There was great concern as to the reason behind the Nazi flags flying at the University of Cape Town this weekend. Many speculated that they were hoisted for some movie being shot in and around the Mother City. Not a bad reason – certainly better than the suggestion of there being a Nazi convention being held on the UCT campus!

Today the whole vibe becomes even more clearer as we stumble upon this article by Alistair Pott, which details a Nazi U-Boat spotted off the coast of Sea Point! Can you bloody believe it? But don’t fright, it’s not a real U-Boat. It seems the submarine is, in fact, a prop for a….. wait for it…. NAZI MOVIE!!!

I know – it’s ALL happening!

Check, check, check it out:

A few weeks ago I was running on the promenade when I was absolutely stunned to see a U-boat (German submarine from WW2) just off shore. Since then I’ve seen the U-boat regularly. It’s often surrounded by life rafts and often has stacks of people standing on the deck. That was all too much for my notorious curiosity. Short Answer A two-part BBC drama called “The Sinking of the Laconia” is being shot in Cape Town at the moment. The ’submarine’ I have been seeing is a prop constructed for the filming (see photo below).

Long Answer The movie is about the Laconia Incident which is a fascinating story from World War 2.

On 12 September 1942 the armed troopship RMS Laconia was off the coast of West Africa. There were well over 2,000 people on board – mostly Italian prisoners of war.

At about 10PM the Laconia was spotted and torpedoed by the German submarine U-156 under the command of Werner Hartenstein.

The German crew surfaced and were amazed to find so many people in the water. Remarkably Hartenstein ordered a rescue operation and sent out the following message:

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Sheesh Kebab! I’m glad we sorted that out.

There I was thinking we were under attack!

Oh well, to coin a phrase I made up quite some time ago, “the cat is out of the bag!”

Oh, AND my other classic, “You learn something new every day!”