Build a movie plot around this: What attacks the crew? Allied planes bomb and strafe the facilities
The answer to this question is:
The movie opens with a screen noting that 40,000 Germans went out on submarines in WW2, and that 30,000 never came back. Then you find out that it is near the end of 1941, and the German Atlantic U-Boat fleet is a mere 12 subs.Now cut to the officers of U-96 driving down a dark road by the shore. Enlisted sailors are drunk and hanging out on the road. They harass the officers in a fairly obnoxious way, including urinating on their car as it goes by. The officers (including, as you soon find out, the Captain) take this in stride.The next scene is in a raucous beer hall. It is an award banquet for a sub captain Thomsen (Otto Sander), who just received a commendation, as well as a sending off for U-96's crew. Various scenes of debauchery play out. The officers are just a bunch of rowdy kids having fun. U-96's Captain (Jurgen Prochnow) looks on calmly. The Captain is then introduced to a party reporter, Lt. Werner (Herbert Gronemeyer) who will be accompanying them on their next tour to report on the greatness of the Reich's sub crews. They meet the Captain's chief engineer and de facto second-in-command "The Chief", (Klaus Wennemann), who is older and bedraggled and obviously doesn't look forward to another tour.The Captain goes to find Thomsen as it is time for the old guy to give a speech. He finds Thomsen nearly passed out drunk in a disgusting bathroom. He manages to get Thomsen to his feet with the help of another officer and guides him to the podium. They note sadly that all the crews these days are just kids, and that the old guard is almost gone. Thomsen gives a speech full of what comes very close to anti-Nazi rhetoric (a couple guys in the audience, possibly SS men, look tense), but ends it on a positive note without saying anything too incriminating.Now U-96 leaves port and you meet the rest of the crew. Of most note are the first lieutenant (Hubertus Bengsch), a prissy young hardcore Nazi, and the second lieutenant (Martin Semmelrogge) who is a clever jokester and constantly winds up the first...