Regarding the political leanings of U-boat crews:
I'm not sure where I read it, but somwhere I picked up that contrary to what is pictured in the film, the uboat crews (at least the officers) were vetted to make sure that they were loyal. Maybe it was Wikipedia (who knows how accurate that is, but that's another story), but it makes sense that on something as valuable as a uboat to not allow anybody who might not be loyal to the cause on board. I bet this is true for the officers, but I imagine that among the typical lay-sailors that there was a wide spectrum of loyalty. Especially towards the end when replacing uboat crew became more and more desperate. I wouldn't expect a uboat captain to be allowed to openly criticize Nazi doctrine at any time, though.
Still the best damn war movie I've ever seen.
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