U Boote westwärts!
6.6 /10 1 Votes
Director Gunther Rittau Country Nazi Germany | 6.4/10 IMDb Duration Language German | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date 9 May 1941 (1941-05-09) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
U-Boote westwärts! (in English: U-boat Westward!) was a 1941 German war propaganda film promoting the Kriegsmarine. It concerns a U-boat mission in the Battle of the Atlantic and was produced by UFA. The U-boat used for the film was U-123, which would later play a major role in Operation Drumbeat.
Contents
Plot
The film opens aboard a U-boat as it returns from a mission. It then follows the crew onshore the day before they ship off for their next mission—meeting their family and sweethearts, spending a last night at a club, and so forth. Then they ship off, soon sighting and boarding a Dutch merchant ship, which they inspect for contraband. The boarding of the ship is shown being done professionally and in a non-confrontational manner. While they are aboard the Dutch ship, a Royal Navy ship spots them and tries to torpedo them, but the U-boat ends up sinking it.
Cast
Motifs
The British are shown as cowardly and duplicitous. It also glamorizes death in battle: the British ship was torpedoed even though it had German POWs, and one dies, speaking of the honor of dying for the fatherland.
