Things I learned from watching U-571

[joea]

Originally Posted by Engel der Vernichtung

You should go to the Alamo Drafthouse theater in my town. The food is overpriced, 'tis true, but it's decent food! Quite good, actually, IMO. and they serve you beer!

(added bonus: they will eject people making noise)

www.alamodrafthouse.com
Link to menu (pdf): http://www.alamodrafthouse.com/lakecreek/menu.pdf

(sorry if this is OT, but I couldn't resist the chance to plug my favorite theater!)

Dude, you are so damn lucky! Nice menu.:p

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Ducimus
Why didnt i see this before
I can tell anyone from personal experince from having to do a few trash/scrap burning details while deployed, that Diesal does not burn very well at all. Its enough to make you go mad for want of MoGas. So ya, 4 human torchs at the beginning of U571.... suuuurrrreeeee.

So what are You saying? Do You agree with what I wrotte or not?

[Rose]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

He has a point sadly enough. I did not know this, and i woudlnt have believed it until i saw it first hand. There are American's who do not know:

- why we celeibrate the 4th of july. To some its a day to bbq, drink beer, set off firecrackers, and thats it. No clue as to why.

- Anything about or dealing with, the American revolutionary war. or the signficance of 1776. (see 4th of july)

- what POW/MIA means. My own spouse went unto me oneday and asked, "hon, whats Pow Mia?" ( she said it exactly how it sounds. pow.. meeya)


I think i can stop there, thats enough. you may think im full of it, but its sadly true. So ya, hollywood movies will most definatly be beleived as factual information to some people.

Wow, thats really sad actually.

[tbarak]

LOL, actually a funny thread. A few more that came to mind:

- Make sure to tie a wounded man down super tight to a lead stretcher (so he can't even move his arms) when transferring him in a dinghy in rough stormy seas.

- After coming all that way and accomplishing a super dangerous mission to steal the Enigma, once you've seized it, make sure its the last thing that you take aboard your ship.

- Always know that the German sailors will cower in fear at the first sign of gun fire.

- You can always be sure that the head spy, whose undergone years of training and psychological evaluation will get tongue tied at a critical moment in action.

- I'm still to this day wondering what those German guys patrolling on the bridge and conning tower were doing with SMGs when they were stationary in a storm (the scene when they were waiting while the Americans paddled over to them).

- When you're a sailor aboard a sub, and you remove special, personal items like a ring and place them on a shelf in your quarters, always place the item right near the edge of the shelf since of course subs don't heave and rock in the ocean.

- Even though you have to keep it a secret that you're half German so your buddies won't hate you, once they hear you speak it fluently, they won't ask any questions.

Originally Posted by Engel der Vernichtung

You should go to the Alamo Drafthouse theater in my town. The food is overpriced, 'tis true, but it's decent food! Quite good, actually, IMO. and they serve you beer!

(added bonus: they will eject people making noise)

www.alamodrafthouse.com
Link to menu (pdf): http://www.alamodrafthouse.com/lakecreek/menu.pdf

(sorry if this is OT, but I couldn't resist the chance to plug my favorite theater!)

We have a similar place here in Salt Lake; ours is called Brewvies.

[caspofungin]

"what's good about Pearl Harbour?"

Kate Beckinsale. she looked good. although they diluted her appearances w/ some drivel about a couple of pilots, an air attack or some such...

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Fab

"Diesel engines can be turned on 20 meters under water."

Well, that's true. They can be turned on 200 meters under water if you really want to. After they've sucked all the air out of everyone's lungs they'll sputter out. I'm sure it was a bad couple of seconds when heavy seas washed over the top of the schnorchel.

Actually, the two worst things about U-571 are:

1) I saw it, therefore the knowledge of it is burned into my brain and
2) I'll never have those two hours back . . . ever

Now for a real discussion: which movie is worse, U-571 or Pearl Harbor?

Pearl Harbor The air combat scene is the worst!!!!!! Plus with all that technology, they have modern warships in the background

[The_Blockade_Runner]

Are you kidding me, I though at least the air combat scenes in Pearl Harbor were impressive.


The sub film ever made is: Down Periscope:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Umfuld]

What I love about u-571 is, sure, a german destroyer West of England is great. But not as stupid as the captian of said Destroyers look of horrified surprise when they notice a torpedo coming at them.


"Oh my god! We were chasing a sub directly behind her aft tube, and now there's a torpedo coming straight for us! How did that happen!??"

:rotfl:

[Floater]

Indeed - that's something I learned from U-571 too. Previously, I thought that a ship attacking a submarine should approach from the side and weave about a bit, but I was wrong.

I was also surprised to learn that a deck gun crew (operating an unfamiliar gun) were (a) invisible to the enemy, even with the gun manned and trained on the enemy vessel; and (b) had an amazing ability to target the radio mast of a ship without trial and error. They were clever people!

One of the extra features on the DVD is a US sub guy explaining the the film is realistic in that all subs are basically the same, so there's no problem quickly manning and operating a sub you've never seen before. I wonder what he was paid to say that, or what substances he was on at the time. Or both.

[joea]

Originally Posted by The_Blockade_Runner

Are you kidding me, I though at least the air combat scenes in Pearl Harbor were impressive.


The sub film ever made is: Down Periscope:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:rotfl:

About the air combat, hated the bit when Ben Affleck said something to the effect that the Zeros were faster than P-40s but our P-40s were more maneuverable. Was just the opposite historically. They should have just made a film about Kate Beckinsdale.

[Frying Tiger]

Actually, the Zero was both faster AND more manueverable than the P40... it climbed better, and had a higher ceiling. They were also flown by better trained pilots at the start of the war. However, the standard Japanese fighting style (one group attack followed by individual dogfights) was countered eventually by US team tactics, always staying in pairs and not dogfighting.

Of course, none of that would have anything to do with a movie like "Pearl Harbor", since the US had modern frigates and aircraft carriers. And an F-14 or F/A-18 can certainly outperform a Zero, despite what "The Final Countdown" would have you believe! (grin)

"The Enemy Below" is a pretty good sub movie... although I can't get past Captain Crane of the "Seaview" being the first officer of the DDE...

[fred8615]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

* American aircraft have convenient 10-foot tall "US NAVY" markings. On the TOP of the wings.

Actually, they did. Especially before the war. I've seen the pictures.

* Black men weren't just 'token' in the '40s.

They weren't, at least not in the Navy, where onboard ship you had to be able to do different tasks. Although they were primarly cooks, mess attendants, and orderlies, blacks in the navy also had combat assignments as well. One ship's captain had his men trained and used as AA gunners. Others were used as damage control, ammo handlers, medical orderlies, etc.

* The French resistance could obtain extremely high-quality photographs, but could not obtain the subject of said photographs.

Are you talking about the photos of the Enigma machine? Did the movie actually say they were taken by the resistance? Because the British already had an Enigma machine, which they got from the Poles. Although this does fly in the face of the seemingly main premise of the movie (they need the machine), in fact all they really needed was the settings for it, i.e., the codebooks. The pictures were (I always assumed anyway) of the one the Brits already had.

Originally Posted by Frying Tiger

Actually, the Zero was both faster AND more manueverable than the P40... it climbed better, and had a higher ceiling...

Actually not. The P-40 was some 30 mph faster at all altitudes, and had a much better roll rate and a vastly superior dive speed. The main tactic developed by Claire Chennault's American Volunteer Group was to attack from above, building considerable speed which allowed the P-40 to either continue diving or climb away, the speed offsetting the Reisen's slightly superior climb.
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/p40_8.html
http://rwebs.net/ghostsqd/a6m2.htm

I read of one critic calling Pearl Harbor 'Pearl Wars', because of the silly scenes of planes chasing each other down the streets.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Frying Tiger

Actually, the Zero was both faster AND more manueverable than the P40... it climbed better, and had a higher ceiling. They were also flown by better trained pilots at the start of the war. However, the standard Japanese fighting style (one group attack followed by individual dogfights) was countered eventually by US team tactics, always staying in pairs and not dogfighting.

Of course, none of that would have anything to do with a movie like "Pearl Harbor", since the US had modern frigates and aircraft carriers. And an F-14 or F/A-18 can certainly outperform a Zero, despite what "The Final Countdown" would have you believe! (grin)

"The Enemy Below" is a pretty good sub movie... although I can't get past Captain Crane of the "Seaview" being the first officer of the DDE...

Meant that they (P-40s) dive better. edit: saw Steve's post. Team tactics and "boom and zoom" no turning beat the Zeros. Heck most Japanese pilots removed the radios to save weight and space.

Not changing my mind about sweet Kate though.