Das Boot

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Good lookin out!! Think it came out around 80? Quite the flick with Jurgen Procknow or whatever his name is. Thanks for the heads-up.
 
ACCORDING TO MY EXWIFE'S UNCLE (SEE BELOW)HE STATED ONLY 3 THINGS THAT WERE MISSING FROM THE MOVIE.
1. THE VIOLENT SLAMMING OF YOUR BODY AROUND THE SUB WHEN BEING ATTACKED.
2. THE DAMPNESS AND COLD
3. THE SMELL , BODY ODOR, FECES, MOLD, DIESEL FUEL, VOMIT. HE SAID THE SMELL WAS THE WORST OF ALL.

MY EX-WIFE'S UNCLE WAS IN U-BOATS IN WWII. HIS BOAT WAS SUNK. HE AND A FEW OTHERS SURVIVED. HE WAS 16 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME. INTERNED IN THE USA TILL THE WARS END. WHEN HE WAS 19YO HE WAS RELEASED TO GO HOME. THE RED CROSS INFORMED HIM HIS ENTIRE VILLAGE AND NEIGHBORING VILLAGE IN SAME VALLEY WERE KILLED BY THE RUSSIANS. UPON RELEASE HE WENT STRAIGHT TO A US NAVY RECRUITING STATION. BECAME A US CITIZEN AND WORKED IN THE US NAVY SUB SERVICE TILL HE RETIRED. HE'S SINCE PASSED.
 
Yes, excellent. The cramped sets capture the claustrophobia those crews experienced. One of the bits was the XO is a real rah ! rah ! rah!-Hitler Youth type, gung-ho, by the book. He shaves everyday, which they were "supposed" to do, the captain twits him about that.
"Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner is an excellent account by a real U-Boat commander. They suffered 75% casualties.
 
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wouldn't it have been better for the crew to be submerged rather than be in on the surface in a submarine? I guess it wouldn't matter to me because I wouldn't in a submarine
 
I have never watched it all the way through before (it's not a western) but I have it being DVR'd and we may manage to sit through it this time.

Or, maybe not.

Bob
 
wouldn't it have been better for the crew to be submerged rather than be in on the surface in a submarine? I guess it wouldn't matter to me because I wouldn't in a submarine

Maybe for the crew, but not the submarine.

U-boats spent most of the time running on the surface because (before the development of the schnorchel late in the war) the main diesel motors could only operate there. They need oxygen. The boats carried batteries for the supplementary electric motors which needed to be continuously recharged by the diesels. Diving was really used only for tactical purposes.
 
Maybe for the crew, but not the submarine.

U-boats spent most of the time running on the surface because (before the development of the schnorchel late in the war) the main diesel motors could only operate there. They need oxygen. The boats carried batteries for the supplementary electric motors which needed to be continuously recharged by the diesels. Diving was really used only for tactical purposes.

A naval officer once described submarines this way:

WWI, WWII, surface boats that could go under water.

Modern nuclear, under water boats that can go on the
surface.
 
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German with subtitles....

You get the authentic feeling in hearing it in German with subtitles. I saw the English dubbed version and didn't get the same feeling. Like when yells, "I WANT BONA FIDE DAMAGE REPORTS!". The English dub doesn't have the same power to send chills down your spine.

Truly a landmark movie. ANYBODY that goes in submarines has my admiration no matter what side they are on.
 
You are right in a way....

wouldn't it have been better for the crew to be submerged rather than be in on the surface in a submarine? I guess it wouldn't matter to me because I wouldn't in a submarine

It would be better. Old subs COULDN'T stay under very much. New subs hardly ever surface.

A pre-nuclear subs biggest fear was getting caught on the surface by destroyers or planes. Though they practiced 'crash diving' to shave seconds off their time to submerge, those seconds were the difference between safety and being sunk.
 
The weren't called.....

ACCORDING TO MY EXWIFE'S UNCLE (SEE BELOW)HE STATED ONLY 3 THINGS THAT WERE MISSING FROM THE MOVIE.
1. THE VIOLENT SLAMMING OF YOUR BODY AROUND THE SUB WHEN BEING ATTACKED.
2. THE DAMPNESS AND COLD
3. THE SMELL , BODY ODOR, FECES, MOLD, DIESEL FUEL, VOMIT. HE SAID THE SMELL WAS THE WORST OF ALL.

MY EX-WIFE'S UNCLE WAS IN U-BOATS IN WWII. HIS BOAT WAS SUNK. HE AND A FEW OTHERS SURVIVED. HE WAS 16 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME. INTERNED IN THE USA TILL THE WARS END. WHEN HE WAS 19YO HE WAS RELEASED TO GO HOME. THE RED CROSS INFORMED HIM HIS ENTIRE VILLAGE AND NEIGHBORING VILLAGE IN SAME VALLEY WERE KILLED BY THE RUSSIANS. UPON RELEASE HE WENT STRAIGHT TO A US NAVY RECRUITING STATION. BECAME A US CITIZEN AND WORKED IN THE US NAVY SUB SERVICE TILL HE RETIRED. HE'S SINCE PASSED.

They weren't call 'Pig Boats' for nuthin'.
 
I hate to be graphic, but it's real life...

^This.

It's one of the best war movies ever for realism, IMHO. Like the beach scenes in "Saving Private Ryan", you can smell it.

A D-Day Vet recently wrote that they need to be able to put the smells in "Saving Private Ryan". I can only imagine what the smell of so many people with their guts blown out would be like. A landing craft that was trying to back out and return to the ship got a clogged filter. When the crew pulled the filter basket and it was full of intestines.

They did experiment with putting smells into movie theaters but the smells got mixed up without special ventilation. Throughout the entire D-Day scene the smell of explosives and death would have sufficed and probably run everybody out of the theater.
 
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