'Das Boot' Uncut Version Trivia Quiz

Answer: U-96

U-Boats are given numbers rather than names, as is the convention with surface vessels. The number of the boat is mentioned often by the Captain, when receiving reports on the positions of convoys and other U-boats.

Answer: La Rochelle

The opening sequence of Das Boot, including the bar scene, the 'fireboat drill', Ullmann and Francoise's farewell and the boat's departure from the dockyard, is set in La Rochelle. During the German occupation of France, La Rochelle provided an important base for the German fleet. (In the film, Vigo is where they receive supplies later on, Gibraltar is the formidable British base they fail to pass through safely and La Spezia is their destination.)

Answer: He is never named

Several of the officers remain nameless throughout the film, including the 1st and 2nd lieutenants, the 'Chief' and the captain (although I have learned from a documentary that his name is Cpt. Lt. Lehmann-Willenbrock; this is never divulged in the film).

Answer: Herbert Groenemeyer

Herbert Groenemeyer has, perhaps a little strangely, gone on to become one of Germany's most successful pop stars. You may, however, recognise Juergen Prochnow (the Captain) from the hit film 'The English Patient'.

Answer: Three weeks, two days

The crew were forced to weather the harsh Atlantic storm for just over three weeks, according to Werner's voiceover, after the protracted storm sequence. They were rarely allowed to dive in order to escape the rolling waves - this would have been a waste of oxygen.

Answer: It's a Long Way to Tipperary

The song plays both on the journey out, when spirits are fairly high, and on the journey back, when the general mood is one of exhaustion, with hope of a safe return. This song's presence may have been one of Petersen's ways of ensuring that his audience were clear on the fact he did not support the Nazis, and that he is well aware that the Germans did not win the war in the end.

It also represents the Captain's disillusionment with the ideals that he is fighting for.

Answer: Johann

Johann, the Phantom, suffers a nervous breakdown during this terrifying sequence, a couple of hours into the film. However the Captain decides not to have him court-martialled, as it is his ninth voyage on a U-Boat and he deserves another chance.

Answer: Britain

The only convoy with which U-96 manages to successfully catch up, and torpedo, is British, as are the sailors who are left onboard and subsequently torpedoed in the second attack. U-96 gets into a spot of bother with this convoy, as they are attacked by a British destroyer with an ultrasound detection system, once they have blown up four ships.

Answer: She was killed in an air raid in Cologne.

The Chief hears on the radio about an air raid in Cologne, where his wife lives, and becomes agitated and upset. When Werner mentions to the 1st lieutenant that he had thought he (1st Lt.) had relatives in Cologne, he replies that his fiancee was killed two months ago in a raid.

The moment when this fact is revealed provides a moment of rare compassion for the audience, for the man who is apparently the only devout Nazi on board. Other than this, he is often difficult to sympathise with.

Answer: It is sunk in its harbour at La Rochelle by bombers, just minutes after it has finally arrived home.

This is perhaps one of the most devastating endings to any film. We have made such connections with the characters throughout the five-hour duration of the film, and then to see the crew decimated just as they are about to taste freedom is heartbreaking.