Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share DZ Season 031 Part 01 German U-Boats in WWII - The Adversaries.
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
DZ Season 031 Part 01 German U-Boats in WWII - The Adversaries.
The Tom Hanks movie, “Greyhound”, tells the dramatic story of a much older man, Commander Krause (played by Tom Hanks), but still a rookie as a naval
commanding officer, taking his first command at sea. Like many in World War II Commander Krause came into the Navy from civilian life. In the movie he’s appointed as the commander of an American Fletcher Class destroyer. More than that he’s put in charge of three other naval escorts. One a British Tribal Class destroyer, HMS James. One a Canadian Flower Class Corvette (HMCS Dodge – an appropriate name for an escort having torpedos fired at it), and one Polish destroyer, Viktor. He’s also in charge of convoy HX-25 with 37 merchant ships sailing from Halifax in Canada to Liverpool in England.
War dramas are always calculated to get the adrenalin pumping. Frequently they show war bringing out the best and worst qualities in men. Convoys seen in this movie were typical of what they were in what Churchill called the Battle of the Atlantic, which began with England’s declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 and ending just under six years later with Germany’s surrender on 8 May 1945.
Let’s look at the movie and see how accurately it tells the story of this fierce war on the seas. The key players included Bletchley Park and Alan Turing, his story’s told in the movie “The Imitation Game” - how the British broke the German secret codes used to send instructions to their U-Boats – well that’s the part
of the Bletchley Park story that I’m interested in when looking at this movie.
The men of the merchant navy (that was the name that Winston Churchill came up for them during the war). They were civilians, who risked their lives signing up for the perilous crossing of the Atlantic. In this movie, as in the way most people look at this vital battle of World War II, they are a vital character in this
great drama but they’re not seen – just the ships that they were manning. They were the, mostly, unsung heroes of this Battle. The sharp end of this fight
were men of the navies and air forces of England, America and Canada who had the job of protecting the merchant ships carrying the supplies needed to keep
England alive with food, arms and munitions, needed to build England up as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the re-conquest of Europe and the defeat of Hitler.
The German U-boat crews were their counterparts – they were mostly conscripts unlike the submariners who served in the Royal Navy and the US Navy who were all volunteers.
The battle was about getting across the Atlantic Ocean the vital supplies needed to be brought beyond the seas from the United States to England.
Tag words: Tom Hanks; Greyhound; Fletcher Class destroyer; Flower Class Corvette; Battle of the Atlantic; Bletchley Park; Alan Turing; The Imitation Game; Winston Churchill; U-boat; Kriegsmarine; Royal Navy; US Navy; C.S Forester; The Good Shepherd; Black Pit; wolf packs; Type VII; Admiral Dönitz; Adolf Hitler; Torpedo boats; PBY Catalina; RAF Coastal Command;
;
View all episodes
By Paul FordyceThe Tom Hanks movie, “Greyhound”, tells the dramatic story of a much older man, Commander Krause (played by Tom Hanks), but still a rookie as a naval
commanding officer, taking his first command at sea. Like many in World War II Commander Krause came into the Navy from civilian life. In the movie he’s appointed as the commander of an American Fletcher Class destroyer. More than that he’s put in charge of three other naval escorts. One a British Tribal Class destroyer, HMS James. One a Canadian Flower Class Corvette (HMCS Dodge – an appropriate name for an escort having torpedos fired at it), and one Polish destroyer, Viktor. He’s also in charge of convoy HX-25 with 37 merchant ships sailing from Halifax in Canada to Liverpool in England.
War dramas are always calculated to get the adrenalin pumping. Frequently they show war bringing out the best and worst qualities in men. Convoys seen in this movie were typical of what they were in what Churchill called the Battle of the Atlantic, which began with England’s declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 and ending just under six years later with Germany’s surrender on 8 May 1945.
Let’s look at the movie and see how accurately it tells the story of this fierce war on the seas. The key players included Bletchley Park and Alan Turing, his story’s told in the movie “The Imitation Game” - how the British broke the German secret codes used to send instructions to their U-Boats – well that’s the part
of the Bletchley Park story that I’m interested in when looking at this movie.
The men of the merchant navy (that was the name that Winston Churchill came up for them during the war). They were civilians, who risked their lives signing up for the perilous crossing of the Atlantic. In this movie, as in the way most people look at this vital battle of World War II, they are a vital character in this
great drama but they’re not seen – just the ships that they were manning. They were the, mostly, unsung heroes of this Battle. The sharp end of this fight
were men of the navies and air forces of England, America and Canada who had the job of protecting the merchant ships carrying the supplies needed to keep
England alive with food, arms and munitions, needed to build England up as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the re-conquest of Europe and the defeat of Hitler.
The German U-boat crews were their counterparts – they were mostly conscripts unlike the submariners who served in the Royal Navy and the US Navy who were all volunteers.
The battle was about getting across the Atlantic Ocean the vital supplies needed to be brought beyond the seas from the United States to England.
Tag words: Tom Hanks; Greyhound; Fletcher Class destroyer; Flower Class Corvette; Battle of the Atlantic; Bletchley Park; Alan Turing; The Imitation Game; Winston Churchill; U-boat; Kriegsmarine; Royal Navy; US Navy; C.S Forester; The Good Shepherd; Black Pit; wolf packs; Type VII; Admiral Dönitz; Adolf Hitler; Torpedo boats; PBY Catalina; RAF Coastal Command;
;