True WWII story about a commando-style mission undertaken by a group of middle-age semi-retired British Cavalrymen in 1943 . The crew of veteran saboteurs (most of them formed by veteran actors as Trevor Howard , Patrick Mcnee ,Morgan Sheppard , Terence Longdon and several more besides ) commanded by Gregory Peck and David Niven are assigned the dangerous operation by the general (Kenneth Griffith) to blow up a German ship called Ehrenfels that carries a radio station located in the port of Marmagoa . They must destroy a transmitter in Goa , a Portuguese colony and neutral territory . As the end credits of this movie state , "during the first 11 days of March 1943, U-boats sank 12 Allied ships in the Indian Ocean , after the Light Horse raid on Goa, only one ship was lost in the remainder of the month¨. The film is dedicated to the memory of the honorary colonel of the Calcutta Light Horse , Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma , K.G. 1900-1979 . The producers wish to thank the Government of India and Administration and peoples of Goa and to pay tribute to commander B.S. Davies whose skill and courage at the helm of ¨Phoebe¨ contributed so much to the success of the mission . There are not the ¨Sea Wolves ¨of the title also called ¨Wolf pack¨ , that refers to the Nazi U-boats that are doing the shipwrecked and damage on the Allied fleet.
This exciting film contains intrigue , suspense , noisy action scenes ,fascinating battles and an enjoyable love story with treason and tragedy between Roger Moore and Barbara Kellerman who results to be the main fascination of the film . Other chief excitements about the movie, will be in the intervention of famous British secondaries who realize professionally competent interpretations , some of them with no more than a line or two to say as Allan Cuthberson ,Patrick Allen , Donald Houston , Jack Watson , Grahame Stark , John Standing , Percy Herbert and several others . Vibrant and rousing musical score by Roy Budd with agreeable final song titled ¨The precious moment¨ sung by the usual Matt Monroe . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Tony Imi .
The picture finely directed by Andrew V. McLagen is based on the book ¨Boarding party¨ by James Leasor who took actual events for his writing , these are the following : On reserve since the Boer War, they are most noted for their attack with members of the Calcutta Scottish against the German ship, Ehrenfels. The operation was organized by SOE's India Mission. It was kept covert, to avoid the political ramifications of contravening Portuguese neutrality in Goa, and was not revealed until thirty-five years afterwards, in 1978. The Ehrenfels was known to be transmitting information on Allied ship movements to U-boats from Mormugao Harbour in Portugal's neutral territory of Goa on 9 March 1943.The Light Horse embarked on the barge Phoebe at Calcutta and sailed around India to Goa. After the Ehrenfels erupted in a fireball and was sunk by the team of British saboteurs, British intelligence dispatched an open message over the wire falsely warning that they would invade Goa. The crews of the other two German ships in the Harbour, the Drachenfels and Braunfels, received the message and scuttled their ships in Goa's Harbour in the belief that they were protecting their ships from capture by the British. Italian ships in the Harbour were also destroyed. In 1951 all three ships were salvaged.
