SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Ernest Krause is assigned to lead an Allied convoy across the Atlantic during World War II. His convoy, however, is pursued by German U-boats. Although this is Krause’s first wartime mission, he finds himself embroiled in what would come to be known as the longest, largest and most complex naval battle in history: The Battle of the Atlantic.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Greyhound Plot Summary and Synopsis
During the Battle of the Atlantic, convoy HX-25, consisting of 37 Allied ships, is making its way to Liverpool. The convoy’s escort consists of the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Keeling, radio call sign “Greyhound”, captained by Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) of the United States Navy; the British Tribal-class destroyer HMS James, call sign “Harry”; the Polish Grom-class destroyer ORP Viktor (with a Royal Navy liaison officer on the radio), call sign “Eagle”; and the Canadian Flower-class corvette, HMCS Dodge, call sign “Dicky”. Krause is serving as overall commander of the escort ships, but despite his seniority and extensive naval education, it is his first wartime command.
The convoy enters the “Black Pit”—the Mid-Atlantic gap where they will be out of range of protective air cover. While they are still three days away from the resumption of air cover, high-frequency direction finding from the convoy flagship results in the interception of several German transmissions, indicating the presence of U-boats. Greyhound’s radar operator identifies a surfaced subheading towards the convoy. Greyhound moves away from the convoy to intercept it based on its bearing and gets the U-boat within firing range, but the heavy seas allow the U-boat to dive before Greyhound can get a visual. After sonar contact is re-established, the submarine tries to slip under Greyhound, but Krause maneuvers his ship above the U-boat and fires a full pattern of depth charges, resulting in his first kill.
The crew’s jubilation is cut short as they soon receive reports of distress rockets at the rear of the convoy. A Greek merchant ship was attacked by another U-boat and is quickly sinking. Krause moves Greyhound to assist, evading torpedoes fired at his ship with careful maneuvering. The surviving Greek sailors are rescued, and Greyhound returns to the convoy just as the bridge receives multiple messages from the other escorts: a wolfpack consisting of six U-boats is staying just out of firing range of the convoy; Krause suspects they are waiting for nightfall when the escorts will have no visibility. The attack commences that evening with five merchant ships being torpedoed and sunk. One U-boat torpedoes an oil tanker and escapes Greyhound by using an underwater decoy, tricking the crew into wasting most of their remaining depth charges. Krause chooses to rescue survivors from the burning oil tanker rather than go to the aid of the other ships first, a decision he comes to regret.
The next day, the wolf pack targets Greyhound. The captain of the lead submarine, callsign “Grey Wolf”, taunts the convoy and its escorts via radio transmission, threatening to sink them all. Krause learns that Greyhound is down to six depth charges, leaving it with no effective response to an underwater attack. The U-boats launch multiple torpedo runs, which Greyhound is barely able to evade. Greyhound and Dicky combine to sink one of the U-boats in an exchange of surface broadsides. Dicky receives minor damage due to the close range of the engagement and Greyhound is hit on the port side by one of the U-boat’s deck guns, which kills Krause’s mess attendant, George Cleveland, and two sailors. During the funeral service, Eagle is attacked and eventually sinks. Krause, aware that doing so might expose the shoddy state of the escort fleet, elects to break radio silence by transmitting a single word, “help”, to the Admiralty.
With the convoy close to reaching air cover, the remaining U-boats mount an all-out assault on the destroyers. One of the torpedoes glances off the side of Greyhound, and the other barely makes contact. After heavy fighting, Greyhound sinks Grey Wolf with a full broadside. To everyone’s relief, they spot air support deployed from British RAF Coastal Command and use their guns to mark the last visible U-boat, allowing a PBY Catalina bomber to line up a depth charge attack and sink the sub. The rest of the pack quickly flees before they can be discovered.
While assessing damage, Krause receives radio contact from the head of the relief escorts, HMS Diamond, that his relief has arrived and Greyhound is due for repair and refitting in Derry alongside his two surviving companion vessels. The crew receives a “job well done” on their four U-boat kills. As Krause turns over the deck to a junior officer (his watch is an officer of the deck), all present on the bridge gaze at their Captain in surprise, as they realize he hasn’t left command since they entered the Black Pit 48 hours earlier, their looks turn to new-found respect.
The Ending
While setting the new course, passengers and crew of the remaining convoy ships cheer and send up flares to salute Greyhound’s crew for their valor and victory at sea while Krause finally prays and rests.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).