New series of Das Boat on Sky

[NutLoose]

Question, I have being watching the new series and very good it is, but when they were attacked by a Sunderland they were torpedo attacks and one depth charge, did the Sunderland carry Torpedoes? I didn’t think they did, they also dropped them at a heck of a height.

[MPN11]

I’m surprised it hasn’t been pulled, like Gone With The Wind, as it highlights the unquestioned bravery of those Nazi crews.

[Top West 50]

I’m surprised it hasn’t been pulled, like Gone With The Wind, as it highlights the unquestioned bravery of those Nazi crews.
They may well have been Nazis but were we not at war with Germany (for very good reasons)?

[rolling20]

There is only one Das Boot and it was made in 1982.

[air pig]

793 U Boats were lost during WW2 from all causes and 28,000 lives lost, a 75% loss rate. The RN in contrast.lost 79 boats in WW2 which does not include ones such as X Craft. If you go to war in a submarine you deserve all the respect in the world.

[rolling20]

This is an interesting website https://uboat.net/

[NutLoose]

There is only one Das Boot and it was made in 1982.


Not correct, there was the movie and two fantastic Tv series from I believe the same folks, both series are on Sky Atlantic and follow the same style and formatasf the film.

Season 2

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5830254/

season 1

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5830254/episodes?season=1&ref_=tt_eps_sn_1

[goofer3]

David Childs talks with Wolfgang Petersen and Jutgen Prochnow about the film The Boat (Das Boat) made in 1982. This interview was recorded at Imperial College London on 24 March 1982.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsE_U-mI3Zo

[Top West 50]

We have a family interest in U Boats. I wrote about my Uncle Norman in my blog:
yorkshiremushroom.com
I've seen Das Boot a few times and it hasn't made me feel in the least sympathetic.

[WillowRun 6-3]

If visiting Chicago, do take an opportunity for including the Museum of Science and Industry to see and tour Unterseeboot 505.
Captured by the U S Navy 4 June '44.
Chicago's hometown Wehrmacht artifact.

[tdracer]

793 U Boats were lost during WW2 from all causes and 28,000 lives lost, a 75% loss rate. The RN in contrast.lost 79 boats in WW2 which does not include ones such as X Craft. If you go to war in a submarine you deserve all the respect in the world.
The US loss rate for subs during WW II was about 25% - which was higher than any other branch of the US military during the war (nearly all in the Pacific against the Japanese). It took serious cajons to volunteer for the submarine service (not sure if the German U-Boats were all volunteer, but the US was).
You don't have to approve of their cause to appreciate their bravery.

Willow, I toured that U Boat in Chicago several years back. Having also gone through the Bowfin at Pearl Harbor, I was shocked at how small the U Boat was in comparison.

[Typhoon Tripacer]

Regarding the new series the first episodes are ok but it quickly becomes unwatchable with stupid story lines.

[capngrog]

I don't know if the Sunderland carried torpedoes, but the PBY did, so I suspect the Suderland did as well.

Cheers,
Grog

[rolling20]

Not correct, there was the movie and two fantastic Tv series from I believe the same folks, both series are on Sky Atlantic and follow the same style and formatasf the film.

Season 2

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5830254/

season 1

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5830254/episodes?season=1&ref_=tt_eps_sn_1

Nut, I see irony is lost on you.
It is a bit like Dunkirk ( 1958) and Dunkirk (2017) , the original is in many eyes the only one and the best.
I don't know why everyone keeps calling it Das Boat, it is DAS BOOT!

[sunnybunny]

I watched the first Das Boot which I thought was superb. I think it was a film which was later split down to show as a mini series. I watched the second Sky series and thought it was a poor imitation. More concerned with events on shore than the action at sea. The first did have some shore scenes but it was done to show the mind set of crews and what they had to face. I gave up on the SKY series after watching 3 or 4 episodes.

[AndoniP]

If you're going to make 2 series of 8 episodes each, then you have to expand the on-shore storylines to pad it out. I've not seen series 2 but series 1 was rather good. If the whole series was based on the u-boat then there wouldn't be enough of a story to fill it.

[Vendee]

I've got the "Directors cut" version of the original film which runs to 3.5 hours. IMHO its best watched in German with English subtitles rather than watching a dubbed version. I visited the U Boat pens at Lorient quite a few years ago. Very atmospheric.

https://live.staticflickr.com/8568/16286564721_36c1ab29fc_b.jpg

[Brewster Buffalo]

The US loss rate for subs during WW II was about 25% - which was higher than any other branch of the US military during the war (nearly all in the Pacific against the Japanese). It took serious cajons to volunteer for the submarine service (not sure if the German U-Boats were all volunteer, but the US was). You don't have to approve of their cause to appreciate their bravery.
Willow, I toured that U Boat in Chicago several years back. Having also gone through the Bowfin at Pearl Harbor, I was shocked at how small the U Boat was in comparison.

For us Brits there is a U-Boat here...https://www.visitliverpool.com/things-to-do/u-boat-story-p229341
I think the important role that US subs played in isolating and defeating Japan doesn't receive the attention it deserves.

[Jump Complete]

My late father joined the Merchant Navy in 1944. He spent Christmas Eve night, 1944, aged 16, Mid-Atlantic, laying in his bunk, fully clothed with a life-jacket on, in case of a torpedo hit. As he was on a tanker carrying high-octane fuel, I’m not sure it would have done him
much good. He was lucky in the sense that, when he went to sea, the Allies had air cover across the entire Atlantic. He was assigned to, but taken off at the last moment a ship on the Russian Convoys, the ship he would have been on was sunk..
When I watched the original film Das Boot, I came away feeling claustrophobic. I had mixed feelings. I did feel sympathy for their suffering. They were clearly brave men. But they were also the men that tried to kill my father and condemned many of his colleagues to an awful death..
I haven’t seen the new film but I can’t for a moment imagine that it can surpass the original for it’s depiction of the sweaty claustrophobic frightening conditions, or of the stolid comradery (without the OTT conflict modern productions seem compelled to add).

[Kiltrash]

When I toured USS Bowfin 2 things struck me, how big it seamed but there were probably only 6 tourists on board and would have had a crew of 70 ish + Torpedoes making it quite claustrophobic but also as it was floating that even a small swell caused a substantial roll. Not the nicest feeling. But back to the Sky Series I also gave up on series 1 after 3 ep as I kept harking back to the film and have not yet looked at ser 2
As to the Uboat in Chicago. It was closed for maintainance when I was there. But even from the outside it was substantialy smaller than Bowfin. and you could see how the Das Boot Chief would have easily had a breakdown
Respect to any Submariners

[Caramba]

Torpedos were certainly not routinely carried. The only reference I can find is to experiments carried out at the MAEE at Helensburgh as part of the run up to attacks on the Tirpitz.

Bombs, mines, depth charges could be run out on carriers from the “bomb room” under the wing centre section. Four stations per side. IIRC the carriers were winched out by hand. I don’t remember that it was possible to rearm the carriers in flight using any stores kept in the bomb room, but I think not.

Slightly dim memories of a tour conducted for me by my father, ex 209/205.

[GeeRam]

Torpedos were certainly not routinely carried. The only reference I can find is to experiments carried out at the MAEE at Helensburgh as part of the run up to attacks on the Tirpitz.

Bombs, mines, depth charges could be run out on carriers from the “bomb room” under the wing centre section. Four stations per side. IIRC the carriers were winched out by hand. I don’t remember that it was possible to rearm the carriers in flight using any stores kept in the bomb room, but I think not.


Yes, the sliding carriers could be re-loaded from inside before being slid outside again. There was full internal rack storage inside for the full load of just under 5000lbs.
The sliding racks were load limited to 1000lb.

And no standard torpedo could be carried by the Sunderland, as they were too long to pass through the side hatches, and they didn't fit on the racks in standard fit.

[Suvarnabhumi]

A Sunderland flying boat is on display at the RAF Hendon museum , in which you can go inside and walk through the aircraft . Excellent.

[VX275]

ISTR there was an anti-submarine weapon similar in size to a depth charge that was actually a homing torpedo but for security reasons it wasn't called a torpedo. So presumably the Sunderland could carry torpedoes, they just wouldn't appear on the records as such.
Also IIRC the Sunderland at Duxford was involved in trials to carry 2 Chariots (manned torpedoes) cradled on the side of the hull for launching after a water landing, probably the closest the Sunderland got to carrying full sized torpedoes.

[tdracer]

For us Brits there is a U-Boat here...https://www.visitliverpool.com/things-to-do/u-boat-story-p229341
I think the important role that US subs played in isolating and defeating Japan doesn't receive the attention it deserves.
I've read several books about the US subs against Japan (my dad served in the Army Infantry in the Pacific so I have a natural interest in the Pacific part of WW II). The US subs were not particularly effective in 1942 - their tactics were still in development, and the torpedo's basically sucked. By early '43 they'd worked out most of the kinks, and the US subs had a field day against Japanese shipping (it's interesting to read that apparently oil tankers were considered bigger prizes than most of the naval ships aside from the aircraft carriers).
However by the end of 1944/early 1945, they had been so successful at sinking most of the available Japanese shipping, they were quite literally running out of targets.
Kiltrash, I toured the Bowfin first - I didn't find it at all spacious (I remember thinking I'd want to be an officer so I didn't need to share a bunk, but even the captain's quarters were cramped). That's why I was so shocked at the size of the U Boat in Chicago when I toured it - it was tiny!

[Hipper]

I first saw the original Das Boot as a television mini series on BBC2. According to Wiki this comprised six fifty minute episodes and was in 1985. The original 149 minute film had been released in 1981 but I hadn't been aware of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot

I thought it refreshing and brilliant.

I now have the Blu ray version and on watching it again, whilst still enjoyable and thought provoking, I agree with the author of the original book when he criticises 'the hysterical overacting of the cast'. I would say 'some of the cast'.

I can see no reason to remake it as it was already technically superb. Naval films that could be remade with good use of CGI could cover the sinking of the Bismarck or Scharnhorst, or even the battle of Jutland. There is already excellent (but not perfect) coverage of the sinking of the Blucher in the invasion of Norway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ79i11JSnU

[Hipper]

I've read several books about the US subs against Japan (my dad served in the Army Infantry in the Pacific so I have a natural interest in the Pacific part of WW II). The US subs were not particularly effective in 1942 - their tactics were still in development, and the torpedo's basically sucked. By early '43 they'd worked out most of the kinks, and the US subs had a field day against Japanese shipping (it's interesting to read that apparently oil tankers were considered bigger prizes than most of the naval ships aside from the aircraft carriers).
However by the end of 1944/early 1945, they had been so successful at sinking most of the available Japanese shipping, they were quite literally running out of targets.
Kiltrash, I toured the Bowfin first - I didn't find it at all spacious (I remember thinking I'd want to be an officer so I didn't need to share a bunk, but even the captain's quarters were cramped). That's why I was so shocked at the size of the U Boat in Chicago when I toured it - it was tiny!

The classic book on RN submarine warfare is Edward Young's One of Our Submarines. Later in the book he enters the Japanese war and as you say, at this time they were feeding on scraps.

[SimonK]

Really enjoying this series even if the onshore subplot is a bit lame and superfluous. My own little random U-Boat story was when I used to go back to Austria as a child to see our extended family, we always stayed at a family friends house, a lovely old clockmaker who was a former U-Boat sailor in the war.

Being a keen young historian I always used to ask him about his time on U-Boats and he’d always fob me off with a story about capturing a shot down Mustang pilot when he was home on leave. Once I asked him again (well I was 8!) when he was having a beer with his old veteran buddies and they all laughed loudly at my suggestion that he finally tells a few stories about his time on U-Boats.

So he died only a few years back and my dad told me that our friend was actually in the Waffen SS, not the U-Boat service. Kind of makes sense now.....

[rolling20]

I first saw the original Das Boot as a television mini series on BBC2. According to Wiki this comprised six fifty minute episodes and was in 1985. The original 149 minute film had been released in 1981 but I hadn't been aware of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot

I thought it refreshing and brilliant.

I now have the Blu ray version and on watching it again, whilst still enjoyable and thought provoking, I agree with the author of the original book when he criticises 'the hysterical overacting of the cast'. I would say 'some of the cast'.

I can see no reason to remake it as it was already technically superb. Naval films that could be remade with good use of CGI could cover the sinking of the Bismarck or Scharnhorst, or even the battle of Jutland. There is already excellent (but not perfect) coverage of the sinking of the Blucher in the invasion of Norway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ79i11JSnU

There have been a number of 'cuts' ranging from 149/ 300 minutes. Difficult to say which is the best.
I am sure I read somewhere or heard on a Directors cut that the crew had a pretty wild time of it whilst filming in France.
'Lt Werner' or somebody, riding a motorbike through a bar window!
Maybe I am getting old, but the 1981 original still looks as fresh as it did when first released.

[Turbine D]

My older brother was a US Navy submariner at the end of WWII. He was subsequently assigned to the US Naval base in Key West Florida where captured German U-boats were being examined and tested for capability. He never talked about what was learned from the examinations and testings. I suppose it was classified information. What he did say was that every time he left port on one of the U-boats he always thought he may not return. He said he never had this concern while serving on the US Navy subs...