The film touches properly on the major themes of the real events connected with Schiff 16, HSK 2, Atlantis. Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, the Captain, was indeed a man of the highest moral fiber who was respected and admired "across the havoc of war"[1] by those he came in contact with as opponents, including prisoners he took. Rogge was also a skillful and daring warrior with a loyal and devoted crew. Atlantis was indeed sunk by British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire in a completely one sided battle during which the range was too great for Atlantis to even engage.
The rescue of hundreds of Atlantis survivors by U-boat, oddly only hinted at in the last scene of the movie, was real. The story of the U-boat towing overloaded rafts, transferring the rescued personnel to German supply ship Python, only to have this vessel in turn sunk by another British cruiser, the twice shipwrecked survivors then being rescued a second time and carried aboard and towed behind various German and Italian submarines, finally to reach Saint Nazaire despite complete British supremacy in the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay - is an epic one, better than any fiction could be.
Atlantis details were gratuitously changed for no apparent reason. There were no fancy twin turrets for the main guns. The guns were just mounted singly on pedestals on deck, behind false panels which could be rapidly dropped away. There were no underwater torpedo tubes, though there were torpedo tubes mounted on deck much like the guns.
There actually was a two-way battle between German raider Kormoran and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney. The latter of course completely outclassed the former tactically in every way: she had a large advantage in speed[2] and firepower[3], and was armored, unlike the former. Kormoran got one torpedo hit on Sydney and scored some superb gunnery hits. Sydney's bridge was destroyed by the second salvo of three shells. Sydney's return gunfire was enough to eventually lead to Kormoran's loss (finally being scuttled after being devastated by fire), but hardly with impressive speed and decisiveness - quite the contrary. Her torpedo attack was just terrible. Somehow she only got off a measly two torpedos and both missed the lumbering and soon completely immobilized German, despite quite close range. Sydney was actually the first to sink, not before drifting out of control and on fire over the horizon, and astoundingly all 635 hands aboard lost. Ultimately 319 of Kormoran's 399 souls were rescued by the Allies.
One fact which many will scarcely believe. Atlantis had prodigious oil fuel bunkers which gave her an unrefueled range of 60,000 miles at 10 knots due to very efficient diesel engines. This is 4-10 times the range of even the largest steam powered naval warships. The corresponding unrefueled endurance of 250 days was unmatched by any other conventionally powered vessel I am aware of.
[1] To borrow Churchill's great turn of phrase in which he tipped his hat to Rommell.
[2] Almost twice the speed of Atlantis.
[3] On paper, eight 152mm plus four 102 mm for Sydney, vs six 150 mm plus one 75 mm for Atlantis. However, the former's main battery was in enclosed turrets, the guns of higher velocity and range, with first class fire control. All eight guns could fire on either side. The latter's guns could fire only two or three to either side, and did not have a well developed design of ammunition supply and fire control.
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