Das Boot: U-96 and La Rochelle

In October 1941 war correspondent Werner is driven to a French bordello, where he meets some of the crew. Thomsen gives a drunken speech to celebrate his Ritterkreuz award and mocks Hitler. Although the scene is set in La Rochelle, the bar was filmed in Bavaria's studios at Geiselgasteig, in Grünwald, at the very end of shooting from 18 November 1980. Bavaria's studios also supplied all of the film's interiors and underwater shots.

U-96 sails out of the harbour of La Rochelle the morning after the bar scene, and Werner gets a tour of the boat. The departure and return scenes were shot at the U-boat bunker in La Pallice, which was used as a U-boat base from October 1941. The concrete submarine base still stands, though it is largely not in use. Filming of the La Rochelle scenes ran from 7 July to 27 October 1980.

Out in the Atlantic the crew endures three weeks of relentless gales, and launches four torpedoes, sinking two ships. None of this was filmed on the Atlantic: exterior scenes were shot on Lake Constance off Immenstaad, and storm scenes in the North Sea. On screen, the lake stands in for the open Atlantic.

Location precision: The story is set in the North Atlantic; the pin marks Immenstaad on Lake Constance, where exterior boat scenes were filmed.

U-96 makes a secret night rendezvous in the harbour of Vigo, in neutral but Axis-friendly Spain. There it meets the SS Weser, an interned German merchant ship that clandestinely provides U-boats with fuel, torpedoes and other supplies. The boat slips into port under cover of darkness to take on what it needs for the next leg.

Location precision: The harbour rendezvous is a story setting rather than a filming site; the pin marks the city of Vigo.

As U-96 nears the Strait of Gibraltar and is about to dive, it is attacked. A British fighter plane badly damages the boat and wounds the navigator, Kriechbaum. Later the boat lands on a sea shelf at a depth of 280 metres. After over 16 hours the crew manages to surface by blowing the ballast tanks.

Location precision: The film does not give the exact seabed position; the pin marks the Strait of Gibraltar as a whole.

The crew reaches La Rochelle on Christmas Eve. Royal Air Force planes bomb and strafe the facilities. Afterwards Werner leaves the bunker where he sheltered and finds the captain, badly injured by shrapnel, watching his U-boat sink. When the boat disappears, the captain collapses and dies. To save money the harbour air raid was filmed in a single take, back at the La Pallice bunker.