Gift Horse

Viewers might as well know the inspiration for the screenplay to this 1952 movie based on facts gleaned from Wikipedia.

Based on the lend/lease arrangement of the UK/USA during WW2, Britain was leased an old destroyer by the US Navy.This was used in the St Nazaire raid of 1942. An explosive charge consisting of 24 Mark VII depth charges—containing a total of 4.5 short tons (4.1 t) of amatol high explosive—was fitted into steel tanks installed just behind the steel pillar that supported her most forward gun mount. The charges were to be detonated by multiple eight-hour time pencils connected together by cordtex, set before steaming out and cemented in to prevent any interference with the detonation.HMS Campbeltown steamed from Devonport to Falmouth, Cornwall on 25 March 1942 to join the other ships that would take part in the operation. The crew —which would be evacuated with the commandos—was reduced to 75 men, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Stephen "Sam" Beattie.

A flotilla of 21 vessels—Campbeltown, 16 Fairmile B motor launches, one motor torpedo boat, and a Fairmile C motor gun boat acting as the troops′ headquarters—left Falmouth at 14:00 on 26 March 1942, escorted for most of the crossing to France by two "Hunt"-class escort destroyers.[2] Apart from a brief clash with German submarine U-593, whose captain misreported the task force's course and composition, the ships reached France unmolested. One motor launch suffered mechanical problems and had to return to England.

The preliminary air raid carried out through heavy cloud by 35 Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys and 25 Vickers Wellingtons was much smaller than originally planned and was ineffective, merely alerting the defenders of something unusual happening. Nevertheless, by flashing genuine German recognition signals, the force, with Campbeltown flying the flag of the Kriegsmarine, approached to within less than 1 mi (1.6 km) of the harbour before being fired upon. Campbeltown—as the largest target—drew most of the fire. During the final approach, the crew of Campbeltown lowered the emblem of the Kriegsmarine and hoisted the White ensign of the Royal Navy.

At 01:34 on 28 March, four minutes later than planned, Campbeltown rammed the dock gate. The Commandos and ship's crew came ashore under heavy German fire, and set about demolishing the dock machinery. 162 of the raiders were killed (64 commandos and 105 sailors) out of the 611 men in the attacking force. Of the survivors, 215 were captured and 222 were evacuated by the surviving small craft. A further five evaded capture and travelled overland through France to Spain and then to Gibraltar, a British territory.

German photo of HMS Campbeltown, taken before it exploded The charges in Campbeltown exploded at noon, an hour and a half later than the British had expected. Although the ship had been searched by the Germans, the explosives had not been detected. The explosion killed around 250 German soldiers and French civilians, and demolished both the front half of the destroyer and the 160 short tons (150 t) caisson of the drydock, with the rush of water into the drydock washing the remains of the ship into it. The St. Nazaire drydock was rendered unusable for the rest of the war, and was not repaired until 1947.

The delayed-action torpedoes fired by the motor torpedo boat into the outer lock gate to the submarine basin detonated, as planned, on the night of 30 March. This later explosion led to panic, with German forces firing on French civilians and on each other. Sixteen French civilians were killed and around thirty wounded. Later, 1,500 civilians were arrested and interned in a camp at Savenay, and most of their houses were demolished, even though they had had nothing to do with the raid.Lt-Cdr Beattie—who was taken prisoner—received the Victoria Cross for his valour, and in 1947 received the French Légion d'honneur.The Victoria Cross was one of five that were awarded to participants in the raid, along with 80 other military decorations.

I rated this film 6/10 as above average and certainly not up to the level of "The Cruel Sea" (1952) produced in the same year, which which some users have compared it.

I've just watched The Gift Horse, a world war two film in black and white from 1952. I remember many titles of films from childhood which I never had the chance to see and so catch up with them now, and this is one of them. Based on a true incident where we made a swap with the Americans to obtain 50 old warships, this follows the exploits of one of these, commanded by the dependable Trevor Howard, who really carries the film, with a determined, but vulnerable performance, marvelous to watch. James Donald another actor known for these roles at the time, also has a major part, but is saddled with a side story which involves him romantically with Joan Rice, and consequently leaves him miscast. Robin Bailey is prominent and well cast I thought, as is the great Sid James, who runs a pub and there's a lovely scene where a fight breaks out in the pub and the camera ignores the guys fighting and goes to photographs on the wall of Sid in his boxing days, very novel. Lovely to see the wonderful Dora Bryan, and sadly I watched this only two days after she died at the age of 91. She would have been about 28 at the time. The film looks very dated and some of the scenes on the ship look like they were filmed in an old TV studio, but it's the acting that excels here, particularly Trevor Howard.

Just to add to malcolmgsw's comments.

The film has some elements of truth to it. The original destroyer concerned was USS Buchanan, renamed in the Royal Navy HMS Campbelltown. This ship did indeed carry out the raid on St Nazaire, in March 1942. The purpose was to prevent the use of the dock by the German battleship Tirpitz in case she should ever breakout into the Atlantic. It was the only dock outside Germany which could accommodate the ship.

One scene stands out for me in the film. It takes place in ex boxer Sid James's pub where some of the crew of our ship are relaxing. A crew of another ship starts to wind them up and this leads to a fight. However, we don't see this fight. As it begins, a bell goes off like the bell at the start of a boxing match. At the same time, the camera focuses on a photo of Sid in his boxing days, one of many which adorn the walls of his pub. Then as the fight ensues, the camera fixes on other boxing pictures from the wall as each blow is struck. Very enjoyable!

This film was shown last week on Channel 4.The critic in the Radio Times rather annoyed me as he was rather disparaging about it,saying that it took a long time to get going.He seems to forget that this film is of its era and likes to take its time to tell its story.I have to say that in fact i think that many of the action sequences look rather cheaply staged and some of the special effects work is very amateurish by current standards.However this film does stand up very well mainly because of the marvelous performance from Trevor Howard.In particular the scene when he receives news that his son has been killed in action.I would say that this is only slightly inferior to the marvelous "The Cruel Sea" which sets the standard by which all such films of the period must be set.The only jarring note was the obligatory fading American star to boost the chances of a sale to the USA.Sonny Tufts had to be one of the worst actors of that or any other period.

Trevor Howard makes for an eminently plausible "Lt. Cdr. Fraser" in command of a dilapidated ex-USN destroyer - renamed HMS Ballantrae - whose stiff upper lip, by the book, approach to his men causes considerable resentment. Gradually, though - and not before the ship has a few mishaps - he begins to turn them around before their ultimate mission to attack a Nazi-occupied French dry dock. A good ensemble cast including James Donald, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough help keep the pace quick and interesting. The latter part of the film is based on a real-life raid on St. Nazaire and is quite an exciting ride. I enjoyed this.