Brown on Resolution

[Tim Birch]

Some years ago I read CS Forrester's excellent tale about a British seaman POW who escaped with a rifle, and managed to delay the departure of a German warship, which had put into a bay in a remote unihabited island to carry out repairs on her steering, by sniping at the sailors as they tried to carry out the work. I realise that Forrester's story is fiction, but someone told me that it was broadly based on a true event.

Does anyone know of any similar event which might have inspired Forrester?

Tim

[The_Historian]

Tim,

This probably completely wrong, but I seem to remember seeing a British war movie made in the 50's along the same lines. This one was set in the Mediterranean somewhere, with a German ship being sniped at by a lone Royal Navy officer. Could it be the same?

Regards,

Gordon

[Ian Underwood]

Can't tell you if the story is based on fact, but the original 'Brown on Resolution' starred John Mills and was made in 1935, and was remade in 1953 as 'Singlehanded' starring Jeffery Hunter.

[brownag]

Channel 4 showed the 1953 version about 8 years ago as one of their afternoon matinees. It must have been from a print made for test sceenings because it had two endings, one where he dies and another whee he lives! I don't know which one made it to the cinemas and I haven't seen it again since.

Adam