From BBC Online:
Universal Studios is making a World War II film
about a bunch of Americans
who captured Hitler's Enigma machine and subsequently broke the Nazi codes.
The film has raised more than a few hackles in Britain - because the capture
of the machine was in fact made
by the British Navy - and it was British experts that cracked the
codes at the top-secret Bletchley
Park base in Buckinghamshire. Their work led to the deciphering of German navy messages and
helped to save many British convoys.
'Based on real events' The Enigma machine was vital
cracking Hitler's secret codes. The $55m Hollywood production, expected to star Harvey Keitel
and Jon Bon Jovi, is also considering switching the action from the
mid-Atlantic to the
Mediterranean.
The studio said it won't promote the film as fact but will
instead say it is based
on real events. The Royal Navy said it is not surprised by the Hollywood plans.
"It is
unfortunate, but it is not the first time, and I am sure it will not be the last, that Hollywood has
distorted history." The recent World War II blockbuster Saving Private Ryan angered some
British veterans because the film only showed Americans in northern France. 'Typical American
approach' Captain Joe Baker-Cresswell was the wartime commander of the Royal Navy
destroyer HMS Bulldog which seized the machine from a German U-boat in May 1941.
Speaking
on BBC Radio 4's Today programme his son Charles Baker-Cresswell
said he was disappointed
by the film. "It's a typical American approach. We've seen this time
and time again." Pearl
Harbour: The subject of many US World War II film. sBack in 1941 the submarine
that was
carrying the enigma machine had already sunk two ships from the convoy the Bulldog was
accompanying, when depth charges forced it to the surface. Luckily Captain Baker-Cresswell
decided to board the submarine before sinking it - an action he later described as a "whim". The
crew found vital code books which the German crew had not had time to destroy. They listed the
top secret codes the Germans were to use for the next four months of the war. Charles
Baker-Cresswell said of his father's discovery: "As soon as they got the stuff on board he
realised he had something pretty rare."