IMAGES: 2006

Das Boot

Germany’s submariners of the Second World War have long been portrayed in the media as heartless and fanatical killers, devoted to their Führer and willing to kill anyone or anything that was unlucky enough to fall before their U-boat’s torpedo tubes or gun barrels. Perhaps one of the most important steps to rehabilitation for U-boat veterans in the years after the end of hostilities came thanks to a multi-million pound film project based on a novel written by wartime propaganda photographer Lothar-Günther Buchheim. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen Released in 1981 after two years of filming 'Das Boot' (The Boat) was, at the time of production, the most expensive German film in history, costing 30 million Deutsche Marks (US$40 million). Originally shot for both cinema release and German television the full version was six hours long and closely followed the plot of Buchheim’s novel. Location shooting included segments shot in the La Pallice bunkers and also involved the construction of a full-size replica U-boat (ironically this boat was accidentally sunk during filming, later raised and used also in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'). The U-boat of the story -U96 -departed La Pallice for an Atlantic patrol to be hunted and harried by Allied aircraft and destroyers, sent crashing to the bottom twice and badly damaged attempting to force a passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. Finally the battered U-boat is sunk and most of her crew killed as they return to base in La Pallice.

The gritty realism of this film brought the realities of U-boat warfare and the Battle of the Atlantic into the realms of international cinema on a scale never before seen by movie going public. Free of propaganda and “Hollywood” tales of morality the film accurately portrayed the boredom, exhilaration and terror that went to war with Germany’s U-boat men. But what of the real U96?

In October 1941 a young war correspondent from the Ministry of Propaganda arrived in Saint Nazaire to accompany a combat U-boat on patrol. Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock welcomed the young reporter aboard his boat U96 as it lay inside the massive concrete pens that housed U-boats of the Saint-Nazaire based 7^th U-boat Flotilla. Lehmann-Willenbrock already carried the Knights Cross after having completed three war patrols as commander of U96. By the time naval propaganda reporter Leutnant Lothar-Günther Buchheim met Lehmann-Willenbrock and his crew they were on the eve of their seventh patrol and had already sunk 19 enemy ships amounting to 153 610-tons sent to the bottom of the sea. Buchheim made himself at home aboard the cramped Type VIIC, showing signs of wear after fourteen months of North Atlantic combat. Like the fictional correspondent Leutnant Werner of 'Das Boot', Buchheim was given the luxury of his own bunk in the Petty Officers quarters. Finally in the mid afternoon of 27^th October 1941 U96 trailed its minesweeper escort out of the towering bunker and into the turbulent waters of the Bay of Biscay.

Buchheim set to work immediately, photographing the men at their posts and the huge amount of stored food that hung from every available hook and pipe within the pitching U-boat. He and his camera were to become familiar to all the crew as they settled into their now-comfortable routine of sea duties. Propaganda men were generally tolerated by U-boat crews, rarely befriended although usually treated as no more than an extra hand for menial duties or lookout.

The myth...	...the reality.
Probably the greatest U-boat movie ever "Das Boot" was based loosely on the experiences of a young war correspondent aboard Heinrich Lehmman-Willenbrock's (right) U96. Nineteen years after its release it still enjoys massive acclaim, thanks in no small part to the superb actors led by Jürgen Prochnow (left).

U96 was directed to the wild waters of the Newfoundland Bank, considered at that time to (incorrectly) be the maximum operational distance for Type VIIC U-boats. Attached to the Stosstrupp (Shocktroop) Wolf Pack with five other U-boats they were tasked to lay in wait for convoy traffic traversing the atlantic between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the United Kingdom. On 31^st October fellow pack member U552, commanded by the 'Ace' Erich Topp, sighted the target convoy HX156 eastbound in the wildly heaving North Atlantic. Transmitting homing signals for his comrades Topp attempted to draw the rest of the Stosstrupp pack to its quarry in the face of deteriorating weather. As Lehmann-Willenbrock battled eastwards in U96 to join the pack he stumbled upon a southbound convoy OS10, heading from England to Sierra Leone, late on the 31^st and commenced his own independent attack. Dashing into a surface attack Lehmann-Willenbrock torpedoed and sank the Dutch steamer SS Bennekom before being forced away by escort destroyers. Transmitting his own homing signals, Lehmann-Willenbrock attempted to bring more U-boats to the allied ships. Only one other boat, flotilla-mate U98, arrived before contact with the convoy was lost.

There then followed a succession of depressingly monotonous and unsuccessful pack reformations and patrol lines. No allied ships were sighted and boredom began to take its toll on crews and commanders. Finally on 22^nd November U96 along with several other U-boats at sea were ordered to make all possible speed to the area around Gibraltar in preparation for an attempt to shuttle U-boats into the Mediterranean. The Commander-in-Chief of U-boats, Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz protested vigorously against the diversion of valuable hunting U-boats from the vital battles in the Atlantic to the 'mousetrap' of the Mediterranean - an area unsuited to U-boat operations and one in which the efforts of Germany’s submariners would have little, if any, effect on the course of the war against England’s supply lifeline. However he was overruled and U-boats were diverted into the virtually land-locked sea. However they faced one appallingly difficult obstacle -the narrow and heavily guarded Straits of Gibraltar. During the night of 27^th/28^th November U96 stealthily crept into neutral Spanish waters to refuel from the 'interned' tanker Bessel in Vigo harbour. After refueling and reprovisioning, Lehmann-Willenbrock headed towards the Straits and began his attempt at passing through while remaining on the surface. However on 31^st November as U96 embarked upon its wary passage the U-boat was surprised by a radar equipped 812^th Squadron Fleet Air Arm Swordfish aircraft that was based in Gibraltar (its original home, the flight deck of the Ark Royal, having been sunk by U81 only weeks previously). Lieutenant Commander Woods brought his biplane aircraft roaring out of a glowering and dim sky to strafe and bomb U96, causing severe damage. Two 450lb depth charges exploded around the U-boat’s hull and shellfire from nearby destroyers and armed trawlers began to fall uncomfortably close. Lehmann-Willenbrock immediately ordered his boat dived and U96 plummeted to the bottom at 240-feet to make onboard repairs. After five hours of labour the U-boat managed to creep away underwater and abort its mission to return to Sainte-Nazaire, arriving at the concrete bunker mouth on 6^th December 1941.

During May the following year Buchheim’s photographs and story appeared in the German propaganda magazine Signal and U96 and its 'laughing sawfish' insignia became famous. By then Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock had departed as commander of U96 to take control of the 9^th U-boat Flotilla in Brest. The boat made three more patrols under its new commander Oberleutnant zur See Hans Jürgen Hellriegel, sinking four more ships before retiring from combat into training duties within the Baltic in April 1943. There the veteran boat took part in exercises as part of the 24^th and 22^nd training flotillas before final retirement in Wilhelmshaven in February 1945 where she was decommissioned. It was here that the old warhorse U96 met its inglorious end. During a daylight air raid by the United States Army Air Force on Wilhelmshaven harbour during the 30^th March, U96 received a fatal near miss that fractured her hull and she slowly submerged into the murky and disturbed harbour waters, her life finally over. Eventually amid the ruins of a defeated Germany the wreck was raised and consigned to scrap.

Lothar-Günther Buchheim of course survived the war and went on to write his groundbreaking novel. He also published the full collection of his U96 photographs in a book named 'Der U-Boot Krieg' (The U-boat War). Another novel named 'Die Festung' (The Fortress) told loosely of his experiences in Brest as the city came under American siege. Sadly this novel has not yet been translated into English. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock also survived the war. He escaped from Brest in September 1944 as the city was about to fall to the Allies aboard a barely seaworthy U256, completing a voyage to the German stronghold of Norway. There he took command of Bergen’s 11^th U-Boat Flotilla before surrendering to the Allies at the end of the war. Like many U-boat personnel he spent a year in captivity, finally released to return to Germany on 7^th May 1946.