U 557 Type VIIC U-Boat

I chose to model U 557 because it was a fairly typical boat. There were the superstars of course: U 96 (Das Boot) with 11 patrols and 28 ships sunk; U 99 with 7 patrols and 36 ships sunk, and a dozen or so more.

But the average u-boat had a short life and moderate (if any) success.

After re-reading Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner, I chose U 557: the first boat Werner served aboard. He later commanded two boats, but these were at the end of the war when commanders could only run from the Allies and wrestle with their own malfunctioning, inadequate technology. U 557 was from Werner’s training and during the Kriegsmarine “Happy Times.”

Emblems/Insignia

My wife found the U 557 emblem for me. I will put that with the Flottilla 1 emblem on the conning tower. Unfortunately Ulad (or anyone else) does not make custom decals with either the Uflottille 1 or U 557 emblems, so I had custom waterslide decals made.

U Flottille 1 Emblem U557 Emblem

Uflottille 1, U 557 emblem

U 557 History

DOWNLOAD as a PDF (880kb).

U 557 Patrol report PDF