Das Boot

The cast was deliberately kept indoors continually during the shooting period in order to look as pale as a real submarine crew would on a mission at sea.

At sea, communications between the U-boat and German Naval Command are shown decrypted on the U-boat using the Enigma machine. The machine featured, a variant with four rotors, was not introduced in the German Navy until Feb 1942 while the series takes place in fall of 1941.

Two different "versions": In West Germany the miniseries originally was released in 1985 as a version with three 100-minute episodes. Two years later, in 1987 the series was re-broadcast but this time consisting of six 50-minute episodes (basically, the three original episodes were split into two episodes each, which results in a total of six episodes). Each episode has a short recap at the beginning and a short preview at the end. The German 6-part version also has an alternative title for each episode: Part 1: Operation Atlantik (Operation Atlantic) Part 2: Auf Suchkurs (On Search Course) Part 3: Der erste Angriff (The First Attack) Part 4: Himmelfahrtskommando (Suicide Mission) Part 5: Auf Grund (On Ground) Part 6: In der Heimat (At Home)

Edited from Le bateau (1981)