Historical Basis
Some of the plot points of the movie were based on real-life incidents, such as the sinking of the submarine USS Sealion at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines, Commander Sherman's letter to the supply department on the inexplicable lack of toilet paper (based on an actual letter to the supply department of Mare Island Naval Shipyard by Lieutenant Commander James Wiggin Coe of the submarine USS Skipjack), and the need to paint a submarine pink due to the lack of enough red or white lead undercoat paint. The heat from the burning Sealion also scorched off the black paint of the nearby USS Seadragon and for a time this boat fought with only her red lead undercoat visible. This led Tokyo Rose to disparage American "red pirate submarines."
Read more about this topic: Operation Petticoat
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or basis:
“It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Even upon such a basis hast thou built
A monument, whose cement hath been guilt!”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)