The German Submarine branch of the Kriegsmarine was one of the most fear-inducing branches
of the German military apparatus during the Second World War.
It wasn’t always that way though.
As a matter of fact, Adolf Hitler preferred to put emphasis on the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe,
rather than the Kriegsmarine during the initial stages of the war.
He simply didn’t realize the potential of the U-boats against the Allied fleet.
Admiral Karl Dönitz put a change to that: within 2 months of the outbreak of the war
he launched a daring operation with merely 1 U-boat that would rapidly sway the minds
of everyone involved in the second world war: U-boats from then on would be a force to be
reckoned with.
-intro-
Admiral Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz started his career before the First World War in the German Kaiserliche
Marine, or the Imperial Navy.
During the war, his submarine, Unterseeboot in German, or U-boat for short, was sunk by
British troops.
He was briefly captured but released.
By the time the Second World War broke out, he was the commander of the German submarine
branch of the Kriegsmarine.
His attention was focused on the Royal Navy’s base at Scapa Flow, off the northern tip of
Scotland.
It held bitter memories for the German First World War veterans: at Scapa Flow the Kaiserliche
Marine had surrendered and sunk all their own vessels once they had done so.
Now at the beginning of the second world war, the British housed many warships in the bay,
sheltered by its natural borders.
They had placed their ships in a way that any exit of German boats into the North Sea
would easily be intercepted.
There was no way for any boats of the Kriegsmarine to sail onto the North Sea, let alone the
Atlantic ocean.
France had not fallen yet, and until it had not fallen the English Channel simply was
off-limits to the Germans.
Obviously the Germans were trying to see if there were openings in the British defences
of Scapa flow.
Now, Dönitz was convinced that a submarine operating on its own would be able to not
just penetrate Scapa Flow’s defences, but deal a significant blow to the warships stationed
there.
He started mapping out the defences, using aerial reconnaissance and information gathered
by the U-16.
If he was able to pull off a mission such as this one, it would shift the focus of German
funds and expansion of its military towards the submarine branch of the Kriegsmarine,
not to mention the incredible propaganda potential.
There were rows of sunken blockships and anti-submarine nets in order to prevent any attack around
Scapa flow, but the information Dönitz received confirmed his suspicions: there was a row
of inadequate sunken blockships on the eastern entrance.
There was a gap in this row and a surfaced submarine would be able to sail over the obstacle
and break into the harbour…
The mission would have to be carried out at night, but it might just be risky enough to
succeed…
U-47 and Gunther Prien
Just like we have seen last week with Michael Wittmann, the greatest tank ace of the second
world war, for this mission too a man was hand-picked that would eventually skyrocket
to fame in Nazi Germany.
It was the 31 year old Günther Prien that was going to lead Dönitz’s dangerous mission.
Prien had been credited with the first submarine victory of the war on September 5, 1939, and
would continue to serve as eager propaganda material for the Nazi propaganda machine,
eventually upping his tally of sunk Allied ships to 31.
At any rate, on October 8th the U-47, with Prien as its commander, sailed from Kiel into
the north sea.
Prien commanded a 44-man strong crew that slept during the day and awoke at night.
Reason for this was that during the day, the submarine would remain submerged, deep into
the sea, and at night would surface in order to sail closer to its objective.
During these few days, only Prien was aware of the objective they were tasked with: the
crew simply followed orders.
4 days after it set sail the submarine reached the Scottish Orkney Islands.
During the night they observed the situation and Prien finally assembled the crew and told
them what their mission was: they were going to enter Scapa Flow and wreak havoc on the
British Warships stationed there.
Torpedoes were armed and preparing for firing and scuttling charges were fit around the
submarine.
The Germans remembered what happened to their Imperial Navy during the First World War when
the admirals ordered the fleet at Scapa Flow to be scuttled.
It would be a desperate last measure in case the mission would go wrong, but considering
the risk, it certainly could go wrong.
They identified the location where gaps were in the sunk blockships and made ready to launch
their mission.
The Scapa Flow Mission
On October 14th at 7 pm, the sun was slowly lowering and Prien, together with two Petty
Officers looked on from the conning tower.
It seemed highly unlikely that they would not be spotted: the northern lights cast a
bright glow all over Scapa Flow.
A mission was a mission, however, and Prien ordered the submarine to stay surfaced and
slowly sail over the sunk blockships.
As they sailed over the blockships a cable attached to one of the blockships caught onto
the submarine and a scraping noise polluted the otherwise silent bay.
Fortunately, the submarine managed to tear herself free and continued its course…
As they reached the harbour, Prien saw some silhouettes of ships… but not of the capital
ships.
All there was was the anchored ageing HMS Royal Oak, a second-line battleship that served
in the First World War.
Prien spotted the Royal Oak at 1 AM.
The seaplane tender Pegasus was behind it, with Prien convinced it was the battleship
Repulse.
Realizing there was no threat of other British vessels, Prien ordered the submarine to fire.
Three torpedoes were shot, two at the Royal Oak and one at Pegasus.
After 4 tense minutes, one of the torpedoes hit the bow of the Royal Oak.
The battleship was hit and shook after a loud bang had alerted the crew… at least, you’d
think so.
Onboard, the majority of the 1400-strong crew initially thought it was a small internal
explosion without reason to worry.
Prien ordered his submarine to quickly leave but realizing there was no response, at least
not a response he’d expected, the torpedo tubes were reloaded.
On board of the Royal Oak, most of the sailor crew had returned to their slumber.
12 minutes later Prien ordered the submarine to fire its second salvo.
And this salvo meant the end of the Royal Oak.
The first torpedo hit the starboard side under the B turret of the ship.
The other 2 torpedoes hit several seconds later - the 32.000-ton warship nearly levitated
and was lifted out of the water.
Panic broke out on board: its crew now realized they were under attack.
The explosions of the torpedoes cut all power on the ship and its communication systems
had been destroyed.
Hundreds of sailors, including Boy Seamen, were trapped below the deck by fires and jammed
power-operated hatches.
Within 10 minutes the Royal Oak turned turtle.
With it, 833 sailors drowned, including over 100 under-18 Boy Seamen.
The desperate cries for help and chaos onboard stood in stark contrast with the sereneness
aboard the German Submarine, where the atmosphere was one of relief, even pride.
Against the current, Prien and his crew now set sail back to their harbour.
Aftermath
The U-47 once again sailed over the blockship and managed to twist itself through the narrow
channel, out into the North Sea.
Sailing several hours, once they were safe, Prien took out a crate of beer for the crew
to celebrate.
They succeeded in their mission: the Nazi propaganda would blow their feat up to epic
proportions.
And more importantly: Dönitz’s Unterseeboot branch was finally put on the map as a very
competent asset against the Allied fleet.
On the 17th of October, the U-47 reached Wilhelmshaven, with the only obstacle being a Royal Navy
minesweeper that they managed to evade without too much trouble.
Admiral Dönitz gave the crew a heroes’ welcome: all of them were awarded the Iron
Cross 2nd class.
Günther Prien was awarded the Knight’s Cross by Adolf Hitler, in-person.
Thanks to Prien and his crew, Dönitz was now able to increase his Unterseeboat branch
in numbers and equipment.
By 1943 it was operating with a strength of 300 vessels.
They nearly won the Battle of the Atlantic and certainly proved an annoyance, if not
near annihilation of Britain’s vital Atlantic supply line.
As for Günther Prien, he did not enjoy his heroes status and victories for too long.
Now, there is no official record of what happened to the U-47.
It went missing in March 1941 as it was attacking an Atlantic Convoy.
The British destroyer HMS Wolverine is assumed to have sunk the U-47 with all its 45 crewmembers
on board, including Günther Prien.
Eight of the crew were veterans of the mission at Scapa Flow.
Now taking their moment for revanche, the British propaganda broadcast to Germany broadcast
“Wo ist Prien?”, or “Where is Prien”, as Germany did not want to acknowledge his
death at first due to the loss of face.
Although he came to an early grave at 33 years of age, with less than 1 year at sea, Günther
Prien stands among the top of submarine commanders of the Second World War, having sunk 31 enemy
vessels.
And that is the story of one of the greatest U-boat commanders of the Second World War.
It certainly was one of the most daring missions at the beginning of the war.
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