U-1, a U-Boot typ IIA built in 1935

German submarine U-1 was the first submarine built for the Kriegsmarine. She was a type IIA U-boot, and she was built at the Deutsche Werke shipyards in Kiel, being laid down on February 11, 1935 and completed on June 29, 1935. Her crews were initially trained in the Netherlands.

Her pre-war service was unremarkable, and she did gain a reputation as a poor ship. Her rapid construction, combined with the inadequacy of the technology which was used to create her, made her uncomfortable, leaky and slow. When war came, there were already plans to shelve her and her immediate sisters of the Type II class for use as training boats only.

Owing to a shortage of available units she sailed on March 29, 1940 against British shipping operating off Norway, close to the limit of her effective operating range. She failed to find a target, but was sent out again on April 4 in preparation for Operation Weserübung (the invasion of Norway and Denmark).

U-1 sent a brief radio signal on 6 April, giving her position before she disappeared. The cause of her loss is unknown, but she was scheduled to sail through a minefield laid unbeknownst to the Germans by the British submarine Narwhal that same day. U-1 may have also been sunk by the British submarine Porpoise, which reported launching a torpedo at an unidentified enemy submarine subsequently thought to be U-3 on April 16 following the invasion. She was the first of over 1,000 U-boats to serve during the Battle of the Atlantic and one of over 700 to be lost at sea (Wikipedia)

The kit is the 1/400 Mirage kit, and it is detailed with the Mirage photo-etch. A simple and pleasant build that will conveniently fit in even a studio-sized apartment.

U-826

The U-826 was ordered on June 8, 1942, laid down on August 6, 1943, and launched in Danzig on March 9, 1944. It was commissioned on May 11, 1944, and commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Olaf Lübcke. The U-boat was part of the 8. Flottile, a training unit, between May 11, 1944, and December 31 that same year, after which it was attached to the 11. Flottille as a front boat. U-826 conducted one four-day training criose between Kiel and Horten before sailing on its one and only war patrol that lasted for 64 days between March 9 and May 11, 1945, when the U-826 surrendered to the Royal Navy. Lübcke did not sink any ships, but he and his crew survived the war. It seems reasonable to assume that the Schnorkel may have helped them. The kit is the Mirage Type VII with snorkel, and the Mirage photo-etch was added to the kit.

 Oberleutnant zur See Olaf Lübcke

Polikarpov I-16

The ubiquitous Polikarpov I-16 was usually seen in green livery, but some were painted in AEh-9 light gray with black AEh-11 cowlings during the pre-war period. The spinners were usually painted white, although there were cases of spinners being painted black as well. A scratch-built camera has been added to the underside of the starboard wing, and such fast reconnaissance versions of the I-16 type 10, 18, 24 and 28 were used during the early phases of the war on the Eastern Front. Such aircraft did retain their armament of four ShKAS 7.62mm machine guns, and the latter types may have retained their cannon armament.

The kit is the Hasegawa I-16 type 18, which is an easy build. The figures, decals and oil drum is from the spares box, and since this is supposed to be a reconnaissance aircraft assigned to a higher headquarters, it is mounted on a concrete tarmac instead of a grass airstrip. 

The tale of a man who thought he was Göring's nephew.

USAAF Captain Werner Goering piloted a B-17 over Germany in 1944 and 1945 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force, firmly believing that he was the nephew of Hermann Göring, the infamous German Reichsmarschall and commander of the Luftwaffe. Not only was Captain Goering certain he was Hermann's nephew, but so was the FBI. This led to the FBI assigning Captain Goering's co-pilot, First Lieutenant Jack Rencher, with the task of killing Captain Goering if he was forced to crash-land in occupied Europe or if he would desert to the German side. Goering was not at any cost enable the Nazis to stage a propaganda coup.

Werner Goering was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1923. His parents had been converted by Mormon missionaries in Germany and convinced to move to Salt Lake after the First World War. Werner Goering volunteered for service in 1941, but his career was halted due to his supposed relation to Hermann Göring. He was eventually allowed to deploy overseas, but only with Jack Rencher as his co-pilot. Goering and Rencher were quite friendly, but their friendship was tested to the extreme when they nearly were shot down on November 21, 1944, during a mission to the Leuna chemical complex in eastern Germany. Their B-17, Teddy’s Rough Riders, was hit by flak fire, knocking out two engines gone and numerous holes in the aircraft. As the aircraft slowly limped home. Rencher waited for Werner to give the command to bail out; once he did, Rencher would have to assassinate Werner and take control of the aircraft. At the last possible moment, the men spotted the English Channel, and they returned safely.

As it were, Goering was actually not related at all to his German namesake. Werner's father had simply used Hermann's name to impress his neighbors of the German community in Salt Lake City. Werner Goering lived with this myth until fairly recently, when author Stephen Frater wrote about this odd story.

Rencher to the left, Goering to the right.