Picture of the day

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From this page ....


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10849528/In-pictures-Never-before-seen-photographs-from-World-War-One-frontline.html
 
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My gramps in England posing with a smerk on guard, served over 6 years on the front and fought bloody battles through the streets of Italy.
Sgt.Harrington gone but not forgotten
 
That's a neat one of your Grandpa, BCrecce. Kinda candid, sorta posed. Looks like he's trying hard not to laugh. :)

U-213 comes home from patrol with an interesting modification to the conning tower:

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Dark Alley Dan said:
That's a neat one of your Grandpa, BCrecce. Kinda candid, sorta posed. Looks like he's trying hard not to laugh. :)

U-213 comes home from patrol with an interesting modification to the conning tower:

snorting-08.jpg
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Looks like a bit of bump and grind, maybe with a Corvette.

"Mein Gott! Das Crazy Canuck boot! Dive! Dive!"
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
That's a neat one of your Grandpa, BCrecce. Kinda candid, sorta posed. Looks like he's trying hard not to laugh. :)

U-213 comes home from patrol with an interesting modification to the conning tower:

snorting-08.jpg
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Two patrols. No kills.

Sunk with all hands.

14 May 1942: Abwehr agent Alfred Langbein was landed on the coast near St. Martins, New Brunswick (Operation Grete) by U-213 (von Varendorff). His mission was to provide information about the sailing of convoys, which he failed to accomplish. He surrendered when he ran out of money in September 1944. The Canadians released him after the war.
 
grelmar said:
Looks like a bit of bump and grind, maybe with a Corvette.

"Mein Gott! Das Crazy Canuck boot! Dive! Dive!"
Click to expand...

La vache qui rit. Elle ne rit plus!

Was U-213 in the 7th Uboat flotilla?

U69 conning tower art and funny story to go along with it.

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The Laughing Cow of Lorient

When the crew of U-69, the fifth Type VIIC U-boat to be assigned to the 7th U-Flottille, received instructions from its skipper Kapitäleutnant zur See Jost Metzler to paint the snorting bull insignia on their boat's tower, no picture of the insignia was enclosed. The old hands who knew what the famous Bull of Scapa Flow looked like were, by chance, on leave. Consequently, nobody serving aboard U 69 knew exactly what the snorting bull should look like. Nor was anybody willing to enquire about what the insignia of their own flotilla should look like, lest they appear foolish.

The attempts of the U-69's First Watch Officer, Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Jürgen Auffermann, to design a bull drawing of his own were not successful. Instead he instructed a shipyard worker to copy the head of a laughing cow which appeared on the packages of a popular French dairy product firm. The shipyard worker faithfully copied the laughing cow from a crate lid, together with the words that were present upon the French milk containers beneath it: "La Vache qui rit". The words became synonymous with U-69, as did the laughing cow insignia - which naturally proved to be a source of great amusement. Instead of the aggressive symbol of the 7th U-Flottille - the raging, snorting "Bull of Scapa Flow" - U-69 was adorned with its alter ego: the "Laughing Cow Of Lorient"!

The Laughing Cow was applied to U-69 in Lorient between the end of the boat's 2nd patrol on 11 April 1941 and the beginning of the famous 3rd patrol to West Africa on 5 May 1941.

The laughing cow of U-69La Vache qui rit posterU-514's Guest Book

Left: U-69's "Laughing Cow" insignia. The three flags to the left of the Laughing Cow belong to U-69's original "Horridoh" insignia. The "La Vache qui rit" markings that previously appeared below the cow had been painted over at the time this photograph of U-69 was taken. (Source: Ubootwaffe 1939-1945 Cz.1 (Encyklopedia Okretow Wojennych, Number 10) by Waldemar Trojca, AJ-Press, 1998). Centre: A popular French poster for "La Vache qui rit" cheese, like the one copied by U-69's conning tower artists. Right: The "Laughing Cow", almost a spitting image of the "La Vache qit rit" poster, as seen on the guest book of U-514.

The net result of all this was that while Günther Prien was known as the Stier von Scapa Flow, Jost Metzler was thereafter dubbed the 'Laughing Cow' (Die lachende Kuh). Rather than take things too seriously like some in his position might have done, Metzler appears to have taken being the butt (haha!) of the joke in his stride; his adopted nickname was to also be the title of his postwar autobiography, published in 1954.

The 'Laughing Cow' was not only applied to U-69; when its original designer Hans-Jürgen Auffermann left the boat in August 1942 to take up his own command on U-514, he took the happy bovine with him. Unlike his former skipper however, Auffermann did not survive the war - having sunk and/or damaged eight victims for some thirty-eight thousand tons, U-514 was sunk in July 1943 following an air attack off the Spanish Coast.

Read more: http://www.u47.org/english/u47_sno.asp?page=5#ixzz3atP1R05c
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U-47 is probably the most legendary of German WWII Uboats, having snuck into Scapa Flow & essentially 'assassinating' the HMS Royal Oak with heavy loss of life. She was on her 10th war patrol when she disappeared. 31 ships sunk.

The boat received the nickname: the Bull of Scapa Flow. The conning tower art was supposedly adopted by all Uboats of the 7th Uboat Flotilla.

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IIRC, "La Vache Qui Rit" is in some way associated with an RCN ship. I'm not sure which squadron / ship. Maybe some old RCN vets can help out.

Tony
 
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My boy is taking film studies this term. The teacher, God bless him, is showing them Das Boot.

Consequently, any interest my boy ever had in joining the "Silent Service" has gone out the window. I'm glad for that. The submarines I've walked through always looked like a stinky, cramped, unpleasant place to die.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
An interesting series of stills from a wartime propaganda film:

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I could swear I see T-54 or t-55 road wheels and 152mm gun on this SP gun.Maybe post-war Russian war movie but not war time propaganda.


Edit-this is SU-122-54,post war of course .Google it-Russians took a good look at German SP guns :)
 
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