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Originally Posted by Markus Witt
Isn't this guy also reffered to as "obersteuermann" in the movie. This confused me as it sounds like the first officer.
During the diner scenes in the movie you see the kaleun, Li, and two watch officers at the dinner table. Seeing that let me conclude that apparently the obersteuermann was on the bridge at that time and was in fact the first officer.
This would make sense as the first officer (chief mate) is on duty during dinner time. At least that's what I'm used too in the merchant fleet (1ON taking the 04-08 and 16-20 watch)
However in the movie in other scenes it becomes apparent that the "obersteuermann" is not an officer but an NCO. But if this is the case, then who is on the bridge during dinner?
You would surely expect an officer in charge of the bridge watch.
I would expect 3 watch officers on a U-boat to cover all the conventional watches, but if the obersteuermann is an NCO, then in Das Boot apparently they only have two. This still confuses me.  |
The Obersteuermann was the Chief Navigator and Quartermaster for the boat and usually (in real life) the senior ranking NCO aboard (which sometimes also made him the oldest and most experienced man, even including the COs). The game does not reflect this, as the Navigation Officer is indeed treated like a commissioned officer and not a highranking enlisted man.
Very often he took the third watch. The 1WO had the first watch, and the 2WO the second. The commander of the boat did not take any particular watch, those duties belonged to his junior officers and the higher-ranking NCOs.
The guys who eat in the "officer's mess" in the movie are the commander , the chief engineer, the first watch officer, and the second watch officer, plus the "guest" - war correspondent Werner. The same space also doubled as living quarters for the LI, the 1WO, and the 2WO. The Obersteuermann would have eaten and slept in the senior NCO quarters which (on a Type VII) were located between the officer's mess and the hatch to the forward torpedo room.
In Das Boot the line officers were:
- The Kommandant, "der Alte," "Herr Kaleun" - by rank a Kapitänleutnant, first in command
- The First Watch Officer or 1WO/IWO, "Eins W O," the guy who came originally from Mexico and who seems to have bought into Nazi propaganda, and who gets "ordered" to play the "Tipperary song" during one of the officers' meals - an Oberleutnant zur See and second in command
- The Second Watch Officer, who jokes (in the subtitles) that the 1WO could crack nuts in his backside and gives the fake "alarm" that sends the boat into its first practice crash dive - a Leutnant zur See and third in command
The LI or "chief" was also a commissioned officer, by rank an Oberleutnant (Ing.), in practice the guy most likely to be deferred to by the commander due to his technical expertise, but not actually in the line of command. He usually sits next to the commander at meals in the officer's mess. He's the one who tears up looking at pictures of his wife and who the commander tries to get off the ship (along with Werner, the writer) in Vigo.
Werner, the war correspondent, was a Leutnant but as an observer and "guest on board" would have had no real authority regardless of rank.
The scene early in the film where the officers are eating and the 1WO excuses himself to go to the bridge for his watch presumably shows the boat's "midday" meal, since the First Watch would have taken its second turn of the day beginning at 1200 hours. In the extended version the Obersteuermann is then shown reporting to the commander after the end of his turn on the bridge, which makes sense since he would have been in charge of the Third Watch which would have been coming off duty when the First Watch went up.
Edit: I do think there may be one instance in the film where the commander addresses his 1WO as "nummer eins" - but the 1WO definitely refers to the Bootsmann as "nummer eins" when he asks him where the medic is after the LI informs him he's got crabs crawling around in his eyebrows. The Bootsmann as "nummer eins" would be the NCO responsible for seeing to the day-to-day routine and discipline of the rest of the enlisted men. This is the guy who gave Werner the tour of the boat when they first put out to sea, and who is seen supervising the torpedo maintenance in the scene where Werner gets the oily rag thrown in his face. The Obersteuermann is a completely different guy.