The Empress Miniatures U-boat arrived last week and I have just finished it.

Paul and Christine from Empress were very helpful with information on how to put the 88 deck gun and the 20mm flak gun together, referring me to their facebook page. They replied very quickly to emails and answered all my questions including what Type the U-boat was. The casting is excellent and I only had some very minor flashing on the conning tower to remove. The flags were a surprise that I was not expecting.

The 28mm U-boat is massive at 73cm and will make an excellent addition to my VBCW/Operation Sea-Lion scenarios as it secretly deploys Brandenburger troops or Abwehr military intelligence operatives (spies) on the English Coast!

The submarine is a Type VII B U-boat.

Class	VIIB
Displacement surfaced	753 tonnes
Displacement submerged	857 tonnes
Length overall	66.5m
Length pressure hull	48.8m (160 ft 1 in)
Beam overall	6.20 m (20 ft 4 in)
Beam pressure hull	4.70 m (15 ft 5 in)
Draft	4.74 m (15 ft 7 in)
Power surfaced	2,400 kW
Power submerged (Electric)	560 kW
Surface speed	17.9 knots (33.2 km/h; 20.6 mph)
Submerged speed	8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Surface range at 10 knots	8,700 nmi (16,100 km; 10,000 mi)
Submerged range at 4 knots	90 nmi (170 km; 100 mi)
Maximum operating depth	220 m (720 ft)
Crush depth	230–250 m (750–820 ft)
Complement	44–48
Deck gun	8.8 cm SK C35 naval gun, with 220 rounds
Anti-aircraft guns	2 cm FlaK 30
Bow tubes	4
Stern tubes	1
Torpedoes (maximum)	14
Mines	26 TMA mines
Number commissioned	24

Although small in number (only 24 of the 703 Type VII’s launched) the Type VIIBs included many of the most famous U-boats of World War II, including U-48 (the most successful), Günther Prien’s U-47, Otto Kretschmer’s U-99, and Joachim Schepke’s U-100.

U-48 was a member of two wolfpacks. Seven former members of the boat’s crew earned the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross during their military career: these were the commanders Herbert Schultze, Hans-Rudolf Rösing and Heinrich Bleichrodt, the first watch officer Reinhard Suhren, the second watch Otto Ites, the chief engineer Erich Zürn and the coxswain Horst Hofmann.

U-48 survived most of the war and was scuttled by her own crew on 3 May 1945 off Neustadt in order to keep the submarine out of the hands of the advancing allies.

German submarine U-99 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Germany’s Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 31 March 1939 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel as yard number 593. She was launched on 12 March 1940 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer and was assigned to the 7th U-boat Flotilla based in Kiel and later in St Nazaire.

U-99 was one of the most successful German U-boats in the war, sinking 38 ships for a total tonnage of 244,658 tons of Allied shipping in eight patrols. She damaged five more ships and took one vessel as a prize.

U 100

U-100 was the first U-boat to be discovered by radar during World War II; she was rammed and sunk by the Destroyer Vanoc while attempting to submerge. Six of the boat’s 53 crew members survived, spending the remainder of the war as POWs. The ships Captain Schepke was not one of them. During her 6 raids she sank a total of 30 merchant ships.

15 October 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak. The battleship Scharnhorst can be seen in the background.

During U-47’s career, she sank a total of 31 enemy vessels, including the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, and damaged nine more. U-47 ranks as one of the most successful German U-boats of World War II.

U-boat camouflage and painting varied throughout the war. For a detailed article see below.

The completed model.

The dock is 900mm or three feet which gives you an idea of the size. The tank is a 28mm British Challenger II which probably says more about its size than the U-boats. The 28mm camera man and the 28mm tug are also there for comparison.

The conning tower can be removed to show the U-boat partially submerged. The model also comes with a periscope just above the water and some crew which I will add later on.

I indicated in my May 5th post (Terrors from the Deep) that “I can see a game or three coming on! Maybe against a U-Boat? You never know!”

A great model and I cannot recommend Empress Miniatures highly enough as in addition to the U-boat I also have a large collection of their Modern British and some Afghan infantry and cavalry for the Third Afghan War.

Thanks to Wikipedia for a lot of the U-boat information.

The only surviving Type VII U-boat U995

At the end of the war on 8 May 1945 she was stricken at Trondheim, Norway. She was surrendered to the British and then transferred to Norwegian ownership in October 1948. In December 1952 U995 became the Norwegian submarine Kaura and in 1965 she was stricken from service by the Royal Norwegian Navy. She then was offered to the German government for the ceremonial price of one Deutsche Mark. The offer was turned down; but the Boat was saved by the German Navy League, DMB, where she became a museum ship at Laboe Naval Memorial in October 1971.