Editing Das Boot (section)

===Sets and models===
[[File:Baselapallice08.jpg|thumb|[[U-boat pens]] at the harbor of [[La Rochelle]] (2007<br/>{{coord|46|9|32|N|1|12|33|W|type:landmark_scale:3000_region:FR|display=inline}}]]
Several different sets were used. Two full-size mock-ups of a Type VIIC boat were built, one representing the portion above water for use in outdoor scenes, and the other a cylindrical tube on a motion mount (hydraulic [[gimbal]]) for the interior scenes. The mock-ups were built according to U-boat plans from [[Chicago]]'s [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Museum of Science and Industry]].

The outdoor mock-up was basically a shell propelled with a small engine, and stationed in La Rochelle, France, and has a history of its own. One morning the production crew walked out to where they kept it afloat and found it missing. Someone had forgotten to inform the crew that an American filmmaker had rented the mock-up for his own film shooting in the area. This filmmaker was [[Steven Spielberg]] and the film he was shooting was ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''.<ref>{{cite book | author=Marcus Hearn | title =The Cinema of George Lucas | publisher =Harry N. Abrams Inc, Publishers | year =2005 | location =[[New York City|New York]] | pages =127–134| isbn =0-8109-4968-7}}</ref> A few weeks later, during production, the mock-up cracked in a storm and sank, was recovered and patched to stand in for the final scenes. The full-sized mock-up was used during the Gibraltar surface scenes; the attacking aircraft (played by a [[North American T-6 Texan]] / Harvard) and rockets were real while the British ships were models.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Krug |first=Hans-Joachim |title=Filming Das Boot |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1996/june/filming-das-boot |access-date=March 8, 2023 |website=U.S. Naval Institute|date=June 1996 }}</ref>

[[File:U995 2004 1 b.jpg|thumb|{{GS|U-995||2}}, a U-boat of the version VII-C/41, at its exhibition in [[Laboe]] in 2004]]
A mock-up of a conning tower was placed in a water tank at the [[Bavaria Film Studios|Bavaria Studios]] in [[Munich]] for outdoor scenes not requiring a full view of the boat's exterior. When filming on the outdoor mock-up or the conning tower, jets of cold water were hosed over the actors to simulate the breaking ocean waves. A half-sized full hull operating model was used for underwater shots and some surface running shots, in particular the meeting in stormy seas with another U-boat. The tank was also used for the shots of British sailors jumping from their ship; a small portion of the tanker hull was constructed for these shots.

During the filming there was a scene where actor [[Jan Fedder]] (Pilgrim) fell off the bridge while the U-boat was surfaced. During the played rescue, Bernd Tauber (Chief Helmsmann Kriechbaum) really broke two ribs.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.focus.de/kultur/kino_tv/wiedersehen-unter-veteranen-das-boot_id_2000568.html |title=Wiedersehen unter Veteranen |language=German | magazine=Focus |date=2013-09-03 |accessdate=2021-08-28}}</ref> This event is often purported as Jan Fedder breaking the ribs.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096/trivia| title = "Das Boot" on imdb.com| website = [[IMDb]]}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" style="text-align:left" caption="Mock-up of the interior at the Bavaria Studios in Munich">
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</gallery>

The interior U-boat mock-up was mounted five metres off the floor and was shaken, rocked, and tilted up to 45 degrees by means of a hydraulic apparatus, and was vigorously shaken to simulate depth charge attacks. Petersen was admittedly obsessive about the structural detail of the U-boat set, remarking that "every screw" in the set was an authentic facsimile of the kind used in a [[World War II]] U-boat. In this he was considerably assisted by the numerous photographs [[Lothar-Günther Buchheim]] had taken during his own voyage on the historical ''U-96'', some of which had been published in his 1976 book, {{lang|de|U-Boot-Krieg}} ("U-Boat War").

Throughout the filming, the actors were forbidden to go out in sunlight, to create the pallor of men who seldom saw the sun during their missions. The actors went through intensive training to learn how to move quickly through the narrow confines of the vessel.