, the kid really wanted to watch it, so we used an evening to watch, but it just seemed rushed from start to finish.
