Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!SILENT VICTORY – SUBMARINE WARFARE IN WWII! Contains exclusive veteran interviews! After the devastating losses to America’s Pacific Fleet in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Navy ruled supreme in the vast Pacific Ocean. In time, the Pacific Fleet was able to rebuild to take on the Japanese. Much of the publicity went to the aircraft carriers and the Naval Aviators who flew from their decks. Yet, as important as the carriers were, the most significant naval warships in actually prosecuting the war toiled in almost complete obsurity. While battles like those that occurred at Midway, Santa Cruz and Leyte Gulf grabbed the headlines, the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force quietly went about the task of isolating Japan. The submarine fleet crippled Japan’s industry and prevented re-supply and reinforcement of Japanese island garrisons by virtually destroying her merchant fleet. Silent Victory includes rare archival footage of epic naval battles and exclusive veteran interviews, covering the submarine war from the declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare after Pearl Harbor to Japan’s unconditional surrender in Tokyo Bay. Devil Boat follows a group of Portland, Oregon PT Boat veterans as they attempt to resurrect a PT boat from the ravages of time and neglect, sixty years after the war’s end. Their aim was to restore PT 658 to its original state, complete with armaments and the original compliment of three 1,200 horsepower Packard engines. With the restoration on the Willamette River as backdrop, Devil Boat takes you on an up-close-and-personal journey into the history of the PT boat, as told through the WWII PT Boat veterans’ thrilling tales and rare archival footage of the origins, development and deployment of the Mosquito Squadrons. The restoration of PT 658 was a daunting task. It is not an ordinary boat, but then, these are not ordinary men, and their memories of combat on the high seas illustrate just how special these boats and their crews were.
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(out of 6 reviews)
Review by John W. Dacey for Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!
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“Silent Victory” is terrific! It is a well-produced, professional effort, a great documentary betrayed by terrible packaging! I’m guessing this twin-pack (also featuring another winner, “Devil Boat, the Saga of PT 658″) is available at “Big Box” electronics stores with other “shut-up” or “impulse-buy” DVDs and had I encountered it there my response would likely have been “nah!” and walk away, the previous and enthusiastic review had me ordering this right away. As I said, this is a remarkably professional effort, the writing, direction, and editing are all top notch and the original film employed is fantastic! There is much use of really well-preserved color as well as clean black & white footage. The music is complementary and unobtrusive, the scripting accurate and concise and the animated graphics are also well done! Interspersed within the film are “on-camera” anecdotes by many veteran submariners, including USS TANG survivor Jesse DaSilva and even some pilots, including Alex M. Vraciu, 4th ranking Navy Ace in the Pacific. My only gripe-a tiny one-is the lack of any rank/rating given with the names of the submariner interviewed. I know both Mendenhall and Ruiz were officers but the rest? All in all, “Silent Victory” belongs in your DVD collection if you’re as goofy about WWII submarines as I am and believe me, I’m mighty goofy!
Review by A reader for Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!
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If you are interested in American submarine warfare in the Pacific during WWII don’t hesitate to buy this DVD. I was a little put off by the cover art, the low price, and the fact it was bundled with a DVD about PT Boats. Now that I have watched the video I can’t believe I waited so long to order. There is a significant amount of color footage of the fleet boats in action, outstanding commentary by WWII sub vets (including Ron “Warshot” Smith, Jesse DaSilva, Ken Ruiz, among many others), and the maps and graphics are as good as anything on The History Channel. More than anything else, however, I appreciate the fact that it describes the evolution of both operations and doctrine over the course of the war – a really comprehensive overview of the service history, warts and all (the “skipper problem”, the torpedo scandal, materiel limitations, etc). You can probably tell from my glowing review that I give this DVD an enthusiastic “thumbs up”!
Review by Anthony “Is Blu for You” Scultore for Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!
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A fantastic documentary about WWII submarines and the great men that served on them! Great archival footage of WWII sea warfare coupled with interviews from the men that served make this a wonderful piece. In addition, you get the DEVIL BOAT dvd. This is the story of PT Boats during WWII and the restoration of one such boat by PT Boating vets.
A great set! Absolutely worthy of ownership.
Review by Dave for Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!
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The DVD about submarines lasted for 94 minutes – the DVD about the PT boat lasted 66 minutes. While the story of the PT boat was fairly interesting, I could have done without it – if that meant more time had been devoted just to subs. Like another reviewer, I would have liked more coverage of sub construction and layout. I learned some things, but I had been expecting more. I don’t regret buying it, though.
Update: I just lent the discs to a sub vet from WWII (Pacific theater). He was most appreciative, and said it was the best documentary about subs that he had ever seen. He even recognized some of the people who were in the interviews. So I just changed my rating from four stars to five.
Review by Wade for Silent Victory Submarine Warfare in WWII – Rare Archival Footage – 2 DVD Set!
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All in all, this is a very good product, especially considering the price, but as someone fairly well-versed in military history in general and American World War II submarines in particular, I found there to be an awful lot of rather careless factual mistakes. The most glaring of these errors are the two misspellings of submarine names within the on-screen graphics: USS Pogie instead of USS Pogy, and USS Pompanito instead of USS Pampanito. Other mistakes include a pilot being identified as an F-6F pilot instead of an F6F pilot, the Bashi Channel being misspelled “Bashee” and Takao, Formosa (modern day Kaohsiung, Taiwan) being misspelled as Takow. Picking nits? Perhaps, but these were all such easy mistakes to either avoid or correct at some point, I feel that I should at least mention them.