U-Boote heraus! Mit "U-178" gegen den Feind

Part 1: Sailor Karl returns on home leave and shares war experiences with his neighbors. Insert: Coastal defense soldier prepares a hand grenade; Retrieval of a wounded person in the dunes. Karl reads the newspaper report about the unrestricted submarine warfare on 1st February 1917 and volunteers for the submarine service. At the submarine school in Kiel: Training with torpedoes; Drilling on hatches; Prince Sigismund of Prussia boards the training ship "Vulcan"; Exercises with the gun; Deck roll call. Transfer of torpedoes and supplies to a submarine docked in the port of Kiel; Farewell celebration of the commander in the officer's mess of the "Vulcan"; Commander boards the submarine; Departure maneuver and exit of the submarine from the port of Kiel.

Part 2: Submarine on surface voyage; Bridge watch; Ship convoy on the horizon; Firing with the onboard gun; Submarine dives; The commander at the periscope; Encounter with U-202 on the high seas; Hostile aircraft in the sky; Bomb impacts in the water; Aerial combat and shooting down of the English aircraft; FF-33 floats next to the drifting aircraft wreck and picks up the pilot; Telephone buoy in the water; "U 178" launches a boat and establishes contact with "U 202" using the telephone buoy; In the radio room of the salvage ship "Vulcan"; Issuing orders on board; Work in the engine room; The salvage ship departs.

Part 3: Salvage operations on board the "Vulcan"; Diver goes into the water to secure the ropes; The submarine appears on the water's surface. "U 178" stops a merchant ship; Sailors row to the submarine with the ship's papers; Life on the deck of the submarine during surface travel; Crew of a captured merchant steamer goes into the rowboat and is taken in tow by U 178; Demolition of the steamer and sinking ship; Bridge watch with binoculars and sextant; Taking over the crew of the sunken ship onto an auxiliary cruiser.

Part 4: Signaling to a seaplane "FF-33", which then lands on the water; Handing over the ship's papers of the sunken steamer to the pilot; "U 178" dives; Mine explosion in the water; Submarine surfaces and continues on the surface; Loading of torpedo tubes; Sinking steamer; Homeward journey in heavy seas; Work in the engine room; Encounter with torpedo boats and cruisers; Submarine enters the port of Kiel; Prince Heinrich of Prussia comes aboard and greets the crew on deck; Submarine moors; Karl is back on home leave. Note: The two boats "U 178" and "U 202" are clearly disguised numbers. Boats with these designations were commissioned in 1917 but were not put into service. The film mainly contains staged shots.

Source: Bundesarchiv