This article is published with the authorization of the official account "Nibelungen Factory"
The plot of the town building, the greyhound, shows the plot of the sea burial, and there is not much ink about death in this film, and this sea burial ceremony is one of them
Regarding this film, the author of this public name, Sheridan Avenue, also wrote a film review (for details, see another article pushed today, "Faithful Shepherd: A Little Examination on the < Greyhound >"), he mentioned many details of equipment and research here, and I will not repeat it here.
I myself have wrestled with the question of "what the audience can see if the ending of a movie is known." Such a question is an unavoidable topic in historical war films. The end of the wars that have occurred in history is predestined, which is an unavoidable spoiler, so what should such a movie watch? Some military fans may be obsessed with equipment research, such as how unreal the "Tiger Tank" that saved Private Ryan was. There are also some military fans who will find the origin of the grand narrative in such war films and take the opportunity to express their feelings. Honestly, I'm not receptive to such grand narratives. In my opinion, paying too much attention to the grand narrative is disrespectful to personal feelings, and it is also a destruction of the "texture" of the whole event.
So why do war movies still attract people? In my opinion, the essence of so-called literature and drama is conflict, and war is the most direct form of conflict, and everyone in it will face the conflict with the enemy, the conflict of several emotions in their hearts, in these conflicts, human nature will be very extremely embodied - this is the reason why war films are attractive.
For the Greyhound movie, in addition to the conflict between the Allies and the Germans, and the inner conflict between the officers and men of the destroyer, there should be one more, that is, the conflict between man and nature. Throughout the film, the harsh sea conditions in the North Atlantic winter are the main theme of all the stories. The framing in the film must also be exquisite, always in a slow shaking. In such a high and turbulent situation, even if the American destroyers found the periscope of the German submarine, they could not fire at a distance with a 127 mm gun, but could only wait until the submarine approached. In fact, all battles in the North Atlantic must take into account the "high sea conditions" there. This kind of sea surface torments not only ship designers, but also everyone who participates in the battle. Of course, for the Germans and the Allies, the story of hunting submarines is two completely different versions, but for both, it is actually a test of nine deaths.
For the Germans, the VIIC submarines that appear in the film are quite realistic. This submarine was the main force of German submarines in World War II, and its surface speed could reach more than a dozen knots, but the underwater speed was only about six knots. Such an underwater speed is not to mention the allied destroyer race of more than thirty knots, that is, it is very difficult to catch up with the merchant fleet. Therefore, German submarines were generally to determine the course of the Allied fleet through radio monitoring and reconnaissance, and then use wolves to fight ambushes. Generally speaking, wolves would choose to attack the Allied fleet at night, at this time limited by the horizon, the Allied escort ships could not detect the German submarines very well, and the submarines could take this opportunity to surface and chase and intercept the merchant ships with their fast surface speed. One of the most typical examples of this was the ambush of the SC-7 merchant fleet in October 1940, in which five German submarines sank 16 Allied cargo ships in one night without any losses. Of course, this was built at a time when the United States had not yet entered the war and the Allied escort force was very weak. After the United States entered the war, it was difficult for German submarines to get such a good opportunity.
The VIIC German submarine that surfaces in the film
A tragedy about the SC fleet, from the game "Atlantic Fleet". In fact, the HX-25 fleet in the film is fictional, and many of its plot elements synthesize the fate of some other Atlantic transport fleets
But whether the United States entered the war or not, the German submarines still understood one thing, that is, never challenge the escort destroyer. In the film, the German submarine, as the villain, launches a brave attack on the Greyhound. This is a near-impossible situation in reality. In the case of a VIIC submarine, a salvo of up to four torpedoes followed by a lengthy reloading process. Therefore, the German captain's first salvo was to ensure "maximum returns", and the merchant ships that were slow, full of goods and unarmed were the best targets.
After 1942, the G7eT3 torpedo used by German submarines was huge in weight, and it was very difficult to reload and costly, so the German captain gave priority to ensuring that the merchant ship was sunk with torpedoes
(The author at the Imperial War Museum London)
As for the destroyers, they are fast and have strong firepower, which is a nightmare for submarines, and it is only feared to avoid them. There is a good movie about German submarines in World War II called "Das Boot", which tells the life of submariners in World War II from the perspective of the German army. After a long, boring cruise, discovering targets and attacks can bring a short excitement, after which the submarine must immediately dive down regardless of whether the attack is successful or not, dodging the destroyer's dragnet patrol sonar search and depth bomb attack. In such a game of cat and mouse, the submarine is completely passive, there is no other way but to expect the destroyer to quickly get away. If you are unlucky, the submarine is discovered, and all that awaits is a depth charge attack, and the people on the entire submarine will never survive in this situation.
Submarine locked by the destroyer sonar
Therefore, in the movie, the German submarine challenges the US destroyer like chicken blood is just an artistic process, and absolutely no captain will be stupid to this point. Of course, one detail in this scene is more artistic, that is, the German submarine contacts the American destroyer by radio. This is not possible in reality. The German and American navies had different frequencies of radio communication and were secretive to each other, and in practice there was no such thing as "hacking into each other's radios". In reality, the Allies deciphered the German Enigma cipher, so the deployment of German submarines could be better prevented. In addition, the firepower and accuracy of the Allied destroyers in the movie have also been appropriately reduced, which is also necessary for the plot. In fact, the shell of the VIIC submarine can be penetrated with a 40 mm Bofors gun, and no crazy submarine captain would be stupid enough to float to the surface and shoot at the destroyer.
Hunting submarines was a very dangerous game for German submarines, and it was even more dangerous after 1942. During the entire war, three-quarters of the German submarines were killed, which is enough to imagine that the German submarines in the film, which are scary villains, are actually struggling and have no arrogant capital.
For Allied destroyers, the task of hunting submarines was also not easy.
In the first half of 1942, the biggest problem facing allied Atlantic escorts was the serious shortage of ships. In this way, no matter how carefully organized a fleet is, there will be loopholes. Moreover, in order to artistically, the film sets the German submarine as a mentally handicapped image of a ship coming to die, which is unlikely to happen in practice. The so-called wolf pack tactic is to launch a coordinated attack at the most favorable time and place. Such a coordinated attack would leave the Allied escorts at risk, and the attackers could take advantage of the chaos to escape. Faced with such a situation, the Allied escort warships did not have a very good way, and every time they crossed the Atlantic, several freighters were sunk as a "normal situation", which was not improved until the Allies established a new anti-submarine organization and adopted new anti-submarine technology, which was already the second half of 1942 to 1943.
Again, in the case of the SC-7 fleet, the entire fleet was escorted by several Corvettes that were inferior to destroyers, and such small frigates were very weak in the face of many German submarines
Dicky in the movie is one such Corvette, in the case of the typical Flower class frigate, which has no torpedoes and a limited number of depth charges, and it is impossible to expect these ships to fight against multiple German submarines in this case
And the most important weapons of the Allied destroyers at that time were sonar and depth charges. For sonar, when the distance between the destroyer and the target is close to 500 yards, the reflected sound waves return too quickly and mix with the newly launched sound waves, and by 300 yards, they are completely ineffective. That is to say, in the final stage of the anti-submarine ship approaching the submarine, the submarine cannot be detected, and can only rely on the position and depth of the submarine calculated before losing contact - in the first half of the film, the director used a considerable amount of ink to portray the destroyer hunting a single German warship, and at the last moment, the destroyer did disengage from the submarine, and could only guess.
At that time, if the submarine was under the water, the only attack weapon available to the Allied destroyers was the depth charge. Depth charges are placed on the stern of the warship and can only be thrown to the side or from the stern orbit, which means that the warship must sail directly above the submarine to start attacking, and it takes some time after the depth bomb is dropped to sink to the set depth to explode. Experienced German submarine captains would drastically change course and speed at the last moment when the destroyer was approaching, or dive rapidly. At this time, when the destroyer drops a deep bomb according to the position and depth judged in advance, it will explode.
Depth charges during World War II
The scene of hunting a German submarine at the beginning of the film is thrilling, but in reality, the unfortunate German submarine captain can only be said to be a novice. At that time, the anti-submarine efficiency was not high, and an average of 10 deep bomb attacks could only hit the target once. Anti-submarine is a patient cat-and-mouse game in which the destroyer drops a depth charge, then watches at a low speed for signs of sinking and waits for the sonar to resume work before probing and attacking again, repeating the process. Sometimes the anti-submarine attack lasts more than ten hours, dropping hundreds of deep bombs - this is based on the fact that the number of escort destroyers and depth charges is sufficient, and there is nothing to do, in the film, there are just a few destroyer escort convoys waiting to escort to Britain, and everyone's fuel is very tight, such a process is basically impossible. In fact, it wasn't until the British introduced the Hedgehog Shell into the destroyers at the end of 1942 that the Allies had the first anti-submarine weapon that could be fired forward. The film is set in February 1942, and anti-submarine warfare can only rely on depth charges.
The moment the depth charge exploded in the rear of the destroyer
In the film, German submarines use decoys to interfere with the sonar of Allied destroyers, among which Pillenwerfer throws German sonar decoys, which have been used by German submarines since 1942 during World War II. It consists of a metal can filled with calcium hydride with a diameter of about 10 cm. When mixed with seawater, calcium hydride produces large amounts of hydrogen, which bubble up from the vessel, creating a false sonar target. However, such a sonar target is static, and it is just a simple huge sound. Another slightly improved sonar decoy was sieglinde, which mimicked the sound of a submarine as it advanced at 6 knots underwater, making it more confusing to the Allies. In the film, the Greyhound and other escort ships waste a lot of depth charges on such bait, resulting in a very passive situation the next day.
A cross-sectional view of the German sonar decoy
In fact, for the Allies, whose escorts were seriously insufficient, the consequences of a German submarine slipping through the net could be very serious. Therefore, the entire Voyage of the North Atlantic Ocean seems long and boring, but it is actually full of killing machines. The camera switching in the film also creates this compact feeling. Indeed, in naval warfare, there is not much time for one to think. In addition to escorting, the destroyer is also responsible for liaison and rescue tasks. Therefore, when passing through dangerous seas, the captain has no possibility of rest. To the Germans, they looked like hunters, but they were even more miserable. The Allied fleet had a clear destination, while the German submarines were to hunt in a vast area of water, and each voyage was at least a dozen weeks, and they had to endure boredom, unfree food and all kinds of unexpected conditions, and the conditions of the submarines were much worse than those of the destroyers. Rao's importance to both the Allies and the Germans was self-evident, so both sides had to play a game of cat and mouse on this route.
The film also does a good job of restoring the fragility of a small destroyer like a flat boat in the rough seas of the North Atlantic. However, when filming inside the ship, the interior space of the destroyer was still restored too spacious. The interior space of a real destroyer is much smaller than in the movie. It also shows that the real North Atlantic convoy is much more brutal than depicted in the movie.
In such a killing field, both the captain and every little person are experiencing life and death tests at all times. And what people show in such a test of new words is something of eternal value through history, and it is also the reason why war films attract audiences outside the military fans. Although the Greyhound movie has only been cut for an hour and a half, this point is very well grasped, so it is destined to be a war film that will be discussed for a long time. After all, a mortal is thrown into such a whirlpool of times and nature, such a setting itself has all the elements of a strong conflict, which is probably the reason why the film that shows war, especially naval warfare, is entertaining to death, and the epidemic-ridden 2020 can still have many viewers.