Hi Anakin,

The laughing cow is the only emblem listed for U-69 in the definitive work on the subject:

Högel, Georg. U-Boat Emblems of World War II 1939 – 1945. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996. ISBN 0-76430-724-X. Copyright: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1999.

It is very remotely possible that another commander changed the emblem to the one in your link but you won't go wrong using the laughing cow and the other emblem is extremely doubtful. There is even a book entitled “The Laughing Cow” about U-69 and the story of how the emblem came to be is included in Högel’s book.

The emblem with the version of the fist in your link originated on U-586. Her first commander KL Dietrich von der Esch took it with him and most of the crew when they were transferred to U-863 but in another form. He had been a naval aviator and I think it was based on the emblem of the 2nd Sea Reconnaissance Echelon 406 located at Sylt with the “Iron Hand of Götz von Berlichingen”. The next (and last) commander of U-586 took the emblem without changes to U-2527. There are multiple variations of a fist emblem listed in Högel’s book but only the two of the version in your link.

Neither of the other two commanders of U-69 ever served on any U-boat that had a fist emblem so it is extremely unlikely they changed U-69’s emblem to the fist.

There have been several posts on the General forum here lately containing information from other web sites that is wrong. The Internet is a great source of information but there is a lot of bad information out there too.

Regards,

Ken Dunn