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Above Us the WavesA stirring tale of British wartime pluck, Above The Waves concerns the efforts of a small group within the Royal Navy to utilise unproven submersible devices to strike a blow at the German navy. Specifically, their aim is to sink the Tirpitz, a battleship so formidable and such a threat to shipping that the Royal Navy is committing undue amounts of resources to keeping it in check.
"We are an island people, we cannot survive without communications across the sea. Hitler knows this only too well," we're told over some "captured German newsreel" at the start. A team is assembled under John Mills' Commander Fraser after attempts to destroy the Tirpitz by air have failed, due to its secure position 60 miles inland on a Norwegian fjord. Fraser sets out to utilise new devices they refer to as "chariots", or Mark I Human Torpedoes. These are small submersibles ridden like a motorbike by two crewmen in diving suits. Fraser's commanding office, an admiral played by the estimable James Robertson Justice, is unconvinced, until Fraser's team sneak up on his ship and mine it with dummy charges.
An attempt to get to the Tirpitz through "one of the best defended stretches of water we know" is sanctioned. For the crossing, two chariots are attached to the hull of a small Norwegian boat, which has a dicey run-in with a German patrol. Worse luck follows when both subs are lost in stormy seas. The men escape into Sweden and return to Scotland, when their plans are revised. This time, Fraser and his team are going to attempt an attack using three X-Type midget submarines. Fraser takes command of one, Lt Alec Duffy (Gregson) of a second and Lt Tom Corbett (Sinden) of a third. Each has a crew of four. After being towed across the North Sea by larger subs, and narrowly avoiding a mine, the midgets strike into the fjord, each carrying two large explosives.
The tension builds up then stays high through much of the second half of the film, the director of which, Ralph Thomas, was better known for his light comedies, being a veteran of the Doctor films series. The script by Robin Estridge (based on a book about the real mission by James D Benson and Charles Esme Thornton Warren) successfully captures a tone of British naval professionalism and bravery, as the men in Fraser's team attempt to carry out highly dangerous missions. As they progress towards the Tirpitz, they must contend with other shipping, German patrols, anti-submarine and anti-torpedo nets, listening posts and depth charges. And then there is the terrible toll that the mission takes on the vehicles with Duffy's X literally losing its bearings before being deprived of its periscope.
Thomas brings all this to the screen in a no-nonsense fashion that sometimes borders on the documentary. This is one of those refreshing Second World War films where there's no romance bolted on and the Germans actually speak German. It's by no means dry, though, with the banter ("We're through, and that means there's nothing between us and that juicy great battle wagon!") keeping the dialogue alive and the action gripping.
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