I’ve always said that it is not my intention to burden the followers of this blog (or anyone else!) with an endless stream of new postings just to show I’m busy, I’ve tried to only post when I believe there’s something useful to say. I have also been spending a lot of time on The Military Philosopher Facebook page with shorter postings and a lot of sharing articles of interest (as well as on my other FB pages). But the bright and shiny of FB is fading beneath the tarnish and scratches so I’m thinking that this year I will try to share more of my interests here and cut back on my FB time.
Obviously, the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains the biggest ongoing matter of interest. Pretty much everyone was surprised at the scale of Russian ineptitude and practically awestruck by Ukrainian resistance. I think the most important point I can offer right now is what I said elsewhere at the very beginning – either Putin has to change his mind about this war, or the Russians will have to change Putin for another leader who can admit failure and cut Russia’s losses. What happens to Russia after that is anybody’s guess, including the majority of Russians at home and abroad. I do know that a postwar Ukraine will require major amounts of help and investment, and I fully support integrating them into the EU and NATO if that’s what they want to do.
Otherwise, I will be posting about several of my ongoing projects and some things that in another year might have become lectures, so the content here may roam and range widely. That said, I’m trying principally to research the American War of Independence in support of the ongoing design of the American Revolution game at the National Security Decision Making Game (found on Facebook). I am also doing some miniatures painting, currently focusing on Medieval to early Renaissance figures for use with the Fog of War Rules, and may sure some reports on that and related games here. I have also been working on some solitaire replays of classic Avalon Hill War games to mark the 50th anniversary year of beginning of my career as a war gamer with the purchase of AH’s hex version of Gettysburg (thanks for the gift, Grandma!). I will probably also return to my series of articles on classic/vintage miniatures war gaming rule sets in an attempt to capture what these rules brought to the general conversation of war game design and play features.
For today, I’ll just share some observations on my latest reading – the original novel “The Enemy Below” upon which the film of the same name was based. The 1957 film has long been a favorite so when I spotted an early paperback copy in a used book sale, I grabbed it and then chose it to be my first book finished in 2023.
The author was Denys Arthur (D. A.) Rayner, DSC + Bar, VRD, RNVR, an actual veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic. He published the original novel in 1957, as he explains in an Author’s Note, in order to explore a combat situation he had never actually experienced – a one on one contest between one surface escort ship and one enemy submarine. He presents a tautly told tale in 146 pages in the 1966 reprint paperback I found. The movie version officially runs at 97 minutes (per my DVD copy).
The screenplay was written by veteran screenwriter Wendell Mayes, a US Navy veteran though without combat sea service. Technical advisors for the movie were identified on IMDB.com and the DVD package as Albert Beck, a U-boat veteran, and Commander C. E. Dunston, USNR.
As is often the case when translating a book into a movie, a number of changes were made and some elements and events in the novel were dropped from the screenplay, the most significant being the change from a Royal Navy to a US Navy destroyer thus making the U-Boat commander’s adversary an American instead of a British Captain. Also Dropped from the film were the chess games played by the destroyer’s captain and the ship’s doctor, though the screenplay also added more byplay and involvement on the part of crewmembers.
The scenario behind this confrontation remains the same – the U-boat is hurrying to rendezvous with a German raider that has in obtained a set of important Royal Navy code books that would enable Germany to easily locate and attack the Allied convoys essential to Britain’s survival in the war. The requirement to reach the specified time and location for this rendezvous is what keeps the U-boat on a course and heading that allows the destroyer to find it again whenever the two ships lose contact.
There are also some nice dialogue scenes in the movie in which anti-submarine warfare tactics are discussed and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two ships are noted, which I’m sure was helpful to the audiences of the late 1950s (and even today). But if you want to have some very interesting reading, head over to the comments section of the IMDB.com entry for The Enemy Below where a number of knowledgeable individuals have offered their evaluations and additions to the discussion featured in the movie!
Bottom line, for me at least, both the book and the movie deliver a taut naval thriller though with much of the feel of the war at sea’s long days and nights waiting for something to happen. The differences between the movie version and the original book, though, really make me want to see a British studio for a change remake the movie and stay closer to the book! I’d buy a ticket and a copy of the movie on DVD/Blu-ray!
