HMS Dido, HMS Ajax, and HMS Orion in action off Crete, 21st May 1941. The three cruisers and four destroyers (Janus, Hasty, Hereward, Kimberley) formed “Force D” under Rear-Admiral I.G.Glennie. On the night of 21st May, an Axis convoy of twenty caïques escorted by the Italian destroyer-escort Lupo attempted to land German troops at Maleme.
Interception of enemy convoy off Crete, by Rowland Langmaid, collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Whoever uploaded this to YouTube claims 1952, but it’s definitely a 1953 flick.
The fil-um moves CS Forester’s story from the First World War to the Second World War and we have Hollywood’s Jeffrey Hunter as a Canadian.
But it’s a cracking piece of cinema from Roy Boulting. Incredible battle sequence from 25-minutes onward. Bernard Lee, Victor Maddern and Sam Kydd play their character roles with the humour and sangfroid expected from a black-and-white British war film. Well worth watching before YouTube delete it.
One of a series of damage control posters produced by the Royal Navy.
HMS Cleopatra damage control poster S 1581 (3)
Naval Matters 