the ending was absolutely the saddest.... I liked the black and white version... it made the movie seem "wetter" for some reason.
Have you seen 08/15? A series of anti war movies made up from Hans Helmut Kirst's books "Revolt of Gunner Asch", "Forward, Gunner Asch" and "The Return of Gunner Asch".
08/15 refers to the water cooled Maxim machinegun of WWII, which was notorious for being hard to get to work properly (during WWII) though it was called "The Devil's Paintbrush" during WWI, and is probably more responsible for more military deaths than any other weapon.
In WWII it was thought wonderful, but it ran using a spring which was hard to get set properly. The British Vickers was an improvement of it, and the Browning .50 cal Heavy Barrel M2 calles it Great Grandfather.
Funny thing is that the Germans, who have a massive amount of WWII guilt, didn't like the sailors being portrayed in a positive light. The producers were worried how it would be received by the audiences of their WWII enemy, but American audiences loved it. It appears we've lost the ability to humanize the soldiers we previously fought.
I look at the Letters movie in a different way, as the other side of Flags of our Fathers.
"the ending was absolutely the saddest.... '
I saw Das Boot in a theater with an excellent sound system. As the submarine came under heavy pressure submerged, the croaking and groaning of the hull made it sound as if the walls of the theater were collapsing. It was claustrophobic, I tell ya.