There are 2 things that have always bothered me about this film. I readily admit I am not a "navy man" but in terms of overall casualties and the loss of the U.S. ship vs. the U-Boat, did not the Germans come out ahead? I can't believe the admiralty was happy about the commander's performance and the mistake that led to his ship being torpedoed. Secondly, while its hypocritical perhaps to talk about "honor" in war, did not the German commander show a great deal of humanity by signalling his intent to destroy the ship in 5 minutes, while the U.S. captain used that 5 minutes deceitfully by acting dead in the water so he could trick the U-Boat into the fatal confrontation? Any comments?
I guess, percentage wise, the German could have come out ahead, given the size of a destroyer escort crew compared to a U-Boat crew. Also, many times a board of inquiry of the Navy Department, (not admiralty you bloody Brit!) might after looking at the facts give the skipper of a lost ship a pass. "You couldn't have forseen this", or, "Anyone could make that mistake." As to the second point, yes, it was sporting of the U-Boat captain to give warning. I guess he's a "Good German" and not a Nazi. Remember, there was the "Laconia order" in which U-Boats were not allowed to pick up survivors after two of their boats were deliberately attacked by US planes while engaged in a rescue.
I'm not superstitious 'cause it's bad luck-- Mark Grace
It's mentioned early in the movie by the German captain that the U-Boat must maintain course 140 degrees to meet up with "Raider M" to deliver a British codebook. This would be a strategic mission of some importance to the Reich.
Of course, the American destroyer captain doesn't know this. But, he's keenly interested that his quarry returns to that same base course after each engagement...140 degrees. He suspects that this U-Boat is up to something special.
So, while the movie audience knows that while a simple tradeoff of a destroyer for a U-Boat would favor the Germans, we know the outcome stopped their strategic mission.
A Navy Board would want to look into the final battle between the sub and the destroyer. But I think Mitchum would have been exonerated since he certainly made the best of a bad situation. In my opinion.
The US built some 500 of those little DEs (Destroyer Escort, navsource.org) specifically to hunt down Germany's U-boats. Losing a DE was much less of a blow to the US Navy and war effort than the loss of a U-boat for the Kriegsmarine. Germany was under heavy pressure for resources, man-power and manufacturing capability. My concern is why was the DE out alone.. it should have been in a task group: Jeep carrier and 4-5 DDs/DEs.
You said "deliver" the code book to Raider M. He was supposed to pick up the code book and go home with it. "This is the important thing, Heinie. Not that we get the book, but when we have it, we can go home."
I'm not superstitious 'cause it's bad luck-- Mark Grace
Very few German Naval officers joined the Nazi party - which is one the reasons that Hitler didn't entirely trust his own navy. Notice how in one scene the German captain and his first officer were rolling their eyes at the young officer reading "Mein Kampf."
Originally the book was written by a British Commander and the destroyer was British. So perhaps a Briton would be better able to answer what the Admiralty would have done. In America, Murrel would have had to endure a board of inquiry, but I seriously doubt he would have had to stand a court martial in those circumstances.