Above Us the Waves (1955)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
In World War II, the greatest threat to the British navy
is the German battleship Tirpitz. Being anchored in a Norwegian fjord, i
t is impossible to attack it with any chance of success.
But the navy trains a special commando to attack it,
using little submarines to plant underwater explosives under it.
Written by Mattias Thuresson

Full Cast
John Mills ... Cmdr. Fraser
John Gregson ... Lt Alec Duffy
Donald Sinden ... Lt Tom Corbett
James Robertson Justice ... Adm. Ryder
Michael Medwin ... Smart
James Kenney ... Abercrombie
O.E. Hasse ... Captain of the Tirpitz (as O. E. Hasse)
Lee Patterson ... Cox
William Russell ... Ramsey
Theodore Bikel ... German Officer
Harry Towb ... McCleery
Cyril Chamberlain ... CPO Chubb
Tony Wager ... George (as Anthony Wager)
Leslie Weston ... Winley
Lyndon Brook ... Diver Navigator, X2
Thomas Heathcote ... Hutchins
Anthony Newley ... Engineer, X2
John Horsley ... Lt. Anderson
William Franklyn ... No. 1, X2
Guido Lorraine ... Officer Interpreter
Raymond Francis ... Officer on Towing Sub. (I)
Basil Appleby ... Officer on Towing Sub. (2) (uncredited)
Peter Cavanagh ... Winston Churchill (voice) (uncredited)
Walter Gotell ... German Officer on Tirpitz. (uncredited)
Barry Keegan ... Sailor On Towing Sub. (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Charles Esme Thornton Warren (book) (as Charles E.T. Warren M.B.E.) and
James D. Benson (book) (as James Benson)
Robin Estridge (screenplay)

Original Music
Arthur Benjamin

Cinematography
Ernest Steward

Trivia
The attack by midget submarines did considerable damage, and actually put the Tirpitz out of action. The Tirpitz was later sunk using gigantic 6 ton bombs by R.A.F. Sqn. 617.

The watch on Commander Fraser's wrist is the famous Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, a watch with a case that can be turned around so that the front faces downwards, thus protecting the glass from hard knocks. This robust watch is nowadays considered as an ultra-luxury item.

When the film was made Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne, but throughout the war it was her father, King George VI, who was the monarch. Whether by design or chance most of the cast in the film have historically accurate cap badges, which is to say they include a King's crown. The notable exception is John Mills, whose cap badge has a Queen's crown.

This movie features a scene where there is an underwater man-to-man fight between Nazi German and British frogmen in an anti-submarine net but in the real-life mini-sub attack on the Tirpitz, this fight did not occur.

In this movie, the name of the vessel that carried the manned human torpedo chariots was called "Ingebord" but in the real-life it was really named "Arthur".

The code-name of the real life World War II mission that this film was based on was Operation Source. This operation utilized the Royal Navy's midget X class submarines.

An original member of the real-life mini-sub operations, Commander Donald Fraser, who had been a lieutenant at the time of the mission, acted as a consultant and advisor to the film production.

This movie is based on both the real-life Chariot human torpedo attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz during the Second World War as well as Operation Source, which was a series of attacks by X-class midget submarines on Nazi German warships, the Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lutzow, in Northern Norway during World War II.

Original military equipment from World War II was accessed and used for the making of this movie.

The central event of Above us the Waves is the x-craft attack on the battleship Tirpitz. The Captain of x-craft 5, was in reality Henty Henty-Creer. Before the second world war Henty Creer was a film camera man and worked on 49th Parallel, The Thief of Bagdad and The Four Feathers.

Goofs
Anachronisms
The 100' Submarine Escape Training Tank in the early scenes wasn't built until 1954. Prior to this, it was a 15' tank.

Revealing mistakes
In the scene where the captured Brits are being "escorted" down the gangway of the Tirpitz, the German sailors are prodding them not with German weapons, but British Sterling sub machine guns.

The sub machine guns have wooden stock so are definitely not Stirlings which have curved magazines also. They look more like MP28 Schmiessers (not to be confused with the falsely named MP38/40) or Erma EMP35 which would have been in second line naval service at the time. (They may have been Austrian/Swiss Steyr-Solthuthurn MP34/S1-100 or even British Lanchester MK1 which were used by the RN in the war.)

Filming Locations
Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
(studio)
Portland Submarine Base, Portland Bill, Dorset, England, UK
St Peter Port Harbour, Guernsey, Channel Islands
(scene with the preparation for the abortive first mission
is clearly filmed on Castle Pier, and in the waters around Herm and Sark.
Historians won't miss the irony of this.
At the time the film is set, German troops would have occupied the pier.)

Above Us the Waves is a 1955 war film directed by Ralph Thomas
It tells the story of human torpedo and midget submarine attacks
on the German battleship Tirpitz. It is based on true-life attacks on the Tirpitz,
first using manned torpedoes (Chariots), and then the Royal Navy's
midget X-Craft submarines in Operation Source.
Some of the original equipment was used in the film.

User Review

Quote

"Above us the Waves" is a typical British production with artisan touch, recommended to fans of naval issues and the history of World War II.
29 January 2011 | by psagray (Spain)

The action puts us in 1943. The staff of the Royal Navy, decided to eliminate the threat to British maritime traffic the presence of the powerful German battleship Tirpitz in a fjord on the Norwegian coast, decided to organize a secret operation with the aim of destroying the enemy ship. To do this, choose to use the submarines dwarfs Mark I, an experimental weapon to be used for the first time in this dangerous mission.

"Above us the Waves"is a British production of the 1950 that reconstructs the events surrounding the so-called Operation "Source", a daring raid by submarine on the Norwegian coast dwarfs with the aim of destroying the battleship Tirpitz, the mighty battleship Twin Bismarck. The story of the film was based on the book "Above Us the Waves" by Charles Warren, one of the participants in the real mission. Elimination of the Tirpitz, hiding since 1942 in the safe haven of its impenetrable Norwegian base, became a real obsession for the British Admiralty, determined to destroy all the dangerous coast German ship. When the air raids were futile, they decided to use the experimental pocket submarines to infiltrate the refuge protected fjord where the Tirpitz, launching from mother submarines a short distance from the coast six minis X class submarines.

It must be said that Operation "Source " resulted in a relative success, and that although it lost all the mini submarines, the bursting of two explosive charges under the waterline of the Tirpitz knocked out the German battleship for 6 months, until finally, in November 1944 the RAF finally destroyed using special bombs "Tallboy" 5 tons.

The film pays tribute to the brave crew of the British dwarf submarines, were able to successfully attack the Tirpitz. The production, which had historical and technical advice to the commander of submarines Donald Fraser, it gave realistic underwater scenes in the very successful for the time. Likewise, the material used was equal to the original that was used in W.W II, so how realistic the film is very high. Moreover, the film features the typical elements of the sub genre submarine, with moments of tension, depth charges, and a race against the clock to attack the Tirpitz. Within this genre the film offers nothing new, the truth is that in the first third of footage slows, but generally offers a good dose of underwater action, as well as reconstruct faithfully recreates the historical facts.

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