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Reviews
The Silent Enemy (1958)
Good war movie but factually inaccurate
I beg to disagree with those who see this movie as a great historical testament. It is a good war movie but it shows how in the Fifties, Brtain had still to come to terms with Italians outsmarting the Royal Navy. In the movie Crabb blows up the Olterra, the merchant ship secretly transformed by the cunning Italian frogman into a base for their submarines. I suppose to great amusement of the British audience. Reality is quite different. In fact, the "olterra" was never discovered by the British and actually, the very night in which Italy announced the armistice with the Allies, the 8th of September 1943, the frogmen were planning an attack. Only after the armistice, the trick was made known to the Royal Navy. Nothing was discovered, nothing was blown up except the British ships.
Good war novel, poor historical testimony. Must have been a role model for the Americans who, according to Hollywood, discovered enigma on a U-boot!