Did You Know?
The caption before the end credits, detailing the fact that the Royal Navy captured the first Enigma machine, was only added after an outcry in Britain, where it was believed that Hollywood was trying to claim the credit for the Americans (whose forces captured no German Naval Enigma material until 1944).
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The Enigma machine used in the movie was genuine and not a prop. It was obtained from a collector for use in the film
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In reality, the submarine U-571 was never actually captured. The submarines U-559 and U-110 were the ones captured with the codebooks but by the British Navy in August 1941, four months before the United States entered the war. U-570 however was in fact a u-boat captured in late 1941 (by Britain) near Iceland, and subsequently deployed as HMS Graph until early 1944. Its appearance was used by the Royal Navy to fool German ships and submarines, and destroy them by surprise.
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The Germans did in fact introduce a new, 4-rotor version of their Enigma machine in February 1942; and the code was in fact practically unbreakable by the Allies until the capture of associated codebooks from a submarine, in June 1944. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterseeboot-505 for details But in real life this was a British operation and did not involve a deception like that depicted in the film. The sub itself, the U-559, sank shortly after the codebooks were removed.
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Erik Palladino, who played Mazzola, had laryngitis during the filming of the plane-buzzing scene. He lip-synched his lines and dubbed them later in the studio.
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For authenticity, the stage crew made a working submarine for filming in the Mediterranean off of Malta. During production, an American warship appeared and was so taken in by the Nazi submarine they actually sent an armed team to board it.
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In the original script, when Tyler is thoughtfully looking at the pictures in the German submarine's mess, he recognizes the prisoner wearing a captain's uniform.
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When Lt. Tyler is walking through the German submarine during the initial boarding, a cabinet swings open revealing two bottles of Beck's beer.
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In the original script, when Tank is discussing the U-571's condition he reports that the submarine has only six tonnes of fuel, which is insufficient to return them to the United States. That is why Lt. Tyler sets a course for England.
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Director Jonathan Mostow was inspired to do the film after touring the World War II submarine USS Pompanito, in San Francisco.
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Coincidentally, 571 was the numerical designation of the U.S.S. Nautilus, launched in 1954, the first nuclear submarine.
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This movie represents one of a select group of a few World War II submarine movies which have won the one single Academy Award in a technical category, that's just only the one Oscar in either special effects or sound editing. These movies include Crash Dive; The Enemy Below; Torpedo Run and U-571. The non-WW II sub-movie, The Hunt for Red October also won just the one Oscar as did the WW 2 part sub-movie 49th Parallel, but for Best Original Story.
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The "German" aircraft flying over the sub in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, is an Italian Fiat G.59 trainer, first flown in 1948.
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A History Channel review of the movie which aired soon after its release included a German World War II U-Boat commander. At the end of the show he was asked for his opinion of the authenticity of the movie. His response was; "They got one thing right in the movie. There were U-Boats in the North Atlantic during the Second World War."
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The U-505 submarine is on exhibit at The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. It is the real U-505-the only German submarine in the United States, and, now, a national memorial to the 55,000 American sailors who gave their lives on the high seas in WWI and WWII.
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