Historical accuracy
How many ardent Nazis where in the crew?
Das Boot
In the film, there is only one ardent Nazi in the crew of 40, namely the First Watch Officer (referred to comically in one scene as "Unser Hitlerjugendführer", "Our Hitler Youth Leader"), with the rest of the officers either indifferent or, in the Captain's case, openly cynical. The enlisted sailors and non-commissioned officers are portrayed as apolitical. In his book "Iron Coffins", former U-boat commander Herbert A. Werner states that the selection of naval personnel based on their loyalty to the party occurred only later in the war (from 1943 onward), when the U-boats were suffering high casualties. At that stage in the war, morale was surely declining and this degree of skepticism may have occurred. In support of "Das Boot" on this subject, U-Boat historian Michael Gannon maintains that the U-boat navy was one of the least pro-Nazi branches of the German armed forces. Even though the beginning and the end of the film occur in the port of La Rochelle, it does not correspond historically. The submarine base in La Rochelle was not functional before November 1941, and at the time of the film the port was dried up. Moreover, none of the British fighter-bombers of late 1941 to early 1942 had the range to bomb La Rochelle from bases in the U.K.; however, it is possible the fighters were carrier-based and not land based. While Saint-Nazaire was the base used in the novel, the film was changed to La Rochelle because its appearance had not changed to such a large degree in the years since World War II. In real life, the "U-96" was based at Saint-Nazaire in late 1941. It survived this period, but much like its on-screen fate, it actually was sunk by Allied bombers at its berth in Wilhelmshaven in March 1945.