Another superb film: Das Boot, The Director's Cut. The first-released US version ran 149 min. It's powerful. The German (director's cut) version runs 216 minutes and it's awesomely powerful. Like Band of Brothers, you get a sense of who these people were. I think Band of Brothers would have been more powerful for me if I'd seen it all at once, instead of dribbled out over ten weeks.

One of my favorite scenes in Band of Brothers (spoiler, this paragraph only...) is when the war in Europe is over and the commander volunteers to be transferred to a unit in Japan. He hates fighting. But he knows he's good and can save lives by going over there. His request for transfer is denied. Planning...I'll leave it a year and then see that series again. Great.

Shanghaiceltic, I'd never heard that any of the subs were depth-charged. I think the military should have let the press know that after the Belgrano was sunk. (And it seems amazing that a modern ship could get a depth charge close without also releasing any anti-sub torpedos into the water.) When was this news finally made public? and as a former submariner: was Das Boot any good?

As for your dad: wow. I seem to remember that one of those bombs went off. Very scary stuff. One Canadian's worst time after the Guld war was when disposing of a land mine beside some/a couple of kids. Bad enough to be risking your own life...

Another great series: Danger UXB.