The Olympic Rings - Crew 36

The Olympic rings emblem is probably the most unusual and surprising to find on a WWII U-boat. Yet there it was - but why?

1936 was the year of the Berlin Olympics, and naval officers who joined the Kriegsmarine that year chose the rings as their emblem.

Keywords: Olympic rings

23 U-boats displayed this emblem
U-3, U-20, U-23, U-59, U-203, U-227, U-314, U-344, U-387, U-394, U-407, U-426, U-440, U-467, U-505, U-534, U-546, U-555, U-643, U-710, U-760, U-869 and U-1230.

Click on the boat's number to see if there were other emblems.

The Snorting Bull - U-47

U-47 (Kptlt. Günther Prien): one of the most famous emblems of the war.

Oblt. Engelbert Endrass, the IWO, painted the emblem on the way back from Scapa Flow in October 1939. The image was based on one in a comic book the crew had on board.

The emblem was adopted by the 7th Flotilla in St. Nazaire and was used on many boats. It was sufficiently complex that a template was used to apply it to the other boats.

Keywords: snorting bull

22 U-boats displayed this emblem
U-46, U-47, U-75, U-98, U-103, U-135, U-213, U-227, U-266, U-358, U-359, U-382, U-390, U-442, U-567, U-578, U-590, U-593, U-607, U-618, U-714 and U-976.

Click on the boat's number to see if there were other emblems.

Minesweeper Decoration

The boat had the Minesweeper decoration as one of its emblems.

Keywords: decoration, minesweeper

1 U-boat displayed this emblem
U-227.