Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien (16 January 1908 – presumed 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 of the Iron Cross. Under Prien's command, the
submarine U-47 sank over 30
Allied ships totaling about . 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.
Early Naval Career
Born in
Osterfeld, Prussian
Province of Saxony (Germany) and raised in
Leipzig, Prien joined the Handelsmarine (German
Merchant Navy) in the summer of 1923, studying for just three months at the Seaman's College in
Finkenwerder in Hamburg, before going to sea as a
cabin boy on the full rigged three-master
Hamburg. His first voyage touched at the
Azores,
Pensacola,
Hobart (
Tasmania) and
Falmouth. While sailing to
Cork in October 1925 the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground near
Dublin, the vessel was abandoned and later declared a wreck. Prien and the crew were taken to
Bremerhaven and then
Hamburg, where Prien was given his papers as seaman and found the cost of items he had drawn on board exceeded his six months of wages. Aiming for his master's certificate he quickly signed on the
Oldenburg, which was another full rigger (as noted in Jost Metzler's "The Laughing Cow").
Jost Metzler, who later commanded
U-69, was taken under Prien's wing when an ordinary sailor aboard the sailing ship
Oldenburg (now the
Suomen Joutsen). He relates at the beginning of his book "The Laughing Cow: The Story Of U-69" how his relationship with Prien was "very strained" at first, and how Prien, as a young seaman, "could on occasion be very hard and unjust." Later they became good friends. He obtained his mate's ticket and a wireless operator's certificate, becoming Fourth Officer of the
San Francisco out of Hamburg, again, the ship was involved in a collision with another vessel in fog near the Hoheweg lighthouse. As look-out Prien was summoned to an enquiry at the Marine Court the Nautical Court House in
Bremerhaven, where the weather was blamed.
Prien passed his captain's examination in January 1932 but could not find work as German shipping severely contracted during the
Depression years. He returned to Leipzig and, failing to find work, went to the Assistance Board. In March 1932 he joined the National Socialist Party. (In "Wolf Pack: The Story of the U-Boat in World War II, Gordon Williamson states that the Navy did not accept members of the NSDAP or the SS and one was obliged to revoke their membership in these parties before joining the Navy.) In August, he joined the voluntary labor corps of Vogtsberg at Olsnitz. On 16 January 1933 he joined the
Reichsmarine[The German Reichsmarine was renamed to Kriegsmarine on 1 June 1935.], which was bringing in Merchant Navy personnel in order to quickly increase its strength after the loss of the
Niobe. Prien was accepted as an ordinary sailor, but with officer aspirations. He underwent normal training and served on the light cruiser
Königsberg before he was posted for U-Boat training at
Kiel. At the end of training he was posted to
U-26 at the
Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG (Deschimag) Yard in Bremen as First Officer of the watch.
U-26 at the time was under the command of
Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartmann.
U-26 went on two patrols (6 May 1937 – 15 June 1937 and 15 July 1937 – 30 August 1937) during the Spanish Civil War.
World War II
A model of Günther Prien's
U-47, German WWII
Type VII diesel-electric hunter
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.
2nd war patrol — Scapa Flow
Infiltration of Scapa Flow by U-47
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 sailor of the U-boat service and the second 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 while
U-47 was lying off Scapa Flow, and having briefed them, he 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
7. Unterseebootsflottille. Two members of the Scapa Flow crew earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II: the chief engineer (
Leitender Ingenieur)
Johann-Friedrich Wessels and 1st watch officer (
I. Wachoffizier)
Engelbert Endrass.
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.
Prien narrated the attack in the book
Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow (1940, Deutscher Verlag Berlin).
3rd war patrol
U-47 under the command of Prien with 1st watch officer (I. WO)
Oberleutnant zur See Engelbert Endrass and chief engineer
Oberleutnant (Ing.) Johann-Friedrich Wessels left
Kiel on 16 November 1939.
[Busch and Röll 2003, p. 18.] U-47 attacked a British cruiser on 28 November 1939. Prien had identified the ship to be a
London-class cruiser. Prien fired a spread of three torpedoes, believing to have hit the cruiser at least once. He had observed through the periscope how one torpedo struck the stern of the cruise, causing the deck side mounted aircraft to go overboard. Prien surfaced and tried to pursue the cruiser but was driven off by water bombs dropped from the escort. It turned out the cruiser was
HMS Norfolk which was slightly damaged by the torpedo detonating close by. The attack was reported in the daily
Wehrmachtbericht on 29 November 1939, claiming the destruction of the cruiser. The war diary of the
Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU) on 17 December 1939 stated that even though a hit was observed the cruiser was not sunk.
On 5 December 1939
U-47 spotted 12 merchant vessels escorted by 3 destroyers. Prien fired three torpedoes sinking the British steamer
Navasota from
Convoy OB 46 on its way to Buenos Aires, killing 37 sailors. The next day at 20.29 o'clock the Norwegian tanker
Britta was sunk killing 6 of her crew followed by the Dutch
Tajandoen on 7 December 1939. Trimming the boat on 8 December 1939, Wessels reported that the boat only had sufficient fuel to make the return trip. The BdU ordered
U-47 to return to port.
U-47 returned to Kiel on 18 December 1939. The claims made by Prien are noted in the war diary of the BdU on 17 December 1939:
- steamer of unknown origin
for a total of plus one British warship damaged, while the actual tonnage was only .
Later career
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 Prien was promoted to the rank of
Korvettenkapitän (lieutenant commander), the
U-47 went missing on
March 7 1941 while attacking
Convoy OB-293. She was once thought to have been sunk by the British
destroyer HMS Wolverine west of
Ireland, but new research suggests that the ship attacked there was actually the
U-A, part of the
Foreign U-Boats corps. 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, and sank 30 enemy vessels for a total tonnage of 193,808 GRT.
Summary of career
Ships attacked
During his career Prien sank 30 commercial ships for , one warship of , and damaged eight commercial ships for and one warship of .
Awards
- Dienstauszeichnung 4th Class (22 January 1937)
[Busch and Röll 2003, p. 15.]
- * 2nd Class (25 September 1939)
- * 1st Class (17 October 1939)
- Diamond-studded Navy Honour Dagger
- * Knight's Cross on 18 October 1939 as Kapitänleutnant and commander of U-47
[Scherzer 2007, p. 604.]
- * 5th Oak Leaves on 20 October 1940 as Kapitänleutnant and commander of U-47
- Mentioned eight times in the Wehrmachtbericht (29 November 1939, 28 June 1940, 1 July 1940, 6 July 1940, 10 September 1940, 25 September 1940, 20 October 1940 and 23 May 1941)
References in the Wehrmachtbericht
Dates of rank
