The King's Choice
Posted by: dirigoboy ()
Date: October 30, 2021 04:24AM

I happened to see this movie one night purely by accident. It looked interesting, and so I watched it, though it was sub-titled. I enjoyed it immensely, especially the opening part about the German warship Blucher attempting to steal it's way up the Norwegian fjord until it was discovered in the darkness and sunk in the channel. I provide the brief youtube of the opening action here:
[www.youtube.com]

I have a particular interest in this action on the Blucher as it was carrying a German office, Walter Freiherr von Freyberg-Eisenberg-Allmendingen who, escaped it's sinking in 1940. Walter von Freyberg would later transfer to submarines, and fast forwarding three years, and now as Captain of U-610, and on a cold night in North Atlantic on March 29.1943 he would sink the U.S. Liberty ship S.S. William P. Frye, the one straggler in convoy HX-230. Among the crew of the Frye was my grandfather, who was the Second Assistant Engineer. He and all but a crew of 5(?) survivors went to the bottom as the ship sank quickly. I was able to locate and talk to one of the two Naval gunners who survived the sinking, and in a brief phone conversation with him, he told me that the ship sank so quickly, he barely had time to get his leg over the rail. He also told me that the statements about lifeboats getting away wasn't true. He said that for the sake of expediency, and to keep the life boat davit ropes up out of the way, they were knotted and thrown up over the davits, which proved fatal as they could not get the knots untied in order to lower any of the boats.

At any rate, I did enjoy this movie.



Subject Written By Posted
The King's Choice dirigoboy 10/30/2021 04:24AM