Das Boot Mystique

[sharkbit]

This is just something I thought I'd share:

I've read about some of the reactions of U-boat veterans to Bucheim's "Das Boot". It seems a lot of them disagreed with the potrayal of them and the U-boat service. I've read that there were some supporters as well.

I just started Michael Gannon's "Operation Drumbeat". It details Reinhard Hardegen's part in the attacks against America following America's entry into the war with U-123.

Gannon interviewed Hardegen and other members of his crew for the book. Early in the book, he recounts when U-123 was kept down by escorts for 12 hours on a patrol prior to Operation Drumbeat.
I found these quotes from Gannon's interview with crewmen from U-123 very interesting:

Quoted from the book:

Hans Seigel:It wasn't at all like what people saw in Bucheim's movie, Das Boot.

Walter Lorenz: No, not at all. In the movie when the depth cahrges hit you see men falling all about. It was just not like that. Sure, your nerves jangled, but falling about on each other? No, no.

Seigel: When you heard the ASDIC, and when you heard the depth cahrges, you knew that you were still alive. But it's true, when the destroyer's propeller noises grew louder and closer, and when the pinging reverberated throughout the boat, and when you heard the click of the explosives reaching their depth, sure it rattled your nerves. But there was never any screams or shouts like in the film. It just didn't happen. It couldn't happen-they'd locate you immediately. If just one man shouted-

Richard Amstein: I don't think there was man on board who wasn't scared.

Walter Kaeding: The man who says he wasn't scared, he's a liar. The difference was that in a U-boat you couldn't show your fear. So we didn't. But in Bucheim's film Das Boot, where the men are so scared they go in their pants, not one of us had that happen, not one.

Karl Latislaus: Did you know that Bucheim also wrote a book? He is truly crazy. He made only one trip in a U-boat, as a photojournalist. How could he presume to write about U-boatmen? Some things are factual, but most are not. Before a mission we didn't drink that much or go around without our shirts-

Kaeding: We always knew where we stood. We understood from the beginning that we could be hit out there. But discussing that was taboo. Not in the family, not in the homeland, nowhere did we discuss it. We didn't even discuss with our shipmates.

Seigel: Every boat was different. The commander of every boat was different. And I believe that if we had a commander who was very tense, we wouldn't have been so calm either. But with Hardegen we had confidence that we would make it. And we were a well-experienced crew. You could trust your life to every single man.

I found that passage very interesting. And so far, the book has been an engrossing read.