Das Boot!

[Gunnuts]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was not previously familiar with Das Boot. It didn't take me reading but a couple of posts to figure out you weren't talking about Beerfest.

Really.

[blackeagle603]

While I was in 'Stan, I had an argument with an Army O-type who thought that, other than SEALs, the Navy did not have any combat arms posititions. My answer was how could the naval battle of Guadalcanal have been fought without any combat arms guys on either side.

Interservice rivalry's and ribbing aside... Thanks for that Vonz.

Lest we forget, we just passed the anniversary of Taffy Three's victory and sacrifice. Three days of running battle in the Leyte Gulf. The greatest USN surface engagement of all time. At great cost, they finished the Imperial Japanese Navy and then stuck a fork in 'em.

The thing about being in the Navy is that even with all the modern technology, a crew is at risk of a mass casualty event even in peacetime. Every crew is just one spark, or one knucklehead, from burning down to the waterline with nowhere to run to and no choice but to stand and fight the fire in close quarters over and around fuel and ammo stores.

Yeah, there's that. Sailors live on and inside a giant fuel and ammo dump. In the odd case the shooting starts, or a bit of ordnance gets out of hand in a drill, it gets ugly. Fast. Take a hit? Casualty percentages get high. Fast.

They used to tell us in the 80's, at any given moment somewhere there was a USN ship fighting an onboard fire.

[308Mike]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was not previously familiar with Das Boot. It didn't take me reading but a couple of posts to figure out you weren't talking about Beerfest.

I was wondering about the title of this thread as I figured there'd be more than just a few people who wouldn't know what it was about, and your post pretty much confirmed it - so I modified it to reflect a little more accuracy to our English-Only (and not necessarily foreign film watching) audience.

[mekender]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was not previously familiar with Das Boot. It didn't take me reading but a couple of posts to figure out you weren't talking about Beerfest.

I was wondering about the title of this thread as I figured there'd be more than just a few people who wouldn't know what it was about, and your post pretty much confirmed it - so I modified it to reflect a little more accuracy to our English-Only (and not necessarily foreign film watching) audience.

Change it back... No need to placate those that are uncultured...

[Evyl Robot]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was not previously familiar with Das Boot. It didn't take me reading but a couple of posts to figure out you weren't talking about Beerfest.

I was wondering about the title of this thread as I figured there'd be more than just a few people who wouldn't know what it was about, and your post pretty much confirmed it - so I modified it to reflect a little more accuracy to our English-Only (and not necessarily foreign film watching) audience.

Change it back... No need to placate those that are uncultured...

It didn't take too much context for me to figure it out.

[skb12172]

After watching the special features, I am further blown away. I knew most of the lads were in the 17-22 year old range, but I had no idea the 1st officer was only 25. Furthermore, the Captain was only 30 and was considered the "old man" of the U-Boat service!!! Simply amazing.

[cu74]

After watching the special features, I am further blown away. I knew most of the lads were in the 17-22 year old range, but I had no idea the 1st officer was only 25. Furthermore, the Captain was only 30 and was considered the "old man" of the U-Boat service!!! Simply amazing.

Those ages sound about right for war-time service. The US Submarine Force, after purging the older peace-time officer cadre for incompetence/combat aversion/peace-time mind set, was manned by a younger and more aggressive wardroom. It wasn't until the old fossils were replaced by the more youthful skippers that the WWII exploits you read about occurred. The daring submarine skippers of WWII submarine lore were mostly Lieutenants (O-3) and many of the Execs were LTJGs. Moreover, given the high casualty rates for the submarine service, good folks moved up very quickly.

[skb12172]

Given the extensive problems with our torpedoes, I'm surprised there actually were any US Submarine exploits...

[Windy Wilson]

I thought the ending was a bit cryptic, almost film noirish. Not sure I would have written it that way.

Considering the percentages involved, it would have been fake if they had survived.
As I recall from seeing the film some 25+ years ago, it was a sort of kindness to the audience that they survived all the claustrophobic hell inside the boat at depth.

[Wrenchbender1]

If you like horror flicks, "Below" is a good sub film. Not the best choice if you're wreck diving in the morning though.