“The King’s choice” is a 2016 Norwegian film about the Nazi invasion of Norway. I watched it a couple years ago; it was pretty good. But there was one scene that stood out for it’s absolute spectacularness: the sinking of the German cruiser Blücher as it sailed into Oslofjord on April 9, 1940. The Blücher was the latest thing in naval technology and power; it was taken down by a pair of ancient 28 cm shore cannon and some torpedoes that had been launched from a torpedo battery that the Germans were unaware of. That they didn’t know about it seems kinda astounding given that the battery was built in 1901… the torpedoes themselves were manufactured in 1900 by a factory in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fortress was manned largely by fresh recruits, conscripts who had been on the job for just a few days. The torpedo battery was under the command of a guy who had retired 13 years earlier, while the fort itself was commanded by a guy six months from retirement.
If you want to draw any other parallels to a beleaguered set of defenders taking out a more powerful and aggressive invading nations military vessels… well, I ain’t gonna stop ya.
“The King’s Choice” depicted the moment the cannon open up on the Blücher and fire two shots. It is damned spooky, starting off much like a scene from a horror movie (a *good* horror movie). It’s cinematic perfection.