Peter Hendra wrote in
:

U-boat of "Das Boat". Apparently the story is true. I have seen two
versions of the film; the original German one and the latest version
which had, at the final stages, the main participants being killed by
an air raid. This did not happen and was supposedly added for the
American market. Take a look at
http://uboat.net/flotillas/bases/index.html


Thanks for the pointer, Peter. I'll pass it on to my friend Dave, who is
a WW2 US submariner, ending up on the USS Darter being depth charged by
the Japanese in the Pacific. He has some real tales to tell. Dave was
the Chief Radioman aboard and can copy Morse Code around 40-50 wpm. He
lives on the CW portion of the ham bands in the bottom 20Khz where the
high speed operators still ply their trade. To look at him, you'd think
he was getting senile...well, until you see him sit down at his Morse
paddle working a Russian yesterday afternoon around 35wpm...(c;

Many great stories are corrupted by American movie interests in the name
of money. Try to see "Letters From Iwo Jima", in Japanese w/English
subtitles. It gives one a different perspective of the average bloke
soldiers and what they went through as their desparate officers tried to
kill them during the last hours before the US Marine Corp took over the
island. It's a real story, made by the Japanese, from the recollection
of one scared private who survived because he got to the American medics.

Larry
--
Warning - South Carolina's sales tax went up ANOTHER 1% today,
so that rich people with big houses could get reduced taxes.