Careful lest the Das Boot fans tar you as a heretic and run you out of town. Buchhiem's novel has achieved mythological status with many here and one should always be careful questioning dogma.
Never mind that it IS a novel and so is fiction, it stands as the standard of realism for the faithful regardless of any factual, doctrinal or technical errors that might be present. As such it is no better or worse than any number of submarine novels, just more famous and mostly thanks to Wolfgang Petersen's film adaptions. Just don't get caught saying so in public.
In some ways though it is probably more accurate than Herbert Werner's supposedly factual Iron Coffins, another untouchable U-Boat cult document riddled with all manner of errors and inconstancies and yet one that many hold as almost biblical in its content.
There is some truly outstanding historiography on the U-Boat war and the Battle of the Atlantic available but most cannot be bothered to look past these two works, Das Boot the movie and all manner of superficial television CGI extravaganzas about U-Boats sandwiched in between monster-truck marathons.
All Michael Gannon's books are worth a look, cast your research net a bit wider and outstanding new worlds await.
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