U-96 is the designation of the German submarine crew’s boat in the film Das Boot.
Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 film follows a German U-boat patrol during the Second World War. The fictionalised crew operates aboard U-96, a Type VIIC submarine, during an exhausting Atlantic mission. The film is based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 novel, which drew on his experiences as a war correspondent aboard U-boats.
The story focuses on cramped conditions, mechanical danger, prolonged underwater attacks and the psychological strain of submarine warfare. Although U-96 was a real German submarine, the film’s characters and events are presented as a dramatized narrative.
Das Boot is therefore not the same as a documentary about U-96. The real boat survived the war after several patrols and was later sunk in a bombing raid at La Rochelle in 1945.