The Cruel Sea

Why does a convoy escort in the Atlantic winter so often find itself pulling men out of the water instead of hunting the U-boats that put them there? Cmdr. Ericson (Jack Hawkins) takes the HMS Compass Rose to sea in 1939 with officers and crew straight out of training, and Charles Frend keeps the film on that cold deck. It is a story of what a war at sea takes out of ordinary men, one rescue at a time.