The inscription on the ash try reads. Made from Ex German submarine DEUTSCHLAND broken up by ROBERT SMITH & SONS BIRKENHEAD. The submarine was surrended in 1918 as part of the armistice and was on exhibition in London. It was sold for scrap in 1921. When being broken up by Robert Smith & sons an explosion ripped the ship apart killing 5 apprentices. More info on Wikipedia.

Nice one. Got some photies somewhere of German Uboat crews surrendering after WWII. It's amazing how we can still be fascinated about this aspect of two wars, or some of us anyway.

Oh, I've got an identical ashtray!

Nice to learn some of the history.................

Did you know that 'Das Boot' and 'The Hunt For Red October' both have Sub-titles?

Aside from the sub-titles joke ...

Das Boot was dubbed in both German and English, also very unusually the voices belonged to the original actors apart from one case.

Das Boot was the nearest depiction I've seen to submarine life as it really is but even then, after watching it several times there are chinks in the technical armour, which tends to spoil it a bit for actual submariners but it is nonetheless a cracking film. I drew the line at my kids feeling sorry for the crew when they were being snottered at the end though, I had to give them a mini history lesson that they were the baddies.

True Bandy but brave men none the less. Think they lost more men per ratio than any other German service. I've got the English version but actually prefer to see it in German.

I was given the Director's cut version of Das Boot. The dubbing is beautifully done. Got to love Johan (?) listening and tending to those superb engines. Were they M.A.N. diesels ???

On a "Desert Island Discs" scenario and you could only keep one disc/tape, it would be Das Boot. As Bandy says - a cracking film.

ALAAAAAAAAAARM !!

You should all remember this then, answers on a postcard. [youtube]Uqvr6igV3Wc[/youtube]

Thanks Bert. First time I've heard the non-scratchy version! The Radio Op on the sub needed to change the needle I think!

Same song with French and English words (and a few clicks and pops)

[youtube]ctU8sVUwF4Q[/youtube]

I remember watching Bas Boot when it was a weekly on BBC2 (think) with sub titles. Brilliant, got the original German and as mentioned the dubbed version.

That was my point - even the German version was dubbed, the acting was filmed without sound as it was deemed too difficult to control the background noise levels.

Song featured in Saving Private Ryan didn't it?

Been searching for information for long enough and very grateful someone elsewhere found this for me.
Report on the explosion.

http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/Deutschland.html