The first incident involving the stopping of an ocean liner could possibly be something to cut from the movie, but the final attack on and sinking of a fellow U-boat in close proximity to U-96 would've been a powerful reminder of the price of war. Probably this was due to the length of the movie version, I'm not entirely sure. The story closely follows that depicted in the television movies apart from a couple of incidents toward the end of the book completely skipped for television. the bad being that the narrative can be slowed to a crawl and prove rather difficult to read, especially when it's new to you at the start of the book, and yet be so engaging at others. As alluded to above, this style can both be good and bad. One might read a passage describing the mountainous waves during a storm and imagine it coming from a verse of poetry. The author's writing style is akin to poetry at times as he describes many things using poetic metaphor. This can both be a terribly verbose and largely unnecessary drag on the narrative and at other times, such as during depth charging and other dire situations, is an asset as we are brought right inside the mind of the terrified author. The writer literally describes every thought as he experiences the world around him. The books prose style is one I've never come across before. Das Boot is perhaps a rather strange mix of the two. More often than not, the book is the definitive incarnation and the movie version is the poor relative. I knew Das boot originated in book form way back and this is, of course, what the television movie was based on. I've since watched this several times, now on DVD and am very familiar with the tone and content of the television adaptation of the book. I'd seen Das Boot for the first time way back around the mid 80's when it was a mini series on the BBC. That was my initial feeling regarding this long awaited audio book. Written by a survivor of the U-boat fleet, Das Boot is a psychological drama merciless in its intensity and a classic novel of the Second World War. Of the 40,000 men who served on German submarines, 30,000 never returned. Their targets now travel in convoys, fiercely guarded by Royal Navy destroyers, and when contact is finally made the hunters rapidly become the hunted.Īs the U-boat is forced to hide beneath the surface of the sea a cat-and-mouse game begins, where the increasing claustrophobia of the submarine becomes an enemy just as frightening as the depth charges that explode around it. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. It is autumn 1941, and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Filled with almost unbearable tension and excitement, Das Boot is one of the best stories ever written about war, a supreme novel of the Second World War and an acclaimed film and TV drama.
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