"The story of a ship"

Chris Hallam looks back on the making of In Which We Serve, probably the best British film about World War Two to be made during the conflict itself

- By Chris Hallam

By September 1942, war-weary Britons had been through the Phoney War, the Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the worst of the blitz, but still had a long way to go. True, the US had now entered the war, the Nazi invasion of Russia was stalling at Stalingrad and El Alamein was just around the corner. But Britons knew they still had a long battle ahead of them. Churchill's prediction that: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning," was still two months away. Britain was halfway through what would turn out to be a six-year struggle.

It was at this point, 80 years ago, that the film In Which We Serve opened at British cinemas. "This is the story of a ship," Trevor Howard's voiceover tells us immediately. We then see the ship in question - the fictional HMS Torrin travel from the moment of its construction, through to its launch shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, to the end of its "life" when it is sunk during the Battle of Crete in May 1941. This last event is not a spoiler: the ship is abandoned after being hit very early in the film.

Most of the story is told in flashback as the Torrin's embattled crew remember their lives of service on board the vessel as well as their time with their families both before and during the war.