This “unclassified” 1974 US Navy film opens with a German submarine crew silently stalking and then firing upon an Allied vessel. During WW2, the film says, 47 major ships, 52 submarines, and countless lives were lost. The war also taught the Navy that close exposure to an underwater blast can severely damage a ship’s hull or propulsion systems, putting it out of commission. The film’s title, “Close Is Near Enough,” appears on the screen at mark 03:20 as the narrator echoes those same words. For this reason, the Navy established the Underwater Explosions Research Division (UERD) in 1946 to find way to strengthen ships’ hulls. The film shows footage of ships earmarked for the scrapyard being torpedoed as part of the test process before explaining what happens to a vessel during an underwater explosion (mark 04:45). We watch as a highly compressed gas bubble pulsates before creating a series of water plumes above the water line. The bubble causes severe pressure on any nearby object with the shockwave damaging a ship, even lift it into the air and slamming it back into the water. The film shows high-speed cameras being fitted into test ships to film damage (mark 07:30) with the captured footage shown and the details later analyzed (mark 11:00). The information ultimately will be used for new design techniques. There is a look of the UERD’s Submarine Shock Simulation Vehicle to evaluate the strength of submarines (mark 12:00) with additional footage of tests conducted using the vehicle as well as other ship explosions (mark 15:57) and experiments using simulated underwater mines (mark 18:00).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com