No accurate or truthful films (outside the old T. V. series "The Silent Service" 1957-1958) has been made.
Though it's dated 2011, This is an old documentary. It contains four rare WWII-era documentary films about submarines and the "silent service" in WW II.
Having read several books on this subject, I can add some brutal facts: At the start, after the Pearl Harbor attack, we had about 50 subs, and some were an old pre war "S" class.
A big problem they faced was faulty torpedos, which cost both being able to sink enemy ships, and endangered submariners lives.
The torpedos would either run too deep, explode pre maturely, or even make a circular run and endanger the sub that fired them.
The Bureau of Ordnance refused to accept the info from sub commanders , saying it was their fault. This was not corrected till almost two years later.
However, these brave men persevered; they disconnected the ultra secret magnetic exploding device, and used contact exploders. Yet, the contact exploder often failed to detonate the warhead.
From Wikipedia: Finally, in September 1943, the first torpedoes with new contact pistols were sent to war. "After twenty-one months of war, the three major defects of the Mark 14 torpedo had at last been isolated. Each defect had been discovered and fixed in the field-always over the stubborn opposition of the Bureau of Ordnance." After this, our subs "raised hell" sinking over 60 percent of the Japanese merchant marine.
This documentary is well worth watching.
Though it's dated 2011, This is an old documentary. It contains four rare WWII-era documentary films about submarines and the "silent service" in WW II.
Having read several books on this subject, I can add some brutal facts: At the start, after the Pearl Harbor attack, we had about 50 subs, and some were an old pre war "S" class.
A big problem they faced was faulty torpedos, which cost both being able to sink enemy ships, and endangered submariners lives.
The torpedos would either run too deep, explode pre maturely, or even make a circular run and endanger the sub that fired them.
The Bureau of Ordnance refused to accept the info from sub commanders , saying it was their fault. This was not corrected till almost two years later.
However, these brave men persevered; they disconnected the ultra secret magnetic exploding device, and used contact exploders. Yet, the contact exploder often failed to detonate the warhead.
From Wikipedia: Finally, in September 1943, the first torpedoes with new contact pistols were sent to war. "After twenty-one months of war, the three major defects of the Mark 14 torpedo had at last been isolated. Each defect had been discovered and fixed in the field-always over the stubborn opposition of the Bureau of Ordnance." After this, our subs "raised hell" sinking over 60 percent of the Japanese merchant marine.
This documentary is well worth watching.
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