Cruel Seas: German U-Boat VIIc

The Type VII formed the backbone of Germany’s mighty U-boat fleet throughout the Second World War, sinking vast quantities of Allied shipping but suffering horrific casualties in return. They were the most widely-produced submarines in history. 703 were built, of which only one (U-995) survives today.

The fate of most was a watery grave at the hands of Allied escorts and aircraft or scuttling at the hands of the Royal Navy during Operation Deadlight in the winter of 1945/46.

Of the Type VIIs, the VIIc was the most numerous. With 568 produced from 1940 to 1945, it was an effective (if somewhat cramped and uncomfortable) craft, with a range of around 8500 nautical miles and a maximum speed of just under 18 knots surfaced and about 7 and a half knots submerged. Well-armed from the outset with 4 bow torpedo tubes and a single stern, as well as an 8.8cm deck gun and (later in the war) various smaller anti-aircraft weapons, the Type VIIC sent Allied shipping to the bottom in vast numbers before Allied air superiority over the Bay of Biscay and advances in anti-submarine warfare began to turn the tide.

In Cruel Seas

Our dynamic new model depicts a Type VIIC boat bursting through the waves as it surfaces at high speed, perhaps for a night-time torpedo attack, or to engage targets with its deck gun. It can also be used to represent the earlier Type VIIB, made famous by Gunther Prien’s U-47 sinking the battleship Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow – a blatant and daring challenge to the might of the Royal Navy.

Follow Prien’s example and send the mightiest Allied warships to the seabed, try to match Kretschmer’s tonnage record in U-99, or recreate U-96’s harrowing 1941 patrol, as immortalised (and sensationalised) by the film Das Boot. The time has come to unleash the U-Boot-Waffe!

Contains 1 resin & metal vessel

Models supplied unassembled and unpainted