In 2006, screenwriter David Ayer admitted that "U-571" had distorted history, and said that he would not do it again. He told BBC Radio 4's "The Film Programme" that he "did not feel good" about suggesting that Americans, rather than the British, had captured the naval Enigma cipher: "It was a distortion...a mercenary decision...to create this parallel history in order to drive the film for an American audience. Both my grandparents were officers in the Second World War, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achievements."