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Greyhound (2020)
The Battle of the Atlantic - from the surface perspective
No film can or should try to cover all aspects of a complex subject such as the Battle of the Atlantic.
That being said, I've been waiting for a film that tells the story of the "Battle of the Atlantic" during WW2 from the surface perspective for a long time. Many films of the subject are from the perspective of the German Kriegsmarine U-bootwaffe and there are many very good films on the surface battle, but they are mostly from the '40s and '50s. Few recent films take on the conflict from the side of the Americas, British, Canadians (and later the Soviet) and other allies that endured this unforgiving conflict.
The Allied combatants' were mostly reservists, "wartime duration" sailors and officers or recalled retired naval personnel, private citizens (Merchant Marines), auxiliaries, and the Coast Guard. Many had to learn on the job often with older outdated ships. These brave souls had to endure the longest battle/campaign of WW2, The Battle of the Atlantic. A battle that lasted 5 years, 8 months, and 5 days (some 68 months). It was a relentless struggle and it played a major part in the survival of England and the USSR and contributed to the final allied victory in Europe.
Greyhound takes this on with a nonstop high tension that reflects fighting in the Atlantic in 1942. A time when Wolfpack tactic was taking a terrible toll on the allied convoys. Focusing on the USN Greyhound, a Fletcher-class destroyer (a new state of the art class, that would become the mainstay of the U.S. Navy's Destroyer force) and her Commander, Captain Krause (Tom Hanks), and the convoy (based on convoy HX 25) they are tasked to protect.
The main action involves the period of time when the convoy leaves North America's land-based air cover (U-boats were very vulnerable to aircraft that could see them near the surface and attack them). To the point were land-based aircraft could reach them from Europe. For some 50 hours, the convoy was on its own in an area of the mid-Atlantic called "The Black Pit" - a fact not lost on Grand Admiral Dönitz and the Kriegsmarine U-bootwaffe - using the gap to concentrate wolfpacks looking for and attacking allied convoys.
The film like the C.S. Forester novel "The Good Shepherd" on which it's based. focuses mainly on Captain Krause and his relentless struggle to second guess the wolfpack that inability converges on his convoy.
Possible Spoiler
We see witness his stress and tension as the hour's pass and the Greyhound encounters one crisis to another. Captain Krause, seems to issue a constant stream of commands to attempt to stay one step ahead of the wolfpack, not always with success. This is what it's like to command when seconds can mean life or death. Often with the 1942 technology failing and leaving Captain Krause to rely on his instincts to glean the correct "next move". Tom Hanks and the cast are spot-on.
This film has a personal connection for me as my paternal uncle was a Chief Petty Officer (radioman) and spent 9 months in the North Atlantic. A "lifer" since before the war, he was mainly on the Murmansk/Archangel run usually assigned to the post of Radioman (and only naval member) on one of the convoys merchant ships, relaying to the ships Captain course changes and commands from the convoy's Commodore. The experience impacted him profoundly, and I do not think he ever truly recovered for it. So I wish to dedicate this review to Chief Petty Officer Phil Hubbell USN, now resting in Arlington. Thank you for your service.