Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 058" video.

Among the top 5 films about naval service, one of my picks is "The Enemy Below". Cracking good USN DE vs U-Boat film. There are a number of scenes of the crew interacting with each-other that ring true to me, including how everyone wakes up in their racks when they feel the vibration of the engines at high speed when the DE first charges after the U-Boat.
3
@cvproj Yes. I noticed "Balance of Terror" followed "The Enemy Below" almost plot point by plot point. I'm not sure if the film is based on the Borie incident. It is based on the book of the same name by D A Rayner. Rayner spent the war as captain of a Corvette hunting subs in the North Atlantic. The book is inspired by Rayner's experiences. I did read the book, but that was about 50 years ago, so I don't remember exactly how events unfolded there. It would not surprise me if the movie producers took some "license" with the material in the book, possibly including other bits, like the Borie's action.
3
On the Kimmel December 6th scenario, I think Graham Baxter is pretty close: schedule an all forces air raid drill for Dec 7th, at say, 7:00am. Sunrise that morning was at 6.26am, so everyone has plenty of daylight to work in. One thing I would like to try is have the destroyers in Pearl circle Ford Island laying smoke. If the entire harbor basin is full of smoke, the Japanese can't hit what they can't see. Then, with every Army fighter in the air, I, as Kimmel, would be in the fully manned communications center when the phone call from the radar station at Opana Point came in shortly after 7:02. I would say something along the lines of "I have an idea, lets vector about 50 fighters to the target the radar has identified to practice an intercept." Then, when the Japanese react to their formation being buzzed by 50 P-40s, it's game on.
2