It might be because you're supposed to focus on the internal struggle of wanting to survive a desperate situation, or maybe they were aiming to make it that much more terrifying -- the unknown is always more terrifying than the known and all that. Either way, I thought it was an interesting take because in most WW2 movies, even the generally accepted great ones, the Germans are constantly portrayed as bumbling, inept, running around yelling the same "especially-German sounding" few phrases that the extras were drilled on. No military could ever slug it out with almost the rest of the world for year after bloody year being as lousy as movie Nazis almost invariably are.
That’s why “The Longest Day” is such a great movie. At least the version where the Germans spoke in German with subtitles. They were actually portrayed as human beings.