One of my favorite movies, I have the 209 minute version, and have watched it in English, and German, and enjoyed it either way. Last night, I clicked on Director COmmentary, and was blown away by a feature I didn't know was on the disc...they play the whole movie, but instead of the normal audio, they have Jergen Prochnow and Wolfgang Peterson pointing out details and telling vignettes about the production of the film. One cool thing...the floating u-boat they built for Das Boot was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark...Speilberg borrowed it.

If you haven't seen the film, you need to.

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That's a fairly standard feature on lots of DVDs.

That is a very good movie, I haven't watched it in a few years.

One of my favorites, particularly in German.

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Germanstar, I had no idea that the DVD had the feature, and have never looked at other DVDs to see if that feature is there. Guess I wasn't paying attention?! I've owned this DVD for years.

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Agreed.

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Funny, I was reading "A Measureless Peril" this morning. It's a book about the Battle of the Atlantic. In the chapter "Doenitz goes to France" the author remarks that the only remaining vestiges of the Thousand Year Reich that may really last a thousand years are the sub pens the Nazis built in Lorient, Brest, St.-Nazaire and Bordeaux. They consumed a million tons of steel and 14 million cubic feet of concrete in constructing the sub bases. (There are 4 million tons of concrete in Hoover Dam by comparison).

Despite constant bombing,

"None of the bases suffered any serious harm. When in 1987, filmakers needed a set for the popular submarine movie Das Boot, they simply moved into La Pallice, where the old machinery stood intact and dim Gothic lettering still proclaimed it exhortations and prohibitions from the unmarred walls"

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous battle of WW2.

The movie was filmed in 1980 and 81, not that it matters either way, but they also commented on those sub pens being just about impossible to destroy...walls are 6 meters thick. I have been reading Black May, a book about how the tide turned against the u-boats...fascinating reading.

In the Hoover Dam, I'm told the concrete is still curing. I just googled it, and some people say it will take 125 years for the concrete to completely cure...that is mind-boggling.

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My dad graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in May 1941. His first duty station was on the cutter North Star, in Greenland. The Greenland Patrol was formed in June 1941. He was in the war before we were at war.

Some history.
http://books.google.com/books?id=T5A9LCujs08C&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=greenland+us+coast&source=bl&ots=G7-jIrhZ-W&sig=OF47IIxWV8mKFAb7hzv6eAG6D9A&hl=en&ei=rJwXTZ_QOI-t8AbC6MjmDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&sqi=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=greenland%20us%20coast&f=false

After briefly going to Hatteras Minefield Patrol in March 42, he returned to Boston and became skipper of a 110' Subchaser. He put her in commission in June 42 and off to Greenland for another year with the "528".

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/150527.htm

This is what they looked like. The "Splinter Fleet"
http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/150528.htm

It's an excellent movie. One scene I especially liked was when the mechanic/repair guy - not sure his exact position - managed to fix a few vital functions in spite of not having the proper materials at hand to do so. Really have to stretch the imagination in a hurry.

On a much less urgent scale, much less at stake, I often have to figure how to adequately finish some task on a job w/o running out to buy new supplies or tools. I don't want to put up worthless crap but with a bit of imagination, you can often make a different tool or material do the job well eough.

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Dynalow, I can't imagine being in the middle of the Atlantic on something that small...no thanks. I havea book called Authors at Sea, edited by Rob't Shenk...it's all 20th century American writers who served in WWII in the Navy or Coast Guard. There are some great vignettes in the book. The first is by Sloan Wilson, and tells what happened when he reported aboard a USCG cutter, having earned his stripes by taking a 12 hour test at MIT...the man he reported to had served in the USCG for 20 years, to earn his stripes, and that man didn't see the humor in it...great book.

http://www.amazon.com/Authors-Sea-American-Writers-Remember/dp/1557507996

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Dave,

If you have some time, you might find this story/diary kept by a Coast Guardsman (against orders) of a harrowing return trip from Greenland in a converted wooden trawler. "Death of a Wooden Shoe"
It is a great and true story, imo.
http://www.uscg.mil/history/weboralhistory/WoodenShoe.pdf

Here's a link to some pictures of the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer depth charging and sinking U-175 in April 1943. Good photographs, considering the times.

http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/spencervsu175.asp



There is a book about subchasers called the "Splinter Fleet"
http://books.google.com/books?id=YqJoiPQH5-wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+splinter+fleet&source=bl&ots=LFxFxLCR3i&sig=8cy3ZjHtTN2_fpDybjlvEVo93c8&hl=en&ei=be8XTevsJIO88gaG-I2cDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Check out the picture on page 54 to get a glimpse of what the North Atlantic could do to small ships.

Sie sprechen auch Deutch, Kerry?

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Speaking of small, they have, or used to have, a US WW2 sub available for public walk throughs at pier 69 in SF. I imagine the German U boats were of a similar size. Not a large boat.

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Growing up, one of our neighbors was a WWII submariner, US type. He was our scoutmaster also and would often tell us a few harrowing tales of the war underwater. Itr certainly convinced me NOt to want to follow in his footsteps: I'd rather die on land, breathing air.


Das Boot is a great movie, almost makes you forget that the crew of the U boat served the nazi scum who laid waste to Europa.....