Today, Friday, 8th May is Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day, which celebrates the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on 8th May 1945.

In a way, it’s a good reminder of what everyone had to put up with before that date and only the other day (Sunday I think it was!) I watched a truly inspiring DVD film – The Cruel Sea.

This was a 1953 British film staring Jack Hawkins, based on a best-selling novel by a former naval officer, Nicholas Monsarrat, although I understand that the film omits some of the grimmest moments that he actually encountered.

It was “a story of the Battle of the Atlantic, the story of an ocean, two ships, and a handful of men. The men are the heroes; the heroines are the ships. The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea, that man has made more cruel…”

It’s basically a story of two British ships (HMS Compass Rose and HMS Saltash Castle) that play a deadly game of “cat and mouse” with the Nazi U-boats with some pretty gripping scenes, not least with the sight and sound of men fighting for survival when their ship (Compass Rose) gets torpedoed and sinks, along with the devastating loss of men who couldn’t escape in time.

Later on in the film, (this time on HMS Saltash Castle) the Commander has to make a difficult decision – either pick up survivors from a U-Boat kill or try to sink the U-boat, where it’s lurking right underneath, according to the echo sounder. Rather than risk his ship and all the crew on board, the Commander chooses to launch the depth charges…!

The whole point of this, is that in business, difficult decisions have to be made in what we think is in the face of adversity, when in reality, we are not being shot at, torpedoed or fighting for survival in the sea.

And for every weakness, there’s usually a strength and for every threat, there’s usually an opportunity…!

So OK, you may not be fighting the Battle of the Atlantic but we’re to help with the battle for future growth and development, with lots of FREE ammunition on our web site at www.stirling-uk.com, whether it be financing a business, valuing a busines, help to buy a business, funding for acquisitions, preparing to sell a business or selling a business.

Happy VE Day!

Roger Smith FIOD