I just finished the book Shadow Divers, which by the way is a great book that I highly recommend. One thing it mentioned was that boats skippered by naval officers who were of the class of 1936, they year of the Olympics in Germany, had the Olympic rings mounted on their conning tower. By the way apparently in Germany they count the year a student enters school as his class, not the year he graduates like in the US. I'll try to scan a picture of the U-869 from the book when I get to work. The rings are the various colors of the Olympics, and are mounted just below the top edge of the forward conning tower. The picture has a person's head looking over the tower. Using his head as a reference I'd guess these rings were about a foot across, for each ring.

Seems to me this might be something interesting to add to any u-boats you folks are going to model in the future.

Thanks Rodger!

It would be nice to see that pic
Skipper

Great! I too would like to see that pic!

What a coincidence you mention this as I was just looking at my Accurate Armour 1/35 U-boat VIIC last night. The kit provides these very decals.

Skipper, you may want to check that too when you take a closer look at yours.

Brett

Yes I perfectly rember the decals, but "strangely" I was always inclined to do the smilling fish version

Any news from AA?

Skipper

LOL I wonder what it is about the smiling fish. It has to be one of the coolest of the U-Boat insignia. That and the frog. I plan on doing the smiling fish as well when I do my 1/72nd baby. I think that decal sheet has the Olympic rings as well.

Could it be a Das Boot subliminar message?
:-) :-)

Skipper

LOL I think you are correct Herr Skipper. alas klar jetz!

Yes, the pier sections are being made up and should ship this week. So it looks like they are coming, but not until sometime in August.

I'm holding off on the 2nd email until I hear back from you

Brett

Here you go mates, as promised.

Hi Rodger!

This is a Type IX C/40 U-boot - similar to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry U-505 (IX C)

But it is a very interesting shot, with the Olympic Rings and the absence of the 105mm gun!

More info on the faith of U-869:
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBCUTTERS/U869_Crow_Koiner.html

Very interesting Skipper. Shadow Divers does end with the theory that U-869 was hit by a circle run torpedo. The lead diver, John Chatterton, visited U-505 in Chicago and went through her time after time in order to familiarize himself with the insides of one of these boats. The absence of deck gun was one of the clues they looked for when searching for the identity of the boat. They had been given two possible boats that it could be. One was a "U-cruiser" an elongated boat with extra fuel supplies, and the other had a deck gun. When they measured the boat they had found and it wasn't longer than usual, and had no deck gun, they knew it couldn't be one of the two boats they thought it could be. Ironically they had found a artifact that had a crewman's last name on it in the boat, but the only man in the U-Boat service with that last name was on the U-869 and their research showed that boat had been sunk off Gibraltar. Your link tells the tale of how that error originally came about.

Once again I do recommend Shadow Divers as a fascinating book.

In the course of my research I saw mention of training boats having a wide stripe (White?) around the upper part of the conning tower. Would the stripe in the photo be what the reference was talking about?

Brett

In this particular case I would say yes - because U-869 only made one, and fatal, patrol.

Skipper

That picture was certainly done while the boat was in training, probably the Baltic. I'd say that's exactlly right, that it's a mark of a training boat.

I guess that's similar to the bright markings put onto training aircraft to warn other aircraft that the pilot is a rookie.

Hello,

Just to say that the training stripes which were painted above the spray deflectors were yellow.

Cheers,

Dougie