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Mistakes

There is a scene where Eddie, the mess steward, is taunting the German prisoners while writing numbers on their chests. Watch his writing hand as he's working on 11. He makes an awful lot of strokes, including several horizontal ones. You can see from the next guy, 12, that Eddie's ones are just simple vertical lines, so there's no reason for him to have spent so much time writing on 11's chest. Except that it gave him time to say his whole line. See more...

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U-571 cause quite a stir in England especially in the small northern town of Horsforth (where I actually live), because we felt the movie 'Hollywood-ised' a British victory. The people of Horsforth raised an astonishing £241,000 in one week (about £4million today) to fund the building of the HMS Aubretia, the ship that captured the first enigma machine when it depth charged U-110. It caused so much upset amongst people that President Bill Clinton wrote a letter to the people of Horsforth praising the town for their part in the war effort. The letter is now on display in the local museum. See more...

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U-571 (2000) - 48 corrections

Directed by Jonathan Mostow, starring Bill Paxton, David Keith, Harvey Keitel, Jake Weber, Jon Bon Jovi, Thomas Kretschmann (add more)

Genres: Action, Drama, War

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Corrections
Questions
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When the crew is trying to figure out how to submerge the U-571 for the first time, chief Klough exclaims "everything's in German". Is he surprised that they would use the German language on a German vessel? [He's not expressing surprise, he's simply expressing his frustration out loud. People do that.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
In the film U-751 the torpedoes were shown leaving a trail of bubbles behind them. The type of torpedo which did that was the G7a 'T1' torpedo - which was pre-war issue. At the time of the film the standard torpedo of the Ubootwaffe was the improved G7e 'T2' torpedo which did not leave a trail of bubbles due to a different motor design. [The T1 torpedo was used alongside the T2 for a long time, because it was more reliable, had better range and speed than the T2. In fact, several U-Boot captains preferred the T1 for those reasons. In 1942 the improved T3 debuted, but availability kept the T1 in use for some time.]
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German torpedoes had two types of detonators. The primary was a magnetic pistol which was triggered by the presence of a large metallic object like a ship or submarine. The second was through mechanical 'feelers' in the event that the pistol failed and the torpedo contacted the target ship. Thus, the grazing 'miss' where the German torpedo scrapes along the hull of the U-571 could not have happened. The torpedo would have detonated. [Torpedo detonators at the time could be quite unreliable, and duds, where torpedo failed to explode were common. In addition, magnetic detonators worked well only on ships weighing 2000 tonnes or more - almost three times more than a type VII submarine.]
Edit
U-571 was sunk on January 8, 1944, by an Australian Sunderland. She was previously damaged by an Allied destroyer on March 22, 1943, but managed to come back to the base. All supply submarines (Type XIV or Type VIIF) were actually sunk by Allied planes or surface ships. I know that the movie is entertaining rather than historical, but why didn't the movie makers choose boats that disappeared without a trace instead? [As you said, it's entertaining, not historical, as such, the facts and events don't have to be 100% accurate. Not really a mistake.]
Edit
After the American crew takes control of the U-571, it is approached by a German destroyer. The Americans decide to destroy the radio on the German ship with their deck gun. The gun was completely exposed to the destroyer; there is no way to hide anywhere or to work it in secret. How did they manage to get several men out of the submarine to unlock and prepare the gun for firing, load the shell, aim the gun and fire at the destroyer to destroy their radio, completely unnoticed and unmolested by the Germans? This wasn't a task that could be done in a matter of seconds; a minute or two would be needed for the best of crews, let alone for a group of people who'd probably just seen that sort of gun for the first time. The German officers are even shown watching the sub intensely at the start. [It's one of their own subs, they have no reason to suspect a thing. They might have seen it only as a drill, hence why they took no action.]
Edit Corrected by GalahadFairlight
Near the beginning of the film, when Tyler calls the crew of the S-33 to quarters, look at the guy two back from Mazzola, on the far right. He has his hands clasped behind his back while he's supposed to be at attention. When Tyler says "At ease," he realizes his mistake, drops his hands to his sides where they're supposed to be, then clasps them behind his back again as he stands at ease. [That's a character mistake, not a movie mistake.]
Edit
At the end of the film, when the torpedo hits the German destroyer, the explosion is totally out of proportion. No matter how strategic the position it hit, no torpedo of that era would be powerful enough to cause an entire ship to explode. (It's true that this did occasionally happen to tankers, but that was due to the large amounts of oil being carried – not the case with a destroyer.) [We don't know if the destroyer was carrying additional ammunition magazines that could have been hit, that would be enough to amplify the explosion.]
Edit
The scene where the German commander orders the survivors in the lifeboat to be shot is based on an allied myth. It is well documented that U-boat crews treated survivors gallantly - even giving them medical help, provisions, cigarettes and bearings to land. LATE (after the time this film supposedly takes place) in the war, Grossadmiral Karl Donitz even placed his own life on the line when he refused an order directly from Hitler that U-boat crews should execute survivors. He won on that issue and the order was rescinded, with only the comment that he should at least order his crews to STOP rendering assistance to the survivors. [This 'mistake' is debatable at best. UBoat commander Heinz Wilhelm Eck and two of the crew of the U852 were executed in 1947 for killing survivors of a ship they had sunk, in precisely the manner represented in this film. Reports of much the same thing happening were pretty common and there is good evidence that the US and Britain were similarly cavalier about survivors - look up the service records of the USS Wahoo and HMS Torbay for confirmation. In this case, the film deserves the benefit of dramatic licence.]
Edit
In the scene where the torpedo is running in the tube of the U-571 and could not be launched, reference was made to getting the fish launched before it detonated. That could not have happened. While it is true that the torpedoes did have a 'counter' of sorts to ensure a certain number or prop revolutions (distance) before the warhead would arm, that system was subordinate to another safety in the form of a 'tube feeler' which would not allow the counter to begin until the torpedo had actually cleared the tube. There was never any danger that the torpedo would detonate in the tube. The worst thing that could have happened was the fish would exhaust its fuel and be rendered useless. [These are Americans on a German boat. Do the Americans KNOW that the Germans use the same safety systems on their torpedoes as the Americans do? This may not be a mistake.]
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In reality the U-boat would never have been left without anyone on board capable of making repairs to critical systems like the diesel engines. Everyone on a U-boat crew had extensive training regarding all critical systems as well as access to a full set of blueprints that were carried onboard for just such events. [While there is extensive cross-training, not everyone would be a certified engine mechanic. Looking at technical prints and knowing what to do with them is two very different things. Their mechanics were killed and that left them without anyone with expert knowledge of the engine, which was required for this level of repair.]
Edit
In the scene where they took the Germans captive after assaulting the U-Boat, the black cook tells one of the Nazi's, "I bet you never seen a black man before, have you." At this time of history, the term "black" was never used, even by blacks themselves. They called themselves "negroes" or "colored". [Simply not true. People of colour had referred to themselves as "Black" for many many years prior to the second world war. It may not have be a generally accepted term or even widely used on world scale but it was used. Victorians often called africans "Blacks" in literature.]
Edit Corrected by Mad Ade
Depth charges explode at a distance of some 10 meters from the boat without any fatal effect. In reality fatal (i.e. destroying) distance was some 50 meters. [The second sentence is in error. Hull-rupture maximum distance is approximately FIVE meters. K-gun DISPERSION range was selectable from the attacking DD or DE: (1) Mk-6 at 50, 75, and 120 yards, (2) Mk-9 at 60, 90, and 150 yards. Citation: http://uboat.net/allies/technical/depth_charges.htm states "The pressure hull of the U-boat was strong enough to withstand anything but a charge exploding 10 or 20 feet from its hull.", and http://www.math.iitb.ac.in/~manishk/msc_project/OR-Notes-Mirror/OR-Notes/mscmga.ms.ic.ac.uk/jeb/or/intro.html states "As mentioned above the standard 250lb depth charge was believed to have a lethal radius of only 5-6 metres."]
Edit
In the last battle scene when you see shots of the German destroyer through the periscope the last one shot before it's blown up is really bad angling. The ship is far away but in the scope it's very close and the periscope (in order to get that camera angle) is 100 ft in the air. [I see no error here. The point of a periscope is to magnify the target and due to the fact that the sub was running on the surface in the final battle I see no reason why the periscope couldn't be 100 ft. in the air. After all, the periscope is designed to be used when the sub is 20 meters below the surface.]
Edit Corrected by AdmRose
If a real 'S' boat had been hit by a torpedo it would have sunk immediately. [It did sink immediately.]
Edit
The American sub, while commandeering the disabled U-571, would not have left itself with no watch to be blindsided by the approaching German rescue sub, especially having the knowledge that it was very close and closing fast. [During this scene, it is dark, raining heavily, and there are many people on the deck guiding the prisoners, so if there is a watch, he may not be visible. Even if there was a watch, because of the darkness, the rain, and the fact that the enemy sub was submerged, it would be nearly impossible to see the German rescue sub until it fired a torpedo or surfaced.]
Edit
In this film it is the Americans who capture the enigma coding machine. However,in WWII it was a British submarine crew who eventually captured the device. [There were several enigma captures during the war. One notable American capture was the U-505. The Americans weren't the first to capture an Enigma, but they did capture some. The Germans were continually modifying their machine and the codes made by the machines. Each capture of the machine and it's supporting documents helped allies to continue to be able to decode German messages.]
Edit
When the Americans first board the U-571, they are looking for the "Christmas Tree" which is a series of red and white lights. When they first see it there is a red light on, however when they turn back to it seconds later all the lights are white, or clear. [Since they were preparing the boat for dive, the light could have cleared between shots.]
Edit Time
The old U.S. 'S'-type submarine could never have been converted to resemble a German type VII or IX (Atlantic fleet boats) without drydocking and major work - which certainly could not have caught the crew by surprise. [It wouldn't have been difficult to make the S boat look like the U boat from the waterline up. The above-water profiles are very similar and would only require a few modifications. Throw enough metal workers at the task and it could be done in a night, easily. The S boat captain makes a point of running the disguised S boat low in the water to hide more of it's profile.]
Edit
The depth the U-571 is depicted as achieving was beyond 'crush depth' even considering the 2.5 safety factor all u-boats were designed to. There is no way the boat would have survived that depth. [The max depth depicted on the gauge is just beyond 200 meters. The maximum depth of the VIIC U-boat (which U-571 was) is 220 meters.]
Edit
An additional torpedo-related mistake: U-boat torpedoes were launched with a ram, which pushed the fish out of the tube. The motor of an armed torpedo did not start until after the fish had left the tube. They were not propelled out of the tube by their own motors as shown in the film. [Where does the film show the torpedo leaving the tube under its own power? I can't find a single example of this.]
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