Fanspot
Submarine base
“Alarm. We’re taking on water!”
A submarine soldier
As a fleet of German submarines sails into the port of La Rochelle in 1941, German Captain Philip Thomsen (Otto Sander) makes a very pungent speech against Hitler. Realizing his blunder, he then castigated Churchill. His U-96 submarine is scheduled to leave the base in a few hours.
Built by the German company Organisation Todt, between 1941 and 1943, the submarine base of La Rochelle was a strategic military point towards the Atlantic. Preserved almost with the identical one, Wolfgang Petersen used it such as it is. He exploited the interior but also the nearby exteriors, notably the passage near the airlock. This gives the film an authentic character. Experts consider Das Boot to be one of the greatest underwater war films. If you can see the place from afar, it is nevertheless closed to the public because of its dangerousness.
A few months after the end of the shooting of Das Boot, Wolfgang Petersen speaks to his friend Steven Spielberg, then in search of an underwater base for Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, about the one in La Rochelle. The German filmmaker even left the replica of his submarine in the holds of the base. The American director reused it by repainting it for the needs of the first part of the saga played by Harrison Ford.
Das Boot received 6 Oscars at the 1983 ceremony: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
Quai de l'Entrepôt
Huge bunker dating from the Second World War, the submarine base of La Rochelle sheltered German U-Boats during the conflict. It is located Quai de l’entrepôt in the city of Charente-Maritime.
This submarine base was built between 1941 and 1943 by the Todt Organization, a German company.
It was part of the famous Atlantic Wall that the Germans built during the Second World War to protect the coast. This bunker, then called the La Pallice submarine base, after the district of the city where it is located, housed the submarines (U-boats) of the Kriegsmarine. It could accommodate up to six of them.
The Fantrippers Buying Board
Discover all the places Das Boot on our map
By Damien Canteau
Passionné par l'Histoire, les animés, les Arts et la bande dessinée en particulier, Damien est le rédacteur en chef du site spécialisé dans le 9e art, Comixtrip.