In Which We Serve (1942) - Quotes

Tribute to Women Supporting Service Members

Taglines: Dedicated to every woman with a man in service!

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The Greatest Human Drama of War

Taglines: The greatest human drama of war filmed! The greatest picture you've ever seen!

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Memorable Reflection on Service and Sacrifice

Taglines: You'll Never Forget...In Which We Serve

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Legacy of Ships and Their Sailors

Narrator: [voiceover] Here ends the story of a ship, but there will always be other ships; we are an island race, through all our centuries the sea has ruled our destiny. There will always be other ships and men to sail in them. It is these men, in peace or war, to whom we owe so much. Above all victories, beyond all loss, in spite of changing values and a changing world they give to us, their countrymen, eternal and indomitable pride.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Open fire!

Narrator: God bless our ships... and all who sail in them.

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Art and Reality Diverge in Observation

Flags: Very pretty sky, sir. Somebody sent me a calendar rather like that last Christmas.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Did it have a squadron of Dorniers in the upper right-hand corner?

Flags: No, sir.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: That's where art parts company with reality.

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Marriage Dynamics and Authority in Relationships

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Just you begin as you intend to go on, Mrs Blake. Keep him in order. My wife rules me with a rod of iron. It's been quite successful so far, hasn't it, darling?

Mrs. Alix Kinross: Don't talk such nonsense. I'm never allowed to have my own way over anything.

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A Christmas Toast and a Naval Tradition

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: I should like to take the opportunity of this festive occasion to drink the healths of one and all present, and to thank a kindly fate for so arranging that my ship should have to come home for boiler cleaning two days before Christmas - a bit of luck which any sailor would tell you is little short of a bloody miracle.

Mrs. Kath Hardy: Walter, how can you? You know I don't like you using that word.

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: Be that as it may, Kath, that's a highly expressive word. What's more, it's been bound up with naval tradition since times immemorial.

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Debate on Hitler's Motives for War

Mrs. Kath Hardy: I don't believe that Hitler'd be so silly. What would he expect to gain by having a war?

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: World domination, that's what that little rat's after. You mark my words.

Mrs. Kath Hardy: They haven't got enough to eat in Germany as it is. Mrs Blacket's nephew, you know the one that travels in underwear, came back from Berlin two months ago. He said they was all half-starved.

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: Well, I can't help what Mrs Blacket's nephew says. I think we're for it.

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Preparedness in Uncertain Times

Captain Edward V. Kinross: We're living in strange times, darling. It's as well to be prepared.

Mrs. Alix Kinross: Yes, I suppose it is.

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Memories of Quarrels and Emotions

Captain Edward V. Kinross: That first quarrel we had, do you remember? When you went stamping off to listen to the band all by yourself and came back in tears a half an hour later.

Mrs. Alix Kinross: It was only because they were playing "The Blue Danube". You know that always makes me feel sort of pent-up and emotional.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: That wasn't why you were in tears and there's no use pretending it was.

Mrs. Alix Kinross: If I was in tears at all, which I hotly deny, it was probably because that was the very first time I discovered what a horrible, disagreeable character you have.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Still, it was a good honeymoon, as honeymoons go.

Mrs. Alix Kinross: It went awfully quickly.

Mrs. Alix Kinross: Oh, stop it, Teddy. I refuse to be made sentimental in the middle of a Great Western lunch. Eat up your delicious piece of railway fish and behave yourself.

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Marrying a Sailor Comes with Challenges

Freda Lewis: There's one thing I shall never get used to and that's you going away all the time.

Ordinary Seaman Shorty Blake: Well, it's your own fault for marrying a sailor. That's fairly asking for trouble, that is. Can't trust any of em an inch. Wives in every port. Always coming home unexpected and catching you having tea with the lodger.

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A Toast to the Newly Betrothed

Mrs. Alix Kinross: [to Flags and Maureen at Christmas dinner] Stop whispering, you two. You know, Robin, you really oughtn't to have put them next to each other.

Captain Edward V. Kinross: We ought to drink to them. Come on, everybody. To the newly betrothed.

Captain Edward V. Kinross, Mrs. Alix Kinross, Bobby Kinross, Lavinia Kinross: The newly betrothed.

Bobby Kinross: What's betrothed, Daddy?

Captain Edward V. Kinross: The beginning of the end, my boy.

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The Rivalry of Naval Life

Mrs. Alix Kinross: [Christmas dinner toast] Ladies and gentlemen. I'll begin by taking my husband's advice and wishing you all a very happy Christmas. I'm sure Elizabeth and June will back me up when I say I'd like to deliver, on behalf of all wretched naval wives, a word of warning to Maureen who's been unwise enough to decide to join our ranks. Dear Maureen: we all wish you every possible happiness, but I think it only fair to tell you in advance exactly what you are in for. Speaking from bitter experience I can only say that the wife of a sailor is most profoundly to be pitied. To begin with, her home life, what there is of it, hath no stability whatever. She can never really settle down. She moves through a succession of other people's houses, flats, and furnished rooms. She finds herself having to grapple with domestic problems in Bermuda, Malta, or Weymouth. We will not deal with the question of pay as that is altogether too painful. But we will deal with is the most important disillusionment of all, and that is that wherever she goes there is always in her life a permanently undefeated rival: her husband's ship. Whether it be a battleship or a sloop, a submarine or a destroyer, it holds first place in his heart. It comes before wife, home, children, everything. Some of us try to fight this and get badly mauled in the process. Others, like myself, resolve themselves to the inevitable. That is what you will have to do, my poor Maureen. That is what we all have to do if we want any peace of mind at all. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my rival. It is extraordinary that anyone could be so fond and so proud of their most implacable enemy - this ship. God bless this ship and all who sail in her.

A Farewell Gesture of Love for the Ship

Mrs. Alix Kinross: However busy you are, and however quickly you've got to get your commissioning done, I should like to come on board just once before you go to sea to give the ship my love.

Devotion Amidst Distractions

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: I will treat these paltry interruptions with the contempt they deserve, and go on to propose the health of one who is very dear to me. She's a creature of many moods and fads and fancies. She is, to coin a phrase, very often uncertain and coy and hard to please. But I'm devoted to her with every fiber in my being, and I hereby swear to be true to her in word and deed, so help me God. Ladies and gentlemen, HMS Torrin.

The Importance of War to the Young

Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy: [to Freda and Kath] What you young flibbertigibbets don't realise is that this is a very important war indeed.

Remembering the Torrin in Action

Captain Edward V. Kinross: You will all be sent to replace men who have been killed in other ships. And the next time you're in action, remember the Torrin.

Remembering the Fallen with Honor

Captain Edward V. Kinross: The Torrin has been in one scrap after another, but even when we had men killed, the majority survived and brought the old ship back. Now she lies in 1500 fathoms - and with her, more than half our shipmates. If they had to die, what a grand way to go. For now they lie all together with the ship we loved, and they're in very good company. We've lost her - but they're still with her.

Responsibility for Soldiers During Evacuation

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Now, you probably all know what we've got to do, don't you? The whole British Expeditionary Force is falling back on Dunkirk. Now, in peacetime, as you know, there's a lot of leg-pulling between the services. But the soldiers are our brothers in arms and it's up to us to get em off so they can live to fight again. Let them see how much we admire the way they fought. And don't forget, the success of our evacuation is measured by the smallness of the military casualties, not the naval ones. The soldiers are our guests, and their lives will be in our hands.

Urgent Preparation for Imminent Conflict

Captain Edward V. Kinross: Most of you've seen the commissioning program published in Plymouth General Orders. And you will have noted that this allows the customary three weeks. Well, you've all read your papers and you know that Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin yesterday. As I see it, that means war next week. So I will give you not three weeks but exactly three days to get this ship ready to sail. None of us will turn in or take our clothes off or sling our hammocks for the next three days or nights till the job's finished. Then we'll send Hitler a telegram saying, "The Torrin's ready. You can start your war.

The Connection Between Happiness and Efficiency

Captain Edward V. Kinross: A happy and efficient ship - a very happy and a very efficient ship. Some of you might think I'm being a bit ambitious wanting both but in my experience you can't have one without the other. A ship can't be happy unless she's efficient and she certainly won't be efficient unless she's happy.