The Silent Service

I did something for this title I never do. I gave it ten out of ten. It's not that this series was that brilliant an example of television art. It wasn't. It was a classic 1950's-vintage low-budget (very low budget) B-grade syndicated half-hour black-and-white TV show of a kind that has become practically non-existent on commercial TV for nearly fifty years now. For a person looking at this for television art perhaps its highest value is as an excellent example of what TV looked like so often in the first decade of the medium.

No, the reason I gave it ten out of ten is that it is about as genuine a dramatized account of the American submarine effort in World War II as anybody is ever likely to make, and that effort, as the name of the series implies, has been generally unsung. The submarine force picked up the nickname "silent service" during the war (like with so many other things, the phrase was popularized if not actually coined by the news media of the day) because the submarine force officialdom as well as individual submariners simply would not talk publicly about what they were doing except on infrequent and carefully controlled occasions.

This originated not out of some social or organizational misanthropy or sense of elitism, but for security reasons. The story goes that early in the war the submarine service was as forthcoming as any other combat branch of the US armed forces, but that when too much information showed up in the media Japanese intelligence agents collected it and sent it to Japan, affording them a significant improvement in the tactics they used in hunting and sinking our submarines. Thus (and no pun intended), the force and its personnel promptly clammed up for the duration.

But by the 1950's there was no need to maintain that kind of secrecy and the story the submariners could not tell before could finally come out. It turned out that although the submarine force comprised only about 2% of the Navy's total personnel, acting alone it had sunk approximately 30% of all Japanese warships eliminated during the war. At the same time it was doing that, it also was responsible for over 50% of all Japanese commercial ships sunk during the war, totaling 6,000,000 tons of shipping, or the equivalent of the entire prewar Japanese merchant marine. No less a luminary than Fleet Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey (who was a destroyer man and eventually gained his great fame as a naval aviation admiral, and was never a submariner), once stated: "(i)f I had to give credit to the instruments and machines that won us the war in the Pacific, I would rate them in this order: submarines first . . . " The cost had been high: 52 submarines lost, and about 20% of all submariners killed, the highest mortality rate of any combat branch of any of the services in the war. Neither the Marines nor the paratroopers nor the bomber crews nor any other community in the five services (the US Coast Guard included) had so oppressive a death rate.

Thus I give this series the highest possible IMDb rating for finally getting this out to the public, one submarine's story at a time for as long as its short run allowed, and moreover I especially laud this series for its decided LACK of Hollywood flair, at least in the earlier episodes. In the series description on the IMDb front page for this show it says its realism was enhanced by the usage of some actual wartime combat footage, but the truth is that what enhanced its realism is the fact that it was not made by the usual Hollywood glitz and glamor crowd but by an actual former submarine commander. This not only not only enhanced the realism of the story details and the action in general, but ensured that the factual content was as close to 100% accurate as time and resources constraints would allow, holding the dramatic license factor to a minimum, even if there was increasing amounts of the hokey melodrama thought necessary to make the show appealing to a general audience as the series production run went on over time. The use of then mostly-unknown actors (although many of them would become very well-known in years to follow, one of the fun things about this series) contributed to this tone, and, finally, the appearance of "special guests" who were the actual submarine officers involved in the event depicted, was invaluable. Would that there were more such patently ingenuous dramatizations of real-life naval or military operations as this.

NOTE: unaccountably, IMDb still won't let posters use the correct "box" brackets used in normal writing in appropriate places, and I am forced to use normally inappropriate parentheses in their place out of necessity. It is regrettable that the programmers who do this site force this kind of illiteracy on their audience. I was never a C-student in language arts classes and I don't appreciate being made to look like one through no fault of my own. Maybe these people need to be sent back to junior high school to repeat their seventh-grade English classes.

My father, Capt Harley K. Nauman, was featured on one of the silent service episodes. I was very young and don't remember much more. My father was captain on the Steckleback and the Salmon during WWII. Any information on the episode he was in and where I can get a copy of it would be very helpful. My fathers year of birth was 1910, he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934 and retired from the Navy in 1964 with the rank of Rear Admiral. I don't have much more information but can contact my sister with questions you may have. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

BILL BUEHLER California

Each episode of the series is about the heroism of the USN, USA (Army), Australians, British, Filipinos, Indonesians, and other Allies.

When I lookup (DDG/Google/Bing) information about the submarines mentioned/detailed in the episodes, I get the same basic information that is in each pertinent episode... I consider this to be a high compliment to the facts presented in each episode. Of course, there are probably some inaccuracies.

This series doesn't attempt to instill more drama than actually existed ... which must have been significant ... it decreased the drama and let us, the viewers, decide for ourselves.

Anyone that has actually been within a WWII submarine nowadays (such as the USS Torsk, SSN-423, now in Baltimore, MD, near the National Aquarium, USS Constellation, and USCG Cutter 37) would have additional awareness of what the USN submarine crews had to deal even when not in action. The subs are quite small, not much space, except for the racks of torpedos which took a lot of room.

The series even touched on the sensitive subject of the significant issues with the Mark 14 torpedo, which had major multiple problems, all covered-up by one person in the USN.

The number of future stars in the series is phenomenal: Carl Betz, Deforest Kelley, Russell Johnson, Joe Flynn, Leonard Nimoy, Kurt Kreuger, Simon Oakland, Dennis Weaver, Richard Crenna, Chuck Connors, Mike Connors ... too many to mention. Amazing cast.

Great series.

In response to the poster who asked what major studio owned the show, I am guessing it would be NBC, as California National Productions was run out of the West Coast division of NBC. That said, many California National shows are starting to fall into public domain use; such as many episodes of the William Bendix version of "Life of Riley", "Adventures of Hiram Holliday", and others. I would suspect, based on that, that the "major studio" who is trying to get their hands on the films would be a DVD distributor who wants to release the show. I say more power to them. "The Silent Service" was a great show, I used to stay up very late during the summertime when I was in grade school in the 60s to watch reruns of the show on a local independent station.

RATING: A+, Four Stars(****), Don't Miss!! EX-Cellent!!

Tuesday evenings in 1957-59 were the nights for our Boy Scout Troop meetings held at St.Theodore's Church Basement. It was the same evening as RED SKELTON, GARRY MOORE and for a couple of years, that little syndicated half-hour, THE SILENT SERVICE. It was bad enough to miss RED, but a series depicting real life occurrences from World War II, never! The Serieswas Emceed by the series Producer, Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers, USN (Ret.). He would be joined by a member of the real crew, be he an Officer or Enlisted Man and the 2 would have a short discussion at the conclusion of the story. Admiral Dykers also did the introduction, but did it solo.

So, Scout Troop 483's meetings were usually over by 9 P.M., sharp. (If we weren't, we were subject to the wrath of Mr. Enn, the psychotic, megalomaniac building Janitor. Mr. Enn would come in and start turning out the hall's lights at 9:00 PM, whether or not that we were still there!) Well, we were out by (9:00 PM!)and on our way home. Our house lie about 7 blocks away, hmmm, THE SILENT SERVICE came on at 9:30 over Channel 5! So there was time to make a quick stop at Jim's Grill on 63rd Street & Hermitage. Here we had a choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, hot tamales, malts, etc., all the usual stuff.

But c'mon now! this was Jim's! As often as not we would get his specialty of the house, The Juice Bun! A Juice Bun was a cutting of French Bread (Gonella Brand locally), sliced open but leaving the bread joined, like a hot dog bun. Then the inside was coated with a generous amount of the house special BBQ sauce!! Ummm-ummm! And it could be taken as a go along, carry-out to be eaten while in transit to Home and THE SILENT SERVICE, remember? So, we would be home in plenty of time for the half hour program of the day. They would take the true stories of various crews of subs and dramatize them. The individual shows were always full of interest and some excitement as our submarine members of "the Silent Service" conducted their missions vs. the Axis Powers' Navies and shipping. Most episodes were set in the Pacific and the War against Imperial Japan.

One episode was devoted to the U.S.S. Silversides a World War II Sub, by then de-commissioned. It was moored right here in Chicago being docked in the waters at the Old Naval Armory.

It was great to have here, as it not only was seen as a symbol of our Nation's Navy with its Strength & Freedom, and as a Symbol of our Freedom, but it was open for tours for gratis! Our Scout Group did the tour at least once! As the song goes, "Dragons live forever, but not so Little Boys!", and the years soon slipped away, with our having many more interests and not thinking about The Navy, The Silversides or THE SILENT SERVICE. During that stretch of years of about 2 decades in length, the Silversides was sold by Uncle Sam to a private company. What next? But it was good news, at least temporarily, as the Company purchasing the Sub turned it into a Privately Owned Museum, open to the public for tours, all for a small donation.

This was indeed good news for Chicago and Her Visitors; as we already had the captured World War II German U Boat, the U 505 on display in the Lakefront at The Museum of Science and Industry! Now, with the Silversides Museum, we had 2 Subs, one Amewrican/Allied and the other German/Axis! It was like bringing the World to our own doorsteps! It was too good to be true, and was not to last! Somewhere, along about ca. 1984-5 a decision was made in Chicago City Council to charge the small,independent non-profit Silversides Museum a mooring fee, like one that the Rich Folk paid for their Yachts. This was a hardship that would break the Sikversides people.

Then came the day when a ship sailed into the harbor around Navy Pier*, where the Silversides was moored. The ship hooked up a tow line ti Her, and promptly pulled her out to relocation quarters in Muskegeon, Michigan. Our Silversides was gone, but not totally, being right across this Inland Sea of Great Lakes, Michigan branch.** Too bad that the ^%$#*&@'s in City Hall, Mayor Harold Washington, Alderman Vrydolyak, Alderman Burke, Alderman Pucinski and Alderman Mell, etc., etc., didn't just listen to the Boys of Chicago!!

NOTE:* Navy Pier is an Exposition Centre owned and operated in the Public Interest. It hosts various events, e.g., The Flower Show, The Leatherworks Show, Hobbis Show, etc., as well as permanent attractions like the Great Amusement Park with the Super-Tall Ferrous Wheel, which has become Navy Piers Symbol. Don't confuse this with the now defunct Naval Armory, a U.S.Naval Reserve Training Facility.

NOTE:** Even though some idiot insisted on collecting the Fee from The Silversides people, no one said anything about the Free Ride that one Columbia Yacht Club has (still to this day)in docking its huge Yacht/Meeting Facility, ironically almost directly adjacent to where the Silversides had been, at The Old Naval Armory!