Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: Das Boot - British or American sailors?
Posted by:
Doug Struthers
()
Date: March 16, 2006 12:56AM
Kurt:
According to actual WWII records I can tell you the following. First of all, DAS BOOT, the movie is based on the book DAS BOOT written by Lothar-Gunter Buchheim who was an actual wartime photographer-writer who was to write the story of life onboard a German U-Boat for propaganda purposes. The U-Boat in question is U-96 and the real commander was Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock. The movie is "actual" in that it does summarize Buchheim's experiences on his multiple patrols in U-96. What the book and movie do is to synthesize the multiple patrols into one patrol.
Your question about the sailors...American or not?
The real U-96 sank 28 ships and damaged another 4. One ship that was registered as American was the 2398 tonner "Lake Osweya." It doesn't appear that this was a tanker. The records indicate that U-96 sank 8 tankers during the war: 5 British, 2 Norwegian, and 1 Nethterlands. This gives the registry of the ships. Quite often a ship registered with one country had a crew from a variety of other countries...often poorly paid.
If you want reality, it appears that U-96 did not sink an American-registered tanker. The crew? Since almost all of U-96's sinking took place BEFORE the USA entered the war it is most likely that the crew wasn't American but that is not to say that American crews did not take part before the end of 1941...just in terms of reality and U-96's records it is very hard to verify an American-crewed tanker tthat was sunk. Once the USA got into massive ship-building later in the war there would have been more American-registered and crewed tankers and other merchant ships for certain.
I hope this helps shed some light on the possibility of the ship's (the tanker in question) registry and actual crew for which U-96 was responsible for sinking...which was depicted in the movie DAS BOOT.
Doug
According to actual WWII records I can tell you the following. First of all, DAS BOOT, the movie is based on the book DAS BOOT written by Lothar-Gunter Buchheim who was an actual wartime photographer-writer who was to write the story of life onboard a German U-Boat for propaganda purposes. The U-Boat in question is U-96 and the real commander was Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock. The movie is "actual" in that it does summarize Buchheim's experiences on his multiple patrols in U-96. What the book and movie do is to synthesize the multiple patrols into one patrol.
Your question about the sailors...American or not?
The real U-96 sank 28 ships and damaged another 4. One ship that was registered as American was the 2398 tonner "Lake Osweya." It doesn't appear that this was a tanker. The records indicate that U-96 sank 8 tankers during the war: 5 British, 2 Norwegian, and 1 Nethterlands. This gives the registry of the ships. Quite often a ship registered with one country had a crew from a variety of other countries...often poorly paid.
If you want reality, it appears that U-96 did not sink an American-registered tanker. The crew? Since almost all of U-96's sinking took place BEFORE the USA entered the war it is most likely that the crew wasn't American but that is not to say that American crews did not take part before the end of 1941...just in terms of reality and U-96's records it is very hard to verify an American-crewed tanker tthat was sunk. Once the USA got into massive ship-building later in the war there would have been more American-registered and crewed tankers and other merchant ships for certain.
I hope this helps shed some light on the possibility of the ship's (the tanker in question) registry and actual crew for which U-96 was responsible for sinking...which was depicted in the movie DAS BOOT.
Doug
Subject | Written By | Posted |
---|---|---|
Das Boot - British or American sailors? | kurt | 03/15/2006 03:26PM |
Re: Das Boot - British or American sailors? | Doug Struthers | 03/16/2006 12:56AM |
Re: Das Boot - British or American sailors? | kurt | 03/16/2006 02:56PM |
Re: Das Boot - British or American sailors? | Meg Rosenfeld | 03/21/2006 07:27AM |
Re: Das Boot - British or American sailors? | John | 08/15/2006 02:48AM |