This is an extremely wrong and stupid feature film, and there needs to be a better one about the battle. As far as I know, a U. S. sub was never surrendered like that. They would have fought it out with their deck gun until sunk, and then survivors might have been captured.
My Uncle John was a teenage sailor aboard USS Moray SS-300, and I can only imagine his reaction, if he saw this thing.
As someone has written below, this was an obscene propaganda piece obviously intended to smooth over the hideous Japanese atrocities throughout the war, so that Japan could be rehabilitated to be our military ally in the Pacific.
The Japanese did not lose 3 carriers in this battle. They lost only light carrier Shoho, while we lost fleet carrier Lexington - a tactical Japanese victory.
As to the film footage used for the actual battle in the last few minutes of the film, that of the aircraft was actually fairly good, with Coral Sea era film used. Our insignia roundels often had the red dot in the middle of the star, and the TBD Devastators (massacred later at Midway) were prominent.
Meanwhile the model ships used were laughable, let alone inaccurate, and the underwater shots of the sub in the goldfish bowl are cringeable.
Our sinking of Shoho did strip the Japanese invasion convoy of its air cover and force the cancellation of the Japanese landing at Port Moresby, so it was a (costly) strategic victory for us.
Our Marines on Guadalcanal would later stop the other Japanese prong.
As our Admiral Fletcher said, this Coral Sea first carriers-only battle in history was "a hell of a lot of groping around" (through terrible storm and visibility conditions).
My Uncle John was a teenage sailor aboard USS Moray SS-300, and I can only imagine his reaction, if he saw this thing.
As someone has written below, this was an obscene propaganda piece obviously intended to smooth over the hideous Japanese atrocities throughout the war, so that Japan could be rehabilitated to be our military ally in the Pacific.
The Japanese did not lose 3 carriers in this battle. They lost only light carrier Shoho, while we lost fleet carrier Lexington - a tactical Japanese victory.
As to the film footage used for the actual battle in the last few minutes of the film, that of the aircraft was actually fairly good, with Coral Sea era film used. Our insignia roundels often had the red dot in the middle of the star, and the TBD Devastators (massacred later at Midway) were prominent.
Meanwhile the model ships used were laughable, let alone inaccurate, and the underwater shots of the sub in the goldfish bowl are cringeable.
Our sinking of Shoho did strip the Japanese invasion convoy of its air cover and force the cancellation of the Japanese landing at Port Moresby, so it was a (costly) strategic victory for us.
Our Marines on Guadalcanal would later stop the other Japanese prong.
As our Admiral Fletcher said, this Coral Sea first carriers-only battle in history was "a hell of a lot of groping around" (through terrible storm and visibility conditions).