Type IX/D2

[Rockin Robbins]

I've always thought that Das Boot was an interesting movie with lots of pretty authentic shots of U-Boats, but with actors poorly mocking the procedures and character of real U-Boat sailors.

The captain is lollygagging around with the periscope trying to be spotted by leaving it wagging in the air too long and suddenly the destroyer (who'da thought????) comes out of nowhere and they do the ALAAAAAAAAARM bit. This is plain silliness! Here's the procedure, the captain has the periscope down. He asks the sonar operator, where's the targets? The sonar opeator tells him a destroyer is approaching on bearing xx. Captain sets the periscope on the bearing, pops the scope up (he crouches over the periscope well, catches the handles on the way up, spins the scope to the correct bearing, peeks, says "Mark", and lowers the scope. It literally just bounces off the top stop, staying up for maybe two seconds.) and calmly takes pre-planned evasion or attack actions. The movie? S_T_U_P_I_D!!!

The main character is some everyman whose function is to whimper in the corner, suffering nobly but incapable of any constructive function on the boat. Give me a break! On a real U-Boat he would have been properly tossed overboard without a life jacket. There weren't enough men on a U-Boat to have a designated corner whimperer. Send him back to his mommy!

When the sub is under attack there is no evasion at all! They just sit down there and hope the enemy misses. Stupid! U-Boats were not helpless victims of war, they actually fought it!

When I watched the movie in ignorance when it first came out I was awed. As I learned more and more about how submarines and U-Boats were run, I looked at Das Boot for what it is: a poor melodrama, whose purpose is propoganda. A lousy anti-war film with great props. An insult to the real U-Boat crews who fought with courage and ability.