Real submarines were painted a clear grey inside. In the movie Das Boot, the director choose to repaint all the interior black to increase the sense of claustrophoby and impact the viewer.
I did check the contrast by myself. I visited the Das Boat set in the Bavaria Studios in Munich and the interior (now the black looks greyish because of all the dust) is very claustrophobic. But when I visited U-995 in Laboe (only remaining type VII ) with its light gray interior paint, the sub looked significantly less opressive (although I knew the internal distances and measures were very much the same in both cases)
In real life, the constructors were very much aware that men were to be enclosed in a metal tube for long periods of time, and nothing more away from their will and reality than leaving the interior dark, claustrophobic and as much depressing as "Das Boat"'s director wanted to transmit to the public for effect.
I still can't understand the tendence that many do of "improving" simulation by adopting the movies schemes -thought to create a visual impact of one way or another- instead of reflecting reality.
Same goes with all the efforts to create murky water, prodigious amounts of rust on the skins (most of the U-boat were brand new, with protecting paint, and only a handful lasted more than a couple of years) and all the other hollywood stuff.
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