ALARM !!!!!!!!! U-BOAT fought back.....

R.I.P. Ray Stevenson. A great actor

No destroyer would ever allow itself to drift into a perfect position for a bow or stern shot against a still-active submarine

In 1942 Captain Werner Haretnstein torpedoed the converted cruise liner RMS Laconia. It was a legitimate target as it was being used as a troop ship and was armed with a lot of 6" guns. Hatenstein realised when he went in to try and capture officers from the survivors that it was full of British civilians and well over a thousand Italian POWs as well as soliders and airmen. He pulled all the survivors he could on deck and rigged tow lines to the life boats that were well and truly overloaded and then broke radio silence and put a call out in English with his position and heading requesting neutrality under a red cross to hand off the survivors to any allied or enemy in the area that could take them. The US dispatched a B24 from Ascencion Island and when it came he radioed them the situation and had a large red cross flag draped on his deck gun clearly visible. The pilot saw this and started circling overhead. He radioed Ascencion and was told to sink it regardless. The B24 lined up and dropped 2 bombs which missed the U-156 but blew two life boats out of the water killing most in them. Hartenstein's crew cut away the life rafts and told the survivors on deck to get in the water and the dived. The B24 came around again and dropped bombs and depth charges. one of which exploded under U-156 though it didn't sink. The B24 mistook the dive for it being sunk and left. In the rush they'd dived with the women and children still in the uboat so after a while surfaced and took the live boats under tow again. They met up with 2 more uboats and an Italian sub and handed off many survivors to the other boats and they all sailed and met a Vicy French cruiser which took them all on. A few life boats were separated in the dive or some other time and they drifted for 2 weeks before landing on the coast of Liberia in West Africa. When Hitler found out he was livid and made Admiral Donitz issue the Laconia order which forbade rescuing any survivors except for capturing officers and engineers that could provide intelligence. Basically if this was post 1942 which I'd say it is meant to be they would not take on any survivors except for the officers. Interestingly when Donitz was being tried in the Nuremberg trail the Laconia order came up and to the embarrassment of the US he explained the circumstances in which it was issued. Basically no way a uboat commander would have made a deal to take on all the survivors.

Since when has a British ship ever gone to "battle stations"? I stand ready to be corrected, but my father was in the R.N. and he always went to "action stations".

This scenario is entirely unrealistic. Five tons of cargo (gold) is not a heavy lift for WWII German submarines. A single torpedo (Type G7a) weighs 1.8 tons, and the primary ocean going WWII German submarine (Type 7) carried 14 of them -- some 25 tons of torpedoes. Any fuel consumption would also offset the weight of the gold. And you'd better believe those submariners would lash that gold down securely.

I was in the Royal Navy for 43 years. ‘Hands to Action Stations’!

A few here have pointed out some mistakes, just wrote this in an answer thread. Another glaring mistake is the U Boat being caught on the surface during daylight in clear skies in a hostile area. My grandfather, a British WWII sub veteran told many stories about his experiences and he made it clear the lengths they went to to stay undetected in hostile waters and he said they only surfaced when it was 100% safe to do so and the restricted visibility behind that island would be a big no no to be on the surface. His boat towed one of the X Craft that attacked the Japanese cruiser Takao in Singapore Harbour on 31 July 1945 as part of Operation Struggle. "Their" X Craft had been given the Myoko as a target but due to concerns over the tides had switched to attack the closer Takao.

The most unrealistic thing here is the crew not stowing the gold bars properly so they don't go flying the moment you crash dive.

Now I know how Germans must think of Hogan's Heroes

Apparently this is a selection from the recent SERIES "Das Boot" which is high in drama but not comparable to the gritty realism of the ORIGINAL mini-series/ movie.

At one point in the film, the submarine is motionless, being abandoned, side by side with the destroyer. The next moment, it instantly changes position and launches a torpedo with its bow pointed at the other ship. With no reaction by enemy! This makes it hard to take this film seriously...

Ray Stevenson, you legend grows by the day.

2 submachine guns against 3 knifes and 1 wrench, and the Captain surrenders.

it is from the made for TV series "Das Boot" not the original movie. It is still easy to find here on several channels.

I noticed that when the U-Boat surfaced and the RN sailors were boarding her, her outside was perfectly dry. The entire boat should have been wet, and shedding water.

Best U-boat war comedy yet.

In that situation, the destroyer would keep way on and circle.

The one truly glaring mistake in this film is seen at the 7:07 mark. The ship is armed with "Hedgehog-Mortars" as was the US Navy. These water bombs developed by the British were the preferred weapon of use against all Submarines. They fired in a pattern ahead of the ship that the sub would be unable to evade if used properly. The fatal problem with depth charges was that in order to use them one needed to pass over the area of the sub. Sub commanders learned this early on and would hold course until the ship was almost on top of them then veer away. causing far more misses than not. The Hedgehog was a contact exploder, so one knew if they hit, or missed. The USS England, a US Destroyer Escort sank 6 Japanese subs in just 12-days using them. Much to the annoyance of others Captain in the hunting group.

The entire plan at the end depends on the person in-charge of the British surface warship officers NOT knowing they're in danger. Since it shows that this person did in-fact know they were in danger, the whole things makes no sense. They don't have to shoot the submarine while the captain is on-board, they merely had to reverse a little bit.

I love it when the good guys win