I'd just finished Greyhound, excited some attention was FINALLY being paid to the Atlantic War...an aspect of WWII few know or think about. All of that "stuff" the US made during the war to fight back against the Axis was useless unless it got to Europe. Sounds simple enough but the convoys carrying these supplies were constantly under attack from the stealthiest vessels of the war; submarines. Greyhound excels at showing the stressful, thrilling yet deadly game of cat & mouse played between allied surface vessels & enemy subs. It's combat at sea between two military forces. While escorting the convoy countless cargo vessels are attacked and sunk. These cargo ships are shown burning & sinking and theres some dialogue about their crews survival - or not...then it's back to the fight. What about those crewmen? These civilian merchant sailors? What was their perspectiv from their experiences?
WAR SAILOR takes us along with a small group of Norwegian merchant sailors as they work aboard a cargo ship during the early days of the war. The experiences and trauma experienced by these people as well as their families at home is filled with tension, worry & horror and as heartbreaking a story as one can imagine; told both in the midst of war as well as after. I highly recommend this either with or without the addition of Greyhound for a complementary experience. I will add that while I enjoyed Greyhound very much it's fairly 2 dimensional in the treatment of its human characters. There's not a lot to them, honestly. WAR SAILOR on the other hand is actually about ordinary people thrust into this incredibly difficult period of history. It's heartfelt and unflinching. I can't recommend it enough.