A Saturday afternoon when the football season is over can be incredibly boring I have no interest in the Confederation Cup. However, I lucked on to the film “The Cruel Sea” a film I have seen umpteen times but still it is one of the greatest war films ever.
"The men are the heroes. The heroines are the ships. The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea." A quote from the film made by that accomplished actor, the late Jack Hawkins, as Captain Ericson of His Majesty's Ship, Compass Rose, a flower class corvette.
The Atlantic battle was the longest fought campaign of the war. Only ending when what was left of the German U-Boat fleet surfaced.
The film opens with the refit of the Compass Rose before sea trials. Ericson’s fellow officers are all recently commissioned "green" young officers, Lockhart tells Ericson that his only nautical experience was sailing a 5-ton yawl on the Solent. The overbearing first lieutenant, known in naval terms as number one, is Bennett soon the officers plot to help him leave the ship by dropping the hint that a suspected ulcer could put him ashore. He quickly becomes ill and leaves the ship.
The first scenes of war at sea; and close up, are sobering and ugly. Shots of rescued survivors from sunken merchantmen. Cold wet and gasping for breath and trying to hang on to life. Coughing and throwing up oil, their lungs full of the smelly black slime. Some of the poor devils make it. Others do not and are committed back to the deep cruel sea...And into God's care.
The hunt for U-Boats is well filmed. One boat? Maybe a wolf pack lurking out there with deadly intent. Compass Rose manoeuvring, its asdic/sonar equipment working like a bloodhound's nose, sniffing for a kill.
Ericson's falters when he orders depth charges to be dropped among struggling survivors in the water when he suspects a U-boat lurking under them, as the depth charges explode one of his crew can be her shouting “bloody murderer”. Later, alcohol does not really help to save his conscience a group of captains come to his cabin to tell him he was right in what he done, they understood.
On another convoy, the Compass Rose develops engine trouble and as to stop for repairs on a calm sea with the possibility, they could be attacked at any time. Repairs fix they come across a U-Boat stalking the convoy and attack sinking it making the first kill for Compass Rose.
Back in port, the love interest enters the film ‘The lovely from Ops’ who Lockard immediately falls for. On the return from another convoy, their homeport has suffered a major air attack the captain orders local men with families to get the first shore leave. In another poignant scene Petty Officer Tallow is give shore leave and heads for his sister's house accompanied by Petty Officer Watts only to find his sister's house demolished, and his sister killed during a night time Luftwaffe raid.
It is the turn of Compass Rose to become a victim of a U-Boat's torpedo. It strikes at night with surprising suddenness. Before abandoning the bridge, he can hear the men blow screaming for help as the ship begins to capsize.
Ericson is appointed to command a new class of corvette with the, Saltash Castle, his new ship along with promotion to full commander he tells Lockhart he could have his own ship but he decides to stick with Ericson. They are ordered to escort duty in the arctic run to Murmansk via the North Cape of Norway. Near the end, Ericson claims a second U-Boat sunk forcing it to the surface and finally gets to see the enemy close up.
In the closing scenes of the film with the war over, Saltash Castle slowly slips by a group of surrendered U-Boats moored together, as she arrives at her anchorage. After anchoring, Ericson's call, "Finished with main engine”, gives a nice ring to the final scenes in this film. There is an air of relaxation between Ericson and Lockhart as they reminisce on the ship's bridge. They talk of men who never made it through to the end. Ferraby, who was a broken man in hospital and Morell, Stratton, Tallow, Watts and the other crewmembers who all when down with the Compass Rose would out see this sight.
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