by a British fighter plane, and the boat’s navigator, Kriechbaum (Bernd Tauber), is
badly wounded. U-96 crash dives but when it attempts to level off, the controls do
not respond and the boat continues to descend into the depths. Just before being
crushed by the tremendous atmospheric pressure, the boat lands on an undersea
shelf at the depth of 280 meters (918.6 feet). Over the next 16 hours Johann works
feverishly to make repairs to the electric batteries to restore propulsion before the
oxygen runs out. He is ultimately successful. The boat is able to surface and returns
to La Rochelle. At dawn, shortly after Kriechbaum is brought to land and placed
on an ambulance, Allied planes bomb and strafe the base, decimating most of the
crew. After the raid, Werner finds the captain mortally wounded and clinging to
an iron mooring bollard on the dock as he watches his battered U- boat sink at its
berth. Just after the boat dis appears under the water, the captain collapses and dies.
Werner rushes to his body and surveys the grim scene with tears in his eyes.
Reception
Das Boot was released in West Germany on 17 September 1981. By the end of its
run, the movie had posted almost $85 million in ticket sales, making it the highest-
grossing German film up to that time. At the 55th Acad emy Awards (1983), Das
Boot was nominated for six Oscars: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best
Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing— the most
Acad emy Award nominations for a German film to date. Almost all reviews were
highly favorable. Critics typically characterized the movie as “brilliant,” “au then-
tic,” “gripping,” “tense,” and “claustrophobic.” One critic (Cole Smithey) went so
far as to call the viewing of Das Boot “a religious experience.”
Reel History Versus Real History
Das Boot is a fictionalized account of U-96’s seventh war patrol under the com-
mand of Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann- Willenbrock (who, at 29 in the fall of 1941, was
a de cade younger than Jürgen Prochnow in 1980 and a stockier man lacking Proch-
now’s craggy intensity). All the other wardroom officers are also based on real
people. The real sub was at sea for 41 days, departing St. Nazaire, France, on 27
October 1941 and returning to St. Nazaire on 6 December 1941. The first depth-
charge attack on U-96 depicted in the movie corresponds to an actual incident.
About 500 miles off the Irish coast on 31 October 1941, U-96 attacked Convoy
OS.10 during a full moon and sank the Dutch freighter SS Bennekom at 22.47 hours
( there were 8 dead and 46 survivors). Giving chase, the British escort sloop HMS
Lulworth drove U-96 under water with gunfire and then dropped 27 depth charges,
but the U- boat escaped undamaged. As depicted in Das Boot, U-96 rendezvoused
with the interned German cargo ship Bessel (called Wesser in the film) at 22:03 hours
in the neutral port of Vigo, Spain, on 27 November 1941 and sailed again at 04:00
hours. In the movie U-96 is attacked and nearly sunk while attempting to pass
through the Straits of Gibraltar. Its crew subsequently endures 16 hours at near-
crush depth while repairs are made. In real life U-96 was indeed attacked and
heavi ly damaged by two bombs dropped from a British Swordfish biplane as it
approached the Straits of Gibraltar (at 22:35 hours on 30 November 1941). U-96
DAS BOOT [THE BOAT] 77