Best submarine movies

I was lucky enough to tour the USS Torsk. It's a WWII era sub, on display at the Baltimore Harbor. It's a tiny thing inside. And it had a crew of 80 men! No fresh air, no air scrubbers, that I'm aware of. Just whatever air that was inside the hull, before the dive. If you couldn't surface at night, you stayed down and had to breathe stale air. Ugh.

Submariners deserve all of my respect. A tough bunch.
 
I toured a sub in dry dock, somewhere in Normandy. Can't remember it's name or class but it was pretty big. Not so much inside - I'm 6' 4" and I couldn't bear to in there for more than an hour.....
 
I toured a sub in dry dock, somewhere in Normandy. Can't remember it's name or class but it was pretty big. Not so much inside - I'm 6' 4" and I couldn't bear to in there for more than an hour.....

Went with my son to tour some Naval vessels at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA with the scouts. One of the ships was the submarine USS Lionfish, which saw active duty against the Japanese in WWII. I'm 6'1" and I hit my head several times while inside . I couldn't wait to get out of there. I give a lot of credit to the sailors who served on subs.
 
Went with my son to tour some Naval vessels at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA with the scouts. One of the ships was the submarine USS Lionfish, which saw active duty against the Japanese in WWII. I'm 6'1" and I hit my head several times while inside . I couldn't wait to get out of there. I give a lot of credit to the sailors who served on subs.

I don't know about you mate but with me, I think it's an age thing! When I was younger, I could do confined spaces pretty well. My Granddad was a coal miner almost his whole life (which was shortened, by being a coal miner) and he used to take me into caves, caverns etc that were open to the public. I didn't mind being underground or crawling through tiny spaces between rocks etc at all. These days, that would be my worst nightmare!
 
there is a floating tench class tied up at the Carnegie science center in pitt....anyways, what was the movie where a sub accidentally torpedoed a hospital ship, and then got haunted?
 

Enemy Below (1957) .. a classic cat & mouse .. duel to the death movie. Two experienced professional warriors .. who are trying to kill each other but begrudgingly find a deep rooted respect for the other .. as worthy adversaries.

Believe the whole movie is available on YouTube.
 
Last edited:
War was messy and everyone understood that back then. With smart bombs and guided missles, we have sanitized war to the point that no one is appalled, anymore.

Before Britain bombed Dresden, the Germans firebombed Coventry. The Japanese and Germans started the war, and the allies just finished it, in a grand way.

Everything I replied with was far too political.

War is diplomacy by other means, and should be abhorred every chance we get. Non-combatants should be off-limits, and rarely are.
 
Everything I replied with was far too political.

War is diplomacy by other means, and should be abhorred every chance we get. Non-combatants should be off-limits, and rarely are.

Oh please, how well did diplomacy work out prior to 7 Dec 1941? BTW, the Japanese “rape of Nanjing” occurred in Jan 1938.


But if the unwashed masses are insulated from war, how will they know how horrible it is, and want to avoid it?

But getting back to the young German lads just being button pushers, you have to wonder what they were thinking. Europe is at peace, and along comes your Chancellor who decides to:

Re-occupy the Rhineland with German troops, there by violating the Versailles treaty.

Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich agreement. The Munich agreement was the allies agreeing to let Germany have the Sudetenland in return for peace.

Hitler invades Poland.

Does this sound like a guy you want to get behind? Because those young German lads sure did.
 
If you ever get to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, they have a Mark IX U-boat on display. It is not a large boat inside. I think its the U-505?

Yes it is. I’ve been in that sub several times.

I’m somewhat claustrophobic so the thought of being in that thing underwater, with somebody dropping depth charges from above, evokes a little anxiety :)
 
The Sub used in Down Periscope is tied up in San Francisco, along with a Liberty Ship. I toured the Liberty ship, and when I exclaimed that the engines valve gear was Walscharts, the guys who keep her up all were very friendly and liked that I knew what I was looking at. They took me to some places most never get to see! Fun times!
 
Oh please, how well did diplomacy work out prior to 7 Dec 1941? BTW, the Japanese “rape of Nanjing” occurred in Jan 1938.


But if the unwashed masses are insulated from war, how will they know how horrible it is, and want to avoid it?

But getting back to the young German lads just being button pushers, you have to wonder what they were thinking. Europe is at peace, and along comes your Chancellor who decides to:

Re-occupy the Rhineland with German troops, there by violating the Versailles treaty.

Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich agreement. The Munich agreement was the allies agreeing to let Germany have the Sudetenland in return for peace.

Hitler invades Poland.

Does this sound like a guy you want to get behind? Because those young German lads sure did.

ducati, if you wish to discuss this further, please feel free to PM me. This thread isn't the place for us to try and defend our beliefs on warfare, or history for that matter.

You're kind of taking this far further than I wished to, and for my own dabbling off-topic, my apologies to OP.

I simply meant to state that an 18 year old child, and as adults we know that to be true, is not really capable of dissecting the geopolitical situation (being nestled in his own belief system and geographic set of rules) and even far less strong enough to go against the tide of popular opinion. For that reason, and because I'm a human first and foremost, the harrowing stories of subs going down with their crew, crushed by oceanic pressures and forgotten, well, that saddens me greatly
 
When I toured the USS Torsk, the tour guide had served on that very sub, during the war. He told me there was an incident, where the ship had to stay submerged for 3 days, to avoid detection. Three days of no fresh air, breathing in diesel fuel fumes, cigarette smoke, and BO. He said he still had lung problems from then.
 
Back
Top Bottom