Günther Prien
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Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien (16 January 1908 – 7 March 1941) was one of the outstanding German U-boat aces of the first part of the Second World War, and the first U-boat commander to win the Knight's Cross. Under Prien's command, the submarine U-47 sank over 30 Allied ships totalling about 200,000 tons. By far his most famous exploit, however, was the sinking of the British battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor in the Home Fleet's anchorage in Scapa Flow.
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[edit] Early Naval Career
Born in Osterfeld, Province of Saxony (Germany), Prien went to sea as a young man. In 1925, he survived the shipwreck of the three-master Hamburg off the Irish coast. He obtained his officer's patent in the merchant marine, but was laid off when German shipping severely contracted during the Depression years. In 1933 he joined the Reichsmarine, serving initially on the light cruiser Königsberg before transferring to the U-boat service in October 1935. Prien progressed steadily in rank, from Fähnrich zur See (midshipman) in 1933, to Oberfähnrich zur See (senior midshipman) in 1935, Leutnant zur See (sub-lieutenant) also in 1935, then Oberleutnant zur See (lieutenant) in 1937. He was appointed to the command of the new Type VIIB U-47 on her commissioning (17 December 1938) and promoted to Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant) on 1 February 1939.
[edit] Scapa Flow
On 14 October 1939 Prien risked shallow water, unknown shoals, tricky currents and detection by defenders to penetrate the Royal Navy's primary base, Scapa Flow. Although most of the Home Fleet was at sea, Prien sank the battleship Royal Oak and returned home to instant fame. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive this award. The mission into Scapa Flow called for volunteers only, Prien had no hesitation in accepting the mission. In a token to the voluntary nature of the mission Prien spoke to his crew whilst U-47 was lying off Scapa Flow, and having briefed them announced that anyone not wishing to volunteer could leave the boat immediately. Unsurprisingly no one accepted the offer to disembark in the middle of the North Sea. Prien received the nickname Der Stier von Scapa Flow ("The Bull of Scapa Flow"); the emblem of a snorting bull was painted on the conning tower of U-47 and soon became the emblem of the entire 7th U-boat Flotilla.
Kept secret by the German naval command was the fact that Prien had fired a total of seven torpedoes at his target, of which five failed because of long-standing problems with their depth steering and their magnetic detonator systems. These problems continued to bedevil the German submariners for a long time and particularly during the German invasion of Norway, when the U-boats were unable to keep the Royal Navy at bay.
Following later patrols and raids on Allied merchant shipping, Prien was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross in 1940. Not long after being promoted to the rank of Korvettenkapitän (lieutenant commander), the U-47 went missing on March 7, 1941 and she was once thought to have been sunk by the British destroyer HMS Wolverine west of Ireland, but it turned out that the ship attacked there was actually the U-A, part of the Foreign U-Boats corp. To date, there is no official record of what happened to the U-47 or her 45 crewmen, though a variety of possibilities exist, including mines, a mechanical failure, a victim of her own torpedoes, or possibly a later attack that didn't confirm any kills - by the corvette team of HMS Camellia and HMS Arbutus.
Although he was at sea for less than two years, Prien's record stands high among the U-boat aces during the Second World War. He spent 238 days at sea, sinking 30 enemy vessels for a total tonnage of 193,808 GRT.
[edit] An alternative ending?
Joseph Goebbels by Curt Riess (Hollis & Carter, 1949) indicates that Prien was "liquidated at the beginning of 1945" (based upon articles in a Berlin newspaper in 1946) after considerable time in a concentration camp and a spell in the prison at Torgau. He indicates that Goebbels wanted to use him as a hero, but Prien fell out with his commanders, after they became jealous of his fame following the Scapa Flow incident. Allegedly, he was ordered to put to sea in a U-boat that was known to be unseaworthy, refused, and was arrested for refusing to obey orders.
