Goodliffe as Captain Banister. (Captured at Dunkirk after being shot in the leg.) Maurice Denham as Commander Richards. (Served in the Medical Corps in the war.) Peter Dyneley as Commander Jenkins (uncredited) Norman Shelley as voice of Winston Churchill (uncredited) Jack Watling as RNVR Signals Officer Thomas Waldron Price as Flag Lieutenant to First Sea Lord Seán Barrett as Able Seaman Brown Victor Maddern as Leading seaman, in closing scene outside Admiralty (uncredited) Graham Stark as Petty Officer Williams and Edward R. Murrow as himself: Ed Murrow, CBS London radio correspondent in 1941 At sea Karel Štěpánek as Admiral Günther Lütjens in Bismarck Carl Möhner as Captain Lindemann of Bismarck (voice: Robert Rietti) Walter Hudd as Admiral Holland, in HMS Hood John Stuart as Captain Kerr of HMS Hood Esmond Knight as Captain Leach of HMS Prince of Wales. (Knight served as a gunnery officer on board Prince of Wales, and was seriously injured and blinded during the battle with Bismarck.) Johnny Briggs as Young Seaman in Prince of Wales (uncredited) Sydney Tafler as Henry, civilian workman aboard Prince of Wales Sam Kydd as civilian workman aboard Prince of Wales Julian Somers as civilian workman aboard HMS Prince of Wales Ernest Clark as Captain Ellis, HMS Suffolk Mark Dignam as Captain Maund, HMS Ark Royal John Stride as Tom Shepard, Captain Shepard's son, TAG (Telegraphist/Air Gunner) in Ark Royal's Swordfish squadron (uncredited) David Hemmings as seaman in Ark Royal (uncredited) John Horsley as Captain, HMS Sheffield Peter Burton as Captain Philip Vian, 4th Destroyer Flotilla Jack Gwillim as Captain Wilfrid Patterson, HMS King George V. (Gwillim served 20 years in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of commander.) Michael Hordern as Admiral Sir John Tovey, C-in-C Home Fleet, in HMS King George V. (Hordern served as a lieutenant commander on HMS Illustrious during the war.) Edward Judd as Navigating Officer on board Prince of Wales (uncredited). Production C. S. Forester reportedly wrote the story as a screen treatment for 20th Century Fox before even writing the book. Writer Edmund H. North worked closely with Forester's story, compressing events and time lines to make the plot taut. Along with the director, he decided to use a documentary-style technique, switching back-and-forth from a fairly insular war room to action taking place on remote battleships. The action is made more realistic when the human element of men in a game of wits