I watched it and liked it. My father who is a career US Navy surface warfare officer and spent most of his career on destroyers and frigates, said they got what life on the bridge of a ship was like very very close.
The sub talking over the Talk Between Ships(TBS) system is not something that happened, but it is something that could have happened. That system was a short range FM open signal, designed to allow line of sight communications. The U-boats had receivers and would listen for those signals as a way of identifying a convoy's general location. But there is no examples of them every talking back and lots of reasons why they wouldn't want to. I suppose they felt it made for a better movie to give the enemy a voice and make him more real. When you read the real accounts the fact that the U-boats were hidden and you never knew if they were around or targeting you made the tension worse for those sailors.
Tom Hanks is a history nerd and made a faithful adaption of the book while also telling the story of the Battle of the North Atlantic. I also like that the movie was partially shot on the USS Kidd and the production put a lot of money into the museum and repairs on the Kidd so she will be around for a lot longer.
I also agree, read The Good Shepard. It's a fast read and you won't want to put it down.
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