More Uboat info.

U 571 would only have gone under if it had been hit below the waterline as it was surfaced, and if it penetrated both outer and inner hulls of the Uboat. In the movie, I do not recall seeing such a hit and its been over a year since I saw it last. Had it penetrated both hulls, yes it would have sank.

Uboat crews were indeed armed with MP-38/40s Mauser K-98 Rifles, MG-34s and MG-40s and Navy Lugers "6" inch barrels. I will have a large photo coming in in a few weeks from Sweden that shows a Uboat Officer with an MG-34 and a crewman with a K-98, and they are attempting to detonate sea mines by shooting at the posts. I will ask Otto to post that photo where ever he can so you can see it.

Uboat crews also had a full issue of M-35 helmets and Tropical issud helmets, which were kept in a helmet rack that stacks one on top of the other and as a helmet is taken the next one rises a bit because of a tension spring in the rack. Uboats also carried Stickgrenades.

It wasnt a normal practice to keep a deckgun loaded even while submerged, but is possible that they had seen surface action and had loaded the deckgun and was cought on the surface by air attack and they had no time to fire the weapon and submerge.

I dont remember the type of recce aircraft used, but it could have been anykind of Luftwaffe aircraft from any nearby Luft Airfield.

There is a "hatch" which was on every Uboat, that can be opened from the inside, which was used to scuttle the uboat when they were seuuendering or just abandoning ship. A famous case of this was U 505. Hans Goebeler of U 505, was the man that "pulled the plug" on U 505 when they were surrendering to the USS Guadalcanal. Hans describes this in his book. We had talked about this over the phone when I was able to talk to him in the few months before he passed away on Feb 20th 1999.

There is an organization called: "Shark Hunters" which is ran by a person who is a jerk, and who claims that Hans Goebeler was not the man who pulled the plug on U 505. This was a hell of a sorry accusation to make as this jerk was NOT there when this happened.

There used to be many prominant Uboat aces and commanders who were members of that Organization who have now since quit it because of their practices. Men like: Erich Topp, Reinhard Hardegen and many more.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.