COBI
COBI U-Boot VIIB U-47 Set 4858
COBI's U-Boot VIIB U-47 is a 1:300 model built from 165 blocks, 22.5 cm long, with the boat's conning-tower emblem reproduced. A display stand with a collector's plaque is included, and all markings are printed.
Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow in the Orkneys was the Royal Navy's main anchorage and was considered closed to submarines: narrow approaches, strong tides, blockships sunk across the channels.
On the night of 13 October 1939 U-47, commanded by GΓΌnther Prien, went in on the surface through Kirk Sound, between two of the blockships, on a tide running hard enough to make steering marginal. Inside, she torpedoed the battleship HMS Royal Oak, which capsized with the loss of 835 men, and got out the same way.
The operation was a serious blow β the Home Fleet's own base had been shown to be unsafe, and the anchorage had to be reworked with permanent causeways that are still there. It was also a propaganda gift, and the bull painted on U-47's tower afterwards, the Bull of Scapa Flow, became the emblem of the whole flotilla.
The end
U-47 went on to become one of the highest-scoring boats of the early Atlantic campaign. In March 1941 she disappeared with all hands. The Admiralty initially credited the destroyer HMS Wolverine; later analysis makes that doubtful, and no explanation has ever been settled on. She is one of the unresolved losses of the war.
In the COBI range
Set 4857 is U-96 at this scale, and 4855 and 4856 the Polish boats OrzeΕ and SΔp. Set 4852 is a Type VIIB at the larger 1:144 scale.
Specifications
Pieces: 165 Β· Scale: 1:300 Β· Age: 7+ Β· Display stand and plaque included
Model dimensions: 22.5 Γ 4 Γ 7 cm (8.9 Γ 1.6 Γ 2.8 in)
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