U-Boote westwärts!

U-Boote westwärts! (in English: U-boats Westward!) is a 1941 German war propaganda film promoting the Kriegsmarine. It concerns a U-boat mission in the Battle of the Atlantic and was produced by UFA. The U-boat used for the film was GS U-123 (1940), which would later play a major role in Operation Drumbeat.

Plot
The film opens aboard a U-boat as it returns from a mission. It then follows the crew onshore the day before they ship off for their next mission—meeting their family and sweethearts, spending a last night at a club, and so forth. Then they ship off, soon sighting and boarding a Dutch merchant ship, which they inspect for contraband. The boarding of the ship is shown being done professionally and in a non-confrontational manner. While they are aboard the Dutch ship, a Royal Navy ship spots them and tries to torpedo them, but the U-boat ends up sinking it.

Cast

 * Herbert Wilk as Kapitänleutnant Hoffmeister
 * Heinz Engelmann as Olt. zur See Wiegand
 * Joachim Brennecke as Lt. zur See v. Benedict
 * Ernst Wilhelm Borchert as Olt. Griesbach
 * Karl John as Matr. Ob. Gefr. Drewitz
 * Clemens Hasse as Masch.-Maat Sonntag
 * Ilse Werner as Irene Winterfeld
 * Admiral Karl Dönitz as himself

Motifs
The British are shown as cowardly and duplicitous. It also glamorizes death in battle: the British ship was torpedoed even though it had German POWs, and one dies, speaking of the honor of dying for the fatherland.