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
QuoteDisplay More"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.