The Bunker
2001
Directed by Rob Green
The movie starts with several German soldiers retreating on the Western Front to a bunker in October 1944. The garrison of the bunker is a young replacement and a old WWI veteran. In search of ammunition, the soldiers discover tunnels, abandned by Organisation Todt during contruction. However, the WWI veteran explains that the tunnels are essentially - haunted, through folk tales about what happened there during the Black Death. The suspense starts when a shocked and wounded soldier disappears into the tunnels. The soldiers go after him. They fight imagined enemies - the shocked and wounded soldier, a fanatical comrade of theirs, imaginary Americans, and the ghosts. The ending and what happens to most of the soldiers is for one to watch.
However, the movie has some historical innacuracies. The German soldiers belong to the '13. Panzergrenadier Division', which did not exist. They might have been referring to the 13. Panzer Division, but at that period the 13. Panzer Division was fighting on the Eastern Front. Also the German soldiers wear the shoulder patches of Panzergrenadier Division 'Grossdeutschland', which did not serve on the Western Front ever after 1940. They also wear an ilegible cuff title, espeically with the cuff title being on the wrong arm. One might have thought the young replacement in the movie was from the Heer but had a Waffen-SS cap, but he is not. He wears the field uniform of the SS-Polizei, with the Heer insignia on the collar and the Waffen-SS eagle on the shoulder. Overall, although the movie is good viewing, there is evidently poor research into historical accuracy.
K