Plot
In April 1942 Lieutenant Freddie Taylor and crewmates from the submarine Sea Tiger are given a week's leave after an unsuccessful patrol. Leading Seaman Hobson goes home to save his marriage, while a reluctant Torpedo Gunner's Mate Corrigan departs for his wedding in London. When the crew are recalled early Corrigan is relieved, though later regrets not finalizing his marriage. Sea Tiger is assigned the top secret mission to sink Nazi Germany's new battleship, the Brandenburg, before she transits the Kiel Canal for sea trials in the Baltic Sea and must put to sea immediately.
Crossing the North Sea, the submarine picks up three downed Luftwaffe pilots from a rescue buoy, and prevents their radio alert to German forces. When the submarine enters a minefield, an airman panics, reveals the Brandenburg is further ahead than thought, and is attacked by another airman and dies. Taylor risks a pursuit of Brandenburg into the German-controlled Baltic Sea.
When Brandenburg is spotted, Sea Tiger fires all its torpedoes and dives before assessing their impact to escape German destroyers dropping depth charges. By expelling oil and other debris including the body of the German airman, Taylor deceives the Germans into believing the submarine has sunk. Although successfully escaped, Sea Tiger no longer has enough oil to reach Britain. Convinced that Sea Tiger was sunk, the Germans have Lord Haw Haw broadcast the destruction of the Sea Tiger to Britain.
Taylor decides to abandon ship on the Danish island of Hågø (which is in fact the island of Bågø) but Hobson, a German-speaking former merchant seaman, knows the port there and persuades Taylor to let him search for oil. He succeeds, and Sea Tiger enters the harbour under cover of darkness guided by Hobson's intelligence about the harbour depth. They refuel with help from friendly Danish sailors while fighting off the German garrison. Although Pincher (the cook) is killed and Oxford and Lieutenant Johnson are wounded, they return to the submarine. The tanker they refuelled from is set ablaze by German gunfire as Sea Tiger flees the port into open sea.
While returning to Britain, an escorting trawler informs them they sank the Brandenburg. Sea Tiger returns to base flying the Jolly Roger for the first time.
Production
We Dive at Dawn was filmed at Gaumont-British Studios in London, [2] with the co-operation of the British Admiralty. John Mills prepared for his role as the captain of Sea Tiger by sailing in a submarine on a training mission down the Clyde. He recalled a crash dive:
The ship then seemed to stand on her nose and I felt her speeding like an arrow towards the sea bed; charts and crockery went flying in all directions; I hung on to a rail near the periscope trying to look heroic and totally unconcerned; the only thing that concerned me was that I was sure that my face had turned a pale shade of pea-green. [3]
Exterior shots of the submarines P614 and P615 were used for Sea Tiger (with the final number painted over to make "P61"). [4] The vessels were a Turkish S-class submarine that had been part of a consignment ordered by the Turkish Navy from the British company Vickers in 1939. But with the outbreak of World War II, the four boats were requisitioned by the Royal Navy and designated the P611 class in the British Fleet. They were similar in design but slightly smaller than the British S class, although with a higher conning tower. [4] The S-class boat HMS Safari also appears in the film.
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