Corrected entry: When the American Navy is called to their assignment, the welders working on the submarine are welding without safety goggles. I would think that in the Navy they would teach basic safety precautions.
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
Corrected entry: A depth charge explodes right off the starboard bow, and the whole front end of the sub actually bends and snaps back. The force of the explosion wouldn't cause it to bend, it would either break off completely or there would be a large hole.
Correction: It's very possible for the structure to distort without breaking.
Corrected entry: The Germans drop the bombs down on the submarine at the rate of two every 5 or so seconds. So how come there are sometimes many many explosions around the submarine within a very short space of time?
Correction: I believe time was pushed ahead to skip to the explosions to make it seem like there were multiple explosions in a small period of time. Did you notice that after each explosion, the men appeared back in their seats almost instantaneously?
Corrected entry: They're actually using the U-571 to flee away from the German re-supply sub (the whole movie). Wasn't the U-571 broken? If it wasn't the German crew would have sailed to port long ago of course.
Correction: The German sub was damaged and could not get much power. Tank (from the American sub) mentions that the German mechanic (who got killed so someone else was doing the repairs, someone who worked in his uncle's motorcycle garage) did not know anything.
Wasn't the mechanic uncooperative too? That adds to things as to why they didn't get repair knowledge from the Germans.
Corrected entry: Almost at the end of the movie, the sub is being chased by a German destroyer. One of the destroyer cannon shots hits the stern portion of the U-Boat (where the diesel and electric motors are located). That hit should have instantly killed Tank (in the electric motors room) and maybe also Trigger (they are both working to fix the stern torpedo tube). (01:43:23)
Correction: The shot actually hits the bow of the U-Boat. The stern is pointed towards the destroyer since that tube is the only one that has a torpedo.
Correction: The reason the welders weren't wearing goggles was that the effects of the damage of welding wasn't really apparent at that time and only after long term exposure did they find out the damage to the eye. Also if you look above the arc that's created when wire welding, you won't be blinded by the light and still be able to direct the welder where you need to weld.