For all the whining over the Enigma plot, This film is highly accurate for a Hollywood film. Sure, there are a few goofs here and there but no film is perfect.
But Much of what you claim to goofs, are Not!
Sure, the German Destroyer in the open Atlantic. But not the resupply sub... the Black steward, or the torpedoes were goofs.
I'm laboriously typing this out on a phone so I'm not going to get into WHY you're wrong now. But you are. I'll give why in an update once I get home from work in a few hours and have a keyboard.
OK... Here we go...
Here we are, the early 194o's with many sailors from the deep south. No way would many put their prejudices aside with the black steward, especially the way he talked back to some of the crew members.
First off, there was no higher rate of southern sailors as there was from any other part of the Nation. Sailors were from all over, including the North.
Secondly... The Submarine Service was probably the LEAST segregated part of the Military even outside the Navy. Blacks were still limited to only the one rating(job) of being a Steward, But the limited room AND the need for EVERYBODY to learn and know everybody else's jobs as well in order to "qualify" in submarines, meant it was the ONLY place where Blacks could receive training in jobs normally restricted to Whites in other ratings. So even though the Black Steward was "Officially" limited to being ONLY a Steward, he still had to learn how to steer the sub, work the dive planes, load and fire torpedoes, operate the ballast controls, etc... And in the film you see him acting as a Planesman when it was just their handful of survivors.
IF there was the room and the Luxury, Blacks were segregated in sleeping in the forward Torpedo room rather than Crews Berthing, but the limited room meant they were NOT the only ones, a few Junior ranked White boys had to be there too when the Sub had a full Complement.
The Crew is too small and too reliant on the rest to get the job done. Operating a Submarine in a wartime environment was just too demanding to put up with much bullsh!t like Prejudice. Oh I am sure it existed, but you had best keep it to your Effing self if you wanted to be part of the crew. A Sub Crew was a very tightly bonded group of men and basically they did not have time for crap like that. They learned quick to get over it or to keep it to themselves.
Now that was rather Unique to submarines. In the rest of the Navy it is pretty much as you said, You are just wrong to apply it to Subs where it did not exist.
The supply sub that was heading to U-571 would've most likely been a type XIV U-boat aka Milch Cow, that had no torpedo tubes and even if it did, how would it of known which was the decoy sub when they let a torpedo go?
Again, not a goof. YOU are making a false assumption that your idea is the ONLY way and won't allow for other (actually MORE LIKELY) possibilities.
They (The Americans) kept referring to it as "the supply sub" because that was it's mission as far as they are concerned. That DOES NOT MEAN the sub could be none other than a dedicated Supply Boat, the Milch Cows.
In fact it stands to reason it would very likely NOT be one.
At the time of the film, Germany only had 5 of the eventual 10 Type XIV Subs in commission. U-571 was in emergency need of repairs. Germany would have taken the very next submarine that was due to sail, add a couple extra mechanics and some engine parts and sent them to rendezvous with U-571 before continuing on with their own mission. They would not have waited until a Type XVI was available and ready to sail THEN send them. They would have sent the first available sub. It did not need to be a dedicated "Resupply Sub" That's just how the Americans were referring to it.
As far as how they would know which was the enemy to fire on them... That's very very easy if anyone would care to even think in the slightest on it.
You're the Supply sub Captain.
YOU slip in carefully to the rendezvous coordinates because this is War and you never know what might be waiting for you.
But rather than just finding the U-571, you find TWO Subs on the surface and a lot of activity going on between them. YOU are the supply boat so you KNOW the second sub is not supposed to be there or BdU would have said so in their orders. Flipping the Periscope to high magnification you can see the personnel and equipment are being transferred from one sub to the second sub and apparently under armed guard (Weapons were in the open at this point). It stands to reason that U-571 did not in her cripples state capture an American Sub, so the Sub in which people are being transferred OFF of and under guard must be the German Sub and the one the Prisoners are being transferred to must be the Enemy.
Doesn't take a lot of thought to figure that out. Simple observation would have him figuring out which was which.
Also, when U-571 dove and fired off it's torpedo, the technology wasn't there yet to hit another underwater target.
YOU are correct that Torpedoes at the time were what we call "Straight Running" torpedoes that range on a fixed heading at a fixed depth and had no guidance or homing capability.
But this is still not a goof.
Both subs were still close to the surface near periscope depth. With a good fire control solution, the torpedo would still pass through the location of the other sub... And would HIT Provided that they GUESSED the right depth. The torpedoes could be set to run pretty deep and the subs were still near Periscope depth. It's not like they had to guess some random depth between surface and crush depth. They had the depth to guess from pretty much limited to 60-70 feet. Not hundreds.
And in fact this actually did happen in real life where a British Submarine did engage another German sub while both were submerged. It happened off the coast of Norway, and yes... it was pretty much blind luck.
But blind luck or not, it can and did happen at least once in real life so it is NOT a goof in the film.
The only goof you listed that you were right about was the Destroyer and it's Seaplane/Fighter.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!
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