Greyhound
A World War II film set in North Atlantic, depicting events of 1942
Synopsis
Commander Ernest Krause leads a convoy of 37 Allied ships across the treacherous North Atlantic while being pursued by a German U-boat wolfpack during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Historical setting
Greyhound adapts C. S. Forester's 1955 novel The Good Shepherd, with Tom Hanks writing the screenplay and starring as Commander Ernest Krause, a first-time escort commander aboard the destroyer USS Keeling, call sign Greyhound. The story unfolds in early 1942, at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, as an Allied convoy crosses the "Black Pit" — the mid-ocean gap beyond the reach of friendly air cover — shadowed by a German U-boat wolfpack.
The film compresses the escort war into a few sleepless days: sonar contacts, depth-charge runs, dwindling fuel and ammunition, and the constant arithmetic of guarding thirty-seven merchant ships with only four escorts. Scenes were filmed aboard USS Kidd, a preserved Fletcher-class destroyer, and the picture premiered on Apple TV+ in July 2020 after the pandemic cancelled its theatrical release.
The events portrayed in Greyhound take place in 1942, during the Second World War. Explore the same period alongside other films on the WW2 timeline.
